With much of California's massive snowpack yet to melt, downstream communities remain on high alert for flooding. Hundreds of homes were destroyed or damaged during the record-breaking winter, which tested the state's aging flood infrastructure. To prevent flooding, communities often raise levees next to rivers higher and higher. Today, NPR climate correspondent Lauren Sommer talks about a new approach: just giving rivers some space to flow. 

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Give Rivers Space: The Simple Flood Risk Fix

New discoveries, everyday mysteries, and the science behind the headlines — in just under 15 minutes. It's science for everyone, using a lot of creativity and a little humor. Join hosts Emily Kwong and Regina Barber for science on a different wavelength.

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A silky shark named Genie traveled from the Galapagos Islands out to the open ocean and back – over 17,000 miles – over the course of a year and a half. That's an average of 31 miles per day, making Genie's journey the longest recorded migration for a silky shark. 

Marine scientist Pelayo Salinas de León and his team named Genie in honor of the late marine biologist Eugenie Clark – also known as "The Shark Lady." She devoted her life to the study of sharks and to improving their reputation.  

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A Silky Shark Named Genie Swam 17,000 Miles, a Record-Breaking Migration

Humans rely on our symbiotic relationship with good microbes—in the gut, the skin and ... the vagina. Fatima Aysha Hussain studies what makes a healthy vaginal microbiome. She talks to host Emily Kwong about her long-term transplant study that asks the question: Can one vagina help another  through a microbe donation?

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A Vaginal Microbiome Transplant Could Help People With BV

Each year 84,000 people in the U.S. are diagnosed with melanoma. About 90% of these skin cancers are linked to the ultraviolet radiation from the sun. Sunscreen does protect the skin, but dermatologists have found six very common mistakes people make when it comes to using it. NPR science correspondent Allison Aubrey talks to host Regina G. Barber about the science behind sunscreen and how to avoid making these mistakes this summer. They also get into which sunscreens may be better than others.

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With summer is approaching, here's a smarter way to use sunscreen

After the Hamas attack of Oct. 7 triggered Israel's invasion of the Gaza Strip, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians began fleeing from the North of Gaza to the South. As they fled, many Palestinians reported passing through checkpoints with cameras. Israel had previously used facial recognition software in the West Bank, and some Palestinians reached out to The New York Times reporter Sheera Frenkel to investigate whether the same was happening in Gaza. 

Science correspondent Geoff Brumfiel talks to Frenkel about how Israel launched this facial recognition system in Gaza late last year with the help of private companies and Google photos. 

Read Frenkel's full article.

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How Israel Is Using Facial Recognition In Gaza

Fibroids are benign uterine tumors. So why does it matter that the majority of people with a uterus will have one before they are 50 years old? Physician Rachell Bervell, founder of the Black OBGYN Project, explains that when symptoms arise, they can be quite serious — from extreme menstrual bleeding to fertility problems. Plus, why they're very likely to affect you or a loved one. 

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Give Rivers Space: The Simple Flood Risk Fix

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