When you consider someone’s legacy in science, you might think about their biggest discovery, their list of publications, or their titles, awards, and prizes. But another kind of scientific legacy involves the students and colleagues that passed through a scientist’s orbit over the course of a career.

A new book, The Elements of Marie Curie: How the Glow of Radium Lit a Path for Women in Science, takes a look at the legacy of Madame Marie Curie, one of the most recognizable names in science history. But instead of looking only at Curie’s own life, author Dava Sobel views her through the lens of some of the 45 women who trained in Curie’s lab during her research into radioactivity.

Ira Flatow talks with Sobel about her research into Curie’s life, some of the anecdotes from the book, and how she interacted with some of her lab assistants and colleagues.

Transcript for this segment will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com.

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There are a lot of holiday gatherings at this time of year, and families getting together can mean that kids are in places that don’t normally have a lot of kid visitors. And, as we know, curious kids can get into trouble.

Dr. Sing-Yi Feng, a pediatric emergency physician and medical toxicologist with the North Texas Poison Center, joins Ira to talk about some of the most common toxic exposures seen in hospital emergency rooms over the holidays. She stresses that even more than protecting against consumption of poinsettia plants or the cleaning supplies under the sink, households with young kids should be sure to control access to prescription medications, alcohol, and cannabis gummies.

Transcript for this segment will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com.

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It’s that time of the  year when you’re making your list, checking it twice, for gifts that spark a love of science for the kids in your life. 

Ira talks with Mahnaz Dar, young readers’ editor at Kirkus Reviews and Carrie Wolfson, collection development librarian at the Boulder Public Library to  round up some of the top kids’ science books of 2024 and make recommendations based on listener questions.

See their full list of recommendations on sciencefriday.com.

Transcripts for each segment will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com.

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The Supreme Court hears a case centering on the FDA’s denial of applications for nicotine-based vapes containing flavored liquid seen as addictive for young people. And, damaged lithium-ion batteries can cause deadly explosions. An algorithm could help detect when they’re about to happen.

On Monday, the US Supreme Court heard arguments in a case that could change the Food and Drug Administration’s power to regulate nicotine-based vapes. It revolves around the FDA’s denial of applications from two vape companies that sell flavored liquids in their products, citing that the liquids presented a danger in addicting young people to nicotine. But a lower court rejected that denial, saying the agency was inconsistent in its approval process. The decision could impact the FDA’s regulatory power to ban the sale of some of these vapes in the US.

Ira Flatow is joined by Rachel Feltman, host of the Popular Science podcast “The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week,” to talk about the health implications of the case. They also discuss other top science stories of the week, including why there’s been a large decrease in cervical cancer rates over the past decade, why Venus probably wasn’t able to support ancient life (contradicting some hopeful theories), and new information about when humans might’ve started to wear clothing, thanks to some clues from lice.

Lithium-ion batteries are used in all sorts of electronics, like smart phones, laptops, and e-bikes. That’s because they can store a lot of energy in a small package. Unfortunately, this also means that when a battery is damaged, there’s a lot of energy to expel, which can lead to explosions and fires.

While there are no national statistics available, in New York City alone, there have been 733 fires started by lithium-ion batteries since 2019, which killed 29 people and injured 442. Most of these fires are a result of e-bike or scooter batteries catching fire.

Now, researchers have trained AI algorithms to be able to better predict when a lithium-ion battery is about to explode. The battery makes a hissing sound two minutes before an explosion.

Ira talks with two researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology about their work on the subject: Dr. Andy Tam, mechanical engineer in the Fire Research Division, and Dr. Anthony Putorti, fire protection engineer and leader of the Firefighting Technology Group.

Transcripts for each segment will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com.

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The Ig Nobel awards are a salute to achievements that, in the words of the organizers, “make people laugh, then think.”  Each year, the editors of the science humor magazine Annals of Improbable Research choose 10 lucky(?) winners who have unusual achievements in science, medicine, and other fields. This year’s awards were presented in a theatrical extravaganza in an MIT lecture hall in September.

They included awards for studying coin flipping (including hundreds of thousands of real coin flips), the movements of a dead trout, and an opera about Murphy’s Law. In a Science Friday holiday tradition, Ira hosts an hour of highlights from the ceremony.

Transcripts for each segment will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com.

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As part of Science Friday’s 33rd anniversary show, we’re revisiting our listeners’ favorite stories, including this one from 2009.

In the album “Here Comes Science,” the band They Might Be Giants tackled the scientific process, plasma physics, the role of blood in the body, and the importance of DNA, all in song. Band members John Linnell and John Flansburgh discuss the album and play some science tunes. 

The transcript for this segment is available at sciencefriday.com.

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As part of Science Friday’s 33rd anniversary show, we’re revisiting our listeners’ favorite stories, including this one from 2022.

66 million years ago, a massive asteroid hit what we know today as the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico. Many people have a general idea of what happened next: The age of the dinosaurs was brought to a close, making room for mammals like us to thrive.

But fewer people know what happened in the days, weeks, and years after impact. Increased research on fossils and geological remains from this time period have helped scientists paint a picture of this era. For large, non-avian dinosaurs like Triceratops and Tyrannosaurus rex, extinction was swift following the asteroid impact. But for creatures that were able to stay underwater and underground, their post-impact stories are more complicated.

In 2022, Utah-based science writer Riley Black joined Ira to discuss her book The Last Days of the Dinosaurs.

Transcripts for each segment will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com.

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In 2022, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry went to Dr. Carolyn Bertozzi of Stanford University, Dr. Morten Meldal of the University of Copenhagen, and Dr. K. Barry Sharpless of the Scripps Research Institute “for the development of click chemistry and bioorthogonal chemistry.” In “click chemistry,” molecular building blocks snap together quickly and efficiently to let chemists build more complicated molecules. But bioorthogonal chemistry takes that work one step further, allowing the technique to be used within living organisms without damaging cells.

“When someone is thinking outside the box, or in a very different way, we like to think of that as orthogonal thinking,” Bertozzi explained. “So biorthogonal means not interacting with biology. Totally separate from biology.” Her research began with an interest in developing ways to see specific sugar molecules on the surface of cells. But it has developed into an approach that can be used for advanced drug delivery in fields such as chemotherapy.

As part of Science Friday’s 33rd anniversary show, we’re revisiting our listeners’ favorite stories, including this one. In 2022, Bertozzi joined Ira Flatow for a wide-ranging conversation about her research, chemistry education, her early music career, and the importance of diversity in the field of chemistry.

Transcripts for each segment will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com.

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In 2018, actor, author and science communicator Alan Alda spoke publicly about his diagnosis for Parkinson’s Disease. Alda, who is best known for his role in “M*A*S*H,” “The Aviator,” and “The West Wing,” shifted his interests to science communication in his later years. He’s written several books on the topic, and has an ongoing podcast, “Clear + Vivid.”

As part of Science Friday’s 33rd anniversary show, we’re revisiting our listeners’ favorite stories, including this one. Alda came on Science Friday in 2018 to talk about his life since his Parkinson’s diagnosis, and how being an advocate for science changes his perspective on his condition. 

Transcripts for each segment will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com.

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Just in time for Thanksgiving, a potato researcher explains potato varieties, potato nutrition, and some tubular tuber facts. And, irregular, fatty marbling gives meat a unique texture. Recreating that in plant-based products isn’t easy.

The potato is a versatile vegetable—baked, roasted, fried, mashed—it can bring something to just about any menu. But, how exactly do these tasty tubers end up on our tables? We’ll give you a crash course in potato science, including how potatoes are grown (hint: not from seeds!) and what scientists look for when they develop new potato varieties.

SciFri producer Kathleen Davis talks with Dr. Rhett Spear, assistant professor in the Plant Sciences Department at the University of Idaho. 

Plant-based meat products have evolved over the past few decades. You can find them in many forms, like sausages, deli meats, and faux chicken nuggets. During the holiday season, no plant-based meat is more famous than the Tofurky Roast, a round imitation turkey.

Despite improvements in flavor for plant-based meat products, there are still lots of challenges to getting fake meats to mimic their real counterparts. One tough one is textural: instilling a marbling effect. This is the effect of irregular fat deposits, which occur naturally in animal meat.

Plant-based meat has a uniform texture by design. Because each product is processed to be a certain way, the randomness and irregularity of fat pockets is taken out of the equation. But some food scientists are working on adding more of this meaty texture to plant-based meat.

Joining guest host Kathleen Davis to discuss the challenges and possibilities for the next stage of plant-based meat is Dr. David Julian McClements, distinguished professor in food science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Transcripts for each segment will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com.

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