Science Friday

In March, China became the first country to approve an invasive brain-computer interface beyond clinical trials. The implant, called NEO, is now available to some patients with limb paralysis due to a spinal cord injury. Ira talks with Wired staff writer Emily Mullin about the significance of this milestone.

Plus, brain implants aren’t the only development: China’s entire biotech industry has skyrocketed in recent years. A decade ago, about 8% of new drug molecules were discovered in China. Now it's over 40%. And more clinical trials are now being conducted there than in the U.S. or Europe. Ira talks with health policy researcher So-Yeon Kang, who’s been following the Chinese pharma industry’s meteoric rise.

Guests:

Emily Mullin is a staff writer at Wired. 

Dr. So-Yeon Kang is an Assistant Professor of Health Management and Policy at Georgetown University. 

Other episodes you may enjoy:

Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.

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What happens when the skies are no longer dark at night? Writer Craig Childs biked from the brightest night sky, to the darkest, to find out what we lose when the lights don’t go out. He joins Host Ira Flatow to talk about his book “The Wild Dark,” our SciFri Book Club pick for July and August.

Plus, astronomer John Barentine fills us in on DarkSky International’s latest report, “Artificial Light at Night: State of the Science 2026.”

Read an excerpt from “The Wild Dark: Finding the Night Sky in the Age of Light.” 

Guests:

Craig Childs is the author of “The Wild Dark: Finding the Night Sky in the Age of Light.” 

Dr. John Barentine is an astronomer and principal consultant at Dark Sky Consulting, LLC

Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.

Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374

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The ongoing Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda has become the third-largest on record. And while the regional response is more robust than it was during the largest outbreak, in 2014-2016, the U.S. has now largely divested from global health initiatives under President Trump. So it raises the question: What role should the U.S. play in global health? And how do we build systems that protect our collective health even as political winds change?

Flora speaks with John Nkengasong, virologist and founder of the Africa CDC, about Ebola, what it took to curb HIV/AIDS, and how to make global health initiatives more resilient. Dr. Jessica Bartley is senior director of psychological services for the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee.

Guest: 

Dr. John Nkengasong has led public health initiatives in the United States and across Africa for over 30 years. He is also the executive director for higher education, collaboratives, and special initiatives at the Mastercard Foundation.

Other episodes you may enjoy:

Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.

Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374

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Gut feelings, trusting your gut, butterflies: We have lots of expressions about how our brains and our bowels are intertwined. But how well do we understand the science of this on the biomolecular level? And which of those organs is actually in the driver's seat? 

Flora churned through the details with gastroneurologists Emeran Mayer and Trischa Pasricha on stage at the 2026 Aspen Ideas Festival in Colorado. 

Guests:

Dr. Emeran Mayer is distinguished research professor at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, and executive director of the G. Oppenheimer Center for Neurobiology of Stress and Resilience.

Dr. Trisha Pasricha is a neurogastroenterologist and physician-scientist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center as well as an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.

Other episodes you may enjoy:

A transcript for this episode is available at sciencefriday.com.

Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374

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The band Phish has toured for over 40 years. One of the draws of their legendary live shows—which can go on for 8 hours—is finding moments of “flow,” when the band members lock into an improvised jam, finding new musical ideas in real time.

Phish fans live for these transcendent moments, but so do the musicians—to the point that Mike Gordon, the band’s bass player, is funding scientific research to better understand flow state.

In November 2025, Host Flora Lichtman sat down with Mike and his research collaborator, neuroscientist Greg Appelbaum, to unpack their research so far and how it’s helping to inform other neuroscience.

Guests:

Mike Gordon is bassist and co-founder of the seminal improvisational rock band Phish. 

Dr. Greg Appelbaum is a professor in the department of psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego. 

A transcript for this episode is available at sciencefriday.com.

Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374

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Americans pay roughly three times as much for prescription meds as people in other wealthy nations. But why?

Tahir Amin argues it’s largely to do with how our patent systems work. He’s been on both sides of the issue: He spent a decade as an intellectual property lawyer, helping corporations use patents to protect their bottom lines. Then he moved to India and saw firsthand how the global patent system hampered access to HIV drugs.

That led him to shift gears and create an advocacy organization aimed at changing the patent system to make access to medicines more equitable. He chats with Flora about how it all works, and his new book, “Pharma Monopoly.”

Read an excerpt from “Pharma Monopoly: The Battle for the Future of Medicines.”

Guest:

Tahir Amin is a co-author of “Pharma Monopoly: The Battle for the Future of Medicines” and a founder and CEO of Initiatives for Medicine Access and Knowledge (I-MAK). 

Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.

Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374

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If you hear “colonial America” and “science,” one name probably comes to mind: Benjamin Franklin. But he wasn’t the only one thinking big thoughts and asking big questions. Many other natural philosophers were also looking at the world in new ways, and trying to make sense of how it worked.  

In honor of the nation’s 250th birthday, Host Ira Flatow traveled to Boston, the birthplace of the American Revolution, for a conversation with historian Robert Allison about scientific thought in early America.

Guest:

Dr. Robert Allison is a professor of history at Suffolk University, chair of Revolution 250, and president of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts. 

Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.

Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374

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Researchers have engineered an artificial cell out of chemicals and biomolecules that, at a basic level, can eat, grow, duplicate its own genetic code, and reproduce itself. The cell, dubbed SpudCell, is aimed at creating a chassis that can be adapted to create biological factories for the chemicals humans rely on for modern life, from fuels to pharmaceuticals. But it also raises the question of what it means for something to be “alive.” 

Synthetic biologist Kate Adamala joins Host Ira Flatow to talk about the technological advance, the possibilities for the artificial cell, and a nonprofit organization she hopes will allow the SpudCell to spark an innovation in biotechnology.

Guest:

Dr. Kate Adamala is a synthetic biologist and an associate professor of  genetics, cell biology, and development at the University of Minnesota.

Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.

Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374

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Imagine this: You’re an astronaut, you’ve landed on the moon, and as you’re taking one small step for mankind, you kick up a bunch of lunar dirt. Now, tiny, jagged particles of dust are on your spacesuit, sticking to the spacecraft, getting in the machinery, and into your lungs. These are the kinds of problems planetary geologist Erica Jawin is trying to solve as NASA prepares for future moon bases.

And what will you eat as an astronaut on the moon? Turns out that lunar dirt, or regolith, can be used to grow potatoes and other crops, just like Matt Damon did in “The Martian.” Flora talks to space biologist David Handy to learn more. 

Guests:

Dr. Erica Jawin is a planetary geologist at the National Air and Space Museum and a participating scientist on NASA's Artemis science team.

Dr. David Handy is a space biologist studying how to grow potatoes in moon dirt at Oregon State University.

Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.

Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374

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Around 25 years ago, Ardem Patapoutian set out to investigate the fundamental biology behind our sense of touch. Through a long process of gene elimination, he identified a class of sensors in the cell membrane that turn physical pressure into an electrical signal. He changed the game in the field of sensation and perception, and in 2021 shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work. 

He joined Host Flora Lichtman in November 2025 to talk about his research, the odd jobs he worked along the way, and how he found a sense of belonging in science.

Guests:

Dr. Ardem Patapoutian is a professor and the Presidential Endowed Chair in Neurobiology at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California.

Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.

Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.