Scienceline

If you’re a parent, you might have the opinion that video games are a waste of time. But the U.S. Department of State, educators and other experts think that gaming might actually be the best way to engage students — especially during the isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic — on important issues, like where the food we eat comes from and how agriculture can impact climate change.

By using Farmcraft, a tweaked version of the popular game Minecraft that focuses on modern farming practices, students from around the world were able to compete in teams to see who could build the best farm. The next round of competition starts in February!

Join Scienceline reporter Deborah Balthazar on a trip to the virtual farm.

You can also listen to this episode of the Scienceline podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Stitcher.

Music:

Dreiton from Minecraft Volume Beta by Daniel Rosenfield (c418) | Used with Permission

Farmcraft Theme by North America Scholastic Esports Federation | Used with Permission

Adventures in Adventureland by Kevin Macleod | Filmmusic.io Standard License

Hillbilly Swing by Kevin Macleod | Filmmusic.io Standard License

Sound effects:

Surprise - Animal Crossing: New Horizons | Nintendo content guidelines

Minecraft Sound Attributions

Right in the heart of New York City is the East River, separating Manhattan and the Bronx from Brooklyn, Queens and the suburbia of Long Island. For many New Yorkers, the river is just water running under the many bridges they cross over during their daily commute. 

But before the confluence of the Hudson River and the harbor became New York City, the East River was home to a diversity of wildlife including fish, oysters and whales. 

What would it take to reincarnate this lost ecosystem of New York City’s central body of water? In this episode of the Scienceline podcast, we try to find the answer.

For more information about this episode, please visit: https://scienceline.org/2021/04/the-lost-and-future-wildlife-of-new-york-citys-east-river

Photo:

New York City’s East River is lined by numerous green spaces and parks, including Brooklyn Bridge Park in Brooklyn and the East River Esplanade in Manhattan. [Credit: Ingfbruno | CC BY-SA 3.0]

Music:

Waltz in B Minor, Op. 69 no. 2 by Olga Gurevich | Public Domain Mark 1.0

Fairy Chant - Elven Song - Epic Music & Vocals by Julius H | Pixabay License

Sound Effects:

Whale: davidou | CC0 1.0

Birds: hargissssound | CC0 1.0

Woodpecker: shelf_employed | CC BY 3.0

Owl: shelf_employed | CC BY 3.0

Frogs: sweetjuniper | CC0 1.0

River: CastleofSamples | CC BY 3.0

In the last few decades, the study of exoplanets — planets outside our solar system — has exploded. Since the first one was spotted in 1992, scientists have found thousands of different exoplanets in their own unique systems, each of which has told us something new about the cosmos.

Hidden among planets made of diamond and systems that we didn’t think could exist is a wealth of scientific information. To the people that study these strange celestial bodies, finding a “weird one” is a sign that there are still questions to be answered and cosmic investigation to be done. And they are more than ready to start investigating.

Photo: An artist’s interpretation of the K2-138 system. When they were discovered, these exoplanets gave scientists a window into how planets form when nothing interrupts the process. [Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt (IPAC) | Public Domain]

Music:

https://www.bensound.com/royalty-free-music

https://pixabay.com/music/

SYSTEM Sounds (M. Russo, A. Santaguida)

For more information about this episode, please visit: https://scienceline.org/2021/02/oddities-of-outer-space/

Last year, plenty of people took up the new hobby of baking sourdough. What better to do when you can’t leave the house? And, since sourdoughs are based on cultivating a microbial community of yeast and bacteria in what’s called a “starter,” these bakers had to learn how to care for the billions of microbes with which they now shared a kitchen.

But as with many other hobbies, some of those new sourdough bakers probably gave up at some point. So what happened to their new microbe friends? What happens to a neglected sourdough starter?

On this episode of the Scienceline podcast, we find out.

Photo: A healthy sourdough starter can smell floral, yeasty or even like alcohol sometimes — but not rotten. [Credit: Jill Wellington | Pixabay]

Music by Jahzzar and Chopin, by Frank Levy and Jeannette Fang.

For more information about this episode, please visit: www.scienceline.org/2021/01/death-of-a-sourdough

In the 1980s, Mark Temple was the drummer for the indie pop band The Hummingbirds. He toured the world and saw his music played on MTV, but eventually left the band and returned to school.

When the university where he teaches shut down earlier this year, Temple used his time at home to rekindle his pastime: He turned the coronavirus genome into music. Each genetic letter contained within SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, was converted into a musical note, bass line or drum beat. The resulting composition, which is more than an hour long, sounds a bit like ambient electronica; it is surprisingly beautiful. But will people want to listen to music that reminds them of the pain and suffering of these last nine months?

Combining interviews with musicians and researchers in Sydney, Australia, this episode of the Scienceline podcast deconstructs the story of Mark Temple, and his quest to make music out of a global crisis. Guests include: Dr. Mark Temple, a senior lecturer at Western Sydney University, and Mike Anderson, an Australian guitarist who collaborated with Temple for live performances of the coronavirus music.

This story was reported, edited and produced by Niko McCarty, with additional contributions by Ethan Freedman.

Photo: During the pandemic, confined to homes and small apartments, some people rekindled old interests; they started working on a book, or learned an instrument. A cancer researcher in Sydney, Australia used his background in music to create compelling sounds from the coronavirus genome. [Credit: Unsplash, United Nations]

Music by: Jahzzar, Mark Temple, Mike Anderson and Ryan Andersen

As long as humans have been around, we’ve relied on plants for our survival: as food, fuel, shelter, medicine — and to produce the oxygen we breathe. Ethnobotanists are scientists who study and catalog these complex interactions between people and plants. Yet ethnobotany has a complicated history of its own, with roots in European colonial expeditions and in the exploitation of Indigenous communities.

Now, with the biodiversity crisis imperiling plants, ethnobotanists have become unexpected advocates for Indigenous knowledge rights in the quest to conserve useful plants around the world and the cultures that rely on them. Modern ethnobotanists are striving to work in partnership with their study communities to preserve much more than just plants: Languages, livelihoods and a wealth of knowledge are at stake. 

Photo: Blueberry plants grow wild in Jonathan Ferrier’s homelands and study sites, and have many important medicinal uses. [Credit: Kjerstin_Michaela | Public Domain Mark 1.0]

Original music by Michael Radack

Other music and sound effects by Jahzzar, Richard Laiepce, mikevpme, and Blear Moon

2020 was another record-breaking year of storms and wildfires in the United States. Against the backdrop of the coronavirus pandemic, reports of fiery skies above California and “unsurvivable” storm surges in Louisiana can feel like apocalyptic icing on a hellish cake.

So how do meteorologists decide what to say about extreme weather? And as the climate changes, are weather reports changing too?

TV weathercasters are trusted messengers for many American families — including Casey Crownhart’s family in Birmingham, Alabama. Her state often experiences hurricanes and tornadoes, and the local weatherman is something of a celebrity. But the job is far from simple.

In this Scienceline audio story, climate scientist Jennifer Francis, weather reporter Andrew Freedman and TV meteorologist-turned-advocate Bernadette Woods-Placky tell Scienceline how they think about — and talk about — weather and its connections to climate change.

Photo: Hurricane Delta approaching the Gulf Coast in October 2020. [Credit: Visible Earth/NASA]

Music by: Jahzzar, Scott Joplin, Komiku and Caffeine Creek Band.

For more information about this episode, please visit: https://scienceline.org/2021/01/more-than-a-weather-forecast/

Watching for resident and migratory birds has provided an outlet for people to go outside during the COVID-19 shutdowns.

Photo: Migratory birds like this magnolia warbler pass through New York City each year, and the pandemic hasn’t stopped them. [Jean-Guy Dallaire | CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 ]

Music by: Chuck Fresh, Jahzzar

For more information about this episode, please visit https://scienceline.org/2020/12/birding-provides-escape-for-the-pandemic-fatigued

The coronavirus pandemic has disrupted economies across the globe. With international travel on hiatus, the toll on tourism has been immense. So where does that leave the communities — and animals — that depend on money from travelers?

It’s literally in the name — folk culture depends on groups of people. Whether they’re attending a folk dance or a jam session, members of folk communities gather together to engage in a group experience. Or at least, that’s how it was before the COVID-19 pandemic.