Scienceline

Universities and museums are stores of human knowledge, but not just in a metaphorical sense. Millions of plants, animals, and minerals fill cabinets in collections across the world. But collecting specimens is easy compared to cataloging them. Harrison Tasoff went to learn how institutions are addressing a growing backlog of samples.

You can tune a harp, and then you can regulate a harp. The latter is a more intricate and precise tuning. If that’s what you need, Rachael Galbraith can help you. Galbraith is a certified harp technician, making her one of a small cohort of professionals trained to execute the miniscule adjustments needed to regulate a harp. Scienceline’s Leslie Nemo joined Galbraith for one of her appointments and learned a thing or two about the mechanical side of the musical instrument.

Scientists pinpoint how chemicals drive social behavior in ants

Ants are incredibly social animals. Thousands of ants scuttle around the colony, working together to accomplish all kinds of complicated tasks. Scientists have investigated the evolution of social behavior, revealing where and how sociability is built into an ant’s DNA. In this podcast, I speak with biologist Daniel Kronauer at Rockafeller University and James Traniello at Boston University to explore why ants are social butterflies.

Produced by Abigail Fagan

If you’re anything like me, you can’t wait until the sci-fi dream of having an android do all of your busywork becomes reality. In the movies, robots walk around just like people, but the robots we have in real life pale in comparison. I set out to learn how far away we are from getting advanced, sentient machines. I spoke to Jizhong Xiao, who heads the robotics program at the City College of New York about the robots he’s developed, what makes them different from the androids of Star Wars, and what it would take to reach that next level.

Engineers place more powerful wind turbines further apart, but still can’t save the birds

Wind turbines in the Altamont Pass in California have killed thousands of Golden Eagles, and even more songbirds. But we’ve come a long way since they were first installed. In this podcast, I speak to wildlife biologist Todd Katzner, bird conservationist Michael Hutchins and wind energy researcher Robert Preus about how wind technology is improving, and how it might affect birds.

Produced by Ellen Airhart

Paralympic wheelchair basketball players set their own standards of performance

Produced by Peter Hess and Sandy Ong

Scienceline examines the state of being between life and death

Near-death experiences are intriguing, and also more common than you might think — as many as 1 in every 20 people have found themselves in limbo between life and death. Who has these experiences? What happens during such an event? And what happens after? Here, we talk to experts and people who have been to the other side and back.

Produced by Sandy Ong

[Image source: Jesse Krauß | Public domain]

Finding the science hidden in fantasy novels

Produced by Dyani Sabin

Despite the magical trappings of fantasy, a well-designed world holds at least a smidgen of reality. In order to get at the science that underlies resurrection in Nnedi Okorafor's futuristic fantasy "The Book of Phoenix," this podcast talks to Ramin Rahni, a pHD candidate studying plant regeneration at New York University's Birnbaum Laboratory.

This podcast pilot is currently stand-alone.

While resurrection is still a fantasy, many of the ideas explored in fantasy worlds are quite scientific. [Image Credit: Mysticartdesign, CC0]

Scienceline explores non-pharmaceutical ways for insomnia sufferers to get a better night sleep

This podcast pilot will reviews various sleep-help methods for folks suffering from insomniacs. While many insomnia sufferers resort to drugs, intentioned changes to behavior or listening to music while trying to fall asleep might help, too. I talk to Austin Frakt, an insomnia sufferer and blogger for The Incidental Economist, Kira Vibe Jespersen at Aarhus University in Denmark, and John Watson who runs the Sleep Radio service in New Zealand. Sleep easy!

Produced by Ryan F. Mandelbaum

[Image Credit: Wellcome Library, London | CC BY 4.0]

Scienceline explores non-pharmaceutical ways for insomnia sufferers to get a better night sleep

This podcast pilot will reviews various sleep-help methods for folks suffering from insomniacs. While many insomnia sufferers resort to drugs, intentioned changes to behavior or listening to music while trying to fall asleep might help, too. I talk to Austin Frakt, an insomnia sufferer and blogger for The Incidental Economist, Kira Vibe Jespersen at Aarhus University in Denmark, and John Watson who runs the Sleep Radio service in New Zealand. Sleep easy!

Produced by Ryan F. Mandelbaum

[Image Credit: Wellcome Library, London | CC BY 4.0]