Short Wave

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If you were a miner in California during the Gold Rush, you might have dined on a California red-legged frog. The largest native frog in the western United States, this Golden State denizen used to be found as far inland as the Sierra Nevada mountains and south, into Baja California. But today, they're listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. Conservationists have worked to translocate new populations of the red-legged frog back to California in hopes that their numbers can be restored. But how do they monitor those populations' growth? Enter AI.

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The National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline — 988 — launched on this day exactly three years ago. People who call the line seeking support are connected to a local network of crisis centers and a trained crisis counselor. And while millions of people have contacted the line since its launch, a new study shows portions of the country still don't know about it. Short Wave host Emily Kwong speaks to Jonathan Purtle, one of the lead researchers of on this study, about the findings, how the hotline differs from 911 and what its existence signals to Americans.

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Jurassic Park: Rebirth is the latest installment in the Jurassic World series. And while dinosaur paleontologist Matt Lamanna has loved dinos — and the Jurassic Park franchise — his whole life, he says some of the films are more accurate than others. So how accurate are the ones unveiled in this latest movie? Matt gets into it with Short Wave host Regina G. Barber, who got a tour of the dinosaur exhibits where Matt works: the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh. They also discuss the accuracy of the beloved giant creatures in the newest Jurassic World film, as well as some of the hits from the franchise's archive — like the dinosaur he was partially responsible for discovering.

Want us to cover more natural history? Tell us by emailing [email protected]! We'd love to know what you want to hear from us.

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For this second installment of the Sea Camp series, we explore the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. It's the largest of five gigantic garbage patches in the sea. These patches hang out at the nexus of the world's ocean currents, changing shape with the waves. These areas were long thought to have been uninhabited, the plastics and fishing gear too harmful to marine life. But researchers have uncovered a whole ecosystem of life in this largest collection of trash. Today, with the help of marine biologist Fiona Chong, we meet the tiny marine life that calls this place home.

Also, exciting news!! WE HAVE A NEWSLETTER! It lets you go even deeper with the marine research each week of Sea Camp. Sign up here!

Interested in hearing more sea stories? Tell us by emailing [email protected]!

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A rare visitor from another star system has been spotted: the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS! It was detected July 1 by the NASA-funded Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System, or ATLAS. Most known comets orbit the Sun and are bound by the gravity of the solar system ... but this object came from far beyond the pull of our Sun, traveling 137,000 miles per hour from another star. Now, scientists are racing to get a good image of it, in the hopes it can answer big questions like: What is the universe like where this comet is from? Is the solar system we live in unique?

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This week marks the 100th anniversary of the Scopes "Monkey Trial" — where a teacher was charged with the crime of teaching Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection. At the time, it was illegal in Tennessee to "teach any theory that denies the story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible, and to teach instead that man has descended from a lower order of animals." The trial, which was orchestrated to be a media spectacle, foreshadowed the cultural divisions that continue today and led to a backlash against proponents of evolution.

Read more of science correspondent Nell Greenfieldboyce's reporting on the story.

Want us to cover more science history? Less? Either way, tell us by emailing [email protected]! We'd love to know what you're hearing — and want to hear from us!

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Short Wave producer Hannah Chinn has adult-onset eczema. They're not the only one. Up to ten percent of people in the United States have it, according to the National Eczema Association — and its prevalence is increasing. Despite its ubiquity, a lot about this skin condition remains a mystery.
So today, Hannah's getting answers. In this encore episode, they sat down with Raj Fadadu, a dermatologist at the University of California, San Diego, to ask: What is eczema? What triggers it in the first place? And might climate change make it worse sometimes?

If you liked this episode, check out our episode on the science of itchiness. Also, follow us! That way you never miss another episode.

Interested in hearing more about climate change and human health? Email us at [email protected] — we'd love to hear your feedback!

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A warming climate doesn't just affect dry land — it affects the ocean, too. For years, Earth's ocean has acted as a heat sink for climate change: A large part of the heat generated by human use of fossil fuels is being absorbed by the ocean. And while the deep sea is largely unaffected by this heat absorption, oceanographers have discovered that the upper ocean currents are accelerating. That acceleration has the potential for huge knock-on effects, including sea level rise, changing fish migration cycles, shifting storm patterns, and more.

This is the first episode of Sea Camp, Short Wave's summer series exploring the intriguing and otherworldly depths of the ocean. Follow us every Monday through August as we travel from the sunlit zone to the sea floor.

Interested in more stories about the ocean? Email us your question at [email protected].

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Happy Independence Day, Short Wavers! Do you have plans outdoors this weekend and want to figure out just how swampy it's gonna feel? For that kind of mental preparation, we're revisiting an episode in which some meteorologists are telling us to pay more attention to dew point temperature, not relative humidity.

Interested in more weather episodes? Email us your question at [email protected].

Listen to every episode of Short Wave sponsor-free and support our work at NPR by signing up for Short Wave+ at plus.npr.org/shortwave.

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