Science Friday on WBAA News
Fridays from 2 to 4 p.m.
Science Friday is your trusted source for news and entertaining stories about science. We started as a radio show, created in 1991 by host and executive producer Ira Flatow. Since then, we’ve grown into much more: We produce award-winning digital videos and publish original web content covering everything from octopus camouflage to cooking on Mars. SciFri is brain fun, for curious people.
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In Einstein and the Quantum: The Quest of the Valiant Swabian, theoretical physicist A. Douglas Stone writes that whereas Einstein is best known for his theory of relativity, his truly revolutionary idea was the development of quantum theory — an idea that escaped many of the age's most brilliant minds.
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Digital cameras are ubiquitous today — even $20 cell phones have them built in. But few people actually know how a digital camera works. Shree Nayar, a computer scientist at Columbia University, set out to change that with his Bigshot Do-It-Yourself Digital Camera kit, which gives tinkerers a view of a camera's anatomy.
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In his new book Life at the Speed of Light: From the Double Helix to the Dawn of Digital Life, Craig Venter writes of the brave new world synthetic biology may some day deliver: from consumer devices that print out the latest flu vaccine to instruments on Mars landers that analyze Martian DNA and teleport it back to Earth to be studied�"or recreated.
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With the astronaut flick Gravity dominating box offices and dinner table conversation, Science Friday brings in the experts to fact-check. In our first installment of "Science Goes to the Movies," astronauts Jeffrey Hoffman and Don Pettit answer your Gravity questions and explore the real risks of spaceflight.
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Beneath their nearly blind and hairless appearance, naked mole rats have evolved hidden molecular adaptations for life underground. In this week's video pick, new research by Vera Gorbunova and Andrei Seluanov of the University of Rochester shows how these aesthetically challenged creatures live long, cancer-free lives.
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Modern science infographics can show everything from rising temperatures to population growth�"if you know how to read them. The Best American Infographics 2013 editor Gareth Cook and neuroscientist Stephen Kosslyn explain how to be a savvier infographics reader, and how to spot graphics that mislead.
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The U.S. government shutdown may be over, but J. Marshall Shepherd, president of the American Meteorological Society, says American science has suffered a lasting blow. He says the shutdown has delayed potentially life-saving research, weakened our international credibility, and signaled to youth that government science may not be a wise career option.
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Current treatments for the Ebola virus only work when they are given immediately after infection. A recent study published in Science Translational Medicine describes a new antibody cocktail that was effective in macaques up to four days after infection. Lead author Gary Kobinger discusses how the treatment targets the virus's quick replication process.
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It's a rivalry as old as forests themselves: the ancient battle between trees and their competitors, the vines. But now, ecologists say, the vines are winning. Bill Laurance, of Australia's James Cook University, says increased forest fragmentation and a boost in carbon dioxide may be contributing to the vines' domination.
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Many baseball fans have a love affair with two things: their favorite team and statistics. Bruce Bukiet, an associate professor of mathematical sciences, shares his predictions and mathematical models for this year's Major League Baseball playoff standings.