Science Friday

What makes Earth special, and why are we here at all? In his book “Why Do We Exist? The Nine Realms of the Universe That Make You Possible,” astrophysicist Hakeem Oluseyi tackles the conditions needed to put life on Earth, from the formation of stars, to self-organizing molecules, to quantum weirdness and the nature of time. He joins Host Flora Lichtman to celebrate our place in the cosmos. 

Read an excerpt from "Why Do We Exist?"

Guest: 

Dr. Hakeem Oluseyi is an astrophysicist and author of “Why Do We Exist? The Nine Realms of the Universe that Make You Possible.”

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Nearly all Americans have some type of PFAS, commonly known as “forever chemicals,” in their blood. The chemicals, which are linked to numerous health issues, were first regulated in drinking water at the federal level two years ago (though some limits have been rolled back).

But, back in 2018, New Jersey became the first state to adopt its own drinking water standards for PFAS. Now, researchers at Rutgers University have crunched the data to see how well it worked. They found that levels of the regulated chemicals dropped by as much as 55%. 

Host Ira Flatow talks with the lead author of the study, cancer epidemiologist Hari Iyer about the significance of his findings and his plans to study the possible link between PFAS and prostate cancer.

Want to filter PFAS from your tap at home? Learn more:

Identifying Drinking Water Filters Certified to Reduce PFAS via EPA

Home Water Treatment for PFAS via PennState Extension

Guest: 

Dr. Hari Iyer is an assistant professor of cancer epidemiology and health outcomes at the Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey. 

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

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A new imaging technique using a particle accelerator is giving researchers an unprecedented level of detail of our organs, producing scans 100 billion times brighter than a CT scanner. Those 3D models are now part of a public database called the Human Organ Atlas, available to researchers and the medically curious.

Joining Host Ira Flatow to explain why they needed so much power and what kind of research advances will follow is imaging scientist Claire Walsh, director of the Human Organ Atlas hub.

Check out images from the Human Organ Atlas on our website.

Guest: 

Dr. Claire Walsh is an associate professor at the UCL department of mechanical engineering and director of the Human Organ Atlas Hub.

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

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In the 2010s, inventor Simone Giertz (pronounced “Yetch”) began making videos that straddled the line between practical and absurd. What if you had a robot that could feed you soup? Or a drone that could cut your hair? As time went on, her projects became more polished and more ambitious, like converting a Tesla sedan into a pickup truck.

Today, with almost 3 million subscribers to her YouTube channel, Simone is still designing and building objects that are quirkily useful—a fruit bowl that changes size for instance—but that could also be at home in a high-end design store. She joins Host Flora Lichtman to talk about her approach to problems, and the joy of making physical objects in an increasingly online world.

Guest: 

Simone Giertz is an engineer, maker, YouTube creator and founder of Yetch Studio.

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

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What are dolphins actually saying with their iconic, high-pitched whistles? Dolphin communication researcher Laela Sayigh is trying to find out. She’s been compiling a database of whistles from a pod of dolphins in Sarasota, Florida, the longest-studied group of cetaceans in the world. 

She joins Flora to discuss fundamental questions about dolphin dialects, including how dolphins’ “signature” whistles can change depending on context, and the process of decoding new types of whistles. 

Guest: 

Dr. Laela Sayigh is a senior research specialist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. 

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

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