Science

The world's biggest trees, such as this large Scots pine in Spain's Sierra de Baza range, are also the world's fastest-growing trees, according to an analysis of 403 tree species spanning six continents.

An Old Tree Doesn't Get Taller, But Bulks Up Like A Bodybuilder

9:12am January 17, 2014

by Richard Harris

An aging tree's girth is good for the planet, scientists say, because it helps it suck more carbon dioxide out of the air. "It's as if, on your favorite sports team, you find out the star players are a bunch of 90-year-olds," one ecologist says.

Queue Listen Now

The Big Impact Of A Little-Known Chemical In W.Va. Spill

10:06am January 14, 2014

by Elizabeth Shogren

At the time of the accident, the CDC didn't have a standard for how much of the coal-cleaning chemical is safe in drinking water. So the agency had to come up with one.

Queue Listen Now

Science

Triad Geology

3:05pm January 10, 2014

by Shawn Fitzmaurice

From a geologic perspective, we don't usually think about the North Carolina Piedmont as being very exciting. There are no tall mountains or volcanoes right nearby.

Queue Listen Now

Science

Study: Mass Shootings Are On The Rise Across U.S.

10:21am January 10, 2014

David Greene talks to criminologist J. Pete Blair of Texas State University, and Terry Nichols of the Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training Center, about a new study showing a dramatic increase in mass shootings in the U.S. since 2008.

Queue Listen Now

Can't Stand The Cold Snap? Don't Go To Antarctica

6:56am January 08, 2014

by Geoff Brumfiel

You think it's cold? You ain't seen nothing! Imagine what it's like at science's coldest places: from the Eastern Antarctic Plateau to the moons of Saturn to the coldest labs.

Queue Listen Now

Arctic Methane Bubbles Not As Foreboding As Once Feared

4:27pm January 06, 2014

by Richard Harris

European scientists were alarmed in 2008 when they discovered streams of methane bubbles erupting from the seafloor in Norway's high Arctic. This gas, which contributes to global warming, was apparently coming from methane ice on the seafloor. A follow-up study finds that methane bubble plumes at this location have probably been forming for a few thousand years, so they are not the result of human-induced climate change. But continued warming of ocean water can trigger more methane releases in the Arctic, with potentially serious consequences to the climate.

Queue Listen Now

Want To Make Your Life Better? Keep Track Of It

7:51am January 03, 2014

The Quantified Self movement promotes something called life logging. That means tracking all kinds of details of your life in order to improve it. To find out more about the topic, David Greene talks to two people involved with life logging: Kitty Ireland, who works for a life logging app called Saga, and to David Goldstein, who turned to life logging with the help of a coach.

Queue Listen Now

Alarm Clock Sets Off A Real Wake-Up Call

11:42am January 01, 2014

by Alix Spiegel

Later this month, a Chicago based company called Fig will ship out a new product that it believes will help keep people motivated to meet their life goals. It's an alarm clock, but an unusual one.

Queue Listen Now

Science

10,000 Year Clock Challenges Approach To Time

8:56am December 31, 2013

In this final interview in our series of conversations about the future, Morning Edition co-host Steve Inskeep talks to Danny Hillis, a scientist and engineer and the inventor of a clock designed to last 10,000 years. The clock is meant to encourage people to think about the long-range future; the "long now" as Hillis calls it.

Queue Listen Now

A technique called optogenetics is being used in the laboratory to observe and control what brain circuits are doing in real time.

Experimental Tool Uses Light To Tweak The Living Brain

8:09am December 30, 2013

by Jon Hamilton

An experimental technique called optogenetics is starting to change the way researchers look at the brain. The tool allows them to switch entire brain circuits on and off using light, and may help figure out what's going wrong in brain ailments from epilepsy to depression.

Queue Listen Now