Science

Omar looks through Kai's photo book. The charges for the infant's six months of care in the neonatal intensive care unit totaled about $11 million, according to the family, though their insurer very likely negotiated a lower rate.

An Ill Newborn, A Loving Family And A Litany Of Wrenching Choices

6:01pm November 13, 2015

by Jenny Gold

As families consider how far to push an infant's medical care, a chasm can open between the parents' hopes and what doctors and nurses consider realistic. How do you measure a baby's quality of life?

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Science

Why We Explore Other Worlds

2:58pm November 13, 2015

by Shawn Fitzmaurice

SciWorks Radio is a production of 88.5 WFDD and SciWorks, the Science Center and Environmental Park of Forsyth County, l

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A bottle of Monsanto's Roundup herbicide in a gardening store in Lille, France. A group convened by the European Food Safety Agency reviewed the available scientific data on the chemical, also known as glyphosate, and concluded that it probably does not c

European Cancer Experts Don't Agree On How Risky Roundup Is

2:37pm November 13, 2015

by Dan Charles

Glyphosate, or Roundup, is a widely used weedkiller and has been classified as a "probable carcinogen." But experts from the European Food Safety Agency now contend it probably doesn't cause cancer.

Kenji Lopez-Alt is managing culinary director of Serious Eats, author of the James Beard Award-nominated column "The Food Lab," and a columnist for Cooking Light. His first book is The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science.

A Kitchen Science Savant Shares His Secrets In 'The Food Lab'

12:46pm November 13, 2015

by NPR Staff

Kenji Lopez-Alt left a restaurant job to test and write about the mysteries of food science. His new book details findings from how best to sear a steak to how to get more golden pancakes.

Diana Venegas, a nursing student at Samuel Merritt University, in Oakland, Calif., takes a patient's blood pressure at a recent health fair at Allen Temple Baptist Church.

A Push In California To Train More Latino And Black Nurses

12:02pm November 13, 2015

by Adizah Eghan

Though 39 percent of the state's population is Latino, only 8 percent of its nurses are. Health officials are looking to reduce health disparities by increasing diversity among health professionals.

Tug Of War Over Obama's Clean Power Plan Takes Center Stage In Colorado

7:43pm November 12, 2015

by Dan Boyce

The Obama administration's Clean Power Plan has divided the states. It requires carbon emission reductions from power plants, and more than two dozen states have sued to stop it. But many others are in favor. This tug of war is playing out in Colorado and could head to the state Supreme Court.

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An illustration of rinderpest in the Netherlands in the 18th century. Europeans once feared the cattle virus as much as they did the Black Death.

Rounding Up The Last Of A Deadly Cattle Virus

7:42pm November 12, 2015

by Dan Charles

Rinderpest, or cattle plague, was declared eradicated in 2011. But many research institutes still have samples of the rinderpest virus in storage. Disease experts want those samples destroyed.

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Rising Sea Levels Threaten Tiny Islands Home To Indigenous Panamanians

4:25pm November 12, 2015

by Jacob McCleland

Sea rise is threatening the way of life for a Panamanian indigenous group that lives on islands off the Caribbean coast. They're now pondering moving back to the mainland and abandoning their way of life.

Science

Can Life Insurance Affect The Propensity To Commit Suicide?

2:17pm November 12, 2015

by Shankar Vedantam

Economists talk about moral hazards. When you protect people against risk you prevent bad things from happening. But something curious happens: Some start to take more risks because they feel safer.

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The drug sold as K2, spike, spice or "synthetic marijuana" may look like dried marijuana leaves. But it's really any of a combination of chemicals created in a lab that are then sprayed on dried plant material.

Surge In Use Of 'Synthetic Marijuana' Still One Step Ahead Of The Law

1:58pm November 12, 2015

by Hansi Lo Wang

Outlawing more than a dozen cannabinoids — chemicals concocted in labs and sprayed on leaves to create this risky street drug — hasn't stopped the problem. Chemists just make new versions.

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