Science

Report Challenges Environmental Friendliness Of U.S. Pellet Industry

12:14pm June 03, 2015

NPR's Audie Cornish speaks with Washington Post reporter Joby Warrick about how the burning of wood pellets instead of coal has led to increased deforestation in the U.S.

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Scientists used a relatively new technique called DNA metabarcoding to analyze the diets of impala and other herbivores in southern Kenya.

Grass Gourmands: A Herbivore Food Mystery On The African Savanna

6:04pm June 02, 2015

by Sujata Gupta

A new study sheds light on a longstanding ecological question: How do so many species like impalas and elephants co-exist when they're all feeding on the same limited foods?

Carlo Ratti of MIT designed this "supermarket of the future" exhibit. If you move a hand close to a product, a digital display lights up, providing information on origin, nutritional value and carbon footprint.

At World's Fair In Italy, The Future Of Food Is On The Table

5:57pm June 02, 2015

by Sylvia Poggioli

Vertical farms, food trucks, tropical forests and the supermarket of the future are on display at Expo 2015 in Milan. Exhibits from 145 countries focus on how to feed the planet sustainably.

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A bird seemingly attacks a hawk sitting on a ledge of the White House on May 19.

The White House Has A New Visitor, And It's Got Feathers

2:52pm June 02, 2015

by Lucy Perkins

Politicians in Washington currently have an actual hawk in their neighborhood.

Many NFL Players Make Abysmal Financial Decisions, Research Shows

8:05am June 02, 2015

by Shankar Vedantam

New research suggests many NFL players struggle with money over their lifetimes, and a staggering number of them go bankrupt. Making a lot of money as a player does not seem to offer much protection.

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The Allen Cell Types Database catalogs all sorts of details about each type of brain cell, including its shape and electrical activity. These cells, taken from the visual area of a mouse brain, are colored according to the patterns of electrical activity

A Database Of All Things Brainy

7:52pm June 01, 2015

by Jon Hamilton

Researchers in Seattle are busy cataloging what scientists have learned. For now that includes detailed information on 240 mouse cells. Next up: a data trove of details on human brain cells.

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Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and Carla Gugino star in the action thriller San Andreas.

Fact-Checking 'San Andreas': Are Earthquake Swarms For Real?

6:38pm June 01, 2015

by NPR Staff

Seismologist Lucile Jones discusses how accurate — or not — the plot of this new California earthquake thriller really is. Bonus: Her advice on what to include in an earthquake kit.

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Why did a deliberately bad study showing the weight-loss benefits of chocolate get picked up by many news outlets? Science journalist John Bohannon — the man behind the study — says reporting on junk nutrition studies happens all the time.

Trickster Journalist Explains Why He Duped The Media On Chocolate Study

6:37pm June 01, 2015

by Maria Godoy

John Bohannon, the man behind a stunt that bamboozled many news organizations into publishing junk science on dieting, talks to NPR's Robert Siegel about why he carried out the scheme.

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Seeing What Isn't There: Inside Alzheimer's Hallucinations

4:57pm June 01, 2015

by Rebecca Hersher

Sometimes Greg O'Brien gets a tingling in the back of his brain that tells him a hallucination is coming. Lions. Spiders. Birds. Sometimes the creatures are friendly. Too often, they're not.

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Tucker Jones, a biologist with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, counts sturgeon in the Columbia River. He says only 1 percent of sturgeon survive the 15 to 25 years it takes for them to start reproducing.

As Caviar Prices Skyrocket, Sturgeon Poachers Invade Pacific Northwest

2:31pm June 01, 2015

by Cassandra Profita

Global sturgeon populations are collapsing — most notably in Russia, where caviar is known as black gold. That's fueling a market for illegal caviar and driving poachers to the Columbia River.