Science

Science

Nobel Season Kicks Off With Prize In Medicine

7:52pm October 05, 2015

by Rob Stein

Scientists from the U.S., Japan and China won the 2015 Nobel Prize in Medicine. The 3 researchers won for discovering drugs used to treat parasitic diseases that affect millions of people each year.

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Promo image for Malaria Animation video post.

On Orders From Mao, Researchers Set Off On Nobel-Winning Drug Work

7:34pm October 05, 2015

by Adam Cole

In the 1960s, Chairman Mao Zedong ordered scientists to find a malaria antidote to help ailing soldiers in North Vietnam. Today's Nobel Prize for medicine went to one of those researchers.

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Amy and Dave Freeman paddle into the Boundary Waters, starting their 365 days in the wilderness to raise awareness of mining plans in the region.

For Environmentalists, Mines Near Wilderness Are Too Close For Comfort

5:42pm October 05, 2015

by Kylie Mohr

A couple is spending 365 days in the nation's most visited wilderness area to raise awareness of a sulfide-ore mining plan they say will put the watershed ecosystem in danger. Some locals disagree.

EPA Issues New Standard Restricting Ozone Emissions

3:07pm October 05, 2015

The Environmental Protection Agency's new rule sets reduces the threshold for the particles that contribute to smog at 70 parts per billion, lower than than 75 ppb currently on the books. NPR's Ari Shapiro learns more from reporters Joe Wertz in Oklahoma and Mose Buchele in Texas.

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Satoshi Omura, Youyou Tu and William C. Campbell share in the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

Work On Parasite Diseases Earns Nobel Prize For Medicine

12:00pm October 05, 2015

by Bill Chappell

The medicines they helped develop are credited with improving the lives of millions. Among the three winners: William C. Campbell of Drew University, for his work on the roundworm parasite.

When he was 59 years old, Greg O'Brien was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease. Five years later, he is speaking publicly about his experience, even as his symptoms worsen.

'How Do You Tell Your Kids That You've Got Alzheimer's?'

2:47pm October 04, 2015

by Rebecca Hersher

Writer Greg O'Brien was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease five years ago. He describes what it was like to hear the news — and break it to his family.

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"My brain used to be my best friend," says Greg O'Brien, a journalist with early onset Alzheimer's. But he can't trust it anymore, he says. Alzheimer's is, in some ways, changing who he is.

As A Father's Alzheimer's Progresses, Family Learns To Love Him As He Is

1:42pm October 04, 2015

by Rebecca Hersher

As his disease advances, Greg O'Brien finds his personality shifting, too. "I know I can't go back to who I was before," he says. "I've got to learn to live with the new me."

A surgical team at Sooam Biotech in Seoul, South Korea, injects cloned embryos into the uterus of an anesthetized dog.

Disgraced Scientist Clones Dogs, And Critics Question His Intent

6:17pm October 02, 2015

by Rob Stein

A lab in Seoul is the only place in the world known to commercially clone dogs. But often the dog clones are sickly, critics say, and many other dogs are subjected to surgery to make a clone.

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Here's Why Hurricane Joaquin Is So Inscrutable

2:46pm October 02, 2015

NPR's Robert Siegel talks with Jeff Halverson, severe weather expert for the Capitol Weather Gang. He also teaches meteorology at University Of Maryland, Baltimore County about how and why computer models for hurricane predictions get such different results.

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A view from west Orlando shows an Atlas V rocket flying into sunlight, creating a unique light show last month in Orlando, Fla.

Atlas Rocket Lifts Off In Florida, Delivering A Spectacular Sky Show

11:42am October 02, 2015

by Scott Neuman

The exhaust plume left by the booster, which was carrying a Mexican satellite into orbit, left some strange and interesting patterns in the morning sky.