Science

As useful and tasty as they are, swine have not been universally adored.

Science
Arts

Why The Pig Is The Most Loved And Most Loathed Animal On The Plate

2:10pm July 22, 2015

by Mark Essig

As long as pigs have existed, humans have weighed desire for their meat against disgust for how the animals lived and what they ate. Today we have fresh cause for worry about how pigs are living.

In this colorized image of a brain cell from a person with Alzheimer's, the red tangle in the yellow cell body is a toxic tangle of misfolded "tau" proteins, adjacent to the cell's green nucleus.

Alzheimer's Drugs In The Works Might Treat Other Diseases, Too

10:28am July 22, 2015

by Jon Hamilton

By targeting the process that creates toxic clumps of protein in brain cells, scientists hope to help not just Alzheimer's patients, but perhaps also people with Lewy body dementia and Parkinson's.

Queue Listen Now

Marking 40 Years Since Apollo-Soyuz Mission And The First Handshake In Space

10:28am July 22, 2015

The joint U.S.-Soviet mission was a stepping stone to today's International Space Station.

Queue Listen Now

For 3-D food printers, chocolate is a good material to start with, because it's fairly simple to make it liquid inside the printer cartridge and solid once it drops out.

A 3-D Food Lab And Restaurant Wants To Turn Yuck Into Yum

8:59am July 22, 2015

by Rae Ellen Bichell

A group of top chefs, food scientists and tech geeks have set up a lab in Belgium to master 3-D food printing. Their goal: to create nutritionally enhanced foods that appeal to the pickiest palates.

A Strengthening El Nino Could Mean Wet Winter On The West Coast

6:23pm July 21, 2015

NPR's Melissa Block speaks to Mike Halpert, deputy director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Climate Prediction Center, about a strengthening El Nino season.

Queue Listen Now

Screaming For Science: The Secrets Of Crying Babies And Car Alarms

3:04pm July 21, 2015

by Jon Hamilton

Why do screams demand our attention like no other sound? The answer seems to involve an acoustic quality called roughness that triggers fear circuits in the brain.

Queue Listen Now

Nice Kids Finish First: Study Finds Social Skills Can Predict Future Success

2:54pm July 21, 2015

by Shankar Vedantam

A study finds that children who demonstrate more "pro-social" skills — those who share more and who are better listeners — are more likely to have jobs and stay out of trouble as young adults.

Queue Listen Now

Horses, riders and runners crossed three streams in the course of their 22-mile race through the hills of central Wales. The average finish time was the same for both species — four hours.

The Neighs Have It: Horse Outruns Man, But Just Barely

2:16pm July 21, 2015

by Adam Cole

The annual Man v. Horse Marathon in Wales sounds like a lopsided contest favoring racers with four feet. But scientists say that Homo sapiens evolved to be incredible endurance athletes, too.

Queue Listen Now

Christopher Day, the dining room manager at Eleven Madison Park, is also the man behind its tea program. "My goal has always been to put together a tea list with the same standard and rigor as you would with wine," he says.

Science
Arts

Tea Sommeliers Are The Hot New Thing In Food Pairing

2:01pm July 21, 2015

by Ina Yang

Which black tea goes best with blue cheese? It turns out there is an art to unlocking new flavors in your food by pairing it with tea. And a whole new breed of experts has risen up to spread the word.

One of the first signs drivers see on the way into Unionville, Mo. is this billboard advertising cardiology at Putnam County Memorial Hospital. Offering specialty services, like cardiology and psychiatry turned the hospital around, community leaders say.

Expanding, Not Shrinking, Saves A Small Rural Hospital

10:03am July 21, 2015

by Bram Sable-Smith

As least 55 hospitals across the rural U.S. have closed since 2010. But northern Missouri's Putnam County Memorial finds that adding high-quality specialty services lures patients and revenue.

Queue Listen Now