Science

Science

On The Cold, Dead Fringes Of The Solar System, Pluto Looks Shockingly Lively

12:36pm July 17, 2015

New Horizons team scientist Carly Howett says no one expected the kind of geologic activity that the spacecraft appears to have found on the dwarf planet and its moon.

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Dr. Lisa Dyson is the CEO of Kiverdi, a next-generation sustainable oil company that converts CO2 and waste carbon gases into oils using biotechnology.

#RaceOnTech: How An Early Love Of Math Led Her To The Role Of CEO

10:03am July 17, 2015

by NPR Staff

This week, NPR's All Tech Considered is connecting with diverse innovators in tech and science. Kiverdi CEO Lisa Dyson discusses an early role model, her work and the need to boost tech education.

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#RaceOnTech: Sharing The Experiences Of Diverse Innovators

10:01am July 17, 2015

by Davar Ardalan

Who are some of the diverse voices emerging in tech and science? This summer, All Tech Considered will lead a storytelling project to engage with innovators who are making an impact.

Mamie Parker, a fish and wildlife biologist with a doctorate in ecology, remembers a janitor at work once telling her: "No African-American woman has been in here except to clean this office."

From Fishing With Mom To Becoming A Top Fisheries Official

9:47am July 17, 2015

by Michel Martin

For NPR's series #RaceOnTech, we are meeting the diverse men and women who work in America's tech and science fields, like Mamie Parker, a fish and wildlife biologist who's a pioneer in her field.

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3 Emerging Themes From #RaceOnTech

9:45am July 17, 2015

by Davar Ardalan

This week, our #RaceOnTech discussion has turned up some common themes regarding diversity in the science and technology fields: the role of identity, the wealth gap and the importance of mentors.

"There's a saying in Suriname that I dearly love: 'The rainforests hold answers to questions we have yet to ask.' But as you all know, it's rapidly disappearing."--Mark Plotkin

What's Disappearing From the Amazon — Even Faster Than Wildlife?

9:30am July 17, 2015

by NPR/TED Staff

The isolated tribes of the Amazon are getting dispersed or dying out. Ethnobotanist Mark Plotkin describes what we'll lose if their culture and collective wisdom vanish with them.

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"What has happened in the last ten years, has been a remarkable increase in actual number of people who are dying or are not able to get better because they carry a resistant infection."--Ramanan Laxminarayan

How Did A Medical Miracle Turn Into A Global Threat?

9:30am July 17, 2015

by NPR/TED Staff

Antibiotics save lives, but we rely on them too much. Eventually, the drugs may stop working. Economist Ramanan Laxminarayan asks us to think twice before reaching for this double-edged resource.

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"We've under-priced water, we've over-exploited it, we don't regulate how people pump groundwater out of the ground.... we just use too much."--Jonathan Foley

Will Our Demand For Food Threaten Our Supply of Water?

9:30am July 17, 2015

by NPR/TED Staff

Ecologist Jon Foley says agriculture is the "most powerful force unleashed on this planet since the end of the ice age." He says we're using too much to irrigate and we have to rethink how we farm.

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Seven Decades Ago, A New, Enormous Kind Of Explosion

7:55am July 17, 2015

by David Greene

Seventy years ago this week, in the New Mexico desert, U.S. Army scientists detonated the first atom bomb. NYU physics professor Benjamin Bederson was among those who worked on the Manhattan Project.

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On July 9, 2013, heavy floodwaters swept through Beichuan in southwest China's Sichuan province.

How Air Pollution May Have Caused Catastrophic Flooding In China

6:45am July 17, 2015

by Jessie Rack

Scientists believe soot that hangs over the mountains of Sichuan Basin — a byproduct of factories and cars — brought about the floods that devastated the region in 2013.