Science

Science

Researchers Enlist Internet Users To Help Monitor Penguins

1:15am January 05, 2015

Penguin Watch lets people around the world further science by looking at images of the adorable birds in the wild. Researcher Caitlin Black tells NPR's Rachel Martin how you can help from your chair.

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Georgetown's Robert Clark says it's very difficult to say precisely how many experiments have been spoiled by contaminated cell lines.

Mistaken Identities Plague Lab Work With Human Cells

4:23pm January 04, 2015

by Richard Harris

A line of immortal cells, supposedly from a breast cancer patient, turned out to be from a type of skin cancer. The mix-up wasn't discovered until experiments around the world had been contaminated.

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Antipsychotic drugs aren't necessary in the vast majority of dementia cases, gerontologists say. The pills can be stupefying and greatly raise the risk of falls — and hip fracture.

Old And Overmedicated: The Real Drug Problem In Nursing Homes

4:22pm January 04, 2015

by Ina Jaffe

Way too many residents of U.S. nursing homes are on antipsychotic drugs, critics say. It's often just for the convenience of the staff, to sedate patients agitated by dementia. That's illegal.

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Water vapor, which looks like smoke, is seen rising from a power plant near Hengshui in China's Hebei province. In November, President Obama announced a landmark carbon-cutting deal with China — the world's leading producer of greenhouse gases. And the

2014 Brought Lasting Action On Climate Change Policy

4:19pm January 04, 2015

by Scott Horsley

The EPA moved ahead with far-reaching polices to reduce carbon pollution from power plants. And the president struck a landmark deal with China to curb its carbon output as well.

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Science

3-D Scanning Sonar Brings Light To Deep Ocean Shipwrecks

3:56pm January 04, 2015

In San Francisco Bay, researchers are using new technology to investigate shipwrecks. NPR's Scott Simon speaks with James Delgado, director of Maritime Heritage at NOAA, about what they've found.

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Dr. Michael Poshkus treats inmates with hepatitis C at the John J. Moran Medium Security facility in Cranston, R.I. Some 12 to 35 percent of inmates nationwide are afflicted with the chronic liver disease.

Costly Hepatitis C Drugs Threaten To Bust Prison Budgets

3:45pm January 04, 2015

by Kristin Gourlay

Inmates in the U.S. have a high rate of infection with chronic hepatitis C — up to 35 percent or more by some estimates. New drugs introduced this year can cure the disease quickly, but at a cost.

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To Stop Teen Drinking Parties, Fine The Parents

3:18pm January 04, 2015

by Patti Neighmond

For some teenagers, parties with alcohol are almost a rite of passage. Surveys show the vast majority of parents in these homes know the alcohol is flowing. Cities are now cracking down on the adults.

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Mike (left) and Matt (right) Gragnani are 25-year-old identical twins. Together, they've been able to buy an apartment and start a business before many of their peers.

Millennials Might Be 'Generation Twin.' Is That A Bad Thing?

3:08pm January 04, 2015

by Rebecca Hersher

Between 1981 and 2012, 1 million extra twins were born in the U.S. One economist says all of those twins could be hurting the economy — but another expert points out some perks of twinhood.

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Science

Study Shows Riding The Quiet Car Is Crushing Your Spirit

2:59pm January 04, 2015

by Shankar Vedantam

An experiment in Chicago randomly assigned train and bus riders to either talk to the stranger next to them or commute quietly. The result? Even for introverts, silence leaves you sadder.

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Stephen Hawking Gets A Voice Upgrade

2:58pm January 04, 2015

The theoretical physicist has been using the same communication system for more than 20 years, until now. NPR's Rachel Martin speaks with Horst Haussecker of Intel about the new and faster technology.

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