Science

Echolocation is second nature to animals such as bats and dolphins. Can humans also find their way using sound as a tool?

'Batman' Style: How We Can See With Sound, Too

11:30am July 29, 2013

by NPR Staff

Echolocation: Birds do it, bats do it, and now even educated people do it. A team of researchers has devised an algorithm that could give the rest of us a way to discover our surroundings without using our eyes.

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Tossing and turning in the light of the full moon? Maybe it's not just the light.

Don't Blame Your Lousy Night's Sleep On The Moon — Yet

3:10pm July 26, 2013

by Rhitu Chatterjee

Over drinks in the light of a full moon, a group of Swiss sleep researchers recently realized they could put a bit of folklore about the moon's disruptive effect on sleep to the test. The answer surprised them and didn't quite win over some other scientists in the field.

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La. Flood Board Sues Oil Industry Over Wetlands

11:49am July 25, 2013

by Elizabeth Shogren

Since the 1930s, Louisiana has steadily been losing land that protects it from hurricanes and other disasters. The government board charged with protecting New Orleans from flooding sued the oil and gas industry Wednesday, arguing they are responsible for a big part of the problem.

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Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) workers work on waste water tanks at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in the town of Okuma, Fukushima prefecture in Japan on June 12, 2013.

Steam And Groundwater Raise Concern At Japanese Nuclear Plant

9:30am July 25, 2013

by Geoff Brumfiel

Water in all its forms has caused trouble at the ruined Fukushima nuclear plant this week. They are reminders that the problems are far from over.

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Biologists normally look for the hellbender slamander, which is known by the nickname "snot otter," under rocks in streams. But now there's a gentler way: They can take water samples and look for traces of the animals' DNA.

What's Swimming In The River? Just Look For DNA

7:34pm July 24, 2013

by Richard Harris

Biologists have discovered they can track hard-to-see species in streams, ponds and even the ocean by sampling the water for DNA. Scientists say the technique is an important conservation tool: So far, it's been used to track declining giant salamanders and even locate a rare whale.

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Being In The Minority Can Cost You And Your Company

11:59am July 24, 2013

by Shankar Vedantam

Social scientists recently made an interesting discovery: The wage gap between blacks and whites (working identical jobs) varies greatly by location.

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The Mount Charleston blue butterfly is a rare species found only in a few small areas high up in Nevada's Spring Mountains.

Nevada Wildfire Could Snuff Out A Rare Butterfly

7:10pm July 23, 2013

by Elizabeth Shogren

The Mount Charleston blue butterfly is found only in a couple of small patches high in Nevada's Spring Mountains. But the Carpenter 1 fire, which has been raging through the area since July 1, is threatening the land and scientists fear the fire could push the butterflies into extinction.

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Bottle-nosed dolphins leap out of the water near Dana Point, Calif.

Science

We Call Him Flipper. But What Do The Dolphins Call Him?

9:02pm July 22, 2013

by Rhitu Chatterjee

Dolphins, like humans, are part of complex social networks. And research now indicates that they use their unique whistle sounds to identify and communicate with each other. "Every time a dolphin heard its signature whistle, it called back, sometimes multiple times," one researcher says.

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The moon, seen from the International Space Station, on July 31.

One Small Step For Man, One Giant Lunar Park For The U.S.?

6:50pm July 20, 2013

by NPR Staff

Two members of Congress want to preserve artifacts from American lunar missions with a national park on the moon, but there are some international hurdles to jump. Still, Space Policy Institute director Dr. Scott Pace says the bill raises intriguing questions about what the future of human-space interaction will look like.

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Science

Enlisting Passers-By In Scientific Research

4:48pm July 20, 2013

Professor Chris Lowry needed to collect information on stream levels in Western New York but didn't have enough funding for the traditional methods, so he turned to a more creative option: crowdsourcing. Guest host Linda Wertheimer speaks with him about his research and the future of crowdsourcing in scientific inquiries.

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