Science

Rain clouds move over the remnants of parched cornstalks on Aug. 22 near Wiley, Colo. A summer storm came too late to help farmers whose crops were decimated in the wide zone of exceptional drought in Colorado's eastern plains.

An Abundance Of Extreme Weather Has Many On Edge

9:40pm December 27, 2012

by Jennifer Ludden

It was the warmest year on record and brought a series of extreme weather events, from wildfires and floods to drought and a devastating derecho. Polls show a big jump this year in the number of people connecting such disasters with climate change.

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Brain scans using Amyvid dye to highlight beta-amyloid plaques in the brain. Clockwise from top left: a cognitively normal subject; an amyloid-positive patient with Alzheimer's disease; a patient with mild cognitive impairment who progressed to dementia d

Despite Uneven Results, Alzheimer's Research Suggests A Path For Treatment

7:24pm December 26, 2012

by Jon Hamilton

The year saw some disappointments in the development of drugs to treat Alzheimer's. But the setbacks were offset by progress in other areas. The upshot from this year's mixed results, some scientists say, is that treatment for Alzheimer's needs to start long before forgetfulness and muddled thinking are apparent.

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Stem Cells Treat Lou Gehrig's Disease, In Mice

11:36am December 26, 2012

Reporting in Science Translational Medicine, researchers write that neural stem cell implants were able to slow the onset of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig's disease, in mice. Study author Evan Snyder discusses the stem cells' protective effect, and why human trials may not be far behind.

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The SciFri Book Club Tours 'The Planets'

11:36am December 26, 2012

The SciFri Book Club is touring the solar system, with Dava Sobel's 2005 The Planets. Call in with a review of the book. Plus Jim Green, director of planetary science at NASA, joins the club to give an update on what's happened planet-wise since the book was published.

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Birding for the Holidays

11:36am December 26, 2012

The Audubon's 113th Christmas Bird Count is underway, and thousands of volunteers are taking part this year. Ornithologist David Bonter, and Gary Langham, Audubon's chief scientist, share tips on which species to look out for, and how even birding beginners can get involved.

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Science

Shooting Stars: Capturing The Night On Camera

11:36am December 26, 2012

Photographer Colin Legg makes time-lapse movies of celestial scenes, from auroras to eclipses. Photographing mostly in remote parts of Australia, where human-made light doesn't compete with starlight, Legg describes some of the challenges of this type of photography: from babysitting cameras for days and nights on end to running electronics in the backcountry.

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David Daniel, an east Texas landowner, was so determined to block the Keystone XL pipeline from coming through his forest that he built an elaborate network of treehouses eight stories above the ground.

Texas Man Takes Last Stand Against Keystone XL Pipeline

4:20pm December 25, 2012

by Elizabeth Shogren

The Keystone pipeline is supposed to carry tar sands oil from Canada to Texas — a route that runs right through David Daniel's land. To try to save his woods from bulldozers, Daniel built tree houses 80 feet in the air and protesters climbed up into them.

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A person's DNA can say a lot about a person, but not why someone has committed a horrific crime like mass murder.

Killer's DNA Won't Explain His Crime

9:21pm December 21, 2012

by Jon Hamilton

Sandy Hook and other mass killings have left people wondering how someone could engage in such behavior. Scientists say that genes can indeed predispose a person to mental illness or violence. But genetic variants alone can't explain why someone commits mass murder.

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Science

Why Some Kids Have An Inflated Sense Of Their Science Skills

8:49pm December 21, 2012

by Shankar Vedantam

A massive analysis of some 350,000 students in 53 countries has uncovered a paradox: Students in many countries that are mediocre at science have an inflated sense of good they are.

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Food companies have begun quietly reducing salt in regular foods because low-salt items like these don't sell as well.

Big Food And The Big, Silent Salt Experiment

10:18pm December 20, 2012

by Dan Charles

Food manufacturers have been quietly reducing sodium by tiny amounts in popular foods like crackers for years now. That's because if products are marked "low sodium," consumers won't buy them. But companies are also working on ways to deliver more salt taste with less sodium.

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