Deep in an active nickel mine near Sudbury, Ontario, researchers are installing and calibrating a set of sensitive detectors. They hope that the location roughly 6,800 feet underground will screen out much of the ordinary radiation and cosmic rays felt on the surface, and allow their detectors to sense tiny disturbances caused by a dark matter particle passing close to the nucleus of one of the germanium atoms in a target material.

If successful, the SuperCDMS SNOLAB experiment may shed some light on the nature of dark matter, an unseen something that is thought to make up around 85% of the matter in the universe.

Priscilla Cushman, a physicist who has been working on the project for over 20 years, joins Host Flora Lichtman to describe the hunt, the timeline of the experiment, and the big unknowns facing the SuperCDMS team.

Guest:

Dr. Priscilla Cushman is spokesperson for the SuperCDMS SNOLAB experiment, and a professor in the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Minnesota.

Other episodes you may enjoy:

• Listening for the cosmic ‘dark ages,’ from the lunar far side
• Most Powerful Neutrino Ever Is Detected In the Mediterranean

Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.

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Hurricane season officially begins in June. And in the event of a big storm, local and state governments often rely on help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency or FEMA. But, President Trump has questioned the value of the agency.

“I've never been a big fan of FEMA. I like to keep it local. I like to see governors and neighboring states help each other as opposed to FEMA,” Trump said in March.

We’ve heard this from the administration about other federal agencies, but FEMA is a special case. People have mistrusted this agency since its founding in the late 1970s.

Host Flora Lichtman talks with Micah Loewinger, co-host of the show “On The Media,” who traced FEMA’s history in a new series called “American Emergency: The Movement to Kill FEMA.”

Guest:

Micah Loewinger is co-host of On The Media.Other episodes you may enjoy:

• As Disasters Escalate, What’s The Future Of FEMA?
• Can We Geoengineer Our Way Out Of A Natural Disaster?

Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.

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Animal neuroaudiologist Pete Scheifele joins us to answer some burning questions from SciFri listener Paul: Why can dogs and cats hear a wider range of frequencies than we do? Is it in their ears, their brains? And what would life be like if you had dog ears or cat ears?

And, scientists have created the first “smell map” of the nose using a mouse model. Host Flora Lichtman talks with neurobiologist Bob Datta about this latest research, and what it tells us about olfaction.

Guests:

Dr. Pete Scheifele is a neuroaudiologist at the University of Cincinnati and executive director of the FETCHLAB, an animal audiology clinic and lab.

Dr. Bob Datta is a neurobiologist at Harvard Medical School.

Other episodes you may enjoy:

• What’s That Smell? An AI Nose Knows
• Blood In The Water: Shark Smell Put To The Test

Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.

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The news we hear about plastic is often alarming: We have a spoon’s worth of plastics in our brains, and there are microplastics in our hearts, lymph nodes, and bloodstreams. Plastics are ubiquitous, but the reality might be more complicated than it seems.

It turns out that measuring microplastics is really, really difficult. One reason? Because we’re surrounded by plastics! Think of the pipettes and petri dishes and gloves we use in labs.

Host Flora Lichtman chats with microplastics researcher Cassandra Rauert about the difficulties of studying plastics in the human body and what she’s doing about it—like how she designed a whole lab made almost entirely of stainless steel and glass.

Guest:

Dr. Cassandra Rauert is a senior research fellow studying microplastics exposure at the University of Queensland in Australia.

Other episodes you may enjoy:

• Can algae help pull microplastics out of our water supply?
• Where Does Plastic And Other Trash Go After We Throw It Away?

Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.

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In mid-April, President Trump issued an executive order to set aside funding and loosen the bureaucratic process at the FDA to fast-track psychedelic therapy research. One obscure psychedelic got a particularly bright spotlight: ibogaine.

Originating from the root bark of the iboga plant of central Africa, the psychedelic has shown promise for curbing opioid addiction and treating PTSD. But it also can be risky to take, and hasn’t made it to the medical mainstream like psilocybin or ketamine. So what’s the story with this drug?

Joining Host Flora Lichtman to talk about its history is neurologist and pharmacologist Deborah Mash, who secured the first FDA approval for clinical trials involving ibogaine in the 1990s. And to tell us how it fits in with the growing interest in medical psychedelics is Jane Hu, journalist for The Microdose newsletter. (Disclosure: Deborah Mash is founder and CEO of a company that’s developing a therapeutic drug based on ibogaine.)

Guests:

Jane C. Hu is a journalist for the psychedelic science newsletter The Microdose, based in Seattle, WA.

Dr. Deborah Mash is professor emeritus of neurology and molecular and cellular pharmacology at the University of Miami School of Medicine. She is the also founder and CEO of DemeRx.

Other episodes you may enjoy:

• How One Gene Affects Alzheimer’s Risk
• Is This PTSD Treatment Too Good To Be True?

Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.

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Comparing a backyard sparrow to a fearsome velociraptor seems odd, but modern birds are indeed living dinosaurs. Scientists are finding more and more connections between the past physiology of dinos and the present physiology of birds.

Joining Ira Flatow to talk about some forgotten species from the past tens of millions of years—think gorilla-sized penguins—is Steve Brusatte, paleontologist and author of “The Story of Birds: A New History from their Dinosaur Origins to the Present.”

Read an excerpt from “The Story of Birds”

Guest:

Dr. Steve Brusatte is a paleontologist and author of “The Story of Birds: A New History from their Dinosaur Origins to the Present.” He’s based in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Other episodes you may enjoy:

• Do Birds Sing In Their Dreams?
• Were Dinos On Their Way Out Before The Asteroid Hit? Maybe Not

Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.

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Our bodily systems are rife with mutations. In fact, your DNA is mutating right now. These errors, and attempts to repair them, are a key to understanding immune function, aging, and even how heart disease develops. Gene mutations can even mitigate the harm caused by some inherited diseases.

Host Ira Flatow goes on a journey through the illuminating science of genetic mutations with Roxanne Khamsi, science writer and author of “Beyond Inheritance: Our Ever-Mutating Cells and a New Understanding of Health.”

Guest:

Roxanne Khamsi is a science writer and author of the book, “Beyond Inheritance: Our Ever-Mutating Cells and a New Understanding of Health.”

Other episodes you may enjoy:

• How One Gene Affects Alzheimer’s Risk
• 65 Genomes Expand Our Picture Of Human Genetics

Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.

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Data centers make controversial neighbors: They’re loud, they use a lot of water, and can drive electricity prices up. Following public concern and organizing efforts, Maine nearly implemented an 18-month ban on data center construction, before a governor veto.

Joining Flora to talk about real changes communities can advocate for in regards to data centers are Pete McGuire, climate reporter at Maine Public, and Lauren Keeler, director of ASU’s Just Energy Transition Center.

Guests:

Pete McGuire is climate reporter at Maine Public.

Dr. Lauren Keeler is an associate professor and director of the Just Energy Transition Center at Arizona State University.

Other episodes you may enjoy:

• As Companies Build Data Centers For AI, Communities Push Back
• Secrets Of Ancient Concrete, And… Data Centers In Space?

Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.

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