Episodes

  • Could labs replace your natural chocolate?

    Could labs replace your natural chocolate?
    Aug 22 2025

    Chocolate may fill grocery store shelves around the world, but the raw product that powers chocolate is far more selective. The majority of chocolate farms are found in West Africa and South America – just 20 degrees north or south of the equator. Each farm produces chocolate of a different flavor. Some cocoa tastes fruitier; others, more floral. Nutty. Earthy. Spicy. But what drives these different flavor profiles? And can it be recreated in a lab?

    A team led by scientists at the University of Nottingham in the UK sought to find out and published their results in the journal Nature Microbiology this week.

    Curious about other ways science intersects with food? Email us at shortwave@npr.org.

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    9 mins
  • The Yellowstone Wolf Controversy

    The Yellowstone Wolf Controversy
    Aug 20 2025
    Thirty years ago, park rangers reintroduced grey wolves into Yellowstone National Park. They wanted to restore the ecosystem and get the elk population, which had decimated the plant community, in check. And it worked – or so the popular narrative suggests. But is it really so simple? Today on the show, we explore how the Yellowstone ecosystem has changed since wolves returned and whether those changes can really be pinned solely on wolves. Plus, how the narrative of the Yellowstone wolf legacy could affect wolf reintroduction elsewhere.

    Curious about other science controversies? Email us at shortwave@npr.org.

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    14 mins
  • Toxic? These Animals Don't Care

    Toxic? These Animals Don't Care
    Aug 19 2025
    Imagine, you’re a toxic toad hanging around South America. No other animals are gonna mess with you, right? After all, you’re ~toxic~! So if anyone tries to eat you, they’ll be exposed to something called a cardiotonic steroid — and may die of a heart attack. Well, unfortunately, for you, some animals have developed adaptations to these toxic steroids. Evolutionary biologist Shabnam Mohammadi has spent her career studying how these adaptations work — and says even humans have used these toxins to their advantage since ancient Egypt. So today on Short Wave, we get a little… toxic (cue Brittney Spears). Host Regina G. Barber talks to Shabnam about how some predators can get away with eating toxic prey.


    Curious about biology? Email us at shortwave@npr.org.


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    14 mins
  • Why mapping the entire seafloor is a daunting task, but key to improving human life

    Why mapping the entire seafloor is a daunting task, but key to improving human life
    Aug 18 2025
    Scientists have mapped less than 30% of the world's seafloor. Experts say that getting that number up to 100% would improve everything from tsunami warnings to the Internet and renewable energy. That's why there's currently a global effort to create a full, detailed map of the seabed by 2030. On today's Sea Camp episode, we talk to Dawn Wright, a marine geographer and chief scientist at the Environmental Systems Research Institute (Esri) about this effort.



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    Curious about ocean science? Email us at shortwave@npr.org.



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    14 mins
  • Alive Or Not Alive... Is A Tricky Question

    Alive Or Not Alive... Is A Tricky Question
    Aug 15 2025

    In this Back To School episode we consider the "List of Life": the criteria that define what it is to be a living thing. Some are easy calls: A kitten is alive. A grain of salt is not.

    But what about the tricky cases, like a virus? Or, more importantly, what about futuristic android robots?

    As part of our Black History Month celebration, developmental biologist Crystal Rogers and Short Wave co-host Regina G. Barber dig into what makes something alive, and wade into a Star-Trek-themed debate.

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    11 mins
  • The Trait That Makes Robots More 'Human'

    The Trait That Makes Robots More 'Human'
    Aug 13 2025

    Neurotic, anxious robots like C-3P0 from Star Wars' C-3P0 and Marvin from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy are a staple of science fiction — but they're not as common in the real world. Most of the time, the chatbots and artificial intelligence "robots" we encounter are programmed to be extraverted, confident and cheerful. But what if that changed?

    NPR science correspondent Nell Greenfieldboyce dives into the world of robot personality research and talks to a team of researchers that are experimenting with a very different kind of robot temperament.

    Read more of Nell's reporting on the topic here.

    Interested in more science news? Let us know at shortwave@npr.org.

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    13 mins
  • Why Gene-Edited Babies May Be Closer Than Ever

    Why Gene-Edited Babies May Be Closer Than Ever
    Aug 12 2025
    A Chinese scientist, He Jiankui, made a shocking announcement to the world in 2018: He had secretly engineered the birth of the first gene-edited babies. The birth of the twins was seen as reckless and unethical by the scientific community. That’s because, among other things, the CRISPR gene-editing technique Jiankui used was so new. NPR science correspondent Rob Stein has been following the controversial world of gene-editing and human reproduction, including some companies’ recent quests to push gene-editing technology forward.

    Read more of Rob Stein’s reporting on the topic here.

    Interested in more science news? Let us know at shortwave@npr.org.

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    14 mins
  • Sea Camp: Did Life Start In Hydrothermal Vents?

    Sea Camp: Did Life Start In Hydrothermal Vents?
    Aug 11 2025
    How did life start on Earth? The answer is a big scientific mystery scientists are actively investigating. After talking with many scientists, host Regina G. Barber found that an abundance of water on Earth is most likely key, in some way, to the origin of life — specifically, in either deep sea hydrothermal vents or in tide pools. It's for this reason some scientists are also exploring the potential for life in so-called "water worlds" elsewhere in the solar system, like some of the moons of Jupiter and Saturn. This episode, Regina digs into two water-related hypotheses for the origin on life on Earth — and what that might mean for possible alien life.

    Have another scientific mystery you want us to cover on a future episode? Email us at shortwave@npr.org.

    Listen to every episode of Short Wave sponsor-free and support our work at NPR by signing up for Short Wave+ at plus.npr.org/shortwave.


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    15 mins