Science Friday

The SciFri Book Club reads ‘The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year’

Many of us have gotten sucked into the tiny dramas unfolding in our backyards, or on the bird feeder or the fire escape. But not everyone can turn those observations into

Meet the tiny, see-through fish that can regenerate its brain

Move over, Drosophila. Step aside, C. elegans. Scientists are working to establish a new model organism. It’s a tiny species of glassfish called Danionella cerebrum, and

Why is everyone so obsessed with protein?

It’s impossible to ignore the latest nutrition trend: protein-maxxing. Stroll through the grocery store and you’ll find protein chips, protein-packed ice cream, and even

What a trapped antimatter particle could tell us about reality

Almost all matter particles have corresponding particles of antimatter: Protons have antiprotons, neutrons have antineutrons, and so on. When matter and antimatter bump i

Why are armadillos moving up north?

Armadillos have been crawling up the southern U.S. as the climate warms, making themselves at home as far north as Kentucky and Indiana. They’re what wildlife biologists

When, and where, did bats first take to the sky?

A consortium of researchers from around the world has sequenced the genomes of 103 bat species, tracing the evolutionary origin of bats back in time. Using both genetic s

People are microdosing GLP-1s for weight loss. Is it safe?

There’s a new trend in the world of weight loss: microdosing GLP-1 drugs. Online health clinics are promising big results with microdoses drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy, and

Terence Tao on how AI math solutions miss the point

In a matter of months, AI has transformed the field of mathematics. In September, OpenAI claimed that an AI model solved the million-dollar Navier-Stokes equation. Then,

What was life like for Tyrannosaurus rex?

While Tyrannosaurus rex has reached celebrity status in pop culture thanks to movies like “Jurassic Park” and famous fossils, it can be difficult to imagine what everyday

Isabella Rossellini on how acting connects to animal cognition

Pass the cocktail napkins and refill your glass because we’re having a dinner party. You’ll be between Isabella Rossellini, the Italian model, movie star, and director; a

Why are we changing the way we keep time?

The time we see on our phones and clocks is based on the Earth’s rotation. But that rotation speed varies, so if it speeds up or slows down, our time measurements get thr

Kazuo Ishiguro on emotional truth in sci-fi and in our AI reality

The movie “Klara and the Sun,” in theaters now, is based on the 2021 novel of the same name by Kazuo Ishiguro. The story is set in the future and is narrated by Klara, a

Is that garbage can bear resistant? These bears will find out

Have you ever wondered what it means for something to be bear resistant? How do manufacturers know that the cooler you take camping or the compost bin in your backyard wi

Jennifer Doudna on what it takes to be a good scientist

In 2020, Jennifer Doudna shared the Nobel Prize in chemistry for the development of the gene-editing technique CRISPR. Along with related techniques, it has become an ess

Getting the billion-dollar PRIMA space telescope off the ground

In late September 2026, NASA announced that a new telescope called PRIMA was getting a green light and advancing to something called Phase B of the development process. B

Ayana Elizabeth Johnson on making climate action cool

Ayana Elizabeth Johnson is one of the most prominent voices in the climate movement. She’s a marine biologist by training, but as she saw the effects of the climate crisi

Could a whale swallow a human, 'Whalefall' style?

In the new movie “Whalefall,” a scuba diver (Austin Abrams) gets accidentally swallowed by a sperm whale. What follows is a tense battle against time and the whale’s dige

Why do politicians talk like that?

With the midterms approaching, politicians are out in full force to convince voters to elect them. And that means that we’re hearing a lot of “politician speak.” You know

Sargassum superblooms are choking coastlines around the Atlantic

An unwelcome visitor is arriving on beaches from West Africa to the Caribbean, and Brazil to Florida. It’s brown, it’s stinky, and it’s more abundant than ever: sargassum

Celebrating Ada Lovelace Day and the women who made the internet

This year, October 13 marks Ada Lovelace Day, an observance that calls attention to the role of women in computing and technology. In this conversation from 2018, Ira tal