Science Friday

Imagine you wanted to get a general idea of what people are eating in a given community. You could look at grocery store sales, or do surveys, but neither can capture a complete picture. 

Microbiome researcher Lawrence David and his lab look to another source of data: genetic material in sewage water. It turns out that detectable DNA signatures of individual plant and animal species remain behind even after they’ve been eaten, digested, excreted, and flushed down the toilet. He joins Host Flora Lichtman to describe his “Edible Atlas” project, the backend limitations of sewage analysis, and whe...

"Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? Caught in a landslide, no escape from reality. Open your eyes, look up to the skies and see."

There’s something about space that captures the imagination of scientists and artists alike. Just ask astrophysicist Derek Ward-Thompson and astronomer Brian May (yes, THAT Brian May, guitarist of Queen). In their book "Islands in Infinity: Galaxies 3-D," they turn flat images of the galaxies to three dimensional spacescapes that leap off the page.

In March, Host Flora Lichtman spoke with Ward-Thompson and May about the enchanting nature of...

In nature, enzymes are the catalysts that make much of biology work. They jumpstart chemical reactions that either wouldn’t happen, or would happen super slowly. They break down food, build other molecules, extract energy, and more. What if we could harness evolution to engineer designer enzymes that do other specific jobs that benefit us? 

Putting that idea into practice changed the game for chemistry, and earned Frances Arnold the Nobel Prize prize in 2018. She called it “directed evolution.” Today, thousands of labs use her methods to coax enzymes into doing things no one ever thought of. She joi...

Brain cancers are rare, but devastating. Patients face short life expectancies after diagnosis. Brain tumors are often impossible to remove completely. And radiation and chemotherapy don’t always stop them from spreading. 

It’s a daunting class of disease to study, but that didn’t dissuade Michelle Monje from trying. She has spent two decades studying how brain tumors form and interact with healthy brain cells, and pioneered the field of cancer neuroscience. 

Guest:

Dr. Michelle Monje is a professor of pediatric neuro-oncology at Stanford Medicine. 

Other episodes you may enjoy:

Astronaut food is not known as a frontier of culinary imagination, unless you count rehydrated shrimp cocktail. As NASA prepares for longer trips to the moon and Mars, is space cuisine ready for an overhaul? 

Flora speaks with retired astronaut Clayton Anderson, who spent 167 days in space, and chef David Skinner, who has advised NASA on how to make food for astronauts better. 

Guests:

Clayton Anderson spent 15 years as a NASA astronaut, with stints on the International Space Station in 2007 and 2010. He’s currently based in Nebraska.

David Skinner is the exec...

At one point this year, the 50 hottest cities on the planet were all in one country: India. The average peak temperature in those cities was 112 F. India is one of the most climate vulnerable countries in the world, and weather disasters, such as heat waves, have become more extreme and more common in recent years. 

So how is this extreme heat affecting people in India? And what needs to change to keep people safe? Flora speaks with Gulrez Azhar, a physician and researcher who has spent much of his career studying the health impacts of heat waves i...

About 130 days a year, a research vessel leaves Miami and sets out to catch, measure, sample, tag, and release sharks in Florida’s coastal waters. Over the course of a year, they’ll encounter about 600 animals in a process called “fisheries independent monitoring,” an effort to gather data on sea creatures that isn’t skewed by changes in fishing procedures, equipment, or regulations. 

Marine conservation biologist Catherine Macdonald leads the lab behind that effort. She joins Host Flora Lichtman to talk about shark conservation, share stories from her research, and spread shark joy. 

Guest:

Dr. Cather...

During the early Cold War era, the United States Army and later the NSA began recruiting and training codebreakers and intelligence officers to decipher intercepted Soviet messages.

Among those recruits were a group of highly skilled Black women who were employed as cryptologists to decode these messages. But their role in Cold War intelligence operations has been largely overlooked, until now.

Host Flora Lichtman talks with historian Sarah Valentine about her book, “Decoding the Devil: Black Women Codebreakers and the Secret War Against Stalin’s Bomb.”

Read an excerpt of “Decoding the Devil.”

Gues...

The tropical waters of Sri Lanka, an island off the coast of India, are home to a population of blue whales unlike any other. These whales stay put, while every other known population migrates. That discovery was made by budding scientist Asha de Vos more than 20 years ago—it made a splash, and so did she. She later became the first Sri Lankan to earn a PhD studying marine mammals, charting a new scientific path in her country.

De Vos joined Host Flora Lichtman in 2025 to discuss her path into science, what it means to be the fi...

In the last couple months, Vermont, Alabama, and Oklahoma have passed data privacy laws. Massachusetts is negotiating its own version. Meanwhile, congressional lawmakers have introduced national privacy bills that would preempt these state laws.

In light of all this legislation, we’re revisiting an interview from February about how the United States’ data ecosystem makes it possible for any number of government agencies and businesses to buy our private data, from facial scans to health records to location tracking.

Host Flora Lichtman talks with law professor and tech policy expert Laura Moy, who has testified in C...

In 2020, Andrea Ghez shared the Nobel Prize for her observations of a supermassive compact object at the center of the Milky Way galaxy—an object that has all the hallmarks of a supermassive black hole. Ghez had developed techniques that allowed her to peer through galactic dust clouds with the Keck telescopes and observe the movements of stars orbiting the galactic center. Measuring their velocity and orbits provided information about the galactic core.

She joins Host Flora Lichtman to talk about this game-changing discovery, what we’ve learned about the galactic center, and her own orbit in scie...

Back in May, a paper published in Nature Sustainability reignited a decades-old debate about coastal Louisiana: Should people leave? Climate researchers wrote that due to rising sea levels, coastal Louisiana has crossed the point of no return and that governments should be making plans now for places like New Orleans to relocate.

Jessica Dandridge-Smith, who runs The Water Collaborative in New Orleans, speaks with Flora about why this paper sparked such a strong reaction, and how she thinks about the possibility of relocation. Then, we chat with climate scientist A.R. Siders about how we can plan...

Pompeii is known for its disastrous end with the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, but for archeologists, what came before is just as interesting. Researchers are using artifacts left behind in the remarkably well-preserved Roman city to piece together what life was like for the thousands of people who lived there 2,000 years ago. 

A new book and television show analyze some of these clues to tell the stories of the ordinary people who faced this extraordinary event. Flora speaks with archaeobotanist  Jess Venner, author of “The Lost Voices of Pompeii,” and actor Tom Hiddleston, host of National Geographic’s “Pompe...

An outbreak of the foodborne illness cyclosporiasis has sent thousands of people running to the bathroom this summer. Health officials have linked the outbreak to lettuce served at Taco Bell locations in five states, but there are still a lot of unanswered questions. Food safety expert Byron Chaves joins Flora to talk about the “explosive” nature of the illness and why pinpointing a source of the parasite has been so difficult.

Guest:

Dr. Byron Chaves is an associate extension specialist and professor in the Department of Food Science at Rutgers University in New Jersey. 

Tra...

The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is scheduled for an early launch at the end of August. It will rest about a million miles from Earth at Lagrange point 2, where forces of gravity and motion balance out, allowing it to orbit the sun in sync with the Earth. The Roman Telescope is designed to collect masses of data that could inform questions about dark energy, dark matter, and exoplanets. Jackie Townsend, project manager for the mission, joins Host Flora Lichtman to discuss the telescope’s backstory, and what scientists hope it will do.

Then, turning from deep sp...

For two decades, a perplexing illness has been spreading: After a lone-star tick bite, people find themselves with a severe allergic reaction to red meat. The CDC estimates up to 450,000 people in the U.S. may be affected with alpha-gal syndrome, up from just a few dozen documented cases in 2009. New research finds that in some states, more than 30% of people are positive for alpha-gal antibodies—but not all of them have the syndrome.

Flora speaks with allergist Scott Commins, who has studied alpha-gal syndrome for nearly 20 years, to unpack this finding and next frontiers for treatment.

One of the most irresistible questions in sci-fi stories about aliens is what our reaction will be when we learn of their existence. Horror? Bewilderment? Relief? Euphoria? It’s a scenario we love to imagine again and again, like in Steven Spielberg’s recent movie, “Disclosure Day.”

But how would humanity react if we learned of intelligent aliens? Can you actually study that? It turns out there’s a whole lab inside SETI, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, that is thinking about what the public response might be and how to prepare for it.

Host Ira Flatow...

Dino Martins has plucked maggots out of a dead elephant, pulled botflies out of camel snot, and willingly let a horsefly feast on him. Why? Because he’s obsessed with parasites.

Dino is an entomologist who grew up in rural Kenya, and he’s worked all over the world studying how insects keep this planet alive. And along the way, he met some of the world’s most iconic freeloaders, which he describes in his new book, “Hidden Creatures: Luscious Leeches, Bashful Botflies, and the Wondrous, History-Shaping World of Parasites.”

Flora speaks with Dino about his unlike...

In March, China became the first country to approve an invasive brain-computer interface beyond clinical trials. The implant, called NEO, is now available to some patients with limb paralysis due to a spinal cord injury. Ira talks with Wired staff writer Emily Mullin about the significance of this milestone.

Plus, brain implants aren’t the only development: China’s entire biotech industry has skyrocketed in recent years. A decade ago, about 8% of new drug molecules were discovered in China. Now it's over 40%. And more clinical trials are now being conducted there than in the U.S. or Euro...

What happens when the skies are no longer dark at night? Writer Craig Childs biked from the brightest night sky, to the darkest, to find out what we lose when the lights don’t go out. He joins Host Ira Flatow to talk about his book “The Wild Dark,” our SciFri Book Club pick for July and August.

Plus, astronomer John Barentine fills us in on DarkSky International’s latest report, “Artificial Light at Night: State of the Science 2026.”

Read an excerpt from “The Wild Dark: Finding the Night Sky in the Age of Light.” 

Guests:

The ongoing Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda has become the third-largest on record. And while the regional response is more robust than it was during the largest outbreak, in 2014-2016, the U.S. has now largely divested from global health initiatives under President Trump. So it raises the question: What role should the U.S. play in global health? And how do we build systems that protect our collective health even as political winds change?

Flora speaks with John Nkengasong, virologist and founder of the Africa CDC, about Ebola, what it took...

Gut feelings, trusting your gut, butterflies: We have lots of expressions about how our brains and our bowels are intertwined. But how well do we understand the science of this on the biomolecular level? And which of those organs is actually in the driver's seat? 

Flora churned through the details with gastroneurologists Emeran Mayer and Trischa Pasricha on stage at the 2026 Aspen Ideas Festival in Colorado. 

Guests:

Dr. Emeran Mayer is distinguished research professor at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, and executive director of the G. Oppenheimer Center for Neurobiology of...

The band Phish has toured for over 40 years. One of the draws of their legendary live shows—which can go on for 8 hours—is finding moments of “flow,” when the band members lock into an improvised jam, finding new musical ideas in real time.

Phish fans live for these transcendent moments, but so do the musicians—to the point that Mike Gordon, the band’s bass player, is funding scientific research to better understand flow state.

In November 2025, Host Flora Lichtman sat down with Mike and his research collaborator, neuroscientist Greg Appelbaum, to unpack their research so...

Americans pay roughly three times as much for prescription meds as people in other wealthy nations. But why?

Tahir Amin argues it’s largely to do with how our patent systems work. He’s been on both sides of the issue: He spent a decade as an intellectual property lawyer, helping corporations use patents to protect their bottom lines. Then he moved to India and saw firsthand how the global patent system hampered access to HIV drugs.

That led him to shift gears and create an advocacy organization aimed at changing the patent system to make...

If you hear “colonial America” and “science,” one name probably comes to mind: Benjamin Franklin. But he wasn’t the only one thinking big thoughts and asking big questions. Many other natural philosophers were also looking at the world in new ways, and trying to make sense of how it worked.  

In honor of the nation’s 250th birthday, Host Ira Flatow traveled to Boston, the birthplace of the American Revolution, for a conversation with historian Robert Allison about scientific thought in early America.

Guest:

Dr. Robert Allison is a professor of history at Suffolk Uni...

Researchers have engineered an artificial cell out of chemicals and biomolecules that, at a basic level, can eat, grow, duplicate its own genetic code, and reproduce itself. The cell, dubbed SpudCell, is aimed at creating a chassis that can be adapted to create biological factories for the chemicals humans rely on for modern life, from fuels to pharmaceuticals. But it also raises the question of what it means for something to be “alive.” 

Synthetic biologist Kate Adamala joins Host Ira Flatow to talk about the technological advance, the possibilities for the artificial cell, and a nonprofit organization she h...

Imagine this: You’re an astronaut, you’ve landed on the moon, and as you’re taking one small step for mankind, you kick up a bunch of lunar dirt. Now, tiny, jagged particles of dust are on your spacesuit, sticking to the spacecraft, getting in the machinery, and into your lungs. These are the kinds of problems planetary geologist Erica Jawin is trying to solve as NASA prepares for future moon bases.

And what will you eat as an astronaut on the moon? Turns out that lunar dirt, or regolith, can be used to grow potatoes and ot...

Around 25 years ago, Ardem Patapoutian set out to investigate the fundamental biology behind our sense of touch. Through a long process of gene elimination, he identified a class of sensors in the cell membrane that turn physical pressure into an electrical signal. He changed the game in the field of sensation and perception, and in 2021 shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work. 

He joined Host Flora Lichtman in November 2025 to talk about his research, the odd jobs he worked along the way, and how he found a sense of belonging in science.

...

Hundreds of thousands of years ago, deep in the mountains of the Yukon, a ground squirrel pooped. That scat stayed frozen for millenia—until very recently, when researchers thawed it out and realized it was a literal data dump. They found traces of a surprising number of animals and plants, providing a detailed snapshot of life during the last ice age. Flora talks with biomolecular archaeologist Tyler Murchie about the gold mine that is ancient squirrel poop.

And, if you liked our poop jokes, you’ll want to hear how two different types of laughter are processed in t...

Pancreatic cancer is among the most deadly forms of cancer, and it can be difficult to catch early. But there’s some good news: Clinical trials of a new drug called daraxonrasib found that it doubled the survival time of patients with advanced pancreatic cancer. And some oncologists are calling it a game changer—not just for pancreatic cancer, but potentially other forms of cancer too. Ira talks with oncologist Zev Wainberg, who led a clinical trial for the drug. 

Plus, ALS is a degenerative disease that causes patients to lose their ability to walk, swallow and event...

On a hot summer day, there’s nothing better than a dip in a cold pool. But you know who can ruin that for you? A scientist who studies pool chemistry. What chemical reactions are happening in that swimming pool when the water comes into contact with our bodily fluids and skin products?

Environmental engineer Ernest Blatchley sits down with Flora Lichtman to discuss his findings after two decades of research, including how urine in a pool makes that chlorine smell, and his work to make the air of the Paris Olympics’ indoor pools less toxic.

Gu...

The federal Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has proposed rule changes that would bring a major shift in how scientific grants are awarded by U.S. government agencies. Under the current process, researchers submit grant proposals that are then vetted and scored by a committee of experts in that scientific field, with top-scoring proposals recommended for funding.

If its proposed changes are enacted, the OMB would insert a political review into the process, allowing administration officials to determine whether grant proposals are aligned with administration priorities, regardless of their scientific merit. Those proposed rules are now...

If you have arachnophobia, consider this your opportunity to try exposure therapy: A new study suggests that 415 million years ago, in modern-day England and Wales, a scorpion the length of a golden retriever was scurrying around, complete with 6-inch pincers. Flora talks with lead study author Richie Howard about the finding.

If you’re grossed out by a 3-foot scorpion, you’re not alone. But, scorpion researcher Lauren Esposito says we’ve got it all wrong—scorpions are wonderful and caring creatures.

Guests:
Dr. Richie Howard is an invertebrate paleontologist and curator of fossil arthropo...

The FDA recently approved a sunscreen ingredient called bemotrizinol, or BEMT, that’s been used in Europe and Asia for years. This is the first new sunscreen ingredient approved in the United States in over two decades. Meanwhile, skin cancer has become the most common cancer in the U.S. 

Flora discusses the chemistry of sunblock with a sunscreen chemist AJ Addae, and the regulatory process that led to this approval with health journalist Michael Scaturro. 

Guests:

Michael Scaturro is a health journalist based in New York City. 

AJ Addae is a che...

If you watch sports, whether the recent NBA finals or the ongoing World Cup matches, you may have noticed that the athletes aren’t the only ones putting on a show. The announcers seem to be playing a beautiful game of their own, capturing the excitement and play-by-play of the game in a unique blend of sentence structure, elocution, and pitch. Linguists have even given this speech pattern a name: sports announcer talk.

Sociolinguist and dialectologist Valerie Fridland joins Host Flora Lichtman to break down the patterns and rules of this register.

Guest:

Dr...

There is a murderous crime spree happening right under—and perhaps inside—our noses. Killer microbes armed with weapons are eviscerating, assassinating, and detonating their fellow microbes. And the newest culprit? A protist that morphs into a cannibilastic supergiant when times get tough. 

Host Flora Lichtman talks with Glen D’Souza and Ben Larson, two detectives who study these micro-murders. They chat about why microbes kill, how they choose their victims, and whether we can harness those weapons for good. 

Guests:

Dr. Glen D’Souza is a microbiologist and assistant professor at Arizona State Univ...

Do you ever hear a song that transports you to a specific place and time? This auditory wormhole has a name: musical daydreams. Music cognition expert Elizabeth Margulis studies why they happen, and what they tell us about our brains. She joins Host Flora Lichtman to discuss this phenomenon.

Guest:

Dr. Elizabeth Margulis is a professor and director of Princeton’s Music Cognition Lab. She’s also the author of “Transported: The Everyday Magic of Musical Daydreams.”

Other episodes you may enjoy:

Researchers just published details of a massive undersea graveyard of whales deep in the Indian Ocean. Spanning about 1,200 kilometers (745 miles), it contains whale remains dating back more than 5 million years—and at least five active whale fall sites still teeming with life. Fossil whale expert Nick Pyenson joins Host Flora Lichtman to discuss these findings.

Then, marine biologists Rachel Sipler and Sara Jobson join Ira Flatow to describe an unusual discovery in certain species of sea cucumbers: If a foot or tentacle becomes detached, the parts don’t wither up and rot away. Even without a stomach, thes...

Big cats used to roam the entire United States. You might know them as mountain lions, pumas, cougars, or catamounts. Though they go by many names, they're actually all the same species. 

Their current population is mostly confined to the West, and part of Florida, though in recent years they’ve been spotted in other areas east of the Mississippi River. Most cougars were gone from the Northeast by the 1800s, with the last verified accounts in the 1930s. 

Mountain lion ecologist Mark Elbroch hopes to reintroduce these big cats back into their previous habitats in N...

When Blue Origin’s New Glenn spacecraft exploded in an enormous fireball during a ground test a couple weeks ago, it sent shockwaves not only through the air, but through NASA’s timeline for the upcoming Artemis missions.

It also came at an especially bad time for Jeff Bezos’ rocket company—just days after it was awarded a slew of NASA contracts to deliver equipment to the moon. Blue Origin had also been expected to play a major role in the upcoming Artemis III and IV missions, but that’s now more up in the air depending on how soo...