Sunday, January 5, 2025

NPR News: Giraffes may be facing extinction. IVF could help

Giraffes may be facing extinction. IVF could help
NPR's Ayesha Rascoe speaks with Jason Pootoolal, president of Save the Giraffes, about using in vitro fertilization for wild giraffes to save the species from extinction.

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NPR News: How do you keep monkeys from making mischief?

How do you keep monkeys from making mischief?
In one Indian town, monkeys will steal your glasses — and give them back if you toss them a container of mango juice. It's one more sign of the impact of urbanization on the wild.

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Saturday, January 4, 2025

NPR News: Jurassic footprints are discovered on a 'dinosaur highway' in southern England

Jurassic footprints are discovered on a 'dinosaur highway' in southern England
The 166-million-year-old footprint tracks, found at a quarry in southern England, mark one of the largest discoveries in decades.

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NPR News: Research that shows fish responding to ketamine may hold clues for human behavior

Research that shows fish responding to ketamine may hold clues for human behavior
New research shows that the anesthetic ketamine keeps fish from giving up — and the way it works may help figure out how it works in humans and lead to better medications for depression.

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NPR News: Bats catch a lift from storm winds on long-distance migrations

Bats catch a lift from storm winds on long-distance migrations
Migrating hundreds and hundreds of miles is hard work for the common noctule bat. But this European species makes its marathon journey a little bit easier by paying attention to the weather.

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Friday, January 3, 2025

Idaho Students to Connect with NASA Astronaut Aboard Space Station

Students from Hawthorne Elementary School in Boise, Idaho, will have the chance to hear NASA astronaut Don Pettit answer their prerecorded science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) related questions from aboard the International Space Station. Watch the 20-minute space-to-Earth call at 12:30 p.m. EST Friday, Jan. 10, on NASA+ and learn how to watch NASA […]

January 03, 2025
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NASA’s LEXI Will Provide X-Ray Vision of Earth’s Magnetosphere

A NASA X-ray imager is heading to the Moon as part of NASA’s Artemis campaign, where it will capture the first global images of the magnetic field that shields Earth from solar radiation. The Lunar Environment Heliospheric X-ray Imager, or LEXI, instrument is one of 10 payloads aboard the next lunar delivery through NASA’s CLPS (Commercial […]

January 03, 2025
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NASA, NOAA to Announce 2024 Global Temperatures, Climate Conditions

Climate researchers from NASA and NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) will release their annual assessments of global temperatures and discuss the major climate trends of 2024 during a media briefing at 12 p.m. EST Friday, Jan. 10. NASA will share the briefing on the agency’s website at: https://ift.tt/Cd1lc3V. Participants will include: Media interested in […]

January 03, 2025
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Lagniappe for January 2025

Explore Lagniappe for January 2025 featuring: Gator Speaks This time of year is one Gator enjoys. The ending of one year and beginning of another provides the opportunity to reflect, reset, and refocus. This is true at NASA Stennis, a place that powers space dreams, or for someone who enjoys staying up to date with […]

January 03, 2025
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Mission Possible: Coordinating Travel for NASA Employees

A leap of faith for Heather Seagren eight years ago brought the Gulf Coast native to something new, yet also returned her to a familiar place at NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. Following graduation from Pearl River Community College, Seagren worked as an office manager at a pediatric office. Seagren anticipated […]

January 03, 2025
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NPR News: Farmers are abandoning their land. Is that good for nature?

Farmers are abandoning their land. Is that good for nature?
Traditional farmers around the world are walking away from millions of acres of land where they once grew crops or grazed animals. It's provoking mixed reactions.

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NPR News: Researchers looked into how some bats made made long distance migrations easier

Researchers looked into how some bats made made long distance migrations easier
Long distance migrations can take a lot out of energy, but one kind of bat has found some assistance. (Story aired on All Things Considered on Jan. 2, 2025.)

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Thursday, January 2, 2025

NASA Anticipates Lunar Findings From Next-Generation Retroreflector

Apollo astronauts set up mirror arrays, or “retroreflectors,” on the Moon to accurately reflect laser light beamed at them from Earth with minimal scattering or diffusion. Retroreflectors are mirrors that reflect the incoming light back in the same incoming direction. Calculating the time required for the beams to bounce back allowed scientists to precisely measure […]

January 02, 2025
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Best of 2024: Total Solar Eclipse in Indianapolis

NASA photographer Joel Kowsky captured this image of the Monday, April 8, 2024, total solar eclipse from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indianapolis, Indiana. The total solar eclipse swept across a narrow portion of the North American continent from Mexico’s Pacific coast to the Atlantic coast of Newfoundland, Canada. A partial solar eclipse was visible […]

January 02, 2025
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January’s Night Sky Notes: The Red Planet

Have you looked up at the night sky this season and noticed a bright object sporting a reddish hue to the left of Orion? This is none other than the planet Mars! January will be an excellent opportunity to spot this planet and some of its details with a medium-sized telescope. Be sure to catch these three events this month.

January 01, 2025
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NPR News: DNA reveals secrets of Australia's elusive marsupial mole

DNA reveals secrets of Australia's elusive marsupial mole
Researchers have probed the genetics of one of Australia's most elusory animals, the marsupial mole.

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NPR News: A plan to save one owl species at the expensive of another divides activists

A plan to save one owl species at the expensive of another divides activists
This summer, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service approved a plan to kill thousands of invasive barred owls in the Pacific Northwest. A lawsuit may hold up broader implementation.

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NPR News: Scientists have learned secrets of Australia's marsupial mole

Scientists have learned secrets of Australia's marsupial mole
Researchers have probed the genetics of one of Australia's most elusive animals, the marsupial mole.

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Wednesday, January 1, 2025

NPR News: Look up! Here's what's to watch for in space in 2025

Look up! Here's what's to watch for in space in 2025
In the New Year, there will be supermoons, meteor showers and other exciting celestial events.

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NPR News: Zero is a young number in human history. How do our brains understand it?

Zero is a young number in human history. How do our brains understand it?
Happy New Year, Short Wavers! What better time to contemplate the conundrum that is zero than this, the reset of the year? Zero is a fairly new concept in human history and even more recent as a number. It wasn't until around the 7th century that zero was being used as a number. That's when it showed up in the records of Indian mathematicians. Since then, zero has, at times, been met with some fear — at one point, the city of Florence, Italy banned the number. Today, scientists seek to understand how much humans truly comprehend zero — and why it seems to be different from other numbers. That's how we ended up talking to science writer Yasemin Saplakoglu about the neuroscience of this number that means nothing. Read more of Yasemin's reporting on zero for Quanta Magazine. Plus, check out our episode on why big numbers break our brains. Thirst for more math episodes? Let us know what kind of stories you want to hear from us in 2025 by emailing 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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