Science Magazine Podcast

A headless mystery, and a deep dive on dog research

First up on the podcast: the mysterious fate of Europe’s Neolithic farmers [/doi/10.1126/science.zm6a4qc]. They arrived from Anatolia around 5500 B.C.E. and began farming fertile land across Europe. Five hundred years later, their buildings, cemeteries, and pottery stopped showing up in the archaeological record, and mass graves with headless bodies started to appear across the continent. Contributing Correspondent Andrew Curry talks with host Sarah Crespi about what this strange transition might mean. Next on the show, Editor for Life Sciences Sacha Vignieri discusses recent dog research published in Science, including tracing the movement of dogs alongside ancient human populations [/doi/10.1126/science.adu2836], examining when dogs first diversified [/doi/10.1126/science.adt0995], and probing the relationship between modern dogs’ breeds and their dispositions [/doi/10.1126/science.abk0639]. This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy [https://podigy.co/]. About the Science Podcast [/content/page/about-science-podcast] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

Solving the ‘golfer’s curse’ and using space as a heat sink

First up on the podcast, Online News Editor David Grimm joins host Sarah Crespi for a rundown of online news stories. They talk about lichen that dine on dino bones [/content/article/organism-turns-dino-bones-orange-making-them-easier-spot], the physics of the lip-out problem in golf [/content/article/have-physicists-finally-solved-golfer-s-curse], and a brain-computer interface that can decode a tonal language [/content/article/researchers-decode-mandarin-chinese-neural-signals] (Chinese) from brain waves. Next on the show, Jeremy Munday [https://ece.ucdavis.edu/directory/jeremy-munday], a professor of electrical and computer engineering at University of California, Davis, talks about generating mechanical power [/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adw6833] using a heat engine aimed at the night sky. Heat engines typically generate power by harnessing a temperature difference between two things—but by using space as the cold part and the ground as the warm part, Munday’s device can generate energy at night. This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy [https://podigy.co/]. About the Science Podcast [/content/page/about-science-podcast] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

Understanding early Amazon communities and saving the endangered pocket mouse

First up on the podcast, Contributing Correspondent Sofia Moutinho visited the Xingu Indigenous territory in Brazil to learn about a long-standing collaboration between scientists and the Kuikuro to better understand early Amazon communities [/doi/10.1126/science.zta8p9m]. Next on the show, we visit the Pacific pocket mouse recovery program at the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance to talk with researchers about the tricky process of increasing genetic diversity in an endangered species [/doi/10.1126/science.adn4666]. Researcher Aryn Wilder [https://science.sandiegozoo.org/staff/aryn-wilder-phd] talks about a long-term project to interbreed mice from isolated populations in order to add more genetic diversity across the species—despite a mismatch in chromosome numbers between some of the groups. Debra Shier [https://science.sandiegozoo.org/debra-shier-phd], associate director of the recovery ecology program at the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, takes us on a tour of the breeding facility. This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy [https://podigy.co/]. About the Science Podcast [/content/page/about-science-podcast] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

Detecting the acidity of the ocean with sound, the role of lead in human evolution, and how the universe ends

First up on the podcast, increased carbon dioxide emissions sink more acidity into the ocean, but checking pH all over the world, up and down the water column, is incredibly challenging. Staff Writer Paul Voosen joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss a technique that takes advantage of how sound moves through the water [/doi/10.1126/science.z5vgjj5] to detect ocean acidification. Next on the show, we visit the lab of University of California San Diego professor Alysson Muotri [https://pediatrics.ucsd.edu/research/faculty-labs/muotri-lab/index.html] at the Sanford Consortium [https://www.sanfordconsortium.org/], where he grows human brain organoids—multicellular structures that function like underdeveloped brains. Muotri used organoids to compare a protein that appears to be protective in human brains against the effects of lead toxicity with the archaic version of the protein that was present in our extinct cousins, like Denisovans and Neanderthals. His work suggests lead exposure differently affected our ancestors [/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adr1524] and our archaic cousins, possibly helping us survive to the present day. Finally, stay tuned for the last in our six-part series on books exploring the science of death. This month, host Angela Saini talks with astrophysicist Katie Mack [https://www.astrokatie.com/] about how the universe might end and her 2021 book The End of Everything: (Astrophysically Speaking) [https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-end-of-everything-astrophysically-speaking-katie-mack/15495266?ean=9781982103552]. This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy [https://podigy.co/]. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

The contagious buzz of bumble bee positivity, and when snow crabs vanish

First up on the podcast, the Bering Sea’s snow crabs are bouncing back after a 50-billion-crab die-off in 2020, but scientists are racing to predict what’s going to happen to this important fishery [/doi/10.1126/science.zcrxlfa]. Contributing Correspondent Warren Cornwall joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss what’s next for snow crabs. Next on the show, freelance producer Elah Feder talks with Fei Peng [https://portal.smu.edu.cn/bsbiien/info/1015/1251.htm], a professor in the department of psychology in the School of Public Health at Southern Medical University in Guangzhou, China, and principal investigator at the Great Bay Area Brain Science and Brain Inspired Research Center, about detecting emotions—or more scientifically “affect”—in bumble bees. His group observed how a bumble bee that appears to be hopeful [/doi/10.1126/science.adr0216] can share this state with other bees. This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy [https://podigy.co/]. About the Science Podcast [/content/page/about-science-podcast] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]