Cracking color vision, U.S. science policy changes, and a trailblazing biography

Cracking color vision, U.S. science policy changes, and a trailblazing biography

First up on the podcast, ScienceInsider editor Jocelyn Kaiser joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss big policy stories from the past month, including a proposal from President Donald Trump’s administration to increase the involvement of politicians in grantmaking. Next on the show, Science Senior Editor Michael Funk joins to discuss a trio of papers on the light-detecting proteins responsible for color vision. 1. Ohashi et al., Science 2026 [https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adz3996] 2. Peng et al., Science 2026 [https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adz8141] 3. Schmidt et al., Science 2026 [https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adz3624] Finally, in our books segment for this month, host Angela Saini talks with science writer Georgina Ferry, who wrote a biography about crystallographer Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin [https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/dorothy-crowfoot-hodgkin-patterns-proteins-and-peace-a-life-in-science-georgina-ferry/205edf4aa10651cc?ean=9781448217601&next=t&], the first and only woman scientist from the United Kingdom to win a Nobel Prize. This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy [https://podigy.co/]. About the [/content/page/about-science-podcast]Science [/content/page/about-science-podcast] Podcast [/content/page/about-science-podcast] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

An electronic nose that detects spoiled chicken, and wolves make a spectacular comeback in Europe

First up on the podcast, wrangling wolves in Europe [https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.zk8ch0m]. After near extermination in much of the continent, wolf numbers have surged up to about 20,000 individuals. Contributing Correspondent Gretchen Vogel joins podcast host Sarah Crespi to discuss the conflicts that have risen as the wolf population grows. Next on the show, Ph.D. student Carla Bassil talks about designing an e-nose that can hone in on important food smells [https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aec7965] such as chicken that has gone bad or the presence of allergens including peanuts. Finally, in a sponsored segment from the Science/AAAS Custom Publishing Office, Erika Berg, director and senior editor of custom publishing, interviews professors Eimear Kenny [https://profiles.icahn.mssm.edu/eimear-kenny] and Alex Charney [https://profiles.icahn.mssm.edu/alexander-w-charney] about how genomic medicine, artificial intelligence, and large-scale sequencing are transforming the future of patient care. This segment is sponsored by the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai [https://icahn.mssm.edu/]. This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy [https://podigy.co/]. About the Science Podcast [https://www.science.org/content/page/about-science-podcast] Image credit: Lorenzo Shoubridge Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

How childhood environments shape the brain, and how susceptible is the Atlantic Ocean’s current to climate change?

First up on the podcast, producer Kevin McLean talks with Staff Writer Paul Voosen about the latest on the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, or AMOC. Researchers have long been concerned that global warming could cause a collapse in the AMOC, which would trigger dramatic cooling in Northern Europe. But recent data and models suggest the AMOC may be more resilient than previously thought [https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.zouk18z]. Next on the show, Scott Marek [https://www.mir.wustl.edu/employees/scott-marek/], assistant professor in the Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology at Washington University School of Medicine, talks with host Sarah Crespi about brainwide association studies (BWAS) for childhood brain development. BWAS measure structure and function across many brains and look for correlations between these measures and behavior, disease, and environment. In this work, Marek and colleagues focus on how socioeconomic factors—captured by zip code—are strongly correlated with certain brain differences in more than 4000 children ages 9.5 to 11. The work also suggests lack of sleep and excess screen time could mediate the influence of socioeconomic conditions [https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aee6213] on differences in brain structure and function. This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy [https://podigy.co/]. About the [https://www.science.org/content/page/about-science-podcast]Science [https://www.science.org/content/page/about-science-podcast] Podcast [https://www.science.org/content/page/about-science-podcast] Photo: P. Voosen/Science Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

Will AI replace astronomers, how healthy are ultraprocessed foods, and a peek behind the scenes of ‘The Normals’

First up on the podcast, freelance science journalist Joshua Sokol talks about the intense discussion happening in the astrophysics community as artificial intelligence and machine learning become increasingly powerful—could “astronomer” stop being a job one day [/doi/10.1126/science.zdk7655]? Next on the show, as the Trump administration makes moves to [/doi/10.1126/science.aef3495]regulate ultraprocessed foods [/doi/10.1126/science.aef3495], host Sarah Crespi talks with Faidon Magkos [https://researchprofiles.ku.dk/en/persons/faidon-magkos/], a professor in obesity and metabolism in the department of nutrition, exercise, and sports at the University of Copenhagen, about what studies say about their health effects. Finally this week, a behind-the-scenes look at our recent limited series “The normals.” Producer Kevin McLean talks about the experience of joining a study as a healthy subject, and Crespi talks about what didn’t make it into the episodes. Listen to “The normals” here [/topic/tags/normals]. This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy [https://podigy.co/].       About the [/content/page/about-science-podcast]Science [/content/page/about-science-podcast] Podcast [/content/page/about-science-podcast] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

Disembodied human brains, immortal bits of sea cucumber, and fame in Galileo’s time

First up on the podcast, a company is using whole brains [/content/article/not-alive-not-dead-disembodied-human-brains-used-drug-testing]—maintained with specialized life support—to study new drugs. Freelance science journalist Sara Reardon [https://www.sarareardon.com/] joins host Sarah Crespi to talk about the advantages and ethical considerations of keeping brains intact but inactive. Next on the show, when some lizards lose their tails, they might regenerate new ones. But what happens to the old tail? Whereas a castoff lizard tail quickly decomposes, this isn’t the case for the castoff tube feet of the sea cucumber, Psolus fabricii. Sara Miller Jobson [https://mercier-lab.ca/people.html], a Ph.D. student at the Memorial University of Newfoundland, describes how these “living” limbs healed after amputation and then survived for more than 3 years in just seawater [/doi/10.1126/sciadv.Aeb1394]. Their survival in such simple conditions, while maintaining a complex tissue with a functioning immune response, could make amputated tube feet a useful model system for studying regeneration. Finally this week, the first in our book series on science biographies. Books host Angela Saini talks with historian Anna-Luna Post [https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/staffmembers/anna-luna-post#tab-1] about her recent book, Galileo’s Fame: Science, Credibility, and Memory in the Seventeenth Century [https://bookshop.org/p/books/galileo-s-fame-science-credibility-and-memory-in-the-seventeenth-century-anna-luna-post/f4b093fb926f1351?ean=9780822948599&next=t&next=t], which explores how fame shaped the scientific fortunes of Galileo Galilei. This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy [https://podigy.co/]. About the [/content/page/about-science-podcast]Science [/content/page/about-science-podcast] Podcast [/content/page/about-science-podcast]   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]