Short Wave

This week marks the 100th anniversary of the Scopes "Monkey Trial" — where a teacher was charged with the crime of teaching Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection. At the time, it was illegal in Tennessee [https://sharetngov.tnsosfiles.com/tsla/exhibits/scopes/images/Butler%20Act.pdf] to "teach any theory that denies the story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible, and to teach instead that man has descended from a lower order of animals." The trial, which was orchestrated to be a media spectacle, foreshadowed the cultural divisions that continue today and led to a backlash against proponents of evolution. Read more [https://www.npr.org/2025/07/08/nx-s1-5430760/evolution-scopes-creationism-monkey-trial] of science correspondent Nell Greenfieldboyce's [https://www.npr.org/people/4494969/nell-greenfieldboyce] reporting on the story. Want us to cover more science history? Less? Either way, tell us by emailing shortwave@npr.org [shortwave@npr.org]! We'd love to know what you're hearing — and want to hear from us! 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 [http://plus.npr.org/shortwave]. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices [https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices] NPR Privacy Policy [https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy]

Short Wave producer Hannah Chinn [https://www.npr.org/people/g-s1-4958/hannah-chinn] has adult-onset eczema. They're not the only one. Up to ten percent of people in the United States have it, according to the National Eczema Association — and its prevalence is increasing. Despite its ubiquity, a lot about this skin condition remains a mystery. So today, Hannah's getting answers. In this encore episode, they sat down with Raj Fadadu [https://med.stanford.edu/profiles/raj-fadadu], a dermatologist at the University of California, San Diego, to ask: What is eczema? What triggers it in the first place? And might climate change make it worse sometimes? If you liked this episode, check out our episode on the science of itchiness [https://www.npr.org/2023/09/25/1198908044/itch-hives-eczema-scratch]. Also, follow us! That way you never miss another episode. Interested in hearing more about climate change and human health? Email us at shortwave@npr.org [shortwave@npr.org] — we'd love to hear your feedback! 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 [http://plus.npr.org/shortwave]. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices [https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices] NPR Privacy Policy [https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy]

A warming climate doesn't just affect dry land — it affects the ocean, too. For years, Earth's ocean has acted as a heat sink for climate change: A large part of the heat generated by human use of fossil fuels is being absorbed by the ocean. And while the deep sea is largely unaffected by this heat absorption, oceanographers have discovered that the upper ocean currents are accelerating. That acceleration has the potential for huge knock-on effects, including sea level rise, changing fish migration cycles, shifting storm patterns, and more. This is the first episode of Sea Camp [https://www.npr.org/series/g-s1-75877/short-wave-sea-camp], Short Wave's summer series exploring the intriguing and otherworldly depths of the ocean. Follow us every Monday through August as we travel from the sunlit zone to the sea floor. Interested in more stories about the ocean? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org [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 [http://plus.npr.org/shortwave]. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices [https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices] NPR Privacy Policy [https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy]

Happy Independence Day, Short Wavers! Do you have plans outdoors this weekend and want to figure out just how swampy it's gonna feel? For that kind of mental preparation, we're revisiting an episode in which some meteorologists are telling us to pay more attention to dew point temperature, not relative humidity. Interested in more weather episodes? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org [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 [http://plus.npr.org/shortwave]. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices [https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices] NPR Privacy Policy [https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy]

The Andromeda galaxy [https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/nasas-chandra-shares-a-new-view-of-our-galactic-neighbor/] lies just beyond (...OK, about 2.5 million light-years beyond) our galaxy, the Milky Way. For the past hundred years or so, scientists thought these galaxies existed in a long-term dance of doom — destined to crash into one another and combine into one big galactic soup. But today on the show, Regina [https://www.npr.org/people/1082526815/regina-g-barber] and computational astrophysicist Arpit Arora [https://astro.washington.edu/people/arpit-arora] explain why a recent paper out in the journal Nature Astronomy [https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-025-02563-1]suggests this cosmic game of bumper cars may never come to a head at all. Interested in more space episodes? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org [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 [http://plus.npr.org/shortwave]. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices [https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices] NPR Privacy Policy [https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy]