Short Wave

Micro forests: an emerging climate hero?

Healthy forests help combat climate change, provide humans with drinking water and even improve mental and physical health. But it’s hard to imagine an entire forest in the middle of a big city. That’s where micro-forests come into play — public forests on a smaller scale, filled with native plants. They exist around the world, and producer Rachel Carlson [https://www.npr.org/people/1112796909/rachel-carlson] went to visit the largest micro-forest in California. She joins host Emily Kwong [https://www.npr.org/people/767284140/emily-kwong] to chat about what she saw.  Interested in more of the science behind urban nature? 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]

Behold a T-Rex holotype, paleontology's "gold standard"

What happens behind the scenes of a dinosaur exhibit? Short Wave host Regina Barber got to find out … by taking a trip to the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh. In the museum’s basement, she talked to a paleobiologist, checked out a farmland fossil find and even touched a 67 million-year-old bone. Because, as it turns out, there’s a lot of science that can be found in a museum basement. Learn more about the Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s exhibit “The Stories We Keep [https://carnegiemnh.org/explore/stories-we-keep-pittsburgh/]”. Interested in more archaeology and dino-related science? 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]

Did Earth’s Water Come From Space?

Choose your fighter for the origin of water on Earth! Was it always here or did it come to this planet from somewhere else in space? And, either way, what does this mean for other water worlds in our galaxy? To find out, we talk with Michael Wong [https://carnegiescience.edu/dr-michael-l-wong], an astrobiologist and planetary scientist at Carnegie Science. He gets into scientists’ strongest candidates for the ways water could have come to our planet many, many years ago – including whether it could have been made here. Buckle up: This is a hot debate in astrobiology right now. If you enjoyed this episode, check out our Space Camp [https://www.npr.org/series/g-s1-3299/short-wave-space-camp] series and our episode on whether life started on the ocean floor [https://www.npr.org/2025/08/11/nx-s1-5495449/life-space-moon-ocean-hydrothermal-vents].. Interested in more space science and more unresolved hypotheses about how the universe came to be how it is today? 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 trouble of zero

What better time to contemplate the conundrum that is zero than the start of a new 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 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 [https://www.yaseminsaplakoglu.com/] in this encore episode about the neuroscience of this number that means nothing. Read more [https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-the-human-brain-contends-with-the-strangeness-of-zero-20241018/] of Yasemin's reporting on zero for Quanta Magazine. Plus, check out [https://www.npr.org/2024/01/03/1198909057/brain-struggles-big-numbers-neuroscience] our episode on why big numbers break our brains. Interested in more math episodes? Let us know what kind of stories you want to hear from us in 2026 by emailing 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]

Science In 2025 Took A Hit. What Does It Mean?

Science in the United States took some big hits this year. The Trump Administration disrupted federal funding for all kinds of scientific pursuits. Administration officials say those changes were a step towards reinvigorating federal agencies like the National Institutes of Health. But many scientists disagree. NPR health and science correspondents Rob Stein [https://www.npr.org/people/146944972/rob-stein] and Katia Riddle [https://www.npr.org/people/1128948946/katia-riddle] chat with host Emily Kwong [https://www.npr.org/people/767284140/emily-kwong] about what these cuts could mean for the future of science. Interested in more stories on the future of science? 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]