Accessibility links
Science The latest health and science news. Updates on medicine, healthy living, nutrition, drugs, diet, and advances in science and technology. Subscribe to the Health & Science podcast.

Science

Wednesday

Europe

U.K. Panel Mostly Vindicates Climate Scientists

A British parliamentary committee has released the first official report into the theft of e-mails from a leading climate research center last year. The panel said the unit had a culture of withholding information from global warming skeptics, but did not deliberately manipulate data to support its case.

U.K. Panel Mostly Vindicates Climate Scientists

Listen · 2:01
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/125420265/125421427" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Obama Ends Ban On East Coast Offshore Drilling

The Discoverer Deep Seas drill ship sits off the Louisiana coast in the Gulf of Mexico in this 2006 photo. President Obama's plan expands eastward the area of the Gulf where drilling is already permitted. Alex Brandon/AP hide caption

toggle caption
Alex Brandon/AP

Energy

Obama Ends Ban On East Coast Offshore Drilling

The president announces policy changes that would allow drilling on tracts as close as 50 miles to the Virginia shore, and end a longstanding moratorium on drilling from Delaware to Florida. Exploration in the Gulf of Mexico would be expanded eastward, and swaths north of Alaska would be opened up.

Tuesday

Law

Gene Ruling Could Have Wide Implications

A judge has struck down a company's patents on two genes linked to an increased risk of breast and ovarian cancer. The ruling has far-reaching implications for the patenting of human genes. If upheld, it could affect the biotechnology industry and genetics-based medical research.

Gene Ruling Could Have Wide Implications

Listen · 3:35
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/125361332/125361317" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Atom Smasher Sets New Record

The world's largest atom smasher set a new record Tuesday. Physicists in Switzerland collided atomic particles at velocities close to the speed of light to create mini-versions of the Big Bang that gave birth to the universe.

Atom Smasher Sets New Record

Listen · 3:23
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/125361356/125362183" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
'Big Bang Machine' Smashes Energy Record

Scientists at the Large Hadron Collider near Geneva celebrate after the particle accelerator started smashing protons at record energies earlier today. Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images

'Big Bang Machine' Smashes Energy Record

Scientists in Geneva celebrated early Tuesday as the Large Hadron Collider started making subatomic particles collide head-on at record-breaking energies. Scientists hope that the massive particle accelerator will help answer some of the big questions of the universe.

Underwater Technology Searches For Missing Flight

Ten months have passed since Air France flight 447 crashed mysteriously in the Atlantic, killing all 228 people aboard. The black boxes were never found and the search abandoned. For the next month, scientists will conduct an unprecedented search using the latest underwater technology.

Underwater Technology Searches For Missing Flight

Listen · 3:29
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/125337598/125337713" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

World's Largest Atom Smasher Breaks Record

Scientists are celebrating after the Large Hadron Collider started making atomic particles head-on at record-breaking energies. The $10 billion experiment straddles the Swiss-French border and has been 15 years in the making. Its job is to probe some of the most basic questions about our universe.

World's Largest Atom Smasher Breaks Record

Listen · 3:54
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/125337602/125337715" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Seeing Impostors: When Loved Ones Suddenly Aren't

Magritte's 1964 painting The Intimate Newspaper gets us thinking: Who is this? A familiar friend or a complete stranger? Rene Magritte/Corbis hide caption

toggle caption
Rene Magritte/Corbis

Radiolab

Seeing Impostors: When Loved Ones Suddenly Aren't

Two different patients. Two different stories. But a shared delusion. Each is convinced that someone they love dearly is >not that person, but an impostor. A curious disorder known as Capgras delusion involves the distinct feeling that the people around you have been replaced. And no one is certain what causes it.

Seeing Impostors: When Loved Ones Suddenly Aren't

Listen
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/124745692/125337723" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Monday

Study Narrows Gap Between Mind And Brain

Scientists altered people's perceptions of right and wrong by applying magnetic stimulation to the brain. The study is part of a larger effort by scientists to explain the mechanics of how the brain makes moral judgments. iStockphoto.com hide caption

toggle caption
iStockphoto.com

Research News

Study Narrows Gap Between Mind And Brain

Researchers were able to alter people's perceptions of right and wrong by applying magnetic stimulation to the brain. The new study is part of a larger effort by scientists to provide a mechanical explanation for how the brain makes moral judgments.

Study Narrows Gap Between Mind And Brain

Listen · 4:00
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/125304448/125319731" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Trailblazing Black Scientist Encourages Women To Follow Suit

Host Michel Martin speaks with Shirley Jackson — president of Rennselaer Polytechnic Institute — and the two discuss being a woman in the male-dominated field. Jackson is the first African-American woman to run a top research university.

Trailblazing Black Scientist Encourages Women To Follow Suit

Listen · 13:37
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/125308305/125308289" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Sunday

Sea Lion Pups Starving Along California Shoreline

Scientists at the Pacific Marine Mammal Center started seeing an increase in starving sea lion pups last spring. Guy Raz/NPR. hide caption

toggle caption
Guy Raz/NPR.

Animals

Sea Lion Pups Starving Along California Shoreline

Scientists blame a strong El Nino tropical weather pattern, which is forcing the sea lions' natural food sources — squid, hake, herring and anchovies — to seek out cooler waters.

Sea Lion Pups Starving Along California Shoreline

Listen · 6:03
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/125280004/125282306" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

National

MIA Remains On Verge Of Disappearing Forever

HPR-1 News/Talk

The Joint POW/MIA Accountability Command at Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii, is racing against the clock to identify soldiers missing in action from the Vietnam War. There are 1,760 Vietnam soldiers missing in action, but after 40 years of monsoon weather, acidic soil and termites, those remains are disappearing, dimming the hope of aging family members who seek closure.

MIA Remains On Verge Of Disappearing Forever

Listen · 4:52
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/125274302/125274279" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Health Care

Health Care Polling Clearly Indicates Confusion

Health care legislation was signed last week, but the shouting continues. Are polling results showing the majority of Americans don't support the health care bill accurate? Host Liane Hansen talks to Frank Newport, editor-in-chief of Gallup, about this week's USA Today/Gallup poll showing growing support for the health care law.

Health Care Polling Clearly Indicates Confusion

Listen · 3:29
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/125274292/125274277" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Environment

Curiosity Rises With Trees' Strange Growth Spurt

About an hour east of Washington, D.C., there's a forest where trees are suddenly growing much faster than ever before –- some of them even twice as fast. Could climate change be the reason?

Curiosity Rises With Trees' Strange Growth Spurt

Listen · 5:20
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/125261271/125282304" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Saturday

Study: Psychopaths' Brains Wired To Seek Rewards

Scientists have long known what psychopaths lack: emotions like empathy, fear and remorse. Now, a new study focuses on what they may have — a brain abnormality that may lead them to seek rewards like money, sex or fame at any cost.

Study: Psychopaths' Brains Wired To Seek Rewards

Listen · 4:19
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/125231137/125260595" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript