Science Friday Archives - browsing recent stories

International Space Station following most recent upgrade. Credit: STS-119 Shuttle Crew, NASA.

Exosolar Planet Update: We'll hear about new work in the field of discovering exosolar planets -- including research that used the Hubble Space Telescope to take optical images of a planet orbiting a star some 25 light years away. (first broadcast Friday, November 14, 2008)

Statins as Preventative Medicine?: Should statin drugs be given as preventative medicine to help reduce heart problems? (first broadcast Friday, November 14, 2008)

Researchers Discover How Bleach Disinfects: Bleach is commonly used as a disinfectant -- but now, for the first time, researchers have described just how bleach works to kill bacteria. (first broadcast Friday, November 14, 2008)

Music and Cardiovascular Health: Can your music playlist affect your cardiovascular health? (first broadcast Friday, November 14, 2008)

Jane Goodall: In this segment, Ira talks with primatologist and anthropologist Jane Goodall about her work in studying chimpanzees, preserving habitats, and what lies ahead for the field of evolutionary science. (first broadcast Friday, November 14, 2008)

Vitamin B3 and Alzheimers: In this segment, we'll hear about new research looking at ways to slow the effects of Alzheimer's. (first broadcast Friday, November 7, 2008)

Cancer Genome Sequenced: Researchers studying the genetics of cancer have sequenced the complete cancer genome of a person with acute myeloid leukemia. We'll talk with one of the scientists on the project about the work and what researchers hope to learn from the experiments. (first broadcast Friday, November 7, 2008)

Diabetes Research News: In this segment, we'll get the latest on efforts to control Type 2 diabetes. (first broadcast Friday, November 7, 2008)

New Renewable Energy Journal: Renewable energy is a hot topic in the popular press these days -- and now there's a new journal dealing specifically with the science of renewable energy. We'll talk with one of its founders. (first broadcast Friday, November 7, 2008)

Synthetic Biology Competition: We'll get a sneak preview of a competition taking place this weekend at MIT in which high school students and undergraduate teams show off their skills at engineering biological machines. (first broadcast Friday, November 7, 2008)

Science Challenges for the Next Administration: Now that the election is over, President-elect Obama is beginning to assemble his transition team. In this segment, we'll talk about the key science-related issues facing the Obama administration, from energy policy to health care. (first broadcast Friday, November 7, 2008)

The Secret of The Mummy's DNA: We'll get a Halloween-day look at new DNA analysis of Oetzi, a mummified man from 5300 years ago who was discovered in a melting glacier in the Italian Alps. (first broadcast Friday, October 31, 2008)

Stem Cell Research and the Election: In this segment, we'll talk about the stance of the Presidential candidates on the issue of human stem cell research. Plus, stem cells as a state election issue. (first broadcast Friday, October 31, 2008)

Mercury Flyby Results: This week NASA released data from a recent close flyby of the planet Mercury, including stunning new pictures. We'll talk with one of the researchers on the MESSENGER mission about what they found during the flyby. (first broadcast Friday, October 31, 2008)