Science Friday Archives - browsing recent stories

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

New Research Sheds Light On Placebo Effect: What happens in the brain when you take a placebo? (first broadcast Friday, August 3, 2007)

New Frontiers In Wireless Energy Transfer: Move over Tesla - wireless energy transfer is making a move. (first broadcast Friday, August 3, 2007)

Small And Unsafe? Concerns About Nanotechnology: How safe are nanoscale materials -- and how strong are the regulations that cover them? (first broadcast Friday, August 3, 2007)

NASA Plagued By Reports Of Intoxication, Sabotage: NASA is investigating pre-flight alcohol use among its astronaut corps. (first broadcast Friday, July 27, 2007)

Mars Rovers Battle Storms On The Red Planet: In this segment, guest host Joe Palca checks in on the Mars rovers, and gets a preview of the Mars Phoenix mission. (first broadcast Friday, July 27, 2007)

Drawing The Line Between Science And Politics: (first broadcast Friday, July 27, 2007)

The Future Of Fast-acting Depression Medication: Researchers think that studying the actions of ananaesthetic could lead to better, faster-acting antidepression medications. (first broadcast Friday, July 27, 2007)

Computer Program Yields Clues About Baby Talk: Researchers create a computer program that learns parts of language in a way similar to the way infants learn. (first broadcast Friday, July 27, 2007)

Protecting Privacy In A Web-searching World: A look at search engines--how they work and where they are headed. (first broadcast Friday, July 27, 2007)

Scientists Scour Genome For Clues About Disease: New technology in genetics has allowed researchers to sift through the human genome looking for possible genetic connections to all types of diseases. (first broadcast Friday, July 20, 2007)

Researchers Solve Checkers, Once And For All: Researchers report in the journal Science this week that after sorting through 500 billion billion possible moves, they've been able to create a computer program that will never lose a game of checkers. (first broadcast Friday, July 20, 2007)

Why It's Hard To Admit To Being Wrong: Do you have a hard time admitting you were wrong? Turns out it's really not your fault. (first broadcast Friday, July 20, 2007)

How To Pick The Perfect Peach: We'll look at finding the best produce and why picking a juicy peach can be a challenge. (first broadcast Friday, July 20, 2007)

25 Years Of Computer Viruses: We'll look back on twenty-five years of computer viruses. (first broadcast Friday, July 13, 2007)