SciFri Radio: Insects

SciFri Radio: Batter Up!
Ira and guests talk about the physics and materials science that go into one of the symbols of summer -- the baseball bat.

SciFri Radio: Tiny Beetle, Big Impact
An increase in the numbers of mountain pine beetles feeding on trees in Canada could turn the carbon-sink forests into greenhouse gas liabilities....

SciFri Radio: Monarch Migration Molecular Mechanism
What drives monarch butterflies to undertake a mass migration, traveling thousands of miles to pine groves in Mexico?

Particles of Science

Berry Power

New research explains why cranberry juice may ward off urinary tract infections. The berry beverage was shown to prevent disease-causing bacteria from attaching to urinary tract cells in the body.

This Just In

Baseball players beware: Maple baseball bats do not out-perform ash bats at the plate, according to SciFri's baseball bat experts Brian Boltz and Lloyd Smith. Ash bats wear down differently than maple--but neither bat hits the ball farther. Listen

Tweets from Mars

Mars addict? Read the latest mini-updates from the Mars Phoenix Lander through Twitter. Get your fix here.

Talking about Climate

Montclair State University hosted a panel called "The Environment and Sustainability, the Next 100 Years"--watch Ira, Michael Oppenheimer and others sound off on climate change.

SciFri Newsbriefs: Insects

Newsbrief: The Secret to Whiter Whites? Ask this Beetle
This beetle outshines teeth and milk.

Newsbrief: Feeling Feverish? Sit Still
Viruses evolve differently depending on how free their hosts are to move and mingle.

Newsbrief: Sounds Appetizing
Termites use sound to determine what's for dinner.

Newsbrief: Killing Disease with Bugs
One proposed method to fight malaria is to modify the genes of the mosquitoes that carry the disease.

Newsbrief: Good Eating
The amount of methylmercury in freshwater fish may be linked to how fast the water fleas are growing.

Newsbrief: A Recipe for Spider Silk, But Who Will Spin It?
The ingredients in black widow's silk may explain why it is so tough.

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SciFri Videos: Insects

Video: Milking a Spider
Ever wondered how to milk a spider? In this video, Dr. Greta Binford, a researcher at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon, extracts venom...

Video: Attack of the Ladybugs
Genzyme Center is "Platinum"-certified building by the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Green Building Rating System: this is...

Video: Where Do Bees Do Their Business?
Beekeeper Sarah Christman explains what happens in a honeybee hive during the winter. Christman is the Milwaukee operations manager for

Video: The Grasshopper Bot
Researchers built a new bot that can jump 27 times its own height. That's a world record.

Video: Little Beetle, Big Trouble
A tiny invasive beetle is on the march. It's moving into Pennsylvania, which is bad for baseball. Most ash baseball bats come from wood grown in...

Featured Video: Turning Carbon Dioxide into Stone
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Cover image courtesy of Shiny Things/flickr. Filmed and produced by Flora Lichtman.

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Blogs

SciFri Social Community? -- Should SciFri create it's own social community? We on the mother ship have been talking about whether we should create our own social community, of a form or type to be yet determined... (more)