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May 9, 2025
Some car designers are turning from touchscreen controls back to physical buttons. Two researchers explain why that could be better. Plus, geneticists used CRISPR gene editing to grow bigger fruits without sacrificing flavor. And, an executive order could change the political tides for deep sea mining.
26:41
Is Football Bad for Your Brain?
Concern about the long-term repercussions of football are on the rise due to cases of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE.
06:26
The Science Club Tackles a Communications Challenge
This season’s Science Club project asks you to invent your own communications device.
12:08
Red Meat Ruckus, Electrifying Eels, and Sugar Overload
Science writer Ed Yong deciphers the WHO’s red meat announcement and explains how electric eels immobilize prey.
26:29
Monster Microbiome Mash
Just in time for Halloween, scientists Rob Dunn and Amanda Hale imagine what the microbiomes of werewolves, vampires, and other monsters might entail.
07:10
Sniffing Out Warnings From the Scent of Death
Researchers suggest that putrescine—a compound found in corpses—can trigger our defensive responses.
17:42
Discovering the Brain’s Ghoulish Glitches
Science writer Sam Kean discusses some of the brain’s most ghoulish glitches and what they can teach us about how healthy brains operate.
21:59
Spider Stories That’ll Stick With You
Cannibalism. Bondage. An offering of flesh. Spiders have weird (and wonderful) ways of enticing and entertaining their mates.
05:31
Diary of a Snake Bite Death
This week’s Macroscope video follows the detailed diary of herpetologist Karl P. Schmidt as he was dying from the venom of a snake bite.
12:08
Sexually-Transmitted Ebola, Space Mining, and Cashless Countries
The public health implications of sexually transmitted Ebola and the move toward cashless societies.
17:24
Did Dark Matter Doom the Dinosaurs?
Physicist Lisa Randall explores the theory that a disc of dark matter could have been responsible for the catastrophic collision that extinguished the dinosaurs.