Boo!
A Halloween Monster Mashup, And A Spooky Lakes Tour
Tales of the amazing capabilities of bats, spiders, and snakes. Plus, a guided tour of some of the world’s spookiest lakes.
9:14
Bats Use Death Metal ‘Growls’ To Make Social Calls
A recent study reveals that bats are able to extend their vocal range to seven octaves, which may prove useful for social communication.
12:00
Inside The ‘Creepy’ Procedure That Taps Into Young Blood
To find out how blood affects aging, scientists can surgically connect two animals and let blood circulate between them.
9:01
Protecting The ‘Satan’ Tarantula and Other Lovable Giant Spiders
A team of scientists in Ecuador is on a mission to describe new-to-science tarantula species to help secure conservation protections.
How Poisons Have Shaped Life On Earth
Poisons fill our pantries and gardens. The new book ‘Most Delicious Poison’ explores how common toxins have shaped life on Earth.
17:34
A Mortician’s Search For ‘The Good Death’
Caitlin Doughty traveled the world to document how different cultures deal with their dead. Now, she challenges us to develop a better relationship with mortality.
Welcome To The Bone Room
Biologist and functional morphologist Steve Huskey has nothing to hide, despite the hundreds of skeletons in his closet.
The Rare, Native Species Haunting The Appalachian Mountains
While you dressed up as a witch or zombie this Halloween, these North Carolinians took the form of something much scarier: local species at risk.
17:22
Vampire Bats Just Want To Be Friends
They’re creepy and they’re kooky… and also pretty cute. Meet the newest entry to our Charismatic Creature Corner.
The Marvelous, Misunderstood Lives Of Common Spiders
These eight-legged crawlers have an unnecessarily bad rap.
Hotel Nematoda
To study human aging, researchers devised a place where worms can check out but never leave.
17:05
Behind the Monster Music: Why Some Tunes Scare Us
Neuroscientist Daniel Levitin and Sound Opinions co-host Jim DeRogatis discuss the neuroscience of spooky songs.
From The Flame To Eternity
Author Caitlin Doughty recounts the spiritual and “transformative” ceremony of a funeral pyre in a Colorado town.
7:48
Farmers Ditch The Scarecrow, Bring Out The Big (Laser) Guns
A blueberry farm in Oregon turns to a high-tech trick to ward off birds from eating crops.
17:33
In Defense Of Spiders
Two scientists want you to stop worrying and love spiders.
17:34
A Haunted House Turned Scientists’ Lab
Scientists turn Pittsburgh’s ScareHouse into a real-world lab to discover why some brains thrive on fear.
Creature Double Feature: Zombies and Bloodsuckers
Witness two tales that will make your skin crawl and your mind reel with fear and curiosity.
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.
Don’t Be Scared Of These ‘Dead Man’s Fingers’
These protrusions might look spooky, but they’re just the fruiting bodies of a wood decay fungus.
8:23
Why Do Screams Make You Shudder?
Human screams have a unique audio quality not found in other types of speech.
Geek My Pumpkin
Maniac Pumpkin Carvers Marc and Chris carve hundreds of pumpkins each fall, which go for a few hundred bucks and rarely end up on stoops. They gave us some tips for how to bring our pumpkins to the next level this Halloween.
Candy Corn In Space
Astronauts are allowed to bring special “crew preference” items when they go up in space. NASA astronaut Don Pettit chose candy corn.
11:33
Doctors ‘Unwrap’ a 3,000-Year-Old Mummy
Radiologists use CT scans to piece together the life, and death, of Egyptian mummies.
Smelly Bats
A fun game for Halloween that demonstrates diffusion and the properties of stretchy polymers using rubber gloves and flavor extracts.
Death Under Glass
An exhibit at Philadelphia’s Mütter Museum offers a peek through a forensic pathologist’s microscope.
What Can We Learn From On-Screen Psychopaths?
Few psychopaths who terrorize the big screen could pass a reality check, but those who do can be used as teaching tools for aspiring psychiatrists.
To The Bat Cave!
Bat biologist Nickolay Hristov, of UNC’s Center for Design Innovation and Winston-Salem State University, develops new techniques for filming and visualizing bats.
Physics Of Giant Pumpkins
Pumpkins of the Atlantic giant variety can weigh more than 1,800 pounds.
Monster Microbiology, 101
If werewolves and other ghouls existed, they’d surely have microbiomes.
Mavericks Of The Bat World
Mexican free-tailed bats engage in aerial acrobatics reminiscent of the jet maneuvers in “Top Gun.”
Gift Of The Mummy
A patient more than 3,000 years-old takes a turn through a CT scanner.
Medusa’s Gaze and Vampire’s Bite
Think monsters are make-believe? In his new book, science journalist Matt Kaplan writes of real-life zombies in Haiti, and how rabies infection could explain the vampire’s aversion to garlic and sunlight.
‘Monster In A Barrel,’ And Other Haunting Ocean Drifters
Some predatory plankton appear innocent enough—until they go in for the kill.
23:13
Do Or DIY This Halloween
Green fire, magic mirrors, fiber optic fairy wings—just a few of the ways to geek out this Halloween with do-it-yourself projects.
25:03
The Science Behind Cryptid Sightings
The existence of sea serpents and Bigfoot might never be proved. But a cryptozoologist explains why understanding their appeal is still important.