Science

Is scientific research unbiased and objective, or have money and politics gotten in the way? We've seen a steady stream of books charging scientists with the inability to deliver unbiased information. Today we'll explore this question with science journalist and host of NPR's Science Friday Ira Flatow.

When a meteor exploded in the sky above Russia’s Ural mountains, damaging cities and injuring thousands, at first it seemed like an event out of a movie, about alien invasion or a nuclear attack - or the end of the world.

Ultimately - we learned that it was simply a natural phenomenon that occurs from time to time - if very rarely. But just how rare is this type of celestial visitor? And are we prepared for the risk?

It seemed this week that we were living in a Jonathan Franzen novel -- or maybe a collaboration between Franzen and his long-departed buddy David Foster Wallace. A cruise ship so impaired that passengers spent days pooping in bags. A flurry of accusations back and forth between a great newspaper and the inventor of an electric car.

The case for meditation is the state of the modern mind.

Attention deficit disorder. Post traumatic stress. Anxiety. Addiction. Hopelessness. Depression. Suicide. I could keep going. We're loading up on meds, many of which will not work for us.

 And then there's this other thing,  And it costs almost no money. A simple experiment will show you its benefits.

From a tattooed young woman in the Bay Area trying to splice a fish’s glow-in-the-dark gene into common yogurt (all done in her kitchen using salad spinners) to a space fanatic on the brink of developing the next generation of telescopes from his mobile home, Jack Hitt's Bunch of Amateurs not only tells the stories of people in the grip of a passion but argues that America’s history is bound up in a cycle of amateur surges. Hitt is our guest.

How much of the Christmas story is true?

Most scholars will tell you the December 25th date has much more to do with pagan festivals of the early Christian era. If you want people to celebrate something, pick a date when they're already celebrating.

The world’s most popular astrophysicist, Neil deGrasse Tyson, joins us in advance of his appearance at the Connecticut Forum on Saturday. Plus a look at Secret Sex Lives, Suzy Spencer’s year on the fringes of American sexuality.

The Grinch of dreaming is J. Allan Hobson.

OK, this is potentially one of our weirder shows. 

The obesity epidemic in the U.S. has left the medical community perplexed about how to get people to change their eating habits. Government is opting for public policy alterations like healthier school lunches. New York City has a new ban on selling large sodas or sugary beverages at restaurants and sports events.

But a Connecticut-based group is trying another way – literally giving people prescriptions for fruits and vegetables. And it seems to be working.

YG: "3, 4, 5 ,6, 7 ,8 ,9. Thank you very much. Have a great day."

Since 2006, much of the West has experienced unusually sharp declines in honeybee numbers, so much so that the unprecedented decline was given a name: Colony Collapse Disorder, a phenomenon where worker bees seem to simply vanish. While scientists ponder the reasons for the collapse of honeybees, fruit farmers face extra pressure to pollinate their crops. Now, a handful of researchers in the Northeast are proposing that fruit growers in Maine, New York, Massachusetts, and Connecticut might look to the lesser-known members of the bee family to take up the slack. 

Using high-speed video cameras, hoses, and a healthy dose of bravery, David Hu’s lab is studying the science behind how wet animals get dry.

Robert Hoyt dreams that one day the International Space Station (ISS) won’t need fuel to stay in orbit.

“When you consider that launching one kilogram into orbit costs about $20,000 and that the [International Space] Station needs something on the order of ten tons of propellant per year, that can add up to hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars over the lifetime of the station,” Mr. Hoyt said.

Connecticut wants to create a new bioscience hub in the state, attracting world-class scientists. But the state’s pharmaceutical industry has been cut back over the last decade and key parts of that workforce are leaving the state. As our series on education in science, technology, engineering and math continues, WNPR’s Aroosa Masroor looks at the difficulties of creating and retaining a scientific workforce in Connecticut.

State estimates say there may be as many as a thousand unfilled jobs in advanced manufacturing currently available in Connecticut. As our series continues on education in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math, we look at how the state is preparing the workers who will take this industry forward. WNPR’s Harriet Jones reports.

This is the precision manufacturing program at Asnuntuck Community College.

Connecticut’s Governor has staked a lot on reforming the state’s educational system. And a large part of the motivation is to provide a workforce literate in science, technology, engineering and math – the STEM skills. But the pace of technological change is getting quicker every year, and figuring out how to train workers for the high value industries of the 21st century is ever more challenging. This week on the business report we begin a series of reports on three industries vital to Connecticut’s future, and ask whether the state is living up to its reputation for a superior workforce.

After years of speculation, rumors, and whispers, we finally heard this week what we had long expected. The only problem is I can't tell whether I'm talking about the Higgs boson or Anderson Cooper.

Jack Hitt will speak at R.J. Julia Booksellers Thursday, May 17, at 7 p.m.

Today I got into a Twitter debate with a guy who thinks the press spends too much time covering candidates who aren't really legitimate contenders.

I'm on the other side of that these days. I told him I think anybody running should be invited to the debates.

Somewhere in the United States today, an envelope will arrive at a university math or science department, and in it will be some person's paradigm-shattering idea -- a novel theory that drastically violates or disrupts settled science.

The world is full of outsider physicists and rouge mathematicians. And, of course, one or two of them are basically correct about something. Einstein worked in a patent office. Michael Faraday did not have a university degree.

Does what we eat control our thoughts and feelings? After many studies, a neuroscientist says it's true.

While we're obsessed with keeping germs away, our go-to science guy, Carl Zimmer, says we and the planet are covered in viruses. Which ones are harmless and which can do us in?

Some 2400 high school students on 64 robot building teams gather at the Connecticut Convention Center today and tomorrow for the FIRST Regional robotics competition. FIRST stands for For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology. Joining us by phone this morning is one of the participants Dave Givens, he is a junior at Wolcott High School and a member of Team MAX.

If I tell you that today's show looks into the near future and sees a wave of new drugs and other therapies that can enhance moral behavior, maybe you'll tell me: enough with the science fiction. But in some ways, the drugs are already here.

Oxytocin, sometimes known as the love hormone, increases empathy and social bonding.  And oxytocin can already be taken -- for other reasons -- in nasal spray form.

  Women are severely under-represented in science and technology professions in Connecticut and across the nation. Each year, the Connecticut Technology Council aims to highlight the work of women who ARE making it in those fields, with its Women of Innovation Awards. WNPR’s Sarah Miner went along.

Deirdre Arcand is sophomore at Mercy High School in Middletown. She says even in her generation she still sometimes finds she’s a gender pioneer.