30 July 2010
Science Podcast: Dopamine and Impulsivity, Psychiatric-Drug Development, Your Letters [Listen to MP3] 
Highly impulsive individuals have fewer dopamine receptors in a key brain area; pharma starts limiting development of new drugs for central nervous system disorders; your Letters to Science; and more.(31 minutes)
[Transcript of this podcast]
23 July 2010
Science Podcast: HIV Prevention Progress; Dams in Patagonia; How Mosses Do Fluid Dynamics [Listen to MP3]
The first vaginal gel that can block HIV transmission; a plan to build dams in the Patagonian wilderness; Sphagnum mosses use an "air gun" to spread their spores; and more. (27 minutes)
[Transcript of this podcast]
19 July 2010
Science Podcast: Special -- HIV Prevention Advance [Listen to MP3]
A new paper marks the first unequivocal report of a vaginal gel that blocks transmission of the AIDS virus in a significant number of cases. (7 minutes)
[Transcript of this podcast]
16 July 2010
Science Podcast: Social Responsibility; Kidney Disease; Science in D.C. Schools [Listen to MP3]
Socially responsible pricing may allow consumers and businesses to benefit; a genetic variation that helps protect against African sleeping sickness may contribute to high rates of kidney disease; a new push to get scientists into the classroom; and more. (44 minutes)
[Transcript of this podcast]
9 July 2010
Science Podcast: HIV/AIDS; Parasite Adaptation; Synchronizing Fireflies [Listen to MP3]
An epidemic of HIV/AIDS in Eastern Europe even though treatment is becoming widely available; how a bacteria helps its host fight off a parasite; the flashing strategy of some species of fireflies helps them overcome a physiological problem; and more. (39 minutes)
[Transcript of this podcast]
2 July 2010
Science Podcast: Exceptional Longevity; Synthetic "Life"; Behavioral Epigenetics [Listen to MP3]
Genetic signatures of exceptional longevity in people; real and imagined concerns about synthetic "life" and the call for public discourse; epigenetic mechanisms alter gene activity in the brain and appear to affect behavior, too; and more. (39 minutes)
[Transcript of this podcast]
25 June 2010
Science Podcast: Tissue Engineered Lungs; Shale Gas; Your Letters [Listen to MP3]
Engineered lung tissue that can exchange gas in vivo; unlocking a storehouse of natural gas by fracing shale; your Letters to Science; and more. (37 minutes)
[Transcript of this podcast]
18 June 2010
Science Podcast: Swine Flu Changes; Ocean Noise; Violin Physics [Listen to MP3]
Swine flu is changing in swine; taking large ships' sounds into account when studying stresses on marine life; violinmakers take up the tools of science to study what makes great violins great. (38 minutes)
[Transcript of this podcast]
11 June 2010
Science Podcast: Regulating Altruism; Capture of the Sun's Oort Cloud; Beyond Kon Tiki [Listen to MP3]
Oxytocin regulates "in-group love" and "out-group aggression" in people; a substantial fraction of Oort cloud comets are from other stars; finding new evidence that Polynesians sailed to South America; and more. (37 minutes)
[Transcript of this podcast]
4 June 2010
Science Podcast: Septic Shock; Nuclear Nonproliferation; Sexual Success [Listen to MP3]
Curbing deadly inflammation to treat septic shock; creating foolproof systems to ensure the safety of nuclear materials; following crickets in the wild to measure natural and sexual selection; and more. (33 minutes)
[Transcript of this podcast]
28 May 2010
Science Podcast: Understanding Fairness; Persian Gulf Archaeology; Your Letters [Listen to MP3]
How perceptions of fairness change as we grow up; rediscovering a forgotten corridor between the world's first civilizations; your Letters to Science; and more. (38 minutes)
[Transcript of this podcast]
21 May 2010
Science Podcast: Synthetic Bacteria; Brownian Velocity; Evolution of Language [Listen to MP3]
Controlling a bacterial cell with a chemically synthesized genome; measuring instantaneous Brownian velocity; how animal communication provides insights into the origin of language; and more. (44 minutes)
[Transcript of this podcast]
14 May 2010
Science Podcast: Lizard Diversity; Carbon-Dioxide Enrichment; Malaria Drugs [Listen to MP3]
Rising temperatures are driving lizard populations to extinction; carbon dioxide limits many plants' ability to grow; malaria becoming resistant to drugs; and more. (41 minutes)
[Transcript of this podcast]
7 May 2010
Science Podcast: Neandertal Genome; Postdecisional Dissonance; Early Solar System [Listen to MP3]
The first draft of the Neandertal genome and what it is teaching us about our own evolution; the link between physical cleanliness and past behavior; new evidence in Antarctica of our early solar system; and more. (37 minutes)
[Transcript of this podcast]
30 April 2010
Science Podcast: Social-Ecological Systems; Hayabusa Mission; Your Letters [Listen to MP3]
Costly punishment without communication is not effective in complex social-ecological systems; a record-setting Japanese mission changes how we think about small asteroids; your Letters to Science; and more. (38 minutes)
[Transcript of this podcast]
23 April 2010
Science Podcast: Teaching Reading; Asian Monsoons; N.E.O.N. [Listen to MP3]
Measuring the effects of teacher quality on early reading; using tree-ring data to construct a chronology of Asian monsoons; a new resource for ecology research — the National Ecological Observatory Network; and more. (41 minutes)
[Transcript of this podcast]
16 April 2010
Science Podcast: Brain Limitations; Rare Genetic Diseases; Telescopes in Senegal [Listen to MP3]
The brain appears limited to pursing two tasks at once; how rare genetic diseases are disappearing because of genetic testing; the Gonzo Scientist goes to Senegal with telescopes; and more. (40 minutes)
[Transcript of this podcast]
9 April 2010
Science Podcast: Australopithecus sediba; Evolution of Human Behavior; Social Learning Strategies [Listen to MP3]
A newly discovered species of hominid; reexamining "working memory" as the key to human behavior and cognition; insights from a computer tournament on why we copy others; and more. (42 minutes)
[Transcript of this podcast]
2 April 2010
Science Podcast: Chimpanzee Research; Superinfecting Herpes; Sinking Sea Floors [Listen to MP3]
How chimpanzee research has changed for both chimpanzees and the scientists who study them; how the cytomegalovirus can repeatedly re-infect; understanding sea floor subsidence; and more. (40 minutes)
[Transcript of this podcast]
26 March 2010
Science Podcast: Influenza Immunity; Studying Female Mice; Your Letters [Listen to MP3]
Understanding the age-related immunity to the 2009 pandemic influenza; the sex bias in studies with animal models; your Letters to Science; and more. (35 minutes)
[Transcript of this podcast]
19 March 2010
Science Podcast: Learning During Puberty; 3-D Cloaking; Nile Delta Sinking [Listen to MP3]
The biology behind learning deficits at puberty, and how to overcome them in mice; invisibility cloaking at optical wavelengths; the threat to Egypt's agricultural oasis; and more. (43 minutes)
[Transcript of this podcast]
12 March 2010
Science Podcast: Parent-Offspring Coadaptation; Vaccine Diplomacy; Ocean Versus Land Biodiversity [Listen to MP3]
Canary mothers send pre-natal messages to their offspring about how much to beg; using vaccines to resolve conflicts and nurture diplomacy; why oceans have far fewer species than terrestrial habitats; and more. (31 minutes)
[Transcript of this podcast]
5 March 2010
Science Podcast: Arctic Marine Methane; Iron-Clad Fibers; Stem-Cell Challenges [Listen to MP3]
Extensive methane venting to the atmosphere from the East Siberian Arctic Shelf; metal-protein complexes make strong, stretchy mussel fibers; differentiating challenges for ES and iPS stem cells; and more. (46 minutes)
[Transcript of this podcast]
26 February 2010
Science Podcast: Tracking Cancer Cells; New Pathway to Biofuels; Your Letters [Listen to MP3]
Tracking primary tumors cells in order to stave off metastasis; making transportation fuels efficiently from biological products; your Letters to Science; and more. (31 minutes)
[Transcript of this podcast]
19-22 February 2009
Science Podcast: 2010 AAAS Annual Meeting Stories
A series of stories and interviews from this year's meeting in San Diego, CA
19 February 2010
Science Podcast: Predicting Mobility; Prebiotic Sugars; Visualization Challenge [Listen to MP3]
The extent to which individual human mobility is predictable; the prebiotic formation of biologically important sugars; winners of the International Science & Engineering Visualization Challenge; and more. (42 minutes)
[Transcript of this podcast]
12 February 2010
Science Podcast: Focus on Food Security [Listen to MP3]
A companion podcast to our Food Security special issue: measuring food insecurity, rethinking agriculture for the 21st century, and reducing meat consumption. (31 minutes)
[Transcript of this podcast]
5 February 2010
Science Podcast: Graphene-Based Transistors; Optimal Localization; 2011 U.S. Science Budget [Listen to MP3]
Graphene transistors operating twice as fast as silicon; the tradeoff between detection and localization; boosting the U.S. science budget; and more. (37 minutes)
[Transcript of this podcast]
29 January 2010
Science Podcast: Spatiotemporal Escape From Parasites; Quantum Machines; Your Letters [Listen to MP3]
How an asexual animal escapes a lethal fungal parasite; the advent of tiny vibrating devices that make the slightest possible movements; your Letters to Science; and more. (35 minutes)
[Transcript of this podcast]
22 January 2010
Science Podcast: Atlantic Hurricanes; Rapid Virus Spread; Ancient Natufians [Listen to MP3]
Modeling the effects of a warming climate on the Atlantic shows an increase in the frequency of intense hurricanes; how one virus spreads faster than it can reproduce; a key development in human settlement history; and more. (41 minutes)
[Transcript of this podcast]
15 January 2010
Science Podcast: Carbon Dioxide Capture; Parasitoid Wasps; Innate Immunity [Listen to MP3]
A copper complex unexpectedly captures carbon dioxide from the atmosphere; using parasitoid wasps as a model organism, biomedicine, and bio-control; innate versus adaptive immunity; and more. (33 minutes)
[Transcript of this podcast]
8 January 2010
Science Podcast: Cocaine-Induced Plasticity; Third-Party Punishment; Cheaper Particle Accelerators [Listen to MP3]
Using an enzyme to mediate cocaine-induced plasticity in the brain; how cleaner fish punish one another for taking bites of their clients; crossing a cyclotron and a synchrotron to get a simpler, cheaper particle accelerator. (41 minutes)
[Transcript of this podcast]
1 January 2010
Science Podcast: Masquerade versus Crypsis; SZ-Effect's Discoverer; Tasmanian Devil Cancer [Listen to MP3]
The first experimental evidence of the evolutionary benefit of masquerade; the man behind the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect in astrophysics; clues to understanding an unusual, infectious cancer. (34 minutes)
[Transcript of this podcast]
Previous Years' Podcasts
2009 Shows
2008 Shows
2007 Shows
2006 Shows
2005 Shows
Podcast content ©2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 American Association for the Advancement of Science
Music ©2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 Jeffrey E. Cook
