Science Friday

Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have observed clouds on a hot gas giant exoplanet called WASP-94A b, some 700 light-years away. But these clouds aren’t your usual wisps of water vapor—they’re vaporized sand. Astronomer David Sing joins Host Flora Lichtman to describe the planetary weather, and how the researchers were able to observe it. 

Then, ecologist Elske Tielens joins Flora to describe how ecologists using weather radar data counted the insects aloft in U.S. skies: around 100 trillion of them on an average summer day.

Guests:

Dr. David Sing is a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Johns Hopkins University.

Dr. Elske Tielens is an ecologist with the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research.

Other episodes you may enjoy:

How Insects Changed The World—And Human Cultures

Not Just Dying Stars: A Black Hole That Came From Gas

Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.

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It’s common knowledge that many diseases and conditions have some kind of genetic link. But that wasn't always the case. In 1990, long before the Human Genome Project tied so many health issues to differences in genetics, researchers identified a gene called BRCA1. It was the first gene linked to a hereditary form of any common cancer. People with certain variants of BRCA1 stood a higher risk of developing breast and ovarian cancer than those without those mutations.  

Geneticist Mary-Claire King and her lab were the first to identify that gene. She joined Host Flora Lichtman in September 2025 to talk about her background, her research, and her approach to science.

Guest:

Dr. Mary-Claire King is an American Cancer Society Professor in the departments of Genome Sciences and Medicine at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Other episodes you may enjoy:

A Nagasaki Survivor And Physician Recounts His Life’s Work

I Was Considered A Nobody

Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.

Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-4-SCIFRI

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Old creepy houses are a horror cliche, but why? Why do they freak us out? According to new research, it might have something to do with infrasound: a sound that’s below the range of human hearing, potentially emitted by low-rumbling pipes or old boilers more common in older houses.  

Psychologist and pseudoscience researcher Rodney Schmaltz explains his new study, and what role infrasound could play in leading people to feel unsettled in “haunted” places. Then, infrasound researcher Milton Garcés breaks down the infrasound that’s produced by volcanoes and asteroid impacts, and how it serves as a “keep away” signal in nature.

Guests:

Dr. Rodney Schmaltz is a professor of psychology at MacEwan University in Edmonton, Alberta.

Dr. Milton Garcés is a research scientist at the Hawai‘i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology and director of the Infrasound Laboratory at the University of Hawai’i in Honolulu.

Other episodes you may enjoy:

What The Sounds Of Melting Glaciers Can Tell Us

The World According To Sound: A Sonic History Of Astronomy

Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.

Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-4-SCIFRI

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We recently got a call from a SciFri listener in Florida who has autoimmune arthritis. He told us that over the years he’d taken 10 drugs, and each out eventually stopped working. He then tried to enroll in a clinical trial for a new drug for his condition, but he was rejected specifically because he was on his 10th drug.

Today we’re digging into clinical trials and how they work. Are there incentives for drug developers to leave out “problem children”? Or is it more complicated than that? Flora talks with lawyer and bioethicist Holly Fernandez Lynch about what clinical trials are designed to do, how participants are chosen, and where FDA regulation comes into play.

Guest:

Dr. Holly Fernandez Lynch is an associate professor of medical ethics and health policy at the University of Pennsylvania.

Other episodes you may enjoy:

Why so many studies can’t be replicated
Can ‘Suggestion-Box Science’ Make Public Health More Useful?

Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.

Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-4-SCIFRI

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The herbicide paraquat is so toxic it’s banned in over 70 countries. But its use in the U.S. is growing, despite known links to Parkinson’s disease. In southeastern Mississippi, an industrial plant is leaking tens of thousands of pounds of the chemical into the air.

Environmental reporter Delaney Nolan and epidemiologist Beate Ritz join Host Flora Lichtman to discuss the implications of this leak, and what we know about how paraquat affects the body.

Guests: 

Delaney Nolan is an environmental reporter based in New Orleans. She reported this story for The Lens and the Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk.

Dr. Beate Ritz is a professor of epidemiology at UCLA in Los Angeles.

Other episodes you may enjoy:

Teasing Apart The Causes And Early Signs Of Parkinson’s

Workout Worms May Reveal New Parkinson’s Treatments

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Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.

Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-4-SCIFRI

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.