PRX STEM Story Project

The STEM Story Project was made possible by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. PRX is the creator of unique radio and podcasts, including our science podcasts Orbital Path with Michelle Thaller, the Outside Magazine Podcast, and Transistor.

[prxstem]

Party like it's summer '98 and both Deep Impact & Armageddon are out. Except we have REAL asteroids and less Ben Affleck animal cracker scenes on Orbital Path. Hosted by astronomer Michelle Thaller.

[prxstem]

This Is Your Brain on Podcasts

Different people’s brains absorb a compelling story in the roughly the same complicated pattern, using many parts of the brain, researchers found.

Storytelling & the Brain

[scienceandfood]

Fermentation Revival & Mind-Altering Microbes

Sandor Katz and Dr. Elaine Hsiao will be joining us at our next 2016 public lecture, Microbes: From Your Food to Your Brain. Get to know them beforehand, as Sandor Katz talks about his book, The Art of Fermentation, on NPR: Fresh Air and Dr. Hsiao shares her fascination with the microbiome at a TedxCaltech talk. What we’re reading…

[prxstem]

The newest (oldest) food trend: Fermentation!

[prxstem]

Large Hadron Collider: Weasel causes shutdown - BBC News

The Large Hadron Collider particle accelerator in Switzerland is offline after suffering a short circuit - caused by a weasel.

Whoopsie.

[prxstem]

Two hosts, one adventure -- an off-road trip into the science that connects us. That’s Trace Elements, with hosts Cristina Quinn and Alison Bruzek. Don’t miss their five special episodes on our podcast Transistor. Subscribe here.

[prxstem]

You maybe made a papier mache volcano as a kid. You’re an adult now -- get the real scoop on volcanoes on earth and in space with astronomer Michelle Thaller.

[prxstem]

PRX’s new partnership with Outside Magazine on the Science of Survival. Episode 1: Frozen Alive.

[prxstem]

11/23: Happy Fibonacci Day!

Today's date makes up the first four digits in the Fibonnaci sequence.

We can't wait for 11/23/2058 - an extra special Fibonnaci Day!

Math inspires us all. Happy #FibonacciDay — 11/23 — and #MathMonday! Fibonacci spiral via @giphy pic.twitter.com/6Ug2VqPOXC

— MIT (@MIT) November 23, 2015

[prxstem]

Transistor: Episode 17

Science and violin-making meet to try to create an electric violin that sounds like a Stradavarius.

In music, everything seems to have another digital life. Pianists can play with different voicings on an electric keyboard. Guitarists can filter their instrument’s signal through a pedal or amp to create various effects. Why shouldn’t violinists be able to digitally harness the sound of a Stradivarius? For starters, it takes an incredible feat of engineering to make an authentic-sounding digital violin. Radio reporter (and violinist!) David Schulman takes us to visit a top violinmaker who has been working with a physicist and two engineers to create a prototype digital violin.

[scienceisbeauty]

A curious proof of the Pythagorean Theorem by means purely geometric used by Einstein in his childhood. Definitely, already from kid, Einstein used geometry masterfully as a tool of reasoning, as a way of thinking. And won.

Learn details at the New Yorker: Einstein’s First Proof

[prxstem]

What were you doing when you were 12 years old? In commemoration of the hundredth anniversary of Einstein’s general theory of relativity, the New Yorker walks us through his very first mathematical proof.

[prxstem]

This week we’re listening to "To Save California, Read Dune." with Andrew Leonard on PRX.

Frank Herbert's science fiction epic "Dune" is set on a desert planet. For the indigenous Fremen of 'Dune," the water in even a single tear is precious.

Could Herbert's sci-fi world of 1965 offer any lessons for the drought-stricken California of 2015? Andrew Leonard takes on that question in his provocative piece in the water issue of Nautilus.

In this edition of the Nautilus podcast, Leonard talks with host David Schulman about water, fog, fog-catchers, gigantic sandworms — and the prescience of "Dune."  

This sound-rich podcast also features a field visit with environmental scientist Daniel Fernandez, who has established a network of Dune-like fog-catchers along the California coast. And we’ll hear a field recording of a fog-catcher at work in one of the dries places on planet earth, the Atacama desert, in Chile.

[scienceisbeauty]

Curvy x-ray vision

Via Phys.org: Team creates a curved waveguide able to significantly bend X-ray beams

A team of researchers working in Germany and France has demonstrated a way to bend X-ray beams using curved waveguides. In their paper published in Physical Review Letters, the team describes how they created the wave guides, the parameters they used in creating them and the results of their testing.

[mathmajik]

Four has four letters. It’s the only self-counting number in the English language.

Bonus fact: there are no self-counting numbers at all in French.

[prxstem]

Math fact brought to you by @mathmajik.

[thebrainscoop]

Clearing and staining, or diaphonization, is a process used by vertebrate biologists when seeking to visualize a particular animal’s skeletal system. Some steps include submerging the specimen in containers of digestive enzymes to render their organs translucent, while other steps involve immersing the animal in alizarin red dye, which adheres to calcium in their bones and stains them red, and alcian blue dye, which reacts with the cartilage of their joints. The results manage to be useful for studying biomechanical function and skeletal morphology, as well as appear stunningly beautiful. 

Learn more of this process by watching our latest episode: Clearing and Staining Fishes! 

[prxstem]

@thebrainscoop shows how biologists use eye-popping color to make studying skeletons easier.

[prxstem]

Transistor: Episode 5

We talk about climate change on Earth, but what are the effects of climate change on other planets? Listen to find out what we can learn from Venus.

Space scientists are acutely aware of what can happen when climates change in other parts of our solar system. Take Venus, where it rains sulfuric acid and is 900°F on the surface, but it wasn’t always that way. Astrophysicist Michelle Thaller talks with a NASA expert on Venus about how the planet became a hellscape. And she talks with the Library of Congress’ inaugural chair of astrobiology about how to grasp this new geologic era where humans cause rapid change.

[prxstem]

A Travel Guide for the Fourth Dimension - Issue 29: Scaling - Nautilus

Thank you for your interest in our all-inclusive travel package to the fourth dimension. Here are some of the most frequently asked…

Pack your bags - Nautilus magazine is taking us to the fourth dimension.

[cenchempics]

STAR POWER

Sometimes creating a lot of energy takes a lot energy. In an attempt to jump-start a fusion nuclear reaction, the Z Pulsed Power Facility at Sandia National Laboratories releases the energy of 1,000 lightning bolts in a 1-nanosecond pulse. Even the millions of liters of oil and nonconducting deionized water used to insulate the machine’s cables can’t contain the jolt, resulting in the spiderweb of electricity seen in this photograph snapped by a high-speed camera. The Z machine concentrates the retained energy into a tiny container full of hydrogen atoms, which then rush toward each other at 10 million mph. These conditions resemble those on the surface of stars where hydrogen atoms fuse together to make helium, a process that releases huge amounts of energy. This technique still doesn’t create as much fusion energy as it takes in yet, but researchers hope it could one day replace other methods of power generation.

Credit: Randy Montoya/Sandia National Laboratories

Related C&EN Content:

Plutonium Studies Begin At National Ignition Facility