Meet artists who use science to bring their creations to the next level.
Latest episodes
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2 min
Saying Goodbye To Universe Of Art
It's time to say goodbye to Universe of Art. Thank you to everyone who listened over the past couple of years.Subscribe to the Science Friday podcast.Sign up for our Science Goes T…
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13 min
How Death Metal Singers Make Their Extreme Vocalizations
Being able to belt out a tune like Adele or Pavarotti is not just about raw talent. The best singers in the world have to work on their technique—like how to control their breath a…
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17 min
How ‘Science Interpreters’ Make Hidden Science Visible
Imagine you’re diving into a cell. You’re paddling around in the cytoplasm, you’re climbing up a mitochondria. If you’re having a hard time picturing this, that’s okay! There are p…
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18 min
How Real Doctors Brought ‘The Pitt’ To Life
What is it actually like to work in an emergency room? To deal with overcrowded waiting rooms, a shortage of hospital beds, and a constant flow of life-and-death health conditions—…
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14 min
This Video Game Prioritizes Restoring An Ecosystem Over Profits
If you’ve played Rollercoaster Tycoon, Cities: Skylines, the Civilization series—even Animal Crossing—you’re probably familiar with this gameplay pattern: extract some kind of reso…
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12 min
Revisiting Lessons Learned From World Of Warcraft's Virtual Pandemic
The widespread infection of roughly four million virtual characters all started with a giant snake demon. In 2005, the massively multiplayer online video game World Of Warcraft int…
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11 min
In ‘Common Side Effects,’ A Clash Over An All-Healing Mushroom
In the new Adult Swim show “Common Side Effects,” an eccentric scientist has a secret: He’s discovered a strange mushroom that can cure any illness or injury, and he wants to get i…
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17 min
A Novel Imagines The Inner Lives Of Astronauts On The Space Station
From down here on Earth, life on the International Space Station seems magnificent: floating through the day, enjoying stunning views out your window, having an experience only a h…
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18 min
If ‘Interstellar’ Were Made Today, What Would Be Different?
The science fiction film “Interstellar” turns 10 years old this month. For many of us, it was our first encounter with some pretty advanced astrophysics, taking sci-fi concepts lik…
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8 min
A Play About Pregnancy Inspired By Mushroom Research
People are finding all sorts of uses for mushrooms these days, but we’re going to focus on two of them: how scientists are using them in robots and how playwrights are using them i…
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18 min
Our favorite 2024 science books for kids
It’s that time of the year when you’re making your list, checking it twice, for gifts that spark a love of science for the kids in your life. Ira talks with Mahnaz Dar, young reade…
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13 min
How metaphors help—and hurt—science
Here at Science Friday, we’re big fans of metaphors. They can make complicated scientific concepts easier to understand, for both non-experts and scientists themselves. For example…
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18 min
How insects changed the world—and human culture
Did you know that there are ten quintillion—or 10,000,000,000,000,000,000—individual insects on the planet? That means that for each and every one of us humans, there are 1.25 bill…
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14 min
Intertwining the lives of moths and humans through music
Before the pandemic, Peter Kiesewalter didn’t think much of moths. Like a lot of people, he’d thought of them mostly as pests. But when his brother Tobi, an interpretive naturalist…
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12 min
Benjamin Franklin and the American experiment collide on stage
When you think of famous scientists of the early United States, you likely think of Benjamin Franklin, inventor of the lightning rod, bifocal glasses, and even the glass harmonica.…
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19 min
Pollution cookies and the hidden physics in Van Gogh's 'Starry Night'
Would you be interested in a cookie infused with smog from your favorite city? Maybe a loaf of sourdough made from wheat tainted by wildfires?Those are just a few of the projects f…
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12 min
How a diver and artist brought a mysterious octopus to light
Octopus mating behaviors can be quite deadly. Many species are cannibalistic, making the entire prospect of mating dangerous, and female octopuses often die after laying one clutch…
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13 min
What newly discovered cave art tells us about human creativity
In July, researchers discovered the oldest known cave art. It was found in a cave on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, and it shows three human-like figures and a wild pig. The pa…
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18 min
How ancient art influenced modern astronomy
Looking into space can be pretty daunting. How do we make sense of the vast expanse above our heads, the millions of stars we might be able to see, and the billions more we can’t?N…
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18 min
How science fiction influenced American psychological warfare
When you think about connections between science and war, the obvious links are in technology—advanced radar, spy satellites, more powerful explosives—and in medical innovations th…