Science The latest health and science news. Updates on medicine, healthy living, nutrition, drugs, diet, and advances in science and technology. Subscribe to the Health & Science podcast.

Science

Tara Moore/Getty Images

A male Greater Honeyguide in Mozambique's Niassa Special Reserve. Claire Spottiswoode hide caption

toggle caption
Claire Spottiswoode

Looking for honey? This African bird will heed your call and take you there

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1217800692/1217979453" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Stage actress Sarah Bernhardt (1844-1923) reclines in a scene from an unnamed theater production. Hulton Archive/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Hulton Archive/Getty Images

A fibrous path 'twixt heart and brain may make you swoon

  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1217658536/1217660917" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

An artistic rendering of deep brain stimulation. Scientists are studying this approach to see if it can treat cognitive impairment that can arise after a traumatic brain injury and other conditions. Andrew Janson / Butson Lab, University of Utah / NIH Image Gallery hide caption

toggle caption
Andrew Janson / Butson Lab, University of Utah / NIH Image Gallery

A little electric stimulation in just the right spot may bolster a damaged brain

  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1217396804/1217437059" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

Orion and stars rising over a forest captured on a mountain. Yuga Kurita/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Yuga Kurita/Getty Images

A star is born ... and then what? A journey through the life cycle of a star

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1198908798/1217496980" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

A pedestrian walks along the roadside amid heavy smoggy conditions in New Delhi. Delhi is considered the world's most polluted megacity, with a melange of factory and vehicle emissions exacerbated by seasonal agricultural fires. Money Sharma/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Money Sharma/AFP via Getty Images

Can anything stop the toxic smog of New Delhi?

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1217064229/1217433940" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

Manmade pits at construction sites are providing nurseries for malaria-carrying mosquitoes, new research finds. Gonzalo Vazquez-Prokopec hide caption

toggle caption
Gonzalo Vazquez-Prokopec

Big city mosquitoes are a big problem — and now a big target

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1217120913/1217240943" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

A section of aluminium coils from one of Helion's fusion machines. The company hopes its next-generation Polaris system will produce more electricity than it consumes. Geoff Brumfiel/NPR hide caption

toggle caption
Geoff Brumfiel/NPR

Companies say they're closing in on nuclear fusion as an energy source. Will it work?

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1215539157/1216905562" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
TravelCouples/Getty Images
Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

Feeling alone? 5 tips to create connection and combat loneliness

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1216617723/1216905574" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

This December 2018 photo provided by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife shows the breeding male of the Chesnimnus Pack caught on camera during the winter survey on U.S. Forest Service land in northern Wallowa County, Oregon. (Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife via AP, File) AP hide caption

toggle caption
AP

Wolves are returning to Colorado. But is it too crowded for them to thrive?

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1215438481/1216842075" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

COP28 President Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber attends the opening session of the climate conference. Sean Gallup/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Sean Gallup/Getty Images

Big Oil Leads at COP28

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1198909396/1216642952" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Chinstrap penguins (Pygoscelis Antarctica) are pictured in Orne Harbour in the western Antarctic peninsula. Waddling over the rocks, legions of penguins hurl themselves into the icy waters of Antarctica, foraging to feed their young. Eitan Abramovich/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Eitan Abramovich/AFP via Getty Images

De Winton's golden mole, a blind mole that lives beneath the sand, has been rediscovered in Port Nolloth, South Africa. The small mammal has evaded scientists for nearly 90 years, using sensitive hearing that can detect vibrations from movement above the surface. JP Le Roux hide caption

toggle caption
JP Le Roux

One of the scientists shows the petri dishes in which they grow cells at the department of Genome Biology, Graduate School of Medicine. Osaka University, Osaka, Japan, August 7th, 2003. Kosuke Okahara for NPR hide caption

toggle caption
Kosuke Okahara for NPR

A look at the international race to create human eggs and sperm in the lab

In which we meet the pioneers of one of the most exciting — and controversial — fields of biomedical research: in vitro gametogenesis, or IVG. The goal of IVG is to make unlimited supplies of what Hayashi calls "artificial" eggs and sperm from any cell in the human body. That could let anyone — older, infertile, single, gay, trans — have their own genetically related babies. As such, the field opens up a slew of ethical concerns.

A look at the international race to create human eggs and sperm in the lab

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1198908722/1215737072" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Mathematician John Urschel contains multitudes. These days, he researches linear algebra at MIT, but he also had another career: professional NFL football player. The Washington Post/The Washington Post via Getty Im hide caption

toggle caption
The Washington Post/The Washington Post via Getty Im

This mathematician had another career: professional football player

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1198908701/1214578680" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Ahn Young-joon/AP

Why are sales so hard to resist? Let's unravel this Black Friday mystery

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1214522140/1215152790" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Karen Chin in the University of Colorado Museum of Natural History, where she is the curator of paleontology. She is also a professor of geological sciences at the University of Colorado, Boulder and a leading expert on fossilized dinosaur feces. Casey A. Cass/University of Colo hide caption

toggle caption
Casey A. Cass/University of Colo

Two brain circuits help determine whether there's too little salt, or too much. Aleksandr Zubkov/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Aleksandr Zubkov/Getty Images

Salty much? These brain cells decide when tasty becomes blech

  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1214558929/1214568593" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

New research finds that a common microbe may be directly causing itchiness on the skin it colonizes. Kinga Krzeminska/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Kinga Krzeminska/Getty Images

What can trigger an itch? Scientists have found a new culprit

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1214507233/1214918067" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript