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Managing Wildfires Using A Centuries-Old Indigenous Practice
In late September, firefighters in flame-resistant Nomex were strung out along a fireline. It ran midslope through a pine and hardwood forest above the Klamath River and the small northern California town of Orleans.Several members of the Karuk tribe were laying down strands of fire with drip torches.Aja Conrad, who runs the tribal natural resource department’s environmental education field institute, was the firing boss trainee. She kept a close eye as the strips burned together and smoke filled the air.“Can you just keep an eye on that and maybe not put too much fire below it?” she told one of her burners.“Copy that.”Read the rest of this article on sciencefriday.com.Transcript for this radio story will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.
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Can Vaping Help You Quit Cigarettes? What Are The Risks?
The harms of smoking cigarettes are pretty clear. Smoking causes cancer as well as heart and lung diseases, and it’s the leading cause of preventable death in the United States.When it comes to vaping, or electronic cigarettes, the risks are a bit more tricky to parse, especially if you read media reports about them. The outbreak of Vaping Use-Associated Lung Injury, also known as EVALI, in 2019 and 2020 made things even more confusing.The founders of Juul, the company that mainstreamed vaping in the early aughts, said they wanted to help people kick their smoking habits. But can vapes really help people quit? And how bad are they for you, really? And if you’re addicted to vaping, what’s the best way to stop?To answer those questions and more, Host Ira Flatow talks with one of the top researchers in the field, Dr. Jamie Hartmann-Boyce, assistant professor of health policy and management at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.Transcripts for each segment will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.
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How Lucy Runs On A Virtual Treadmill | Comparing DeepSeek’s AI To Other Models
Scientists determined that Lucy, a human ancestor from 3.2 million years ago, couldn’t have beaten modern humans in a foot race. Also, the Chinese AI company DeepSeek startled industry observers with an efficient new system. But how does it compare with the leading tech?How Lucy, Our Famous Ancestor, Runs On A Virtual TreadmillLucy is one of the most famous fossils—an Australopithecus afarensis who lived about 3.2 million years ago. Her skeleton is about 40% complete, and has been studied since its discovery in 1974. In a quest to learn more about what Lucy’s life may have looked like, scientists estimated what her leg and pelvic muscles were like based on her skeleton. They then put her on a treadmill—virtually, of course.The findings? Lucy was likely not a natural runner, and the modern human body evolved for improved running performance. Host Flora Lichtman talks to Producer Kathleen Davis about these findings, and other news of the week.Flora also speaks to Anil Oza, a Sharon Begley Science Reporting Fellow at STAT and MIT, about the latest news on the Trump administration taking down scientific data from the Centers for Disease Control website for mentioning topics like gender, DEI and accessibility. They also discuss the National Institutes of Health resuming grant reviews after two weeks of restrictions imposed by the president.How DeepSeek’s AI Compares To Established ModelsThe Chinese company DeepSeek recently startled AI industry observers with its DeepSeek-R1 artificial intelligence model, which performed as well or better than leading systems at a lower cost. The DeepSeek product apparently requires less human input to train, and less energy in parts of its processing—though experts said it remained to be seen if the new model would actually consume less energy overall.Will Douglas Heaven, senior editor for AI at MIT Technology Review, joins Host Ira Flatow to explain the ins and outs of the new DeepSeek systems, how they compare to existing AI products, and what might lie ahead in the field of artificial intelligence.Transcripts for each segment will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.
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Scientists Create Glowing ‘RNA Lanterns’ With Bioluminescence
The inner workings of our bodies, particularly what’s happening inside our cells, can be kind of a black box—with countless tiny molecules constantly working and churning to keep us alive. A new technology that blends bioluminescence with cellular machinery may shine some light on the details of their comings and goings and interactions that can be hazy.Scientists had the bright idea to take that same enzyme that makes fireflies glow and tie it to RNA, the molecule that reads the genetic information in DNA. This developing technology has been used on mice, with the hope that these light-up molecules can help illuminate how viruses replicate or even how memories form in the brain.Flora Litchtman talks with Dr. Andrej Lupták, professor of pharmaceutical sciences at the University of California Irvine and Dr. Jennifer Prescher, professor of chemistry at the University of California Irvine, about their research on the topic.Transcripts for each segment will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.
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18:21
What’s Next For Quantum Computing In 2025?
It seems that every few months, there’s an exciting breakthrough in quantum computing, a kind of computing that takes advantage of quantum physics to perform calculations exponentially faster than our most advanced supercomputers. Last December, Google announced that its quantum computer solved a math problem in five minutes—a problem that would’ve taken a normal supercomputer longer than the age of the universe to solve. And earlier this month, Microsoft, coming off a quantum advance in the fall, told businesses to get “quantum-ready” for 2025, saying that “we are right on the cusp of seeing quantum computers solve meaningful problems.”So, are we on the cusp? Flora Lichtman is joined by Dr. Shohini Ghose, a quantum physicist and professor at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Canada and CTO of the Quantum Algorithms Institute, for a quantum computing check-in and a look at when this futuristic technology could start to have an impact on our lives. Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.
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