Science Friday

Move over, Drosophila. Step aside, C. elegans. Scientists are working to establish a new model organism. It’s a tiny species of glassfish called Danionella cerebrum, and its claim to fame is that it's almost completely transparent and can regrow parts of its body, including its brain. Scientists studying the nervous system, regeneration, and more are increasingly interested in this species.
So what can we learn from this fish? And can it teach us anything about our own brains? Flora dives into this with biologists Deniz Atabaym and Alejandro Sánchez Alvarado.
Guests:
Dr. Kutay Deniz Atabay is a postdoc at MIT’s Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He studies neurodevelopment and regeneration.
Dr. Alejandro Sánchez Alvarado is the president and chief scientific officer of the Stowers Institute for Medical Research in Kansas City.
Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.

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It’s impossible to ignore the latest nutrition trend: protein-maxxing. Stroll through the grocery store and you’ll find protein chips, protein-packed ice cream, and even sparkling protein water. Not to mention the FDA’s new upturned food pyramid, which puts steak and a roast chicken at the top.
Where did this protein craze come from, and how much protein do we actually need? And what about protein-maxxing’s less popular cousin, fiber-maxxing? Flora talks through the history and the science of protein and fiber with food historian Hannah Cutting-Jones and nutrition researcher Christopher Gardner.
Guests:
Dr. Hannah Cutting-Jones is a food historian and assistant professor at the University of Oregon.
Dr. Christopher Gardner is a nutrition researcher, a professor at Stanford Medicine’s Prevention Research Center, and the author of “Food Sense: What to Eat and Why.”
Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.

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Almost all matter particles have corresponding particles of antimatter: Protons have antiprotons, neutrons have antineutrons, and so on. When matter and antimatter bump into each other they destroy each other and release energy. With carefully manipulated magnetic fields, however, it’s possible to trap particles of antimatter and prevent them from touching regular matter, allowing researchers to study them.
A group of antimatter experts recently reported that they had trapped and held a positron (an antielectron) in a vacuum at ultra-cold temperatures for months, creating what they called “a one-positron quantum cyclotron.” That advance allowed them to study the positron’s quantum properties. They hope to learn whether the positron is indeed an exact opposite of an electron, or if there are tiny physical differences between them. Antimatter wrangler Gerald Gabrielse joins Flora to describe the project, and why researchers care about the properties of antimatter.
Guest:
Dr. Gerald Gabrielse is a Board of Trustees Professor in Physics at Northwestern University.
Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.

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Armadillos have been crawling up the southern U.S. as the climate warms, making themselves at home as far north as Kentucky and Indiana. They’re what wildlife biologists call a “signal species,” one whose presence or absence tell us something about how an ecosystem is changing.
Host Flora Lichtman speaks with journalist Giselle Rhoden and biogeographer Anderson  Feijó to understand why armadillos are moving north and what other wacky activities they may be up to.
Guests:
Giselle Rhoden is a reporter at Louisville Public Media in Louisville, Kentucky.
Dr. Anderson  Feijó is the assistant curator of mammals at the Field Museum in Chicago, Illinois.
Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.

Subscribe to this podcast. Follow us on socials @ scifri on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Bluesky and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374

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A consortium of researchers from around the world has sequenced the genomes of 103 bat species, tracing the evolutionary origin of bats back in time. Using both genetic samples and fossil records, the researchers place the earliest bats as arising in Europe some 60 to 65 million years ago. The early bats then spread to Africa, and eventually around the globe. Bats are now found on every continent except Antarctica.
Bat researcher Emma Teeling joins Flora to describe the bat genealogy project and what researchers can learn from studying these flying mammals.
Guest:
Dr. Emma Teeling is a professor of zoology at University College Dublin, and cofounder of the Bat1K bat genome sequencing consortium.
Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.


Subscribe to this podcast. Follow us on socials @ scifri on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Bluesky and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374

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