What happens to the contents of your recycle bin?

Take this insider’s tour of a recycling plant.

NGSS: ESS3.C: Human Impacts on Earth Systems, ETS1.A: Defining and Delimiting an Engineering Problem, ETS2.B: Influence of Engineering…

How are droplets related to disease transmission?

Lydia Bourouiba, a physical applied mathematician at MIT, takes us through the anatomy of a splash.

Vocabulary: fluid dynamics, disease transmission, contamination, image analysis, data collection

What makes chili peppers so hot?

The spicy science of capsaicin and receptors on your tongue.

Vocabulary: receptors, capsaicin, nerves, tolerance

How is glow worm light different from firefly light?

Kurt Krause and Miriam Sharpe are biochemists investigating the bioluminescence of glow worms to figure out the chemical mechanisms behind their deadly light.

What can we gain from useless knowledge?

Robbert Dijkgraaf discusses the relevance of Abraham…

How can oral history inform ancestral genome research?

A partnership between the Tsimshian communities and researchers provides insight into how colonization affected the genome of the Tsimshian…

What message would you want ET to find?

Science Friday looks at the Golden Record, an interstellar greeting and time capsule. Intended for any intelligent extraterrestrial life form—or future human—who…

Reimagining the Astronomical Objects of Messier

Artist Lia Halloran created artwork inspired by celestial features that frustrated celebrated astronomer Charles Messier.

What is the longest possible human lifespan?

Sophie Bushwick discusses why the research points to approximately 120 years.

Vocabulary: life expectancy, lifespan, lifespan, outlier, cells