Kathleen Davis is a producer and fill-in host at Science Friday, which means she spends her weeks researching, writing, editing, and sometimes talking into a microphone. She heads the show’s State of Science project, bringing local science stories to a national audience.
Before joining the Science Friday team in 2020, Kathleen reported on tech and breaking news at WESA, Pittsburgh’s NPR station. One time, her coworkers made her a dinosaur themed birthday cake, complete with a Rice Krispy meteor.
Kathleen is originally from the great state of Michigan, and is always eager to talk about freshwater lakes and Coney Island diners. She can often be found taking long walks to run errands that would be done much faster by other modes of transportation.
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9:02
The Oozy Physics Of Oobleck
Non-Newtonian fluids challenge our ideas of what’s liquid and what’s solid. We now have a better understanding of how they work.
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7:52
Pennsylvania Drug Laws May Limit Syringe Services
Pennsylvania will receive more than $1.6 billion in opioid settlement funds. But state laws may prevent that money from going to syringe services.
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12:05
What Causes Red Wine Headaches? It May Be Quercetin
Forget sulfites and tannins. A new theory pins the throbbing pain of a red wine headache on quercetin, an antioxidant in grape skins.
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12:14
COP28 Host Had Plans to Promote Oil and Gas, Documents Show
The United Nations climate summit will happen for the next two weeks in Dubai—a city known for its oil money.
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34:27
Jane Goodall On Life Among Chimpanzees
In an interview from 2002, the primatologist gave Ira a lesson in how to speak with chimps.
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11:42
Moon Rocks Collected In 1972 Reveal New Secrets
Research on crystals brought back by the Apollo 17 mission shows that the moon is 40 million years older than we thought.
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10:30
The Captivating Story Of The West’s Wild Horses
You can buy a wild horse from the federal government for $125. Reporter Ashley Ahearn did just that.
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Ask A Chef: How Can I Use Science To Make Thanksgiving Tastier?
Chef Dan Souza from Cook’s Illustrated and America’s Test Kitchen answers your holiday cooking questions.
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Your Pain Tolerance May Have Been Passed Down From Neanderthals
Gene variants inherited from Neanderthals can impact pain tolerance and nose shape in modern humans. What else could they influence?
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How To Save Oregon’s Salmon? Maybe With A Giant Vacuum.
A $1.9 billion plan to suck up salmon and truck them around dams on the Willamette River raises questions.