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Breakthrough: The Slime Minder
Discover how Audrey Dussutour is breaking new ground in our understanding of animal cognition from an unexpected source: slime molds.
12:10
Can Trauma Today Affect Future Children?
Researchers are studying whether severe stress can have an epigenetic effect, altering how genes are turned on and off in an organism’s offspring.
What The Brain Inherits
A neuroscientist shares her pursuit to understand the brain and how our parents’ experiences live on in us.
Breakthrough: The Lake Sentinel
Discover how earth scientist Africa Flores-Anderson uses satellite data to help underserved communities.
Witnessing Environmental Change From Space
From deforestation to algal blooms, NASA earth scientist Africa Flores-Anderson monitors the planet through satellite images and data.
How This Astronomer Discovered A New Type Of Galaxy
Burçin Mutlu-Pakdil talks how she got into astronomy and the path that led her to getting a new type of galaxy named after her.
17:08
Digging For Answers To Avians’ Ancestors
Paleontologist Jingmai O’Connor studies prehistoric bird fossils found in China to answer questions about the evolution of dinosaurs and flight.
A Mile In The Shoes Of A Volcanologist
Meet Kayla Iacovino, a NASA petrologist (and Star Trek superfan) who looks for tiny clues atop volcanoes to understand eruptions on Earth and beyond.
Breakthrough: The Avian Authority
Follow Jingmai O’Connor as she catalogues ancient avian dinosaurs and learn how her Chinese-American roots helped lead her to incredible paleontological discoveries.
17:11
Hunting For The Crystalline Clues Of A Volcano’s Eruption
Volcanologist Kayla Iacovino studies the crystals and gases formed inside of volcanoes to figure out what causes eruptions.
Breakthrough: The Volcano Trekker
Follow Kayla Iacovino as she collects volcanic rock samples from across the world in order to better understand the powerful forces that created them.
Breakthrough: Bitter Water
For Navajo hydrologist Karletta Chief, water is sacred. When a mine spill contaminated a vital river in the Navajo Nation, she decides to investigate the potential environmental and health impacts it had on her community.
Breakthrough: Portraits Of Women In Science
Explore our short film anthology that follows women working at the forefront of their fields.
8:11
Protecting The Waterways Of The Navajo Nation
Hydrologist Karletta Chief monitors the rivers that flow through the Navajo Nation that have been impacted by runoff from surrounding mines and help the surrounding communities.
Build A Groundwater Model
Make an affordable aquifer model then conduct a lab experiment to explore the effects of groundwater pollution.
Breakthrough: The Killer Snail Chemist
Mandë Holford wanted to bridge the gap between biology and chemistry. Then, she saw a video of a snail eating a fish.
9:30
Killer Cone Snails…For Your Health?
Inside these gorgeous shells are deadly hunters—and their venom could save your life.
How Do ‘Killer Snails’ Kill Their Victims?
Model the hunting adaptations and a rich peptide venom cocktail of predatory cone snails in this exploration of the organism’s structure and function.
How To Film A Polar Bear
As Science Friday’s Luke Groskin says, it starts with a terrifying helicopter ride.
Breakthrough: Polar Bear Witness
For USGS wildlife biologist Karyn Rode, tracking and tranquilizing polar bears from a helicopter are the just the first thrilling steps in her research.
16:08
The Polar Bear Necessities
USGS wildlife biologist Karyn Rode monitors how populations of polar bears are affected by shrinking sea ice and other changing conditions in the Arctic.
How Shrinking Sea Ice May Be Shrinking Polar Bears
How is the body mass of polar bears changing as sea ice disappears? The answer may depend on where they live and feed.
Breakthrough: Connecting The Drops
Lydia Bourouiba studies how bacteria and viruses hitch a ride inside the droplets of sneezes, raindrops, toilet splatter.
7:59
The Anatomy Of A Splash
One researcher peers deep inside sneezes…coughs…and flushing toilets to answer questions about disease transmission.
How Do Infections Spread In Plants?
Students model the interaction of biotic and abiotic factors in a plant disease system, then use their data to inform recommendations to farmers to limit disease transmission.
Breakthrough: Snapshots from Afar
In the second episode of Science Friday and HHMI’s series “Breakthrough: Portraits of Women in Science,” three scientists share stories about India’s first interplanetary mission—a mission to Mars.
7:42
How India Made it to Mars on the First Try
Although Mars is one of our closest planetary neighbors, it has foiled many space-faring nations wishing to explore it.
Breakthrough: A Re-Sounding Remedy
Under the care of hearing researcher Rene Gifford, Allyson Sisler-Dinwiddie became one of the first test subjects of a new technique to improve cochlear implants, devices that use electrodes to stimulate cells in the inner ear.
What Do Cochlear Implants And Hearing Aids Sound Like?
Learn how hearing aids work, then conduct your own test to determine whether hearing aids can improve speech recognition for cochlear implant users.
17:07
Breakthrough: Hearing A Whole New World
In the first video of our new series, an audiologist describes overcoming her hearing loss. Plus, how new research could expand the aural world for patients with hearing loss.
‘Breakthrough: Women In Science’ In Theaters!
From March 5 – 31, the Science Friday video series is heading to Alamo Drafthouses across the U.S.
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Life Beyond Earth
We delve into the science of listening, and looking, for possibilities of life in the universe.
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