A black hole is releasing some strange burps, baffling scientists
Astronomers were stunned to find that the black hole was emitting energy, two years after it pulled apart a star that had come too close.
Science
Recent whale strandings highlight the mystery that still baffles marine scientists
A recent stranding on remote New Zealand islands left nearly 500 pilot whales dead. Scientists still don't know for sure why the events, also known as beachings, occur, but they have some ideas.
It's Short Wave's third birthday, so All Things Considered hosts test their knowledge
In honor of Short Wave's third birthday, hosts Aaron Scott and Emily Kwong quiz All Things Considered hosts about some of the many nuggets of information the science podcast has shared with listeners.
Brain cells in a lab dish learn to play Pong — and offer a window onto intelligence
A dish of brain cells learned to play the 1970s video game Pong. The research could help computers become more intelligent
Animal populations shrunk an average of 69% over the last half-century, a report says
A new report from the World Wildlife Fund and the Zoological Society of London analyzed years of data on wildlife populations across the world and found a downward trend in the Earth's biodiversity.
German students break the world record for fastest accelerating electric car — again
The electric racing car, built by 20 University of Stuttgart students known as the GreenTeam, can go from 0 to about 62 miles per hour in just 1.461 seconds.
Colonoscopies save lives. Doctors push back against European study that casts doubt
Colon cancer specialists worry that results of a study published this week in the New England Journal of Medicine could be misconstrued, and keep patients from getting lifesaving cancer screening.
A dish full of brain cells has learned to play the computer game Pong
Human brain cells in a dish have learned to play Pong, a simple video game created in the 1970s. This novel achievement is part of a larger effort to understand how brain cells learn.
Eyeballs and AI power the research into how falsehoods travel online
Getting a sense of falsehoods online might sound straightforward, but it isn't. Researchers use state-of-the-art algorithms but it also comes down to lots of scrolling and reading.
Human cells in a rat's brain could shed light on autism and ADHD
Scientists have devised a new model for studying disorders like autism spectrum disorder and ADHD. It uses clusters of human brain cells grown inside the brain of a rat.