Science Friday Folgen

A recent study in the journal Nature unveiled new proteins that can neutralize the deadliest of snake venoms. They’re “new” in that they aren’t found in nature—they were created in a lab, dreamed up by AI.Using AI to discover, or design, the building blocks of drugs is a fast-growing area of research. Another team of scientists out of Philadelphia is using AI to discover new antibiotics by resurrecting long-lost molecules from extinct species like neanderthals and woolly mammoths.We know what you’re thinking: It sounds too sci-fi to be true.Flora Lichtman talks with two pioneers in the field about how AI is supercharging drug discovery: Dr. César de la Fuente, bioengineer and presidential associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, and Nobel laureate Dr. David Baker, director of the Institute for Protein Design and professor at the University of Washington in Seattle.Transcripts for each segment will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com.For our Los Angeles listeners: We’re working on a story about the toxins left behind by the fires and we want to hear from you. How is this affecting you? Are you worried about the air and water and soil? How are you approaching clean-up? And what questions do you have?Leave us a voicemail at 1-646-767-6532 or send us an email at scifri@sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

Researchers at the National Institutes of Health say the move has sent fear and confusion throughout the agency. Plus, what's the technology behind meme coins?Trump Administration Cancels Meetings, Freezes Hiring At NIHThis was President Trump’s first week back in the Oval Office. Along with issuing a flurry of executive orders, his administration has imposed a range of restrictions on the National Institutes of Health, affecting meetings, travel, hiring, funding, and communications. Scientists expressed alarm about what this could mean for ongoing research, with no clear timeline for if or when the freeze would be lifted.Flora Lichtman is joined by Casey Crownhart, climate editor at the MIT Technology Review, to catch up on this and other big science stories of the week, including what’s coming next this year for nuclear power, why a record amount of snow fell in the Southeast this week, and new research on the surprisingly complex biology of a manta ray tail.What Exactly Is A Meme Coin And How Does It Work?A few days before President Trump’s inauguration, he hosted a “crypto ball” in Washington, D.C. That night, he unveiled his very own meme coin—a kind of digital asset that has gained a reputation for facilitating scams. Soon after, first lady Melania Trump also launched her own meme coin. After its launch, Trump’s coin’s market capitalization reached billions of dollars.This isn’t the first time meme coins have gotten a lot of attention—you might remember Elon Musk joked about another one called Dogecoin on SNL in 2021—but it is the first time that this technology has been used by a sitting president. So what exactly is a meme coin anyway? How does the blockchain play into all this? And how might a president use it differently than an internet celebrity?To find out more, Flora Lichtman talks with Liz Lopatto, a senior writer at The Verge who covers cryptocurrency and business, about how this market started, how Trump could use meme coins, and where the crypto market could go next.Transcripts for each segment will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com.  Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

Editors at scientific journals are quitting in droves. According to Retraction Watch, a watchdog publication, there have been at least 20 mass resignations since 2023.So, what’s going on? If you look closely, you’ll notice a common pattern—publishers are cutting back on the number of editors, increasing the number of papers, and charging hefty fees for authors to publish their work.The most recent mass resignation happened at the Journal of Human Evolution at the end of 2024. Both co-editors in chief and the entire editorial board quit, except for one person.What does this mean for the future of scientific publishing? Have these resignations made the big publishers change their ways? Is the strict academic publishing system we know in danger?To answer those questions and more, Ira talks with Dr. Andrea Taylor, former co-editor in chief of the Journal of Human Evolution; and Ivan Oransky, co-founder of Retraction Watch and editor in chief of The Transmitter.Transcripts for each segment will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.