True Criminals is your weekly deep dive into both historic and contemporary crime stories, hosted by Sky News Crime Correspondent Martin Brunt and journalist Helen Fospero. With decades of frontline reporting experience, Martin and Helen go beyond the headlines to uncover exclusive insights and untold details from some of the most gripping criminal investigations. Each episode delivers powerful storytelling and rare access, featuring guests such as senior detectives, investigative journalist ...
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Audio Bleach Global Podcasts
Host Rachel Feltman, alongside leading science and tech journalists, dives into the rich world of scientific discovery in this bite-size science variety show.
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What No One Tells You about Testosterone Replacement Therapy
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12:14Testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) is exploding in popularity among men. TRT has been touted online as a cure-all for everything from low energy to poor mood and even as a way to increase masculinity itself. But how much of the buzz is backed by science? Host Rachel Feltman talks with journalist Stephanie Pappas about the realities behind the t…
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Host Rachel Feltman explores the surprising connection between exercise and the gut microbiome with Scientific American contributing editor Lydia Denworth. Drawing from her latest reporting, Denworth explains how aerobic activity can influence the microbial ecosystems in our digestive tract—boosting diversity, reducing inflammation, and even suppor…
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Step back into the sweltering summers of 1984 and 1985 as we unravel the chilling true story of Richard Ramirez — the man who would become known as "The Night Stalker." In this gripping first part of our two-episode special, we examine the wave of violence that swept across California, leaving fear and chaos in its wake. From quiet Los Angeles neig…
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CDC Vaccine Panel Fired by RFK, Jr., Oceans Grow More Acidic, and Pangolins Threatened by Hunting
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10:14Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., has fired the experts on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine advisory panel, sparking concern among public health officials. Ocean acidification has crossed a critical threshold, posing serious risks to marine life around the globe. And pangolins face growing threats from increased hunting, complicating …
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These Adorable Hamster Dads Take Fatherhood Seriously
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13:22Most mammalian dads are pretty absent from their offspring’s lives. That sets the Djungarian hamster apart from its fellow fathers. These hamster dads are involved in the birth of their pups, care for them in infancy and even provide food during weaning. They also let the mother hamster go on cooldown walks outside of the burrow, which professor of…
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What ‘Immortal’ Jellyfish and Famously Old Tortoises Tell Us about Aging
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14:27Animals’ lifespans can be far shorter or much longer than those of humans. Scientists are researching creatures such as “immortal” jellyfish and long-lived tortoises and digging deep into genetic codes to figure out why animals age—and what we can do to improve longevity in humans. João Pedro de Magalhães, chair of molecular biogerontology at the U…
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Wrongly Accused: The Joanna Yeates Murder
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40:17In this gripping episode of True Criminals, hosts Martin Brunt and Helen Fospero revisit one of the most chilling and controversial murder cases in recent British history — the 2010 killing of Joanna Yeates, a 25-year-old landscape architect whose disappearance just before Christmas shocked the nation. Join Martin, who covered the case live for Sky…
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Cosmic Coin Toss, Record Heat in the North Atlantic and Living Worm Towers
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8:51New simulations suggest the Milky Way’s long-predicted collision with Andromeda might be less of a cosmic certainty than we thought. A massive marine heat wave in 2023 sent North Atlantic temperatures soaring—equal to two decades’ worth of typical warming—with weak winds and climate change largely to blame. And researchers reveal that the planet’s …
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Is the National Weather Service Ready for an Extreme Summer?
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14:21The dedicated staff of the National Weather Service are responsible for the data that underpin your weather forecast and emergency alerts. DOGE Service cuts to the NWS are putting the collection and communication of those data at risk right as we enter a dangerous season of hurricanes, tornadoes, wildfires and extreme heat in the U.S. Senior sustai…
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Wrongfully Convicted: The Peter Sullivan Story - Part 2
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30:55In Part 2 of Wrongfully Convicted: The Peter Sullivan Story, True Criminals returns to one of the UK’s most disturbing miscarriages of justice. After serving 38 years in prison for the 1984 murder of schoolgirl Diane Sindall, Peter Sullivan has been officially exonerated, following a groundbreaking Y-STR DNA test that proved his innocence and led t…
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Megalodon Diets, Teeth Sensitivity and a Bunch of Vaccine News
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8:00The measles outbreak in West Texas is slowing. Health officials think an increase in vaccination rates contributed to the slowdown, but Texas lawmakers have pushed a new bill to make it even quicker and easier for parents to exempt their children from vaccines. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention goes counter to the American College of O…
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Are You Flourishing? This Global Study Has Surprising Takeaways
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18:16Are you flourishing? It’s a more understated metric than happiness, but it can provide a multidimensional assessment of our quality of life. Victor Counted, an associate professor of psychology at Regent University and a member of the Human Flourishing Program at Harvard University, joins host Rachel Feltman to review the first wave of results from…
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Diagnosing Male Infertility with a Mechanical Engineering Twist
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10:39Male infertility is undercovered and underdiscussed. If a couple is struggling to conceive, there’s a 50–50 chance that sperm health is a contributing factor. Diagnosing male infertility is getting easier with at-home tests—and a new study suggests a method for testing at home that would be more accurate. Study co-author Sushanta Mitra, a professor…
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Wrongfully Convicted: The Peter Sullivan Story - Part 1
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26:12Uncover the unbelievable true story of Peter Sullivan, wrongfully convicted for the 1986 murder of 21-year-old Diane Sindall, in this gripping two-part series from True Criminals, hosted by Sky News crime correspondent Martin Bruntand journalist Helen Fospero. In part one, we revisit the brutal crime that shocked Birkenhead and sparked one of the U…
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Could We Speak to Dolphins? A Promising LLM Makes That a Possibility
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19:07Dolphins have a broad vocabulary. They vocalize with whistles, clicks and “burst pulses.”This varied communication makes it challenging for scientists to decode dolphin speech. Artificial intelligence can help researchers process audio and find the slight patterns that human ears may not be able to identify. Reporter Melissa Hobson took a look at D…
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Do Mitochondria Talk to Each Other? A New Look at the Cell’s Powerhouse
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27:04Mitochondria are known as the powerhouse of the cell—but new research suggests they might be far more complex. Columbia University’s Martin Picard joins Scientific American’s Rachel Feltman to explore how these tiny organelles could be communicating and what that might mean for everything from metabolism to mental health. Check out Martin Picard’s …
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Fugitives: The Great Train Robbery - Part 3
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27:45In the final episode of Fugitives, Martin and Helen conclude their conversation with Nick Reynolds, son of Bruce Reynolds — the man behind the Great Train Robbery. This chapter unpacks the long aftermath of one of Britain’s most audacious crimes: the downfall of key figures like Charlie Wilson and Buster Edwards, the hidden cost to families left be…
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How to Make Gold, Flamingo Food Tornado, and Kosmos-482 Lands
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8:09Soviet-era spacecraft Kosmos-482 lands, though no one is certain where. Physicists turn lead into gold. Overdose deaths are down, in part thanks to the availability of naloxone. Flamingos make underwater food tornadoes. Chimps use leaves as a multi-tool. Recommended reading: A New, Deadly Era of Space Junk Is Dawning, and No One Is Ready https://ww…
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Could Freezing Arctic Sea Ice Combat Climate Change?
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25:29The year-round sea ice in the Arctic is melting and has shrunk by nearly 40 percent over the past four decades. Geoengineering companies such as Real Ice are betting big on refreezing it. That may sound ridiculous, impractical or risky—but proponents say we have to try. The U.K. government seems to agree, investing millions into experimental approa…
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How a West Texas Outbreak Threatens Measles Elimination Status
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10:00Measles was technically “eliminated” in the U.S. in 2000 thanks to high measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccination rates. While prior outbreaks have made headlines, a slew of cases in West Texas is more than just newsworthy—it could cause the U.S. to lose elimination status. Associate health and medicine editor Lauren Young explains what eliminat…
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Fugitives: The Great Train Robbery - Part 2
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45:21Step inside one of Britain’s most notorious crimes—the Great Train Robbery of 1963—in this gripping true crime podcast episode. Join journalist Helen Fospero and Sky News Crime Correspondent Martin Brunt as they uncover the real story behind the £2.6 million heist (worth over £70 million today) that stunned the nation. Featuring an exclusive interv…
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Sinking Cities, Waving Cuttlefish and Falling Spacecraft
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8:17A 1970s Soviet spacecraft is hurtling down from space—and no one knows where it will land. All 28 of the most populous cities in the U.S. are slowly sinking. Investments and overconsumption make the wealthiest 10 percent of the global population responsible for two thirds of climate-change-related warming. Recommended reading: Cuttlefish May Commun…
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This Podcast Was Recorded Inside a Particle Collider
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18:11We’re taking a field trip to the U.S.’s only particle collider, the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), housed at Brookhaven National Laboratory. Staff scientist Alex Jentsch takes listeners through some basic terminology and interconnected technologies that help Brookhaven researchers probe questions about our unseen universe. The RHIC is wind…
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Rejecting Toxic Fitness Culture with Casey Johnston
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17:56Casey Johnston is not your typical health and fitness influencer. She joins host Rachel Feltman to discuss how finding joy in strength training changed her relationship to fitness, food and body image. Johnston’s new book, A Physical Education, reflects on engaging with exercise in a balanced way. Recommended reading: You can get Johnston’s book A …
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In this compelling episode of True Criminals, Sky News Crime Correspondent Martin Brunt and journalist Helen Fospero explore what it really means to live life on the run. Through firsthand stories and expert insight, they uncover the hidden realities of fugitives who slip through the cracks of justice—and those determined to catch them. Martin shar…
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Jupiter’s Cyclones, Amazon’s Satellites and T. rex Collagen
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9:01The congressionally mandated National Climate Assessment grinds to a halt. Amazon launches its first round of Internet satellites. The European Space Agency launches a satellite to measure the biomass of Earth’s trees. New data from NASA’s Juno spacecraft offer insights into Jupiter and Io. Claims of Tyrannosaurus rex leather are, predictably, misl…
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The Fungi Facing Extinction and the Conservationists Working Hard to Protect Them
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12:07Conservationists are ringing the alarm about the fungi facing extinction. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List features vulnerable pandas and endangered tortoises, but it also highlights more than 400 fungi species that are under threat. Gregory Mueller, chief scientist emeritus at the Chicago Botanic Garden and coordi…
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Griefbots Offer AI Connections with Deceased Loved Ones
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16:18Griefbots, artificial intelligence chatbots that mimic deceased loved ones, are increasingly in popularity. Researcher Katarzyna Nowaczyk-Basińska reflects on what death, grief and immortality look like in the digital age. She shares insights from a project that she is leading as a AI2050 Early Career Fellow: Imaginaries of Immortality in the Age o…
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Kenneth Noye: The Brink's-Mat Gold Robbery and Road Rage Killer
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26:24Uncover the explosive true story of Kenneth Noye, the criminal mastermind behind the notorious Brink’s-Mat gold robbery and the shocking M25 road rage murder. Join Sky News Crime Correspondent Martin Brunt and journalist Helen Fospero as they expose Noye’s decades-long descent into violence, deception, and infamy. From the audacious £26 million gol…
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Scientific American in 1925: Solar Eclipses, Seances and Some Strange Inventions
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9:26We’re taking a break from our usual weekly news roundup to do a little time travel. In 1925 Scientific American covered a total solar eclipse that featured some surprising solar shadow play and a prediction about today’s eclipses. Plus, we review some long-gone sections of the magazine that tried to verify mediums and show off zany inventions! Reco…
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Wild NYC author Ryan Mandelbaum takes host Rachel Feltman through New York City’s Prospect Park to find urban wildlife. They explore the city’s many birds, surprising salamanders and unexpected urban oases. Plus, they discuss what the rules of engagement with wildlife are and how you can find wildlife in your own urban or suburban environment. Reco…
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When writer Stephen S. Hall was a child, he would capture snakes—much to his mother’s chagrin. Now the science journalist is returning to his early fascination In his latest book, Slither: How Nature’s Most Maligned Creatures Illuminate Our World. The book explores our long, complicated relationship with snakes. Plus, Hall chats about humans’ and o…
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The Hatton Garden Heist: The Diamond Wheezers - Part 2: Inside the Mind of a Diamond Geezer
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25:22Easter 2015: While London slept, a geriatric gang of thieves, armed with drills and decades of criminal audacity, ransacked the Hatton Garden Safe Deposit Centre, making off with over £14 million in jewels and gold. But their old-school methods collided spectacularly with the digital age, leading to their swift capture. In this gripping second part…
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Childhood Illnesses Surge, Magnetic Poles Wandered, and a Colossal Squid Is Found
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8:15Measles cases are going up—and a federal scientist has warned that case counts have probably been underreported. Another vaccine-preventable illness, whooping cough, sees a troubling increase in cases. Ancient humans found sun-protection solutions when Earth’s magnetic poles wandered. A colossal squid has been captured on video in its natural habit…
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From the Internet’s Beginnings to Our Understanding of Consciousness, This Editor Has Seen It All
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20:15Senior mind and brain editor Gary Stix has covered the breadth of science and technology over the past 35 years at Scientific American. He joins host Rachel Feltman to take us through the rise of the Internet and the acceleration of advancement in neuroscience that he’s covered throughout his time here. Stix retired earlier this month, and we’d lik…
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A Disinfectant That’s More Powerful Than Bleach—And Safe for Your Skin
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14:25Hypochlorous acid is a promising disinfectant that is difficult to commercialize because it is not very shelf-stable. Senior features editor Jen Schwartz takes us through what the science of this nontoxic disinfectant is and explains why its popularity in the beauty aisle is only the beginning. Recommended reading: The Nontoxic Cleaner That Kills G…
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The Hatton Garden Heist – The Diamond Wheezers, Part 1
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45:12"Analogue villains in a digital age.” In this explosive opener to a two-part special, True Criminals co-hosts Helen Fospero and Sky News Crime Correspondent Martin Brunt dig into the extraordinary story of the 2015 Hatton Garden Heist – one of the boldest burglaries Britain has ever seen. Joining them is true crime heavyweight Wensley Clarkson – jo…
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A Long Day on Uranus, a Better Method of Making Coffee and Dinos Fossils in Decline
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8:51Caffeine-motivated researchers find that pour height may be the key to a perfect cup of coffee. A new study of plastics finds that less than 10 percent of such products are made with recycled materials. And once the plastics are used, only 28 percent of them make it to the sorting stage—and only half of that plastic is actually recycled. Data from …
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How Are Prenatal Blood Tests Detecting Cancer?
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20:55Noninvasive prenatal blood testing, or NIPT, is a routine screening that is offered during pregnancy and looks for placental DNA to diagnose chromosomal disorders in a fetus. But in some cases, these tests can also find cancer in the pregnant person. How do the tests work, and why are they uncovering cancer? Genetic counselor and writer Laura Hersc…
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Treating Bacterial Vaginosis as an STI Could Improve Outcomes
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19:29Bacterial vaginosis (BV), an overgrowth of pathogenic bacteria in the vagina, affects nearly one in three people with a vagina. While you can get BV without ever having sex, a new study has found that, in some cases, it could be functioning more like a sexually transmitted infection. That’s in part because of the increased risk of BV after sex with…
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How the Science of Safety Helps Tackle Global Risks [Sponsored]
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16:23We're surrounded by risks of all sizes, every day. Some people might be risk-takers, while others do whatever they can to avoid them. But how can we tackle the risks that impact society on a global scale, like those linked to sustainable energy, societal health and digital technology? Science journalist Izzie Clarke explores this question in the la…
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Being Bronson: Part 2 – Is Britain’s Most Notorious Inmate a Scapegoat?
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39:16In the explosive conclusion of Being Bronson, True Criminals hosts Helen Fospero and Sky News Crime Correspondent Martin Brunt take you deep into the psyche of Charles Bronson, Britain’s most feared – and perhaps most misunderstood – prisoner. This gripping episode features an exclusive interview with Dr. Bob Johnson, the prison psychiatrist who wo…
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Yodeling Monkeys, Increasing Measles Cases and Stressed Out Americans
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8:44The Trump administration continues to make cuts to U.S. science and health agencies. Now some states are fighting back, suing the Department of Health and Human Services for slashing $11 billion in public health funds. A study finds that Americans live shorter lives than Europeans with the same income—stress and other systemic issues could be to bl…
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Cutting USAID Threatens Public Health around the World
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11:59The U.S. Department of State recently announced plans to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID. While some of USAID’s functions will continue under the Department of State, there is real concern that the cuts will jeopardize public health efforts across the world, including immunization programs and other efforts that ha…
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The human body is capable of some truly incredible things. One of the most mysterious and debated phenomena is a release of fluid during sex that is often referred to as “squirting.” What’s actually happening, and why does it stir so much speculation? Wendy Zukerman, host of the hit podcast Science Vs, breaks down the science behind this fascinatin…
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Being Bronson: Part 1 – Britain’s Most Notorious Prisoner
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38:55Charles Bronson. A name that sparks fear, fascination, and endless debate. In Being Bronson: Part 1, Sky News Crime Correspondent Martin Brunt takes us inside the life—and mind—of Britain’s most infamous inmate. For nearly 50 years, Bronson has lived behind bars, most of it in solitary confinement. His explosive reputation was immortalized in the 2…
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Shark Sounds, Molecules on Mars and Continued Federal Cuts
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9:05Long-chain alkanes discovered by NASA’s Curiosity rover point to the possibility that there may have been fatty acids on Mars—and that they could have come from past microbial life. Paleontologists have found a huge dinosaur claw that was probably made for foraging, not fighting. Researchers studying ocean life have recorded the sounds of sharks an…
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Go Inside M.I.T.'s 50,000 Square Foot Clean Room
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20:08The cutting edge of research is very small—and very clean. In this episode, host Rachel Feltman joins Vladimir Bulović, director of MIT.nano, on a tour of this facility’s nanoscale capabilities. Its tightly controlled clean room hosts research across several fields, from microelectronics to medical nanotechnology. You can see Bulović’s tour of the …
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Are These Plants Out of Place? A New Look at Invasive Species
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16:29When you hear “invasive plant,” you might picture an aggressive species taking over and harming the environment. But what if the way we think about invasive plants is part of the problem? Host Rachel Feltman chats with Mason Heberling, associate curator of botany at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, about why these plants are more complicated…
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NASA Astronauts Finally Return, Seals Hold Their Breath, and Penguin Poop Stresses Out Krill
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10:14Two NASA astronauts are finally back on Earth after an unexpected nine-month stay in space. What kept them up there so long? Meanwhile scientists have discovered that gray seals have a built-in oxygen gauge that helps them hold their breath for more than an hour. And in the Antarctic, researchers found that penguin poop seriously stresses out krill…
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