Elite Athlete Dental Health
The dental health of elite athletes often suffers.
Old Lungs & Ibuprofen
Ibuprofen might quell lung inflammation and help prevent infections.
Smelly T-Shirts
How stinky your workout shirt will become depends on what it's made of.
Walkable Neighborhood Health
Walkable neighborhoods may lower their residents' risk of obesity and diabetes.
Music & Prosthetics
Musical feedback could help veterans with prosthetic limbs re-learn to walk.
Podcast for 18 October 2013
PSYCHOLOGY & MEDICINE - Can literary fiction influence social astuteness? Why some people still fall for email spam. And, how sluggers' eyes can track fastballs in time to hit them. Also, how cell phones are transforming rural medicine.
Tracking Fastballs
To hit a fastball, a batter's brain has to predict when it'll come across the plate.
Brainy Athletes
Olympic-level athletes have some enhanced cognitive abilities.
Podcast for 12 April 2013
ATHLETES & ROBOTS - Elite athletes are far from dumb jocks. A common ingredient in energy drinks could promote heart disease. Also: Robots that learn by watching us, and robots that can walk on sand.
Tree-Climbing People
The Twa people of Uganda climb trees with ease. A new study suggests that the trait may be the result of practical necessity.
Thought-Controlled Prosthetics
Prosthetic limbs are moving ever closer to life-like, thought-controlled replicas.
Listening to Football Helmets
Measuring the acoustical signatures of colliding football helmets could help improve helmet safety.
Fat but Fit
Many obese people are metabolically fit and are at no greater risk of dying from cardiovascular disease or cancer than people of normal weight.
Podcast for 31 August 2012
WHALES, APES & BIRDS - Chimps don't share our sense of justice. What gibbons on helium can tell us about opera singers. Deciphering the peacock's hidden message. What an endangered whale has in common with songbirds. Also: Did a Central American rodent save a tree species from extinction?
Podcast for 17 August 2012
PSYCHOLOGY OF CONSUMPTION - Why planning a lifestyle change often backfires, why buying larger quantities doesn't always mean a better deal, and the relationship between speed of consumption and satisfaction, Also: did hunter-gatherers really use more calories than people living today? And an unmanned aircraft maps an archaeological site in Peru in record time.
Hunter-Gatherer Metabolism
People living as hunter-gatherers burn roughly as many calories per day as those in industrialized countries.
Podcast for 10 August 2012
Dad's diversity and perilous parenthood.
Yoga Roundup
Practicing yoga could help older people who have suffered strokes recover more quickly.
When Planning Backfires
Planning a major lifestyle change can be a good idea, but only if you feel good about yourself to begin with.
Podcast for 3 August 2012
INVENTION - More lifelike robots. Headlights that can see past raindrops. And a pair of goggles that could improve your memory. Also, scientists have developed the world's lightest material.
Football & Artificial Intelligence
Computer scientists used football footage to develop a sophisticated kind of artificial intelligence.
Podcast for 19 August 2011
WATER EVERYWHERE - Astronomers have discovered the largest cache of water ever, and researchers are developing new software for detecting contamination of municipal water supplies. Also: Round robots to help safeguard nuclear power plants.
Soccer Goalies
Soccer goalies tend to dive toward the right when their team is behind.
Podcast for 22 July 2011
THE BRAIN & SOCIETY: How the brain experiences beauty, what soccer reveals about the mind, and why lazing around in a hammock could benefit your memory. Also, how your cell phone could help you kick the habit.