Search

Listen to hear about the adorable roller coaster riders replacing human visitors during the pandemic.

Vocabulary: hurtle, historic

Listen to hear about bald eagle sightings on Cape Cod for the first time in more than 100 years.

Vocabulary: deforestation, century, symbol

Listen to hear about how a bull caused a Scottish town to lose power.

Vocabulary: culprit, suspect, oblivious

Listen to hear about how a robot dog in a Singapore park reminds people to practice social distancing.

Vocabulary: instruct, patrol, enforce

Many scientists isolating at home during the pandemic have taken their study subjects with them. The researchers want to keep the plants and animals that they study alive and continue their experiments. Bringing spiders and even sunflower seeds home can have hazards, however. Listen to learn what scientists are doing to protect their study subjects during a health crisis and hear how one scientist’s roommates responded to the unusual critters in the house.

Listen to hear about two dog brothers who were accidentally reunited.

Vocabulary: reunited, similar

Dogs have powerful noses, and their sniffing skills might be able to help with keeping the pandemic under control. Many diseases have particular smells. Scientists are working to identify the scent of COVID-19 and training dogs to find it in humans. The trained animals would be able to quickly screen hundreds of people in places such as airports and train stations. Listen to hear how trainers teach dogs to find certain scents and when the first group of sniffers could be ready to work.

Listen to hear about a parrot who plays a trick on the police.

Vocabulary: recently, deputies, unnerving

Snapping shrimp produce surprisingly loud noises by clicking their claws. The noises they make are so pronounced that they once led to a Navy investigation. Ocean warming is causing the snapping shrimp clicks to become even louder and more frequent. The increase in ocean noise from this and other human impacts can be disruptive to marine ecosystems where sound is important to survival. Listen to hear what snapping shrimp sound like and learn why their sounds might be helpful to some species and harmful to others.

The relationship between humans and dogs is a special one, and there are multiple theories about how it originated and how it has changed over time. All dogs evolved from wolves, and scientists are learning more about that evolutionary process through research about similarities and differences in the behavior of wolves and dogs. Listen to this story about a game of fetch and how it might inform scientists’ understanding of the history of the special relationship between species.

Listen to hear how people in Florida are advised to keep a safe distance from each other during the pandemic.

Vocabulary: visualize, residents

What happens to the animals when no one visits the zoo? Though the coronavirus pandemic has shut down many public gathering places and cultural institutions, including zoos, the animals continue to need daily care and feeding. Places like The Cincinnati Zoo depend on a small group of dedicated workers to show up each day to care for their beloved animals. Listen to hear zoo workers describe some of their favorite animals and learn how one baby hippo became an internet star.

A famous cat has died. C.C. the cat, sometimes known as Carbon Copy, was the world’s first cloned pet. Texas A&M University scientists cloned C.C. to investigate whether the process could be used by owners to keep their beloved pets alive. C.C. became a celebrity when a photo of her sitting in a lab beaker circulated around the world. Listen to hear the scientist who cloned C.C. explain the cloning process and learn why he does not recommend cloning your cat.