This is the last episode of Living Lab Radio. Heather Goldstone will be joining Woods Hole Research Center to communicate about what is possibly the most pressing issue of our time: climate change. Elsa Partan will be staying at WCAI as a news producer. It has been seven and a half years. We've done more than 800 interviews covering everything from black holes to sexual harassment. There’s really no way to sum all that up. Instead, today, we’re revisiting highlights from a handful of memorable interviews. They aren’t necessarily our newsiest or hardest-hitting reporting. They are conversations that left us with not only new knowledge but a nugget of wisdom that we still carry with us. How Mindfulness Reduces Stress and Improves Health Originally published May 9, 2016. In 1971, Jon Kabat-Zinn finished his Ph.D. in the laboratory of Nobel Laureate Salvador Luria at M.I.T. Then, he took what might be considered a left turn – he went to study with Buddhist masters. Several years later, he

Living Lab Radio

Living Lab Radio: December 29 and 30, 2019.

Bridget B. Baker , Wayne State University While the weather outside may indeed get frightful this winter, a parka, knit hat, wool socks, insulated boots and maybe a roaring fire make things bearable for people who live in cold climates. But what about all the wildlife out there? Won’t they be freezing? Anyone who’s walked their dog when temperatures are frigid knows that canines will shiver and favor a cold paw – which partly explains the boom in the pet clothing industry . But chipmunks and cardinals don’t get fashionable coats or booties. In fact, wildlife can succumb to frostbite and hypothermia, just like people and pets. In the northern United States, the unfurred tails of opossums are a common casualty of cold exposure. Every so often an unusual cold snap in Florida results in iguanas falling from trees and manatees dying from cold stress . Avoiding the cold is important for preserving life or limb (or, in the opossum’s case, tail) and the opportunity to reproduce. These

Is Winter Miserable for Wildlife?

“If you have scientific misconduct, there are some clear rules that have been around for quite a while where your funding could be at jeopardy. We thought that sexual misconduct should be at that level. Even laboratory safety is an issue that can have consequences, so we said that – at the minimum – [sexual misconduct] should be at least at the level of scientific misconduct and safety.” – Joyce Wong

Living Lab Radio: December 22 and 23, 2019

Aude Watrelot , Iowa State University When you take a sip of wine at a family meal or celebration, what do you notice? First, you probably note the visual characteristics: the color is generally red, rosé or white. Next, you smell the aromatic compounds wafting up from your glass. And then there’s the sensation in your mouth when you taste it. White wine and rosé are usually described as refreshing, because they have brisk acidity and little to moderate sweetness. Those low levels of sugar may lead you to perceive these wines as “dry.” People also describe wines as dry when alcohol levels are high, usually over about 13%, mostly because the ethanol leads to hot or burning sensations that cover up other sensations , especially sweetness. People also perceive red wines as dry or astringent because they contain a class of molecules called polyphenols. As an enologist – a wine scientist – I’m interested in how all the chemistry in a glass of wine adds up to this perception of dryness.

What Makes Wine Dry? It’s Easy to Taste, but Much Harder to Measure

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released its annual Arctic report card last week, with data tracking seven vital signs of Arctic health, including air and water temperatures, sea ice and tundra greenness. The conclusion: “Arctic ecosystems and communities are increasingly at risk due to continued warming and declining sea ice.”

MOSAiC Mission Aims to Paint More Complete Picture of Changing Arctic

In the early hours of December 9th, the volcano known as Whakaari, or White Island off the northern coast of New Zealand erupted, killing several people .

Whakaari Volcano Eruption Reveals Difficulty in Forecasting Volcanic Events

There are thousands of languages spoken around the world today. While we know how many of them are related to each other, we know very little about how they actually arose. "The main reason is because we can't travel back in time and go back to the times when these languages actually emerged," said Manuel Bohn, a postdoctoral researcher at Leipsig University. There are languages, particularly sign languages, that have emerged over the past century. Even in those cases, though, Bohn says documentation of the evolutionary process began at some point after those first moments when two people needed to communicate and didn’t have a way to do so. And it is those very first steps toward language that Bohn wants to learn about. Lacking a time machine, Bohn and his colleagues wanted to try to simulate the birth of a new language in the lab to watch how it works. The problem was, they couldn’t figure out how to deprive their study participants of language. Then came the aha moment. “We were on

Turning Off Volume on Skype Sheds Light on How Languages Emerge

We all know we’re supposed to eat a balanced diet with a combination of different types of foods. A growing body of research suggests the same is true when it comes to social behavior – that a mixture of different types of social interactions, as well as alone time, leads to the greatest well-being.

Alone Time an Important Part of a Balanced Social Diet

“We get to read the whole book. Normally, you go out for a couple of months. It's like you have a complicated mystery and you get two chapters and you're supposed to figure out what's going on. But here, we've already started. We’re there in the fall, when the ice begins to freeze, we'll watch it evolve through the whole winter and see what happens when summer comes.” – Don Perovich

Living Lab Radio: December 15, 2019

Last year, the Parker Solar Probe flew closer to the sun than anything ever has before. Now, scientists have released the first results, and there are some big surprises, like solar winds up to twenty five times faster than expected, and previously unknown rogue waves.

Parker Solar Probe Findings Surprise Scientists

By Jay L. Zagorsky , Boston University Gift giving is a big deal this time of year. To find the “perfect” gift , Americans will spend about 15 hours shopping. Women will do about twice as much as men. And they’ll shell out about US$1 trillion on gifts. While retailers relish the holiday shopping season as a time when consumers open their purses or wallets, for many consumers – especially those who do not like shopping – these days are filled with dread . They mark moments when shoppers clog malls, websites become overloaded and delivery trucks block streets . The entire process generates untold amounts of stress and anxiety . One source of stress is just how much to spend on gifts. Spending too much can put you in financial distress. Spending too little may make you look cheap. How do you decide what’s the “right” amount to spend on gifts? As an economist , I study holidays and gift giving because a large fraction of retail shopping is driven by seasonal events like Black Friday, Cyber

How to Pick the 'Right' Amount to Spend

The Impossible Burger has put high tech meat alternatives on people’s plates and minds. But just how big could this emerging sector become? And how soon? A new analysis says it could make the cow all but obsolete in a matter of years.

We've Reached 'Peak Cow,' Report Says

This year’s United Nations conference on climate change is underway in Madrid, Spain, with about 25,000 people from 200 countries attending. The mood is one of urgency, according to participants.

A Mood Of Urgency At UN Climate Change Conference in Madrid

“Essentially, the cost of producing protein is going to come down fast. So, it's five times cheaper by 2030 - and ten times by 2035 - than existing methods. And so, ultimately, this means 50 percent fewer cows by 2030. And it won't stop there.” – Catherine Tubb

Living Lab Radio: December 8, 2019

In July of 2014, images of an enormous crater in the Siberian tundra captivated scientists and the public, alike. Others were soon found, and a cause proposed: climate change. Specifically, the finger was pointed at an underground build-up of methane released as permafrost thaws. But this was not a climate change impact that anyone had anticipated.

New Effort to Understand Arctic Craters Caused by Warming

Living Lab on WCAI is a forum for the stories behind science headlines — the people who do the research, the unexpected ways that science gets done, and how the results make their way into our everyday lives.

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