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Searching for chemistry between the stars
Download: searching-for-chemistry-between-the-stars.mp3 It’s said that what makes jazz are the notes you don’t play. Turns out that something similar can be said about outer space…because it’s the...
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How tiny animals find a date
http://aridanielshapiro.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/copepods.mp3 The way we talk about finding a romantic partner is biased. Take “love is in the air” or “love at first sight.” These idioms assume...
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The heart of a man
http://aridanielshapiro.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/downing.mp3 On last week’s “Patient Files” on WHYY — a series on illness, healing, and coping — I produced a story about sudden death at every turn....
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Photos of a short life comfort only some grieving parents
https://aridanielshapiro.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/soulu.mp3 The death of a child is a profound loss, and how parents grieve is often deeply personal. So personal that what comforts one parent may...
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Coral reefs can communicate with fish, and many of them are crying for help
https://aridanielshapiro.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/coralsmell.mp3 Smell is a powerful force. So powerful it can mean the difference between everything and nothing. That’s certainly the case in the...
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Young Lebanon
https://aridanielshapiro.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/karenyl.mp3 Let’s face it. The news we hear out of the Middle East tends to be pretty rough, and dispiriting. Well, this week I’m sharing a...
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Why an NGO wants this Lebanese boy to live his hoop dreams
Ahmad, like many Lebanese kids, wants to be a basketball star when he grows up. For now, he’s getting to train towards his unlikely goal thanks to a Lebanese NGO that believes such dreams are...
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An unlikely pair in Lebanon teams up in hopes of creating change
Ryan and Noor are best friends. In Lebanon, they’re an unlikely match. Ryan belongs to a religious sect called the Druze, and Noor is a Sunni Muslim. With the way things are in this country, kids from...
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A Sri Lankan girl living in Lebanon isn’t really a citizen of either country
Rainey lives in Lebanon, a country that will never give her citizenship. Her parents are from Sri Lanka, but she was born in Beirut. And now, Lebanon may ask her to leave the only home she’s ever...
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The energy efficiency revolution is coming — just don’t tell consumers
https://aridanielshapiro.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/ces.mp3 Energy-saving, environmentally friendly devices are starting to work their way into the consumer market, and many were on display at this...
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Are we witnessing the death of ‘uh’? Um, maybe — and not just in English
https://aridanielshapiro.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/umuh.mp3 We’ve have been peppering our speech with “um,” “uh” and other expressions of hesitation for a long time — maybe for as long as we’ve had...
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A new kind of nuclear reactor?
https://aridanielshapiro.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/nuclear.mp3 Nuclear energy is fraught. What do you do with the spent radioactive fuel rods? What happens if there’s a meltdown? These worries have...
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Pitching Your Stories
Transom.org just published an essay of mine about how to pitch your story ideas to editors and shows — both within and beyond public radio. If you’ve got a few minutes, I encourage you to give it a read!
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Turning ice into fire. Iceland goes for drama.
http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/cdn.pri.org/sites/default/files/segment-audio/11272015_06.mp3 Iceland is — geologically speaking — a crazy place. The local language, for instance, includes a...
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Chemist Wants To Change The Color Of Science
https://aridanielshapiro.files.wordpress.com/2016/01/dimandja.mp3 Minorities are historically underrepresented in science, technology, engineering and math fields. John Dimandja is a Congolese chemist...
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In Greenland, a climate change mystery with clues written in water and stone
https://aridanielshapiro.files.wordpress.com/2016/01/greenland1.mp3 About a decade ago, several of Greenland’s biggest glaciers suddenly began melting. A decade later, two groups of scientists are...
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Listen to two black holes colliding. Einstein was right.
A hundred years ago, Einstein predicted the existence of gravity waves. Today, for the first time, scientists announced that they’ve actually been detected. Here’s what the discovery might mean for our...
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Our ability to speak doesn’t begin with our first words. It begins in the womb.
Whether you grew up speaking one or more languages, chances are you picked your first cues in utero. Scientists are learning much more about those early moments of language acquisition. My story aired...
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‘Infinite Possibilities’ Unite Jazz And Physics
Stephon Alexander once downplayed the connections he saw between jazz and physics, concerned that — as “the only black person” in his professional circle — his credibility would be questioned. But no...
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Massachusetts brews up new green businesses
Solar and wind power are important, but solving the climate crisis will take a whole new generation of energy-efficient technologies, and even new companies to develop them. And there’s a growing force...
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A remembrance: Glaciologist Gordon Hamilton
Climate scientist Gordon Hamilton died in Antarctica over the weekend when his snowmobile plunged into a deep glacial crevasse. His research at the poles focused on the relationship between melting ice...
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Syrian refugee kids find success in school. They’re the lucky ones.
Lebanon’s public education system can’t cope with hundreds of thousands of extra Syrian refugee kids. So nonprofit groups are trying to fill the gaps. My radio story aired on PRI’s The World....
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Front row seat to Saturn
For almost 13 years, the spacecraft Cassini has been in the Saturn system, documenting the planet and its moons. Cassini’s days are numbered — on 15 September, it will be sent hurtling towards Saturn....
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What will we learn from this year’s solar eclipse?
In less than a week — on Monday, August 21 — an eclipse will race from Oregon to South Carolina, plunging a narrow strip of America into darkness. Total solar eclipses are notable for what they hide:...
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Mathematicians Could Help In Gerrymandering Legal Cases
Legal fights over racial and partisan gerrymandering are intensifying and mathematicians think they can help. Specialists in geometry are training to become expert witnesses in redistricting cases...
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