New discoveries, everyday mysteries, and the science behind the headlines — in just under 15 minutes. It's science for everyone, using a lot of creativity and a little humor. Join hosts Emily Kwong and Regina Barber for science on a different wavelength. If you're hooked, try Short Wave Plus. Your subscription supports the show and unlocks a sponsor-free feed. Learn more at plus.npr.org/shortwave

Short Wave

Happy New Year, Short Wavers! What better time to contemplate the conundrum that is zero than this, the reset of the year? Zero is a fairly new concept in human history and even more recent as a number. It wasn't until around the 7th century that zero was being used as a number. That's when it showed up in the records of Indian mathematicians. Since then, zero has, at times, been met with some fear — at one point, the city of Florence, Italy banned the number.
Today, scientists seek to understand how much humans truly comprehend zero — and why it seems to be different from other numbers. That's how we ended up talking to science writer Yasemin Saplakoglu about the neuroscience of this number that means nothing.
Read more of Yasemin's reporting on zero for Quanta Magazine. Plus, check out our episode on why big numbers break our brains.
Thirst for more math episodes? Let us know what kind of stories you want to hear from us in 2025 by emailing shortwave@npr.org! 
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The Trouble With Zero

2024 was full of science news. There was a total solar eclipse, the Paris Olympics, elections in the United States and elsewhere, technological breakthroughs and many space launches. But perhaps above all, it was a huge year in health. So, today, we're talking through some of 2024's biggest health stories — from what's in our drinking water supply, to bird flu, obesity drugs and this year's record heat. They're also the stories we think will continue to be big in 2025. See you in the new year, Short Wavers! Questions or suggestions for what else we should cover? Email us at shortwave@npr.org! 
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The Biggest Health Stories of 2024

The thick-billed parrot is the only surviving parrot species native to the United States. These brightly colored birds once roamed across the American Southwest and as far south as Venezuela — but today, the only wild population remaining lives high in the forests of Mexico's Sierra Madre mountains. 
For years, conservation organizations like OVIS (Organización Vida Silvestre) and the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance have been working on a multi-faceted conservation project to save these birds. Host Regina G. Barber and producer Rachel Carlson dive into the details of that project — and how tiny "bird backpacks" are helping to make it all happen. 
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Bird Backpacks Could Help This Parrot Bounce Back

In pop culture, squirrels are often seen as jerky, excited critters on the hunt for nuts to stuff themselves with and tuck away for later. But squirrels are on the hunt for something a bit meatier in the California Bay Area. Their target: local voles. The entire process — from hunt to kill — was captured on video.
Want to hear more biology stories? Let us know by emailing shortwave@npr.org! 
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Why These Squirrels Are Eating Meat

In the early 20th century, a blight fungus wiped out most of the 4 billion American chestnut trees on the eastern seaboard. The loss was ecologically devastating. Short Wave host Emily Kwong dives deep into how scientists are trying to resurrect the American chestnut tree — and recent controversy over a plan to plant genetically modified chestnuts in the wild. 
Want to hear about more efforts to recover endangered or lost species? Let us know by emailing shortwave@npr.org!
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Will GMOs Bring Back The American Chestnut Tree?

On Christmas Eve, scientists at field stations across Antarctica sing carols to one another...via shortwave. On today's episode, the Short Wave podcast explores shortwave radio. We speak with space physicist and electrical engineer Nathaniel Frissell about this Antarctic Christmas Carol tradition and his use of shortwave radio for community science.
Read more about Santa Net, which connects children (known in the shortwave radio community as "little harmonics") with Santa.
Want more tech stories? Let us know by emailing shortwave@npr.org!
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Hear Christmas Carols And Talk To Santa On Ham Radio

There are many statistics out there that prove that flying on a commercial airplane is safe, that plane crashes are overall pretty unlikely. Still, up to an estimated 40% of Americans feel some fear at the thought of flying. So, amid the travel rush of the holiday season, we ask MIT aeronautical engineer Mark Drela: How does a plane lift off and stay up in the air? 
Interested in more stories on physics? Email us at shortwave@npr.org. We'd love to hear from you!
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How Does An Airplane Stay In The Air?

Towana Looney became the first living person in the world to get a kidney from a new kind of genetically modified pig last month. Health correspondent Rob Stein got exclusive access to be in the operating room.
Towana is a 53-year-old grandmother from Gadsden, Ala. She's been on dialysis for four hours a day, three days a week since 2016. Her immune system would reject a human kidney. So the Food and Drug Administration made an exception to its usual clinical study requirements to allow Looney this new kind of pig kidney. But the procedure is controversial. 
Interested in more environmental stories? Email us at shortwave@npr.org. We'd love to hear from you!
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The First Woman To Get A New Kind Of Kidney Transplant

Old mines leave behind a a pressing problem: Huge holes that make the landscape look like a chunk of swiss cheese. But in Germany, some scientists and city planners are turning these into lakes. 
The largest one will be the biggest artificial lake in Germany when it's done, with a shoreline of 26 kilometers or about 16 miles all around. 
But it's not as easy as simply filling the holes with water. It takes a LOT of research to get this science right. 
Interested in more environmental stories? Email us at shortwave@npr.org. We'd love to hear from you!
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This Huge Mining Pit Is About To Be A Lake

AI uses a lot of power. Some of the next generation data centers may use as much power as one million U.S. households. Technology companies like Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Meta hope nuclear power will offer a climate solution for this energy use. Nuclear power plants can deliver hundreds of megawatts of power without producing greenhouse gas emissions. But some long-time watchers of the nuclear industry are skeptical that it's the right investment for big tech companies to make. 
Read more of science correspondent Geoff Brumfiel's reporting here. 

Interested in more stories about the future of energy? Email us at shortwave@npr.org. We'd love to hear from you!
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