Science Friday Video Podcast

Science Friday, as heard on NPR, is a weekly discussion of the latest news in science, technology, health, and the environment hosted by ...
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Video Episodes:

Working Out The Jum...
333 Views
14:10:00 12/09/11

While warming up for a pickup basketball game, Howard Stone and Jeff Aristoff wondered if anyone had mathematically modeled the shape of the jump rope. The researc...

Working Out The Jump Rope

Added 12/09/11
333 Views

Working Out The Jump Rope

[LESS INFO] 333 VIEWS | ADDED 14:10:00 12/09/11
While warming up for a pickup basketball game, Howard Stone and Jeff Aristoff wondered if anyone had mathematically modeled the shape of the jump rope. The researchers decided to give it a whirl.

Pigeons Fly Like Ti...
499 Views
14:10:00 12/02/11

Harvard researchers trapped pigeons in a parking garage and filmed them with high-speed cameras to see how they make tight turns at low speeds.

Pigeons Fly Like Tiny Helicopters

Added 12/02/11
499 Views

Pigeons Fly Like Tiny Helicopters

[LESS INFO] 499 VIEWS | ADDED 14:10:00 12/02/11
Harvard researchers trapped pigeons in a parking garage and filmed them with high-speed cameras to see how they make tight turns at low speeds.

Behold The 1000-Pou...
428 Views
14:10:00 11/25/11

Visit Robert Sabin's pumpkin patch: he has been growing giant pumpkins--the breed is Atlantic Giant--for over ten years. Does his top pumpkin have the heft to win ...

Behold The 1000-Pound Pumpkin

Added 11/25/11
428 Views

Behold The 1000-Pound Pumpkin

[LESS INFO] 428 VIEWS | ADDED 14:10:00 11/25/11
Visit Robert Sabin's pumpkin patch: he has been growing giant pumpkins--the breed is Atlantic Giant--for over ten years. Does his top pumpkin have the heft to win the Long Island Giant Pumpkin Weigh-Off at Hicks Nurseries? We'll find out.

Meet The Balloonatics
483 Views
14:10:00 11/18/11

The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade balloons are getting their final checkup before their big day. John Piper and Jim Artle spill the secrets of inflation, explain ...

Meet The Balloonatics

Added 11/18/11
483 Views

Meet The Balloonatics

[LESS INFO] 483 VIEWS | ADDED 14:10:00 11/18/11
The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade balloons are getting their final checkup before their big day. John Piper and Jim Artle spill the secrets of inflation, explain how to calculate whether your balloon will float, and explain why the balloons look better after a little time in the sun.

When Is A Moth Like...
493 Views
14:10:00 11/04/11

A hawk moth feeds by hovering in front of flowers and slurping nectar through a proboscis, basically a body-length straw. To understand how these moths keep such a...

When Is A Moth Like A Hummingbird?

Added 11/04/11
493 Views

When Is A Moth Like A Hummingbird?

[LESS INFO] 493 VIEWS | ADDED 14:10:00 11/04/11
A hawk moth feeds by hovering in front of flowers and slurping nectar through a proboscis, basically a body-length straw. To understand how these moths keep such a precise position in the air, Tyson Hedrick, a biomechanist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, tried destabilizing moths in a variety of different ways and tracked their responses using high speed cameras.

Desktop Diaries: Br...
589 Views
14:10:00 10/28/11

Theoretical physicist and mathematician Brian Greene takes us into his home office for a tour of his tidy workspace, in the second of Science Friday's Desktop Diar...

Desktop Diaries: Brian Greene

Added 10/28/11
589 Views

Desktop Diaries: Brian Greene

[LESS INFO] 589 VIEWS | ADDED 14:10:00 10/28/11
Theoretical physicist and mathematician Brian Greene takes us into his home office for a tour of his tidy workspace, in the second of Science Friday's Desktop Diaries series. Greene uses his desk mainly for calculations, often executed with pencil and paper--a tradition that dates back to his childhood when his father would give him 30-digit by 30-digit multiplication problems. Greene's father, Alan Greene, was a composer, and his music features in this video.

Geek My Pumpkin
591 Views
15:10:00 10/21/11

Carve first, scoop later--that's just one of the tips from Maniac Pumpkin Carvers Marc and Chris. Based in Brooklyn, these professional illustrators switch to the ...

Geek My Pumpkin

Added 10/21/11
591 Views

Geek My Pumpkin

[LESS INFO] 591 VIEWS | ADDED 15:10:00 10/21/11
Carve first, scoop later--that's just one of the tips from Maniac Pumpkin Carvers Marc and Chris. Based in Brooklyn, these professional illustrators switch to the medium of pumpkin during October. They carve hundreds of pumpkins each fall, which go for a few hundred bucks and rarely end up on stoops.

Spinning Eggs In Space
529 Views
15:10:00 10/14/11

If you try to spin a raw egg on a table, you will notice that it doesn’t twirl very well--at least compared to a hard-boiled egg. Astronaut Don Pettit wondered wha...

Spinning Eggs In Space

Added 10/14/11
529 Views

Spinning Eggs In Space

[LESS INFO] 529 VIEWS | ADDED 15:10:00 10/14/11
If you try to spin a raw egg on a table, you will notice that it doesn’t twirl very well--at least compared to a hard-boiled egg. Astronaut Don Pettit wondered what would happen if you repeated the experiment in space. Any guesses?

3D Up In Flames
790 Views
15:10:00 10/07/11

Tadd Truscott and Dale Tree, engineers at Brigham Young University, are videoing fire with high speed cameras to try to make a 3D reconstruction of a flame. Poetic...

3D Up In Flames

Added 10/07/11
790 Views

3D Up In Flames

[LESS INFO] 790 VIEWS | ADDED 15:10:00 10/07/11
Tadd Truscott and Dale Tree, engineers at Brigham Young University, are videoing fire with high speed cameras to try to make a 3D reconstruction of a flame. Poetic and practical, they say: quantifying flames could help us burn fuel more cleanly and efficiently.

This Dome Is A Home
527 Views
15:10:00 09/30/11

Kevin Shea lives in a 70-foot in diameter, forest-green, geodesic dome. It is equipped with a solar array, a wind turbine, and a geothermal system. Shea makes biod...

This Dome Is A Home

Added 09/30/11
527 Views

This Dome Is A Home

[LESS INFO] 527 VIEWS | ADDED 15:10:00 09/30/11
Kevin Shea lives in a 70-foot in diameter, forest-green, geodesic dome. It is equipped with a solar array, a wind turbine, and a geothermal system. Shea makes biodiesel in a shed outback. His garden is constructed of 800 old tires. Take a tour of Shea's dome home.

Purifying Water Wit...
638 Views
15:10:00 09/16/11

New York is testing out a new water scrubber at one of its wastewater treatment plants in Queens. Meet the algal turf scrubber--two 350-foot slides covered in gree...

Purifying Water With Pond Scum

Added 09/16/11
638 Views

Purifying Water With Pond Scum

[LESS INFO] 638 VIEWS | ADDED 15:10:00 09/16/11
New York is testing out a new water scrubber at one of its wastewater treatment plants in Queens. Meet the algal turf scrubber--two 350-foot slides covered in green algae. Water flows down the slides, algae grows naturally, and then cleans the water sent over it.

Stalking The Wild M...
503 Views
15:10:00 09/09/11

From death caps to puffballs, the fruiting bodies of fungi can be grouped into about a dozen major categories. Mycologist Roy Halling walks us through the wide wor...

Stalking The Wild Mushroom

Added 09/09/11
503 Views

Stalking The Wild Mushroom

[LESS INFO] 503 VIEWS | ADDED 15:10:00 09/09/11
From death caps to puffballs, the fruiting bodies of fungi can be grouped into about a dozen major categories. Mycologist Roy Halling walks us through the wide world of mushrooms and takes us on a fungi foraging foray on the grounds of the New York Botanical Garden.

Stroke Of The Water...
631 Views
15:10:00 08/26/11

Water striders don't really stride, they row on the water. But their legs are spindly and don't seem good for paddling. To find out exactly how water striders prop...

Stroke Of The Water Strider

Added 08/26/11
631 Views

Stroke Of The Water Strider

[LESS INFO] 631 VIEWS | ADDED 15:10:00 08/26/11
Water striders don't really stride, they row on the water. But their legs are spindly and don't seem good for paddling. To find out exactly how water striders propel themselves mechanical engineer David Hu, of Georgia Tech, filmed them rowing on food coloring and built his own robostrider.

Poop And Paddle
461 Views
15:10:00 08/19/11

Green builder Adam Katzman wanted to experiment with building a “constructed wetland” to process sewage. Then he wanted to make the whole thing float. His paddle-b...

Poop And Paddle

Added 08/19/11
461 Views

Poop And Paddle

[LESS INFO] 461 VIEWS | ADDED 15:10:00 08/19/11
Green builder Adam Katzman wanted to experiment with building a “constructed wetland” to process sewage. Then he wanted to make the whole thing float. His paddle-boat-toilet, parked at a marina in Queens, demonstrates how rainwater and human waste can be converted to plants and clean water. It’s a zero-waste waste disposal system.

Boost Your Bike
554 Views
15:10:00 08/12/11

Maxwell von Stein, a 22 year-old Cooper Union graduate, built a bicycle that uses a flywheel to store energy. Instead of braking, he can slow the bicycle by transf...

Boost Your Bike

Added 08/12/11
554 Views

Boost Your Bike

[LESS INFO] 554 VIEWS | ADDED 15:10:00 08/12/11
Maxwell von Stein, a 22 year-old Cooper Union graduate, built a bicycle that uses a flywheel to store energy. Instead of braking, he can slow the bicycle by transferring the kinetic energy from back wheel into the flywheel--which spins between the bars of the frame. Then Max can send the flywheel energy back to the wheel when he wants a boost.

Where's The Octopus?
626 Views
15:10:00 08/05/11

When marine biologist Roger Hanlon captured the first scene in this video he started screaming. He studies camouflage in cephalopods--squid, octopus and cuttlefish...

Where's The Octopus?

Added 08/05/11
626 Views

Where's The Octopus?

[LESS INFO] 626 VIEWS | ADDED 15:10:00 08/05/11
When marine biologist Roger Hanlon captured the first scene in this video he started screaming. He studies camouflage in cephalopods--squid, octopus and cuttlefish. They are masters of optical illusion and these are some of Hanlon's top video picks of the animals going in and out of hiding.

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Working Out The Jump Rope

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Working Out The Jump Rope
12/09/11

While warming up for a pickup basketball game, Howard Stone and Jeff Aristoff wondered if anyone had mathematically modeled the shape of the jump rope. The researchers decided to give it a whirl.