© 2026 All Rights reserved WUSF
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Search results for

  • In Turkey, the government is touting its donations of medical supplies abroad even though coronavirus is taking a steep toll in Turkey and the economy is on the brink.
  • NPR's David Kestenbaum reports on a possible wrinkle in the space-time continuum. Really. Physicists measuring the fundamental characteristics of a subatomic particle, the muon, have come up with some very puzzling results that could punch a hole in the long-standing "standard model" of how matter is put together. And that could help usher in a completely new theory of matter, time and space. Unless, of course, some scientist has made a mistake. (4:30) (It was later revealed this was a mistake: "Well, I would say I'm responsible for the mistake. My collaborator did most of the work, but I am equally guilty of making mistakes." Toichiro Kinoshita, a physicist at Princeton University. Kinoshita's sin was to have a minus sign where he should have had a plus or maybe the other way around. He can't quite remember, though it ended up having gigantic consequences. Kinoshita and his colleague were calculating how a particular subatomic particle behaves when it's stuck in a magnetic field. The particle, it turns out, wobbles like a toy top at a particular frequency. Kinoshita enlisted hundreds of computers and, after a decade of heroic work, had precisely predicted how fast it should wobble according to the laws of physics. Last winter, other physicists who were out measuring the wobble found it differed significantly from Kinoshita's prediction. In the clockwork world of physics, this was potentially a huge finding, signaling something new and mysterious, except that it wasn't. Kinoshita traced his error to a tiny quirk in a computer program he was using. He hadn't checked that bit, in part because other physicists using a different approach had gotten the same answer."
  • The rule change is an apparent victory for Norway's female handball team after it was fined for wearing shorts rather than the requisite bikini bottoms over the summer.
  • The No. 1 and 2 causes of death remain the same, but there have been a number of notable changes. And now there's a new disease to assess on the global landscape: COVID-19.
  • A top Russian figure skater was allowed to compete despite testing positive for a banned substance before the Games. Kamila Valieva, age 15, helped Russia win the team event earlier this week.
  • As top law enforcement officials prepared to brief the media on the arrest of seven suspected terrorists in Miami, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff was otherwise involved. He was meeting with producers and some cast members of the Fox TV counterterrorism show 24.
  • People living near the Susquehanna River in Wilkes-Barre, Penn., are returning to their homes as river waters recede. But flooding still threatens other communities in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and other parts of the Northeast.
  • Barry Bonds hits a 445-foot home run off Colorado Rockies' pitcher Byung-Hyun Kim, delighting the home fans in San Francisco. His 715 career home runs put him second on the all-time list behind Henry Aaron, who passed Ruth in 1974 and finished with 755 home runs.
  • Ever since the dawn of digital delivery, we've been hearing about how the single-song download is killing the album. But at the Grammy Awards, which take place Sunday night in Los Angeles, there's still a category for Album of the Year. Tom Moon profiles the nominees.
  • Organizers at Roland-Garros said Serbian tennis star Novak Djokovic should be allowed to compete at the French Open thanks to loosened COVID rules in France.
  • The threat of Russia invading Ukraine is real, the Biden administration insists. At the same time, top officials say they hope that being vocal about the intelligence they have could deter action.
  • The resourceful singer is unafraid to bring opera — and his high-flying top notes — to unlikely places, from sixth-grade classrooms to the offices of NPR.
  • The United States drew a spot in Group B, meaning the men's soccer team will face off against England, Iran and the winner of a European playoff — setting up a challenging run for the U.S. squad.
  • Pizza makers in New York are remembering Domenico "Dom" Demarco, the founder of the beloved Brooklyn pizzeria Di Fara, who has died at the age of 85.
  • The Pacific purple sea urchin's appetite for kelp threatens marine ecosystems along the California coast as it ravages the "lungs of the ocean." The solution, biologists say, might be on our plates.
  • The 22-year-old American topped a competitive field Thursday in Beijing. Figure skaters from Japan came in second and third.
  • Research shows that sleep deprivation makes people emotionally volatile and temperamental — a fact that hasn't escaped the notice of some reality TV producers, who deny contestants sleep in an effort to kick up televised drama.
  • Seventy years ago, an atomic bomb wiped a city off the map. The committee that picked the target knew the destruction would be awful, but hoped it could end the war and stop future use of such bombs.
  • The civil rights group expressed concerns the school district's top spot could be offered to former Hillsborough Superintendent Addison Davis, without community input.
  • In India, abortions are legal. But women are often afraid or ashamed to seek an abortion. And for rural women, there may not be a facility nearby. Here is the story of one woman's decision.
  • Two mothers whose sons were killed during the first Gulf War talk about how they became friends after their sons died. The past 22 years would have been tough without the friendship, because, as one tells the other, "what's in our hearts we share."
  • Pras Michel has been convicted in a federal court in Washington, D.C., on 10 counts related to charges that include conspiracy, witness tampering and failing to register as an agent of China.
  • A mastodon tooth washed up on a California beach and then went missing. A local museum tried to track it down.
  • Travel to Florida from Canada has nearly returned to pre-pandemic levels, but visa issues continue to complicate the state's efforts to draw overseas visitors, according to tourism officials.
  • News broke Thursday that in 2005, the CIA destroyed at least two videotapes made three years earlier that showed harsh interrogation techniques. Intelligence committee members from both parties say they weren't told about the tapes or about plans to destroy them.
419 of 2,308