Dogs were the first domesticated animal in history, emerging from wolves some 20,000 years ago. But how did wolves become dogs? To find the answer, scientists have to play with a lot of puppies. (First published in 2023.)
Guest: Kathryn Lord, evolutionary biology researcher at UMass Chan Medical School
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Some scientists think an explosion of AI awareness and feeling might be just around the corner. Others think it’s impossible for an AI to ever become conscious. How will we know?
Guest: Oshan Jarow, staff writer at Vox’s Future Perfect
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Will AI ever ... feel?

It’s that time of year again. If you’re changing things up, there’s a lot of diets out there that claim to help you live longer. Our friends at Today, Explained ask: How much of this is real and how much of it is nonsense?
Guests: Anahad O’Connor, health columnist at the Washington Post; Saul Justin Newman, researcher at the University College London Centre for Longitudinal Studies
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New year, new diet, live forever?

The wildest stories that never made it into our episodes. Until now.
Guests: Amy Boddy, anthropological scientist at the University of California, Santa Barbara; Jayme Locke, transplant surgeon at the University of Alabama at Birmingham; Jonathan Jiang, research scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory
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Mysteries we can’t stop thinking about

Who let the wolves in?

We know Neanderthals and early modern humans coupled up. But when did they meet, exactly? And where? Some fossilized smoke and a baby tooth might hold clues.
Guest: Adam Cole of HowTown
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Where to meet a Neanderthal

It’s not great to be a lab rat. And it turns out, lab rats might not be that great for science either. Could the future be little lab-grown brain clumps?
Guests: Rachel Nuwer, science journalist; Lisa Genzel, professor of neuroscience at Radboud University
This episode has been updated. An earlier version didn’t differentiate between two stages of drug development.
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Pinky and the (lab-grown) Brain

This week on Unexplainable or Not, we’ve got three scientific mysteries all about left and right. Jonquilyn Hill, host of Vox’s new podcast Explain It to Me, is going to guess which of them has been solved and which ones are still unexplainable.
Guest: S. Furkan Ozturk, researcher at Harvard University
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Why are there lefties and righties?

For decades, scientists thought that placebos only worked if patients didn’t know they were taking them. Not anymore: You can give patients placebos, tell them they’re on sugar pills, and they still might feel better. No one is sure how this works, but it raises a question: Should doctors embrace placebos in mainstream medicine? (First published in 2021.)
Guests: Ted Kaptchuk, professor at Harvard Medical School; Darwin Guevarra, professor of psychology at Miami University; Luana Colloca, professor at the University of Maryland School of Nursing
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Placebos work. Why?

It makes sense that we run away from scary things. That’s a good way to stay alive. But why do some people also love scary things? Why do people gravitate toward horror?
Guests: Mathias Clasen and Marc Andersen, co-directors of the Recreational Fear Lab at Aarhus University
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Why is horror so fun?

Drugs like ecstasy and mushrooms have shown promise as mental health treatments, but they’re also exposing some major cracks in how scientists study the brain.
Guests: Jonathan Lambert, science journalist; Boris Heifets, professor at Stanford University of Medicine; Amy Mcguire, professor at Baylor College of Medicine
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Are psychedelics breaking science?

How we feel emotionally may be influenced by unseen troves of microbial life that live inside us. Is it possible to harness this gut power? (First published in 2022)
Guests: Michael Gershon, professor of pathology at Columbia University; and Katerina Johnson, microbiome researcher at Oxford University
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 Your gut’s feelings

As the world gets warmer and storms get worse, insurance companies are jacking up rates — or refusing to cover homeowners altogether. Is the future uninsurable?
Guests: Umair Irfan, correspondent at Vox; Karen Clark, co-founder and CEO of Karen Clark &amp; Company; Joe Skuba, VP at The Gray Insurance Company; and Carolyn Kousky, Associate VP at Environmental Defense Fund
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Is insurance doomed?

Doctors have started transplanting animal organs into people, hoping this experimental procedure could one day solve an organ shortage crisis that kills 17 Americans every day. Is this really the solution?
Guests: Muhammad Mohiuddin, professor of surgery at University of Maryland School of Medicine; L. Syd Johnson, professor of clinical bioethics at SUNY Upstate Medical University
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My animal heart

Scientists have lots of ways to try to answer that question, and lots of different predictions. So how do they figure out one set of numbers we can all work with?
Guests: Umair Irfan, correspondent at Vox; Zeke Hausfather, climate scientist at The Breakthrough Institute; Neil Swart, research scientist at the Canadian Centre for Climate Modeling and Analysis
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How hot could the world get?

Probably not. But Wall Street Journal reporter Jeff Horwitz decided to try anyway, putting his body — and specifically his butt — on the line to answer a seemingly straightforward question: Is it possible to build up a tolerance to poison oak by eating it?
Guest: Jeff Horwitz, reporter at the Wall Street Journal; and Mahmoud ElSohly, professor of pharmaceutics at the University of Mississippi
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Should you be eating poison oak?

Scientists just discovered oxygen being produced without sunlight — without photosynthesis — at the bottom of the ocean. This “dark oxygen” could fundamentally change the story we tell of life on Earth and in the rest of the universe.
Guest: Alycia Smith, ecologist at Heriot-Watt University
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Dark oxygen could rewrite Earth’s history

For decades, search and rescue teams followed an accepted playbook. Now, scientists are helping them reimagine how to find lost people.
Guests: Robert Koester, author of Lost Person Behavior, and Paul Doherty, search and rescue researcher
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You're lost in the wilderness. Now what?

With antibiotic resistance on the rise, some scientists are turning to viruses as a medical tool. But we barely know anything about the bacteria-eating viruses all around us. (First published in 2021)
Guest: Nicola Twilley, host of Gastropod
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Viral dark matter

Our bodies are teeming with viruses. But some of them, called phages, might play a really important role in keeping us healthy.
Guest: Tom Ireland, author of The Good Virus
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The good virus

The FDA is about to announce whether it’s going to approve MDMA as a treatment for PTSD. Our friends at Today, Explained explore what this kind of therapy looks like, and why it’s so controversial.
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Ecstasy therapy

They probably didn’t roar like lions. Their real voices were likely much, much weirder. We asked scientists to help us re-create these strange, extinct sounds. (First published in 2022)
Guests: Michael Habib, professor at UCLA, Julia Clarke, professor at the University of Texas at Austin, and Jonny Crew, sound designer at Wounded Buffalo
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What did dinosaurs sound like?

It’s possible that the entire observable universe is inside a black hole. All we need to do to find out is … build a gigantic particle collider around the moon.
Guest: James Beacham, particle physicist at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN
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Do we live inside an enormous black hole?

Send this episode to the person who constantly hounds you not to slouch.
Guest: Beth Linker, author of “Slouch: Posture Panic in Modern America”
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Is good posture actually good?

People yawn when they’re bored, right? So then why do athletes yawn before races? And why do so many animals yawn? … And why does reading this paragraph make you more likely to yawn? (Updated from 2022)
Guest: Dr. Andrew Gallup
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Why do we yawn?

Can a physicist predict our messy economy by building an enormous simulation of the entire world?
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Embracing economic chaos

Inflation is one of the most significant issues shaping the 2024 election. But how much can we actually do to control it?
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We still don’t really know how inflation works

It’s hard to figure out the economic value of a wild bat or any other part of the natural world, but some scientists argue that this kind of calculation could help protect our environment.
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Can you put a price on nature?

Seventy-five percent of the seafloor remains unmapped and unexplored, but the first few glimpses scientists have gotten of the ocean’s depths have completely revolutionized our understanding of the planet.
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The deepest spot in the ocean

If you just stood up and shouted, “It’s Mount Everest, duh!” then take a seat. Not only is Everest’s official height constantly changing, but three other mountains might actually be king of the hill.
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What’s the tallest mountain in the world?

Way back when forests first evolved on Earth … they might have triggered one of the biggest mass extinctions in the history of the planet. What can we learn from this ancient climate apocalypse?
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Did trees kill the world?

From blood transfusions to enzyme boosters, our friends at Science Vs dive into the latest research on the search for the fountain of youth.
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Can we stop aging?

A snake. A shark. They got pregnant with no male involved. In fact, scientists are finding more and more species that can reproduce on their own. What’s going on?
Note: We mention that a stingray named Charlotte might be pregnant via parthenogenesis. It has since been announced that she was not pregnant, but ill.
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Who's the daddy? There isn't one.

Itch used to be understood as a mild form of pain, but scientists are learning this sense is more than just skin deep. How deep does it go?
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Itch hunt

Life as we know it needs water, but scientists can’t figure out where Earth’s water came from. Answering that question is just one piece of an even bigger mystery: “Why are we here?” (Updated from 2023)
For show transcripts, go to vox.com/unxtranscripts
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How did Earth get its water?

A cell is alive. So is a leaf and so is a tree. But what about the forest they’re a part of? Is that forest alive? And what about the planet that forest grows on? Is Earth alive? Science writer Ferris Jabr says: Yes.
For show transcripts, go to bit.ly/unx-transcripts
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Is Earth alive?

The researcher who popularized the idea of the alpha wolf has spent decades trying to take it back. Our friends over at Pablo Torre Finds Out try to uncover how science got it wrong.
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The alpha myth

Solar storms can wreak havoc on power grids, satellites, even astronauts — but scientists still struggle to predict them. One possible way forward? Chasing eclipses.
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The eclipse chasers

Think about the thing you’ve practiced more than anything else in the world. Maybe it’s painting. Or writing. Or playing the piano. Now imagine you wake up one day and you just can’t do it. You’re not sick. You’re not injured. But that one thing is impossible.
It’s called the yips, and even the most talented people in the world experience it. What could cause them to lose their superpowers? And is there anything they can do to get them back?
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The Yips

Diagnosing diseases such as endometriosis can require difficult steps, like surgery. But researchers are hoping to use menstrual fluid to make detecting the condition much easier.
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The bleeding edge, part two

Periods and menstrual fluid have long been overlooked by scientists. Now, researchers are starting to suspect they might be sources of medical treasure.
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The bleeding edge

Was there a technologically advanced species living on Earth long before humans? And if one had existed, how would we know? (Updated from 2022)
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Aliens from Earth?

They’re not looking for UFOs or decoding government secrets. They’re doing something much simpler.
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How scientists are searching for aliens

Airborne diseases kill millions of people a year, despite available antibiotics and vaccines. But scientists think there might be another solution to fighting these diseases, one that harnesses the power of light.
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A universal virus-killer?

Humans seem to be the only animals that cry from emotion. This Valentine’s Day, we’re wondering: What makes our tears so special? (Updated from 2022)
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Why do we cry?

Safety questions have haunted aspartame — the no-calorie sweetener used in many diet soft drinks and other low-calorie products — since its invention. Some answers exist, but should we trust them if they were influenced by the beverage industry?
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Should you quit Diet Coke?

Can swearing make you stronger?
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The case for cursing

Today's internet is built on a series of locks and keys that protect your private information as it travels through cyberspace. But could all these locks be broken? (Updated from 2022)
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The math problem that could break the internet

Scientists didn’t think it was possible for life to thrive in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Then, they found some anemones ... and some huge questions about entire new ecosystems built on plastic.
If you want to hear more about plastic in the ocean, we have another episode about how 99% of ocean plastic is missing: http://bit.ly/3HnW9b2
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Garbage patch kids

Researchers planted microphones in a forest and walked away. Listening back could help heal rainforest ecosystems.
For show transcripts, go to bit.ly/unx-transcripts
For more, go to http://vox.com/unexplainable
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A stethoscope for the rainforest

What’s up with the weird golden egg at the bottom of the ocean? How do eggs actually choose sperm? Hit sports podcast host Pablo Torre tries to guess which of these mysteries has actually been solved on our latest episode of Unexplainable or Not.
For show transcripts, go to bit.ly/unx-transcripts
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Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

The James Webb Space Telescope launched two years ago, giving scientists a new view into the early universe. Now, it's revealed a big new cosmic mystery.
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Something weird near the beginning of time

An expedition to Antarctica. Strange seismic readings. Clues to uncover a hidden part of our planet.
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The tallest mountains on Earth are ... underground?

Our show celebrates uncertainty. But as environmental reporter Amy Westervelt explains, the concept also has a dark side.
For show transcripts, go to bit.ly/unx-transcripts
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Weaponizing uncertainty

NASA is planning for humans to live on the moon by 2040. But how much space can the human body handle? (Updated from 2022)
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Can we live in space?

Decades of studies suggest that eating ice cream reduces diabetes risk. Could ice cream be ... good for you? And what does “good for you” mean?
For show transcripts, go to bit.ly/unx-transcripts
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The ice cream effect

Data sleuths are working outside the system to keep science honest. But is there a better way to prevent scientific misconduct and fraud?
For show transcripts, go to bit.ly/unx-transcripts
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The data vigilantes

Coral reefs are an essential ecosystem undeniably threatened by climate change. Can scientists breed a stronger coral for the future?
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Trouble on Pickles Reef

This Halloween, we look at how technology is forcing us to ask: When is someone actually dead? And we look into research that is raising a further question: Could death someday be reversible?
This episode originally ran on November 22, 2022.
For show transcripts, go to bit.ly/unx-transcripts
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Redefining death

Over the last few years, orcas have been targeting boats, often leaving them stranded at sea. Are these orcas trying to attack humans, or is there something more mysterious going on?
For show transcripts, go to bit.ly/unx-transcripts
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The Orcanizing

Our game show is back! This time, comedian Wyatt Cenac is in the hot seat in front of a live audience. Can he guess which climate mystery has been solved and which ones are still unexplainable?
For show transcripts, go to bit.ly/unx-transcripts
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Unexplainable or Not with Wyatt Cenac

Towering walls of water sometimes appear in the ocean without warning or apparent cause. What drives their terrifying power?
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Rogue waves

What would an episode of Unexplainable have sounded like if it had been made in 100 CE?
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Does garlic break magnets?

Can researchers decipher what people are thinking about just by looking at brain scans? With AI, they're getting closer. How far can they go, and what does it mean for privacy?
To buy tickets to our upcoming live show in New York, go to http://vox.com/unexplainablelive
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How to decode a thought

Something about modern life is leading to higher rates of nearsightedness across the world. What is it?
To buy tickets to our upcoming live show in New York, go to http://vox.com/unexplainablelive
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It’s getting harder to see

At last year’s World Athletics Championships, sprinter TyNia Gaither was disqualified for false starting... after the gun went off. Officials said she started faster than humanly possible. How can that be?

This episode originally ran on June 15, 2022.
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Jumping the gun

Two scientists explain how AI might help us translate animal communication, and what we might learn from their squawks, chirps, songs, and chatter. This episode was recorded live at the Aspen Ideas Festival.
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Can we talk to animals?

Sam Sanders, host of Vulture’s Into It podcast, is in the hot seat for a new episode of our game show. Can he guess which sandy mystery has been solved and which ones are still unexplainable? 
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Unexplainable or Not: Beach day!

Dogs were the first domesticated animal in history, emerging from wolves some 20,000 years ago. But how did wolves become dogs? To find the answer, scientists have to play with a lot of puppies.
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In all our searching of the universe, we’ve never seen another moon like ours. It's big, it's weird, and it has played a huge role in shaping our planet. But how did we get it? Every possible story points to cataclysm.
This episode originally ran on June 15, 2022. It is part of our Lost Worlds series exploring scientific mysteries buried in the deep past.
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Why do we have a moon?

AI can often solve problems in unexpected, undesirable ways. So how can we make sure it does what we want, the way we want? And what happens if we can’t?
This is the second episode of our new two-part series, The Black Box.
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The Black Box: In AI we trust?

AI has the potential to impact our society in dramatic ways, but researchers can’t explain precisely how it works or how it might evolve. Will they ever understand it?
This is the first episode of our new two-part series, The Black Box.
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The Black Box: Even AI’s creators don’t understand it

A dog on its owner’s grave. A killer whale carrying around its dead calf. A goose that isolates when its mate dies. These behaviors in animals may look like human mourning, but should scientists call them "grief?"
For more, go to http://vox.com/unexplainable
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Jennifer Vonk's research study on pet cats reactions to the death of companion animals can be found here.
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Do animals grieve?

Dreams are weird, but can they be a scientific tool? Can they teach us anything about humanity? About ourselves?

This episode originally ran on April 12, 2022.
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Why do we dream?

The Indus Valley civilization was one of the largest, most advanced civilizations in the ancient world. But we barely know anything about them, in large part because we haven’t been able to decipher the cryptic symbols they left behind.
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Cracking the Indus code

Awe is what takes our breath away when we face a sky full of stars or listen to a moving piece of music. But scientists are still trying to pin down why we feel such a powerful emotion, and whether it’s possible to cultivate more of it in our lives.
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Awestruck

Many states have extremely punitive policies around cannabis and pregnancy. But researchers don't actually have great data on cannabis's harms.
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Expecting: Weed and pregnancy

Caring for a child seems to change parents’ brains. But what does that actually mean for how parents think and experience the world?
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Expecting: Baby brain

Fetuses leave cells behind in their parents' bodies, where they braid themselves into tissues, and remain, for years. What are they doing in there?
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Expecting: Pregnancy souvenirs

2023 has been a record-setting year for tornadoes, and these storms came with barely any warning. So to better understand tornadoes, scientists might need to confront more of these storms head-on.

This episode originally ran on July 12, 2021.
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The tornado problem

Scientists are hard at work trying to bring back woolly mammoths (and dodos). But should they? And what would they actually be bringing back?
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How to resurrect a mammoth

We did a live show! We talked about how one of our favorite episodes came together and how we went about creating (somewhat) accurate dinosaur sounds.
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Live show, dead dinosaurs

Studies suggesting trees communicate through an elaborate underground fungal network have captured imaginations. It’s a beautiful idea, but the fantasy may have gotten ahead of the science.
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Talking trees

This week, we tackle three listener questions — on sleepwalking, deja vu, and Earth’s magnetic field. Next time, we could be (not) answering yours. Email us at unexplainable@vox.com, or fill out this form.
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Your questions, unexplained

Scientists are digging into what makes something funny. We compare their notes with comedians — including Atsuko Okatsuka, Josh Johnson, Dulcé Sloan, and Chris Fleming.
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What's so funny?

For every definition of life, there’s a creature that sends us right back to the drawing board.
This is the third episode in our three-part series, Origins, about the beginnings and boundaries of life on Earth.
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Origins: The meaning of “life”

How did life on Earth start? To help answer that, researchers are trying to create some life for themselves.
This is the second episode in our three-part series, Origins, about the beginnings and boundaries of life on Earth.
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Origins: The first living thing

Life as we know it needs water, but scientists can’t figure out where Earth’s water came from. Answering that question is just one piece of an even bigger mystery: “Why are we here?”
This is the first episode in our new three-part series, Origins, about the beginnings and boundaries of life on Earth.
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Origins: How did Earth get its water?

Can science help us predict whether a relationship will succeed? Or is it all just chaos?
This episode originally ran on February 9, 2022.
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What is love?

Listeners told us that eating baby carrots or telling lies can bring on the hiccups. Burping or kissing can make them stop. Um, what?

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Why we hiccup

Last fall, a NASA spacecraft slammed into an asteroid to test a way to avert a disaster on Earth. So are we safe now?

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We booped an asteroid

Our houses are homes to hidden worlds of bugs. And the more ecologists explore those worlds, the more they realize that some of our tiny roommates actually have a lot to teach us. 
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Your creepy, crawly roommates

In the early 1900s, Henrietta Leavitt made one of the most important discoveries in the history of astronomy: a yardstick to measure distances to faraway stars. Using this tool, scientists eventually transformed our understanding of the universe. They realized space was expanding, that this expansion was accelerating, and that ultimately, everything will end.
This episode originally ran on June 30, 2021.
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Henrietta Leavitt and the end of the universe

In the temperate rainforests of Chile, there is a vine that can shapeshift to copy the look of other plants. But how? Can it... see them? Or is something weirder happening?
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Plants with eyes?

Our game show is back! This week, Avery Trufelman, host of the Articles of Interest podcast, tries to guess which of these three mysteries of movement have been solved and which are still unexplainable.
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Unexplainable or Not: Bikes, planes, ice skates

How we feel emotionally may be influenced by unseen troves of microbial life that live inside us. Is it possible to harness this gut power?

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Your gut's feelings

Back in January, we spoke to a scientist at the National Ignition Facility about how close they were to achieving what’s been called “one of the most impressive scientific feats of the 21st century.” This week, they announced they’ve finally done it.
A version of this episode originally ran on January 5, 2022.
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Nuclear fusion breaks through

How do animals know how to do things like spin a web or build a dam? A neuroscientist argues it's not “instinct.” Something bigger is going on.
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Basic instinct

Humans seem to be the only animals that cry from emotion. What makes our tears so special?
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Why we cry

NASA just launched the Artemis program, a series of missions that will eventually take humans back to the moon, and beyond. But can humans actually survive in space long-term?
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A mountain, a tower, a thermos full of molten salt: These are the batteries that could power our renewable future.
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Who let the wolves in?

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