Science Friday Folgen

Think back to the last time you went to the doctor’s office. Chances are, at the start of the visit, they took your temperature, pulse, and blood pressure—your “vitals.”But how did they take your blood pressure? The medical literature that describes safe blood pressure ranges is all based on readings taken with the patient sitting with feet flat on the floor, legs uncrossed, back supported, and the testing arm supported by a desk at mid-heart level. But if the blood pressure is measured with the person in a different position—say, perched on the edge of an exam table, legs dangling, and an arm hanging at the side—the readings given by a blood pressure monitor can be distorted. In a recent study published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine, researchers found that arm position could account for as much as a 7mmHg difference in pressure readings. That difference could be enough to incorrectly classify some people as hypertensive.Dr. Tammy Brady, medical director of the Pediatric Hypertension Program at Johns Hopkins University, joins Ira to talk about the art of blood pressure measurement, how to better track your own blood pressure, how to find blood pressure monitors that have been properly validated, and the importance of advocating for yourself in medical settings.Transcript for this segment will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

Have you ever been stuck in traffic and thought, if only this highway was a little wider so it could fit more cars? You aren’t alone.Many states have been expanding their highways. New York Governor Kathy Hochul recently announced a $1.3 billion project to expand one of the state’s highways for an estimated maximum six-minute travel savings. Other highway-widening projects are underway in Texas, California, and Maryland. In 2022, federal, state, and local governments in the US spent $127 billion on highway construction. Some departments of transportation say expanding highways is necessary to reduce congestion, especially in areas with growing populations, and to encourage economic development.But decades of research shows the opposite effects when highways are expanded—that travel times actually increase when more lanes are added. So how does this happen, and why do we keep expanding highways even though the research says it doesn’t work?Megan Kimble, journalist and author of City Limits: Infrastructure, Inequality, And The Future Of America’s Highways, joins Ira to break down the research behind highway widening and discuss how increasing funding for public transit could help make traffic better, and why some cities are deciding to remove their highways entirely.Read an excerpt from City Limits: Infrastructure, Inequality, And The Future Of America’s Highways.Transcript for this segment will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

Abortion was on the ballot in 10 states, and seven of them passed constitutional amendments defending abortion rights. Also, this ginormous number has a whopping 41,024,320 digits, which isn’t very helpful for mathematicians but is certainly exciting for math nerds.Seven States Passed Ballot Measures To Protect Abortion RightsThis week, science was on the ballot in many states. Voters across the country weighed in on issues like drug legalization, money to fund climate programs, and, of course, abortion rights. Ten states voted on the issue, and in seven of them, voters chose to protect or expand abortion rights. Those states are Maryland, Montana, Nevada, New York, Colorado, Arizona, and Missouri. On the flip side, voters in Florida, Nebraska, and South Dakota rejected measures that would protect abortion rights.Ira Flatow talks with Tim Revell, executive editor at New Scientist, about the outcome of some sciencey ballot measures and what we can expect going into another Trump presidency. They also discuss the launch of the world’s first wooden satellite, what scientists learned when they put vampire bats on a treadmill, and more.Math Enthusiast Finds The Largest Known Prime NumberLet’s go back to grade school—do you remember learning about prime numbers? They’re numbers that can only be divided by themselves and one.So 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, and so on are prime numbers. The number 12, for example, wouldn’t be prime because you can divide it by other numbers, like 2 and 3. And as you count up and up, prime numbers become more sparse.Math lovers are always competing to find the largest prime number, and just recently, an engineer discovered the largest one—so far. And you won’t believe how ginormous it is: It has more than 41 million digits.Ira talks with Jack Murtagh, math writer and columnist for Scientific American, about why prime numbers are so cool, and the quest to find the largest one.Transcripts for each segment will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.