The world has been warily watching the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in Ukraine. The nuclear complex is being held by Russian forces, while the plant itself is being run by an increasingly ragged and exhausted Ukrainian workforce. Shells have fallen on the complex, and external power sources have been repeatedly knocked out, endangering the system that cools the nuclear reactors and raising the specter of a meltdown. NPR's Kat Lonsdorf reports from inside Ukraine.
Plunge into the ocean off the west coast of Ireland.and then keep plunging, down to where there s no light and the temperature is just above freezing. That s where underwater chemist Sam Afoullouss sends a deep sea robot to carefully collect samples of marine organisms. The goal? To search for unique chemistry that may one day inspire a medicine. Sam talks giant sponges, dumbo octopuses and bubblegum coral with host Emily Kwong – how to use them as a source for drug discovery while also protecting their wild, intricate ecosystems.
When the first COVID-19 vaccines began to arrive in Washington more than a year ago, the jubilation was evident. People traveled far at first to find a hard-to-come-by shot, with a hope that the end of the pandemic, or at least its deadliness, was near.