BROADCASTS.com

b'Eyes In The Sky: The Science Behind Modern Balloons\\nThis month, the news cycle has been dominated by updates about suspicious objects being detected in the stratosphere. This bonanza started with a balloon from China, and escalated as four more objects\\u2014not all confirmed as balloons\\u2014have been shot down from the sky.\\nAlthough this might sound like a new problem, there are probably thousands of balloons floating above us\\u2014some for spying, others for exploring near space, or studying weather patterns.\\nDr. David Stupples, professor of electronic and radio engineering and director of electronic warfare research at City University of London, joins Ira to talk about the science behind modern balloons: how they work, what they do, and just how common they are.\\n\\n\\xa0\\nLow Income Patients Hit Hardest By Cancer Treatment Costs\\nBeing told you have cancer is not only terrifying, it\\u2019s expensive. In the year following a diagnosis, the average cost of cancer treatment is about $42,000, according to the National Cancer Institute.\\nSome of the newer cutting-edge treatments may cost $1 million or more. While insurance may cover some or all of that cost, many people are uninsured or under-insured. And the bills add up. A quarter of patients with medical debt have declared bankruptcy or lost their home, according to an analysis conducted by KHN and NPR.\\nWhile there\\u2019s been remarkable progress in treating cancers in the past several decades, less attention has been paid to just how astronomical the price tags can be.\\nResearchers at Augusta University wanted to track the results of the financial burden after patients\\u2019 treatment was complete. They found that poorer patients were hit harder financially\\u2014which not only resulted in more bills, but also worse health outcomes.\\nIra talks with Dr. Jorge Cortes, co-author of this study and director of the Georgia Cancer Center at Augusta University, about the importance of making cost part of the discussion in developing new cancer therapies.\\n\\n\\xa0\\nThe Unseen World Of Seaweeds\\nChances are you don\\u2019t give much thought to seaweed unless you\\u2019re at the beach, or perhaps when you\\u2019re considering a dinner menu. But the thousands of seaweed species around the world are a key part of our coastal ecosystems.\\nSeaweeds photosynthesize, provide food and shelter for marine animals, stabilize the coastlines, and even contribute to making your ice cream creamier (through an ingredient called carrageenans, extracted from red seaweeds in the Rhodophyceae family). Increasingly, they\\u2019re also being investigated as a source of biofuels and as biological factories, due to their fast-growing nature.\\nDr. John Bothwell, a phycologist at Durham University in the UK, has written a book in praise of seaweeds. In Seaweeds of the World: A Guide To Every Order, he highlights beautiful, unusual, and important species from each of the three seaweed lineages\\u2014green, red, and brown. In this segment, he talks with SciFri\\u2019s Charles Bergquist about some of his favorite species, where the seaweeds fit into the web of life, and the importance of seaweeds to the global ecosystem.\\n\\n\\xa0\\nWhy It Feels So Good To Eat Chocolate\\nWhen you eat a piece of good chocolate, chances are you don\\u2019t just bite down and chew away. There\\u2019s a good chance you hold the chocolate in your mouth for a moment, feeling the silkiness as it softens, melting into a molten mass and mixing with your saliva. That gradual phase change process\\u2014as fats in the chocolate melt from solid to liquid\\u2014is a big part of the chocolate mouthfeel experience.\\nResearchers at Leeds University in the UK have constructed an artificial tongue that doesn\\u2019t focus on the taste of a food, but rather its texture, and how that texture changes over time. Using the artificial tongue, they explored the textures of materials that can change phase in the mouth, such as chocolate, butter, and ice cream.\\nThey reported their findings recently in the journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces. The researchers found that in dark chocolate, the sensation in the mouth is governed largely by the fat content, as the surface of the chocolate begins to soften. A few moments later, as the chocolate melts completely and mixes with saliva, the fat content of the treat is less important to the mouthfeel experience.\\nDr. Anwesha Sarkar, an author of the report, joins Ira to talk about the research, the challenge of designing a lower-fat chocolate that might exploit these findings, and the importance of learning about textures to determine why people like\\u2014and don\\u2019t like\\u2014certain foods.\\n\\n\\xa0\\nTranscripts for each segment will be available the week after the show airs on\\xa0sciencefriday.com.'