State and National News

Transcript

IRA FLATOW, HOST:

This is SCIENCE FRIDAY. I'm Ira Flatow. Last week, China launched its Shenzhou spacecraft into orbit, carrying three taikonauts, one of whom was a woman, China's first female astronaut. A few days later, the spaceship crept up on the Tiangong space lab in orbit and docked with it, making China one of only three countries to have pulled off such a feat after the U.S. and the Soviet Union.

Philadelphia's Mütter Museum has a lot of heart, and other organs too. Items in this collection of medical specimens include a gangrenous hand, a wallet made of human flesh, and a colon the size of a medium suitcase. And that's just the stuff on display, imagine what's in the basement.

What if you needed a new toothbrush and all you had to do was hit print? What if doctors could print out transplantable organs and pastry chefs turned to a printer, not a kitchen, for their next creation? Ira Flatow and a panel of guests discuss 3D printing technology, how far it's come and what a 3D-printed-future could look like.

A pair of Canadian skyscrapers have been dubbed the "Marilyn Monroe" towers due to their shapely form. In Abu Dhabi, twin towers are shielded from the sun by computer-controlled shading screens. Architect Antony Wood discusses features of some tall buildings that make them standouts across the world.

Two of the middle school kids who brutally bullied a school bus monitor in Greece, New York are apologizing to Karen Klein.

MSNBC says they've sent notes to police who have forwarded them to Klein.

Advocates for cannabis decriminalization have long touted marijuana's potential medical benefits, but some new research suggests that the grass, as it were, may not always be greener.

Plenty of people aren't waiting for marijuana to become legal to start trying it as a medicine, though. About 1 in 10 patients referred to a McGill University pain clinic in Montreal for fibromyalgia over a six-year period were using marijuana to deal with the chronically painful condition, a new study found.

In a split decision, the Arkansas Supreme court has ruled that the laws governing executions in the state were unconstitutional.

The court found that only the legislature should control the process and Arkansas had given that power to its department of corrections.

Gotye (a.k.a. Wouter "Wally" De Backer) has become an international pop star on the strength of his new album, Making Mirrors. The poppy collection includes "Somebody That I Used To Know," which has topped the charts in six countries and hit the Top 20 in 14 others. There's something hauntingly relatable and undeniably catchy about the insightful, ubiquitous break-up song.