First up on the podcast, thousands of tons of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) have been released into the environment. It’s not always that difficult to round them up, but what to do next has been a tougher call. Until now, the default has been to burn PFAS—but that has been shown in some cases to release smaller PFAS back into the environment. Freelance science journalist Mark Peplow joins host Sarah Crespi to talk over recent technological improvements in destroying these forever chemicals and how feasible it is to deploy them.

Next on the show, News Intern Julia Vaz talks with Chirag Manchanda, a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University, about his Science Advances paper on new ways to analyze the sources of urban air pollution.

Finally, the last in our six-part series on scientific biographies. Host Angela Saini talks with biologist Joe Osmundson about his new memoir, Spawning Season: An Experiment in Queer Parenthood.

This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy.

Image: JOSH EDELSON/AFP via Getty Images

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