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Boxing and the brain
The Cleveland Clinic has linked repeated blows to the head to shrinkage in parts of the brain and reduced brain function in fighters

The Cleveland Clinic is expanding a study that’s looking at the effects of boxing on the brain. Most of the research is taking place at the Clinic’s Las Vegas facility, but now fighters from the Midwest and East Coast are coming to Cleveland to be tested. In this week’s Exploradio, WKSU’s Jeff St.Clair reports that the findings extend beyond the world of professional fighting.  
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Improving the lives of paralyzed people
A Cleveland researcher is making progress on the long road of repairing spinal cord injuries

More than 270,000 Americans live with debilitating spinal cord injuries. And while prospects for a cure are far in the future, incremental progress is being made that could improve the lives of paralyzed people. In this week’s Exploradio, WKSU’s Jeff St. Clair meets a Cleveland researcher who’s unlocking the secrets of how to repair a damaged spinal cord.
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Humor and the emotions of aging
While younger people appreciate caustic humor, older folks prefer to stay on the positive side

New research at the University of Akron explains why older people don’t laugh at the same things as younger adults. And it’s not because they don’t get the joke. In this week’s Exploradio, WKSU’s Jeff St.Clair looks at the emotional underpinnings of aging.  
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Mammoths, mastodons and the first Ohioans
Prehistoric Americans found mammoths, mastodons, and other Ice Age giants when they settled in Ohio, and they may have contributed to the animals' demise

A new exhibit at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History explores the rise and fall of the massive animals that populated Ice Age America. In this week’s Exploradio, WKSU’s Jeff St. Clair looks at the role humans might have played in the demise of Ohio’s mammoths and mastodons.  
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TimkenSteel stands alone with latest technology
TimkenSteel is a new company with a century-long history -- and the world's largest jumbo bloom vertical continuous caster

TimkenSteel is a new company with a 100 year history of making steel. Shareholders forced Canton’s Timken Co. to split into two entities earlier this year. Now as a small, stand-alone steel maker, an innovative production method could give the new company a competitive edge. In this week’s Exploradio, WKSU’s Jeff St. Clair takes us on a tour of the latest in steel-making technology.
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Cleveland's growing stem cell scene
Cleveland entrepreneurs are competing with companies on the coasts in the development of a therapeutic stem cell industry

The next breakthrough in medicine could come from a small group of entrepreneurs in Northeast Ohio. Stem cell research has a long-history in Cleveland, but the region is having a hard time building a biotech industry around it. In this week’s Exploradio, WKSU’s Jeff St.Clair looks at the science and business of stem cell therapy.
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This is your brain on management
Advances in brain imaging validate behavioral theories about ethical thinking and effective leadership

Organizational theorist Richard Boyatzis was recently named one of the world’s most influential thinkers in human resources management.  But Boytzis does not think of employees as "resources."  He says they’re people, and effective managers treat them that way.   In this week’s Exploradio, WKSU’s Jeff St.Clair sat down with Boyatzis to learn how a manager’s way of thinking can either motivate people or shut them down.
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Is Akron really the polymer capital?
The former rubber capital has undergone a decades long transformation into a center for polymer innovation, but does Akron really live up to its claim?

The University of Akron has a new dean of the College of Polymer Science and Engineering.  Why should you care? Well, for one thing, after the decline of the rubber industry, Akron is trying to build its reputation on polymer innovation. And because…polymers are everywhere.

WKSU's Jeff St. Clair reports in this week's Exploradio.
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Avoiding the 'acting-white' trap
Black children face many challenges on the way to academic achievement, including accusations that doing well in school means they're 'acting white'




A group of black students at Kent State University is taking a special interest in the work of one of the school’s psychology professors. Angela Neal-Barnett is studying how the accusation of ‘acting white’ affects a young person’s identity. In this week’s Exploradio, WKSU’s Jeff St.Clair explores how a simple statement impacts what it means to be black in America.
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Fighting against the end of ashes
What was one of the most common trees in Ohio is all but gone, but some communities are still fighting to save the imperiled ash

Scientists are still trying to figure out how to fight an invasive tree-killing pest a decade after it first appeared in Ohio. The emerald ash borer has been the most destructive forest insect ever to hit North America, with hundreds of millions of trees killed and an estimated economic impact of nearly $4 billion in Ohio alone. In this week’s Exploradio, WKSU’s Jeff St.Clair looks at the latest efforts in the war against the ash tree killer.
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Saving America's most endangered animals
The eastern U.S. has more freshwater mussel species than anywhere else in the world, and more than half of them are facing extinction

Ohio is the last home of one of the rarest animals in the world. It’s a formerly widespread freshwater mussel called the purple cat’s paw. Only about 20 of the mollusks are known to exist. In this week’s Exploradio, WKSU’s Jeff  St.Clair examines a species on the brink and how protecting it could help save Ohio’s waterways.
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The never-ending war against superbugs
Researchers in 2012 discovered a rare strain of drug-resistant pathogen hiding in Northeast Ohio, and the search for superbugs continues

The Ebola outbreak in Africa has healthcare workers around the world on heightened alert for its potential spread. But Ebola is not the only pathogen posing a risk to populations. A team of doctors discovered a superbug in Northeast Ohio and quickly isolated patients carrying it. In this week’s Exploradio, WKSU’s Jeff St.Clair meets the scientists on the front lines of disease control.
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Tackling concussions in youth sports
After years on the sidelines of medical research, clinicians are trying new methods of diagnosing and treating concussions in young athletes

Researchers in northeast Ohio are tackling long-standing conventions on the best way to treat concussions. Rather than weeks of bed rest, doctors at Akron Children’s Hospital are trying to get kids back on their feet sooner. Still, in this week’s Exploradio, WKSU’s Jeff St.Clair finds that caregivers are struggling to understand the long-term effects of brain injuries in young athletes.
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In search of walking whales
A northeast Ohio fossil hunter documents his discoveries of the earliest ancestors of whales in a new book

A new book by an Ohio author unravels what used to be one of the greatest mysteries of science. It’s the story of how whales and dolphins came to be fully adapted to aquatic life.

In this week’s Exploradio, WKSU’s Jeff St.Clair talks with the fossil hunter who traces the path whales walked in their journey from land to the sea.



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The roots of aggression
A Kent State University researcher says the hormones vasopressin and oxytocin play major roles in regulating aggression and attraction

Love and anger have long been the subjects of songs and poems. But scientists are now unlocking the biological secrets of what brings us together and drives us apart.   In this week’s Exploradio, WKSU’s Jeff St.Clair meets a Kent State University researcher who’s studying the role a pair of hormones play in aggression and attraction.
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Lake Guardian studies our impact on the Great Lakes
Scientists aboard the EPA research vessel Lake Guardian document how the personal products we wash down the drain affect the health of Lake Erie

A team of scientists and educators is returning to Cleveland today after a week-long expedition aboard a research vessel sailing the width of Lake Erie. Their mission was to track the spread of plastics and pollutants in the lake and determine the impact on ecosystems. In this week’s Exploradio, WKSU’s Jeff St.Clair paid a visit to the Lake Guardian just before it shipped out.
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