This missing trait could make robots more 'human'

Neurotic, anxious robots like C-3P0 from Star Wars' C-3P0 and Marvin from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy are a staple of science fiction — but they're not as common in the real world. Most of the time, the chatbots and artificial intelligence "robots" we encounter are programmed to be extraverted, confident and cheerful. But what if that changed?

NPR science correspondent Nell Greenfieldboyce dives into the world of robot personality research and talks to a team of researchers that are experimenting with a very different kind of robot temperament.

Read more of Nell's reporting on the topic here.

Interested in more science news? Let us know at shortwave@npr.org.

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Wife of South Korea's jailed ex-President Yoon arrested over corruption allegations

Investigators say the former president and first lady exerted undue influence on the conservative People Power Party to nominate a specific candidate during a 2022 election.

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Trump official tells census workers Congress has final say over the count, not Trump

Days after the president's call for a "new" census, the top official overseeing the Census Bureau told employees that Congress, not Trump, has final say over the tally, NPR has exclusively learned.

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Syria Tries To Rebuild A Functioning Economy After Years of Corrupt Dictatorship

Syria’s trying to emerge from a multi-layered financial crisis since opposition fighters toppled the regime late last year and formed a government. It’s been given a boost by the US lifting most sanctions, but efforts are hampered by a lack of liquidity.

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State Department slashes its annual reports on human rights

Required by Congress, the reports no longer single out things like rigged elections or sexual violence against children as human rights violations.

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Tropical Storm Erin could become the first Atlantic hurricane of the 2025 season

The National Hurricane Center expects the storm to strengthen over the next several days and says it could become a hurricane by late Thursday.

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D.C. has been under tighter federal control before. Here's what it looked like

Trump's expansion of federal authority over Washington, D.C., is in many ways unprecedented, but calls to mind other times the city has been under tighter federal control.

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Taylor Swift announces her next era: 'The Life of a Showgirl'

After cryptic Instagram posts and a surprise countdown clock, Swift announced early Tuesday that her new album will be called The Life of a Showgirl. The cover art and release date remain a mystery.

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The hidden costs of cutting Medicaid

Cutting Medicaid can seem like an easy way to slash the budget. But, the costs can spread to all of us.

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Inflation remains elevated as Trump's tariffs take hold

Inflation remained elevated last month as President Trump's tariffs continued to make their way into the prices that consumers pay. The average cost of living in July was up 2.7%.

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D.C. residents express concern over crime crackdown. And, Ford invests big in EVs

Washington, D.C., residents express concerns over what Trump's crime crackdown could mean for them. And, Ford plans to invest billions in building a new, cheaper electric truck

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Why lung cancer is a 'hidden epidemic' in this part of the world

Rates of the world's deadliest cancer appear to be low in sub-Saharan Africa. But that statistic is masking the scope of the disease, doctors say.

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Trump's takeover 'out of touch' with facts on the ground, says D.C. attorney general

Washington D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb says Metropolitan Police Department officers must follow local policies that govern their policing, even as President Trump vows to crack down on crime.

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Alaska was once a full-fledged Russian colony. Now it's hosting a U.S.-Russia summit

Russia lost a war in Crimea in the 1850s. To pay off war debts, Russia sold Alaska to the U.S. Now presidents Trump and Putin will meet Friday in Alaska to discuss another war involving Crimea.

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U.S. and China extend tariff truce deadline for another 3 months

President Trump's executive order extends a reprieve from the threat of rising tariffs between the world's two largest economies.

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A Palestinian activist was killed by the violence he sought to stop

Awdah Al Hathaleen was shot during a clash with an Israeli settler. His West Bank village hoped No Other Land, the Oscar-winning film about settler violence that he worked on, might help protect them.

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Say bye-bye to the beeps and boops of AOL's dial-up internet service

AOL debuted the service in 1991. Dial-up has largely been replaced by broadband internet.

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Trump's Washington, D.C. takeover targets a host of groups, many of them vulnerable

Some residents are skeptical President Trump's use of tough police tactics will work to solve complex social ills.

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In Alabama, a dredging project in Mobile Bay brings together unlikely allies

Dredging waterways for navigation is a centuries-old practice, but this project is controversial because the mud being dug out of the channel is put into other parts of Mobile Bay.

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Israeli airstrike kills a prominent Al Jazeera journalist and colleagues in Gaza

Al Jazeera's Anas al-Sharif and five of his colleagues at the network were killed in an Israeli airstrike targeting Gaza's most recognized television journalist.

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What's at stake as Trump prepares to meet Putin in Alaska?

Trump said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was unlikely to be included in talks he described as a "feel out meeting" to better understand Russia's demands for ending its war in Ukraine.

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The arduous system for getting aid into Gaza

Insulin needles. Sleeping bags. Nutella. These are items Arwa Damon’s charity — International Network for Aid, Relief and Assistance — has tried to send to Gaza and Israel has rejected. It’s a glimpse into the harsh reality of a humanitarian crisis with no end in sight. Today on the show, we talk to Damon about the economics of running a humanitarian nonprofit and what’s stopping more aid from reaching Gaza.

Related episodes: Why Israel uses diaspora bonds
Why the U.S. helps pay for Israel’s military
What could convince Egypt to take Gaza’s refugees?

For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

Fact-checking by Sierra Juarez. Music by Drop Electric. Find us: TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Newsletter.

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The tech behind genetically modified babies is getting a reboot

A Chinese scientist, He Jiankui, made a shocking announcement to the world in 2018: He had secretly engineered the birth of the first gene-edited babies. The birth of the twins was seen as reckless and unethical by the scientific community. That’s because, among other things, the CRISPR gene-editing technique Jiankui used was so new. NPR science correspondent Rob Stein has been following the controversial world of gene-editing and human reproduction, including some companies’ recent quests to push gene-editing technology forward.

Read more of Rob Stein’s reporting on the topic here.

Interested in more science news? Let us know at [shortwave@npr.org.][3]

Listen to every episode of Short Wave sponsor-free and support our work at NPR by signing up for Short Wave+ at[ plus.npr.org/shortwave][4].

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[3]: mailto: shortwave@npr.org [4]: http://plus.npr.org/shortwave

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China and the U.S. clash at the U.N. over the Panama Canal

The Trump administration has pressured China to have the Hong Kong-based operator of ports at either end of the canal sell those interests to a U.S. consortium.

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Colombian senator and presidential hopeful dies 2 months after shooting

Miguel Uribe was shot three times while giving a campaign speech in a park and had since remained in an intensive care unit in serious condition with episodes of slight improvement.

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Trump taps conservative economist to lead statistics agency

President Trump plans to tap an economist from the conservative Heritage Foundation to oversee the Bureau of Labor Statistics. He fired the previous leader after a disappointing jobs report.

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Sheila Jordan, a singular voice in jazz, has died

She recorded a magical debut album on Blue Note and was later named a Jazz Master by the National Endowment of the Arts.

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European Leaders Insist Ukraine Must be Part of Peace Talks

EU foreign ministers meet ahead of Friday’s Trump-Putin talks in Alaska, with Brussels insisting any peace deal must include Ukraine. And Al Jazeera’s Anas al-Sharif was killed in an Israeli airstrike that also took out the broadcaster's crew in Gaza City.

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Ford says it will roll out a cheaper electric pickup truck

Ford announced that it will retool its Louisville Assembly plant in Kentucky to focus on electric trucks. Their goal: To bring down prices for US buyers and compete with Chinese EV makers on the global market.

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Trump says he will 'feel out' Putin in Alaska on ending the war in Ukraine

President Trump says he thinks Russian President Vladimir Putin is ready to end his war on Ukraine, but will use a Friday summit to "feel out" his counterpart.

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