Hannah Chinn Journalist Profile

Articles

Think anglerfish are weird? Wait until you hear how they evolved

3 weeks ago | wrvo.org | Hannah Chinn |Emily Kwong |Kimberly McCoy

Most undergrads don't get the chance to work with museum-preserved specimens of deep sea anglerfish. Then again, Rose Faucher isn't most undergrads. "The fish world is actually pretty small, and it feels kind of like everybody knows everybody," says Faucher, who graduated from Rice University recently with her bachelor's degree in cell biology and genetics. "They'll FedEx you a fish that has been sitting in a jar since like 1965 ...
Climate anxiety is changing how we think about kids. Should it?

1 month ago | wrvo.org | Emily Kwong |Hannah Chinn |Rebecca Ramirez

This is the first episode of Nature Quest, a monthly Short Wave segment that answers listener questions about your local environment. Every month, we'll be bringing you a question from a fellow listener who is curious about how nature is changing – how to pay attention to the land around us – and make every day Earth Day. Alessandra Ram is a journalist. She covers the climate crisis, and its impacts on everyday people. And she just had a kid.
Climate anxiety is changing how we think about kids. Should it?

1 month ago | tpr.org | Emily Kwong |Hannah Chinn |Rebecca Ramirez

This is the first episode of Nature Quest, a monthly Short Wave segment that answers listener questions about your local environment. Every month, we'll be bringing you a question from a fellow listener who is curious about how nature is changing – how to pay attention to the land around us – and make every day Earth Day. Alessandra Ram is a journalist. She covers the climate crisis, and its impacts on everyday people. And she just had a kid.
To explore deep space, scientists say we'll need better clocks. Here's why

1 month ago | wrvo.org | Emily Kwong |Regina Barber |Hannah Chinn |Rebecca Ramirez

Happy Memorial Day, Short Wavers! This holiday, we bring you a meditation on time ... and clocks. There are hundreds of atomic clocks in orbit right now, perched on satellites all over Earth. We depend on them for GPS location, Internet timing, stock trading and even space navigation. In today's encore episode, hosts Emily Kwong and Regina G. Barber learn how to build a better clock. In order to do that, they ask: How do atomic clocks really work, anyway? What makes a clock precise?
Our medications are leaking into waterways - and may be changing fish behavior

2 months ago | wrvo.org | Jonathan Lambert |Emily Kwong |Hannah Chinn |Rebecca Ramirez

A fish walks into a pharmacy ... It's the start of a joke – with echoes in reality. Sort of. Fish aren't being prescribed anti-anxiety drugs. But they are experiencing the effects. That's because fish and other aquatic creatures are being affected by increasing levels of drug pollution – from human waste or pharmaceutical factory runoff – that then seep into our waterways. Researchers have found more than 900 different pharmaceutical ingredients in rivers and streams around the world.
Flowers and trees are blooming earlier. Is it because of climate change?

2 months ago | tpr.org | Hannah Chinn |Emily Kwong |Rebecca Ramirez

This is the first episode of Nature Quest, a monthly Short Wave segment that answers listener questions about your local environment. Every month, we'll be bringing you a question from a fellow listener who is curious about how nature is changing – how to pay attention to the land around us – and make every day Earth Day. Shai Tsur lives in Oakland, California. He's used to seeing flowers bloom in his neighborhood: pear trees, plum trees, California poppies. But not in January.
Flowers and trees are blooming earlier. Is it because of climate change?

2 months ago | wrvo.org | Hannah Chinn |Emily Kwong |Rebecca Ramirez

This is the first episode of Nature Quest, a monthly Short Wave segment that answers listener questions about your local environment. Every month, we'll be bringing you a question from a fellow listener who is curious about how nature is changing – how to pay attention to the land around us – and make every day Earth Day. Shai Tsur lives in Oakland, California. He's used to seeing flowers bloom in his neighborhood: pear trees, plum trees, California poppies. But not in January.
Why it's hard to study the neuroscience of psychedelics

2 months ago | tpr.org | Rachel Carlson |Regina Barber |Hannah Chinn

Researchers are studying psychedelics as a possible treatment for conditions like depression, PTSD and substance use disorders. But they don't know exactly how these drugs work. Getting the answer to this question is especially difficult when people often take psychedelics like LSD and psilocybin for their trademark "trips."Some researchers think these psychoactive, spiritual effects are a big part of why patients could benefit from psychedelic drugs.
Why it's hard to study the neuroscience of psychedelics

2 months ago | wrvo.org | Rachel Carlson |Regina Barber |Hannah Chinn

Researchers are studying psychedelics as a possible treatment for conditions like depression, PTSD and substance use disorders. But they don't know exactly how these drugs work. Getting the answer to this question is especially difficult when people often take psychedelics like LSD and psilocybin for their trademark "trips."Some researchers think these psychoactive, spiritual effects are a big part of why patients could benefit from psychedelic drugs.
What the COVID-19 pandemic tells us about how viruses evolve

Mar 24, 2025 | tpr.org | Hannah Chinn |Sarah Zhang

Early in the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, scientists predicted the coronavirus would mutate slowly. They were wrong. Hundreds of thousands of viral mutations and multiple seasonal waves later, researchers now know why. Turns out, SARS-CoV-2 — the virus that causes the disease COVID-19 — was making evolutionary leaps and bounds in one specific group of people.