This week in science: Exoplanetary salt clouds, ancient families and laughter's origin

NPR | By Regina G. Barber,

Angela Y. Zhang

Published June 25, 2026 at 4:04 PM EDT

Hosts from NPR's science podcast Short Wave talk about an exoplanet with pink, salty clouds, the surprising social structure of ancient human relatives and the origins of laughter.

Regina G. Barber

Regina G. Barber is Short Wave's Scientist in Residence. She contributes original reporting on STEM and guest hosts the show.

Angela Y. Zhang

Angela Y. Zhang, MD (she/hers) is a fellow on Short Wave through the Stanford Health Equity Media Fellowship, and a pediatrician. A first-generation Chinese-American, she grew up in Seattle and made her way to the East Coast to complete a self-designed major in Mass Media & Cross-Cultural Perception at Duke University, and completed her MD at Brown University.

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