Science Quickly
1,974 episodes — Page 13 of 40
Does This Look like a Face to You?
Science—and experience—show that we most definitely see faces in inanimate objects. But new research finds that, more often than not, we perceive those illusory faces as male. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Some Good News about Corals and Climate Change
A nearly two-year-long study of Hawaiian corals suggests some species may be better equipped to handle warmer, more acidic waters than previously believed. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Florida Gets Kids and Vaccines Wrong and Ukraine's Health Crisis: COVID Quickly, Episode 26
Today we bring you a new episode in our podcast series COVID, Quickly. Every two weeks, Scientific American’s senior health editors Tanya Lewis and Josh Fischman catch you up on the essential developments in the pandemic: from vaccines to new variants and everything in between. You can listen to all past episodes here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Are You Better Than a Machine at Spotting a Deepfake?
New research shows that detecting digital fakes generated by machine learning might be a job best done with humans still in the loop. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
A Treasure Trove of Dinosaur Bones in Italy Rewrites the Local Prehistoric Record
New fossils are changing a decades-old story about the species that roamed the Mediterranean 80 million years ago. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Chimps Apply Insects to Their Wounds
It is not clear whether the act has medicinal benefit or is merely a cultural practice among the animals. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The Push to Move Past the Pandemic: COVID Quickly, Episode 25
Today we bring you a new episode in our podcast series COVID, Quickly. Every two weeks, Scientific American’s senior health editors Tanya Lewis and Josh Fischman catch you up on the essential developments in the pandemic: from vaccines to new variants and everything in between. You can listen to all past episodes here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Researchers Analyzed Folk Music like It Was DNA: They Found Parallels between Life and Art
Using software designed to align DNA sequences, scientists cataloged the mutations that arose as folk songs evolved Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
How Hong Kong 'Sees' Invisible Tailpipe Emissions and Pulls Polluters Off the Road
The city has deployed a system of sensors to flag highly polluting vehicles. Nearly all of them have been repaired, helping to clean Hong Kong’s air. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
This Maine Farm Is Harvesting the Sun's Power while it Picks the Blueberries
In Rockport, Me., an array of nearly 11,000 solar panels will soon begin a solar harvest as the sweet berries growing below them ripen on the bush. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Tracking Outbreaks through Sewers, and Kids' Vaccines on Hold Again: COVID Quickly, Episode 24
Today we bring you a new episode in our podcast series COVID, Quickly. Every two weeks, Scientific American’s senior health editors Tanya Lewis and Josh Fischman catch you up on the essential developments in the pandemic: from vaccines to new variants and everything in between. You can listen to all past episodes here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The Romantic Temptation of the Monogamous Prairie Vole
The small rodents are one of the few known monogamists in the wild—and their faithfulness was put to the test in a lab. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Answering an Age-Old Mystery: How Do Birds Actually Fly?
Equally surprising is the fact that we still do not know how birds actually stay airborne. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
More Kids Get COVID, Long Haulers and a Vaccine Milestone: COVID Quickly, Episode 23
Today we bring you a new episode in our podcast series COVID, Quickly. Every two weeks, Scientific American’s senior health editors Tanya Lewis and Josh Fischman catch you up on the essential developments in the pandemic: from vaccines to new variants and everything in between. You can listen to all past episodes here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
What Is the Shape of This Word?
What shape do you see when you hear “bouba”? What about “kiki”? It turns out that nonsense words that evoke certain shapes have something to say about the origins of language. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Tiger Sharks, Tracked over Decades, Are Shifting Their Haunts with Ocean Warming
Using a combination of fishing data and satellite tracking, scientists found that the sharks have shifted their range some 250 miles poleward over the past 40 years. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
How Marine Wildlife Can Coexist with Offshore Wind [Sponsored]
Harnessing the wind to blow back emissions is not without its own impacts, so researchers are developing technologies to coexist with whales and other ocean-dwelling species. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
COVID Quickly, Episode 22: Colds Build COVID Immunity and the Omicron Vaccine Delay
Today we bring you a new episode in our podcast series COVID, Quickly. Every two weeks, Scientific American’s senior health editors Tanya Lewis and Josh Fischman catch you up on the essential developments in the pandemic: from vaccines to new variants and everything in between. You can listen to all past episodes here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The Surprising Physics of Finger Snapping
You might not think that you can generate more body acceleration than a big-league baseball pitcher, but new research shows you can. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Salvador Dali's Creative Secret Is Backed by Science
The painter described falling into the briefest of slumbers to refresh his mind. Now scientists have shown the method is effective at inducing creativity. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
A Growing Force of Fiery Zombies Threatens Cold Northern Forests
Wildfires, appearing dead in winter, are actually smoldering and then bouncing back to life in spring to consume increasingly more land in the Far North. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Listen to This New Podcast: Lost Women of Science
A new podcast is on a mission to retrieve unsung female scientists from oblivion. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Canary Islands Eruption Resets Volcano Forecasts
A volcanologist says the eruption on the island of La Palma is a unique window into the “personality” of basaltic volcanoes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
COVID Quickly, Episode 21: Vaccines against Omicron and Pandemic Progress
Today we bring you a new episode in our podcast series COVID, Quickly. Every two weeks, Scientific American’s senior health editors Tanya Lewis and Josh Fischman catch you up on the essential developments in the pandemic: from vaccines to new variants and everything in between. You can listen to all past episodes here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
As Forests Burn, a Climate Puzzle Materializes in the Far North
A 15-year study of where carbon lies in boreal forests has unearthed a surprising finding. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Astronomers Spot Two Dust Bunnies Hiding in the Early Universe
The scientists found several previously hidden galaxies that date back to 13 billion years ago—and many more might be missing from our current census of the early universe. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
COVID Quickly, Episode 20: The Omicron Scare, and Anti-COVID Pills Are Coming
Today we bring you a new episode in our podcast series COVID, Quickly. Every two weeks, Scientific American’s senior health editors Tanya Lewis and Josh Fischman catch you up on the essential developments in the pandemic: from vaccines to new variants and everything in between. You can listen to all past episodes here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
To Better Persuade a Human, a Robot Should Use This Trick
A new study finds that, for robots, overlords are less persuasive than peers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Redo of a Famous Experiment on the Origins of Life Reveals Critical Detail Missed for Decades
The Miller-Urey experiment showed that the conditions of early Earth could be simulated in a glass flask. New research finds the flask itself played an underappreciated, though outsize, role. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
COVID Quickly, Episode 19: Mandate Roadblocks, Boosters for All and Sickness in the Zoo
Today we bring you a new episode in our podcast series COVID, Quickly. Every two weeks, Scientific American’s senior health editors Tanya Lewis and Josh Fischman catch you up on the essential developments in the pandemic: from vaccines to new variants and everything in between. You can listen to all past episodes here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Flocking Together May Have Helped Dinosaurs Dominate the Earth
A fossil bed in Patagonia provides evidence of complex social structure in dinosaurs as early as 193 million years ago. And scientists say that herding behavior could have been key to the beasts’ success. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Engineered Bacteria Use Air Bubbles as Acoustically Detonated Tumor TNT
Ultrasound triggered cells home in on tumors and then self destruct to deliver damage or therapeutics from inside. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
COVID Quickly, Episode 18: Vaccines for Kids and the Limits of Natural Immunity
Today we bring you a new episode in our podcast series COVID, Quickly. Every two weeks, Scientific American’s senior health editors Tanya Lewis and Josh Fischman catch you up on the essential developments in the pandemic: from vaccines to new variants and everything in between. You can listen to all past episodes here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
These Bugs Produce Smelly Defenses That Need to Be Heard to Be Believed
You read that right. Researchers have taken the chemical defenses of some insects and turned them into sounds, which, it turns out, repel people just as well. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
For Some Parents, Hiding a Dead Body Shows How Much You Care
Over millions of years of evolution, some beetles have learned to dampen the stench of decay to help their young thrive. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Date of the Vikings' First Atlantic Crossing Revealed by Rays from Space
By dating the remnants of trees felled in Newfoundland, scientists have determined that the Norse people likely first set foot in the Americas in the year A.D. 1021. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
COVID Quickly, Episode 17: Vaccine Lies and Protecting Immunocompromised People
Today we bring you a new episode in our podcast series COVID, Quickly. Every two weeks, Scientific American’s senior health editors Tanya Lewis and Josh Fischman catch you up on the essential developments in the pandemic: from vaccines to new variants and everything in between. You can listen to all past episodes here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
How Can an Elephant Squeak Like a Mouse?
New research using a camera that can “see" sound” shows some elephants can produce high-pitched buzzing with their lips. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Beethoven's Unfinished 10th Symphony Brought to Life by Artificial Intelligence
Nearly 200 years after his death, the German composer’s musical scratch was pieced together by machine—with a lot of human help. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The Kavli Prize Presents: Understanding the Universe [Sponsored]
Ewine van Dishoeck received the Kavli Prize in Astrophysics in 2018 for elucidating the life cycle of interstellar clouds and the formation of stars and planets. What other mysteries of space are left to be uncovered? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
A Canary in an Ice-Rich, Slumping Rock Glacier in Alaska
Here’s what we can learn about climate change and infrastructure from Denali National Park’s only road. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
COVID Quickly, Episode 16: Vaccines Protect Pregnancies and a New Antiviral Pill
Today we bring you a new episode in our podcast series COVID, Quickly. Every two weeks, Scientific American’s senior health editors Tanya Lewis and Josh Fischman catch you up on the essential developments in the pandemic: from vaccines to new variants and everything in between. You can listen to all past episodes here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The Mystery of Water Drops That Skate Across Oil at Impossible Speeds
The speed of these self-propelling droplets on a hot-oil surface seemed to defy physics until researchers broke out the super-slow-motion camera. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Night Flights Are No Sweat for Tropical Bees
New research uses night vision to see how nocturnal bees navigate the dark. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
These Bacteria Steal from Iron and Could Be Secretly Helping to Curb Climate Change
Photoferrotrophs have been around for billions of years on Earth, and new research suggests that they have played an outsize roll in the natural capture of carbon dioxide. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
COVID, Quickly, Episode 15: Booster Shot Approvals--plus Vaccines for Kids?
Today we bring you a new episode in our podcast series COVID, Quickly. Every two weeks, Scientific American’s senior health editors Tanya Lewis and Josh Fischman catch you up on the essential developments in the pandemic: from vaccines to new variants and everything in between. You can listen to all past episodes here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Dinosaurs Lived--and Made Little Dinos--in the Arctic
New research shows that the prehistoric giants were even cooler than we thought Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
During a Rodent Quadrathlon, Researchers Learn That Ground Squirrels Have Personalities
The rodents’ personalities may help them to secure territory and avoid prey. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
A Car Crash Snaps the Daydreaming Mind into Focus
One researcher’s poorly timed attention lapse flipped a car—and pushed science forward. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
COVID, Quickly, Episode 14: Best Masks, Explaining Mask Anger, Biden's New Plan
Today we bring you a new episode in our podcast series COVID, Quickly. Every two weeks, Scientific American’s senior health editors Tanya Lewis and Josh Fischman catch you up on the essential developments in the pandemic: from vaccines to new variants and everything in between. You can listen to all past episodes here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices