Science Quickly
1,942 episodes — Page 14 of 39
Male Lyrebirds Lie to Get Sex
It seems like the males will do anything, even fake nearby danger, to get females to stick around to mate. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Lovebirds Adore Our Inefficient Air-Conditioning
The rosy-faced lovebirds that live in Phoenix appear to be free riding on our urban climate control. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
COVID, Quickly, Episode 5: Vaccine Safety in Pregnancy, Blood Clots and Long-Haul Realities
Today we bring you the fifth 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Beehives Are Held Together by Their Mutual Gut Microbes
New research shows that members of a bee colony all have the same gut microbiome, which controls their smell—and thus their ability to separate family from foe. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
These Endangered Birds Are Forgetting Their Songs
Australia’s critically endangered regent honeyeaters are losing what amounts to their culture—and that could jeopardize their success at landing a mate. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
To Fight Climate Change: Grow a Floating Forest, Then Sink It
A fast-growing front in the battle against climate change is focused on developing green technologies aimed at reducing humankind’s carbon footprint, but many scientists say simply reducing emissions is no longer enough. We have to find new ways to suck carbon out of the atmosphere. A Maine start-up is looking to raise a sinkable carbon-capturing forest in the open ocean. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
COVID, Quickly, Episode 4: The Virtual Vaccine Line and Shots for Kids
Today we bring you the fourth episode in a new 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Big Physics News: The Muon g-2 Experiment Explained
Particles called muons are behaving weirdly, and that could mean a huge discovery. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Boston's Pigeons Coo, 'Wicked'; New York's Birds Coo, 'Fuhgeddaboudit'
The two cities’ rock doves are genetically distinct, research shows. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Imperiled Freshwater Turtles Are Eating Plastics--Science Is Just Revealing the Threat
We know a lot about how sea turtles are threatened by our trash, but new research has just uncovered an underreported threat hiding inside lakes and rivers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
COVID, Quickly, Episode 3: Vaccine Inequality--plus Your Body the Variant Fighter
Today we bring you the third episode in a new 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Using Dragonflies as Contamination Detectors
By collecting the larvae of the fast flyers, researchers have turned the insects into “biosentinels” that can track mercury pollution across the country. Berly McCoy reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Smartphones Can Hear the Shape of Your Door Keys
Can you pick a lock with just a smartphone? New research shows that doing so is possible. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Chimpanzees Show Altruism while Gathering around the Juice Fountain
New research tries to tease out whether our closest animal relatives can be selfless Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
COVID, Quickly, Episode 2: Lessons from a Pandemic Year
Today we bring you the second episode in a new 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
That Mouse in Your House--It's Smarter, Thanks to You
Scientists studied three varieties of house mice and found that those who had lived alongside humans the longest were also the craftiest at solving food puzzles. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Kangaroos with Puppy Dog Eyes
New research shows that when faced with an impossible task, the marsupials look to humans for help. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
COVID, Quickly, Episode 1: Vaccines, Variants and Diabetes
Today we begin a new 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Machine Learning Pwns Old-School Atari Games
You can call it the “revenge of the computer scientist.” An algorithm that made headlines for mastering the notoriously difficult Atari 2600 game Montezuma’s Revenge can now beat more games, achieving near perfect scores, and help robots explore real-world environments. Pakinam Amer reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
E-Eggs Track Turtle Traffickers
Decoy sea turtle eggs containing tracking tech are new weapons against beach poachers and traffickers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Bromances Could Lead to More Romances for Male Hyenas
Spotted hyena males do not fight for mates, so how are certain males shut out of the mating game? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
A Heroic Effort to Measure Helium
After an intense game of cat and mouse with different particles, atomic physicists have measured the radius of the helium nucleus five times more precisely than before. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Science News Briefs from around the World
Here are some brief reports about science and technology from around the world, including one from Costa Rica about decoy sea turtle eggs with the potential to catch poachers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Scientists Take a Cattle Head Count in India
The research team determined that the city of Raipur in central India has at least one street cow for every 54 human residents. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ancient Dogs Had Complex Genetic Histories
Some dog population genetics show similarities to ours, such as in the ability to digest grains. But other lineages differ. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Bees Use 'Bullshit' Defense to Keep Giant Hornets at Bay
The prospect of death by giant hornet has pushed some Asian honeybees to resort to a poop-based defense system Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Humans May Have Befriended Wolves with Meat
Unlike humans, wolves can subsist on protein alone for months—so scientists say we may have lobbed leaner leftovers their way. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
How to Avoid Becoming a Meal for a Cheetah
Researchers help farmers in Namibia avoid costly cattle losses by tracking big cat hangouts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
How the Coronavirus Pandemic Shaped Our Language in 2020
Linguist Ben Zimmer says the pandemic has turned us all into amateur epidemiologists utilizing terms such as “superspreader” and “asymptomatic.” Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Science News Briefs from around the Planet
Here are some brief reports about science and technology from around the world, including one from Panama about the toll lightning takes on tropical trees. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ravens Measure Up to Great Apes on Intelligence
Juvenile ravens performed just as well as chimps and orangutans in a battery of intelligence tests—except for assays of spatial skills. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Baby Bees Deprive Caregivers of Sleep
Bee larvae and pupae appear to secrete a chemical that does the work of a late-night cup of coffee for their nurses. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
How the Wolves Change the Forest
New research tracked the canines in northern Minnesota for years to see just how they reshape their ecosystems. Audio of wolves inside Voyageurs National Park, courtesy of Jacob Job. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Brain Sides Are Both Busy in New Language Learning
A study of adults learning a new language found that speaking primarily activated regions in the left side of the brain, but reading and listening comprehension were much more variable Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
A Nurse's Message about the COVID-19 Vaccine
Nurse Kristen Choi says health care providers need to better educate patients about possible side effects from the COVID-19 vaccine. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Eye Treatment Stretches Mouse Sight Beyond Visible Spectrum
Nanoparticles that attach to photoreceptors allowed mice to see infrared and near-infrared light for up to two months. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
This Bat Wears a Face Mask
The wrinkle-faced bat covers its face with a flap of skin, seemingly as part of its courtship rituals. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The Denisovans Expand Their Range into China
Evidence of the ancient humans was limited to a cave in Siberia. But now scientists have found genetic remains of the Denisovans in China. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Undersea Earthquakes Reveal Sound Warming Info
Travel time differences for sound waves produced by undersea earthquakes in the same place at different times can provide details about ocean warming. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Duckbill Dino Odyssey Ended in Africa
A duckbill dinosaur jawbone found in Morocco means that dinosaurs crossed a large body of water to reach Africa. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Early Mammals Had Social Lives, Too
Chipmunklike animals that lived among the dinosaurs appear to have been social creatures, which suggests that sociality arose in mammals earlier than scientists thought. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Science News Briefs from All Over
Here are some brief reports about science and technology from around the world, including one, from the dormant volcano Llullaillaco in Chile, about a mouse that is the highest-dwelling mammal ever documented. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Divide and Conquer Could Be Good COVID Strategy
COVID might be fought efficiently with fewer shutdowns by restricting activities only in a particular area with a population up to 200,000 when its case rate rises above a chosen threshold. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Zebra Coloration Messes With Fly Eyes
Horseflies misjudge landings on zebra patterns, compared with solid gray or black surfaces, which provides evidence for why evolution came up with the black-and-white pattern. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Science Sound(E)scapes: Head Banging and Howling in the Amazon
Need a break from politics and the pandemic? You’re probably not in the Amazon rain forest right now, but we can take you there in audio. Today, in part three of our three-part audio sound escape, we ascend into the trees where howler monkeys and crimson-crested woodpeckers rule the airwaves. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Science Sound(E)scapes: Amazon Frog Choruses at Night
Need a break from politics and the pandemic? You’re probably not in the Amazon rain forest right now, but we can take you there in audio. Today, in part two of our three-part audio sound escape, we descend into a nighttime flood of frog music. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Science Sound(E)scapes: Amazon Pink River Dolphins
Need a break from politics and the pandemic? You’re probably not in the Amazon rain forest right now, but we can take you there in audio. Today, in part one of our three-part audio sound escape, we listen to dolphins hunting among the trees. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Frog Vocals Lead to Small Preference
The concave-eared torrent frog's unusual ear anatomy lets it hear high-frequency calls, which gives a mating advantage to the littler males that sing soprano. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Science News Briefs from around the Globe
Here are some brief reports about science and technology from all over, including one from the United Arab Emirates about the the first interplanetary mission by an Arab country. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Election Science Stakes: Technology
We wrap up our preelection series with Scientific American senior editor Jen Schwartz, who talks about the possible effects of the election results on technology development and use. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices