Science Quickly
1,930 episodes — Page 14 of 39
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
Election Science Stakes: Energy
Scientific American senior editor Mark Fischetti and associate editor Andrea Thompson talk about this election and the future of U.S. energy research and policy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Election Science Stakes: Environment
Scientific American senior editor Mark Fischetti talks about how this election will affect environmental science and policy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Election Science Stakes: Climate
Scientific American’s associate editor for sustainability Andrea Thompson talks about how climate science and policy will be affected by this election. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Election Science Stakes: Medicine and Public Health
Scientific American’s senior medicine editor Josh Fischman talks about issues in medicine and public health that will be affected by this election. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Election 2020: The Stakes for Science
Scientific American’s editor in chief sets up this week’s series of podcasts about how this election could affect science, technology and medicine. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Why Some Easter Island Statues Are Where They Are
Many of the statues not along the coast are in places that featured a resource vital to the communities that lived and worked there. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Acorn Woodpeckers Fight Long, Bloody Territorial Wars
More than 40 of the birds, in coalitions of three or four, may fight for days over oak trees in which to store their acorns. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Funky Cheese Rinds Release an Influential Stench
The volatile compounds released by microbial communities on cheese rinds shape and shift a cheese’s microbiome. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Dinosaur Asteroid Hit Worst-Case Place
The mass-extinction asteroid happened to strike an area where the rock contained a lot of organic matter and sent soot into the stratosphere, where it could block sunlight for years. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
River Ecosystem Restoration Can Mean Just Add Water
Planners returned water to the dry bed of Arizona’s Santa Cruz River in 2019, and various species began showing up on the same day. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
3,000-Year-Old Orbs Provide a Glimpse of Ancient Sport
Researchers say three ancient leather balls, dug up from the tombs of horsemen in northwestern China, are the oldest such specimens from Europe or Asia. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Humans Make Wild Animals Less Wary
From mammals to mollusks, animals living among humans lose their antipredator behaviors. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices