Science Quickly

The ancestors of today’s dogs already exhibited some playfulness, which became a key trait during domestication. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A stretch of Neandertal DNA has been associated with some cases of severe COVID-19, but it’s unclear how much of a risk it poses. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

New Nobel laureate in chemistry Jennifer Doudna talks about various applications of the gene-editing tool CRISPR. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Blue whales off California’s coast sing at night—until it’s time to start migrating, and they switch to daytime song. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Charles Rice, who today shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of the hepatitis C virus, talked about how rapidly research now occurs, compared with his early work. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Researchers determined that Greenland is on track to lose more ice this century than during any of the previous 120 centuries. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The disappearance of their predators in a disturbed ecosystem has turned Atlantic forest sloths from night creatures to day adventurers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Researchers seeking evidence for cancer in dinosaurs found it in a collection of bones at a paleontology museum in Alberta. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Fork-tailed flycatchers make a fluttering sound with their wings—but separate subspecies have different “dialects” of fluttering. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Here are some brief reports about science and technology from all over, including one from Israel about what DNA reveals about the Dead Sea Scrolls’ parchment. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hyraxes, which live in Africa and the Middle East, punctuate their songs with snorts. And the snorts appear to reflect the animals’ emotional state. Jason G. Goldman reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Scientists determined that temperatures were 11 degrees cooler during the last ice age—and that finding has implications for modern-day warming. Julia Rosen reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hummingbirds in the Peruvian Andes enter a state of torpor at night to conserve energy, dipping their body temperature to as low as 38 degrees Fahrenheit. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Given an impossible task, a dog will ask a human for help, but a wolf will not seek help—and neither will a pet pig. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Pumping cheap iron-oxide-rich red bricks with specific vapors that form polymers enables the bricks to become electrical-charge-storage devices. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Researchers found that leftovers are likely to end up in the trash, so they advise cooking smaller meals in the first place to avoid food waste. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The finding of a baby dinosaur fossil in the Arctic implies that some dinos nested in the region, which was milder than today but not toasty. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Astronomers observed an odd triple-star system that offers clues about misaligned planetary orbits. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A study estimates that 200 million trees in the tropics are mowed down by lightning annually. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Here are some brief reports about science and technology from all over, including one from Antarctica about how there’s something funny about penguin poop. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Every year, Alaska’s big salmon runs feature smaller salmon. Climate change and competition with hatchery-raised salmon may be to blame. Julia Rosen reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

That drought may have brought about societal shifts in the region 5,000 years ago. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The finding could potentially help wildlife managers keep better tabs on their herds. Jason G. Goldman reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Researchers found extra bones within a 240-million-year-old ichthyosaur fossil—which they determined to be the ichthyosaur’s last, possibly fatal meal. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Butterflies, fish and frogs sport rear-end eyespots that reduce predation. Painting eye markings on cows similarly seems to ward off predators. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hermit warblers in California have developed 35 different song dialects, apparently as a result of wildfires temporarily driving them out of certain areas. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Scientists determined that “lava world” exoplanets do not derive their brightness from molten rock but possibly get it from reflective metallic clouds. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Climate change is expected to bring more frequent droughts and heat waves to Africa’s Kalahari Desert. And aardvarks might not be able to cope. Jason G. Goldman reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Scientists spotted a mouse at the summit of Llullaillaco, a 22,000-foot-tall volcano on the border of Chile and Argentina. Julia Rosen reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A decline in smell was the sense loss most strongly associated with such risk in a recent study. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rather than undergoing active chameleonlike color changes, glass frogs’ translucency allows light to bounce from their background and go through them—making their apparent color close to their setting. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Compared with traditional lineup techniques, a series of two-faces-at-a-time choices led to more accurate identification by study witnesses. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

An analysis of fox fossils found evidence that they scavenged from wolf and bear kills until Homo sapiens supplied plenty of horse and reindeer remains. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Now submerged caves in the Yucatán Peninsula contain remains of ocher-mining operations that date back at least 10,000 years. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Soap bubbles are sticky enough to carry a pollen payload and delicate enough to land on flowers without harm. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Here are some brief reports about science and technology from all over, including one about how a lizard population responded to hurricanes by developing larger and stickier toe pads on average. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

COVID-19-related lockdowns dampened human activity around the globe—giving seismologists a rare glimpse of the earth’s quietest rumblings. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Art museums are filled with centuries-old paintings with details of plants that today give us clues about evolution and breeding practices. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Meteorologists take advantage of weather data collected by commercial jetliners at different altitudes and locations. Fewer flights mean less data. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The sword-tailed cricket can discern bats’ echolocation signals by only responding to calls of a certain volume—at which point it plummets out of their approach. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The system works like noise-cancelling headphones but fits over an open window. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Vaccination used against smallpox during the Civil War reveals the identity of the distantly related virus used to keep troops disease-free. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Individuals aren’t very good at judging whether someone coughing or sneezing has an infectious condition or is simply reacting to something benign. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Those that eat insects, migrate or usually live in the woods are most likely to fly into buildings that feature a lot of glass. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

White-throated sparrows made a change to their familiar call that quickly spread across Canada. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Scientists have found snippets of Native South American DNA in the genomes of present-day Polynesians, and they trace the contact to the year 1150. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Researchers saw a third fewer vehicle collisions with deer, elk, moose and other large mammals in the four weeks following COVID-19 shutdowns in three states they tracked. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Velvety free-tailed bats produce sounds that help them locate insect prey but simultaneously identify them to their companions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Old, big trees are dying faster than in the past, leaving younger, less biodiverse forests that store less carbon worldwide. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The stomach contents of young great white sharks show that they spend a lot of time patrolling the seafloor for meals. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices