Science Quickly

Analysis of alleged yeti samples found them to be from less fantastic beasts, such as bears, but also shed light on the evolution of those local bear populations. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

An analysis of voter opinions finds that half of Republican voters think climate change is happening, and would support regulating CO2 as a pollutant. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

At the World Conference of Science Journalists in October, Nathan Myhrvold, co-founder of Intellectual Ventures, charged innovation outfits with changing the lives of the world's most disadvantaged. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A social scientist studies how car stickers turn the roads into actual information highways. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

By listening to the calls of their brethren, chimps seem to be able to understand the mind-sets and perspectives of other chimps. Jason Goldman reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

About half the honeybees in a test exhibited no sidedness, but the other half was split 50–50 between righties and lefties—perhaps to navigate obstacles more efficiently. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Researchers attached cameras to humpback whales and found that they flap their flippers to help power forward swimming. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Estimating cranberry harvests involves tedious hand-counting. But microwave analysis could change all that. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A new analysis treats bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies as species in an evolutionary model—and finds bitcoin has no selective advantage. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Salmon excavate streambed holes in which to lay eggs, setting off a chain of events that has surprisingly large geographical effects. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

New World societies long ago likely had less income inequality than those in the Old World, and the difference might have been an oxen gap. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The crested pigeon, found in Australia, has a modified wing feather that helps produce an alarm signal sound to warn other birds when there's trouble. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A campaign calls for the creation of a statue to recognize Félicette, the first cat to be sent into space. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Bryde's whale has come up with a passive but more efficient feeding strategy in the hypoxic waters of the Gulf of Thailand. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Computer scientists borrowed insights from the fruit fly brain to create a more accurate search algorithm. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With some training, sheep were able to select a celebrity's face over that of a stranger they'd never seen. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

SETI pioneer Jill Tarter and Berkeley researcher Dan Werthimer talk about how the discovery of nearby exoplanets is inspiring new efforts to gain info about these galactic neighbors. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On National Bison Day, a look at the role the Bronx played in reestablishing herds of bison on the American plains. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In a sample of 98 woolly mammoth remains, researchers found that 70 percent were male—which suggests males were more likely to die accidentally. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Scientists used muons, a by-product of cosmic rays, to image the interior of the Great Pyramid—and found a previously unknown space inside. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The wood tiger moth is the first species known in which fluids from various parts of the moth’s body each target a different type of predator. Jason Goldman reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As news coverage of California's most recent drought intensified, water use trends went down—suggesting news might inspire consumers to conserve. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The wintertime smog in China's northeastern provinces is so severe it blocks more than 20 percent of sunlight from reaching the region's solar panels. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Wolves appear to have better cooperation skills than dogs—unless the pups partner up with humans. Karen Hopkin reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Firearm deaths and injuries went up in California communities after gun shows in neighboring Nevada—but not after more strictly regulated California gun shows. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mosquitos stealthily float off us after filling up, by virtue of fast wingbeats that generate almost instant lift with only an imperceptible additional push from the legs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Up-to-date software, apps, browsers and router software offer the best protection against a potential flaw in wi-fi security called a key reinstallation attack, or KRACK. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Exhaust fumes from oceangoing vessels lead to an almost doubling of lightning activity over shipping lanes compared to adjacent areas of the sea. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

By playing the online game Foldit, players might help design an enzyme that can stop aflatoxins from making millions sick. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jellyfish exhibit signs of a sleep state, which could mean that sleep predates the evolutionary development of central nervous systems. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Under certain circumstances squirrels will bury all of the same kind of nut near one another, a mnemonic strategy known as chunking. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Black bears and cougars share the Vancouver countryside, but not happily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Like fingerprints and facial recognition, the shape and beat of your heart can be used to verify your identity. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The microbes that live in and on our bodies will colonize a human-manned spacecraft to Mars—but will the spacecraft's microbiome be safe? Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry goes to Jacques Dubochet, Joachim Frank and Richard Henderson for developing cryo-electron microscopy for the high-resolution structure determination of biomolecules in solution. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Nobel Prize in Physics goes to Rainer Weiss, Barry C. Barish and Kip S. Thorne "for decisive contributions to the LIGO detector and the observation of gravitational waves". Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2017 was awarded to Jeffrey C. Hall, Michael Rosbash and Michael W. Young for discoveries of molecular mechanisms controlling circadian rhythms. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Submerged electric eels lose current to water, so they apparently leap into the air to minimize their contact with water and maximize their shock value. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A chance observation led researchers to add the Australian Magpie to the short list of birds that dunk their food in water before eating. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The 2011 east Japan tsunami swept huge amounts of wreckage out to sea—and Japanese species hitchhiked across the Pacific on the debris. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Individuals in packs of African wild dogs appear to sneeze to make their wishes known regarding when to get up and hunt. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The frogs' calls are too high-pitched for the frog to detect, which may be an artifact of evolution. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

More reflective telescope mirrors allow astronomers to capture more photons—and do more science. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A new study hints that the most energetic particles ever seen come from far beyond the Milky Way. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A trove of scientific notes from the early 1900s suggests a warming climate is driving birds to migrate earlier to New York’s Mohonk Preserve. Julia Rosen reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As temperatures rise, the tree line moves upslope. But ancient bristlecone pines are losing that upslope race to faster-colonizing neighbors. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As carbon dioxide levels rise, plants are sipping water more efficiently—which could come in handy in a drier future. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Cannibalistic caterpillars prevent disease from decimating their populations by removing infected individuals. Emily Schwing reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Internet hosting company DreamHost is battling the U.S. Justice Department over requests for information about people visiting a Web site for organizing protests. Larry Greenemeier reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Smooth vertical surfaces like windows reflect sound waves away from bats—meaning bats can't "see" windows and similar obstacles with echolocation. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices