Science Quickly

Using insurance industry models, researchers determined that wetlands prevented some $625 million in damages due to Hurricane Sandy. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Pikas, a hampster-size rabbit relative, have disappeared from a 64-square-mile plot in the northern Sierra Nevada—and climate change is a likely culprit. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A star that appeared and then vanished in A.D. 1437 was an explosion in a binary star system—which now reveals clues about the life cycle of certain stars. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When cattle graze the desert's natural landscape, birds face changes in food availability—and some species are unable to adapt. Jason Goldman reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Warmer water boosts fishes' demand for oxygen—and their bodies may shrink in response. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 1998 an orange juice maker dumped 12,000 tons of orange peels on degraded pastureland in Costa Rica—transforming it into vine-rich jungle. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Astronomers Without Borders wants to share your used eclipse glasses with kids in other parts of the world for the 2019 total solar eclipse. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

David Baron, author of the new book American Eclipse, talks about how seeing his first total solar eclipse turned him into an eclipse chaser. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A petroglyph spotted in Chaco Canyon may depict a total solar eclipse witnessed by the Pueblo people. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Why you should think twice before you give an app access to your phone’s address book. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A new device promises to tell police when a driver has been sending messages while behind the wheel, but is it legal? Larry Greenemeier reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sea ice is drifting faster in the Arctic—which means polar bears need to walk farther to stay in their native range. Emily Schwing reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Western fence lizards are more spooked by red and gray shirts than they are by blue ones—perhaps because the males have blue bellies themselves. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Celebrity Twitter accounts look a lot like Twitter bots: They tweet regularly, follow relatively few people, and upload a lot of content. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

An epic bout of cold weather quickly altered a population of lizards—an example of natural selection in action. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Italians who stuck closely to the heart-healthy diet had fewer heart attacks and strokes—but only if they were well-off and/or college educated. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Humans appear well equipped to recognize the alarm calls of other animals—perhaps because sounds of distress tend to have higher frequencies. Karen Hopkin reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The North American walnut sphinx caterpillar produces a whistle that sounds just like a songbird's alarm call--and the whistle seems to startle birds. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Volunteers who used money to save themselves time were more content than volunteers who purchased themselves physical stuff. Karen Hopkin reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Exposure to existing antibiotics can imbue infectious bacteria with resistance that also kicks in against new drugs related to the originals. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Researchers in the U.K. trained computers to rate photos of parks and cities for what humans consider to be their scenic beauty. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Forensic entomologists can chemically analyze fly eggs from a corpse, which might speed up detective work. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Century-old records found in Puerto Rico helped reconstruct the damage caused there by a magnitude 7.3 earthquake—and could help disaster experts plan for the next big one. Julia Rosen reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

An experimental cell phone works by absorbing and reflecting radio waves—meaning it's incredibly energy efficient and needs no battery. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In patients with severe eczema, Staphylococcus aureus strains dominated the skin microbe population—suggesting that certain types of bacteria could worsen eczema flares. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Whether lightning rods should have rounded or pointy ends became a point of contention between rebellious Americans and King George III. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Economists calculate that each degree Celsius of warming will dock the U.S. economy by 1.2 percent--and increase the divide between rich and poor. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Quantum bits, aka qubits, can simultaneously encode 0 and 1. But multicolored photons could enable even more states to exist at the same time, ramping up computing power. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Researchers designed an antireflective coating for smartphone screens, with inspiration from the bumpy eyes of moths. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The better study participants scored in the memory test, the faster they got bored. Karen Hopkin reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

DNA analysis of skeletons found in the Pacific Northwest backs up traditional oral histories, and suggests there could have been more than one colonization of the Americas. Emily Schwing reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A team of physicists has revealed why rolling suitcases start rocking from wheel to wheel—and how to avoid that frustrating phenomenon. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ecologists say wolves should be allowed to roam beyond remote wilderness areas—and that by scaring off smaller predators like coyotes and jackals, wolves might do a good service, too. Emily Schwing reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Researchers built silver–zinc batteries that can bend and stretch—meaning they could be more elegantly integrated into future wearable devices. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As polar bears are forced onto land, they're feeding on animals with less mercury—reducing their levels of the toxic pollutant. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Only a third of travelers could correctly identify a bed bug—suggesting that some bug sightings in online reviews could be cases of mistaken identity. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The "other victims" of the opioid epidemic are pain patients who need the drugs but cannot now get them because of fears related to their use Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mosquitoes infected with Wolbachia bacteria are unable to transmit viruses to humans—and could curb the spread of viral disease. Karen Hopkin reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With 700 new greenhouses, Alaska is growing its own produce as deep into winter as the sun keeps rising. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Researchers found unique genetic variants that differentiate costly beluga caviar from cheaper fakes that rip off consumers. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

New French president, Emmanual Macron, reacted to the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement by inviting disaffected U.S. researchers to make France "a second homeland." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Evaporation from overwatered lawns cost the city of Los Angeles 70 billion gallons of wasted water a year. But the city's trees were much thriftier. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tom Frieden, head of the CDC from 2009 to 2017, told graduating medical students that we face challenges from pathogens, and from politicians. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Activity trackers accurately reckon heart rate—but they're way off in estimates of energy expenditure. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Recipes for concrete that incorporate by-products from the coal and steel industries, like fly ash and slag, could reduce road salt–related cracking. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bumblebees sought out flowers with nicotine in their nectar, and the drug appeared to enhance the bees' memories. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Really big meteorite or asteroid strikes may cause melting and deep deformations that eventually lead to volcanic eruptions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A religiously inspired change in the European diet about a thousand years ago led to the development of the modern domesticated chicken. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Earthworm numbers doubled in fields after farmers switched from conventional plowing to no-till agriculture. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When tiny particles of space debris slam into satellites, the collision could cause the emission of hardware-frying radiation. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices