Science Quickly
1,930 episodes — Page 29 of 39
Pesticide Additive Could Be One Culprit in Bee Deaths
A common pesticide additive, known as an "inert" ingredient, could be one of the causes of the die-offs beekeepers have observed in their hives. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Knot Not Easy to Knot
Chemists have synthesized the most complex molecular knot ever, using a strand just 192 atoms long. The advance could lead to new tougher materials. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Bat Chatter Is More Than a Cry in the Dark
Using algorithms developed for human speech recognition, researchers decoded which bats in an experimental colony were arguing with each other, and what they were arguing about. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Bird Feeders Attract Bird Eaters, Too
Some predators are attracted to the food in bird feeders, and end up targeting nestlings, too. Jason G. Goldman reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Adult Daughter Orcas May Trigger Moms' Menopause
Competition between older female orcas and their adult daughters when they can breed simultaneously may cause the matriarch to enter menopause. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Climate Cycles Could Have Carved Canyons on Mars
Researchers think Mars may have experienced a series of climate cycles, which etched the planet’s surface with river valleys and lake basins. Julia Rosen reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Hair Cells Could Heal Skin Sans Scars
Hair follicles appear to be key in reprogramming other cells in the wound, restoring the original skin architecture, instead of simply scarring. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Concrete Defects Could Become Strengths
By optimizing the imperfections in concrete, manufacturers could make the material tougher and stronger—allowing builders to use less of it. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Zika Linked to a Variety of Birth Defects
Zika virus infection during pregnancy appears to cause a range of birth defects, such as joint, eye and ear abnormalities, in addition to microcephaly. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
When Dining for Trillions, Eat Wisely
What you ate in the past can shape the diversity of your gut flora, and affect how well your gut microbes respond to new foods. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Weakest Piglets May Sneak Help from Strongest Siblings
If a weak piglet positions itself next to a strong sibling while feeding, it may get some extra nutrition from inadvertently stimulated mammary glands. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Isolated Low Temps May Reassure Climate Skeptics
Areas of the country that have experienced record low temperatures since 2005 happen to be home to many global warming deniers. And researchers theorize there may be a connection. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Bats Learn to Take White-Nose Punch
In areas where the white-nose syndrome fungus has been around for awhile, little brown bats seem to have found a way to limit the disease damage. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
"Necrobiome" Reveals a Corpse's Time of Death
The microbial ecosystems inhabiting corpses could help forensic scientists determine a person’s time of death, even after almost two months. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Pregnancy Primes the Brain for Motherhood
Areas of the brain related to social cognition shrink in first-time mothers—a structural change that could boost maternal attachment. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Small Fraction of Pilots Suffer Suicidal Thoughts
In an anonymous online survey, about 4 percent of surveyed pilots admitted to having suicidal thoughts within the last few weeks. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Migrating Birds Prefer Lakefront Property
Night-flying migratory birds over water turn back to lakeshores at daybreak—meaning crowded shores along the water. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Breast-Feeding Benefits Babies with Genetic Asthma Risk
Infants carrying genes that put them at increased risk for asthma had a 27 percent decrease in developing respiratory symptoms while being breast-fed. Erika Beras reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Self-Driving Cars Probably Won't Boost Commuter Productivity
Sixty-two percent of survey respondents said self-driving cars would not make them more productive. Another 36 percent said they’d be too concerned to do anything but watch the road. Erika Beras reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
New Insecticide Makes Mosquitoes Pop
The substance prevents mosquitoes taking a blood meal from producing waste—causing them to swell up, and sometimes even explode. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Commuting Patterns Help Forecast Flu Outbreaks
Flu forecasts within large metro areas like New York City might be improved by adding in data about the flow of commuters. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Stopping Splashes with Smarter Surfaces
Understanding the physics of how a liquid splashes when it hits a surface is allowing researchers to design new surfaces that limit splashing Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Dogs Teach Bomb-Sniffing Machines New Tricks
A dog’s sniff pulls a plume of fresh scents toward them, which fluid dynamicists say is a technique that could make for better bomb detectors. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
"Power Poses" Don't Stand Up
A 2010 study claimed that striking certain poses could alter hormone levels and risk-taking behavior. But subsequent studies can’t replicate that finding. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Toll-Free Number Stems Human–Wildlife Conflicts
India's Project Wild Seve allows people who have suffered crop or livestock loss from wild animals to streamline the compensation process, thus helping both farmers and wildlife. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
We Now Live in the Unnatural World
David Biello's new book is The Unnatural World: The Race to Remake Civilization in Earth’s Newest Age. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
High-Fiber Diet Keeps Intestinal Walls Intact
A low-fiber diet causes fiber-eating microbes to dwindle, opening up real estate for mucus munchers that make the intestine more vulnerable to infection. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Forest Die-Offs Alter Global Climate "Like El Nino"
The loss of forests worldwide appears to interact synergistically to produce unpredictable effects on the global climate. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
DNA Samples Find a Lot of Fish in the Sea
The DNA in seawater can reveal the diversity and abundance of fish species living in ocean waters. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Police Body Cameras Appear to Moderate Interactions with Civilians
A study of seven jurisdictions found that when cops wear body cameras, complaints against them by civilians fall precipitously. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
NIH Director Looks at Presidential Transition
National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins talks about the future of the NIH in light of the election. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ebola Virus Grew More Infectious in the Latest Epidemic
A strain that emerged during the latest epidemic is able to enter human cells more easily—which means it’s more infectious, too. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Orangutan Picks Cocktail by Seeing Ingredients
An orangutan matched researchers' predictions about which mixed beverage he would choose based on his relative fondness for the separate ingredients. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Small-Brained Birds More Likely to Get Shot
Using taxidermy data, biologists determined that gun-killed birds have smaller brains than birds that died in other ways. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Online Sociality Linked to Lower Death Risk
Facebook users in California had slightly better health outcomes than nonusers, even after controlling for other factors. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Bookish Mobsters Made Better Bookies
Just as with honest jobs, mobsters with a more advanced education made more money than their less educated counterparts. Erika Beras reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
For River Otters, Social Life Is Shaped by the Latrine
Alaskan river otters can gain valuable information about one another by sniffing around their latrines. Jason G. Goldman reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Falcons Patrol Fruit Fields for Pesky Invasive Birds
Birds of prey work where other traditional methods of bird abatement—like scarecrows, pyrotechnics and netting—fail. Emily Schwing reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Clark Kent's Glasses Aided His Anonymity
Slightly altering one’s appearance—even with glasses—can indeed hinder facial recognition by others. Erika Beras reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Poor Sleepers Worse at Recognizing Unfamiliar Faces
Subjects suffering insomnia got more wrong answers in a face-matching task—but they were paradoxically more confident of their responses. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Yawns Help the Brain Keep Its Cool
Theory has it yawning helps cool the brain—and it turns out animals with bigger brains do indeed tend to yawn longer. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Polar Bears Can't Just Switch to Terrestrial Food
With a shorter season of sea ice, polar bears have less access to marine mammals. But switching to a terrestrial diet deprives them of the fatty seal meals they need to thrive. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Flowers Deceive Flies with Chemical Cocktail
The parachute flower smells like alarm pheromones of a honeybee, to attract tiny flies that feed on bees under attack. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Feed Microbes Oxygen to Help Clear Spilled Oil
A technique called “biosparging” relies on pumping oxygen underground to help naturally occurring microorganisms multiply and consume oil spills. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Elephant Footprints Become Tiny Critter Havens
When rain fills the massive footprints left by elephants, communities of aquatic invertebrates quickly move in Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Future Wet Suits Otter Be Warmer
Future wet suits with surface textures like the thick fur of otters that trap insulating air layers could keep tomorrow's divers warmer in icy waters. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Gender Influences Recommendations for Science Jobs
Female applicants to postdoctoral positions in geosciences were nearly half as likely to receive excellent letters of recommendation, compared with their male counterparts. Christopher Intagliata reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Nobel in Chemistry for Molecular Machines
Jean-Pierre Sauvage, James Fraser Stoddart and Bernard L. Feringa share the 2016 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the design and synthesis of molecular machines. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Nobel in Physics for Secrets of Exotic Matter
David J. Thouless, F. Duncan Haldane and J. Michael Kosterlitz split the 2016 Nobel Prize in Physics for theoretical discoveries of topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Nobel in Physiology or Medicine to Yoshinori Ohsumi for Autophagy Discoveries
Japan's Yoshinori Ohsumi wins the 2016 prize for discoveries related to autophagy, the process in cells whereby they degrade some of their internal structures and send the parts out for recycling. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices