Science Quickly
1,942 episodes — Page 29 of 39
Partnered-Up Men More Attractive to Women
Women rate a man they see with an attractive woman as more desirable than an unattached man. Erika Beras reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Gulf Dead Zone Makes for Shrimpier Shrimp
The low-oxygen waters of the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico result in smaller shrimp, and a spike in large shrimp prices. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Frog Spit Behaves Like Bug-Catching Ketchup
The amphibians' saliva is what's known as a "shear-thinning fluid," like ketchup—sometimes thick, sometimes thin and flowing. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Super Bowl Snacks Need These Exercise Equivalents
Charles Platkin, director of the New York City Food Policy Center at Hunter College, published tips on what it would take to burn off the calories we typically consume during the Super Bowl Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The Arctic's Anti-Snowball Snowball Effect
Arctic heat waves melt sea ice, which promotes more warming and even more ice loss. In other words, it’s a snowball effect—or in this case, an anti-snowball effect. Julia Rosen reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Widening the Suez Canal Ushers In Underwater Invaders
Nomadic jellyfish and poisonous puffer fish are the poster children of an invasion of non-native species into the Mediterranean, with environmental and economic costs. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Hawaiian Crows Ready for the Call of the Wild
The critically endangered birds have done well in captive breeding, meaning they may be ready once more for wild living, and the repertoire of calls associated with it. Jason G. Goldman reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
A Humble Fish with a Colorful Edge
The cichlid, a small fish, has one of the most incredible visual systems known—which allows it to adapt to differently colored environments. Jason G. Goldman reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
LSD's Long, Strange Trip Explained
When LSD binds to serotonin receptors, it pulls a "lid" closed behind it, locking it in place for hours, and explaining its long-lasting effects. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Umbrellas Plus Sunscreen Best Bet to Beat Burns
Sunscreen or beach umbrellas alone were unable to completely prevent sunburns—so researchers suggest combining the methods instead. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ants Use Celestial Cues to Travel in Reverse
The six-legged savants appear to use celestial cues and three forms of memory, as they blaze a trail back to the nest. Karen Hopkin reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
High-Sugar Diet Makes Flies Drop Like...Flies
A study examines the effects of a high-sugar diet on the life spans of fruit flies. Another studies how the flies’ appetite-suppressing pathways may be similar to ours. Karen Hopkin reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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