Science Quickly

A lizard's stripes may make them look like they’re moving slower than they really are, confusing predators that tend to aim at the head but may wind up with the tail. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

More particulate matter in the air can build stronger, longer-lasting thunderstorms over the tropics, leading to more extreme storms. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The microbes found in crushed grapes were linked to certain chemical fingerprints in the finished wine. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In mice, intestinal microbes respond to a high-fat diet by producing acetate, which triggers the release of a hormone that makes mammals feel hungry, causing them to eat even more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Wildlife researcher Joel Berger dons a polar bear outfit to study the reactions of musk oxen to the threat of bears increasingly driven onto the land for food. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What looked like human-made structures underwater off Greece turned out to be millions-of-years-old concretions deposited by bacteria. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

An energy-efficient alternative to LEDs has greater focusing power, for microscopes and spotlights. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Damselfish had trouble sniffing out survival clues by their fellows in damaged coral. Jason Goldman reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Serving wine in larger glasses boosted sales 10 percent in an English bar, possibly because customers think they're imbibing less per glass. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shy sticklebacks were more likely to emerge from under cover when an equally wary fellow was already out there, rather than when a bold individual was present. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dogs may have been domesticated from wolves twice, first in Europe, and again in Asia. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Researchers say carbon storage sites should be tested for microbial life, which could potentially convert CO2 to methane—a more potent greenhouse gas. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A wearable device records the sounds of knees cracking, which could reveal clues about the condition of the joint. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In an analysis of 14 presidential debate transcripts, two thirds of accusations of question-dodging had no merit. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Remnants of a beer-making operation some 5,000 years old have been found in northern China. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Evidence indicates that waves as tall as skyscrapers and thousands of kilometers wide once washed over the Red Planet. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Many red-colored birds have to convert yellow pigments in their food into the red pigments that make their feathers and beaks so brilliant. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Two different antibiotic-resistant E. coli strains have a protective relationship in which each disables a different antibiotic, allowing both to thrive. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Scientists from numerous disciplines will brainstorm new strategies for measuring "Big G" in July. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dust clouds from the Sahara reach the Caribbean—and fertilize waters there when they arrive. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A single-celled organism discovered in chinchilla droppings is the only known eukaryotic organism that lacks mitochondria-like organelles. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Caltech theoretical physicist Sean M. Carroll talks about the necessary connections among the various ways we have of describing the universe. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Raindrops eject carbon-based blobs of soil material from wet fields, creating a mist of organic compounds above the soil. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hydrofoiling boats competing in the America's Cup World Series came to New York City to show off the cutting edge of sailing technology. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A chemical compound can cut a cow's methane emissions by 30 percent—and help the animal get more energy from its food. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lemurs sometimes mix their smelly secretions to produce a bouquet of stank—which may boost the perfume’s staying power. Karen Hopkin reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A study links single living to a thinner waistline and lower BMI, compared with co-habitating couples. Erika Beras reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Researchers found that neighborhoods with a higher proportion of Flickr photos tagged "art" saw a higher spike in property prices. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

An individual's unique brain response to images of a celebrity and a food could be used to create an ID procedure at high-security sites. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Volunteers who ate veggies grown in wastewater had higher (but still safe) levels of an epilepsy drug in their urine, compared with subjects who ate freshwater-grown veggies. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When a species of nightshade is injured by hungry beetles, it produces sugary nectar at the wound site. The nectar attracts ants that then keep the beetles at bay. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mountain-climbing bears transport cherry tree seeds, internally at first, to cooler, higher altitudes where the trees can survive as temperatures rise. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Study volunteers whose voices deepened during a group debate tended to be more influential and convincing. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The vocalizations of the gelada, a baboon relative, appear to follow a linguistic rule called Menzerath's law. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Woodpeckers that listen to others of their kind drum into trees alter their behavior based on what they hear. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The development of statistics, probability theory, game theory and chaos theory owes a lot to people trying to figure out various games of chance. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Millions of tiny graphene robots can propel themselves through wastewater and scavenge heavy metals. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rockfalls without an obvious cause (like an earthquake or expanding ice) may be due to hot daily air temperatures expanding small cracks in cliff faces. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Researchers have uncovered the chemistry that makes the urine of bearcats smell like freshly cooked popcorn. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Pancreatic type beta cells produced from stem cells can sense glucose, release insulin and treat a mouse model of diabetes. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mundane notes about daily life on 16 ceramic shards written about 600 B.C. at an ancient military fortress in the Negev Desert reveal that literacy had to be common. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Brazilian torrent frog has the most sophisticated visual communications system yet documented for a frog species. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A cancer center in the U.K. found that patients had significantly lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol after harmonizing for an hour. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Four billion years ago asteroids and comets could have melted the Martian cryosphere, and started up hydrothermal springs—a potential hotspot for ancient microbial life. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Understanding the regional vocal patterns of various canid species sheds light on animal communication and could help ranchers broadcast "keep away" messages to protect livestock. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Japanese great tit combines two calls in a specific order and does not respond to a recording of the calls combined in reverse order, apparently demonstrating compositional syntax. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Researchers have created what they call the first "programming language" for cells, which compiles code into a genetic circuit. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We could use laser light to mask our transits across the sun and thus hide Earth from any intelligent aliens looking for planets to invade Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A flash of light shortly after the detection of gravitational waves could mean that that historic event has an added wrinkle—the black holes that collided may have been born in the same collapsing massive star. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Birds that live in urban environments are brasher than rural birds, solve problems better and even have more robust immune systems. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices