Science Quickly
1,942 episodes — Page 33 of 39
Bear Gut Microbes Help Prep Hibernation
Bears’ gut summer bacteria are more diverse and include species that tend to promote energy storage than are the bacteria that live in them during their hibernation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Seed-Scattering Birds May Help Trees Cope with Climate Change
A new review paper emphasizes the crucial role birds play in helping trees colonize new habitats—especially in the face of a changing climate. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Plastic Pollution Perturbs Oyster Offspring
Laboratory tests suggest that when the shellfish suck in tiny plastic particles, their reproductive success suffers. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Antioxidant Use Still Small Mixed Bag
At a Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health forum on diet and health, Walter Willett, chair of the school's nutrition department, talked about benefits and risks associated with antioxidant supplements. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Sweet Song Gives Away New Bird Species
The newly discovered Himalayan forest thrush looks a great deal like the alpine thrush, but its far silkier song stylings gave it away as a potential new species. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Suicide Differences by Region Related to Gun Availability
The presence of a gun increases the likelihood that someone in the home will die a violent death, particularly by suicide. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Musical Pitch Perception May Have Long Evolutionary History
A tiny primate, the marmoset, appears to process pitch perception the same way we do, implying that the ability evolved in a common ancestor at least 40 million years ago. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Quick Test Could Tell If a Patient Needs Antibiotics
Antibiotics work against bacterial infections but are often prescribed to people with viral infections, which don't respond to the drugs. But a new gene test could show if a patient's infection is viral or bacterial. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Pluto Killer Thinks He Has New Ninth Planet
Caltech astronomer Mike Brown, the driving force for demoting Pluto, now claims evidence for a massive, distant replacement ninth planet in our solar system. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Sharks Head Straight Home by Smell
Sharks that could smell headed straight back home when taken a few miles away whereas some that had their senses of smell blocked took slower, more erratic paths to their old haunts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Volcano Role in Dino Death Gets Mercury Boost
Researchers found a spike in mercury, which is produced by volcanoes, in ancient ocean sediments from southern France that span the time of the dinosaurs' mass extinction, lending support to the idea that massive eruptions played a role, in addition to the asteroid impact. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Healthful Diet Switch Helps Even Late in Life
At a Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health forum on diet and health, Walter Willett, chair of the school's nutrition department, said that adoption of more healthful eating habits even late in life still has benefits. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Better Gut Microbiome Census through Computing
Sophisticated computational techniques make it possible to analyze gene samples from all the bacteria in the gut at once to take a census of the species present. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Sociable Chimps Get Richer Gut Microbiomes
When food is plentiful and chimps are more chummy, they harbor an increased number of different bacterial species in their bellies. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mammoth Find Moves Humans in Arctic Back 10,000 Years
The remains of a clearly butchered woolly mammoth in Siberia date to 45,000 years ago, 10 millennia earlier than when humans were thought to have crossed north of the Arctic circle. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
City Swans May Tolerate Humans Due to Gene Variant
More members of an urban swan population that lets humans get near have a particular genetic variant than do a rural swan group that tends to take off when humans approach. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Hippo Meat-Munching May Explain Their Anthrax Outbreaks
Hippos eat meat more than had been thought, a practice that could explain their susceptibility to anthrax die-offs when they consume infected animals. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Powerball Lottery Winning Made Inevitable (If Not Easy)
Some set of numbers will definitely be drawn in the $1.3-billion Powerball Lottery, so all you have to do is make sure you hold every possible combination of numbers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Iceman Ötzi Died with a Bellyache
Researchers were able to determine the genome of stomach bacteria that infected the famous Iceman at the time of his death, in the process giving us clues about ancient human migrations. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Allergies May Have Been Bequeathed by Neandertals
Many non-African humans today have genes—which apparently made it into us via Neandertals—that ramp up resistance to pathogens, but bring on allergies, too. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Needle Exchange Programs Now Get Fed Support
More than a quarter century after the federal funding ban on needle exchange programs went into effect, it has quietly been almost completely lifted. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Obama Notes Blocks of Gun Violence Research
In his announcement today that he was taking executive action to require more gun sellers to be licensed and to do background checks on gun buyers, Pres. Barack Obama also touched on the problems facing public health researchers who try to study gun violence and deaths. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Big Cats and People Live in Close Quarters in India
The numbers of large carnivores, especially leopards, are increasing in private lands and lands outside the protected-area systems in India, bringing new challenges for coexistence. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Asphalt Roads Could De-Ice Themselves
Researchers engineered bitumen—the sticky black stuff in asphalt—to release its own salt, to battle the formation of ice. Christopher Intagliata reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Race-Based Brand Preferences Found for Underage Drinkers
Twelve alcohol brands among the top 25 preferred brands for teen black drinkers don’t appear at all on the top 25 for young white drinkers Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Baby Whales Pecked to Death by Gulls
Almost all southern right whale calves off the coast of Argentina’s Peninsula Valdez are being fed upon, some fatally, by kelp gulls, which was a rare occurrence four decades ago Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Polar Bears Must Work Harder on Faster Sea Ice Treadmill
Thinner sea ice is getting pushed farther by Arctic winds, which makes polar bears walk more to stay in the same place, increasing their need for food. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Southwest's Conifers Face Trial by Climate Change
Using climate models and tree physiological data, researchers forecast a near-complete annihilation of evergreens in the southwest by the year 2100. Christopher Intagliata reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Superfast Computer Chip Transmits Data with Light
Researchers designed a chip that transfers data not with electrons but with photons—resulting in a potential 10-fold boost in speed. Christopher Intagliata reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Text Reminders Cut Binge Drinking in At-Risk Recipients
Heavy drinkers age 18 to 25 who got texts before and after each weekend about their weekend drinking plans cut their alcohol intake compared with those who got no texts or more perfunctory texts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Drugged Gut Microbiome Cuts Heart Risk in Mice
A compound found in extra virgin olive oil and red wine reduced mice’s risk of clogged arteries. Christopher Intagliata reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Antievolution Legislation Shows Descent with Modification
Nicholas Matzke, an American evolutionary biologist currently at the Australian National University in Canberra, performed a phylogenetic-style analysis of dozens of antievolution education bills in various state legislatures to track their relatedness Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Small Fish Takes Fast-Evolution Track
Stickleback fish in Alaska evolved from living in seawater to freshwater in just 50 years, with the help of freshwater traits in their genome. Christopher Intagliata reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Marion Nestle Talks "Soda Politics"
Marion Nestle, author of Soda Politics: Taking on Big Soda (and Winning), talked December 14 in New York City about Coca-Cola's attempt to fund research designed to find sugared soft drinks innocent in contributing to obesity Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Teachers' Racial Biases Have Different Effects for High Versus Low Performers
In a study of first graders, teachers rated low-performing minority students more positively than low-performing white students, but they ranked high-performing minority students lower than white students at the same level Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Energy Secretary Talks Climate Challenge
A brief portion of the December 9 conversation during the climate talks in France between Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz and Scientific American’s David Biello Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Cockroach Caca Contains Chemical Messages Made by Microbes
Roaches get the signal to gather together from pheromones produced by their gut microbes and released in the insects’ excrement. Christopher Intagliata reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
90-Nation Coalition Aims for Ambitious Climate Change Deal
Among its goals, the coalition of countries, including the U.S., wants an agreement that the world must aim as soon as possible to hold global warming to 1.5-degree Celsius and work toward a long-term low-carbon future Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
New African Highways Have a High Environmental Price
An analysis determines that many road-building projects in Africa would bring only modest benefits to people, while devastating the environment. Christopher Intagliata reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Protect the Right Places for Biodiversity
Scientists can provide the info to make sure that the correct areas are chosen for protection to help ensure the continued robustness of a region's biodiversity Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Individuals' Blood Glucose Levels after Meals May Be Predictable
Closely tracking 800 people's blood glucose levels in response to meals allowed researchers to develop a predictive algorithm for individuals Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Obese Dad's Sperm May Influence Offspring's Weight
Overweight men’s sperm undergo epigenetic changes that may alter a child’s brain development and appetite control. Christopher Intagliata reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Pollination Isn't Just for the Bees
Flies, beetles, butterflies and moths may account for some 40 percent of the world’s pollination. Christopher Intagliata reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Race Colors New Residents' Views of Local Businesses
Gentrifying residents in two Brooklyn neighborhoods view their new surroundings differently, depending on the race of those who traditionally live there. Erika Beras reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Espresso Machines Brew a Microbiome of Their Own
Researchers sampled 10 espresso machines and found that most of them harbored coffee residues rich in bacteria—including some potentially pathogenic strains. Christopher Intagliata reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Massive Survey Creates Amazon Tree Census
A tree survey in the Amazon by more than 150 researchers led to an estimate that up to 57 percent of Amazon trees could qualify for threatened species status by 2050 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
People Pick Familiar Foods Over Favorites
A study found that the stronger a subject's memory of a particular food, the more likely they were to choose it again, even over foods they professed to enjoy more Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Women Candidates Face Implicit Bias Hurdle
Volunteers taking an "implicit bias" test who were unlikely to associate images of women with leadership titles like executive or president were far less likely to vote for a woman in a race against a man of equal qualification Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Gut Bacteria Signal Your Brain When They're Full
Twenty minutes into a meal, E. coli pump out appetite-suppressing proteins, which could influence our feeling of hunger. Christopher Intagliata reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Vocal Cords Bioengineered from Starter Cells
Researchers took cells from donated vocal cord tissue and successfully grew them on a three-dimensional scaffold to produce new vocal cords that can produce sound Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices