Science Quickly
1,930 episodes — Page 36 of 39
First Woman MLBer Will Probably Pitch
Contemporary women's baseball chronicler Jennifer Ring says the fastest women pitchers currently hit speeds in the 80s (mph) and it keeps going up. Steve Mirsky reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Seashell Shapes Show Strength for Safety
Analysis of clamshell and screw-shaped shells reveals the structures withstand much greater forces than would a simple sphere or cylinder. Cynthia Graber reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In the Future Robopets Won't Be Far-Fetched
An animal behaviorist ponders a future where some Spots are robots. Larry Greenemeier reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Crop Rotation Works in the Sea, Too
Models show that leaving sea cucumbers unharvested in some underwater zones for two years at a time stabilizes the overall population and actually increases yield for fishers. Cynthia Graber reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Food for Sale Everywhere Fuels Obesity Epidemic
A study from the National Bureau of Economic Research blames 40 percent of the rise in obesity on the ubiquity of supercenters, warehouse clubs and restaurants. Gretchen Cuda Kroen reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Netflix CEO Peers at Crystal Ball to See TV's Future
Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix, gave his view of the next couple of decades in the evolution of TV-watching at the re:publica 15 digital culture conference in Berlin on May 5 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
May 9 Is Big Day for the Birds
Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Chris Wood explains the May 9 Global Big Day event, in which birders worldwide are invited to spot birds and upload their findings to the eBird database. Steve Mirsky reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mars Travelers Could Suffer Radiation Brain Damage
Mice exposed to radiation akin to what astronauts to Mars would receive experienced cognitive impairment. Lee Billings reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Wheat Genes Could Bring Back Chestnut
Scientists have introduced genes into the American chestnut from wheat that help disarm the fungus that killed almost all three billion of the trees in the eastern U.S. David Biello reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Pop Music Gets Its Fossil Record Analyzed
An investigation of more than 17,000 hit tunes suggests popular music undergoes periods of shifting diversity, and that new styles evolve in bursts. Christopher Intagliata reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Space Supervoid Sucks Energy from Light
A vast region of space colder than expected is also largely devoid of galaxies, and the two observations are no coincidence. Clara Moskowitz reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Latex Lining Could Quiet Plane Rides
Engineers devised a latex-laced honeycomb material that could make an airplane cabin sound more like a quiet living room. Christopher Intagliata reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Parkinson's Pen Vibrates to Improve Legibility
Device stimulates hand muscles to counteract writing issues experienced by some people with Parkinson’s. Larry Greenemeier reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Infants Already Glued to Multiple Screens
A new survey suggests that most kids by age two are using tablets and smartphones, sometimes while watching TV. Christopher Intagliata reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Old Cats Can Get Seizures from Sound
Feline audiogenic reflex seizures, or FARS, was discovered after a few cat owners reported the issue to an advocacy group Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Musical Performance Activates Specific Genes
Blood tests on 10 professional musicians before and after playing showed that specific genes got turned on by performance, some of which are also active in songbirds. Karen Hopkin reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Shipwreck Champagne Reveals Old Wine Secrets
Analysis of 168 bottles of bubbly that sat at the sea bottom for 170 years shows how the old-timers tweaked their champagne taste. Cynthia Graber reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Small Screen Looks at an Electrified America
Scientific American's David Biello hosts a new episode of the TV series Beyond the Light Switch, focusing on the means to and effects of a more electricity-powered country. Steve Mirsky reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Taste Salty with Less Salt
Making salamis and cheeses with more pores might make them taste just as salty but with less added sodium finding its way into the body. Christopher Intagliata reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Granular Materials Could Thwart Missiles
The harder a projectile hits a granular substance like sand, the more that material acts like a solid, effectively repelling the intruder. Christopher Intagliata reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
A Few Hundred Smartphones Could Catch Earthquakes Early
Thanks to their GPS systems, smartphones in an array could pick up movements indicating the onset of an earthquake and provide extra seconds of early warning. Cynthia Graber reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Martian Glaciers Equal Meter-Thick Planetary Ice Shell
Radar measurements and models of Earthly glacial ice flows led researchers to conclude that the glaciers spotted on Mars from orbiters contain nearly 150 billion cubic meters of water. Lee Billings reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Nobelist Talks about Exercise and Chromosome Integrity
In a Google Hangout Nobel laureate Elizabeth Blackburn and Scientific American Editor in Chief Mariette DiChristina discuss the relationship between exercise and telomere length, which is related to diseases of aging Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Typing Style Reveals Fatigue or Disease
How a person types can reveal the state of their brain, according to a study that tracked keystrokes when the typist was alert or groggy. Cynthia Graber reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
App Provides Pocket Time Capsule
New app called Pivot will let gadget users see old and new images of sites as they walk past. Larry Greenemeier reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Online Breast Milk Buyers May Get Cowed
An analysis of human breast milk bought online reveals that some 10 percent of the samples contained cow’s milk. Dina Fine Maron reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
B.O. Gives Up Its Stinky Secrets
Staphylococcus hominis is a key perpetrator of body odor—and researchers say selectively interfering with it could make for more effective deodorants. Christopher Intagliata reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Outdoor Exercise Worth Some Air Pollution Risk
A Danish study of more than 50,000 adults suggests that exercise lowers risk of death—even if you work out amidst urban air pollution. Christopher Intagliata reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Diabetics Benefit by Biggest Meal Early
A small study finds that diabetics who ate a big breakfast and small dinner had better glucose control than those who ate the opposite. Steve Mirsky reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Donate Your Health Data to Medical Science
You can now share your genome, health and microbiome info, and viral infection data to crowdsourced medical research projects. Cynthia Graber reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
African-American Longevity Suffered after Great Migration
The six million black people who left the South between 1910 and 1970 had better economic opportunity but a lower chance or reaching their 70s. Erika Beras reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Enceladus Might Be a Methane Hotspot
NASA’s Cassini spacecraft spotted a surprising amount of methane erupting from Saturn’s moon Enceladus, suggesting it harbors more methane than we thought. Clara Moskowitz reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Malaria Parasite Attracts Mosquitoes with Perfume
The Plasmodium parasite uses an altered type of plant chloroplast to manufacture pine-and-lemon-scented chemicals, which lure in the bloodsuckers. Christopher Intagliata reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
See Movement Better by Bicarb
Bicarbonate, the chemical that transports CO2 through the blood, increases the "refresh rate" of rod cells in lab tests--which could mean better motion detection. Christopher Intagliata reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Teotihuacán's Social Tensions Contributed to Its Fall
The decline and abandonment of the Mexican metropolis may have been hastened by infighting among different cultural and socioeconomic groups. Cynthia Graber reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Music’s Physiological Effects Transcend Culture
People in the Congo rainforests or in Montreal tended to react to the same piece of music in strikingly similar ways. Andrea Alfano reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
That's What Ya Call a 4-Star Planet
Astronomers report the discovery of only the second quadruple-star system known to host at least one planet. But they suspect there are a lot more such systems out there. Lee Billings reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Smoke Makes Twisters More Likely to Strike
Smoke wafting north from the Gulf of Mexico worsened the already stormy weather brewing across the southeastern U.S. on April 27, 2011. Julia Rosen reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
La Niña Conditions Spin Up More Springtime Twisters
Severe weather forecasters could incorporate El Niño and La Niña cycling to make springtime tornado and hail forecasts. Christopher Intagliata reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Human Remains Double Known Rainforest Occupation Time
Physical remains in Sri Lanka show that people lived in rainforests 20,000 years ago, at least 10,000 years earlier than previous evidence showed. Cynthia Graber reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Crowd-Sourced Medical Research Gets Apple Assist
What’s called ResearchKit enables scientists to more easily write mobile apps that take advantage of iPhone sensors to study asthma, Parkinson’s and other diseases. Larry Greenemeier reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
<i>Big Bang</i> Sitcom Stars <i>Scientific American</i> Tonight
On the March 12 episode of The Big Bang Theory, a mock copy of Scientific American becomes a key part of the plot. The sitcom's science advisor, U.C.L.A. physicist David Saltzberg, talks about the show's reach to the lay public. Steve Mirsky reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Background Music Jams Memory in Older Adults
People of all ages find background sound distracting, but noise appears to impede memory formation in older people. Erika Beras reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Some European Languages Came by Steppe
A new genetic analysis reveals a massive migration from the central Asian grasslands into Europe 4,500 years ago—implying that some languages followed. Christopher Intagliata reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Animals Can Be Given False Memories
Two studies, one with bees and one with mice, show that the brain can be manipulated into having a memory of an occurrence that did not in reality happen. Karen Hopkin reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Whale Grandmas' Longevity Linked to Knowledge
Whale females, like humans, live well past menopause, a trait possibly selected for because their knowledge base can help their entire clan survive. Dina Fine Maron reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Salty Skin Boosts Mouse Wound Healing
Mice fed a diet high in sodium had increased immune cell activity in their skin that helped ward off infection. Karen Hopkin reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Titan Could Host Life "Not As We Know It"
Saturn's moon Titan is too cold for cell membranes to form as they do on Earth. But researchers have come up with a cell membrane that could exist on Titan. Christopher Intagliata reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Climate Skeptic Senator Burned after Snowball Stunt
Oklahoma Sen. James Inhofe carried a snowball onto the Senate floor to insinuate that climate change was not real, after which Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse torched Inhofe's argument. Steve Mirsky reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Air Force Space Command General on Keeping Space Collision-Free
Gen. John Hyten, Commander, U.S. Air Force Space Command, talks about the task of tracking all the materials in orbit and keeping them from crashing into one another. Steve Mirsky and Larry Greenemeier report Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices