Science Quickly
1,942 episodes — Page 37 of 39
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
Britain Imported Wheat 2,000 Years before Growing It
Sediments at a Britsh archaeological site include wheat remains dating back 8,000 years, meaning that Britons were bringing in European wheat two millennia before they grew it. Cynthia Graber reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Fishes' Lateral Lines Sense Pressure and Predators
Flow sensors on the bodies of many fishes act like a hydrodynamic antenna, picking up signals about the flow of water around them. Gretchen Cuda Kroen reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Science Wins at the Oscars
Science was in the spotlight at the 87th annual Academy Awards ceremony Sunday night, from actors playing scientists to winners thanking them. Steve Mirsky reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Beaver Teeth Have Iron Advantage
Beaver enamel is rich in iron—which is even more effective than fluoride at staving off cavities. Christopher Intagliata reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Nectar Helps Bees’ Medicine Go Down
In addition to fuel, nectar from various plant species contains chemical compounds that reduce the numbers of a common gut parasite in bumblebees. Christopher Intagliata reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Pot Munchies Explained By Re-Tasked Neurons
Marijuana boosts users' appetities by changing the signals brain cells produce from sated to still hungry. Karen Hopkin reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Hot Chili Peppers Motivate Mice to Burn Fat
Rodents fed capsaicin voluntarily exercised more than their furry friends on a lower-heat diet. Karen Hopkin reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Humans off the Hook for Alaskan Mastodon Extinction
A reexamination of museum mastodon specimens provides evidence that that last ones were gone from what's called the Beringia region well before any humans showed up. Emily Schwing reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Triskaidekaphobia Plays Role in Paraskevidekatriaphobia
Some random historical facts about the number 13 may be behind some people's irrational aversion to Friday the 13th. Karen Hopkin reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Contraception Could Prevent 15 Million Unwanted Pregnancies Annually
Fifteen million unwanted pregnancies in 35 low- and middle-income countries could be avoided if women had access to and freedom to use contraception. Cynthia Graber reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Preindustrial Pollution Pestered Peru
Ice cores show a sudden rise in heavy metal air pollution in South America 240 years before the industrial revolution, probably due to metallurgy and mining. Karen Hopkin reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Subway DNA Survey Finds Microbes, Mozzarella and Mystery
Scientists sequenced genetic material found in all 468 New York City subway stations, and nearly half matched no known organism. Christopher Intagliata reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Newton Figured Out How Tree Sap Rises
Buried in one of Isaac Newton's college notebooks is a page on which he fairly accurately theorizes on the process of transpiration in plants, two centuries before the concept was elucidated. Karen Hopkin reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Cities Could Win Economically by Losing Olympics
According to sports economist Andrew Zimbalist, most cities that win the right to host the Olympics will spend far more to prepare for the games than they estimate in their winning bid. Steve Mirsky reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Drones Spy On Birds in Flight
Quadcopters appear to be a relatively benign tool to study the behavior and numbers of wetland birds. Christopher Intagliata reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Save Libyan Archaeology Plea Issued
Savino di Lernia, director of the Archaeological Mission in the Sahara at the Sapienza University of Rome, says violence and unrest threaten World Heritage sites and researchers. Cynthia Graber reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Super Bowl Team Cities See More Flu Deaths
Regions that send a team to the Super Bowl saw on average an 18 percent increase in flu deaths among those over 65, probably because of increased transmission due to gatherings of people at parties during the height of the flu season. Karen Hopkin reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Climate Influences Language Evolution
The ease with which certain sounds are produced in different climes plays a role in the development of spoken languages. Christopher Intagliata reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Gates CEO: Let's Shrink Maternal Mortality
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation CEO Susan Desmond-Hellmann talks about some of what needs to be done to make a reality of the foundation's aspiration to cut maternal mortality by two thirds by 2030 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Snail's Venom Puts Fish in Insulin Coma
The cone snail's venom contains not only neurotoxins, but insulin, too—which stuns the fish it preys on. Christopher Intagliata reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Tech Consequences Voiced by Carnegie Mellon Prez
At the World Economic Forum, Carnegie Mellon president Subra Suresh talks about dealing with the unintended consequences of ever more sophisticated intelligent devices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Diaper Material Expands Wee Microscope Views
The absorbent material in disposable diapers can expand tissue samples, making more structure visible under light microscopes. Karen Hopkin reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Obama Talks Ebola and Climate in His SOTU
In his State of the Union address, the president talked about the need for frameworks to be in place to stop future pandemics and rising worldwide temperatures Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Computer Snoopers Read Electromagnetic Emissions
Researchers were able to track the keystrokes of a nearby computer via fluctuations in its electromagnetic radiation output. Christopher Intagliata reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ex-President Wins Campaign against Ghastly Guinea Worm
Jimmy Carter's efforts against the horribly painful guinea worm parasitic disease have helped lower the number of cases from 3.5 million in 1986 to just 126 last year. Steve Mirsky reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Antibiotics in Blood Can Make Malaria Mosquitoes Mightier
The drugs disrupt mosquitoes' gut bacteria, which appears to make the insects more effective malaria vectors. Christopher Intagliata reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Health and Conservation Reminders Cut Consumer Energy Use
Households that got weekly messages about the lower pollution they generated via efficiency cut energy use much more than did residents who were told how much money they were saving. Cynthia Graber reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Active Sun at Birth Cut Historical Life Spans
High UV radiation during solar maxima may have degraded expectant mothers' stores of folate, a vitamin essential to development. Christopher Intagliata reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Making Evolution Make Microbes Make Products
By selecting for bacteria that can survive only if they make a particular product of interest over multiple iterations, researchers vastly improved yields and decreased production times. Cynthia Graber reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Human Eye Sometimes Sees the Unseeable
Under certain conditions people can catch a glimpse of usually invisible infrared light. Karen Hopkin reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
E.T. May Reveal Itself with Vibration
Looking for movement could complement chemical searches for extraterrestrial life. Christopher Intagliata reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Large Carnivores Getting Comfy in Europe
Populations of big carnivores such as brown bears, Eurasian lynx, grey wolves and wolverines are stable or increasing in a substantial part of Europe. Cynthia Graber reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Lyme Helps Spread Other Tick Infections
Mice infected with Lyme and the Babesia parasite are more likely to pass on babesiosis than mice infected with babesiosis alone. Christopher Intagliata reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Lightning May Sink Mountain Summits
Magnetic anomalies in rocks indicate that lightning may be a major player in weathering mountains. Julia Rosen reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Budget Bill Stealthily Affects Environment and Energy
Congress took advantage of the pressure to pass a budget bill by adding riders that change rules concerning the environment and energy. Josh Fischman reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Plankton Pee May Alter Ocean's Chemistry
The urine of a vast army of tiny fish, jellies and shrimpy things may play an important role in the ocean's nitrogen cycle. Christopher Intagliata reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Penicillins Reveal Additional Antibacterial Power
Penicillin and its relatives have been in wide use since the 1940s, but researchers have only now discovered another way that it thwarts bacteria. Karen Hopkin reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Short-Term Fasting Made Mice Healthier
Mice that ate their entire food for the day in an eight-to-12-hour window had better markers for health than did mice free to eat whenever they wanted. Steve Mirsky reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices