Science, Quickly
1,497 episodes - English - Latest episode: 17 days ago - ★★★★ - 1.1K ratingsTune in every week for quick, fascinating new developments and dives in the world of science.
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Episodes
2014 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
October 06, 2014 07:08 - 3 minutesJohn O'Keefe, May-Britt Moser and Edvard I. Moser share the prize for their discoveries of cells that constitute a positioning system in the brain. Steve Mirsky reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Reindeer Spit Smacks Down Plant Toxins
October 03, 2014 21:28 - 2 minutesCompounds in reindeer and moose saliva interfere with the production of toxins in plants that ordinarily stop animals from dining on the vegetation. Karen Hopkin reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Good Palm Oil Yields Could Be Bad News
October 02, 2014 23:58 - 2 minutesIncreased palm oil yields could unintentionally have the effect of creating a bigger demand for land for even more palm oil planting. Cynthia Graber reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Sea Garbage Shows Ocean Boundaries
September 30, 2014 18:20 - 2 minutesFloating refuse reveals ocean currents that in turn show where the world's oceans mix and where they stay relatively discrete. Karen Hopkin reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Yeast Coaxed to Make Morphine
September 29, 2014 20:23 - 2 minutesGenetically manipulated yeast can produce morphine that could help get around the problems with poppy crops, which include climate, disease and war. Karen Hopkin reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Crustal Chemistry May Aid in Earthquake Prediction
September 25, 2014 23:42 - 3 minutesResearchers say chemical changes in groundwater may someday be used to predict quakes four to six months in advance. Christopher Intagliata reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Dino Devastator Also Ravaged Veggies
September 19, 2014 13:47 - 2 minutesAfter the Chicxulub meteorite, more than half the plant species in temperate North America perished along with the dinosaurs, and the composition of post-impact vegetation changed markedly. Christopher Intagliata reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Genius Grant Goes to Science Historian
September 17, 2014 17:07 - 3 minutesNew MacArthur Fellow Pamela Long studies the scientific revolution as a result of the interactions of academics and hands-on infrastructure engineers in the 15th and 16th centuries. Steve Mirsky reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Leopards Wolf Down Fido in India Ag Area
September 16, 2014 20:30 - 2 minutesA study of leopard droppings in agricultural western India reveals that the cats primarily eat domestic animals, mostly dogs, but only a small amount of livestock. Steve Mirsky reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Bio-Spleen Sucks Pathogens and Toxins from Blood
September 15, 2014 18:40 - 2 minutesThe new device rids the blood of bacteria, fungi, viruses and toxins using nanoscale-size magnetic beads. Cynthia Graber reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Synthetic Fabrics Host More Stench-Producing Bacteria
September 05, 2014 09:00 - 2 minutesMicrococcus bacteria thrive on the open-air lattice of synthetic fibers—where they sit chomping on the fatty acids in our sweat, turning them into shorter, stinkier molecules. Christopher Intagliata reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Turtles Not Among the "Silent Majority" of Reptiles
September 04, 2014 11:00 - 2 minutesBiologists have identified at least 11 different sounds in the turtle repertoire—but they still have no idea what they mean. Christopher Intagliata reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Chimp Chatter Now up for Eavesdropping
September 03, 2014 09:45 - 2 minutesResearchers from the Netherlands have made available online a digitized catalogue of more than 10 hours’ worth of chimpanzee calls. Karen Hopkin reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Most Tibetans Genetically Adapted to the High Life
September 02, 2014 14:40 - 2 minutesNinety percent of Tibetans share a genetic mutation that prevents their blood from becoming dangerously clogged with red blood cells at high altitudes—a response that can be deadly for non-native mountaineers. Karen Hopkin reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Narcissists Self-Involved Enough to Recognize Their Narcissism
September 01, 2014 11:00 - 2 minutesThe simple question “To what extent do you agree with this statement: I am a narcissist” is about as good at identifying narcissists as a 40-question clinical assessment. Erika Beras reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
How Asteroid 1950 DA Keeps It Together
August 29, 2014 12:00 - 2 minutesThe kilometer-size rubble pile appears to be held together by van der Waals forces. Karen Hopkin reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Stressed Women Burn Fewer Comfort Food Calories
August 27, 2014 10:00 - 2 minutesWomen who reported feeling stressed or depressed burned fewer calories after a calorie-packed meal than mellow women. Erika Beras reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Finally, an Algorithm to Sort Your Beatles Albums
August 22, 2014 10:00 - 3 minutesBy analyzing the evolving structure of the Beatles’ music, the computer program was able to correctly place the Fab Four’s albums in chronological order. Karen Hopkin reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Bio-Battery Produces Power from Your Perspiration
August 20, 2014 07:00 - 2 minutesExercising in the future could make dirty clothes and some clean energy. Karen Hopkin reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Lose Your Job? Good for the Rest of Us
August 19, 2014 07:00 - 2 minutesRecession lowers mortality in the population overall—even as the out-of-work individual’s risk of death rises. Karen Hopkin reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Nose Knows What the Mind Tells It
August 18, 2014 07:00 - 2 minutesWhen people with asthma think they’re smelling something noxious, their airways become inflamed—even when the odor is harmless. Karen Hopkin reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Tiny Toe Tools Ensure Gecko Traction
August 15, 2014 11:08 - 2 minutesTo activate or loosen their grip on a surface, geckos extend and angle or retract tiny toe hairs that create contact points. Clara Moskowitz reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Guys Prefer Electric Shocks to Boredom
August 13, 2014 08:00 - 2 minutesGuys would rather zap themselves with electricity than be left alone with their thoughts for 15 minutes. Karen Hopkin reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Google Searches Linked to Stock Market Moves
August 12, 2014 12:30 - 3 minutesWhen Web searches related to business and politics go up, the market tends to take a dive—although that connection may already be fading. Christopher Intagliata reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Andromeda Snickers at Milky Way Mass
August 06, 2014 08:00 - 2 minutesA new estimate finds that the Milky Way, once thought to be twice as massive as Andromeda, may actually only have half our neighbor galaxy's mass. Christopher Intagliata reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Spider's Scat Disguise May Be Its Salvation
August 05, 2014 08:00 - 2 minutesMasquerading as a bird turd appears to protect certain arachnids from getting eaten by wasps. Karen Hopkin reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
System Converts Solar Efficiently to Steam
August 04, 2014 08:00 - 2 minutesA graphite disk resting on carbon foam collects sunlight to heat water directly to steam with 85 percent efficiency. Cynthia Graber reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Environment Has Beef with Beef
August 01, 2014 08:00 - 2 minutesRaising beef uses 28 times more land, 11 times more water and six times more fertilizer than the average expenditures for other livestock. Cynthia Graber reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Pack Rats Expand Diet with New Gut Bacteria
July 31, 2014 08:00 - 2 minutesPack rats given the right gut bacteria via a fecal transplant from other pack rats can then digest foods that they formerly could not, but the donors could. Karen Hopkin reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Colorful Birds Can Also Belt Tunes
July 30, 2014 18:19 - 2 minutesA survey of the tanagers reveals that birds do not have to choose between colorful plumage and a melodious song. Karen Hopkin reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Roach Reactions to Venom Point to Targeted Pesticides
July 29, 2014 09:00 - 2 minutesSmall changes in the protein sequence of sodium channels of American compared with German cockroaches leave the latter susceptible to a venom that has little effect on the former. Cynthia Graber reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Salmonella's Favorite Food Could Be Its Achilles' Heel
July 23, 2014 20:36 - 2 minutesSalmonella's primary fuel source is the molecule fructose-asparagine. Starving it of that fuel in an infected person could kill it without harming beneficial gut bacteria. Karen Hopkin reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Give Us This Day the Bread Wheat Genome
July 17, 2014 14:52 - 2 minutesA preliminary map of the bread wheat genome includes the locations of more than 75,000 genes. Cynthia Graber reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Supercooled Organs Could Stretch Time to Transplant
July 09, 2014 11:47 - 2 minutesLiver transplant time from human donor to patient is limited to 12 hours, but rats that got livers specially stored for three days were going strong three months later. Cynthia Graber reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Space-Based Data Collection Better Predicts Floods
July 08, 2014 20:52 - 2 minutesSatellite data can help geologists predict major floods up to 11 months in advance in areas where snow melt or groundwater is a significant contributor. Cynthia Graber reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mobile Phones Carry Owners' Microbiomes
July 02, 2014 11:11 - 2 minutesThe bacteria found on someone's mobile phone is a good match for the most common kinds of bacteria that live on their hands. Christopher Intagliata reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Neandertal Diners Had Side of Veggies
June 27, 2014 16:47 - 2 minutesBy analyzing what came out of Neandertals, researchers have verified that at least some of them mixed vegetation into their meaty diet. Cynthia Graber reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
21-Second Rule Governs Mammal Micturition
June 25, 2014 14:45 - 2 minutesAll mammals that weigh more than about six-and-a-half pounds take about the same time to urinate, thanks to the structure of the urethra. Karen Hopkin reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Dwarf Galaxies Really Cooking with Gas
June 25, 2014 13:09 - 2 minutesThe smallest galaxies in the universe gave rise to an unexpectedly large proportion of stars. Karen Hopkin reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Cool Kids Get Schooled with Age
June 23, 2014 15:27 - 2 minutesKids deemed cool in early adolescence have a poor chance to keep that status by their early 20s, because their behavior gets old. Erika Beras reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
White Bread May Actually Build Strong Bodies 1 Way
June 20, 2014 16:40 - 2 minutesThe guts of white bread eaters appear to contain more lactobacillus, a type of bacteria that wards off digestive disorders. Karen Hopkin reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Plant Spores Hitch Long-Distance Feather Rides
June 18, 2014 19:40 - 2 minutesTiny spores from mosses, algae and lichens can stick in bird feathers, travel from the Arctic to the bottom of South America and grow into whole new specimens. Erika Beras reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jellyfish Galaxies Get Guts Ripped Out
June 17, 2014 17:41 - 2 minutesRecently discovered galaxies shaped like jellyfish leave a long trail of hot gas and dust, victims of even hotter gas from their surrounding cluster of galaxies Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Classroom Decorations Can Distract Young Students
June 11, 2014 11:59 - 2 minutesFive-year-olds in highly decorated classrooms were less able to hold their focus, spent more time off-task and had smaller learning gains than kids in bare rooms. Erika Beras reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Light Colors Become Fashion Rage for Northern Europe's Insects
June 09, 2014 20:27 - 3 minutesAs northern Europe warms, the light-colored butterflies and dragonflies typically found in the Mediterranean are moving north, and outcompeting their darker-colored rivals. Erika Beras reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
London Fish Chip Away at Historical Unknowns
June 06, 2014 20:09 - 2 minutesIsotope composition within fish tails found in London archaeological digs shows that the city began importing cod from northern Scandinavia some 800 years ago. Cynthia Graber reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Meteor Storm Went from Sizzle to Fizzle
June 04, 2014 20:30 - 2 minutesThe May Camelopardalids meteor outburst turned out to be a dud, because meteor storm prediction is not a sure thing, unlike, for example, calculating the next eclipse Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices