Ancient Human DNA Found in Cave Dirt
Scientists uncovered genetic traces of Neandertals and Denisovans by screening cave dirt for DNA. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Apr 28, 2017•3 min
Science Quickly
Host Rachel Feltman, alongside leading science and tech journalists, dives into the rich world of scientific discovery in this bite-size science variety show.
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Episodes
Gut Microbes Help Keep Starved Flies Fecund
Microbes living in the guts of fruit flies appear to influence the flies' food choice—and promote egg production, even under a nutrient-poor diet. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Apr 26, 2017•3 min
Selective Breeding Molds Foxes into Pets
Evolutionary biologist Lee Dugatkin talks about the six-decade Siberian experiment with foxes that has revealed details about domestication in general. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Apr 25, 2017•3 min
Why One Researcher Marched for Science
Lisa Klein, from the materials science and engineering department at Rutgers University, commented on the March for Science at an April 21 talk to the chemistry department at Lehman College in the Bronx. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Apr 22, 2017•3 min
Healthy Behavior Can Spread Like Illness
If people run more in New York City, that can push their socially connected counterparts in San Diego to run more as well. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Apr 20, 2017•4 min
Climate 420 Million Years Ago Poised for Comeback
Starting in the next century, atmospheric carbon levels could begin to approach those of hundreds of millions of years ago, and have their warming effect augmented by a brighter sun. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Apr 19, 2017•4 min
Traces of Genetic Trauma Can Be Tweaked
Trauma can be passed down to offspring due to epigenetic changes in DNA. But positive experiences seem able to correct that. Erika Beras reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Apr 15, 2017•4 min
Species Split When Mountains Rise
Plant species in China's Hengduan Mountains exploded in diversity eight million years ago—right when the mountains were built. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Apr 13, 2017•3 min
Shoelace Study Untangles a Knotty Problem
Researchers have trotted out data that show a combination of whipping and stomping forces is what causes laces to unravel without warning. Karen Hopkin reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Apr 12, 2017•4 min
World Parkinson's Day Puts Spotlight on Condition
Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research CEO Todd Sherer, a neuroscientist, talks about the state of Parkinson's disease and research. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Apr 11, 2017•4 min
Cave Dwellers Battled Bed Bug Bites, Too
Researchers have found the earliest evidence of bugs in the Cimex genus co-habitating with humans, in Oregon's Paisley Caves. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Apr 06, 2017•3 min
Extreme Storms Are Extreme Eroders
The storm that swept across the Rockies in September 2013 unleashed huge amounts of sediment downstream, doing the work of a century of erosion. Julia Rosen reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Apr 05, 2017•4 min
Spiders Gobble Gargantuan Numbers of Tiny Prey
The low-end estimate for how much the world's spiders eat is some 400 million tons of mostly insects and springtails. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Apr 03, 2017•4 min
Your Cat Thinks You're Cool
A study of house cats and shelter cats found that the felines actually tended to choose human company over treats or toys. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mar 29, 2017•4 min
Exoplanets Make Life Conversation Livelier
Astronomer Caleb Scharf weighs what ever more exoplanets mean in the search for extraterrestrial life. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mar 25, 2017•4 min
Bring Bronx Zoo to Your Living Room
Animal Planet's series The Zoo shows viewers the biological, veterinary and conservation science at a modern zoo. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mar 24, 2017•3 min
UV Rays Strip Small Galaxies of Star Stuff
Researchers measured the intensity of the universe's ultraviolet background radiation, and say it may be strong enough to strip small galaxies of star-forming gas. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mar 22, 2017•4 min
Aggressed-Upon Monkeys Take Revenge on Aggressor's Cronies
Japanese macaques at the receiving end of aggression tend to then take it out on a close associate or family member of the original aggressor. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mar 21, 2017•4 min
Chaotic Orbits Could Cause Catastrophic Collision
Researchers used ancient climate cycles to confirm the solar system’s chaotic planetary orbits. An Earth–Mars collision is one distant outcome. Julia Rosen reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mar 20, 2017•4 min
Pulling the String on Yo-Yo Weight Gain
Mice that lost weight and then gained back more than they lost maintained an obesity-type microbiome that affected biochemicals involved in either burning or adding fat--suggesting interventions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mar 18, 2017•4 min
Poverty Shaves Years off Life
A meta-analysis found that being of low socioeconomic status was associated with almost as many years of lost life as was a sedentary lifestyle. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mar 17, 2017•3 min
Pollinators Shape Plants to Their Preference
In fewer than a dozen generations bumblebee-pollinated plants were coaxed to develop traits that made them even more pleasing to the bees. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mar 16, 2017•3 min
Low Biodiversity Brings Earlier Bloom
For every two species lost in a grassland, the remaining flowers there bloomed a day earlier—on par with changes due to rising global temperatures. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mar 15, 2017•3 min
Early-Life Microbes Ward Off Asthma
Exposure to specific microbes when an infant is less than a year old seems to have a protective effect against the child's eventual acquisition of asthma. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mar 14, 2017•3 min
(Probably Not a) Giant Alien Antenna
Astrophysicists propose that mysterious "fast radio bursts" could, in very speculative theory, be produced by an antenna twice the size of Earth. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mar 12, 2017•4 min
Jupiter Moon to Be Searched for Life
If anything's alive on the ice-covered ocean world of Europa, a future NASA mission hopes to find it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mar 10, 2017•4 min
Teeth Hint at a Friendlier Neandertal
By sequencing DNA in Neandertal dental plaque, scientists were able to find out about their diets—and their good relations with modern humans. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mar 08, 2017•3 min
Forensic Science: Trials with Errors
What appears to be accepted science in the courtroom may not be accepted science among scientists. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mar 07, 2017•4 min
How to Find Loooong Gravitational Waves
The gravitational waves found last year were short compared with the monster waves that could be turned up by what's called Pulsar Timing Arrays. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mar 06, 2017•4 min
Biggest Rivers Are Overhead
Atmospheric rivers can carry the same amount of water vapor as 15 to 20 Mississippi Rivers—and deliver punishing winds, too. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mar 03, 2017•3 min
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