An evolutionary analysis of pop tunes revealed that over the past 30 years songs have grown sadder—but the big hits buck that trend. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Pediatric cardiologist Ismée Williams discusses her young adult novel, Water in May, about a teenage girl whose newborn has a life-threatening heart condition. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The new Google AI voice assistant, called Duplex, highlights the intricacies of carrying out a mundane human-style conversation, as it keeps you off the phone. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Orangutans were observed to use plant extracts to treat their own pain. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Racing pigeons is big business—and doping is common. Now scientists have devised a way to detect doping in the avian athletes. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Scientists have added radar info to seismic data, isotope measurements and optical imagery to study covert nuclear tests. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Hunting regulations in Sweden prohibit killing brown bear mothers in company of cubs—causing mama bears to care for their young longer. Jason G. Goldman reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Sediment records have confirmed that Jupiter and Venus change Earth's orbit from virtually circular to noticeably elliptical and back every 405,000 years. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The InSight Mission will look at Mars's seismic activity and latent heat to find out more about how planets get made--and how humans might live there. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Tomato plants detected snail slime in soil near them and mounted preemptive defenses, even though they were not directly touched. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ancient tools on Mediterranean islands could predate the appearance of modern humans—suggesting Neandertals took to the seas. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Thierry Zomahoun, president of the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences, talks about the potential and needs of science on the continent. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Advice from an N.Y.U. food policy symposium: eating healthfully means you can't ever let down your guard when shopping. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In a study of children interacting with toy animals Native American kids and non-Native kids imagined the animals very differently. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Listeners gave more credence to a scientist’s radio interview when the audio was good quality than they did to the same material when the audio was poor. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Today in Boston, Gates announced a $12-million initiative to foster the development of a vaccine effective against all flu strains. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The Bora people in the northwestern Amazon use drums to send languagelike messages across long distances. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Lawns mowed every two weeks hosted more bees than lawns mowed every three weeks. Jason G. Goldman reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
A new study claims it's easier to accurately whistle a melody than to sing it. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
A look at a database of fatal traffic accidents found a 12 percent increase on the informal marijuana holiday 4/20 after 4:20 P.M. compared with nearby dates. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mice trapped in New York City apartment buildings harbored disease-causing bacteria and antibiotic resistance genes. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Researchers used Twitter searches for nonflu words associated with behavior to predict flu outbreaks two weeks in advance. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Non-native milkweed species planted in the southern U.S. could harm monarch butterflies as temperatures rise. Jason G. Goldman reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Princeton University's Jennifer Rexford talks about optimizing the internet for the uses it got drafted into performing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Researchers try to figure out why every 20 years a Pakistan glacier moves roughly 1,500 times faster. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Red dwarfs are a popular place to hunt for small exoplanets in the habitable zone—but the stars' radiation bursts might fry chances for life as we know it. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Rather than always making the same call in response to the same stimuli, North Atlantic right whales are capable of changing their vocalizations. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The U.S. Northeast may be more geologically active than was previously thought, according to a seismic sensor network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Volunteers willing to place riskier bets tended to sport larger amygdalas—a region associated with processing fear. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The jutting midface of Neandertals seems to have evolved to help get large volumes of air into an active body that needed lots of oxygen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
