El Niño is Back. What Does That Mean For You?
The famous climate pattern El Niño could usher in a new hottest year on record and will have domino effects on the world’s weather. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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.
Episodes
The Kavli Prize Presents: How Your Brain Maps the World [Sponsored]
John O’Keefe shared the Kavli Prize in Neuroscience in 2014 for discovering that neurons in the hippocampus encode an animal’s location and create a cognitive map for navigation. This podcast was produced for the Kavli Prize by Scientific American Custom Media, a division separate from the magazine’s board of editors. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The Universe Is Abuzz with Giant Gravitational Waves, and Scientists Just Heard Them (Maybe)
Researchers, using the galaxy as a detector, believe they have detected gravitational waves from monster black holes for the first time. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Poisons and Perils on the Salton Sea
Toxic dust plagues marginalized communities on the shores of this disappearing salt lake. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
These Ants Are Probably Better at Navigating Than You Are
Desert ants living in the featureless salt plains of Tunisia count their steps and erect tall entrances at their nests to find their way back home. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
How to Cool Down Fast in Summer Heat
Your body has a secret cooling method, and scientists explain how to use it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Follow a Hurricane Expert into the Heart Of the Beast
Along with an expert, we take you into some of nature's most monstrous storms. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Have Astronomers Seen the Universe's First Stars?
The James Webb Space Telescope is giving us our first glimpse of stars in the early universe. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Cleo, the Mysterious Math Menace
In 2013 a new user named Cleo took an online math forum by storm with unproved answers. Today she’s an urban legend. But who was she? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
MDMA Moves from Party Drug Back to Therapy Tool
The party drug MDMA could soon be approved for treating people with severe PTSD. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Five Things You Need to Know about Wildfire Smoke Right Now
Where is it coming from? How long will it last? What's in the smoke? Whose health is at risk? How do you clean your own air? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
These Predators Had a Face like an Axe and Will Haunt Your Nightmares
Terror birds were the grizzly bears of birds, the great white sharks of the land, Jack the Ripper but with feathers. They were also truly fascinating. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
This Thunderous Goose Relative Was Built like a Tank with the Wings of a Songbird
Officially, these prehistoric birds are the dromornithids, but everyone who studies them calls them thunderbirds—and for good reason. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
This Gargantuan Bird Weighed as Much as a Sports Car
The elephant bird was the heaviest bird to ever walk the earth. Also, its eggs were 150 times the size of a chicken egg and thick as a dinner plate. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
This Massive Scientific Discovery Sat Hidden in a Museum Drawer for Decades
The fossil was a prehistoric bird called Pelagornis sandersi, and its wings stretched out twice as wide as those of the great albatross. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The Kavli Prize Presents: Understanding the Machinery of the Cell [Sponsored]
James Rothman shared The Kavli Prize in Neuroscience in 2010 for discovering the molecular basis of neurotransmitter release. How did a biochemist come to win such a prestigious prize in neuroscience? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
What the End of the COVID Emergency Means for You
What you pay for tests, vaccines, and medicine will change Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Heat Waves Are Breaking Records. Here's What You Need to Know
From North America to South Asia, summer heat waves are becoming longer, stronger and more frequent with climate change. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Why We're Worried about Generative AI
From the technology upsetting jobs and causing intellectual property issues to models making up fake answers to questions, here’s why we’re concerned about generative AI. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Dismantling the PFAS 'Forever Chemicals' Legacy [Sponsored]
More sustainable ways of removing persistent chemicals known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) from the environment are on the horizon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Understanding Dissociative Identity Disorder through the 'Community' of Ella
We learn the story of “Ella,” a patient with 12 different personalities, or “parts,” and of her therapist, who helped her form a peaceful community—many selves in one body and mind. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Is Time Travel Even Possible?
Two SciAm editors duke it out to see if wormholes and multiverses could in fact exist. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Parrot Babies Babble Just like Us
Parrot nestlings spend time stringing together jumbled mixtures of sound—a rehearsal for more adult conversations Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
A 19th-Century Obscenity Law Is Being Used Again to Limit Abortion
Recent rulings on the abortion pill cite the Comstock Act, a 150-year-old law that’s still on the books Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
These Mini Ecosystems Existed Underfoot of Dinosaurs, but Our Parking Lots Might Pave Them to Extinction
Vernal pools are safe havens for creatures such as fairy shrimp, and they have lived through the end of the dinosaurs, the breakup of Pangaea and multiple ice ages. But humans are paving them over. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
This $600-Million Room Contains the World's Largest Collection of These Tiny Endangered Animals
Inside a vault at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles lies a microscopic population of immense value—the repository for vernal pool fairy shrimp. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Surviving in the Ephemeral Pools of Life
Carpets of gold, burrowing toads and fairy shrimp all depend on vernal pools—habitats that, most of the time, do not exist. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
This Fleeting Ecosystem Is Magical, and You Have Probably Never Heard of It or Even Noticed It
Vernal pools are home to spectacular residents such as fairy shrimp, but these unusual natural wonders are under threat. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Do We Need To Save the Whales Again?
A scientist who does whale necropsies — or in layman's terms, whale autopsies — tells us why so many dead whales are washing up on beaches. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The Bad Side of 'Good' Cholesterol
Very high HDL cholesterol levels almost double your risk of heart problems. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices