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Science Quickly

Scientific Americanwww.sciencequickly.com
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

Lose Your Job? Good for the Rest of Us

Recession 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

Aug 19, 20143 min

Nose Knows What the Mind Tells It

When 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

Aug 18, 20143 min

Tiny Toe Tools Ensure Gecko Traction

To 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

Aug 15, 20143 min

Guys Prefer Electric Shocks to Boredom

Guys 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

Aug 13, 20143 min

Google Searches Linked to Stock Market Moves

When 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

Aug 12, 20143 min

Andromeda Snickers at Milky Way Mass

A 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

Aug 06, 20143 min

Spider's Scat Disguise May Be Its Salvation

Masquerading 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

Aug 05, 20143 min

System Converts Solar Efficiently to Steam

A 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

Aug 04, 20143 min

Environment Has Beef with Beef

Raising 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

Aug 01, 20143 min

Pack Rats Expand Diet with New Gut Bacteria

Pack 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

Jul 31, 20143 min

Colorful Birds Can Also Belt Tunes

A 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

Jul 30, 20143 min

Roach Reactions to Venom Point to Targeted Pesticides

Small 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

Jul 29, 20143 min

Ocean Plastic Particles Could Get in Gills

Sea creatures eat plastic dumped in the ocean, but they also might be accumulating plastic by sucking up tiny particles with their siphons and gills. Christopher Intagliata reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jul 28, 20143 min

Salmonella's Favorite Food Could Be Its Achilles' Heel

Salmonella'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

Jul 23, 20143 min

Education Level Linked to Nearsightedness

In a German study, half of those with a university degree were myopic compared with less than a quarter of folks who quit after high school or secondary school. Karen Hopkin reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jul 21, 20143 min

Give Us This Day the Bread Wheat Genome

A 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

Jul 17, 20143 min

Supercooled Organs Could Stretch Time to Transplant

Liver 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

Jul 09, 20142 min

Space-Based Data Collection Better Predicts Floods

Satellite 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

Jul 08, 20143 min

Mobile Phones Carry Owners' Microbiomes

The 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

Jul 02, 20143 min

Malarial Mice Smell Better to Mosquitoes

Mice infected with the parasites that cause their type of malaria produce odorous compounds that attract mosquitoes, increasing the odds that the parasites will be spread to the next victims Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jul 01, 20143 min

Neandertal Diners Had Side of Veggies

By 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

Jun 27, 20142 min

21-Second Rule Governs Mammal Micturition

All 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

Jun 25, 20143 min

Dwarf Galaxies Really Cooking with Gas

The 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

Jun 25, 20143 min

Cool Kids Get Schooled with Age

Kids 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

Jun 23, 20143 min

White Bread May Actually Build Strong Bodies 1 Way

The 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

Jun 20, 20143 min

Plant Spores Hitch Long-Distance Feather Rides

Tiny 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

Jun 18, 20143 min

Jellyfish Galaxies Get Guts Ripped Out

Recently 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

Jun 17, 20143 min

2-Face Moon Tells How It Got That Way

A new analysis says that the asymmetry between the two faces of the moon is due to crust thickness differences that resulted from variable cooling rates after the molten formation of our companion. Karen Hopkin reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jun 13, 20143 min

Classroom Decorations Can Distract Young Students

Five-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

Jun 11, 20143 min
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