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
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
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
Last Woollies Had Mammoth Mutations
The final holdout woolly mammoths had large numbers of harmful mutations—which would have given them satiny coats and a weakened sense of smell. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mar 02, 2017•4 min
African Penguins Pulled into an Ecological Trap
Climate change and overfishing have made the penguins’ feeding grounds a mirage—which has led to a drop in penguin population. Jason G. Goldman reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mar 01, 2017•4 min
Neandertals Live On in Our Genomes
Researchers found that Neandertal gene variants still affect the way genes are turned off and on in modern humans. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Feb 28, 2017•3 min
Medical Marijuana Faces Fed's Catch-22
Doing large studies of marijuana's potential as medicine means getting it removed from an official federal list of substances with no official medical use—which requires more proof of its potential as medicine. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Feb 27, 2017•4 min
Blood Cells Remember Your Mountain Vacation
Red blood cells retain a memory of high-altitude exposure, allowing for faster acclimation next time. But that memory fades within four months. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Feb 23, 2017•3 min
Fermented Foods Find Fervent Advocate
Properly fermented foods deliver probiotics that could help cut disease risk, said a researcher at the annual meeting of the AAAS. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Feb 22, 2017•3 min
Vision Needed to Curb Nearsightedness Epidemic
In urban Asian areas myopia among teenagers is topping 90 percent—but foresight may be able to bring those numbers way down. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Feb 21, 2017•3 min
Guppy Groups Provide Friendly Protection against Foes
Guppies exposed to predators tend to aggregate into smaller, more tightly knit groups, which may allow them to coordinate their predator avoidance strategies. Jason G. Goldman reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Feb 20, 2017•4 min
Spaceflight Squishes Spacefarers' Brains
Astronauts’ gray matter is compressed by time in space—except in an area that controls feeling and movement in the legs. Karen Hopkin reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Feb 18, 2017•3 min
2 Words Trigger CDC to Stay Quiet
Researchers and administrators at the CDC dare not utter the words guns or firearms for fear of budget cuts from Congress, according to health policy researcher David Hemenway. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Feb 17, 2017•3 min
The True "Bottom" of the Food Chain Is Plenty Polluted
Critters living more than six miles below the ocean surface contain high levels of harmful compounds like PCBs and flame retardants. Julia Rosen reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Feb 16, 2017•4 min
Heat Sensor Has Snaky Sensitivity
Researchers have developed a heat sensor that can detect temperature changes of just ten thousandths of a degree Celsius—comparable with the sensitivity of pit vipers. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Feb 15, 2017•4 min
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