60-second Science

2024 brought heat waves and hurricanes, bird flu and breakthroughs, and an overwhelming amount of progress in AI. Science Quickly host Rachel Feltman is joined by sustainability editor Andrea Thompson, health and medicine editor Tanya Lewis and technology editor Ben Guarino to recap a busy year and weigh in on the stories they’re watching in 2025. Happy Holidays from all of us at Science Quickly! Thank you for your support and your curiosity. We’ll see you next year. Recommended reading: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/wildest-things-science-learned-about-the-human-body-in-2024/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/summer-2024-was-the-hottest-ever-measured-beating-last-year/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/78-books-scientific-american-recommends-in-2024/ E-mail us at sciencequickly@sciam.com if you have any questions, comments or ideas for stories we should cover! Discover something new every day: subscribe to Scientific American and sign up for Today in Science, our daily newsl

Tens of thousands of animal species are facing extinction, mostly because of human activity. But thanks to conservationists, there are some animals that are making a comeback. This is part four of “The New Conservationists,” a four-part series about the evolving world of animal conservation. Listen to part one, part two and part three. Recommended reading: – The Panda Factories  – Flying Conservationists Teach Endangered Birds to Migrate – The Last Wild Horses Are Finally Returning to Their Natural Habitat – Great Nicobar Island Is a Paradise in Danger E-mail us at sciencequickly@sciam.com if you have any questions, comments or ideas for stories we should cover! Discover something new every day: subscribe to Scientific American and sign up for Today in Science, our daily newsletter. Science Quickly is produced by Rachel Feltman, Fonda Mwangi, Kelso Harper, Madison Goldberg and Jeff DelViscio. This episode was hosted by Rachel Feltman with co-host Ashleigh Papp. Our show is edited by Madison Goldberg with fact

Ashleigh Papp, an animal scientist turned storyteller, shifts our perspective on the modern conservationist. With low wages and expectations of free work, conservation science lacks diversity as a field—but dedicated graduate students and new programs are trying to change that. Isaac Aguilar, a graduate student in the geology division at the California Institute of Technology, tells Papp about his journey into conservation. Plus, join a night patrol with crime prevention sergeant Malungane Naledi. She's a member of the Black Mambas, an all-woman anti-poaching unit in South Africa’s Greater Kruger National Park. This is part three of The New Conservationists, a four-part series about the evolving world of animal conservation. Listen to part one and part two. Recommended reading: – Flying Conservationists Teach Endangered Birds to Migrate – The Last Wild Horses Are Finally Returning to Their Natural Habitat – Great Nicobar Island Is a Paradise in Danger E-mail us at sciencequickly@sciam.com if you have any ques

Ashleigh Papp, an animal scientist turned storyteller, takes us on into the field. Conservationists and animal behaviorists were once restricted to wildlife data gathered manually. Now new technologies are expanding the amount of passively collected data—and machine learning is helping researchers cut through the noise. This is part two of The New Conservationists, a four-part series about the evolving world of animal conservation. Recommended reading: – Flying Conservationists Teach Endangered Birds to Migrate – The Last Wild Horses Are Finally Returning to Their Natural Habitat – Great Nicobar Island Is a Paradise in Danger E-mail us at sciencequickly@sciam.com if you have any questions, comments or ideas for stories we should cover! Discover something new every day: subscribe to Scientific American and sign up for Today in Science, our daily newsletter. Science Quickly is produced by Rachel Feltman, Fonda Mwangi, Kelso Harper, Madison Goldberg and Jeff DelViscio. This episode was hosted by Rachel Feltman w

Ashleigh Papp, an animal scientist turned storyteller, takes us on a trip to the zoo. People are divided on zoos, but as Papp explains, the thoughtful work that goes into caring for animals makes modern zoos conservation powerhouses. This is part one of The New Conservationists, a four-part Friday Fascination series about the evolving world of animal conservation. Recommended reading: – Flying Conservationists Teach Endangered Birds to Migrate – The Last Wild Horses Are Finally Returning to Their Natural Habitat – Great Nicobar Island Is a Paradise in Danger E-mail us at sciencequickly@sciam.com if you have any questions, comments or ideas for stories we should cover! Discover something new every day: subscribe to Scientific American and sign up for Today in Science, our daily newsletter.  Science Quickly is produced by Rachel Feltman, Fonda Mwangi, Kelso Harper, Madison Goldberg and Jeff DelViscio. This episode was hosted by Rachel Feltman with co-host Ashleigh Papp. Our show is edited by Madison Goldberg wi

If you were intrigued—or disturbed—by the artificial intelligence podcast on your Spotify Wrapped, you may wonder how AI audio works. Audio Overview is a feature of the tool NotebookLM, released by Google, that allows for the creation of short podcasts with AI “hosts” summarizing information. But questions remain about the accuracy, usefulness and environmental impacts of this application. Host Rachel Feltman and associate news editor Allison Parshall are joined by Google Labs’ editorial director Steven Johnson and AI researchers Anjana Susarla and Emily Bender to assess the promise of this buzzy tech. Recommended reading: Google’s Project Green Light Uses AI to Take on City Traffic  Can One Chatbot Catch Another’s Lies?  Please Don’t Ask AI If Something Is Poisonous  E-mail us at sciencequickly@sciam.com if you have any questions, comments or ideas for stories we should cover! Discover something new every day: subscribe to Scientific American and sign up for Today in Science, our daily newsletter.  Scienc

An outbreak of an unknown illness has occurred in the Democratic of the Congo, which has already been dealing with the spread of mpox. A new study finds that leaded gasoline could be responsible for 151 million cases of mental health disorders, with impacts highest among members of Generation X. Upping your daily movement could protect you from cardiovascular events. Plus, we look at Venus’s past and fashion-forward orcas.  Recommended reading: For Orcas, Dead Salmon Hats Are Back in Fashion after 37 Years Mpox Is a Global Health Emergency. Here’s What We Know  Lead from Old Paint and Pipes Is Still a Deadly Hazard in Millions of U.S. Homes E-mail us at sciencequickly@sciam.com if you have any questions, comments or ideas for stories we should cover! Discover something new every day: subscribe to Scientific American and sign up for Today in Science, our daily newsletter.  Science Quickly is produced by Rachel Feltman, Fonda Mwangi, Kelso Harper, Madison Goldberg and Jeff DelViscio. This episode was hosted

Low iron levels can cause fatigue and impact mental health, but doctors often miss cases of iron deficiency and anemia. Pediatric hematologist Angela Weyand, a clinical associate professor at the University of Michigan Medical School in Ann Arbor, points to one population that could be at a higher risk—young women with heavy menstrual bleeding. In one study from a national database, nearly 40 percent of otherwise healthy adolescent women were iron-deficient, and 6 percent were additionally anemic. Awareness and self-advocacy could help people receive accessible and inexpensive treatments for low iron levels. Recommended reading: “Prevalence of Iron Deficiency and Iron-Deficiency Anemia in US Females Aged 12–21 Years, 2003–2020,” by Angela C. Weyand et al., in JAMA, Vol. 329, No. 24; June 27, 2023 What Is Implicit Bias, and How Might It Affect Your Next Medical Visit? E-mail us at sciencequickly@sciam.com if you have any questions, comments or ideas for stories we should cover! Discover something new every d

Anthony Fauci speaks with Tanya Lewis, senior editor for health and medicine at Scientific American, about his remarkable career, as detailed in his new book On Call: A Doctor’s Journey in Public Service. They discuss the experiences he faced while guiding the U.S. through the pandemic, the lessons learned by public health practitioners and the challenges posed by future threats, such as bird flu and other potential pandemics. This episode is part of “Health Equity Heroes,” an editorially independent special project that was produced with financial support from Takeda Pharmaceuticals. Recommended reading: New Bird Flu Cases in Young People Are Raising Concerns about Mutating Virus What Bird Flu in Wastewater Means for California and Beyond  H5N1 Bird Flu Isn’t a Human Pandemic—Yet  E-mail us at sciencequickly@sciam.com if you have any questions, comments or ideas for stories we should cover! Discover something new every day: subscribe to Scientific American and sign up for our daily newsletter. Science

Black Friday sales have gone from one-day in-person shopping bonanzas to a multiday deals extravaganza. It’s tempting to give in to the seasonal pressures to shop, but knowing the tricks companies use to make sales so appealing can help us avoid overconsumption. Cathrine Jansson-Boyd, a professor of consumer psychology at Anglia Ruskin University in England, explains how to spot marketing ploys and shop sustainably.  Recommended reading: It’s Actually Healthier to Enjoy Holiday Foods without the Anxiety https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/enjoy-holiday-food-without-the-anxiety/  Eating Turkey Does Not Really Make You Sleepy https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/eating-turkey-sleepy-thanksgiving/  E-mail us at sciencequickly@sciam.com if you have any questions, comments or ideas for stories we should cover! Discover something new every day: subscribe to Scientific American and sign up for Today in Science, our daily newsletter. Science Quickly is produced by Rachel Feltman, Fonda Mwangi, Kelso H

Donald Trump has nominated RFK, Jr., to run the Department of Health and Human Services, a position that includes oversight of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health. Senior health and medicine editor Tanya Lewis explains what that would mean for antivaccine policies, food safety and unproven therapies that Kennedy backs. Tobacco use is down across the U.S., but the drop has been uneven across groups. Astronomers have released the first-ever close up image of a star—and scientists are excited over an unexpected ring. Plus, studies of chimpanzees explore the role of social contagion on their behaviors and point to play in adult chimps. Recommended reading: RFK, Jr., Is a Bad Prescription for U.S. Public Health | Opinion  Chimps Share Knowledge like Humans Do, Spurring Innovation  E-mail us at sciencequickly@sciam.com if you have any questions, comments or ideas for stories we should cover! Discover something new every day: subscr

Writings and records are how we understand long-gone civilizations without being able to interact with ancient peoples. A recent opinion paper suggested we could feed chatbots writings from the past to simulate ancient participants for social psychology studies. Similar survey experiments with modern participant data closely matched the outcomes of the real people they were based on. We speak with the opinion paper’s co-author Michael Varnum, an associate professor at Arizona State University, about what the limits of this spooky proposal are and what the ghosts of cultures past could teach us today.  Recommended reading: “Large Language Models Based on Historical Text Could Offer Informative Tools for Behavioral Science,” by Michael E. W. Varnum et al., in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, Vol. 121, No. 42, Article No.  e2407639121; October 9, 2024 https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2407639121  Inside the AI Competition That Decoded an Ancient Herculaneum Scroll https://www.scientifi

Disparities in health are not indicated by adverse outcomes alone. Adriana Corredor-Waldron, an assistant professor of economics at NC State University, sought to understand why Black infants are more likely to be delivered by C-section than white infants. A working paper she co-authored found that the elevated number of low-risk Black pregnant people who were given C-section surgeries in New Jersey from 2008 to 2017 was likely caused by physician discretion. Corredor-Waldron explains why unnecessary C-sections can be risky and what medical education and financial incentives could do to close the gap.  Recommended viewing: What Is Implicit Bias, and How Might It Affect Your Next Medical Visit? https://www.scientificamerican.com/video/what-is-implicit-bias-and-how-might-it-affect-your-next-medical-visit/  E-mail us at sciencequickly@sciam.com if you have any questions, comments or ideas for stories we should cover! Discover something new every day: subscribe to Scientific American and sign up for Today in S

A wildfire in Brooklyn, N.Y.’s Prospect Park was in part linked to drought conditions nationally. Plastic waste is set to grow with our expanding economy, but potential solutions look promising. Drops in gonorrhea and early-stage syphilis point to the first decline in sexually transmitted infections in 20 years. Voyager 2’s fly-by of Uranus in the 1980s collected data that led scientists to believe the planet’s moons were inactive. A reassessment of those data shows that Uranus could have just been having an off day. Plus, Alec Luhn reports from the 29th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29) in Azerbaijan. Recommended reading: Melting Glaciers Are Causing Billions of Dollars of Damage  The U.S. Has Its First Plan for Plastic Pollution. This Is What’s in It  This Astoundingly Simple Ancient Technique Is Helping to Beat Back Drought  E-mail us at sciencequickly@sciam.com if you have any questions, comments or ideas for stories we should cover! Discover so

Tomorrow marks the 50th anniversary of a transmission from the Arecibo Observatory, intended as our first attempt to send a message to intelligent life across the universe. Journalist Nadia Drake talks about the careful crafting of the signal and her personal connection with the astronomer who authored the transmission: her father Frank Drake.  Recommended reading: The Arecibo Message, Earth’s First Interstellar Transmission, Turns 50 Arecibo Observatory Shuts Down Its Science E-mail us at sciencequickly@sciam.com if you have any questions, comments or ideas for stories we should cover! Discover something new every day: subscribe to Scientific American and sign up for Today in Science, our daily newsletter.  Science Quickly is produced by Rachel Feltman, Fonda Mwangi, Kelso Harper, Madison Goldberg and Jeff DelViscio. This episode was hosted by Rachel Feltman with guest Nadia Drake. Our show is edited by Fonda Mwangi with fact-checking by Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck. The theme music was composed by

What does the Declaration of Independence have in common with Vincent van Gogh’s sketches? The ink used to produce them came from wasps. From pests to products, insects have played an enormous role in human history. Entomologist and animal behaviorist Barrett Klein encourages a historical and scientific perspective on these creatures and invites us to marvel at their beauty and biodiversity. – Read Barrett Klein’s book The Insect Epiphany – See more from Klein – Explore our coverage E-mail us at sciencequickly@sciam.com if you have any questions, comments or ideas for stories we should cover! Discover something new every day: subscribe to Scientific American and sign up for Today in Science, our daily newsletter. Science Quickly is produced by Rachel Feltman, Fonda Mwangi, Kelso Harper, Madison Goldberg and Jeff DelViscio. This episode was hosted by Rachel Feltman. Our show is edited by Madison Goldberg with fact-checking by Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck. The theme music was composed by Dominic Smith. Lear

A wooden solution to metal satellites polluting space. Water woes create droughts in 48 of the 50 U.S. states—and climate change is of course a culprit. Microplastics could make wastewater recycling more challenging. And researchers figure out how mud from a secret spot off the Delaware River makes baseballs easier to grip.  Recommended reading: How Baseball Got Faster but Riskier  Microplastics Linked to Heart Attack, Stroke and Death  Space Junk Is Polluting Earth’s Stratosphere with Vaporized Metal  E-mail us at sciencequickly@sciam.com if you have any questions, comments or ideas for stories we should cover! Discover something new every day: subscribe to Scientific American and sign up for Today in Science, our daily newsletter.  Science Quickly is produced by Rachel Feltman, Fonda Mwangi, Kelso Harper, Madison Goldberg and Jeff DelViscio. Our show is edited by Anaissa Ruiz Tejada with fact-checking by Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck. Our theme music was composed by Dominic Smith. Learn more about

Could our fixation on weight actually be harming, rather than helping, people’s health? Host Rachel Feltman is joined by Ragen Chastain, a writer, researcher and board-certified patient advocate, to discuss how weight stigma could be fueling many of the negative health outcomes we commonly link to weight gain. This episode is part of “Health Equity Heroes,” an editorially independent special project that was produced with financial support from Takeda Pharmaceuticals. Sign up for Chastain’s Substack newsletter, Weight and Healthcare Recommended reading: People Who Are Fat and Healthy May Hold Keys to Understanding Obesity Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia. Sabrina Strings. NYU Press, 2019 Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness. Da’Shaun L. Harrison. North Atlantic Books, 2021 Email us at sciencequickly@sciam.com if you have any questions, comments or ideas for stories we should cover! Discover something new every day: subscribe to Scientific American and

Rising Signs: The Medieval Science of Astrology, a new exhibit at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, takes a look at medieval manuscripts to showcase the importance of astrology to the period’s elites. Larisa Grollemond, an assistant curator at the museum, takes us through the impact of astrology on day-to-day decisions and the way it became tied up in the medieval obsession with humoral balances. Plus, we discuss how today’s astrology split from the modern science of astronomy. Rising Signs is on display at the Getty Museum through January 5, 2025. https://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/rising-signs/index.html  Recommended reading: How to Survive Mercury in Retrograde https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-to-survive-mercury-in-retrograde/  E-mail us at sciencequickly@sciam.com if you have any questions, comments or ideas for stories we should cover! Discover something new every day: subscribe to Scientific American and sign up for Today in Science, our daily newsletter.  Science Quickly is

The 2024 U.S. presidential candidates have very different visions for the country. On today’s show, host Rachel Feltman is joined by associate sustainability editor Andrea Thompson to talk about the climate choices faced by the next president and the shifting energy landscape. Senior news reporter Meghan Bartels reviews the gun control policies of the Biden administration and the complicated cultural dynamics around gun ownership that faces the next president. Plus, we discuss how public education could be stymied by a future Trump administration and how immigration decisions will shape the STEM workforce. Read more about the election: – In-depth coverage explains the candidates’ climate and energy policies – Kamala Harris and Donald Trump offer starkly different responses to gun violence – How the 2024 election could reshape education, from pre-K to college – The 2024 Election Will Define America’s Stance on Immigration, with Consequences for Science and Technology – Deep dives from other SciAm editors repor