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Scientific American

Host Rachel Feltman, alongside leading science and tech journalists, dives into the rich world of scientific discovery in this bite-size science variety show.

Science Talk

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 by Rachel Feltman. Our show is edited by Jeffery DelViscio with fact-checking by Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck. The theme music was composed by Dominic Smith.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Leaded Gasoline, Orca Hats and ‘Disease X’

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. 

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 Allison Parshall with fact-checking by Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck. The theme music was composed by Dominic Smith.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

AI-Generated Audio Is Entering the Podcast World

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 with fact-checking by Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck. The theme music was composed by Dominic Smith.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The New Conservationists: Where Do Zoos Fit into the Conservation Puzzle? (Part 1)

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 with co-host Ashleigh Papp. Our show is edited by Madison Goldberg with fact-checking by Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck. The theme music was composed by Dominic Smith.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The New Conservationists: AI is Making Meaning from the Sounds and Visuals of Wildlife (Part 2)

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 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-checking by Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck. The theme music was composed by Dominic Smith.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The New Conservationists: Meet the Next Generation of Conservationists (Part 3)

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-checking by Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck. The theme music was composed by Dominic Smith.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The New Conservationists: Thanks to Conservation Efforts, Pandas, Wolves and Panthers Are Making a Comeback (Part 4)

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 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 guests Tanya Lewis, Andrea Thompson and Ben Guarino. Our show is edited by Fonda Mwangi, with fact-checking by Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck. The theme music was composed by Dominic Smith.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A Farewell to 2024, and What We’re Following in the New Year

Going outside has many benefits, from positively affecting our nervous system to diversifying our microbiome. But you don’t need a forest preserve to benefit from nature—sometimes even a houseplant or the smell of lavender can improve our life. Kathy Willis, a professor of biodiversity at the University of Oxford, joins host Rachel Feltman to discuss her new book Good Nature: Why Seeing, Smelling, Hearing, and Touching Plants Is Good for Our Health. Willis suggests ways for even city dwellers to reap the benefits of nature, such as strolling through urban parks or keeping plants in their office.

Read Willis’s book:
Good Nature: Why Seeing, Smelling, Hearing, and Touching Plants Is Good for Our Health (Pegasus Books, 2024)

Listen to our previous episodes about plants:
Do Plants ‘Think’? We Might Not Know Enough about Consciousness to Be Certain
How to Grow Your Houseplant Collection Ethically 

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 Kathy Willis. Our show is edited by Fonda Mwangi with fact-checking by Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck. The theme music was composed by Dominic Smith.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Going Outside Can Change Our Hormones and Improve Microbiome Diversity

Pluto was unseated as our solar system’s ninth planet in 2006. Since then astronomers have found signs that a real ninth planet could be hiding at the edges of our solar system. Clara Moskowitz, senior editor for space and physics, explains how the forthcoming Vera Rubin Observatory could give researchers a way to find the real Planet Nine—if it’s out there.
Recommended reading:
– We May Be on the Brink of Finding the Real Planet Nine
– How to Move the World’s Largest Camera from a California Lab to an Andes Mountaintop
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 Clara Moskowitz, senior editor for space and physics. Our show is edited by Madison Goldberg with fact-checking by Emily Makowski, Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck. The theme music was composed by Dominic Smith.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Finding Pluto’s Potential Replacement with a Giant New Telescope

Norovirus cases are up this year, with 91 reported outbreaks nationwide. Human metapneumovirus (HMPV) cases are up in China and India. There has also been an increase in the U.S., but HMPV is currently a cause for concern in the nation, where its relative commonality gives many people some immunity. Louisiana has reported the first U.S. death from H5N1 avian influenza. Experts say the risk of bird flu to most people is low, though several factors can cause severe disease. Medical debts are set to be removed from U.S. credit reports, which could raise credit scores by an average of 20 points for the 15 million Americans who will be affected. 

Wildfires raged in the Los Angeles area last week, caused in part by a hot, dry winter and the speeds of the Santa Ana winds. Those winds made it difficult to fight the Palisades and Eaton Fires. As of last Thursday evening, firefighters were continuing to get a handle on these fires. 

Plus, a new study uncovers the cosmic kiss between Pluto and its largest moon Charon.

Recommended reading:

What Does First U.S. Bird Flu Death Tell Experts about Disease Severity? https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/first-human-bird-flu-death-in-u-s-reported-how-worried-should-we-be/
HMPV Cases Are Rising across Asia, but Experts Say Not to Panichttps://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-is-human-metapneumovirus-and-why-are-cases-rising-in-china/ 

Palisades and Eaton Fires Show Rising Dangers of Fast-Moving Blazes https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/palisades-and-eaton-fires-show-rising-dangers-of-fast-moving-fires/ 
Pluto May Have Won Its Moon Charon with a ‘Kiss’ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/pluto-may-have-won-its-moon-charon-with-a-kiss/ 

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 Andrea Thompson. Our show is edited by Jeff DelViscio with fact-checking by Emily Makowski, Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck. The theme music was composed by Dominic Smith.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Outbreaks of Norovirus, a Death from Bird Flu and Wildfires in L.A.

A subtype of H5N1 bird flu that has been found in cattle for the first time suggests that the virus jumped from birds to the animals twice. A headline-making study estimates that we have a spoon’s worth of microplastics in our brain. Streams of rock from a cosmic impact created the moon’s two deep canyons, Vallis Schrödinger and Vallis Planck. A large study shows that people feel their best in the morning and their worst at midnight. Bonobos can tell when humans don’t know something—and try to help us.

Recommended reading:
The U.S. Is Not Ready for Bird Flu in Humans 
Bonobos Can Tell When a Human Doesn’t Know Something 
Is Snoozing the Alarm Good or Bad for Your Health? 

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, Naeem Amarsy and Jeff DelViscio. This episode was hosted by Rachel Feltman. Our show is edited by Naeem Amarsy with fact-checking by Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck. The theme music was composed by Dominic Smith.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Microplastics on the Mind, Superstrong Shrimp and Bird Flu Transmission

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