Science Quickly

Whether you have a large yard or a tiny planter, there are ways to use your outdoor space to protect wildlife. Senior news reporter Meghan Bartels takes us through what you can do, or stop doing, to make your yard and home friendlier to local critters.  Related Reading: – 8 Ways to Protect Wildlife Near Your Home – Pollinators Flock to Flower-Filled Solar Panel Fields 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 sign up for our daily newsletter.  Science Quickly is produced by Rachel Feltman, Kelso Harper, Madison Goldberg and Jeff DelViscio. This episode was hosted by Rachel Feltman with guest Meghan Bartels. Our show is edited by Elah Feder, Alexa Lim, Madison Goldberg and Anaissa Ruiz Tejada, 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

Cape Cod’s famed ponds and bays are suffering from pollution with a curious origin: human urine. Household septic systems are flushing nitrogen into the water, resulting in toxic algal blooms. In the second installment of our three-part Fascination series about Cape Cod’s “yellow tide,” environmental reporter Barbara Moran looks at the controversial and costly pollution solutions being considered. You can check out more of Barbara Moran’s reporting on the efforts to improve Cape Cod’s water pollution, including a “pee-cycling” project being considered by one innovative town. And watch WBUR and Scientific American’s documentary short exploring how pollution and algae overgrowth threaten this Massachusetts vacation hub. Email us at sciencequickly@sciam.com if you have any questions, comments or ideas for stories we should cover! Discover something new everyday: subscribe to Scientific American and sign up for our daily newsletter.  This series is a co-production of WBUR and Scientific American. It’s reported and hosted by WBUR’s Barbara Moran. Science Quickly is produced by Jeff DelViscio, Kelso Harper, Madison Goldberg and Rachel Feltman. Our theme music was composed by Dominic Smith. Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck fact-checked this series, and Duy Linh Tu and Sebastian Tuinder contributed reporting and sound. WBUR’s Kathleen Masterson edited this series. Additional funding was provided by the Pulitzer Center. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Psychologist and cooperation theorist Athena Aktipis shares advice from her new book, A Field Guide to the Apocalypse, on how to survive and thrive in doomsday scenarios from catastrophic natural disasters to zombie outbreaks.  Related Reading: – Could the Zombie Fungus in TV’s The Last of Us Really Infect People? – The Evolutionary Reasons We Are Drawn to Horror Email us at sciencequickly@sciam.com if you have any questions, comments or ideas for stories we should cover! Discover something new everyday: subscribe to Scientific American and sign up for our daily newsletter.  Science Quickly is produced by Rachel Feltman, Kelso Harper, Madison Goldberg and Jeff DelViscio. This episode was hosted by Rachel Feltman with guest Athena Aktipis. Our show is edited by Elah Feder, Alexa Lim, Madison Goldberg and Anaissa Ruiz Tejada, 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

In this week's science roundup: drinking raw milk was always risky, but now there are added concerns over the spread of bird flu into dairy cows. An intense geomagnetic storm led to stunning auroras across the globe last week–and similar storms could mess with satellites and electricity infrastructure. Plus, hurricane forecasts are on the horizon. Email us at sciencequickly@sciam.com if you have any questions, comments or ideas for stories we should cover! And discover something new everyday by subscribing to Scientific American or signing up for our daily newsletter.  Science Quickly is produced by Rachel Feltman, Kelso Harper, Carin Leong, Madison Goldberg and Jeff DelViscio. This episode was hosted by Rachel Feltman. Our show is edited by Elah Feder, Alexa Lim, Madison Goldberg and Anaissa Ruiz Tejada, 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

In the first episode of a three-part series, environmental reporter Barbara Moran is on Cape Cod to find out why the crystal clear water there is turning “pea-soup green”—and how communities are scrambling to clean it up. For more information, read WBUR’s coverage of the efforts to improve Cape Cod’s water pollution, including a “pee-cycling” project being considered by one innovative town. And watch WBUR and Scientific American’s documentary short exploring how pollution and algae overgrowth threaten this Massachusetts vacation hub. Email us at sciencequickly@sciam.com if you have any questions, comments or ideas for stories we should cover! Discover something new everyday: subscribe to Scientific American and sign up for our daily newsletter. This series is a co-production of WBUR and Scientific American. It’s reported and hosted by WBUR’s Barbara Moran. Science Quickly is produced by Jeff DelViscio, Kelso Harper, Madison Goldberg and Rachel Feltman. Our theme music was composed by Dominic Smith. Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck fact-checked this series, and Duy Linh Tu and Sebastian Tuinder contributed reporting and sound. WBUR’s Kathleen Masterson edited this series. Additional funding was provided by the Pulitzer Center. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Cannabis consumers may be familiar with the paranoia that can come from taking too many gummies or smoking too much weed. New research into cannabis reveals how a lemon-scented terpene d-limonene can ease anxiety without diminishing the high.  Join Scientific American, Springer Nature and Nature Portfolio in Washington, D.C. on May 17 for Science on the Hill. Register now! Email us at sciencequickly@sciam.com if you have any questions, comments or ideas for stories we should cover! Discover something new everyday: subscribe to Scientific American and sign up for our daily newsletter.  Science Quickly is produced by Rachel Feltman, Kelso Harper, Madison Goldberg and Jeff DelViscio. This episode was hosted by Rachel Feltman with guest Allison Parshall. Our show is edited by Elah Feder, Alexa Lim, Madison Goldberg and Anaissa Ruiz Tejada, 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 images of Katy Perry at Monday’s Met Gala looked so realistic they even duped her mom. And it just so happens that ChatGPT developer OpenAI released a new tool to detect fake images generated by DALL-E—the very next day.   Join Scientific American, Springer Nature and Nature Portfolio in Washington, D.C. on May 17 for Science on the Hill. Register now! Email us at sciencequickly@sciam.com if you have any questions, comments or ideas for stories we should cover! Discover something new everyday: subscribe to Scientific American and sign up for our daily newsletter.  Science Quickly is produced by Rachel Feltman, Kelso Harper, Madison Goldberg and Jeff DelViscio. This episode was hosted by Rachel Feltman. Our show is edited by Elah Feder, Alexa Lim, Madison Goldberg and Anaissa Ruiz Tejada, 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

Meet Rachel Feltman, the new host of Science Quickly! Bringing a fresh perspective and infectious enthusiasm, Rachel will take you on audio journeys to far-off places, inspire you to ponder deep questions, and introduce you to people changing the world with science.  Email us at sciencequickly@sciam.com if you have any questions, comments or ideas for stories we should cover! Discover something new everyday: subscribe to Scientific American and sign up for our daily newsletter.  Science Quickly is produced by Rachel Feltman, Kelso Harper, Carin Leong, Madison Goldberg and Jeff DelViscio. This episode was hosted by Rachel Feltman. Our show is edited by Elah Feder, Alexa Lim, Madison Goldberg and Anaissa Ruiz Tejada 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

Doctors are starting to prescribe vegetables or entire meals to ward off disease. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Amid Earth’s fourth global coral bleaching event, a leading expert says tackling climate change is the key to fighting back. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ahead of a project to spray carbon dioxide into jungle plots, researchers contemplate what its results might signal about the forest’s future. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After years of delay, researchers are ready to inject carbon dioxide into jungle plots. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Years in the making, a project in the Amazon rain forest is finally set to determine whether a rise in carbon dioxide could save one of the world’s largest carbon sinks. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Cows and at least one person in the U.S. have been sickened by avian influenza. We asked experts about the risk to humans. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Volcano detectives use artificial intelligence to sleuth out ancient secrets in Alaska. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

These marine mammals are very hard to observe, but in the past two decades the roughly 20 or so people in the world who study sperm whales have found some compelling evidence of culture among them. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we’re going to look at how measles—a disease that was practically eliminated in the U.S.—has resurged in recent months, because people basically forgot how bad it was and got complacent about vaccines.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein is a professional astronomer—with a passion for amateur astrophotography—and she's here to offer tips and tricks for want to get into capturing the night sky. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The feeling of a total solar eclipse is intense, and the sights, sensations and emotions can overwhelm you even if you think you know what's coming. And we sat down with Kate Russo, a psychologist, author and Eclipse Chaser, who's seen 13 total solar eclipses over the last 25 years, to talk about what to expect. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From the discovery of new elements to the testing of novel theories of gravity, solar eclipses have helped spark scientific progress for centuries. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices