Science Quickly

Latest Episodes:

Cosmic Coin Toss, Record Heat in the North Atlantic and Living Worm Towers Jun 09, 2025

Show notes

New simulations suggest the Milky Way’s long-predicted collision with Andromeda might be less of a cosmic certainty than we thought. A massive marine heat wave in 2023 sent North Atlantic temperatures soaring—equal to two decades’ worth of typical warming—with weak winds and climate change largely to blame. And researchers reveal that the planet’s most abundant animals—nematodes—may use teamwork and tower-building to hitch rides to new homes.

Recommended reading:

This ‘Tower of Worms’ Is a Squirming Superorganism

E-mail 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, Fonda Mwangi, Kelso Harper, Naeem Amarsy and Jeff DelViscio. Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck fact-check our show. Our theme music was composed by Dominic Smith.

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Is the National Weather Service Ready for an Extreme Summer? Jun 06, 2025

Show notes

The dedicated staff of the National Weather Service are responsible for the data that underpin your weather forecast and emergency alerts. DOGE Service cuts to the NWS are putting the collection and communication of those data at risk right as we enter a dangerous season of hurricanes, tornadoes, wildfires and extreme heat in the U.S. Senior sustainability editor Andrea Thompson joins host Rachel Feltman to explain what the NWS does, why we need its expertise and what we risk when that expertise is lost.

Recommended reading:

How Trump’s National Weather Service Cuts Could Cost Lives https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-trumps-national-weather-service-cuts-could-cost-lives/

Why This Hurricane Season Has Experts on Edge

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/with-a-busy-2025-hurricane-season-forecast-staffing-cuts-and-warm-oceans/

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, Naeem Amarsy and Jeff DelViscio. This episode was hosted by Rachel Feltman with guest Andrea Thompson. Our show is fact-checked by Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck. The theme music was composed by Dominic Smith.

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Megalodon Diets, Teeth Sensitivity and a Bunch of Vaccine News Jun 02, 2025

Show notes

The measles outbreak in West Texas is slowing. Health officials think an increase in vaccination rates contributed to the slowdown, but Texas lawmakers have pushed a new bill to make it even quicker and easier for parents to exempt their children from vaccines. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention goes counter to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists by removing recommendations for COVID vaccines for pregnant people and children without underlying health conditions. The first vaccine for gonorrhea debuts in England and Wales, with early results suggesting it is 30 to 40 percent effective against the disease. Your sensitive teeth may have origins in the dentin in the exoskeletons of ancient fish. Plus, researchers use fossils to discover what megalodons may have eaten.

Recommended reading:

See the Dramatic Consequences of Vaccination Rates Teetering on a ‘Knife’s Edge’

Fun Facts about Teeth across the Animal Kingdom

Love the Ocean? Thank a Shark

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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, Naeem Amarsy and Jeff DelViscio. This episode was hosted by Rachel Feltman. Our show is edited by Alex Sugiura with fact-checking by Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck. The theme music was composed by Dominic Smith.

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Are You Flourishing? This Global Study Has Surprising Takeaways May 30, 2025

Show notes

Are you flourishing? It’s a more understated metric than happiness, but it can provide a multidimensional assessment of our quality of life. Victor Counted, an associate professor of psychology at Regent University and a member of the Human Flourishing Program at Harvard University, joins host Rachel Feltman to review the first wave of results from the five-year, 22-country Global Flourishing Study. Counted reflects on the difficulty of applying a universal concept to varied cultural contexts and ways that we can control our own flourishing.

Recommended reading:

Read the study

See an article about the study co-authored by Counted

Societies with Little Money Are among the Happiest on Earth

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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.

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Diagnosing Male Infertility with a Mechanical Engineering Twist May 28, 2025

Show notes

Male infertility is undercovered and underdiscussed. If a couple is struggling to conceive, there’s a 50–50 chance that sperm health is a contributing factor. Diagnosing male infertility is getting easier with at-home tests—and a new study suggests a method for testing at home that would be more accurate. Study co-author Sushanta Mitra, a professor of mechanical and mechatronics engineering at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, joins host Rachel Feltman to discuss how lower sperm adhesion could be used as a proxy for higher sperm motility.

Recommended reading:

Read the study:

https://advanced.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/admi.202400680

Are Sperm Counts Really Declining? https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/are-sperm-counts-really-declining/

Wiggling Sperm Power a New Male Fertility Test https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/wiggling-sperm-power-a-new-male-fertility-test/

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E-mail us at sciencequickly@sciam.com if you have any questions, comments or ideas for stories we should cover!

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Could We Speak to Dolphins? A Promising LLM Makes That a Possibility May 23, 2025

Show notes

Dolphins have a broad vocabulary. They vocalize with whistles, clicks and “burst pulses.”This varied communication makes it challenging for scientists to decode dolphin speech. Artificial intelligence can help researchers process audio and find the slight patterns that human ears may not be able to identify. Reporter Melissa Hobson took a look at DolphinGemma, a large language model created by Google in collaboration with the Wild Dolphin Project and the Georgia Institute of Technology. The project seeks to unravel the clicks from the whistles and to understand what dolphins chat about under the waves.

Recommended reading:

Read our article about DolphinGemma: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/can-ai-let-us-chat-with-dolphins/

Watch our video about the project: https://www.tiktok.com/@scientificamerican/video/7499862659072871723

Keep up with Hobson’s reporting:

http://www.melissahobson.co.uk/

Tell us what you think! Take our survey for the chance to win some SciAm swag!

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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, Naeem Amarsy and Jeff DelViscio. This episode was co-hosted by Rachel Feltman. Our show is edited by Alex Sugiura with fact-checking by Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck. The theme music was composed by Dominic Smith.

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Do Mitochondria Talk to Each Other? A New Look at the Cell’s Powerhouse May 21, 2025

Show notes

Mitochondria are known as the powerhouse of the cell—but new research suggests they might be far more complex. Columbia University’s Martin Picard joins Scientific American’s Rachel Feltman to explore how these tiny organelles could be communicating and what that might mean for everything from metabolism to mental health.

Check out Martin Picard’s full article in the June issue of Scientific American.

Tell us what you think! Take our survey for the chance to win some SciAm swag!

E-mail 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, Fonda Mwangi, Kelso Harper, Naeem Amarsy and Jeff DelViscio. This episode was edited by Alex Sugiura, with fact-checking by Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck. Our theme music was composed by Dominic Smith.

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How to Make Gold, Flamingo Food Tornado, and Kosmos-482 Lands May 19, 2025

Show notes

Soviet-era spacecraft Kosmos-482 lands, though no one is certain where. Physicists turn lead into gold. Overdose deaths are down, in part thanks to the availability of naloxone. Flamingos make underwater food tornadoes. Chimps use leaves as a multi-tool.

Recommended reading:

A New, Deadly Era of Space Junk Is Dawning, and No One Is Ready https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/spacex-dropped-space-junk-on-my-neighbors-farm-heres-what-happened-next/

Physicists Turn Lead into Gold—For a Fraction of a Second https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/large-hadron-collider-physicists-turn-lead-into-gold-for-a-fraction-of-a/

Overdose Deaths Are Finally Starting to Decline. Here’s Why. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/overdose-deaths-are-finally-starting-to-decline-heres-why/

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, Naeem Amarsy and Jeff DelViscio. This episode was hosted by associate mind and brain editor Allison Parshall. Our show is edited by Alex Sugiura with fact-checking by Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck. The theme music was composed by Dominic Smith.

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Could Freezing Arctic Sea Ice Combat Climate Change? May 16, 2025

Show notes

The year-round sea ice in the Arctic is melting and has shrunk by nearly 40 percent over the past four decades. Geoengineering companies such as Real Ice are betting big on refreezing it. That may sound ridiculous, impractical or risky—but proponents say we have to try. The U.K. government seems to agree, investing millions into experimental approaches such as Real Ice’s. Pulitzer Center Ocean Reporting Fellow Alec Luhn is taking us with him to the Arctic to see what it takes to freeze sea ice in the already freezing cold.

Recommended reading:

Read Luhn’s feature in the June 2025 issue of SciAm, which will be released on May 20:

https://www.scientificamerican.com/author/alec-luhn/

Follow Luhn on Instagram @alecluhn_ and BlueSky @alecluhn.bsky.social

U.K. Funds Geoengineering Experiments as Global Controversy Grows https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/u-k-funds-geoengineering-experiments-as-global-controversy-grows/

Geoengineering Wins Reluctant Interest from Scientists as Earth’s Climate Unravels

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/geoengineering-wins-reluctant-interest-from-scientists-as-earths-climate/

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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.

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How a West Texas Outbreak Threatens Measles Elimination Status May 14, 2025

Show notes

Measles was technically “eliminated” in the U.S. in 2000 thanks to high measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccination rates. While prior outbreaks have made headlines, a slew of cases in West Texas is more than just newsworthy—it could cause the U.S. to lose elimination status. Associate health and medicine editor Lauren Young explains what elimination means, why measles cases are rising and how to prevent further transmission.

Recommended reading:

Measles Was ‘Eliminated’ in the U.S. in 2000. The Current Outbreak May Change That

Five Reasons Measles Outbreaks Are Worse Than You Think—And Why Vaccination Matters

How to Check If You’re Immune to Measles

Tell us what you think! Take our survey for the chance to win some SciAm swag!

http://sciencequickly.com/survey

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, Naeem Amarsy and Jeff DelViscio. This episode was hosted by Rachel Feltman with guest Lauren Young. Our show is edited by Alex Sugiura 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

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