60-second Science

As people live longer and family sizes shrink, fewer relatives are available to share the burden of caregiving for aging loved ones. The second episode of our two-part miniseries on caregiving explores what this means for the family members who take on this critical role. How do they provide the best care while also maintaining their own well-being? To hear firsthand how caregivers are navigating this challenge, Lauren Young and Tanya Lewis, Scientific American’s respective associate and senior editors of health and medicine, visited a support center in Queens, N.Y. Young shares some of the stories they gathered from the community there. Listen to part one of this series. This episode is part of “Health Equity Heroes,” an editorially independent special project that was produced with financial support from Takeda Pharmaceuticals. Recommended reading: Shrinking Family Sizes May Change Our Experience with Aging E-mail us at sciencequickly@sciam.com if you have any questions, comments or ideas for stories we sho

Discrimination may be speeding up the aging process for people of color and other minoritized groups. Research is revealing that structural and interpersonal racism could be key factors in why these communities often age faster and face age-related diseases sooner. Alexis Reeves, a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University, studies how racism affects aging, with a focus on early menopause. In a conversation with Science Quickly host Rachel Feltman, Reeves discusses how traditional research methods might be overlooking these critical disparities. This episode is part of “Health Equity Heroes,” an editorially independent special project that was produced with financial support from Takeda Pharmaceuticals. Recommended reading: Discrimination May Hasten Menopause in Black and Hispanic Women How Racism in Early Life Can Affect Long-Term Health “Systematic Exclusion at Study Commencement Masks Earlier Menopause for Black Women in the Study of Women’s Health across the Nation (SWAN),” by Alexis Reeves et al.,

In this first episode of a two-part miniseries on caregiving, Tanya Lewis, Scientific American’s senior editor of health and medicine, shares her personal experience with becoming a caregiver for her mother after her mom was diagnosed with a serious illness. Her journey inspired her to explore the broader challenges faced by caregivers. Lewis and her colleague Lauren J. Young, SciAm’s associate editor of health and medicine, reached out to listeners and investigated the stresses of caregiving, uncovering common experiences and insights. Lewis joins host Rachel Feltman to delve into the scope of the caregiving crisis. This episode is part of “Health Equity Heroes,” an editorially independent special project that was produced with financial support from Takeda Pharmaceuticals. 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 prod

Marc Hachadourian, senior curator of orchids and director of glasshouse horticulture at the New York Botanical Garden, joins host Rachel Feltman to explore houseplant trends from the past and the present. Plus, they discuss how ethically sourcing your plants can prevent fad-driven overcollection. Listen to the New York Botanical Garden’s new podcast Plant People. 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 Marc Hachadourian, senior curator of orchids and director of glasshouse horticulture at the New York Botanical Garden. Our show is edited by Jeff DelViscio and Fonda Mwangi with fact-checking by Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck. The theme music was composed b

NASA’s Perseverance rover cautiously climbs Jezero Crater on Mars in search of new discoveries. We also explore recent revelations about the Red Planet’s hidden water reserves and puzzling sulfur findings. On the health front, a new device, described as an implant that acts like a pacemaker for the brain, shows promise for Parkinson’s treatment by reducing symptoms more effectively than conventional methods. Plus, we discuss a concerning side effect of the popular weight-loss drug semaglutide, fears of a polio outbreak in Gaza and the latest on mpox, which the World Health Organization declared a global health emergency earlier this month. Recommended Reading:  Mars Hides Colossal Ocean Deep Below Its Surface People Are Overdosing on Semaglutide Drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy Mpox Is a Global Health Emergency. Here’s What We Know 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

The Democratic presidential ticket has literally diverse voices. While Vice President Kamala Harris’s speech is influenced by her Californian origins, the way Minnesota governor Tim Walz talks reflects his roots in Nebraska. In our podcast, linguist Nicole Holliday expands on her viral TikTok analyses of Harris’s speech patterns and the ideological stereotypes we attach to pronunciation and intonation.  Recommended reading: Watch one of Holliday’s viral TikToks Bilingualism Is Reworking This Language’s Rainbow  Grammar Changes How We See, an Australian Language Shows  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. Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck fact-check our show. Our theme music was composed by Dominic Smith. 

Polymetallic nodules litter a stretch of ocean between Mexico and Hawaii. They contain metals, such as manganese and cobalt, that mining companies want to use for battery production. Researchers recently found that these seafloor blobs might make their own oxygen—and no one knows exactly how. Scientific American’s associate news editor Allison Parshall explains the hype behind this “dark oxygen.” Recommended reading: ‘Dark Oxygen’ Discovered Coming from Mineral Deposits on Deep Seafloor https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/dark-oxygen-discovered-coming-from-mineral-deposits-on-deep-seafloor/ Earth’s Coral Reefs Face a New, Deadly Mass Bleaching. They Can Still Be Saved https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/earths-coral-reefs-face-a-new-deadly-mass-bleaching-they-can-still-be-saved/  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

Doris Tsao is the 2024 recipient of The Kavli Prize in Neuroscience for her research on facial recognition. Her work has provided insights into the complex workings of the brain and has the potential to advance our understanding of perception and cognition. This podcast was produced for The Kavli Prize by Scientific American Custom Media, a division separate from the magazines board of editors. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

James Cameron is known for his ambitious filmmaking. His newest project is a six-part National Geographic miniseries that goes beneath the waves with the crew of the OceanXplorer. Cameron joins Science Quickly host Rachel Feltman to talk about the origins of his fascination with the ocean and the importance of seeing scientists at work. Recommended reading: Mysterious Galápagos Reefs Harbor Strawberry Squid and Other Fantastic Creatures https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/mysterious-galapagos-reefs-harbor-strawberry-squid-and-other-fantastic-creatures1/  Healthy Coral Reefs Sound like a Symphony https://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode/this-is-how-a-healthy-coral-reef-sounds-and-why-it-matters/  Earth’s Coral Reefs Face a New, Deadly Mass Bleaching. They Can Still Be Saved https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/earths-coral-reefs-face-a-new-deadly-mass-bleaching-they-can-still-be-saved/  E-mail us at sciencequickly@sciam.com if you have any questions, comments or ideas for stories we s

When the hit podcast Science Vs went to find the facts about the “male G-spot,” it was faced with remarkably little research to draw from. So the team collaborated with academics on one of the largest surveys about anal sex and masturbation. We discuss what they learned, on this episode of Science Quickly with Rachel Feltman and special guest Wendy Zukerman of Science Vs.  Recommended reading: Mind-Blowing Orgasms: Does the Male G-Spot Exist?  How to Explore Your Sexuality, according to Science   Asexuality Research Has Reached New Heights. What Are We Learning?  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 Wendy Zukerman, host of Science Vs. Our show is edi

Debris from satellites, rockets and other space infrastructure are crowding low-Earth orbit. Occasionally, that space junk crashes down to Earth. For Samantha Lawler, an associate professor of astronomy at the University of Regina in Saskatchewan, such debris was mostly a theoretical nuisance. Then a nearby farmer found remnants of a SpaceX craft on his land, and Lawler was pulled into the murky legal landscape around space junk in the skies and on the ground. Recommended reading:  SpaceX Dropped Space Junk on My Neighbor’s Farm. Here’s What Happened Next  Space Junk Is Polluting Earth’s Stratosphere with Vaporized Metal  Space Trash Threatens the Global Economy 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. Th

The 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris came to a close on Sunday—and swimmers swam the Seine as promised. The two astronauts sent to the International Space Station on a Boeing Starliner craft in June are still in limbo, with no set return flight. The EPA is acting quickly to suspend sales of products that contain the pesticide dimethyl tetrachloroterephthalate over safety concerns. Plus, we discuss a new theory of how the pyramids were built (and no, it doesn’t involve aliens). Recommended reading: Cleaning Up Paris’s Poop River for the Olympics  https://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode/cleaning-up-the-poop-polluted-seine-for-the-paris-olympics/  Lost Branch of the Nile May Solve Long-Standing Mystery of Egypt’s Famed Pyramids https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/egypts-famed-pyramids-overlooked-a-long-lost-branch-of-the-nile/  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

Content warning: This episode focuses in part on the archaeological study of ancient human sacrifice, including incidents involving young children. While we have taken care not to include gratuitous descriptions of violence, this episode does contain frank discussion of the circumstances of these deaths and the nature of these individuals’ remains. In the final episode of our three-part series on unusual archaeology, science journalist Kata Karáth takes you on one more adventure—to a mountaintop with an extreme climate, where archaeologists investigate the practice of human sacrifice among the Inka. Listen to the first two episodes of this series exploring humanity’s past: — Sustainable Fishing with Ancient Chambers and Ocean Tides — How Ancient Humans Interpreted the Cosmos 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.  Sc

Host Rachel Feltman is joined by conservation bioacoustics researcher Isla Keesje Davidson to explore the vibrant world of coral reefs through an unexpected lens: sound. They discuss how healthy coral reefs sound different from those in distress, why listening to the ocean could be key to its preservation and how you can be part of this groundbreaking research. Recommended reading:  — Earth’s Coral Reefs Face a New, Deadly Mass Bleaching. They Can Still Be Saved — We Can Save Earth’s Coral Reefs 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, Fonda Mwangi, Kelso Harper, Madison Goldberg and Jeff DelViscio. This episode was hosted by Rachel Feltman, featuring guest Isla Keesje Davidson. Our show is fact-checked by Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck. The theme music was composed by Dominic Smith. Le

The American Cancer Society published a study suggesting that for 8 or 34 cancers tracked, case rates are rising from one generation to the next. While headlines often point to sedentary lifestyles and higher weights as a possible cause, some experts say that these factors alone cannot explain the spike. In more hopeful oncology news, there’s a new blood test for colorectal cancer–though it doesn’t replace the importance of colonoscopies.  SpaceX is delaying their attempt at the first-ever private spacewalk—billionaire Jared Isaacman will have to wait. And on the ground, move over hardwood and softwood—two surviving species of the Liriodendron genus point to a new categorization of midwood. Recommended reading: Gen X Faces Higher Cancer Rates Than Any Previous Generation  Why We’ll Never Live in Space  E-mail us at sciencequickly@sciam.com if you have any questions, comments or ideas for stories we should cover! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Gazing up at the night sky is a universal human experience, likely as old as our species itself. But how did our ancient ancestors feel about what they saw in the heavens, and how did it shape their lives? In Episode Two of our three-part Fascination miniseries on unusual archaeology, science journalist Kata Karáth introduces us to archaeoastronomy—the study of how people in the past experienced and explained the phenomena of the cosmos. Listen to the first episode of this series: “Sustainable Fishing with Ancient Chambers and Ocean Tides” 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 Jeff DelViscio, Fonda Mwangi, Kelso Harper, Madison Goldberg and Rachel Feltman. This episode was reported and hosted by Kata Karáth. Special thanks to Saara Alakorva and Camilla Brattland for their assistance wi

Sex testing has a long history in sports. As participation in events like the Olympics opened to women, organizers and audiences alike began questioning the sex of the athletes. The tests devised to “prove” an athlete’s sex have been invasive and inaccurate. Rose Eveleth, host of the NPR and CBC podcast Tested, brings us the story of sex testing and where the science stands. Listen to Tested: https://link.chtbl.com/zQEKpQCE Read Olympic coverage from Scientific American: Is Technology in the Olympics a Form of Doping or a Reality of Modern Sport? https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-technology-in-the-olympics-a-form-of-doping-or-a-reality-of-modern-sport/ For Olympic Athletes, First Come the Games—Then Come the Post-Olympics Blues https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/for-olympic-athletes-first-come-the-games-then-come-the-post-olympics-blues/ 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: su

It’s a scorching summer, with record-breaking temperatures last Monday. Rain really is harder to predict, and greenhouse gasses are probably to blame. Polio is circulating in Gaza’s wastewater and could spread as conflict leads to crowding, poor sanitation and missing routine vaccinations. Plus, we discuss a shocking price for a promising HIV vaccine, cocaine sharks and komodo dragons with iron-tipped teeth.  Recommended reading: Sharks in Brazil Test Positive for a Surprising Contaminant: Cocaine  Komodo Dragons’ Nightmare Iron-Tipped Teeth Are a Reptilian First  Why Extreme Heat Is So Deadly  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. This show was edited by Je

Fish trapping is an ancient practice, reaching across the globe from at least as far back as 11,000 years ago. It takes advantage of coastal tides and human-made chambers to catch and release fish. The simple but ingenious ancient fishing structures are built on two intertwining principles: the ocean can provide for us if we properly care for it. Archaeologists are mapping the possible locations of ancient traps. And on Penghu, a group of islands off of Taiwan, people are reviving the traditional tidal weirs, hoping to promote sustainable fishing and attract ecotourism.  Stay tuned for more from science journalist Kata Karáth in part two of our three-part Fascination series on unusual archaeology. Recommended reading: – Oldest Deep-Sea Shipwreck Is a ‘Time Capsule’ from the Bronze Age – The Oldest-Wine-in-the-World Title Goes to a 2,000-Year-Old White Found in Southwestern Spain E-mail us at sciencequickly@sciam.com if you have any questions, comments or ideas for stories we should cover! Discover something n

Meditation is mostly mainstream, with many people using mindfulness to manage stress. But dedicated practitioners of advanced meditation move beyond mindfulness into a state where consciousness “entirely falls away.” That’s according to today’s guest: Matthew Sacchet, an associate professor and director of the Meditation Research Program at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital. Sacchet tells host Rachel Feltman about his journey from youthful meditator to neuroscience researcher. Plus, they discuss what meditation and psychedelic experiences are unlocking for consciousness researchers. Recommended reading: Read a feature co-authored by Sacchet in the July issue of SciAm  And see our June issue feature on the neuroscience of near-death experiences 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