Emily Kwong

And how dirty diapers train parents in the art of disgust.

Oh, interesting.

I can't wait.

All of that on this episode of Shortwave, the science podcast from NPR.

What's going on with these guys?

So a new study in the Journal of Animal Ecology found that they're breeding earlier than ever in the Antarctic spring.

Adelie and chinstrap penguins are breeding an average of 10 days earlier and Gentoo penguins almost two weeks earlier.

Over the decade, the researchers observed them.

Wait, so what's causing the shift?

So penguins time their breeding period to environmental conditions like temperature outside or whether there's ice on the ground or what food is available.

And with climate change, the Antarctic Peninsula is one of the fastest warming areas of the world.

And that could be a driver.

Yeah.

So one of the study's authors, Tom Hart, says they set up 77 cameras across 37 penguin colonies and each camera took photos every hour for a decade.

Well, Tom says that's something they're trying to figure out for future work.

Some penguins might thrive.

For example, the Gentoo penguins are suited for warmer climates and eat a wider variety of fish.

So it seems that Gentoo's are doing better than the other species, which could struggle with warmer temperatures.

And there might be an answer now, published in the Journal of Chemical Physics this week.

Luis González McDowell, a chemist at Complutense University of Madrid, looked at research all the way back to the 1930s to address this debate.