Science Quickly

Nature’s Sexual Spectrum Breaks the Binary

20 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Biologist Nathan Lents joins Science Quickly to explore the vast sexual diversity found across the animal kingdom. His new book, The Sexual Evolution:...

Chikungunya Outbreak, Glacial Outbursts and a New Human Ancestor

18 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The chikungunya virus is rapidly spreading in China. Could it make its way to the U.S.? Meanwhile in Alaska a glacial lake outburst flooded the nearby...

Dinner with King Tut Explores the Wild World of Experimental Archaeology

15 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Science writer Sam Kean joins Science Quickly to explore the hands-on world of experimental archaeology—where researchers don’t just study the pas...

Living Longer, Aging Smarter [Sponsored]

14 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Life expectancy has risen dramatically since 1900, reshaping how we understand aging. Scientists now view skin not just as a surface indicator, but as...

Condoms and Vasectomies Aren’t Enough—Is a Male Birth Control Pill Next?

13 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode, host Rachel Feltman speaks with freelance science journalist Hannah Seo about a promising new development in male contraception: a ho...

Cosmic Discoveries Soar as Earthly Health Decisions Stir Alarm

11 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Rogue planets drifting through space might be forming their own planetary systems. NASA’s Europa Clipper mission has completed a key radar test ahea...

Climate Science Gets a Seat in Congress with Eric Sorensen

08 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Representative Eric Sorensen of Illinois brings his background as a meteorologist to the halls of Congress, advocating for science-based policy amid i...

Former NASA Leaders Are Sounding the Alarm on Budget Cuts

06 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The White House has proposed sharp cuts to NASA’s science budget, potentially reducing it to historic lows not seen since the early Apollo era. Beyo...

Russia’s Earthquake, Wonders of Walking and Surprising Plant Genetics

04 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Host Rachel Feltman talks with Andrea Thompson, Scientific American’s senior sustainability editor, to discuss the massive Russian earthquake and th...

Is AI Conscious? Claude 4 Raises the Question

01 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Host Rachel Feltman talks with Deni Ellis Béchard, Scientific American’s senior tech reporter, about his recent exchange with Claude 4, an artifici...

Your Guide to Summer’s Extreme Weather, from Corn Sweat to Flash Floods

30 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The summer of 2025 has been a doozy in the U.S., with extreme weather across the country. Flash flooding caused destruction and death in Texas. Corn s...

Summer Meteor Showers, Short Summer Days and Ancient Arthropods

28 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

If last Tuesday seemed to fly by, you can blame the rotation of Earth. Try to look up this week to see the Southern Delta Aquariids and the Alpha Capr...

Greenland’s Ice Sheet Is at Risk—And So Are We

25 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Chief multimedia editor Jeffery DelViscio ventured to Greenland for a month to learn from the scientists studying the country’s ice sheet. He speaks...

What to Read on the Beach This Summer

23 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Scientific American has been reading, reviewing and recommending books for more than 100 years. These days Brianne Kane, our resident reader, is in ch...

Time Travel to Tide Pool 101 from Our July 1925 Issue

21 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Time travel to an introduction to tide pools, the start of commercial air travel and an intercontinental aviation museum dispute. Host Rachel Feltman ...

Dungeons and Dragons’ Popularity Grows—And Science Follows

18 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Brennan Lee Mulligan is a professional dungeon master, playing Dungeons and Dragons (D&D), a popular tabletop role-playing game, for audiences online ...

The LIGO Lab Is Pushing the Boundaries of Gravitational-Wave Research

16 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Come with Science Quickly on a field trip to the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Tech...

This Surgery Can Lead to Weight Loss—But Stigma Is Harder to Shake Off

14 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Each year more than half a million people undergo bariatric surgery, a procedure geared toward weight loss. But research shows that stigma around weig...

Why Do We Sing? Musicologists and Neuroscientists Seek an Answer

11 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Last year Science Quickly looked across disciplines to piece apart the science of singing. To understand why humans sing, musicologists collaborated o...

What Does an Ailing Coral Reef Sound Like?

09 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Sick coral reefs are visually striking—bleached and lifeless, far from the vibrancy we’ve come to expect. But what does an unhealthy coral system ...

An Astronaut Shares His Passion for Space Photography—Live, from the ISS Cupola

07 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Ten months ago Science Quickly made space history by conducting the first-ever live interview from the cupola of the International Space Station (ISS)...

Move Over Fireworks—Drone Shows Are Taking to the Skies

02 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Drone shows are replacing fireworks for summer celebrations. They’re safer and more environmentally friendly but complicated to program and run. A r...

Talking to the Host of Drilled about the Legal Battles around Standing Rock

30 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Protests around the construction of the now complete Dakota Access Pipeline brought national attention to Energy Transfer, the company that built and ...

How to Fight Bird Flu If It Becomes the Next Human Pandemic (Part 3)

27 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Creating a bird flu vaccine requires several layers of bioprotective clothing and typically a whole lot of eggs. H5N1 avian influenza infections have ...

Bird Flu’s Jump to Cattle Took Dairy Farmers by Surprise (Part 2)

25 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Dairy cattle have become an intermediary between avian influenza found in wild birds and the handful of recorded H5N1 bird flu cases in humans. Senior...

How Bird Flu Went from an Isolated Avian Illness to a Human Pandemic Threat (Part 1)

23 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Bird flu outbreaks in poultry and cattle have caused concern for public health officials. There have been few reported cases of human transmission, bu...

What No One Tells You about Testosterone Replacement Therapy

20 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) is exploding in popularity among men. TRT has been touted online as a cure-all for everything from low energy t...

Why Your Gut Loves a Good Workout

18 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Host Rachel Feltman explores the surprising connection between exercise and the gut microbiome with Scientific American contributing editor Lydia Denw...

CDC Vaccine Panel Fired by RFK, Jr., Oceans Grow More Acidic, and Pangolins Threatened by Hunting

16 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., has fired the experts on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine advisory panel, sparking concern among pub...

These Adorable Hamster Dads Take Fatherhood Seriously

13 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Most mammalian dads are pretty absent from their offspring’s lives. That sets the Djungarian hamster apart from its fellow fathers. These hamster da...

What ‘Immortal’ Jellyfish and Famously Old Tortoises Tell Us about Aging

11 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Animals’ lifespans can be far shorter or much longer than those of humans. Scientists are researching creatures such as “immortal” jellyfish and...

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

09 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

New simulations suggest the Milky Way’s long-predicted collision with Andromeda might be less of a cosmic certainty than we thought. A massive marin...

Is the National Weather Service Ready for an Extreme Summer?

06 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The dedicated staff of the National Weather Service are responsible for the data that underpin your weather forecast and emergency alerts. DOGE Servic...

Megalodon Diets, Teeth Sensitivity and a Bunch of Vaccine News

02 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The measles outbreak in West Texas is slowing. Health officials think an increase in vaccination rates contributed to the slowdown, but Texas lawmaker...

Are You Flourishing? This Global Study Has Surprising Takeaways

30 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Are you flourishing? It’s a more understated metric than happiness, but it can provide a multidimensional assessment of our quality of life. Victor ...

Diagnosing Male Infertility with a Mechanical Engineering Twist

28 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Male infertility is undercovered and underdiscussed. If a couple is struggling to conceive, there’s a 50–50 chance that sperm health is a contribu...

Could We Speak to Dolphins? A Promising LLM Makes That a Possibility

23 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Dolphins have a broad vocabulary. They vocalize with whistles, clicks and “burst pulses.”This varied communication makes it challenging for scient...

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

21 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Mitochondria are known as the powerhouse of the cell—but new research suggests they might be far more complex. Columbia University’s Martin Picard...

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

19 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 th...

Could Freezing Arctic Sea Ice Combat Climate Change?

16 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 ...

How a West Texas Outbreak Threatens Measles Elimination Status

14 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Measles was technically “eliminated” in the U.S. in 2000 thanks to high measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccination rates. While prior outbreaks ...

Sinking Cities, Waving Cuttlefish and Falling Spacecraft

12 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A 1970s Soviet spacecraft is hurtling down from space—and no one knows where it will land. All 28 of the most populous cities in the U.S. are slowly...

This Podcast Was Recorded Inside a Particle Collider

09 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

We’re taking a field trip to the U.S.’s only particle collider, the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), housed at Brookhaven National Laborato...

Rejecting Toxic Fitness Culture with Casey Johnston

07 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Casey Johnston is not your typical health and fitness influencer. She joins host Rachel Feltman to discuss how finding joy in strength training change...

Jupiter’s Cyclones, Amazon’s Satellites and T. rex Collagen

05 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The congressionally mandated National Climate Assessment grinds to a halt. Amazon launches its first round of Internet satellites. The European Space ...

The Fungi Facing Extinction and the Conservationists Working Hard to Protect Them

02 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Conservationists are ringing the alarm about the fungi facing extinction. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List features ...

Griefbots Offer AI Connections with Deceased Loved Ones

30 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Griefbots, artificial intelligence chatbots that mimic deceased loved ones, are increasingly in popularity. Researcher Katarzyna Nowaczyk-Basińska re...

Scientific American in 1925: Solar Eclipses, Seances and Some Strange Inventions

28 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

We’re taking a break from our usual weekly news roundup to do a little time travel. In 1925 Scientific American covered a total solar eclipse that f...

How to Become an Urban Naturalist

25 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Wild NYC author Ryan Mandelbaum takes host Rachel Feltman through New York City’s Prospect Park to find urban wildlife. They explore the city’s ma...

Our Fear and Fascination around Snakes

23 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

When writer Stephen S. Hall was a child, he would capture snakes—much to his mother’s chagrin. Now the science journalist is returning to his earl...

Childhood Illnesses Surge, Magnetic Poles Wandered, and a Colossal Squid Is Found

21 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Measles cases are going up—and a federal scientist has warned that case counts have probably been underreported. Another vaccine-preventable illness...

From the Internet’s Beginnings to Our Understanding of Consciousness, This Editor Has Seen It All

18 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Senior mind and brain editor Gary Stix has covered the breadth of science and technology over the past 35 years at Scientific American. He joins host ...

A Disinfectant That’s More Powerful Than Bleach—And Safe for Your Skin

16 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Hypochlorous acid is a promising disinfectant that is difficult to commercialize because it is not very shelf-stable. Senior features editor Jen Schwa...

A Long Day on Uranus, a Better Method of Making Coffee and Dinos Fossils in Decline

14 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Caffeine-motivated researchers find that pour height may be the key to a perfect cup of coffee. A new study of plastics finds that less than 10 percen...

How Are Prenatal Blood Tests Detecting Cancer?

11 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Noninvasive prenatal blood testing, or NIPT, is a routine screening that is offered during pregnancy and looks for placental DNA to diagnose chromosom...

Treating Bacterial Vaginosis as an STI Could Improve Outcomes

09 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Bacterial vaginosis (BV), an overgrowth of pathogenic bacteria in the vagina, affects nearly one in three people with a vagina. While you can get BV w...

How the Science of Safety Helps Tackle Global Risks [Sponsored]

08 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

We're surrounded by risks of all sizes, every day. Some people might be risk-takers, while others do whatever they can to avoid them. But how can we t...

Yodeling Monkeys, Increasing Measles Cases and Stressed Out Americans

07 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The Trump administration continues to make cuts to U.S. science and health agencies. Now some states are fighting back, suing the Department of Health...

Cutting USAID Threatens Public Health around the World

04 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The U.S. Department of State recently announced plans to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID. While some of USAID’s fu...

Understanding the Science of ‘Squirting’

02 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The human body is capable of some truly incredible things. One of the most mysterious and debated phenomena is a release of fluid during sex that is o...

Shark Sounds, Molecules on Mars and Continued Federal Cuts

31 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Long-chain alkanes discovered by NASA’s Curiosity rover point to the possibility that there may have been fatty acids on Mars—and that they could ...

Go Inside M.I.T.'s 50,000 Square Foot Clean Room

28 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The cutting edge of research is very small—and very clean. In this episode, host Rachel Feltman joins Vladimir Bulović, director of MIT.nano, on a ...

Are These Plants Out of Place? A New Look at Invasive Species

26 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

When you hear “invasive plant,” you might picture an aggressive species taking over and harming the environment. But what if the way we think abou...

NASA Astronauts Finally Return, Seals Hold Their Breath, and Penguin Poop Stresses Out Krill

24 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Two NASA astronauts are finally back on Earth after an unexpected nine-month stay in space. What kept them up there so long? Meanwhile scientists have...

Severance’s Consulting Neurosurgeon Explains the Science behind the Show’s Brain Procedure

21 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

What if you could completely separate your work and personal life—with the help of a brain implant? That’s the unsettling premise of Severance, th...

What Everyone Gets Wrong about Colonoscopies

19 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Colonoscopy gets a bad rap, but how much of what you’ve heard is actually true? In recognition of Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month, we’re tacklin...

NASA Launches New Missions, Saturn Gains Some Moons, and Whale Urine Balances Marine Ecosystems

17 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The new Environmental Protection Agency administrator plans to get rid of or weaken critical environmental rules and policies, such as regulations aro...

Movie Magic Meets Practical Robotics for Netflix’s The Electric State

14 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Dennis Hong, a mechanical and aerospace engineering professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, discovered a love of robots at an early ag...

A Tuberculosis Outbreak Exposes U.S. Postpandemic Vulnerabilities

12 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

It’s been five years since COVID was declared a global pandemic. Local, national and global public health agencies mobilized to contain the spread o...

Measles Misinformation, Ozone Recovery and Woolly Mice

10 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

With measles cases on the rise, experts are pushing back against misleading claims about vitamin A as a substitute for vaccination. A Supreme Court ru...

Author John Green on How Tuberculosis Shaped Our Modern World

07 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

John Green is an author, advocate and one half of the Vlogbrothers. His latest book, Everything Is Tuberculosis, comes out on March 18. Green joins ho...

Must Be Microplastics on the Brain

05 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Not much passes into our brain from the rest of our body, to the chagrin of drug makers everywhere. So it should be cause for concern when a study fou...

How Did a Volcano Turn a Brain to Glass? Plus, Measles, Mystery Illness and Microbes

03 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Officials have confirmed the first measles death in an outbreak in West Texas. A meeting to discuss which strains to focus on for next year’s flu va...

Why Do Songs Get Stuck in Your Head?

28 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Have you ever had a song continue to loop in your brain no matter how hard you tried to shake it? These “earworms” are more than just an annoyance...

Saying Farewell to the Spacecraft That Mapped the Milky Way

26 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The Gaia spacecraft stopped collecting data this January after about 11 years and more than three trillion observations. Senior space and physics edit...

Measles Outbreaks, Asteroid Risks and Fish Friends

24 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The black hole at the center of our galaxy is emitting near-constant, random light. The European Space Agency has approved astronaut candidate John Mc...

Where Did Curly Hair Come From? Biological Anthropology May Provide Insights

21 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

It’s fairly strange that humans, unlike many other mammals, don’t have hair all over. Our lack of body hair and wide geographic distribution led t...

Exploring the Hidden Life in the Air around Us with Carl Zimmer

19 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Scientists now agree that COVID spreads via airborne transmission. But during the early days of the disease, public health officials suggested that it...

Valentine’s Day Isn’t Just for Romance—The Science of Deep Friendships

14 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Love isn’t just about romance. This Valentine’s Day, we’re exploring the power of deep nonromantic bonds. Host Rachel Feltman sits down with Rha...

An Asteroid May Hit Earth in 2032. What Can We Do about It?

12 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The European Space Agency recently announced that the near-Earth asteroid 2024 YR4 has a 2 percent chance of hitting our planet in 2032. The probabili...

Microplastics on the Mind, Superstrong Shrimp and Bird Flu Transmission

10 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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...

Trump’s Executive Orders Create Confusion for Researchers

07 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The first few weeks of the Trump administration have been marked by chaos and confusion for the nation’s health and science agencies. A funding free...

Avoiding Outrage Fatigue in Overwhelming Times

05 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

It’s almost impossible not to feel outraged these days. But overexposure to information that makes us angry can wear us down. Senior health and medi...

Tuberculosis Outbreak, RFK, Jr.’s Confirmation Hearings and Polar Bear Hair

03 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This week we’re recapping Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s confirmation hearings. Highly pathogenic H5N9, a strain of bird flu, was found in U.S. poultry....

Are You Tired of Feeling Cynical? Hopeful Skepticism Could Be a Way Out

31 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

It’s easy to be cynical about the state of the world—even when you’re a researcher who studies empathy and kindness. Stanford University psychol...

Science Will Stare Directly Into the Sun--And Love It

29 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The sun is in the middle of its solar maximum, the part of its 11-year solar cycle that was responsible for the stunning auroras seen across the globe...

WHO Withdrawal, Bird Flu Updates and a Link between Fitness and Treatment Outcomes

27 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Executive orders that impact science and health in the U.S. came quickly after the inauguration of President Donald Trump. Tanya Lewis, senior editor ...

Combatting Climate Anxiety through Community Science

24 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed with the news these days and to fear for the future. What if you could interrupt doomscrolling and contribute to conse...

What the End of U.S. Net Neutrality Means For You

22 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Net neutrality, the principle that all Internet traffic should be treated equally, was heralded by the Federal Communications Commission and open Inte...

The Health Risks of Alcohol, a Red Dye Ban and Commercial Space Flights

20 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A report that was recently released by the Department of Health and Human Services highlights the risks of drinking alcohol, even moderately. The Food...

Do Pain and Joy Have a Universal Language?

17 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Ouch! Ah! Aïe! The words we use when we stub our toe or receive a pinch may point to a common way to express pain across languages. Associate news ed...

How the U.S. Mishandled the Early Days of Bird Flu

15 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

H5N1 avian influenza has now reached almost 1,000 herds of dairy cattle in 16 states and has infected around 66 people, many of them agricultural work...

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

13 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Norovirus cases are up this year, with 91 reported outbreaks nationwide. Human metapneumovirus (HMPV) cases are up in China and India. There has also ...

Finding Pluto’s Potential Replacement with a Giant New Telescope

10 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 t...

Going Outside Can Change Our Hormones and Improve Microbiome Diversity

08 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Going outside has many benefits, from positively affecting our nervous system to diversifying our microbiome. But you don’t need a forest preserve t...

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

23 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

2024 brought heat waves and hurricanes, bird flu and breakthroughs, and an overwhelming amount of progress in AI. Science Quickly host Rachel Feltman ...

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

20 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Tens of thousands of animal species are facing extinction, mostly because of human activity. But thanks to conservationists, there are some animals th...

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

18 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Ashleigh Papp, an animal scientist turned storyteller, shifts our perspective on the modern conservationist. With low wages and expectations of free w...

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

16 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Ashleigh Papp, an animal scientist turned storyteller, takes us on into the field. Conservationists and animal behaviorists were once restricted to wi...

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

13 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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...