Science Quickly

Donald Trump has nominated RFK, Jr., to run the Department of Health and Human Services, a position that includes oversight of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health. Senior health and medicine editor Tanya Lewis explains what that would mean for antivaccine policies, food safety and unproven therapies that Kennedy backs. Tobacco use is down across the U.S., but the drop has been uneven across groups. Astronomers have released the first-ever close up image of a star—and scientists are excited over an unexpected ring. Plus, studies of chimpanzees explore the role of social contagion on their behaviors and point to play in adult chimps.Recommended reading:RFK, Jr., Is a Bad Prescription for U.S. Public Health | Opinion Chimps Share Knowledge like Humans Do, Spurring Innovation 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 senior health and medicine editor Tanya Lewis. Our show is edited by 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

Writings and records are how we understand long-gone civilizations without being able to interact with ancient peoples. A recent opinion paper suggested we could feed chatbots writings from the past to simulate ancient participants for social psychology studies. Similar survey experiments with modern participant data closely matched the outcomes of the real people they were based on. We speak with the opinion paper’s co-author Michael Varnum, an associate professor at Arizona State University, about what the limits of this spooky proposal are and what the ghosts of cultures past could teach us today. Recommended reading:“Large Language Models Based on Historical Text Could Offer Informative Tools for Behavioral Science,” by Michael E. W. Varnum et al., in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, Vol. 121, No. 42, Article No.  e2407639121; October 9, 2024https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2407639121 Inside the AI Competition That Decoded an Ancient Herculaneum Scrollhttps://www.scientificamerican.com/article/inside-the-ai-competition-that-decoded-an-ancient-scroll-and-changed/ 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. Our show is edited by Jeff DelViscio 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

Disparities in health are not indicated by adverse outcomes alone. Adriana Corredor-Waldron, an assistant professor of economics at NC State University, sought to understand why Black infants are more likely to be delivered by C-section than white infants. A working paper she co-authored found that the elevated number of low-risk Black pregnant people who were given C-section surgeries in New Jersey from 2008 to 2017 was likely caused by physician discretion. Corredor-Waldron explains why unnecessary C-sections can be risky and what medical education and financial incentives could do to close the gap. Recommended viewing:What Is Implicit Bias, and How Might It Affect Your Next Medical Visit? https://www.scientificamerican.com/video/what-is-implicit-bias-and-how-might-it-affect-your-next-medical-visit/ 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 Adriana Corredor-WaldronOur show is edited by Jeff DelViscio 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

A wildfire in Brooklyn, N.Y.’s Prospect Park was in part linked to drought conditions nationally. Plastic waste is set to grow with our expanding economy, but potential solutions look promising. Drops in gonorrhea and early-stage syphilis point to the first decline in sexually transmitted infections in 20 years. Voyager 2’s fly-by of Uranus in the 1980s collected data that led scientists to believe the planet’s moons were inactive. A reassessment of those data shows that Uranus could have just been having an off day. Plus, Alec Luhn reports from the 29th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29) in Azerbaijan.Recommended reading:Melting Glaciers Are Causing Billions of Dollars of Damage The U.S. Has Its First Plan for Plastic Pollution. This Is What’s in It This Astoundingly Simple Ancient Technique Is Helping to Beat Back Drought 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 associate editor Andrea Thompson. Our show is edited by Madison Goldberg 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

Tomorrow marks the 50th anniversary of a transmission from the Arecibo Observatory, intended as our first attempt to send a message to intelligent life across the universe. Journalist Nadia Drake talks about the careful crafting of the signal and her personal connection with the astronomer who authored the transmission: her father Frank Drake. Recommended reading:The Arecibo Message, Earth’s First Interstellar Transmission, Turns 50 Arecibo Observatory Shuts Down Its Science 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 Nadia Drake. Our show is edited by Fonda Mwangi 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

What does the Declaration of Independence have in common with Vincent van Gogh’s sketches? The ink used to produce them came from wasps. From pests to products, insects have played an enormous role in human history. Entomologist and animal behaviorist Barrett Klein encourages a historical and scientific perspective on these creatures and invites us to marvel at their beauty and biodiversity.– Read Barrett Klein’s book The Insect Epiphany– See more from Klein– Explore our coverageE-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. Our show is edited by Madison Goldberg 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

A wooden solution to metal satellites polluting space. Water woes create droughts in 48 of the 50 U.S. states—and climate change is of course a culprit. Microplastics could make wastewater recycling more challenging. And researchers figure out how mud from a secret spot off the Delaware River makes baseballs easier to grip. Recommended reading:How Baseball Got Faster but Riskier Microplastics Linked to Heart Attack, Stroke and Death Space Junk Is Polluting Earth’s Stratosphere with Vaporized Metal 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. Our show is edited by Anaissa Ruiz Tejada with fact-checking by Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck. Our theme music was composed by Dominic Smith. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Could our fixation on weight actually be harming, rather than helping, people’s health? Host Rachel Feltman is joined by Ragen Chastain, a writer, researcher and board-certified patient advocate, to discuss how weight stigma could be fueling many of the negative health outcomes we commonly link to weight gain.This episode is part of “Health Equity Heroes,” an editorially independent special project that was produced with financial support from Takeda Pharmaceuticals.Sign up for Chastain’s Substack newsletter, Weight and HealthcareRecommended reading:People Who Are Fat and Healthy May Hold Keys to Understanding ObesityFearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia. Sabrina Strings. NYU Press, 2019Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness. Da’Shaun L. Harrison. North Atlantic Books, 2021Email 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. Emily Makowski, Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck fact-check our show. Our theme music was composed by Dominic Smith. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rising Signs: The Medieval Science of Astrology, a new exhibit at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, takes a look at medieval manuscripts to showcase the importance of astrology to the period’s elites. Larisa Grollemond, an assistant curator at the museum, takes us through the impact of astrology on day-to-day decisions and the way it became tied up in the medieval obsession with humoral balances. Plus, we discuss how today’s astrology split from the modern science of astronomy.Rising Signs is on display at the Getty Museum through January 5, 2025. https://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/rising-signs/index.html Recommended reading:How to Survive Mercury in Retrograde https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-to-survive-mercury-in-retrograde/ 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 Larisa Grollemond, an assistant curator at the J. Paul Getty Museum. Our show is edited by Fonda Mwangi 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

The 2024 U.S. presidential candidates have very different visions for the country. On today’s show, host Rachel Feltman is joined by associate sustainability editor Andrea Thompson to talk about the climate choices faced by the next president and the shifting energy landscape. Senior news reporter Meghan Bartels reviews the gun control policies of the Biden administration and the complicated cultural dynamics around gun ownership that faces the next president. Plus, we discuss how public education could be stymied by a future Trump administration and how immigration decisions will shape the STEM workforce.Read more about the election:– In-depth coverage explains the candidates’ climate and energy policies– Kamala Harris and Donald Trump offer starkly different responses to gun violence– How the 2024 election could reshape education, from pre-K to college– The 2024 Election Will Define America’s Stance on Immigration, with Consequences for Science and Technology– Deep dives from other SciAm editors report on the candidates’ positions on artificial intelligence, heath care, and moreE-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 guests associate news editor Allison Parshall, senior editor of mind and brain Gary Stix, senior news reporter Meghan Bartels and associate editor of sustainability Andrea Thompson. Our show is edited by Madison Goldberg 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