Host Rachel Feltman, alongside leading science and tech journalists, dives into the rich world of scientific discovery in this bite-size science variety show.
Anthony Fauci Is Worried about Bird Flu—And How Our Divisions Could Help It Hurt Us
Anthony Fauci speaks with Tanya Lewis, senior editor for health and medicine at Scientific American, about his remarkable career, as detailed in his new book On Call: A Doctor’s Journey in Public Service. They discuss the experiences he faced while guiding the U.S. through the pandemic, the lessons learned by public health practitioners and the challenges posed by future threats, such as bird flu and other potential pandemics.
This episode is part of “Health Equity Heroes,” an editorially independent special project that was produced with financial support from Takeda Pharmaceuticals.
Recommended reading:
New Bird Flu Cases in Young People Are Raising Concerns about Mutating Virus
What Bird Flu in Wastewater Means for California and Beyond
H5N1 Bird Flu Isn’t a Human Pandemic—Yet
E-mail us at [email protected] 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 our daily newsletter.
Science Quickly is produced by Rachel Feltman, Fonda Mwangi, Kelso Harper, Madison Goldberg and Jeff DelViscio. This episode was reported and co-hosted by Tanya Lewis. Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck fact-check our show. Our theme music was composed by Dominic Smith.
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21:34
A Psychologist’s Tips for Avoiding Overconsumption This Black Friday
Black Friday sales have gone from one-day in-person shopping bonanzas to a multiday deals extravaganza. It’s tempting to give in to the seasonal pressures to shop, but knowing the tricks companies use to make sales so appealing can help us avoid overconsumption. Cathrine Jansson-Boyd, a professor of consumer psychology at Anglia Ruskin University in England, explains how to spot marketing ploys and shop sustainably.
Recommended reading:
It’s Actually Healthier to Enjoy Holiday Foods without the Anxiety https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/enjoy-holiday-food-without-the-anxiety/
Eating Turkey Does Not Really Make You Sleepy https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/eating-turkey-sleepy-thanksgiving/
E-mail us at [email protected] 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 Fonda Mwangi with fact-checking by Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck. The theme music was composed by Dominic Smith.
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15:57
What RFK, Jr., Could Mean for Public Health, and How Tobacco Use Has Dropped Unevenly
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 [email protected] 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.
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10:50
Using AI to Understand the Thoughts of the Dead
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, 2024
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2407639121
Inside the AI Competition That Decoded an Ancient Herculaneum Scroll
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/inside-the-ai-competition-that-decoded-an-ancient-scroll-and-changed/
E-mail us at [email protected] 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.
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12:04
Unscheduled C-Sections May Depend on the Color of Your Skin
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 [email protected] 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-Waldron
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
Host Rachel Feltman, alongside leading science and tech journalists, dives into the rich world of scientific discovery in this bite-size science variety show.