Science Quickly

Grandmothers can enhance the survival of grandchildren. That is, unless grandma’s too old or lives too far away. Karen Hopkin reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Artificial intelligence experts, ethicists and diplomats debate autonomous weapons. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The incidence of foodborne illness could jump in a warming world, due to an increase in housefly activity. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A new genetic study of Latin Americans provides evidence that gene variants for lighter skin color came about in Asia as well as in Europe. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Seismologist and policy advisor Lucy Jones says science education needs to teach how science works more than just what it finds out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When researchers fed mosquitoes a drug used to treat people for obesity, the insects were less interested in hunting for their next human meal ticket. Karen Hopkin reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Deer populations have exploded in North American woodlands, changing forest ecology—and how sounds, like birdsong, travel through the trees. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Elephants have six sets of teeth over their lives, sometimes two sets at once. At those times, they can extract more nutrition from food and put on weight. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The rover Opportunity has called it quits after working for more than 14 years on Mars. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Although millennials' memory of recent pop tunes drops quickly, their ability to identify top hits from the 1960s through 1990s remains moderately high. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Conservation biologists can track the whereabouts of endangered species by the sounds they make, avoiding cumbersome trackers and tags. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

An environmental assessment of the nation's largest desalination plant finds mixed results. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Humpback populations from the Atlantic and Indian oceans meet up south of Africa and trade song stylings. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Adult humans, as well as mice, slept better when gently rocked. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

By turning off certain brain cells, researchers were able to make mice sense painful stimuli—but not the associated discomfort. Karen Hopkin reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Javelin throwers chucking replicas of Neandertal spears were able to hit targets farther away, and with greater force than previously thought to be possible. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Researchers built a small, flexible device that harvests wi-fi, bluetooth and cellular signals, and turns them into DC electricity. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A few brief reports about international science and technology from Papua New Guinea to Kazakhstan, including one on the slow slide of Mount Etna in Italy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Cod egg survival stays high with limited warming, but plummets when the temperature rises a few degrees Celsius in their current spawning grounds. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A species of hermit crab appears to have evolved a large penis to enable intercourse without leaving, and thus possibly losing, its adopted shell. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

By coupling audio recordings with satellite data and camera traps, ecologists can keep their eyes—and ears—on protected tropical forests. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Though Saturn formed about 4.5 billion years ago, its rings were added relatively recently—only 100 million to 10 million years ago. Karen Hopkin reports.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Detroit residents declined an offer of free street trees—but were more willing to accept them if they had a say in the type of tree. Jason G. Goldman reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A total lunar eclipse will grace the skies this Sunday, January 20—and it may or may not be red. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Mona Lisa effect is the illusion that the subject of a painting follows you with her gaze, despite where you stand. But da Vinci's famous painting doesn't have that quality. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices