Science Quickly

The substance prevents mosquitoes taking a blood meal from producing waste—causing them to swell up, and sometimes even explode. Christopher Intagliata reports.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Flu forecasts within large metro areas like New York City might be improved by adding in data about the flow of commuters. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Understanding the physics of how a liquid splashes when it hits a surface is allowing researchers to design new surfaces that limit splashing   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A dog’s sniff pulls a plume of fresh scents toward them, which fluid dynamicists say is a technique that could make for better bomb detectors. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A 2010 study claimed that striking certain poses could alter hormone levels and risk-taking behavior. But subsequent studies can’t replicate that finding. Christopher Intagliata reports.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

India's Project Wild Seve allows people who have suffered crop or livestock loss from wild animals to streamline the compensation process, thus helping both farmers and wildlife.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

David Biello's new book is The Unnatural World: The Race to Remake Civilization in Earth’s Newest Age.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A low-fiber diet causes fiber-eating microbes to dwindle, opening up real estate for mucus munchers that make the intestine more vulnerable to infection. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The loss of forests worldwide appears to interact synergistically to produce unpredictable effects on the global climate. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The DNA in seawater can reveal the diversity and abundance of fish species living in ocean waters. Christopher Intagliata reports.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A study of seven jurisdictions found that when cops wear body cameras, complaints against them by civilians fall precipitously.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins talks about the future of the NIH in light of the election.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A strain that emerged during the latest epidemic is able to enter human cells more easily—which means it’s more infectious, too. Christopher Intagliata reports.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

An orangutan matched researchers' predictions about which mixed beverage he would choose based on his relative fondness for the separate ingredients.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Using taxidermy data, biologists determined that gun-killed birds have smaller brains than birds that died in other ways. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Facebook users in California had slightly better health outcomes than nonusers, even after controlling for other factors. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Just as with honest jobs, mobsters with a more advanced education made more money than their less educated counterparts. Erika Beras reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Alaskan river otters can gain valuable information about one another by sniffing around their latrines. Jason G. Goldman reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Birds of prey work where other traditional methods of bird abatement—like scarecrows, pyrotechnics and netting—fail. Emily Schwing reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Slightly altering one’s appearance—even with glasses—can indeed hinder facial recognition by others. Erika Beras reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subjects suffering insomnia got more wrong answers in a face-matching task—but they were paradoxically more confident of their responses. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Theory has it yawning helps cool the brain—and it turns out animals with bigger brains do indeed tend to yawn longer. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With a shorter season of sea ice, polar bears have less access to marine mammals. But switching to a terrestrial diet deprives them of the fatty seal meals they need to thrive.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The parachute flower smells like alarm pheromones of a honeybee, to attract tiny flies that feed on bees under attack. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A technique called “biosparging” relies on pumping oxygen underground to help naturally occurring microorganisms multiply and consume oil spills.     Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices