Science Quickly

The grime on city buildings and may actively contribute to urban air pollution. Christopher Intagliata reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A newly discovered strain of bacteria found in Arctic permafrost harvests methane from the air—meaning it could help mitigate the effects of warming. Christopher Intagliata reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Researchers linked dated graffiti about droughts in a cave in China to physical evidence in the cave of the water shortages, such as changes in ratios of stable isotopes in specific layers of stalagmites   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Both hemispheres are involved in the brains of people interpreting a whistled variant of Turkish, compared with a left hemisphere dominance when listeners hear the spoken language   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Some 95 percent of catalogued species in one family of Hawaiian land snails could already be extinct, and similar rates of invertebrate extinction could be happening around the world. Christopher Intagliata reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Researchers isolated a bacterial enzyme that could break down nicotine before smokers get the buzz that keeps them coming back for more. Christopher Intagliata reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Indoor climate control systems are based on 1960s standards that envisioned the typical office worker to be a 40-year-old, 68-kilogram man     Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A single-point mutation in corn's ancestor teosinte got rid of the hard shell that used to encase every kernel    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Researchers have developed a new ecofriendly sunscreen molecule that protects against both UV-A and UV-B rays, and could also be used to create more durable paints and plastics. Christopher Intagliata reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Microbes 2,500 meters below the seafloor in Japan are most closely related to bacterial groups that thrive in forest soils on land, suggesting that they might be descendants of ones that survived when their terrestrial habitat was flooded 20 million years ago   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In a study of nearly half a million volunteers in China, those who ate chilies just a couple times a week had a 10 percent lower risk of death. Christopher Intagliata reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Animal communication studies have shown only fixed vocalizations, such as alarm cries. But Bonobo chimps appear to have a call that has different meanings in different contexts   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Adults of the west African Baka people and east African Efé and Sua peoples average less than five feet tall. But while the Efé and Sua are born small, the Baka have slow growth rates in infancy   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tree growth lags below normal for several years following droughts, a detail about carbon sequestration that climate models currently overlook. Christopher Intagliata reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Certain vaccines prevent sickness and death, but don't block transmission—meaning they may actually give some viral strains an extra shot at survival. Christopher Intagliata reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

An analysis of the acoustical characteristics of screams found that the sounds are unusually rough, that is, they rapidly change in frequency, which has an alarming effect on the listener's brain    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In his induction speech at the Baseball Hall of Fame, pitcher John Smoltz hoped that the number of such procedures could be lessened in the future   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mediocre main dishes taste even worse when they follow delectable appetizers—an example of the so-called "hedonic effect." Erika Beras reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A survey of nearly 5,000 13- to 15-year-olds in the U.K. found that 40 percent of overweight and obese teens did not self-identify as “too heavy.” Cynthia Graber reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Entrepreneur and former physicist Yuri Milner talks about the just-announced $100-million Breakthrough Listen Project to search for extraterrestrial technological civilizations   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Southern Ocean is the cloudiest place on Earth, a condition caused in part by phytoplankton particles kicked up by sea spray. Christopher Intagliata reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

During courtship, male black widow spiders snip and bundle up the female's web in their own silk, which discourages other suitors from stopping by. Christopher Intagliata reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Researchers gathered data from various Army databases to analyze nearly 10,000 attempted suicides of active duty personnel. Cynthia Graber reports   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Researchers suggest farmers should consider harvesting when fields are dry, to prevent dangerous bacteria blooms from contaminating food. Christopher Intagliata reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nematode worms hitch rides inside the guts of slugs and other invertebrates, and emerge alive and well after exiting with the rest of the digestive track's products. Karen Hopkin reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices