Science Quickly

Computer modeling revealed that insects with a celestial compass can likely determine direction down to just a couple degrees of error. Christopher Intagliata reports.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Engineer John Houbolt pushed for a smaller ship to land on the lunar surface while the command module stayed in orbit around the moon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Just before Neil Armstrong climbed back into the lunar module, he scooped up a few last-minute soil samples--which upturned our understanding of planetary formation. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Researchers dissected the jaws of ants infected with the Ophiocordyceps fungus to determine how the fungus hijacks the ants' behavior. Christopher Intagliata reports.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Youths rated as attractive were less likely to have negative encounters with the criminal justice system—but only if they were women. Christopher Intagliata reports.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A proof-of-concept study got transgenic tobacco plants to make a useful enzyme in their chloroplasts, not nuclei, minimizing chances for transfer to other organisms. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Starting in 2017, an artificial intelligence monitoring system at the Welgevonden Game Reserve in South Africa has been helping to protect rhinos and their caretakers.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The pack produces a steady trickle of electricity from the swinging motion of your stuff. Christopher Intagliata reports.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

An analysis of the 2019 edition of the Major League baseball points to reasons why it's leaving ballparks at a record rate. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A lab analysis found that even an all-beef frankfurter had very little skeletal muscle, or "meat." So what’s in there? Christopher Intagliata reports.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

People who spent at least two hours outside—either all at once or totaled over several shorter visits—were more likely to report good health and psychological well-being. Jason G. Goldman reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Geneticist Natalie Telis noticed few women asking questions at scientific conferences. So she publicized the problem and set about to make a change. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Males that allow females to take food right out of their mouths are more likely to sire offspring with their dining companions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

By switching fruit flies' sensory neurons on and off with light, scientists were able to create the sensation of sweet or bitter tastes. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Wheat plants' leaves repel water, which creates the perfect conditions for dew droplets to catapult off the leaves—taking pathogenic spores for the ride. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mice that were fed bacteria isolated from elite athletes logged more treadmill time than other mice that got bacteria found in yogurt. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A few brief reports about international science and technology from Canada to Kenya, including one about how humans thousands of years ago in what is now Argentina butchered and presumably ate giant ground sloths. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rather than wiping microbes out, antiperspirants and foot powders increased the diversity of microbial flora in armpits and between toes. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Two monkey species who last shared a common ancestor 3 million years ago have "eerily similar" alarm calls. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Millipedes, often blind, have come up with clever physical signals to ward off sexual advances from members of wrong species. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

People appear to consume between 74,000 and 121,000 microplastic particles annually, and that's probably a gross underestimate. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

At the third Scientific American “Science on the Hill” event, “Solving the Plastic Waste Problem”, one of the issues discussed by experts on Capitol Hill was biodegradability.    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Researchers trained a neural network to scrutinize high school essays and sniff out ghostwritten papers. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Anthropologists found parasite eggs in ancient poop samples, providing a glimpse of human health as hunter-gatherers transitioned to settlements. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Murray Gell-Mann, 1969 Nobel Laureate in Physics who identified the quark, died May 24th. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices