Science Quickly

What shape do you see when you hear “bouba”? What about “kiki”? It turns out that nonsense words that evoke certain shapes have something to say about the origins of language. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Using a combination of fishing data and satellite tracking, scientists found that the sharks have shifted their range some 250 miles poleward over the past 40 years.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Harnessing the wind to blow back emissions is not without its own impacts, so researchers are developing technologies to coexist with whales and other ocean-dwelling species. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we bring you a new episode in our podcast series COVID, Quickly. Every two weeks, Scientific American’s senior health editors Tanya Lewis and Josh Fischman catch you up on the essential developments in the pandemic: from vaccines to new variants and everything in between. You can listen to all past episodes here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You might not think that you can generate more body acceleration than a big-league baseball pitcher, but new research shows you can. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The painter described falling into the briefest of slumbers to refresh his mind. Now scientists have shown the method is effective at inducing creativity. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Wildfires, appearing dead in winter, are actually smoldering and then bouncing back to life in spring to consume increasingly more land in the Far North. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A new podcast is on a mission to retrieve unsung female scientists from oblivion. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A volcanologist says the eruption on the island of La Palma is a unique window into the “personality” of basaltic volcanoes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we bring you a new episode in our podcast series COVID, Quickly. Every two weeks, Scientific American’s senior health editors Tanya Lewis and Josh Fischman catch you up on the essential developments in the pandemic: from vaccines to new variants and everything in between. You can listen to all past episodes here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A 15-year study of where carbon lies in boreal forests has unearthed a surprising finding. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The scientists found several previously hidden galaxies that date back to 13 billion years ago—and many more might be missing from our current census of the early universe. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we bring you a new episode in our podcast series COVID, Quickly. Every two weeks, Scientific American’s senior health editors Tanya Lewis and Josh Fischman catch you up on the essential developments in the pandemic: from vaccines to new variants and everything in between. You can listen to all past episodes here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A new study finds that, for robots, overlords are less persuasive than peers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Miller-Urey experiment showed that the conditions of early Earth could be simulated in a glass flask. New research finds the flask itself played an underappreciated, though outsize, role. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we bring you a new episode in our podcast series COVID, Quickly. Every two weeks, Scientific American’s senior health editors Tanya Lewis and Josh Fischman catch you up on the essential developments in the pandemic: from vaccines to new variants and everything in between. You can listen to all past episodes here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A fossil bed in Patagonia provides evidence of complex social structure in dinosaurs as early as 193 million years ago. And scientists say that herding behavior could have been key to the beasts’ success. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ultrasound triggered cells home in on tumors and then self destruct to deliver damage or therapeutics from inside. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we bring you a new episode in our podcast series COVID, Quickly. Every two weeks, Scientific American’s senior health editors Tanya Lewis and Josh Fischman catch you up on the essential developments in the pandemic: from vaccines to new variants and everything in between. You can listen to all past episodes here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You read that right. Researchers have taken the chemical defenses of some insects and turned them into sounds, which, it turns out, repel people just as well. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Over millions of years of evolution, some beetles have learned to dampen the stench of decay to help their young thrive. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

By dating the remnants of trees felled in Newfoundland, scientists have determined that the Norse people likely first set foot in the Americas in the year A.D. 1021. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we bring you a new episode in our podcast series COVID, Quickly. Every two weeks, Scientific American’s senior health editors Tanya Lewis and Josh Fischman catch you up on the essential developments in the pandemic: from vaccines to new variants and everything in between. You can listen to all past episodes here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

New research using a camera that can “see" sound” shows some elephants can produce high-pitched buzzing with their lips. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nearly 200 years after his death, the German composer’s musical scratch was pieced together by machine—with a lot of human help. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices