Science Quickly

Although the tusk can be a weapon, the variation in tusk length among animals of similar body size points to it being primarily a mating status signal. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Pulitzer-winning Laurie Garrett, author of The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance, talks about the dangers of politicians offering coronavirus misinformation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tigers and lions at the Bronx Zoo have tested positive for the virus, and studies show that house cats—but apparently not dogs—can become infected. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Humboldt squid can rapidly change the pigmentation and luminescence patterns on their skin by contracting and relaxing their muscles, possibly to communicate. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dating back 67 million years, this representative of the group of modern birds has been dubbed the Wonderchicken (which is not an April Fools’ Day joke). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

To make it in urban areas, birds tend to be either large-brained and able to produce few offspring or small-brained and extremely fertile. In natural habitats, most birds brains are of average size. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The diets of coyotes vary widely, depending on whether they live in rural, suburban or urban environments—but pretty much anything is fair game. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The bilateral organism crawled on the seafloor, taking in organic matter at one end and dumping the remains out the other some 555 million years ago. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Here are a few brief reports about science and technology from around the planet, including one about the discovery of an intact chicken egg dating to Roman Britain. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

By entering your health status, even if you’re feeling fine, at the Web site COVID Near You, you can help researchers develop a nationwide look at where hotspots of coronavirus are occurring. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When vampire bats feel sick, they still engage in prosocial acts such as sharing food with nonrelatives. But they cut back on grooming anyone other than their closest kin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Listen in as I use two calculators to track the difference in numbers of infections over a short period of time, depending on how many people each infected individual infects on average. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

They’re not born pregnant like tribbles, but swamp wallabies routinely get pregnant while pregnant. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ocean plastic gets covered with algae and other marine organisms, making it smell delicious to sea turtles—with potentially deadly results. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The growth layers in a 70-million-year-old clam shell indicate that a year back then had more than 370 days, with each day being only about 23.5 hours. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As oceans heat up, the ubiquitous noise of snapping shrimp should increase, posing issues for other species and human seagoing ventures. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In an example of how sea noise can harm species, exposed shore crabs changed camouflaging color sluggishly and were slower to flee from simulated predators. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Studies on very old vegetation in the Amazon basin show active management hundreds of years ago on species such as Brazil nut and cocoa trees. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

By breaking 900 classical piano compositions into musical chunks, researchers could track Ludwig van Beethoven’s influence on the composers who followed him. Christopher Intagliata reports.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Here are a few brief reports about science and technology from around the world, including one from off the California coast about the first heart rate measurement done on a blue whale. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Increasing or decreasing the altitude of aircraft by a few thousand feet to avoid thin layers of humidity could make a major reduction to contrails’ contribution to climate change. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Inbreeding in Thoroughbreds has increased significantly in the past 45 years, with the greatest rise occurring in the past 15 or so of them. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hippos that escaped from drug kingpin Pablo Escobar’s private zoo are reproducing in the wild. And with increasing numbers, they could threaten ecosystems. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Art created by Australian Aboriginal people used organic carbon-free pigments, but wasp nests above or below the art can be used for radiocarbon dating that supplies boundaries for the age of artworks. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ice cores from a Tibetan glacier reveal the first deposits of industrial revolution pollution, starting in layers dated to about 1780. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices