Science Quickly

Mosquitos stealthily float off us after filling up, by virtue of fast wingbeats that generate almost instant lift with only an imperceptible additional push from the legs.    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Up-to-date software, apps, browsers and router software offer the best protection against a potential flaw in wi-fi security called a key reinstallation attack, or KRACK.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Exhaust fumes from oceangoing vessels lead to an almost doubling of lightning activity over shipping lanes compared to adjacent areas of the sea.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

By playing the online game Foldit, players might help design an enzyme that can stop aflatoxins from making millions sick. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jellyfish exhibit signs of a sleep state, which could mean that sleep predates the evolutionary development of central nervous systems.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Under certain circumstances squirrels will bury all of the same kind of nut near one another, a mnemonic strategy known as chunking.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Black bears and cougars share the Vancouver countryside, but not happily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Like fingerprints and facial recognition, the shape and beat of your heart can be used to verify your identity. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The microbes that live in and on our bodies will colonize a human-manned spacecraft to Mars—but will the spacecraft's microbiome be safe? Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry goes to Jacques Dubochet, Joachim Frank and Richard Henderson for developing cryo-electron microscopy for the high-resolution structure determination of biomolecules in solution.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Nobel Prize in Physics goes to Rainer Weiss, Barry C. Barish and Kip S. Thorne "for decisive contributions to the LIGO detector and the observation of gravitational waves".   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2017 was awarded to Jeffrey C. Hall, Michael Rosbash and Michael W. Young for discoveries of molecular mechanisms controlling circadian rhythms.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Submerged electric eels lose current to water, so they apparently leap into the air to minimize their contact with water and maximize their shock value.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A chance observation led researchers to add the Australian Magpie to the short list of birds that dunk their food in water before eating.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The 2011 east Japan tsunami swept huge amounts of wreckage out to sea—and Japanese species hitchhiked across the Pacific on the debris. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Individuals in packs of African wild dogs appear to sneeze to make their wishes known regarding when to get up and hunt. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The frogs' calls are too high-pitched for the frog to detect, which may be an artifact of evolution. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

More reflective telescope mirrors allow astronomers to capture more photons—and do more science. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A new study hints that the most energetic particles ever seen come from far beyond the Milky Way.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A trove of scientific notes from the early 1900s suggests a warming climate is driving birds to migrate earlier to New York’s Mohonk Preserve. Julia Rosen reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As temperatures rise, the tree line moves upslope. But ancient bristlecone pines are losing that upslope race to faster-colonizing neighbors. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As carbon dioxide levels rise, plants are sipping water more efficiently—which could come in handy in a drier future. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Cannibalistic caterpillars prevent disease from decimating their populations by removing infected individuals. Emily Schwing reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Internet hosting company DreamHost is battling the U.S. Justice Department over requests for information about people visiting a Web site for organizing protests. Larry Greenemeier reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Smooth vertical surfaces like windows reflect sound waves away from bats—meaning bats can't "see" windows and similar obstacles with echolocation. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices