Science Quickly

Researchers built a physical model of the tail of the late Jurassic dinosaur Apatosaurus and found that its tail tip could have moved at supersonic speed to produce a whip-crack sound   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Infants seemed to be able to differentiate between two different "D" sounds in Hindi—but only when their tongue movements weren't blocked by a teething device. Christopher Intagliata reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Alan Stern, principal investigator of NASA’s New Horizons Mission, explains that with Pluto in the rearview mirror, the spacecraft will continue on to a smaller Kuiper Belt body   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's well known birds can use Earth's magnetic field as their compass, but they may also use magnetism as their map. Christopher Intagliata reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Human tourism—no matter how well-intentioned—might desensitize wild animals to poachers and predators, affecting their odds of survival. Christopher Intagliata reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

By studying the interactions of babies and their mothers, researchers determined that babies smile in hopes others will smile at them. Erika Beras reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The 2015 Nobel Prize in Chemistry goes to Tomas Lindahl, Paul Modrich, Aziz Sancar for mechanistic studies of DNA repair Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics goes to Takaaki Kajita and Arthur B. McDonald for the discovery that one kind of neutrino can change into another, which shows that neutrinos have mass   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine goes jointly to William C. Campbell and Satoshi Ōmura for their studies leading to novel therapies against infections caused by roundworm parasites and to Youyou Tu for her work developing a novel therapy against malaria   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Because China relies on coal for much of its power, goods produced there can have a dirtier carbon footprint than those produced elsewhere. Christopher Intagliata reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Harvard neuroscientist Beth Stevens wins a MacArthur Fellowship for studies of how microglia cells prune away excess neuronal synapses during brain development and how that necessary function might go awry in neurodegenerative diseases   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Environmental engineer Kartik Chandran of Columbia University won a MacArthur Fellowship for his work on extracting nutrients and energy from wastewater and sewage   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Early human species may have had sharper hearing in certain frequencies than we enjoy, to facilitate short-range communication in an open environment. Cynthia Graber reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sitting for more than seven hours a day is linked to a 30 percent higher risk of death, but that association disappears among the in-place movers and shakers. Christopher Intagliata reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Humans shed a million particles an hour, and those microbe-laced clouds are sometimes unique enough to identify the person producing them. Christopher Intagliata reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The particular fungi found in house dust can tell investigators where you live, and the bacteria in the dust can give away who and what you live with   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

At the recent DARPA Wait What? conference, Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter said lifesaving technologies are a priority for his department Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As Daniel Boorstin, former director of the Smithsonian National Museum of History, once put it, clockmakers were the "pioneer scientific instrument makers"     Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Word selection among Twitter users who could be identified as likely members of one or the other political party showed specific usage patterns. Christopher Intagliata reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With the Sierra Nevada snowpack at historic lows, should policy makers focus on capturing future rain instead of relying on the snow bank? Christopher Intagliata reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Domesticated pigs had many dalliances with wild boars that added new genes to the pig population well after they had settled down on the farm   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Researchers found that snakebites were two to three times as prevalent in the hottest and coldest years of the El Niño climate cycle. Christopher Intagliata reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The whales appear to prefer the company of "like-minded" individuals, based on common vocal clicking behavior—an example of culture, researchers say. Christopher Intagliata reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Whereas most predators kill the young or infirm, humans claim a disproportionate number of mature healthy adults of reproductive age   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Signs that say "Share the Road" with bicycles may have far less influence over motor vehicle driver behavior than would signs saying "Bicycles May Use Full Lane."   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices