A report that was recently released by the Department of Health and Human Services highlights the risks of drinking alcohol, even moderately. The Food and Drug Administration has banned the use of the dye Red No. 3 in food and other products. Experts argue that body mass index (BMI) is a flawed way to diagnose “obesity.” A SpaceX rocket successfully brought two lunar landers into orbit—but in another launch, part of a separate SpaceX vehicle exploded after takeoff. Plus, Australia has another scary spider.

Recommended reading:

– What to Know about the Ban on Red Dye in Foods and Drugs 

– Blue Ghost, a Private U.S. Lunar Lander, Launches to the Moon 

– People Who Are Fat and Healthy May Hold Keys to Understanding Obesity 

E-mail us at [email protected] if you have any questions, comments or ideas for stories we should cover!

Discover something new every day: subscribe to Scientific American and sign up for Today in Science, our daily newsletter. 

Science Quickly is produced by Rachel Feltman, Fonda Mwangi, Kelso Harper, Madison Goldberg and Jeff DelViscio. This episode was hosted by Rachel Feltman. Our show is edited by Madison Goldberg with fact-checking by Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck. The theme music was composed by Dominic Smith.

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Ouch! Ah! Aïe! The words we use when we stub our toe or receive a pinch may point to a common way to express pain across languages. Associate news editor Allison Parshall explores what linguistic commonalities in expressions of pain and joy might mean for our shared biology. Plus, Parshall and host Rachel Feltman chat about onomatopoeias, the “bouba-kiki” effect and linguistic news you may have missed in 2024.

Recommended reading:

Ouch! Linguists Find Universal Language for Pain 

How Our Thoughts Shape the Way Spoken Words Evolve 

My Synesthesia Transforms Speech into Text I ‘See’ in My Head 

Eight, Ocho, Acht Most Fascinating Language Discoveries of 2024 

E-mail us at [email protected] if you have any questions, comments or ideas for stories we should cover!

Discover something new every day: subscribe to Scientific American and sign up for Today in Science, our daily newsletter. 

Science Quickly is produced by Rachel Feltman, Fonda Mwangi, Kelso Harper, Madison Goldberg and Jeff DelViscio. This episode was hosted by Rachel Feltman with guest Allison Parshall. Our show is edited by Fonda Mwangi with fact-checking by Emily Makowski, Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck. The theme music was composed by Dominic Smith.

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H5N1 avian influenza has now reached almost 1,000 herds of dairy cattle in 16 states and has infected around 66 people, many of them agricultural workers, in the U.S. Host Rachel Feltman is joined by Amy Maxmen, a public health reporter at KFF Health News, to get the latest on bird flu. They explore how government and industry players lost control of the outbreak and what we can do to prevent a future pandemic of this evolving disease.

Read the full story: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/bird-flu-has-spread-out-of-control-after-mistakes-by-u-s-government-and/

Read more of Amy Maxmen’s work:

https://kffhealthnews.org/news/author/amy-maxmen/

Sign up for Healthbeat’s newsletters here.

E-mail us at [email protected] if you have any questions, comments or ideas for stories we should cover!

Discover something new every day: subscribe to Scientific American and sign up for Today in Science, our daily newsletter. 

Science Quickly is produced by Rachel Feltman, Fonda Mwangi, Kelso Harper, Madison Goldberg and Jeff DelViscio. This episode was hosted by Rachel Feltman.

Our show is edited by Fonda Mwangi with fact-checking by Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck. The theme music was composed by Dominic Smith.

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Norovirus cases are up this year, with 91 reported outbreaks nationwide. Human metapneumovirus (HMPV) cases are up in China and India. There has also been an increase in the U.S., but HMPV is currently a cause for concern in the nation, where its relative commonality gives many people some immunity. Louisiana has reported the first U.S. death from H5N1 avian influenza. Experts say the risk of bird flu to most people is low, though several factors can cause severe disease. Medical debts are set to be removed from U.S. credit reports, which could raise credit scores by an average of 20 points for the 15 million Americans who will be affected. 

Wildfires raged in the Los Angeles area last week, caused in part by a hot, dry winter and the speeds of the Santa Ana winds. Those winds made it difficult to fight the Palisades and Eaton Fires. As of last Thursday evening, firefighters were continuing to get a handle on these fires. 

Plus, a new study uncovers the cosmic kiss between Pluto and its largest moon Charon.

Recommended reading:

What Does First U.S. Bird Flu Death Tell Experts about Disease Severity? https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/first-human-bird-flu-death-in-u-s-reported-how-worried-should-we-be/

HMPV Cases Are Rising across Asia, but Experts Say Not to Panichttps://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-is-human-metapneumovirus-and-why-are-cases-rising-in-china/ 

Palisades and Eaton Fires Show Rising Dangers of Fast-Moving Blazes https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/palisades-and-eaton-fires-show-rising-dangers-of-fast-moving-fires/ 

Pluto May Have Won Its Moon Charon with a ‘Kiss’ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/pluto-may-have-won-its-moon-charon-with-a-kiss/ 

E-mail us at [email protected] if you have any questions, comments or ideas for stories we should cover!

Discover something new every day: subscribe to Scientific American and sign up for Today in Science, our daily newsletter.

Science Quickly is produced by Rachel Feltman, Fonda Mwangi, Kelso Harper, Madison Goldberg and Jeff DelViscio. This episode was hosted by Rachel Feltman with guest Andrea Thompson. Our show is edited by Jeff DelViscio with fact-checking by Emily Makowski, Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck. The theme music was composed by Dominic Smith.

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Pluto was unseated as our solar system’s ninth planet in 2006. Since then astronomers have found signs that a real ninth planet could be hiding at the edges of our solar system. Clara Moskowitz, senior editor for space and physics, explains how the forthcoming Vera Rubin Observatory could give researchers a way to find the real Planet Nine—if it’s out there.

Recommended reading:

– We May Be on the Brink of Finding the Real Planet Nine

– How to Move the World’s Largest Camera from a California Lab to an Andes Mountaintop

E-mail us at [email protected] if you have any questions, comments or ideas for stories we should cover!

Discover something new every day: subscribe to Scientific American and sign up for Today in Science, our daily newsletter.

Science Quickly is produced by Rachel Feltman, Fonda Mwangi, Kelso Harper, Madison Goldberg and Jeff DelViscio. This episode was hosted by Rachel Feltman with guest Clara Moskowitz, senior editor for space and physics. Our show is edited by Madison Goldberg with fact-checking by Emily Makowski, Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck.  The theme music was composed by Dominic Smith.

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Going outside has many benefits, from positively affecting our nervous system to diversifying our microbiome. But you don’t need a forest preserve to benefit from nature—sometimes even a houseplant or the smell of lavender can improve our life. Kathy Willis, a professor of biodiversity at the University of Oxford, joins host Rachel Feltman to discuss her new book Good Nature: Why Seeing, Smelling, Hearing, and Touching Plants Is Good for Our Health. Willis suggests ways for even city dwellers to reap the benefits of nature, such as strolling through urban parks or keeping plants in their office.

Read Willis’s book:

Good Nature: Why Seeing, Smelling, Hearing, and Touching Plants Is Good for Our Health (Pegasus Books, 2024)

Listen to our previous episodes about plants:

Do Plants ‘Think’? We Might Not Know Enough about Consciousness to Be Certain

How to Grow Your Houseplant Collection Ethically 

E-mail us at [email protected] if you have any questions, comments or ideas for stories we should cover!

Discover something new every day: subscribe to Scientific American and sign up for Today in Science, our daily newsletter. 

Science Quickly is produced by Rachel Feltman, Fonda Mwangi, Kelso Harper, Madison Goldberg and Jeff DelViscio. This episode was hosted by Rachel Feltman with guest  Kathy Willis. Our show is edited by Fonda Mwangi with fact-checking by Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck. The theme music was composed by Dominic Smith.

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2024 brought heat waves and hurricanes, bird flu and breakthroughs, and an overwhelming amount of progress in AI. Science Quickly host Rachel Feltman is joined by sustainability editor Andrea Thompson, health and medicine editor Tanya Lewis and technology editor Ben Guarino to recap a busy year and weigh in on the stories they’re watching in 2025.

Happy Holidays from all of us at Science Quickly! Thank you for your support and your curiosity. We’ll see you next year.

Recommended reading:

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/wildest-things-science-learned-about-the-human-body-in-2024/

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/summer-2024-was-the-hottest-ever-measured-beating-last-year/

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/78-books-scientific-american-recommends-in-2024/

E-mail us at [email protected] if you have any questions, comments or ideas for stories we should cover!

Discover something new every day: subscribe to Scientific American and sign up for Today in Science, our daily newsletter.

Science Quickly is produced by Rachel Feltman, Fonda Mwangi, Kelso Harper, Madison Goldberg and Jeff DelViscio. This episode was hosted by Rachel Feltman, with guests Tanya Lewis, Andrea Thompson and Ben Guarino. Our show is edited by Fonda Mwangi, with fact-checking by Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck. The theme music was composed by Dominic Smith.

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Tens of thousands of animal species are facing extinction, mostly because of human activity. But thanks to conservationists, there are some animals that are making a comeback.

This is part four of “The New Conservationists,” a four-part series about the evolving world of animal conservation.

Listen to part one, part two and part three.

Recommended reading:

– The Panda Factories 

– Flying Conservationists Teach Endangered Birds to Migrate

– The Last Wild Horses Are Finally Returning to Their Natural Habitat

– Great Nicobar Island Is a Paradise in Danger

E-mail us at [email protected] if you have any questions, comments or ideas for stories we should cover!

Discover something new every day: subscribe to Scientific American and sign up for Today in Science, our daily newsletter.

Science Quickly is produced by Rachel Feltman, Fonda Mwangi, Kelso Harper, Madison Goldberg and Jeff DelViscio. This episode was hosted by Rachel Feltman with co-host Ashleigh Papp. Our show is edited by Madison Goldberg with fact-checking by Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck. The theme music was composed by Dominic Smith.

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Ashleigh Papp, an animal scientist turned storyteller, shifts our perspective on the modern conservationist. With low wages and expectations of free work, conservation science lacks diversity as a field—but dedicated graduate students and new programs are trying to change that. Isaac Aguilar, a graduate student in the geology division at the California Institute of Technology, tells Papp about his journey into conservation. Plus, join a night patrol with crime prevention sergeant Malungane Naledi. She's a member of the Black Mambas, an all-woman anti-poaching unit in South Africa’s Greater Kruger National Park.

This is part three of The New Conservationists, a four-part series about the evolving world of animal conservation.

Listen to part one and part two.

Recommended reading:

– Flying Conservationists Teach Endangered Birds to Migrate

– The Last Wild Horses Are Finally Returning to Their Natural Habitat

– Great Nicobar Island Is a Paradise in Danger

E-mail us at [email protected] if you have any questions, comments or ideas for stories we should cover!

Discover something new every day: subscribe to Scientific American and sign up for Today in Science, our daily newsletter.

Science Quickly is produced by Rachel Feltman, Fonda Mwangi, Kelso Harper, Madison Goldberg and Jeff DelViscio. This episode was hosted by Rachel Feltman with co-host Ashleigh Papp. Our show is edited by Madison Goldberg with fact-checking by Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck. The theme music was composed by Dominic Smith.

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Ashleigh Papp, an animal scientist turned storyteller, takes us on into the field. Conservationists and animal behaviorists were once restricted to wildlife data gathered manually. Now new technologies are expanding the amount of passively collected data—and machine learning is helping researchers cut through the noise.

This is part two of The New Conservationists, a four-part series about the evolving world of animal conservation.

Recommended reading:

– Flying Conservationists Teach Endangered Birds to Migrate

– The Last Wild Horses Are Finally Returning to Their Natural Habitat

– Great Nicobar Island Is a Paradise in Danger

E-mail us at [email protected] if you have any questions, comments or ideas for stories we should cover!

Discover something new every day: subscribe to Scientific American and sign up for Today in Science, our daily newsletter.

Science Quickly is produced by Rachel Feltman, Fonda Mwangi, Kelso Harper, Madison Goldberg and Jeff DelViscio. This episode was hosted by Rachel Feltman with co-host Ashleigh Papp. Our show is edited by Madison Goldberg with fact-checking by Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck. The theme music was composed by Dominic Smith.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices