60-second Science

Host Rachel Feltman talks with Deni Ellis Béchard, Scientific American’s senior tech reporter, about his recent exchange with Claude 4, an artificial intelligence chatbot that seemed to suggest it might be conscious. They unpack what that moment reveals about the state of AI, why it matters and how technology is shifting. Recommended reading: Can a Chatbot be Conscious? Inside Anthropic’s Interpretability Research on Claude 4 New Grok 4 Takes on ‘Humanity’s Last Exam’ as the AI Race Heats Up E-mail us at sciencequickly@sciam.com 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 and Jeff DelViscio. This episode was edited by Alex Sugiura. Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck fact-check our show. Our theme music was composed by Dominic Smith. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit meg

The summer of 2025 has been a doozy in the U.S., with extreme weather across the country. Flash flooding caused destruction and death in Texas. Corn sweat made a heat wave in the eastern half of the U.S. worse in the Midwest. Senior editor for sustainability Andrea Thompson takes us through these extreme weather events. Recommended reading: Why Did Waters Rise So Quickly in the Texas Flash Floods? https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-did-texas-flash-flood-waters-rise-so-quickly/  ‘Corn Sweat’ Is Making This Heat Wave Even Worse https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/humidity-from-corn-sweat-intensifies-extreme-heat-wave-in-midwest-u-s/  E-mail us at sciencequickly@sciam.com 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 and Jeff DelViscio. This episode was hosted

If last Tuesday seemed to fly by, you can blame the rotation of Earth. Try to look up this week to see the Southern Delta Aquariids and the Alpha Capricornids meteor showers. Plus, we discuss FEMA cuts and ancient arthropods. Recommended reading: Texas Failed to Spend Millions in Federal Aid for Flood Protection https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/texas-failed-to-spend-federal-aid-for-flood-disaster-protection/  Leap Seconds May Be Abandoned by the World’s Timekeepers https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/leap-seconds-may-be-abandoned-by-the-worlds-timekeepers/ E-mail us at sciencequickly@sciam.com 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 and Jeff DelViscio. This episode was hosted by Rachel Feltman. Our show is fact-checked by Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattu

Chief multimedia editor Jeffery DelViscio ventured to Greenland for a month to learn from the scientists studying the country’s ice sheet. He speaks with host Rachel Feltman about his time in the field and his takeaways from conversations with climate scientists. This story was supported by a grant from the Pulitzer Center. This story was made possible through the assistance of the U.S. National Science Foundation Office of Polar Programs.  Read the cover story and see stunning pictures from DelViscio’s time on the ice:  What Greenland’s Ancient Past Reveals about Its Fragile Future https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/greenlands-ice-sheet-collapse-could-be-closer-than-we-think/ E-mail us at sciencequickly@sciam.com 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 and Jeff DelVi

Scientific American has been reading, reviewing and recommending books for more than 100 years. These days Brianne Kane, our resident reader, is in charge of organizing our book recommendation lists to help science-minded people find the perfect read, including novels. She joins fellow book nerd Rachel Feltman to talk about the nonfiction and fiction books she’s recommending this summer—and gives a preview of our end-of-year lists.  Recommended reading: See The 4 Books Scientific American Loved Reading in June https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/4-nonfiction-books-scientific-american-recommended-in-june/ Your Garbage Has a ‘Wild Afterlife’ on the International Black Market https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/waste-wars-tracks-the-wild-afterlife-of-garbage-on-an-international-black/ Get more great summer reads every week: sign up for Today in Science, our daily newsletter. Discover something new every day: subscribe to Scientific American.  E-mail us at sciencequickly@sciam.com if you ha

Time travel to an introduction to tide pools, the start of commercial air travel and an intercontinental aviation museum dispute. Host Rachel Feltman is taking a look at a 1925 issue of Scientific American for this archival episode. If you don’t find the past to be a blast, don’t worry! We’ll be back to our regular schedule of science news, deep dives and editor picks next week. In the meantime, read some recent coverage of marine marvels and flight! Recommended reading: Yes, Airline Flights Are Getting Bumpier: Here’s Why https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/yes-airline-flights-are-getting-bumpier-heres-why/ See the Lush Kelp Forests Scientists Are Fighting for as Oceans Warm https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/as-oceans-warm-scientists-fight-to-save-lush-kelp-forests/  E-mail us at sciencequickly@sciam.com 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 dai

Brennan Lee Mulligan is a professional dungeon master, playing Dungeons and Dragons (D&D), a popular tabletop role-playing game, for audiences online and in person. In January his D&D show on Dropout.tv, Dimension 20, played a live game at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The show—and the game—experienced a resurgence during the COVID pandemic. Now researchers are diving into D&D science, showing how the game and the togetherness it creates can benefit mental health. Rachel Feltman chats with Lee Mulligan about the success of Dimension 20 and the psychological and cultural need the game may serve for its players.  Recommended reading: LARPing Made Me a Stronger Person. It Can Do the Same for You, Too  Find the Perfect Game to Play with This Interactive Quiz  E-mail us at sciencequickly@sciam.com 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. 

Come with Science Quickly on a field trip to the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Host Rachel Feltman is joined by Matthew Evans, MIT’s MathWorks professor of physics, to talk about the last 10 years of gravitational-wave research. Gravitational waves were discovered in 2015 by the LIGO team. Since then, innovations from the LIGO Lab have changed our understanding of the universe and made major shifts across physics. Now they’re preparing for the next generation of gravitational-wave detectors.  Recommended reading: The 2015 Paper Announcing the Discovery of Gravitational Waves: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1602.03837  Listen to the Astonishing ‘Chirp’ of Two Black Holes Merging https://www.scientificamerican.com/video/listen-to-the-astonishing-chirp-of-two-black-holes-merging1/ 5 New Types of Gravitational-Wave Detectors Could Reshape Astrophysics https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/5-new-types-of-gravitational-wave-detectors-c

Each year more than half a million people undergo bariatric surgery, a procedure geared toward weight loss. But research shows that stigma around weight can continue to affect people’s lives even during recovery from the procedure.  Larissa McGarrity is a clinical associate professor at the Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine at the University of Utah and lead psychologist at the school’s comprehensive Weight Management Program. She and her colleagues assessed 148 people who received bariatric surgery before their procedure and one and a half and three years after to learn more about their physical, mental and emotional health over the recovery period.  Recommended reading: The New Science of Diet, Weight and Health  The Impact of Weight Stigma on Health  E-mail us at sciencequickly@sciam.com 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 Quick

Last year Science Quickly looked across disciplines to piece apart the science of singing. To understand why humans sing, musicologists collaborated on an international study of folk music. To understand how we sing, neuroscientists differentiated how our brain processes speech and singing. Music enthusiast and associate mind and brain editor Allison Parshall takes us through some hallmark 2024 studies that, taken together, piece together the evolutionary origins of singing. Recommended reading: Hidden Patterns in Folk Songs Reveal How Music Evolved https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/hidden-patterns-in-folk-songs-reveal-how-music-evolved/  Why You Can’t Get That Song Out of Your Head https://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode/why-do-songs-get-stuck-in-your-head/  E-mail us at sciencequickly@sciam.com 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 ne

Sick coral reefs are visually striking—bleached and lifeless, far from the vibrancy we’ve come to expect. But what does an unhealthy coral system sound like? In this rerun, conservation bioacoustics researcher Isla Keesje Davidson tells Science Quickly all about the changing soundscape of the seas.  Recommended reading: 84 Percent of Corals Impacted in Mass Bleaching Event https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/worst-coral-mass-bleaching-on-record-caused-by-warming-oceans/ How Corals Fight Back against Warming Seas https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-corals-fight-back-against-warming-seas/  E-mail us at sciencequickly@sciam.com 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 and Jeff DelViscio. This episode was hosted by Rachel Feltman. Our show is fact-checked

Ten months ago Science Quickly made space history by conducting the first-ever live interview from the cupola of the International Space Station (ISS). Astronaut Matthew Dominick spoke with Rachel Feltman about his work on the ISS and the stunning space photography that first caught our attention. Watch a video of the interview See more stunning space photographs from Matthew Dominick E-mail us at sciencequickly@sciam.com 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 and Jeff DelViscio. This episode was hosted by Rachel Feltman. Our show is edited by Jeff DelViscio 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

Drone shows are replacing fireworks for summer celebrations. They’re safer and more environmentally friendly but complicated to program and run. A recent preprint paper proposes an algorithmic solution that can take some technical challenges out of drone operators’ hands and give engineers more creative control. Host Rachel Feltman speaks with researchers Mac Schwager, an associate professor at the aeronautics and astronautics department at Stanford University, and Eduardo Montijano, an associate professor at the department of computer science and systems engineering at the University of Zaragoza in Spain, about their work and what it would take to move the algorithm from theory to the skies. Recommended reading: Read the research team’s paper, which was presented at a 2024 workshop: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-91813-1_6 And released as a preprint: https://arxiv.org/abs/2408.15899 How Do Fireworks Actually Work? Here’s the Explosive Science https://www.scientificamerican.com/v

Protests around the construction of the now complete Dakota Access Pipeline brought national attention to Energy Transfer, the company that built and owns the pipeline and funded private security against the protestors. Energy Transfer sued the nonprofit Greenpeace for hundreds of millions of dollars. The company claimed that the Standing Rock movement was not Indigenous-led environmental activism but a conspiratorial effort by Greenpeace. Reporter Alleen Brown is spending this season of her podcast, Drilled, looking into the lawsuit and the message that legal actions like this send to activists.  Recommended reading: Listen to Drilled Read Alleen Brown’s newsletter E-mail us at sciencequickly@sciam.com 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, Naeem Amarsy and Jeff DelViscio.

Creating a bird flu vaccine requires several layers of bioprotective clothing and typically a whole lot of eggs. H5N1 avian influenza infections have gone from flocks of chickens to herds of cattle and humans. Scientists at the Texas Biomedical Research Institute are taking their best guess at the strains of the virus that could spread and are creating critical vaccine candidates. Multimedia journalist and Scientific American multimedia intern Naeem Amarsy suited up and went to San Antonio, Tex., to visit a “biosafety level three” (BSL-3) lab at the institute.  This is the third and final episode of our series about bird flu. You can listen to episode one: https://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode/how-h5n1-went-from-an-illness-in-wild-birds-to-a-global-pandemic-threat/  And episode two: https://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode/how-bird-flu-went-from-devastating-poultry-farms-to-infecting-dairy-herds/  And read more of our health coverage: https://www.scientificamerican.com/health/ 

Dairy cattle have become an intermediary between avian influenza found in wild birds and the handful of recorded H5N1 bird flu cases in humans. Senior news reporter Meghan Bartels took a trip upstate to Cornell University’s Teaching Dairy Barn. Early last year Texas dairy farmers noticed lethargic cows producing off-color milk. One of them sent Cornell researchers a sample, which genetic sequencing determined to contain a strain of H5N1. That strain traces its roots to the H5N1 virus that emerged in China in the late 1990s—which spread around the world thanks to migrating wild birds, such as those found on the beach that associate health and medicine editor Lauren Young visited in episode one of our three-part series about bird flu. And outbreak of H5N1 has been running through poultry farms since the early 2020s. Poultry farmers have been forced to cull flocks, reinforce biosecurity protocols and change the prices of eggs as a result. Dairy farms were less prepared for the spillover and its unexpected transi

Bird flu outbreaks in poultry and cattle have caused concern for public health officials. There have been few reported cases of human transmission, but the growing risks of H5N1 avian influenza have virologists on alert. Researchers at the St. Jude Center of Excellence for Influenza Research and Response take an annual visit to Delaware Bay to collect samples of bird poop for analysis. These samples give the researchers a look at emerging avian illnesses. While spillover of H5N1 into domestic birds has been known for a while, the first case of spillover into humans was only identified during a 1997 outbreak in Hong Kong. Since then H5N1 has gone global and moved from transmitting from bird to bird to spreading from bird to mammal and from mammal to mammal. Associate health and medicine editor Lauren Young takes a sample collection walk on the beach and speaks with virus detectives about how H5N1 evolved in episode one of our three-part series about bird flu. Join us on Wednesday to learn how bird flu j

Testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) is exploding in popularity among men. TRT has been touted online as a cure-all for everything from low energy to poor mood and even as a way to increase masculinity itself. But how much of the buzz is backed by science? Host Rachel Feltman talks with journalist Stephanie Pappas about the realities behind the trend. They explore who truly benefits from TRT, the overlooked risks—including fertility loss—and the rise of private clinics offering testosterone. This episode was made possible by the support of Yakult and produced independently by Scientific American’s board of editors. Recommended reading: What Most Men Don’t Know about the Risks of Testosterone Therapy Email us at sciencequickly@sciam.com if you have any questions, comments or ideas for stories we should cover! Discover something new everyday: subscribe to Scientific American and sign up for our daily newsletter.  Science Quickly is produced by Rachel Feltman, Fonda Mwangi, Kelso Harper, Naeem Am

Host Rachel Feltman explores the surprising connection between exercise and the gut microbiome with Scientific American contributing editor Lydia Denworth. Drawing from her latest reporting, Denworth explains how aerobic activity can influence the microbial ecosystems in our digestive tract—boosting diversity, reducing inflammation, and even supporting muscle development and mental well-being. From mouse wheels to marathoners, this episode offers a compelling look at why breaking a sweat might be one of the best things you can do for your gut. This episode was made possible by the support of Yakult and produced independently by Scientific American’s board of editors. Recommended reading: A Good Workout Gets Your Helpful Gut Microbes in Shape, Too Email us at sciencequickly@sciam.com if you have any questions, comments or ideas for stories we should cover! Discover something new everyday: subscribe to Scientific American and sign up for our daily newsletter.  Science Quickly is produced by Rachel F

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., has fired the experts on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine advisory panel, sparking concern among public health officials. Ocean acidification has crossed a critical threshold, posing serious risks to marine life around the globe. And pangolins face growing threats from increased hunting, complicating efforts to protect the world’s most trafficked mammal. This episode was made possible by the support of Yakult and produced independently by Scientific American’s board of editors. Recommended reading: How RFK, Jr.’s Dismissal of CDC Immunization Committee Panelists Will Affect America’s Vaccine Access Email us at sciencequickly@sciam.com if you have any questions, comments or ideas for stories we should cover! Discover something new everyday: 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, Naeem Amarsy and Jeff DelViscio. This episode was