Odd Bird Migrates Twice to Breed

In this episode of Science Quickly, we start with a quick update on the Ebola outbreak surging in parts of Africa. Host Rachel Feltman is then joined by Scientific American’s senior desk editor for life science Andrea Thompson to discuss what rising temperatures mean for the FIFA ... Show More

In this episode of Science Quickly, one of SciAm’s Young American Scientists, biologist Jaye Gardiner, explores how common viral infections may raise cancer risk—not just through genetic mutations but by reshaping the body’s “extracellular matrix” of molecules that support cells ... Show More

In this episode, host Rachel Feltman interviews neuroscientist Kauê M. Costa, who is among Scientific American’s inaugural cohort of Young American Scientists honorees. Costa shares how being surprised by experiments has led him to new ways of thinking about learning in the brain ... Show More

White-throated sparrows made a change to their familiar call that quickly spread across Canada. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices 

Desert ants living in the featureless salt plains of Tunisia count their steps and erect tall entrances at their nests to find their way back home. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices 

Released or escaped parrots are now living in most states and are breeding in at least 21. For some, it’s a second chance at survival. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices 

It is one of the Earth's great migrations: each year, millions of monarch butterflies fly some 3,000 miles, from their summer breeding grounds as far north as Canada to their overwintering sites in the central Mexico. It's one of the best-studied migrations and in recent years, e ... Show More

Officially, these prehistoric birds are the dromornithids, but everyone who studies them calls them thunderbirds—and for good reason. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices 

Spring is here again, and you might be hearing the birds busting out their pipes. In this episode, scientists Elizabeth Derryberry and Jennifer Phillips take us on a listening tour to San Francisco to find out why some birds changed their tune during the pandemic. To learn more a ... Show More

Erica McAlister on the innocuous wasp-like black soldier fly, a crown jewel of a fast-growing insect farming industry that's addressing the urgent need to find cheap clean protein. And how Namib Desert beetles have evolved in a very special environment, where the only source of w ... Show More

Under the right conditions, the spadefoot tadpole will transform into a voracious predator of its own species. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices 

Imagine for a moment that you’re a very hungry bird soaring over 30-foot ocean swells in high winds, with no land for thousands of miles. How do you know where you’re going? If you’re a wandering albatross, you listen. But listen to what, exactly? Learn more about your ad choices ... Show More