NASA Astronauts Finally Return, Seals Hold Their Breath, and Penguin Poop Stresses Out Krill

Science Quickly

Scientific American

Science

4.4 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 24 March 2025

⏱️ 10 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Two NASA astronauts are finally back on Earth after an unexpected nine-month stay in space. What kept them up there so long? Meanwhile scientists have discovered that gray seals have a built-in oxygen gauge that helps them hold their breath for more than an hour. And in the Antarctic, researchers found that penguin poop seriously stresses out krill. Catch up on these stories and more in our Monday news roundup. Recommended reading: After 286 Days in Space, NASA Astronauts Return to Earth with a Splash E-mail 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 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 megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Here's the truth about AI.
0:02.0	AI is only as powerful as the platform it's built into.
0:05.0	ServiceNow puts AI to work for people across your business,
0:09.0	removing friction and frustration for your employees,
0:12.0	supercharging productivity for your developers,
0:15.0	providing intelligent tools for your service agents to make customers happier.
0:19.0	All built into a single platform you can
0:21.9	use right now. That's why the world works with ServiceNow. Visit ServiceNow.com
0:27.8	slash UK slash AI for people.
0:36.4	Happy Monday listeners.
0:38.3	For Scientific American Science quickly, I'm Rachel Feltman.
0:41.6	Let's kick off the week by catching up on some science news you may have missed.
0:52.6	We'll start out with a space update that we've been waiting about nine months for.
0:56.5	And Splashdown, Crew 9, back on Earth.
1:02.3	Butch Wilmore and Sunni Williams are finally back on Earth.
1:06.2	The two NASA astronauts, who were meant to spend about a week on the International Space Station but have
1:10.8	been there since June, splashed down in a SpaceX capsule last Tuesday evening.
1:15.7	Welcome home, Butch and Sudi.
1:17.6	If you're wondering why it took so long to bring them back after their arrival vehicle's
1:22.0	initial technical difficulties, the answer isn't very exciting.
1:25.7	It basically comes down to scheduling issues. First, NASA had to
1:29.7	bump two other astronauts off an upcoming mission so that their return vehicle would have room
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Scientific American, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Scientific American and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.