Scorpion stingers, preeclampsia hope, canceled wind farms

Science Quickly

Scientific American

Science

4.4 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 4 May 2026

⏱️ 12 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this week’s Science Quickly news roundup, we look at promising results from a new study about preeclampsia. We also cover the latest news about the Trump administration’s push against clean energy. Plus, we remember pioneering geneticist J. Craig Venter, who died last week, and Scientific American’s chief newsletter editor Andrea Gawrylewski shares an interesting defense technology story from the magazine’s May issue. We then dig into a fascinating new study about scorpion stingers and claws. Finally, we ask a strange question: Where was your backyard 320 million years ago? Recommended Reading: Could blood filtering help treat one of pregnancy’s most deadly conditions? Human genome decoder J. Craig Venter dies at age 79 DARPA’s AI is built to call BS on wild weapons claims See where your backyard was millions of years ago at Paleolaltitude.org 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, Sushmita Pathak and Jeff DelViscio. This episode was edited by Alex Sugiura, with fact-checking by Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck. 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	Some follow the noise.
0:03.0	Bloomberg follows the money,
0:04.8	whether it's the funds fueling AI
0:06.4	or crypto's trillion dollar swings.
0:08.9	There's a money side to every story.
0:11.4	Get the money side of the story.
0:13.5	Subscribe now at Bloomberg.com.
0:19.8	Music Happy Monday, and of course, may the fourth be with you.
0:30.3	For Scientific American Science Quickly, I'm Rachel Feldman. You're listening to our weekly
0:35.0	weekly science news roundup.
0:40.6	Let's start with some health news.
0:42.7	If you or your partner has ever been pregnant, you may have heard of preeclampsia.
0:47.6	It's a life-threatening condition that arises in as many as one out of 12 pregnancies in the U.S.
0:53.9	Marked by high blood pressure and protein in the urine,
0:57.0	the condition can lead to serious complications like organ damage in the pregnant person and a
1:02.2	diminished blood supply to the fetus. There's currently no cure other than delivery, which is why
1:08.3	preeclampsia causes about 15% of all premature births in the U.S.
1:13.3	Because of the risks faced by preterm infants, doctors often have to play a waiting game
1:18.6	where they monitor apparent symptoms to delay inducing labor or performing a C-section as long as
1:24.6	possible. The longer they wait, the longer the pregnant person remains in danger.
1:29.3	Last week, researchers published a small preliminary study in nature medicine
1:33.3	outlining a potential treatment for patients stuck in this limbo.
	...

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.