meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
Science Quickly

Scurvy, Bird Flu and a Big Old Meteorite

Science Quickly

Scientific American

Science

4.41.4K Ratings

🗓️ 28 October 2024

⏱️ 9 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

An enormous meteorite’s impact 3.26 billion years ago may have made conditions on Earth more hospitable for life in the long run. Washington State is the sixth state to report cases of bird flu in humans. Weight-loss procedures and treatments could lead to an uptick in scurvy cases if patients and physicians aren’t vigilant about vitamin C. And scientists are learning more from the remains of a Norse soldier whose body was dumped in a well some 800 years ago. Recommended Reading Bird Flu Is Infecting Pet Cats. Here’s What You Need to Know  Teenagers Are Taking New Weight-Loss Drugs, but the Science Is Far from Settled  We value your input! Take our quick survey to share your feedback. 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, 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. 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. Happy Monday listeners.

0:38.3

For Scientific American Science Quickly, I'm Rachel Feldman.

0:41.6

Let's get the week off to a great start by catching up on the latest science news.

0:49.4

We'll start about three billion years ago when scientists say a giant space rock may have helped

0:55.2

jumpstart life as we know it. In a study published last Monday in the proceedings of the National

1:00.4

Academy of Sciences, researchers describe a meteorite called S2 as being four times the size of

1:07.0

Mount Everest. That makes it as much as 200 times more massive than the rock we associate

1:12.5

with the death of the dinosaurs. When S2 crashed into our planet about 3.26 billion years ago,

1:19.5

the study authors say, life was just getting started. So only single-celled organisms were around

1:25.5

to experience the chaos wrought by the 36-mile-wide

1:29.5

meteorite. The researchers say that that likely included a tsunami, some boiling oceans,

1:36.1

and skies darkened with thick dust across the globe. So yeah, pretty spooky stuff. But in studying

1:42.9

tiny particles called spherals, which are glassy

1:45.8

or crystalline beads left behind in sedimentary rock layers after major meteorite impacts,

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

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.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.