Scurvy, Bird Flu and a Big Old Meteorite

Science Quickly

Scientific American

Science

4.3 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 28 October 2024

⏱️ 9 minutes

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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 [email protected] 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

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0:00.0	This Podcast is sponsored in part by PNAS Science Sessions, a production of the proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
0:08.0	The Science Sessions Podcast features brief but insightful conversations with leading researchers.
0:14.0	Learn how the hearts of constricting pythons grow and shrink after a meal
0:19.0	and how they might serve as a model for human heart disease.
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0:23.6	Subscribe to science sessions on iTunes,
0:26.0	Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Happy Monday listeners. For Scientific American Science Quickly, I'm Rachel Feldman.
0:41.1	Let's get the week off to a great start by catching up on the latest science news.
0:46.0	We'll start about 3 billion years ago when scientists say a giant space rock may have helped
0:55.1	jumpstart life as we know it.
0:57.2	In a study published last Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
1:01.6	researchers describe a meteorite called S2 as being four times the
1:06.4	size of Mount Everest. That makes it as much as 200 times more massive than the rock we associate with the death of the dinosaurs.
1:15.2	When S2 crashed into our planet about 3.26 billion years ago, the study authors say, life was just
1:21.4	getting started. So only single-celled organisms were around to experience
1:26.4	the chaos wrought by the 36 mile wide meteorite. The researchers say that that likely included a tsunami, some boiling oceans, and skies darkened with thick dust across the globe.
1:40.0	So yeah, pretty spooky stuff.
1:42.0	But in studying tiny particles called spherals,
1:45.0	which are glassy or crystalline beads left behind
1:48.0	in sedimentary rock layers after major meteorite impacts,
1:51.7	the researchers found evidence that this apocalyptic collision paid off in the long run.
	...

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