Susanne Clara Bard creates multimedia content for science organizations, non-profits, museums, and c
A new study sheds light on why it's so hard to learn to speak a new language, but reading and listening comprehension come more easily. My latest for Scientific American: https://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode/brain-sides-both-busy-in-new-language-learning/ -body
A study of adults learning a new language found that speaking primarily activated regions in the left side of the brain but reading and listening comprehension were much more variable.
At the tail end of the age of the dinosaurs, a pony-sized duckbill dinosaur called Ajnabia roamed North Africa. But to get there, duckbill dinosaurs had to cross oceans. https://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode/duckbill-dino-odyssey-ended-in-africa/ -body
A duckbill dinosaur jawbone found in Morocco means that dinosaurs crossed a large body of water to reach Africa.
When blue whales sing their deep and resonant songs may indicate when they are about to migrate.
Blue whales off California’s coast sing at night—until it’s time to start migrating, and they switch to daytime song.
Dogs are amazingly diverse. Selective breeding for a variety of traits created the breeds we have today. Play between humans and dogs was a key part of this process. My latest for Scientific American:
The ancestors of today’s dogs already exhibited some playfulness, which became a key trait during domestication.
Police lineups are prone to error because our visual memories are flawed. But at the same time, we tend to believe what we "see" and extend that trust to other people, including eyewitnesses at crime scenes. Neuroscientists test a technique that could reduce misidentification of suspects and keep more innocent people out of prison. My latest podcast for Scientific American.
Compared with traditional lineup techniques, a series of two-faces-at-a-time choices led to more accurate identification by study witnesses.
In case you were wondering, before the 16th century, carrots were purple, white, and pale yellow thanks to pigments favored through selective breeding, the ancient Egyptians cultivated sweet watermelons with red flesh (wild watermelons are white inside), as well as wheat that is much taller than today's industrialized crops. What can art tell us about the history of agriculture? You can contribute to an online research database by submitting photos of crop foods in art at . Here is my latest podcast:
Art museums are filled with centuries-old paintings with details of plants that today give us clues about evolution and breeding practices.
During the Civil War, soldiers were vaccinated against smallpox. Here is my latest podcast about the cool way scientists uncovered the virus doctors based the vaccine on. One thing I learned while researching this is that black soldiers in the Union army were 6 times more likely to get smallpox, and those who did were more likely to die from it. My guess is that poorer health care, living conditions, and racism were involved. Another thing I learned is that desperate soldiers tried to vaccinate themselves. Remember, hypodermic needles hadn't been invented, and viruses hadn't yet been discovered because they're tiny. This "spurious vaccination" often resulted in soldiers giving themselves syphilis and other diseases! ALSO, there's some evidence that people had gotten complacent about smallpox during the 19th century after the development of the vaccine, and that may have led to vaccine refusal! Just like today. Smallpox inoculation goes back a long time, but vaccination using viruses that are less deadly is a much more recent practice.
Vaccination used against smallpox during the Civil War reveals the identity of the distantly related virus used to keep troops disease free.
Some bloody good news for once. Don't let the title fool you, tardigrades and sea-monkeys also figure prominently in this story. My latest for Scientific American.
Dehydrated blood that could keep at room temperature for years may be possible thanks to a sugar used to preserve donuts, and by tardigrades and brine shrimp to dry out and spring back with water.
E-readers are cool. But what if you're an e-squid? Between their glowing bioluminescence and the rapidly changing patterns on their skin, these denizens of the deep may be passing important messages back and forth to each other. You know, the kind of communication that prevents high-speed collisions...and cannibalism. I interviewed Stanford biologist Ben Burford to find out how these creatures get their point across while still leaving everyone in the dark.
Humboldt squid can rapidly change the pigmentation and luminescence patterns on their skin by contracting and relaxing their muscles, possibly to communicate.
Swamp wallabies are pregnant ALL the time. I spoke to reproductive and behavioral biologist Marilyn Renfree from the University of Melbourne to find out more.
They're not born pregnant like tribbles, but swamp wallabies routinely get pregnant while pregnant.
This ancient animal may be your oldest relative. My latest podcast for Scientific American.
The bilateral organism crawled on the seafloor, taking in organic matter at one end and dumping the remains out the other some 555 million years ago.
What predicts which bird species will make it in urban environments? I spoke with biologist Ferran Sayol to find out in this Scientific American podcast.
To make it in urban areas, birds tend to be either large-brained and able to produce few offspring or small-brained and extremely fertile. In natural habitats, most birds brains are of average size.
While you're at home, you can contribute to scientific research through online citizen science projects. Zooniverse has many ready-made projects that need volunteers. Many are in the arts and history as well.
The Zooniverse is the world’s largest and most popular platform for people-powered research.
University of Exeter sensory ecologist Emily Carter discusses how loud noise from oil tankers, cargo ships, and cruise ships thwarts juvenile shore crab camouflage and makes them more vulnerable to predators in my latest Scientific American podcast.
In an example of how sea noise can harm species, exposed shore crabs changed camouflaging color sluggishly and were slower to flee from simulated predators.
Tropical forests keep a record of the history and culture surrounding them. My latest podcast for Scientific American.
Studies on very old vegetation in the Amazon basin show active management hundreds of years ago on species such as Brazil nut and cocoa trees.
By radiocarbon dating the remains of mud wasp nests on ancient Aboriginal paintings in rock shelters in Western Australia, scientists were able to pinpoint when the art was created. My podcast for Scientific American.
Art created by Australian Aboriginal people used organic carbon-free pigments, but wasp nests above or below the art can be used for radiocarbon dating that supplies boundaries for the age of artworks.
The Industrial Revolution didn't just pollute the cities where coal-powered mechanization took off a little over 200 years ago. It also left its mark on the Himalayas. History meets science in my Scientific American podcast.
Ice cores from a Tibetan glacier reveal the first deposits of industrial revolution pollution, starting in layers dated to about 1780.
Contrails from air traffic can have a significant impact on the climate. But they could be prevented through a coordinated effort between the aviation industry and air traffic control. My latest 60-Second Science podcast for Scientific American.
Increasing or decreasing the altitude of aircraft by a few thousand feet to avoid thin layers of humidity could make a major reduction to contrails’ contribution to climate change.
Most studies of canine behavior have been with pet dogs. But stray dogs offer a different perspective on the evolution of the human-dog relationship. In this Scientific American podcast, I spoke with Dr. Anindita Bhadra, who has been studying street dogs in Kolkata and other Indian cities for more than 10 years.
Most feral dogs that did not run away from humans were able to respond to hand cues about the location of food, even without training.
Linguists studied the evolution and dispersal of sign languages using tools from biology. My latest podcast for
Scientific American.
Well more than 100 distinct sign languages exist worldwide, with each having features that made it possible for researchers to create an evolutionary tree of their lineages.
The toxic chemicals in tiger moths influence how they respond to hungry bats. My latest for Scientific American's 60-Second Science.
Tiger moth species that contain bad tasting and toxic compounds are nonchalant in the presence of bats, while edible moth species evade their predators.
The Antarctic winter was an ideal laboratory for linguists to study the very beginnings of accent formation. My latest podcast for Scientific American’s 60-Second Science.
Residents of an overwintering station in Antarctica provided linguists with evidence of the first small changes in speech that may signal the development of a new accent.
The ancient Egyptians were mass-producing beer 5,600 years ago. Listen to my Scientific American podcast:
Archaeologists working in the ancient city of Hierakonpolis discovered five ceramic vats containing residues consistent with brewing beer.
In many parts of the world, including California, people may need to start drinking recycled water in the not-too-distant future. Even though safe, it's a tough sell. My latest podcast for Scientific American.
Recycled wastewater can be cleaner than bottled water, but people still avoid drinking it because of their disgust over its past condition.
The phainopepla has red eyes, jet-black plumage, and a pointy head. It also has one of the most unusual breeding strategies of of any bird. My latest podcast for Scientific American.
The phainopepla migrates from southern California to the desert Southwest to breed in the spring before flying to California coastal woodlands to do so again in summer.
I enjoyed a visit to Jim Kadonaga's lab at UCSD to find out how tiny tardigrades survive extreme conditions with the help of a unique protein called Dsup. Learn about these extraordinary creatures on Scientific American's 60-Second Science podcast.
The Dsup protein protects DNA under conditions that create caustic free radical chemicals.
My latest podcast for Scientific American.
It took centuries for the population of Europe to recover from the devastation wrought by the Black Death - the plague. A new study looks at its genetic origins. My latest podcast for Scientific American's 60-second Science.
DNA from the teeth of medieval plague victims indicate that the pathogen likely first arrived in eastern Europe before spreading across the continent.
In remote areas of the world, lights could turn at night with the help of the cold, dark sky. My latest podcast for Scientific American:
A slight temperature difference at night between a surface losing heat and the surrounding air can be harnessed to generate electricity to power lights.
Dr. Allison Muotri keeps a surfboard in his office by the ocean. But his lab is more cerebral - growing tiny human brains in order to better understanding early neural development and neurological conditions. My latest podcast for Scientific American.
As the little structures grow, their constituents specialize into different types of brain cells, begin to form connections and emit brain waves. They could be useful models for development and neurological conditions.
Solar power and farming can go hand-in-hand. My latest for Scientific American's 60-Second Science.
The conditions of sunlight, temperature, humidity and wind that make cropland good for agriculture also maximize solar panel efficiency.
Can hurricanes influence animal evolution? My latest for Scientific American.
As Hurricane Dorian approaches Florida, consider that feeding style means that aggressive tangle-web spider colonies produce more offspring after severe weather, while docile colonies do better in calm conditions.
Check out an Diego Museum of Art's Art & Empire exhibition. If you go, you can try out the augmented reality app for the Spanish trade routes which I animated for Guru.
On view May 18 through September 2, 2019 Spain’s Golden Age may be defined as the extraordinary moment when...
My latest for Scientific American.
Honest, involuntary laughter cued people to themselves laugh more at some really bad jokes than they did when hearing forced laughter.
That time a scientist wrote a song about his research just for our interview! Listen here: http://www.scienceupdate.com/2018/07/houseplant/
A new documentary, Human Nature, explores how CRISPR gene editing technology is transforming our lives and our world. I edited this podcast interview with director Adam Bolt for The CRISPR Journal GuidePost series.
Show GuidePost, A Podcast Series from The CRISPR Journal, Ep Ep. 11: Adam Bolt, editor-turned-director - Jul 9, 2019
48 years ago today, astronauts drove a Lunar Roving Vehicle on the moon for the first time. Here's a video I edited for Guru about Apollo 15 for Space Center Houston's new augmented reality experience.
An interactive touchscreen experience I developed as part of San Diego Natural History Museum's Coast to Cactus exhibition: https://www.sdnhm.org/exhibitions/coast-to-cactus-in-southern-california/
I edited videos about the Apollo missions for Guru's augmented reality app for Space Center Houston: https://theguru.co/blog/space-center-houston-mobile-tour/
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