60-second Science

Researchers found a spike in mercury, which is produced by volcanoes, in ancient ocean sediments from southern France that span the time of the dinosaurs' mass extinction, lending support to the idea that massive eruptions played a role, in addition to the asteroid impact. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

At a Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health forum on diet and health, Walter Willett, chair of the school's nutrition department, said that adoption of more healthful eating habits even late in life still has benefits.

Sophisticated computational techniques make it possible to analyze gene samples from all the bacteria in the gut at once to take a census of the species present.  

When food is plentiful and chimps are more chummy, they harbor an increased number of different bacterial species in their bellies.  

The remains of a clearly butchered woolly mammoth in Siberia date to 45,000 years ago, 10 millennia earlier than when humans were thought to have crossed north of the Arctic circle.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

More members of an urban swan population that lets humans get near have a particular genetic variant than do a rural swan group that tends to take off when humans approach.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hippos eat meat more than had been thought, a practice that could explain their susceptibility to anthrax die-offs when they consume infected animals.  

Some set of numbers will definitely be drawn in the $1.3-billion Powerball Lottery, so all you have to do is make sure you hold every possible combination of numbers.  

Researchers were able to determine the genome of stomach bacteria that infected the famous Iceman at the time of his death, in the process giving us clues about ancient human migrations.  

Many non-African humans today have genes—which apparently made it into us via Neandertals—that ramp up resistance to pathogens, but bring on allergies, too. Christopher Intagliata reports.

More than a quarter century after the federal funding ban on needle exchange programs went into effect, it has quietly been almost completely lifted.

In his announcement today that he was taking executive action to require more gun sellers to be licensed and to do background checks on gun buyers, Pres. Barack Obama also touched on the problems facing public health researchers who try to study gun violence and deaths.  

The numbers of large carnivores, especially leopards, are increasing in private lands and lands outside the protected-area systems in India, bringing new challenges for coexistence.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Researchers engineered bitumen—the sticky black stuff in asphalt—to release its own salt, to battle the formation of ice. Christopher Intagliata reports

Twelve alcohol brands among the top 25 preferred brands for teen black drinkers don’t appear at all on the top 25 for young white drinkers   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Almost all southern right whale calves off the coast of Argentina’s Peninsula Valdez are being fed upon, some fatally, by kelp gulls, which was a rare occurrence four decades ago   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Thinner sea ice is getting pushed farther by Arctic winds, which makes polar bears walk more to stay in the same place, increasing their need for food.  

Using climate models and tree physiological data, researchers forecast a near-complete annihilation of evergreens in the southwest by the year 2100. Christopher Intagliata reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Researchers designed a chip that transfers data not with electrons but with photons—resulting in a potential 10-fold boost in speed. Christopher Intagliata reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Heavy drinkers age 18 to 25 who got texts before and after each weekend about their weekend drinking plans cut their alcohol intake compared with those who got no texts or more perfunctory texts