60-Second Science

Individual interventions for burnout don’t work. Researchers explain why. Hosted by Shayla Love. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The podcast discusses the upcoming total solar eclipse and the excitement surrounding it. It also explores the scientific questions about the sun and the role of recent orbiters in answering them. Furthermore, it highlights how studying the sun can help us understand other stars and their surrounding environment.

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Portugal is one of the most vulnerable countries in Europe to climate change. Straddling the Mediterranean and eastern Atlantic regions, it’s part of a climate change hot spot. Some of the biggest fuels are shrubs. One study found that shrubland covers 1.6 million hectares in Portugal—about 18 percent of the nation’s land area. And those shrubs are gaining ground. That’s because, for decades, people have been moving out of rural communities such as the one Tommy Ferreira lives in. Most leave to pursue better-paying jobs in the cities or in wealthier European Union countries. Portugal has lost 30 percent of its rural population since 1960. The same trend is occurring across the Mediterranean region. Abandoning these farmlands is increasing wildfire risk, according to an Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development report released last spring. When people who work the land leave it, grazing pastures and farm fields become thick with fuels. But these ancient Maronesa cattle can help solve both of these modern-day problems. It was a solution hiding in plain sight. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For the last decade, reports of UFO sightings have filled headlines and news broadcasts, and some of these have from a surprising place—the Pentagon. Former defense officials have made a number of claims about, and released videos of, strange sightings made by military pilots.These days, the objects are officially called “UAPs”—unidentified anomalous phenomena.But regardless of the new branding, Congress has demanded answers on them, especially after one former official this summer claimed that he believed that the U.S. possessed “nonhuman” spacecraft and possibly their “dead pilots.”We talk to the former intelligence official and physicist, Sean Kirkpatrick, who until December headed the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, the Pentagon office that Congress told to find some answers to all this. He recently published an op-ed in Scientific American called  "Here's What I Learned as the U.S. Government's UFO Hunter". Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Experts discuss the potential impact of quantum computing on cryptography, the vulnerabilities of traditional encryption methods, and the importance of public key cryptography. They explore the need for alternative cryptographic systems to ensure data security and the efforts made by organizations like NIST to address the threat. The future development of quantum computers and its uncertainty in the field of cryptography are also discussed.

Today’s episode covers a topic that many parents-to-be have struggled with: fertility. In vitro fertilization offers a path to pregnancy for people fortunate enough to be able to access it. But predicting the success of an implanted embryo is hard. Now researchers are developing a test that could make it easier. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From Papua New Guinea to the Andaman Islands, Indigenous languages are under threat. An Indian linguist helped preserve one language family. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A new study used machine learning to predict life trajectories of 6 million Danish people, including mortality. The ethical implications of an AI predicting death are explored. Experts express skepticism about the accuracy of Life2Vec's mortality predictions. The potential uses of Life2Vec and the ethical concerns associated with predicting lifespan using AI models are discussed.

In today’s episode, we want to talk about some of the current challenges with using home COVID tests. When you first have symptoms, a change in how your body reacts to the virus could lead to a test result showing you’re negative when you’re actually infected.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices