Uploaded June 2026 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
In this episode of Science Quickly, we look at how World Cup host cities are tracking potential disease outbreaks with wastewater surveillance, discuss the loss of NASA’s long-running MAVEN orbiter at Mars, unpack a new order pushing AI companies to share models with the government and explore a striking new map that reveals just how vast ancient Rome’s road network really was.
0:00 Intro
0:22 World Cup & Wastewater Disease Surveillance
2:45 NASA Loses MAVEN Mars Orbiter
3:35 Trump AI Executive Order
4:26 Roman Empire Road Map Research
6:34 Outro & Summer Reading Challenge
Recommended Reading:
NASA’s Mars mission MAVEN is lost forever
scientificamerican.com/article/nasas-mars-mission-maven-is-lost-forever
Trump’s new AI executive order drastically shifts the administration’s stance on the tech
scientificamerican.com/article/trumps-new-ai-executive-order-drastically-shifts-the-administrations-stance-on-the-tech
New map reveals lost roads of the Roman Empire
scientificamerican.com/article/new-high-resolution-map-transforms-what-we-know-about-roman-roads-and-the-roman-empire
Join our Summer Reading Challenge
sciam.com/readingchallenge
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: scientificamerican.com/getsciam
And sign up for Today in Science, our daily newsletter: scientificamerican.com/account/email-preferences
Science Quickly is produced by Rachel Feltman, Fonda Mwangi, Sushmita Pathak and Jeff DelViscio. This episode was edited by Alex Sugiura, with fact-checking by Marielle Issa and Aaron Shattuck. Our theme music was composed by Dominic Smith.
In this episode of Science Quickly, we look at how World Cup host cities are tracking potential disease outbreaks with wastewater surveillance, discuss the loss of NASA’s long-running MAVEN orbiter at Mars, unpack a new order pushing AI companies to share models with the government and explore a striking new map that reveals just how vast ancient Rome’s road network really was.
0:00 Intro
0:22 World Cup & Wastewater Disease Surveillance
2:45 NASA Loses MAVEN Mars Orbiter
3:35 Trump AI Executive Order
4:26 Roman Empire Road Map Research
6:34 Outro & Summer Reading Challenge
Recommended Reading:
NASA’s Mars mission MAVEN is lost forever
scientificamerican.com/article/nasas-mars-mission-maven-is-lost-forever
Trump’s new AI executive order drastically shifts the administration’s stance on the tech
scientificamerican.com/article/trumps-new-ai-executive-order-drastically-shifts-the-administrations-stance-on-the-tech
New map reveals lost roads of the Roman Empire
scientificamerican.com/article/new-high-resolution-map-transforms-what-we-know-about-roman-roads-and-the-roman-empire
Join our Summer Reading Challenge
sciam.com/readingchallenge
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: scientificamerican.com/getsciam
And sign up for Today in Science, our daily newsletter: scientificamerican.com/account/email-preferences
Science Quickly is produced by Rachel Feltman, Fonda Mwangi, Sushmita Pathak and Jeff DelViscio. This episode was edited by Alex Sugiura, with fact-checking by Marielle Issa and Aaron Shattuck. Our theme music was composed by Dominic Smith.
