MMX Phobos Mission and Surprising Animal Behavior Highlights

Overview

In this episode of Scientific American Science Quickly, host Rachel Feltman guides listeners through a space focused update on JAXA's MMX mission to Phobos, followed by engaging biology stories about remarkable animal behaviors and cognition. The space segment explains MMX's mission plan to reach Mars vicinity in 2027, spend years in Martian orbit, and return with material from Phobos by 2031, while exploring the moon's unknown origin and potential to reveal Martian history.

• MMX aims to land a rover on Phobos and return samples to Earth around 2031.
• The dwarf reed snakes demonstrate cartwheel locomotion, a limbless escape maneuver caught on video.
• Vultures in social groups show complex vocal communication with 16 distinct call types documented.
• Japanese macaques exhibit contagious-like disgust responses after outbreaks, shaping pathogen avoidance in food handling.
• A Creative task study finds adults may be more creative than preschoolers, but enjoy and rate their work less highly.

The episode closes with a teaser about science in politics and credits to the team behind the show.

Space update: MMX Phobos mission

The podcast leads with space news about the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency MMX mission to Phobos, the largest Martian moon. Phobos is a tiny world, about 14 miles wide, but its orbital period is just over seven hours, placing it unusually close to Mars. Its orbit is slowly decaying, foreshadowing a future collision with the planet. MMX aims to identify an ideal landing site on Phobos and, in 2028 or 2029, deploy a rover to spend roughly 100 days observing the surface. The mission plans to sample material and bring back about 10 grams (roughly a third of an ounce) to Earth, with the return currently projected for 2031. The long‑standing questions about Phobos’ origin—whether it is a captured asteroid or debris from a Mars impact—could be addressed by comparing returned material with Martian rocks and asteroids after the mission’s analysis. If all goes well, MMX may attempt one or two landings and return a small payload for study on Earth, offering a window into both Phobos’ history and broader solar system formation.

Cartwheel locomotion in tiny snakes

The episode then shifts to biology, starting with a striking example of locomotion in snakes. After identifying cartwheel movement in the dwarf reed snake, researchers extended the observation to two more species in the same genus, Pseudorhabdian. The motion begins with a tight curvature, with the head leading as the body touches the ground, propelling the snake forward so that its tail becomes the contact point for the next rotation. While airborne, the snake twists midflight and realigns to the start of the next roll, alternating which side of the body contacts the ground with each rotation. The description highlights the small size and charming appearance of these snakes, which makes their acrobatic movement particularly remarkable. The researchers captured the behavior on video and provided show notes and links for viewers to explore the footage themselves.

Birds of a feather: vocal vultures

Next, the podcast examines a study on avian communication focusing on Rüppell’s vultures, birds known for living in large colonies and maintaining a strict pecking order around carcasses. Researchers recorded about 150 hours of vocalizations from two captive groups, cataloging roughly 2,500 calls. Analyses of pitch, duration, and other acoustic features revealed 16 distinct call types, a diversity that may reflect social complexity and group coordination. The researchers named the most common call the metallic groan, associated with aggression, and described other calls linked to bullying, parental feeding, and mating contexts. The segment invites listeners to hear samples of the calls via show notes, underscoring how non‑passerine birds can have surprisingly rich vocal repertoires when social structures are complex.

Pathogen avoidance in primates: macaques

The program then turns to primatology with a study on Japanese macaques responding to disease outbreaks. At a primate sanctuary in southern Texas, researchers observed groups exposed to simian retrovirus type 2 outbreaks, with a fourth enclosure serving as a control. The experiments tested how prior exposure to disease affects foraging behavior, offering macaques food from surfaces visibly contaminated with, or apparently contaminated by, fecal matter (sealed to prevent actual risk). The results showed that macaques in previously sick groups accepted contaminated food in 79% of trials, while groups with outbreak experience avoided the contaminated option in fewer than half of trials. Even individuals who had not fallen ill themselves showed reduced willingness to touch potentially contaminated food. The discussion highlights the broader implications for disgust and pathogen avoidance in both non‑humans and humans alike, noting that such avoidance behaviors can be adaptive but are not always perfectly aligned with actual risk in humans.

Creativity in preschoolers versus adults

Wrapping up the science segment, the podcast discusses a creativity study published in PLOS One. Involving 92 preschoolers and 70 adults, participants completed three tasks in eight‑minute sessions: free drawing on blank paper and inventing and drawing a made‑up animal. The results, evaluated by five trained raters, showed that adults produced more original and effective ideas, indicating higher objective creativity in the adult group. Yet adults reported enjoying the activities less, and they felt worse about the quality of their work. The host uses the finding to reflect on common beliefs about child creativity and offers a personal anecdote to illustrate how confidence shapes perception of creative freedom. The segment closes by suggesting that confidence and self‑perception influence creative performance as much as proficiency does.

Takeaways and closing thoughts

Across topics, the episode emphasizes how curiosity spans a broad range of phenomena—from the distant realms of space exploration to the intricate, sometimes humorous, behaviors of living creatures. It also illustrates how studies measure and interpret behavior in both animals and humans, and how media coverage can translate complex science for a broad audience. The show invites listeners to stay tuned for coverage of science in politics and elections in the coming midterm season, while crediting the production team for their work on the episode.