SSS 2010-05-19

This is Scientific American's 60-Second Science. I'm Cynthia Graber. This'll just take a minute. Want to feed a hungry world? According to David Gracer, add bugs to the menu. Gracer is, he says, a normal guy whos also an entomophagist, an advocate fo

SSS 2008-09-17

This is Scientific American's 60-Second Science. I'm Steve Mirsky . Got a minute ? We live in a nice neighborhood. Of the galaxy, that is. The sun is about halfway toward the outer edge of the Milky Way. But the sun may have migrated vast distances t

SSS 2008-09-18

This is Scientific American's 60-Second Science. I'm Karen Hopkin. This will just take a minute. Breaking a mirror means seven years bad luck. So does spilling salt or meeting a black cat. Weve all heard such silly-sounding superstitions. Of course w

SSS 2008-09-04

This is Scientific American's 60-Second Science. I'm Cynthia Graber. This will just take a minute. Conditions such as mad cow disease are caused by abnormally shaped proteins, called prions. Prions spread by causing other, normal proteins to misfold

SSS 2008-09-02

This is Scientific American's 60-Second Science. I'm Cynthia Graber. this will just take a minute. Weve all heard of the fight to combat malaria in mostly poor, tropical countries. But a whole host of other tropical diseases exist that leave their vi

SSS 2008-08-18

This is Scientific American 60-second Science. I am Steve Mirsky. Got a few minutes? Today we have a special edition featuring a brief interview with Scientific Americans Larry Greenemeier. So, Larry, whos..whos the fan of our video right now? Well a

SSS 2008-08-15

This is Scientific American's 60-Second Science, I am Adam Hinterthuer. Got a minute? Laundry detergents and air fresheners have long promised to keep your house and clothes smelling sunshine fresh and rain shower clean. But what they haven't said is

SSS 2008-08-19

This is Scientific American's 60-Second Science. I'm Karen Hopkin. This will just take a minute. Some people never forget a face. Others never forget a flu. Even if they were infected more than 90 years ago. A team of American scientists studied 32 p

SSS 2010-01-15

For astronomers who study the large-scale structure of the universe, dwarf galaxies have proven quite vexing. Because the leading model of cosmology has been unable to account for their relative lack of substance. Now scientists writing in the journa

SSS 2010-01-18

Your feet may love running shoes. But what about the rest of your body? New research finds that running shoes actually increase the pressure on ankles, knees and hipsmore than high heels can during walking. Thats according to a study in the Journal o

SSS 2010-01-19

Most of us blink without thinking. But people whove sustained strokes or combat injuries can lose their ability to blink. Which is important for lubricating and cleaning the eye. Surgery is an optiona small piece of muscle transplanted from the leg c

SSS 2009-10-30

You can teach your dog to lie down. But you cant teach him to lie, or to know when youre lying. Because a new report shows that Spot cant spot deception. The studys in the journal Behavioural Processes. Weve all known pooches who run and hide when th

SSS 2009-09-21

Youve heard of waterboarding used as a means to get suspected terrorists to talk. Some people object to such methods on the grounds that they amount to torture. But in the journal Trends in Cognitive Sciences, psychologist Shane OMara of Trinity Coll

SSS 2009-09-22

Scary music plays a key role in ramping up the fear factor in movies. The soundtrack has such an effect that I put my hands over my ears during the most frightening moments. Now researchers at Tel Aviv University report that scary music is even scari

SSS 2009-09-23

We all know that drinking can cloud judgment. Thats why you should never e-mail an ex after youve had a few. But for teenagers, doing dumb things now because of alcohol may be just the start. Because research with animals suggests that drinking durin

SSS 2009-09-24

For all you space buffs who like to keep track of where the water is, it looks like you can add our very own moon to your list. Because according to a trio of papers appearing in the journal Science, the lunar surface is wetter than we realized. Fort

SSS 2009-09-25

Every year, millions of monarch butterflies fly thousands of miles to alight in one specific forest in Mexico. How do they know what direction to flutter? Scientists had thought that an insect GPS system in their brains steered them in the right dire

SSS 2009-09-28

Ever get a ringing in your ears after a loud blast of music on your iPod? Thats one example of the usually temporary condition called tinnitus, the sensation of sound even when no sound is being produced. But a new inventioncreated by high school stu

SSS 2009-09-29

A quiet restaurant. Good wine. An animated conversation. Then, mid-sentence, you catch him steal a quick sideways downward glance at his BlackBerry. And the nickname CrackBerry comes to mind. You might think: for some, the Internet is an addiction. W

SSS 2009-09-30

Believe it or not, depression can be good for your health. Ok, not that kind of depression. An economic depression. According to work published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, people actually got healthier during the Great Dep