SSS 2009-05-29

This is Scientific Americans 60-second Science. Im Karen Hopkin, This will just take a minute. Have you ever said, I know it like the back of my hand? Well, how well do you know the back of your hand, or the back of your knee, or behind your ears? Pr

SSS 2009-07-27

The toucan's long bill has long perplexed biologists. Darwin theorized that it attracted mates. Other suggested uses ranged from fruit peeling to territorial defense. But a report in the July 24th issue of the journal Science offers another explanati

SSS 2009-07-28

Why did the orangutan cross the forest canopy? Presumably, to reach some tasty fruit. But the better question might be: how did the orangutan cross the forest canopy. And according to a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sc

SSS 2009-07-29

When Michael Phelps is out of the water, he towers over mere non-Olympic mortals. Then he slips into the pool, and makes record-breaking speed seem effortless. His height, it turns out, is no accident. According to research published in The Journal o

SSS 2009-07-30

Remember Dick and Jane? And their dog Spot? Maybe you read about them in first grade. See Spot run. Run, Spot, run! Well, a new study in the journal Psychological Science suggests that not only did you see Spot run, but you ran, too. At least in your

SSS 2009-07-31

Youve heard of synchronized swimming. But what about synchronized blinking? No, its not a new Olympic sport for slackers. Its something that seems to happen when we watch a video. Because none of us want to miss the good parts. If you stop to add it

SSS 2009-06-18

This is Scientific American's 60-second Science. I'm Steve Mirsky. Heres a clip from last weeks CalTech commencement address by Secretary of Energy and physics Nobel Laureate Steven Chu. Most scientists are optimistic by nature. Part of my optimism c

SSS 2009-06-22

This is Scientific Americans 60-Second Science, Im Steve Mirsky. Got a minute? Stand clear of the closing doors, please. Definitely keep your arms and legs away from the closing doors on the subway. But theres a potentially more insidious danger to y

SSS 2009-06-23

This is Scientific American's 60-Second Science. I'm Karen Hopkin. This will just take a minute. If all you have is a hammer, they say that everything looks like a nail. But when you use that hammer, it looks like you are arm to your brain anyway. A

SSS 2009-06-24

This is Scientific Americans 60-Second Science, Im Cynthia Graber. This will just take a minute. Theres plenty of evidence that animals learn from one another. But until now, it was thought that only humans make judgment calls, such as that woman see

SSS 2009-06-25

This is Scientific American's 60-second Science. I'm Adam Hinterthuer. Got a minute? A team of archeologists working in Jordan has made a discovery that represents a new chapter in the story of our ancestors' move from foraging to farming. The resear

SSS 2009-03-26

This is Scientific American's 60-Second Science. I'm Adam Hinterthuer. Got a minute? Eating fish can be good medicine. And, according to the U.S. EPA and researchers from Baylor University, fish all over the country are literally stuffed to the gills

SSS 2009-03-27

This is Scientific American's 60-Second Science. I'm Karen Hopkin. This will just take a minute. If youve ever popped open a jar of the pickled fish, you know that herring like to stick together. Actually, its something they do naturally, even before

SSS 2009-03-30

This is Scientific American's 60-Second Science. I'm Karen Hopkin. This will just take a minute. In 2005, Steven Johnson wrote a book called Everything Bad is Good For You. He proposed that popular culture is actually making us smarter. Because thing

SSS 2009-03-31

This is Scientific American's 60-Second Science. I'm Steve Mirsky . Got a minute ? How do you do a brain scan on a gorilla. Yeah, yeah, very carefully, right. He sleeps anywhere he wants to, too. But seriously, trying to do an MRI on a gorilla presen

SSS 2009-02-18

This is Scientific American's 60-Second Science. I'm Steve Mirsky . Got a minute ? Future cosmologists will get the universe all wrong, said Arizona States Lawrence Krauss at the AAAS Meeting on February 16th: All of the pillars of the big bang will

SSS 2009-02-19

This is Scientific American's 60-Second Science. I'm Steve Mirsky . Got a minute ? Time to bring back the Office of Technology Assessment. The OTA was created in 1972 to provide Congress with an objective analysis of complex scientific and technologi

SSS 2009-02-20

This is Scientific American's 60-Second Science. I'm Steve Mirsky . Got a minute ? Creationists often publish lists of a few dozen scientists who doubt Darwin. So in 2003, the National Center for Science Education put together a list of 200 scientist

SSS 2009-02-23

This is Scientific American's 60-Second Science. I'm Steve Mirsky . Got a minute ? Were on the verge of finding out how frequently habitable planets occur in the universe. That was astronomer Alan Boss at the AAAS meeting on February 14th. And I thin

SSS 2009-03-24

This is Scientific American's 60-Second Science. I'm Karen Hopkin. This will just take a minute. Understanding all the genes and molecules involved in human disease is quite a challenge. Thats why scientists study model organisms, like flies and worm