SSS 2010-02-01

Bees bread and butter is flowerstheres no reason they should be able to recognize human faces. But they can. Back in 2005, Arian Dyer at Monash University showed that bees could identify people who they associated who with sugary snacks. But could th

SSS 2010-02-03

(Gunshot.) Shhhh, just lie still, son, dont try to talk. I know what youre wondering. You come into town with the fastest draw in the West and I let you draw first and still youre still the one lying here a bullet in ya. Well, if only youd studied so

SSS 2010-02-02

When your kids misbehave, maybe you tell them to stop acting like chimps. Well, that would be an insult to the familiar common chimp, Pan troglodytes, which actually grows up pretty fast. Now bonobos, the other chimp species, or Pan paniscus, enjoy h

SSS 2010-02-15

Imagine a world where sunlight can be captured to produce electricity anywhere, on any surface. The makers of thin-film flexible solar cells imagine that world too. But a big problem has been the amount of silicon needed to harvest a little sunshine.

SSS 2010-02-12

Its good to keep on your toes. Metaphorically, that is. Not when youre actually out for a stroll. Because a new study suggests that it takes nearly twice as much energy to walk on your toes than it does to land on your heel. Humans are among a small

SSS 2010-02-11

Snowpocalypse. Snowmageddon. Whatever your preferred appellation, this week's winter storms brought misery to denizens of the U.S. East Coast and prompted some at least to question the scientific theory of climate change. After all, shouldn't global

SSS 2010-02-10

Its called functional magnetic resonance imaging, or FMRI. And some neuroscientists call it the greatest scientific advance of the last 25 years. Because FMRI lets researchers look at the human brain in action. By measuring blood flow, it produces co

SSS 2010-02-09

You know what its like. Sit chatting with a friend, and the hours can zip by. But once someone puts you on hold [audio: bad on-hold music] or makes you wait in line, each second feels interminable. But Dan Zakay of Tel Aviv University has some tricks

SSS 2010-02-08

At one time or other, someone has probably told you its written all over your face. Thats because your emotions can influence your expressions. Well, a study in the journal Psychological Science suggests that the reverse is also true: that the look o

SSS 2010-02-05

As we look forward to Sundays Super Bowl Game, we might still think back on the shocking mistakes made during the playoffs, especially so, if your team was the one that made some of the critical errors. Consider the last play of the NFC championship

SSS 2010-02-04

Some people of Italian ancestry, like me, might have a surprise in the family treea man of east Asian descent, who was living and working 2,000 years ago in the boondocks near the heel of the Italian boot. The discovery is the first good evidence of

SSS 2010-02-16

Some call it the hormone of love. Its oxytocin and it helps moms bond with and breast-feed their babies, and even keeps romantic couples content. Now a study suggests that this same hormone might also help people with autismby improving their social

SSS 2010-02-17

The Journal of the American Medical Association doesnt usually report autopsy results. But they make an exception this week: for King Tut. The study of the boy king involved DNA analysis and CAT scans. Researchers used genetic fingerprints from Tut a

SSS 2010-02-18

Welcome to the Science Talk, the weekly podcast of Scientific American posted on February 18th, 2010. I am Steve Mirsky. And you know what the hottest sport in the world is right now? Thanks to the Winter Olympics, it is, of course, curling. That's t

SSS 2010-02-19

When youre looking for a table in a crowded cafeteria, you probably give wide berth to the family that sounds like its sharing a big dish of whooping cough. Well, not if youre a house finch, particularly a male. Because a study in the journal Biology

SSS 2010-02-22

Lost in the coverage of the so-called climategate email controversy is a key point about the IPCCs track record of climate change estimates. James McCarthy is on the faculty of the Harvard Medical School Center for Health and the Global Environment.

SSS 2010-02-23

Its long been known that nutrient-rich dust from Africa floats across the Atlantic to the Amazon. And its assumed that the dust fertilizes the rainforest. Oliver Chadwick from the University of California, Santa Barbara, says that Hawaii can also tha

SSS 2010-02-24

Wanna be lazy and productive at the same time? Try a napbecause napping can improve learning. So said U.C. Berkeleys Matthew Walker February 21st at the meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in San Diego. He followed two

SSS 2010-02-25

Welcome to the science stock, the weekly podcast of scientific Americans posted on Feburary 25th, 2010. I am Steve Mirsky. Its called The Poisoner's Handbook. But in the most subversive way its about something that is buried in my heart which I think

SSS 2010-02-26

Bring home a bucket of fried chicken and you may find that people have strong feelings about which part of the bird is best. Well, scientists at Washington University in St. Louis say the answer is: the eyes. At least when you compare them to our own