SSS 2011-03-17

This is Scientific Americans 60-Second Science. Im Steve Mirsky. Thisll just take a minute. We are definitely in uncharted waters, particularly given that the spent fuel pool appears to either not have water or have very little water. Its completely

SSS 2011-03-04

Every villain has his Achilles' heel. And microscopic scoundrels are no exception. The challenge for those who wish to ward off microbial bad guys is to identify that weak spot. Now, scientists studying the toxoplasmosis parasite think they've done j

SSS 2011-03-08

This is Scientific Americans 60-Second Science. Im Cynthia Graber. This will just take a minute. Wine can help keep conversation flowing at a dinner party. And now it looks like that wine may aid in materials science as well. Japanese researchers dis

SSS 2011-03-09

This is Scientific American's 60-Second Science. I'm Cynthia Graber. This will just take a minute. The numbers of fish and other ocean life have dropped dramatically in the past few decades. That's because of commercial overfishing, and something cal

SSS 2011-03-10

This is Scientific American's 60-Second Science. I'm Christopher Intagliata. Got a minute? During the 2008 presidential election, the Internet became a giant rumor mill. For example, there were the viral e-mails claiming Barack Obama's birth certific

SSS 2011-03-11

This is Scientific American's 60-Second Science. I'm Cynthia Graber. This will just take a minute. Elephants are smart, social animals. And now we know that they can organize themselves into teams to accomplish tasks. A research team that included re

SSS 2011-03-14

This is Scientific American's 60-Second Science. I'm Steve Mirsky. This will just take a minute. The type of accident that is occurring in Japan is known as the station blackout: loss of off-site AC powerpower lines are downand then a subsequent fail

SSS 2011-03-15

This is Scientific Americans 60-Second Science. Im Cynthia Graber. This will just take a minute. Imagine life without fire. A lot of huddling for warmth. The consensus was that humans could make and control fire when they first migrated north to cold

SSS 2011-03-16

This is Scientific American's 60-Second Science. I'm John Rennie. Got a minute? Congress has finally acted on global warmingby denying it exists. It's in the grand lawmaking tradition of the Indiana state legislature's 1897 attempt to redefine the va

SSS 2011-03-18

This is Scientific American's 60-Second Science. I'm Steve Mirsky. Got a minute? Wanna get out of the hospital alive? Well, the nursing staff has a lot to do with it. Now a study finds that a patients risk of dying goes up along with the number of wo

SSS 2011-03-21

This is Scientific American's 60-Second Science. I'm Cynthia Graber. This will just take a minute. Mark Twain called it the most delicious fruit known to men. He was talking about the cherimoya. If you never heard of it, there's good reason. It has a

SSS 2011-03-07

This is Scientific American's 60-Second Science. I'm Christie Nicholson. Got a minute? The National Sleep Foundation released the results of its annual sleep poll today, where they surveyed more than 1,500 people between the ages of 13 and 64. Here a

SSS 2011-03-02

This is Scientific American's 60-Second Science. I'm Karen Hopkin. This will just take a minute. They say that love is blind. And that's probably for the best. Because a new study shows that people who greatly idealize their spouses have the happiest

SSS 2011-03-23

This is Scientific American's 60-Second Science. I'm Steve Mirsky. This will just take a minute. Pregnant women shouldn't drink. It's become gospel, because of the danger of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. Alcohol can disturb the normal development

SSS 2011-03-22

This is Scientific Americans 60-Second Science. Im Cynthia Graber. This will just take a minute. X rays are so common today you probably never stop to think about them. They help check a broken wrist, a sprained ankle, the state of our teeth. But a l

SSS 2011-03-24

This is Scientific Americans 60-Second Science. Im Cynthia Graber. This will just take a minute. We see it all the time on shows like Bones and CSI: skeletal remains can yield all sorts of cluesgender, age, past physical traumas, but not the persons

SSS 2011-03-25

This is Scientific American's 60-Second Science. I'm Steve Mirsky. Got a minute? It's been more than a decade since the human genome was published. And some critics have wondered where the promised medical applications are. Well, a review article in

SSS 2011-03-28

This is Scientific American's 60-Second Science. I'm Cynthia Graber. This will just take a minute. Airplane manufacturers have been changing over from aluminum to advanced composite materials. These lighter, stronger composites are made of fibers of

SSS 2011-03-29

This is Scientific Americans 60-Second Science. Im Steve Mirsky. Got a minute? To keep your car purring, you have to change the oil. Such maintenance produces eight billion gallons of used motor oil annually. Some waste oil does get re-refined to pro

SSS 2011-03-30

This is Scientific American's 60-Second Science. I'm Karen Hopkin. This will just take a minute. 2011 is the International Year of Chemistry. So scientists at the national meeting of the American Chemical Society in Anaheim raised a glass. (Or a beak