科学美国人60秒 SSS 2016-8-13

If you've gone shopping for a car lately, you might have noticed that fuel economythe number of miles per gallonis creeping up. One reason is a more efficient type of fuel injection, called gas direct injection. Its a feature of half the new cars sol

科学美国人60秒 SSS 2016-8-14

A recent headline on the Web site theverge.com got a lot of attention on social media. Because each new phrase seemed to take the message in an unexpected direction. The headline read: U.S. government plans to use drones to fire vaccine-laced MMs nea

科学美国人60秒 SSS 2016-8-15

In Africa's battle against malaria, two low-tech tacticsinsecticides and bed netshave done a decent job killing off mosquitoes. But it's mainly one species that's been affected. That's a species called Anopheles gambiae, sometimes called the African

科学美国人60秒 SSS 2016-8-02

Weve all heard the adage: monkey see, monkey do. But it is literally trueif a monkey sees you looking at something, it will look, too. Now, a study shows that this tendency for a monkey to track what another is looking at is age-dependent. And in a v

科学美国人60秒 SSS 2016-8-03

When it comes to wine, the concept of terroir is sort of a nebulous thing. Terroir is sometimes translated as the wines character. Here's how my friend Valerie, a wine importer, explained it: I would say terroir is a specific set of natural elements

科学美国人60秒 SSS 2016-8-04

It may not be the most melodious bit of birdsong youll ever encounter. [Titmouse alarm call]. But this particular call, issued by a tufted titmouse, conveys important information about the presence of potential predators. But only if other birds can

科学美国人60秒 SSS 2016-8-01

疲劳驾驶每年导致6400名美国人死亡 It's particularly concerning that 56 million Americans a month admit that they drive when they haven't gotten enough sleep and they are exhausted.Charles Czeisler. Hes the director of the Division of Sle

科学美国人60秒 SSS Remote Door Controls Are Car Security Flaw

Today's cars have loads of computer smarts built in. Like the chips that allow you, with the push of a button to unlock your car. And as new cars move down the assembly line, automakers program those functions into the car. They produce one car and t

科学美国人60秒 SSS Pigeon Pb Proxies Could Cut Kids' Blood Tests

Pigeons. Ever since humans established permanent agricultural settlements, weve lived side-by-side with the birdsor, as some people call them, rats with wings. They walk on our sidewalks, roost on our buildings, and eat our leftovers. But soon pigeon

科学美国人60秒 SSS Model Black Hole Re-Creates Stephen Hawking Prediction

Black holes got their name because light can't escape them, beyond a certain radiusthe event horizon. But in 1974 Stephen Hawking proposed that quantum effects at the event horizon might cause black holes to benot completely black. Hawking said that

科学美国人60秒 SSS Ancient Mexican Metropolis Engaged in Hare-Raising Activity

As humans developed civilizations in Eurasia and Northern Africa, they also domesticated animals for food and labor: horses, cows, goats, pigs, sheep and a few others. But no evidence existed for the deliberate cultivation and breeding of animals in

科学美国人60秒 SSS Voters Are Seldom Swayed by Local Campaign Stops

Donald Trump hasn't been running the most traditional campaign. And it's not just the unfiltered tweets. He's neglecting campaigning full stop. Thomas Wood, an assistant professor of political science at Ohio State. He's had about half as many public

科学美国人60秒 SSS Humans Are Superpredators in the Landscape of Fear

Small carnivoreslike foxes or raccoons or badgersare themselves prey for larger predatorslike wolves. So they spend time hiding instead of hunting. This influence that big predators have on their ecosystem is called a landscape of fear. But humans ar

科学美国人60秒 SSS A Green Solution to Improve Indoor Air Quality

Air pollution outside is easy to spot, hanging over the city, or sputtering from a tailpipe. But there's lot of indoor air pollution, too, even if it's not as obvious. It's caused by volatile organic compounds, or VOCs. They can come from building ma

科学美国人60秒 SSS Waste Amphetamines Alter Underwater Ecosystems

Last week, tens of thousands of gallons of sewage gushed into urban streams in Baltimore, because of leaky pipes and flooding rains. And when that happens, it's not just organic matter and microbes that get flushed into aquatic habitats. It's drug re