科学美国人60秒 SSS Bat Chatter Is More Than a Cry in the Dark

When we humans talk to other humans, the sounds we make all have very specific meanings. When I say apple you immediately imagine something that has the characteristics of an apple. Yossi Yovel, a neuroecologist at Tel Aviv University in Israel. And

科学美国人60秒 SSS Zika Linked to a Variety of Birth Defects

Zika virus infection during pregnancy has been linked to the abnormal brain development called microcephaly. Now a study finds more evidence for the connection. Researchers at the CDC in the U.S. and the National Health Institute in Colombia found th

科学美国人60秒 SSS Hair Cells Could Heal Skin Sans Scars

Long ago, before BandAids, or even medicine of any kind, our ancestors evolved to heal cuts themselves. If you got sliced open, the body blocked it up, to prevent blood loss, water loss, infection. But as we gained that powerwe sacrificed something e

科学美国人60秒 SSS Climate Cycles Could Have Carved Canyons on Mars

The surface of Mars is etched with ancient river valleys and lake basins. Which makes researchers think that liquid water once flowed on the Red Planet. But how? Today, Mars is too cold for much, if any, liquid water to exist. And 3.8 billion years a

科学美国人60秒 SSS Adult Daughter Orcas May Trigger Moms' Menopause

Menopause marks the end of a females babymaking era. And not just for humans. Female killer whales go through menopause, too. And a new study finds that they might get pushed into menopause by their up-and-coming daughters. Those findings are floated

科学美国人60秒 SSS Bird Feeders Attract Bird Eaters, Too

More than half of U.S. households provide food for birds. It's a billion dollar industry. Now a study asks whether the same feeders that attract birds also attract predators that eat the eggs and newly hatched nestlings of those birds. We imagined th

科学美国人60秒 SSS Knot Not Easy to Knot

Of the many puzzles mathematicians ponder, one is new ways to tie knots. There are more than six billion different types of knots that have been tabulated by mathematicians. Six billion. David Leigh, a chemist at the University of Manchester in the U

科学美国人60秒 SSS High-Sugar Diet Makes Flies Drop Like...Flies

I dont believe, in all my years, I have ever seen a fruit fly I would consider obese. But, thanks to the wonders of modern science, thats all about to change. Because a team of researchers from Cold Spring Harbor laboratory has produced the first fli

科学美国人60秒 SSS Ants Use Celestial Cues to Travel in Reverse

Next time you need directions, maybe ask an ant. Because these clever little critters are such masters of navigation that some can find their way home whether theyre walking forward, backward, or sideways. Thats according to a study in the journal Cu

科学美国人60秒 SSS Umbrellas Plus Sunscreen Best Bet to Beat Burns

Next time you need directions, maybe ask an ant. Because these clever little critters are such masters of navigation that some can find their way home whether theyre walking forward, backward, or sideways. Thats according to a study in the journal Cu

科学美国人60秒 SSS LSD's Long, Strange Trip Explained

LSD is one of the most potent hallucinogenic drugsactive at just around 100 microgramsa miniscule amount. That fact has fascinated pharmacologists for decades. Namely, how can it have such long-lasting effects12 hours or moreat such tiny doses? To fi

科学美国人60秒 SSS A Humble Fish with a Colorful Edge

Hundreds of millions of years ago a humble fish swam in the lakes and rivers of the supercontinent Gondwana. Eventually Gondwana broke apart, becoming the continents we know today. And the descendants of that fish, now called cichlids, continue to sw

科学美国人60秒 SSS Hawaiian Crows Ready for the Call of the Wild

Once upon a time, on the big island of Hawaii, it would not have been unusual to hear: [wild Hawaiian crow call] Thats the call of the Hawaiian crow. Its is a critically endangered species, now extinct in the wild after decades of habitat loss, perse

科学美国人60秒 SSS Concrete Defects Could Become Strengths

Concrete is one of the most widely used materials on the planet. And this consumption comes with a heavy ecological price. Rouzbeh Shahsavari, a materials scientist at Rice University. Around 5 to 10 percent of total CO2 emissions comes from concrete