SSS 2010-12-01

This is Scientific American's 60-Second Science. I'm Cynthia Graber. This will just take a minute. To many who stare up at the heavens, the stars may seem simply uncountable. Of course that's not the attitude of astronomers. But they've made a discov

SSS 2010-12-13

This is Scientific American's 60-Second Science. I'm Christopher Intagliata. Got a minute? Galileo first spotted Saturn's rings 400 years ago. But since then, scientists have been stumped about how they got there. Because the rings are almost pure wa

SSS 2011-11-11

This is Scientific American's 60-Second Science. I'm Christopher Intagliata. Got a minute? A hungry fish can kill prey with a quick bite. That is, of course, if its prey hasn't already died of fright. Take tasty dragonflies. The mere presence of pred

SSS 2011-11-09

Food is the body's fuel. Now a study finds that the amount of energy in that fuel can depend not just on its calorie contentbut on how it's prepared. And the research, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could explain an

SSS 2011-11-07

The early bird gets the worm, and may avoid skin cancer. Because a new mouse study suggests that for humans, tanning in the mornings may be less likely to permanently damage in DNA and cause skin cancer. A mouses levels of the DNA repair protein XPA

SSS 2011-10-17

Most obvious effect of birth control pill is, well, birth control. But the pill may have subtle effects, too. Like influencing guy which women goes for, in her satisfaction with him, in bed and out. So says study in the Journal Proceeding of Royal Sc

SSS 2011-10-03

This is Scientific American's 60-Second Science. I'm Steve Mirsky. Got a minute? The 2011 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine goes to Bruce Beutler at the Scripps Research Institute in California, Jules Hoffmann at the French National Center for Sc

SSS 2011-11-17

This is Scientific American's 60-Second Science. I'm John Matson. Got a minute? On November 8th, Russia launched a probe toward the tiny Martian moon Phobos. The launch was picture-perfect, and the spacecraft, called PhobosGrunt, soared into the nigh

SSS 2011-06-17

This is Scientific American's 60-Second Science. I'm Karen Hopkin. This will just take a minute. How many times has it happened to you: you're sitting around watching a rerun of Friends and you think: Man, if only I could catch a whiff of that hazeln

SSS 2011-06-10

The tomb of king Tutenkhamen better know as King Tut, has raised many questions over the years, what killed the young king, and what's the weird stuff on the walls, since the tomb was opened in 1922, tourists have peered the elaborately painted walls

SSS 2011-05-04

This is Scientific American's 60-Second Science. I'm Cynthia Graber. This will just take a minute. Parents wring their hands over infant sleep patterns. And so when those patterns change, parents tend to panic. But if your baby is sleeping more or na

SSS 2011-07-06

What does a bookworm have in common with a black-tufted marmoset? They both like a little quiet. Or so say scientists in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters. As urban areas continue to expand, their human inhabitants spread all sorts of polluti

SSS 2011-09-08

This is Scientific Americans 60-Second Science. Im Karen Hopkin. This will just take a minute. Thars gold in them thar hillsand we may have meteorites to thank. Because it appears that a rain of meteors nearly 4 billion years ago peppered the Earths

SSS 2011-08-16

This is Scientific American's 60-Second Science. I'm Katherine Harmon. Got a minute? Some 50 million Americans 65 and older currently get help from Medicare. But the program doesn't cover all of the patient's medications. After a patient's annual dru

SSS 2011-07-14

This is Scientific Americans 60-Second Science. Im Steve Mirsky. Got a minute? Former major league pitcher Antonio Alfonseca had six fingers on each hand. One of his coaches was once asked about the consequences of Alfonseca having six fingers and re

SSS 2011-07-12

This is Scientific Americans 60-Second Science. Im Steve Mirsky. Got a minute? Obesity is associated with a host of health problems. But a new study finds that obese people may actually have an advantage in a specific medical situation: theyre less l

SSS 2011-07-05

This is Scientific Americans 60-Second Science. Im Karen Hopkin. This will just take a minute. If youve ever wondered where the Earth came from, the answer, it seems, is blowin in the windthe solar wind. Or so say scientists who, after examining sola

SSS 2011-02-16

This is Scientific American's 60-Second Science. I'm Karen Hopkin. This will just take a minute. Stand at the bottom of a big hill and you can exhaust yourself just thinking about climbing it. But a new study suggests it's not as bad as it looks. Bec

SSS 2011-02-10

This is Scientific Americans 60-Second Science. Im Steve Mirsky. Got a minute? Good news for chilly doctorsyou can wear long sleeves with impunity inside hospitals, because University of Colorado researchers find that docs pick up just as much bacter

SSS 2011-02-04

Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky has introduced a bill that would chop a half trillion dollars out of the federal budget. And although Paul was trained as an ophthalmologist, his axe doesn't show any mercy to science. For example, Paul would