This is Scientific American's 60-Second Science. I'm Karen Hopkin. Thisll just take a minute. Any school kid can tell you that comets are made of ice. That frozen water burning off is what gives comets their characteristic tails. But asteroids were g...
If you've ever driven up to a mountain pass, you know that the higher you climb, the colder it gets. But on clear, calm days, it can actually (be) colder in the valleys. That's because under high-pressure systems, cold air slides down mountain slopes...
In 1970, the Soviet Union put a laser reflector on the moon, carried by a rover. A few months later, it disappeared. Some speculated that the rover had fallen into a crater or parked in such a way as to render the reflector inaccessible. Now after 40...
Shhh, keep this podcast a secret. Because new research points to a possible blind spot in airport security screening: it may be easier to sneak something dangerous past securitya box cutter, for exampleby also including an obvious and innocuous banne...
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Thats more than a folksy aphorism when it comes to infectious diseases. Because according to a report in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, its more cost effective to reduce the cases of a disease i...
I used to scoff vi.(at)嘲弄，嘲笑at the idea of Minute Rice. I mean, are we really in such a hurry that we cant wait, like, 10 minutes for a regular old bowl of rice? Well, yes, yes we are. And fast food may be making matters worse. Because a st...
A New York Times reporter recently wrote this sentence: Like most heck, all of the women I know, my relationship to food, to my weight, to my body iscomplicated. That relationship is now visible in our brains. When anorexic and bulimic women see imag...
Hows this for a possible new culprit for breast cancer sufferers: they may be able to blame their grandmas diets. Thats the implication of a study done with rats. Researchers affiliated with the Georgetown University Medical Center fed a group of pre...
This is Scientific American's Sixty-Second Science. I'm Christopher Intagliata. Got the minute? Scientists have finally verified something that Jersey Shore stars Snooki and Pauly D have probably known all alongthat getting your bronze on at the tann...
Invasive species can decrease biodiversity and drive resident species to the brink of extinction. But how do these interlopers fare so well in unfamiliar territory? One idea is that theyve escaped their enemies, for example, the parasites that keep t...
Last week, scientists announced the discovery of a remarkably well-preserved skeleton of what might be a new species of an ancient hominid that lived almost 2 million years ago. The bones were found in 2008. This February, they were analyzed by one o...
One main goal in the renewable energy field is to find an efficient, inexpensive way to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen could then be used as a fuel source for vehicles or fuel cells. Typically, an electric current breaks the water...
People start stereotyping early. Even toddlers react positively to members of their own race, but often distrust those from different groups. The seeds of racism are planted in most everyone. Everyone, that is, except people with a rare genetic condi...
Here in New York, the pending state budget includes one provision thats probably making more news than the rest of the budgets contents combined: a tax on non-diet soda and other high-calorie drinks. If the budget is passed by the legislature, sugary...
This is Scientific American's 60-Second Science. I'm Cynthia Graber. This'll just take a minute. As scientists delve deeper beneath the oceans surface, they find bizarre creatures that have adapted to harsh and extreme environments. Now comes a new o...
