SSS 2008-07-31（在线收听）

This is Scientific American's 60-Second Science. I'm Christopher Intagliata. Got a minute?

Tricky cyclists in the Tour de France sometimes cheat by upping their red blood cell count for those tough stretches through the Alps. But researchers at California’s Salk Institute just discovered a new sort of endurance training in a pill—pop it and go farther, for longer. For mice, at least. But there’s evidence it works for us, too. The research appears in the journal Cell. First, the team gave mice a drug that targets a sort of endurance gene. It didn’t work by itself. But with exercise training, the doping mice ran twice as far as their equally trained, drug-free buddies. And they had more of the muscle fibers that boost endurance. The researchers realized exercise was the key to activating this endurance circuit. So they gave the mice a different drug that mimics a natural chemical produced during exercise, called AMP. When AMP levels rise, the endurance circuit kicks in. So with the second drug, even lazy, untrained mice ran as far as trained, drug-free mice. But athletes beware—the researchers are already working with the World Anti-Doping Agency to bust would-be Olympic cheats. 

Thanks for the minute. For Scientific American's 60-Second Science, I'm Christopher Intagliata