SSS 2011-10-07

PCRthe polymerase chain reactionis a crucial tool. The DNA amplification technique is used in genome sequencing, forensics and the diagnosis of various diseases. To give researchers more genetic material to work with, a PCR instrument repeatedly heat

SSS 2011-12-02

This is Scientific Americans 60-Second Science. Im Cynthia Graber. This will just take a minute. Bats see with their ears, which are highly attuned to pick up minute variations in the reflection of the sound pulses they use to echolocate. Here are so

SSS 2011-11-14

This is Scientific American's 60-Second Science. I'm Cynthia Graber. This will just take a minute. Think of the weirdest creatures you've ever seen in a sci-fi film. Now think of this: there are far stranger, albeit smaller, critters living in your o

SSS 2011-05-12

This is Scientific Americans 60-Second Science. Im Christopher Intagliata. Got a minute? Theres one message waiting for you. Imagine that you wanna send a secret message to your colleague at the CIA. You can encrypt it to prevent counterspies from re

SSS 2011-06-15

This is Scientific Americans 60-Second Science. Im Cynthia Graber. This will just take a minute. Climate change affects seasonal eventsspring flowers open earlier, songbirds breed sooner. But what about mammals? A new study documents the effect on a

SSS 2011-09-09

This is Scientific American's 60-Second Science. I'm Cynthia Graber. This will just take a minute. Common batteries are electrochemical cells. And they may get better thanks to living cells: the multicellular organism called brown algae. Lithium ion

SSS 2011-05-09

This is Scientific American's 60-Second Science. I'm Christopher Intagliata. Got a minute? It's not news that tobacco's bad for your healthnearly half a million Americans die from tobacco-related illnesses every year. And among people who abuse drugs

SSS 2011-05-03

This is Scientific Americans 60-Second Science. Im Karen Hopkin. This will just take a minute. The tabloids love a good celebrity romance. But so do scientists. One has even used movie stars as models for understanding why people tend to marry partne

SSS 2011-04-18

This is Scientific American's 60-Second Science. I'm Cynthia Grabera. This will just take a minute. Keeping the brain active and engaged appears to combat the cognitive decline associated with getting older. Now a study has found a new, but related,

SSS 2011-09-01

This is Scientific Americans 60-Second Science. Im Cynthia Graber. This will just take a minute. Pasteurization makes food safe by heating microbes to death. But the high temperatures can destroy some nutrients too. A possible alternative? Ultrahigh

SSS 2011-08-18

This is Scientific Americans 60-SecondScience. Im Steve Mirsky. Got a minute? The traveling salesman problem is afavorite math conundrum: if a salesman has to visit a bunch of cities, how doyou get him to all of them once via the shortest possible ro

SSS 2011-08-15

This is Scientific American's 60-Second Science. I'm Cynthia Graber. This will just take a minute. Conventional poultry farms use antibiotics extensively, which contributes to the rise of antibiotic-resistant pathogens. But farms that turn to organic

SSS 2011-08-12

This is Scientific Americans 60-Second Science. Im Sophie Bushwick. Got a Minute? What's the best way to find out if an unknown mixture contains a specific substance, like an environmental contaminant? You could use an expensive, bulky gas chromatogr

SSS 2011-08-05

This is Scientific Americans 60-Second Science. Im Steve Mirsky. Got a minute? Its tough to beat watching a spaceship lift off. But for us audio fans, theres another sequence during launch preparation thats awfully compelling. At 12:18 P.M. Eastern t

SSS 2011-07-13

This is Scientific American's 60-Second Science. I'm Steve Mirsky. Got a minute? You could think of it as the real dancing with the stars. Two white dwarf stars have been found twirling around each other to make a complete orbit in less than every 13

SSS 2011-07-11

This is Scientific American's 60-Second Science. I'm Steve Mirsky. Got a minute? You've heard of tennis elbow. Well, a friend of mine has gamekeeper's thumb. When he told me his diagnosis, it rang a bell. So I went through the Scientific American arc

SSS 2011-02-15

This is Scientific Americans 60-Second Science. Im Steve Mirsky. Got a minute? Remember the Seinfeld where George buys Jon Voights car? Or the one where Elaine bids on JFKs golf clubs? Why would anyone spend money, often a lot of money, on a common o

SSS 2011-02-03

Orchids are among the most successful flowering plants, with more than 22,000 species around the world. And thats not just because of the obsession they inspire in their human fans. Researchers spent 10 years studying orchids in South Africa, where t

SSS 2011-01-18

This is Scientific Americans 60-Second Science. Im Steve Mirsky. Got a minute? Its a now-they-know-how-many-holes-it-takes-to-fill-the-Albert-Hall situation, because researchers have measured the actual blood alcohol level of fans leaving professiona

SSS 2011-01-17

This is Scientific American's 60-Second Science. I'm Cynthia Graber. This will just take a minute. Many people love what they consider a suntan's healthy glow. But the color you get from eating vegetables might be the most attractive glow of all. Tha