60-Second Science

Researchers say three ancient leather balls, dug up from the tombs of horsemen in northwestern China, are the oldest such specimens from Europe or Asia. Christopher Intagliata reports. -- Read...

From mammals to mollusks, animals living among humans lose their antipredator behaviors. -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com

The ancestors of today’s dogs already exhibited some playfulness, which became a key trait during domestication. -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com

A stretch of Neanderthal DNA has been associated with some cases of severe COVID-19, but it's unclear how much a risk it poses. Christopher Intagliata reports. -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com

New chemistry Nobel Laureate Jennifer Doudna talks about various applications of the gene editing tool CRISPR. -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com

Blue whales off the California coast sing at night until it's time to start migrating when they switch to daytime song. -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com

Charles Rice, who today shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of the hepatitis C virus, talked about how rapidly research now occurs compared with his early work. --...

Researchers determined that Greenland is on track to lose more ice this century than during any of the previous 120 centuries. Christopher Intagliata reports. -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com

Researchers determined that Greenland is on track to lose more ice this century than during any of the previous 120 centuries. Christopher Intagliata reports. -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com

The disappearance of their predators in a disturbed ecosystem has turned Atlantic forest sloths from night creatures to day adventurers. -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com

The disappearance of their predators in a disturbed ecosystem has turned Atlantic forest sloths from night creatures to day adventurers. -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com

Researchers seeking evidence for cancer in dinosaurs found it in a collection of bones at an Alberta paleontology museum. -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com

Fork-tailed flycatchers make a fluttering sound with their wings—but separate subspecies have different “dialects” of fluttering. Christopher Intagliata reports. -- Read more on...

Here are some brief reports about science and technology from all over, including one from Israel about what DNA reveals about the Dead Sea Scrolls’ parchment. -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com

Hyraxes, which live in Africa and the Middle East, punctuate their songs with snorts. And the snorts appear to reflect the animals’ emotional state. Jason G. Goldman reports. -- Read more on...

Scientists determined that temperatures were 11 degrees cooler during the last ice age—and that finding has implications for modern-day warming. Julia Rosen reports. -- Read more on...

Hummingbirds in the Peruvian Andes enter a state of torpor at night to conserve energy, dipping their body temperatures to as low as 38 degrees Fahrenheit. Christopher Intagliata reports. -- Read...

Given an impossible task, a dog will ask a human for help, but a wolf will not seek help—and neither will a pet pig. -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com

Pumping cheap iron-oxide-rich red bricks with specific vapors that form polymers enables the bricks to become electrical charge storage devices. -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com

Researchers found that leftovers are likely to end up in the trash, so they advise cooking smaller meals in the first place to avoid food waste. Christopher Intagliata reports. -- Read more on...