Scientists have introduced genes into the American chestnut from wheat that help disarm the fungus that killed almost all three billion of the trees in the eastern U.S. David Biello reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
An investigation of more than 17,000 hit tunes suggests popular music undergoes periods of shifting diversity, and that new styles evolve in bursts. Christopher Intagliata reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
A vast region of space colder than expected is also largely devoid of galaxies, and the two observations are no coincidence. Clara Moskowitz reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Engineers devised a latex-laced honeycomb material that could make an airplane cabin sound more like a quiet living room. Christopher Intagliata reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Device stimulates hand muscles to counteract writing issues experienced by some people with Parkinson’s. Larry Greenemeier reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
A new survey suggests that most kids by age two are using tablets and smartphones, sometimes while watching TV. Christopher Intagliata reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Feline audiogenic reflex seizures, or FARS, was discovered after a few cat owners reported the issue to an advocacy group Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Blood tests on 10 professional musicians before and after playing showed that specific genes got turned on by performance, some of which are also active in songbirds. Karen Hopkin reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Analysis of 168 bottles of bubbly that sat at the sea bottom for 170 years shows how the old-timers tweaked their champagne taste. Cynthia Graber reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Scientific American 's David Biello hosts a new episode of the TV series Beyond the Light Switch, focusing on the means to and effects of a more electricity-powered country. Steve Mirsky reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Making salamis and cheeses with more pores might make them taste just as salty but with less added sodium finding its way into the body. Christopher Intagliata reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The harder a projectile hits a granular substance like sand, the more that material acts like a solid, effectively repelling the intruder. Christopher Intagliata reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Thanks to their GPS systems, smartphones in an array could pick up movements indicating the onset of an earthquake and provide extra seconds of early warning. Cynthia Graber reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Radar measurements and models of Earthly glacial ice flows led researchers to conclude that the glaciers spotted on Mars from orbiters contain nearly 150 billion cubic meters of water. Lee Billings reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In a Google Hangout Nobel laureate Elizabeth Blackburn and Scientific American Editor in Chief Mariette DiChristina discuss the relationship between exercise and telomere length, which is related to diseases of aging Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
How a person types can reveal the state of their brain, according to a study that tracked keystrokes when the typist was alert or groggy. Cynthia Graber reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
New app called Pivot will let gadget users see old and new images of sites as they walk past. Larry Greenemeier reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
An analysis of human breast milk bought online reveals that some 10 percent of the samples contained cow’s milk. Dina Fine Maron reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Staphylococcus hominis is a key perpetrator of body odor—and researchers say selectively interfering with it could make for more effective deodorants. Christopher Intagliata reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
A Danish study of more than 50,000 adults suggests that exercise lowers risk of death—even if you work out amidst urban air pollution. Christopher Intagliata reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
A small study finds that diabetics who ate a big breakfast and small dinner had better glucose control than those who ate the opposite. Steve Mirsky reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
You can now share your genome, health and microbiome info, and viral infection data to crowdsourced medical research projects. Cynthia Graber reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The six million black people who left the South between 1910 and 1970 had better economic opportunity but a lower chance or reaching their 70s. Erika Beras reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
NASA’s Cassini spacecraft spotted a surprising amount of methane erupting from Saturn’s moon Enceladus, suggesting it harbors more methane than we thought. Clara Moskowitz reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The Plasmodium parasite uses an altered type of plant chloroplast to manufacture pine-and-lemon-scented chemicals, which lure in the bloodsuckers. Christopher Intagliata reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Bicarbonate, the chemical that transports CO2 through the blood, increases the "refresh rate" of rod cells in lab tests--which could mean better motion detection. Christopher Intagliata reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The decline and abandonment of the Mexican metropolis may have been hastened by infighting among different cultural and socioeconomic groups. Cynthia Graber reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
People in the Congo rainforests or in Montreal tended to react to the same piece of music in strikingly similar ways. Andrea Alfano reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Astronomers report the discovery of only the second quadruple-star system known to host at least one planet. But they suspect there are a lot more such systems out there. Lee Billings reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Smoke wafting north from the Gulf of Mexico worsened the already stormy weather brewing across the southeastern U.S. on April 27, 2011. Julia Rosen reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
