【Phat Yeti出品】60-SECOND SCIENCE 官方听力文稿 + 讨论帖 （更新至：2008.03.07）

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60-Second Science_ July 30,2008
Using Crop Residue for Biofuels Hurts Soil Quality
Harvesting stems and leaves for biofuel takes away a source of nutrients for soil microbes that in turn produce the natural fertilizer for the next generation of crops. Karen Hopkin reports
Biofuels sound like such a good idea. A clean-burning fuel that reduces our need for foreign oil. What’s not to like? Well, for one thing, turning corn into biodiesel could be taking food off hungry people’s plates. “Okay,” biofuel advocates say, “suppose we just use the stems and leaves that are left over after crops are harvested? That should solve the problem.” Well, maybe not entirely. Because removing that so-called crop residue takes food away from soil microbes. They convert that material into the nutrients that crops need. So says USDA scientist Ann Kennedy of Washington State University.
Microbes break down crop residue to form organic matter—the stuff that gives soil its rich, dark color. Organic matter, in turn, provides nutrients, helps the soil retain water, and prevents erosion. So, if you harvest the crop residue to produce biofuels, you remove the materials that are fodder for the bugs that make organic matter. Soil quality would drop, and farmers would have to find some other way to fertilize their fields. So biofuels are not a magic bullet. Maybe you should just eat the corn and ride your bike.
—Karen Hopkin

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60-Second Science_ July 31,2008
Drug Mimics Exercise's Effects
Untrained mice dosed with a drug that induces the same effects as rigorous training ran as far as conditioned rodent athletes did. Christopher Intagliata reports
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.
> Read the full story
—Christopher Intagliata

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七月份的发完了 ^^

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60-Second Science_ Aug 1, 2008

Solar Powered Fuel Cells
An M.I.T. researcher thinks he's found a way to efficiently use solar power to drive the electrolysis of water, which would isolate hydrogen for fuel cells. Cynthia Graber reports
Solar panels typically convert sunlight into electricity or heat. But photosynthetic vegetation converts sunlight into chemical energy. Now M.I.T.’s Daniel Nocera wants to bring photosynthesis to your home. Solar power only works, obviously, when the sun shines. Nocera’s idea is to take solar power and use it to for electrolysis—to break apart water into hydrogen and oxygen—which then could be recombined when needed in a fuel cell. The problem is that current electrolyzer technology takes a lot of energy in a harsh, alkaline environment. That’s because, surprisingly enough, it’s hard to get the oxygen out of the water, not the hydrogen.
Nocera designed a new catalyst for that oxygen step that works at room temperature and pressure, in a glass of water. When a current runs through an electrode, phosphate and cobalt in the water form a thin film on that electrode. And O2 bubbles right up. The work appears in the July 31st issue of the journal Science. This system could be paired with another electrode for the hydrogen side. Nocera believes that electrolyzers could be cheap and efficient within a few years.
> Read the full story
—Cynthia Graber

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60-Second Science_ Aug 4, 2008

Loud Bar Equals More Beer
When music was cranked up louder in a couple of test bars, patrons drank more. They might have been more energized, or simply unable to carry on conversations. Adam Hinterthuer reports
If you're ever worried that you've had one too many drinks after a night of bar-hopping, you might want to ask yourself: Are my ears ringing? Because it turns out that when the music gets loud, we tend to drain our mug of brew faster. That’s according to a study to be published in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.

Researchers staked out two bars in the west of France and observed drinking habits of 40 patrons. With permission from bartenders, the scientists pumped up the volume of a Top 40 station from 72 to 88 pounding decibels. In this earsplitting din of pop-music, patrons drank more in less time. While it's been known that music played in the mall can influence consumer behavior, this study is the first to take that theory to the bar scene.

The researchers speculate that loud music may energize and excite bar-hoppers, making them more likely to binge. Or, they say, perhaps it was just too loud to talk, so people focused instead on their pint-sized companions. Either way, if you're trying to cut back on your beer, might I suggest an earplug chaser?
—Adam Hinterthuer

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60-Second Science_ Aug 5, 2008

Gorillas Galore in Congo
A new census finds many more western lowland gorillas in the Republic of Congo than had been thought. Steve Mirsky reports
Some good news for, and about, primates. Scientists now think there are a lot more gorillas out there than they used to think. A new Wildlife Conservation Society census released on August 5th finds that there are more than 125,000 western lowland gorillas spread out over two northern areas of the Republic of Congo. Western lowland gorillas are found in seven Central African countries. Nineteen-eighties estimates put the population at only about 100,000. And researchers thought that number was down to about 50,000 because of hunting for meat, as well as disease—the dreaded Ebola virus kills gorillas as well as people. But the new census shows a much more thriving population.   
Factors that have helped gorillas include the remoteness of some of the habitat, which also offered plenty of food, and the successful long-term management of the country’s protected areas. Researchers arrived at the updated numbers by combing rainforests and swamps to count so-called nests. Gorillas construct nests out of foliage every night to sack out. Which answers the age-old question about where an 800-pound gorilla sleeps.
—Steve Mirsky