Scientific American’s podcasts are fascinating to thousands of listeners, especially 60-Second Psych, which is produced in partnership with Worth Publishers

Scientific American’s podcasts are fascinating to thousands of listeners, especially 60-Second Psych, which is produced in partnership with Worth Publishers. Click on any of the links below to listen now, or visit the Scientific American Web site to subscribe.

In this episode, Stanford University's Chip Heath talks about his book Made To Stick, which discusses the secrets behind crafting messages and ideas that capture the imagination; and Nick Goddard discusses the experiment he did to find out how far he could bike on the energy equivalent to that in a gallon of gasoline.

Errors Make Up Part of Expertise (December 20, 2007)
Even experts make subtle errors. But working with songbirds, researchers Evren Turner and Michael Brainard of the University of California, San Francisco, find that what looks like pure error may be built-in trial and error. Which may be important for continued expertise. Karen Hopkin reports.

How you hear a clock ticking is influenced by the natural rhythms of your native language.

Mouth sounds, rather than whole words or sentences, control vocal joysticks, enabling people without the use of their hands to deftly use computers. Cynthia Graber reports.

Computer scientists have developed a program that gets jokes, part of the effort to improve communications between people and computers. Steve Mirsky reports.

Teams of Australian magpie-larks that sing higher-quality duets are sending a message to their fellow birds--we're a strong team when it comes to defending our territory, too.

High-speed video reveals that clownfish's unique communication relies on shuffling mouth bones and smacking teeth together, with the jaws radiating the sound.

A study finds that close friends, co-workers or family members can have trouble understanding each other because they develop communications shorthand that can sometimes derail meaning.

A 2007 study published in Science shows that young human children perform as well as apes on intelligence tests, but that kids beat apes in social skills. The lead researcher explains why this difference is crucial. Christie Nicholson reports.

Researchers continue to search for a way inside the mind of an animal. One promising study looked at monkeys that make bets.

In this episode, the conclusion of a two-part interview with anthropologist Carel Van Schaik about intelligence in animals; astronomer Steven Squyres talks about the current state of the Mars Rovers Spirit and Opportunity; and cardiologist Arthur Klatsky rebuts a recent meta-study that claims that light-to-moderate alcohol consumption confers no cardiovascular health benefits.

In this episode, the first of a two-part interview with anthropologist Carel Van Schaik about the role of culture in boosting intelligence in animals; historian and writer William Lanouette discusses an upcoming History Channel program about the roles of Einstein and Leo Szilard in the beginning of the nuclear age.

Researchers are trying to teach computers to understand the meaning of human language by providing the computers with the information in the online encyclopedia Wikipedia.