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Welcome to Scientific American Science Talk posted on August 16, 2016. I'm Steve Murski.

On this episode... And what they found was about six out of 1900 people had like 50% higher oxygen carrying

capacity than was normal, which is enormous. They looked basically like, you know, almost

like trained college runners, but had never trained before.

That's David Epstein. He ran track at Columbia University while getting an undergraduate degree in astronomy and environmental science.

He went on to get a master's in journalism and an environmental science from Columbia, after which he did ecology research above the Arctic Circle, and wrote

some big investigative pieces for Sports Illustrated. In 2013, he published the bestseller

the sports gene inside the science of extraordinary athletic performance. And last week,

Scientific American.com ran his article on performance enhancement titled Magic Blood and Carbon Fiber Legs at the

Brave New Olympics. That one's available free on our website. To get up to speed on the fastest

and strongest people on the planet, I spoke with Epstein by phone earlier today.

David, as you're watching the Olympics, what do you see that maybe some of us who haven't paid as close attention to athletics and training and genetics would notice?

What do you see that's escaping the rest of us?

Well, I guess one of the things I noticed not just in track, but in the Olympics in general,

is sort of, I guess, what I called in the sports gene the big bang of body types, which is

this idea that, you know, early in mid-20th century, there was this feeling that the average

...