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3-D Printing and the Race for Space
It lets aerospace engineers develop high-quality parts much faster than they could with traditional fabrication methods
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Observations
It's Time to Get Serious about Tick-Borne Diseases
The U.S. vanquished malaria and beat back AIDS, but Lyme and other illnesses are raging unchecked
Observations
Scientists Have Been Underestimating the Pace of Climate Change
A book entitled Discerning Experts explains why—and what can be done about it
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Frightening new maps of U.S. coastal areas to be inundated by global warming
These maps correspond with a one meter rise in sea level -- the amount of sea level rise scientists predict will occur whether or not we cease emitting carbon today, on account of all the warming the earth has yet to do in order to reach equilibrium with the amount of C02 we've already put into the atmosphere...
Eating plants gathered from the wild... in New York City
This past Sunday, SciAm's Steve Mirsky was part of a group led by ethnobotanist Nat Bletter (holding the apple-picking stick) that searched for edible plants in New York City's Central Park...
Learning fear by watching: The brainier, cheaper path to knowledge
Welcome to
Mind Matters
where top researchers in neuroscience, psychology, and psychiatry explain and discuss the findings and theories driving their fields.
Do patients have the right to demand experimental medications?
In the October 2007 issue of Scientific American, we cover a controversial lawsuit that challenges the FDA's system of controlling access to drugs that are still in clinical trials.
SciAm editor discusses male lactation on drive-time radio
MP3: Reporter Nikhil Swaminathan holds his own on KSYY 107.1, whose station name happens to be "Sassy." Around here we call that "taking one for the team."
Traveler's Dilemma and a new kind of formal reasoning in game theory
What is rational and what is irrational? That question lay at the core of a mountain of letters we received about our June article "The Traveler's Dilemma" by Kaushik Basu.
Backyard Science: A New Cure for Bruises?
A few days ago I grilled up some kielbasa in my Brooklyn backyard. Several mosquitoes were also enjoying dinner in my backyard, and one of them hit the motherlode: the little sucker bit me right on a bruise (a relic from SciAm's recent softball game against Popular Science)...
An interview with Alex, the African grey parrot
As you may have heard, Alex, the celebrated African Grey parrot, died recently. He was 31. Irene Pepperberg of Brandeis University began working with Alex when he was little more than a year old, hoping to gain insights into avian intelligence...
Saying no to yourself: The neural mechanisms of self-control
Welcome to
Mind Matters
where top researchers in neuroscience, psychology, and psychiatry explain and discuss the findings and theories driving their fields.
Emotions recalled in the Sea of Tranquility
Last night I saw a preview of the In the Shadow of the Moon , the new feature-length documentary about the Apollo moon landings. I admit it: I'm a space buff.
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