Observations
Masks and Emasculation: Why Some Men Refuse to Take Safety Precautions
They think it makes them look weak, and avoiding that is evidently more important to them than demonstrating responsible behavior
Blogs
Observations
How a Landmark Physics Paper from the 1970s Uncannily Describes the COVID-19 Pandemic
Phil Anderson’s article “More Is Different” describes how different levels of complexity require new ways of thinking. And as the virus multiplies and spreads, that’s just what the human race desperately needs...
Observations
The Fight against COVID-19 Threatens to Cause Collateral Health Damage
The pandemic is no excuse to abandon chronic disease management and prevention
Recent Posts
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In the U.S., fewer die of heart disease, but it's still the top killer
The good news: U.S. deaths from heart disease and stroke are down by 30 percent, the American Heart Association is reporting. Heart disease deaths fell from 864,480 in 2005 to 829,072 in 2006, the most recent year statistics are available...
Hackers help loggers illegally strip trees from the Amazon
As the feds increase the amount of its business conducted online (ostensibly to save on the costs of paper and even help the environment), government information becomes more of a target for hackers...
Sleep badly, burn calories?
Sleep apnea, a disorder that can cause sufferers to temporarily stop breathing while snoozing, has long been associated with obesity. Paradoxical new findings suggest an ironic benefit: the worse the disease gets, the more calories patients burn...
Colonoscopy: Not so great after all?
For about a decade, public health officials have been aggressively pushing colonoscopy, a procedure that inspects the colon for growths using a tube and camera, as the gold standard for detecting tumors while they're still treatable...
Readers' choice: Your 10 favorite stories from 2008
As part of our year-end wrap-up of the biggest science stories of 2008, below we present the 10 most-viewed stories on SciAm.com over the past year.
What does Barack Obama's brain look like?
Barack Obama still has a month before his inauguration as the 44th U.S. president, but there have already been a number of attempts to get inside his brain.
The Skinny on Fat: Is Obesity in Our Genes?
Researchers have identified six genes that may play a role in our appetite and, as a result, in whether we're plump or thin. They report in Nature Genetics that the genes appear to affect brain activity that controls how much we eat, indicating that obesity, at least in part, may stem from behavior passed on from one generation to the next...
Hormone replacement therapy dramatically ups breast cancer risk in postmenopausal women
Post menopausal women who take hormones for more than five years to relieve symptoms such as hot flashes have twice the risk of developing breast cancer as women who do not take estrogen and progestin to replace their own dwindling supplies, according to a new analysis of over 16,000 post-menopausal woman...
Reporter finds private campaign info on McCain BlackBerry purchased at a garage sale
We learned during the presidential campaign that the BlackBerry was the “miracle that John McCain helped create,” according to an aide to the failed GOP candidate.
Free broadband plan on hold after FCC meeting is scrapped
A vote that would have decided whether U.S. Internet users would get access to free, nationwide broadband service has been put off. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) canceled a meeting scheduled for Thursday at which regulators would have decided whether the agency would auction off a spectrum of unused airwaves for the purpose of building the massive network...
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