Commentary invited by editors of Scientific American
In 1999 a technology manager called Kevin Ashton coined the phrase “The Internet of Things”. It was to convey the fact that not everything connected to the Internet generates data via humans tapping on keyboards...
“I remember wheeling down this long, narrow corridor into my office, just a confused, scared mess, but I had to confront him.” Phil Vardy was a young medical researcher in Sydney that day in 1982...
At TED Education, we're obsessed with learning. Whether it's about the history of the cell theory, or how to write a slam poem. And since I happen to be obsessed with science, I have a particularly fond place in my heart for our science lessons...
I hope that the father of the “modern Stone Age family” has thick skin, or else he is going to lose his legs.Let’s put aside the fact that Fred Flintstone basically runs to work and therefore doesn’t really need his wheels (or that he would need the quads of a god to get them moving)...
The world is closer than ever to eradicating polio. With only 223 wild poliovirus cases in five countries in 2012, the paralytic disease has been knocked down to just a handful of small reservoirs...
It is in our nature to be self-deficient. This applies initially, chronically and inalienably. Now those once self-evident truths are obscured by errors of biology defying individualism.Though the opposite is often said, no human has ever been “born alone” and survived...
On Wednesday night a fertilizer plant north of Waco, Texas, caught fire and exploded. The violent rupture shook the earth for miles around (the explosion was picked up by seismographs in Oklahoma), set fire to the surroundings, and collapsed nearby buildings.Tragically, as you might suspect with an explosion this size, there are many suspected fatalities and hundreds have been admitted to area hospitals.As chilling pictures like these rolled in, the comparison to an atomic mushroom cloud by the media was immediate...
I didn’t make it to rounds with the rest of my team because I was occupied with another one of our patients who was being assessed by the neurology consultant to be cleared to undergo electroconvulsive therapy...
This is part two of a two-part series on the limits of human economic growth on planet Earth. Part one details some of the environmental and natural resource challenges we’re up against...
I live in Boston. Or rather in Somerville - over the river, as we locals say, across the Charles from downtown. It's a short walk from my apartment to the halls of MIT and Harvard, a bike or subway ride to Tufts and Boston University, easy access to the constantly expanding hub of hospitals, research institutions, biotech giants and start-ups, next-generation technology companies...
STAFFBehind the scenes at Scientific American
Read
STAFF
Read
Exploring the human condition.
Read
Insights into intelligence, creativity, personality, and well-being
Read
Everything you always wanted to know about raising science-literate kids
Read
Critical views of science in the news
Read
STAFF
Read
Explore the science behind the dog in your bed
Read
News and research about endangered species from around the world
Read
The Science Behind Extreme Weather
Read
Science by and for kids ages 8-15
Read
Commentary invited by editors of Scientific American
Read
Climate science in a changing world
Read
Illusions, Delusions, and Everyday Deceptions
Read
Discussion and news about planets, exoplanets, and astrobiology
Read
Opinion, arguments & analyses from guest experts and from the editors of Scientific American
Read
Mathematics: learning it, doing it, celebrating it.
Read
Adventures in the good science of rock-breaking.
Read
STAFFIllustrating science since 1845
Read
STAFFA science blog, sans blague
Read
A Blog About the Weird Wonderfulness of Life on Earth
Read
Exploring and celebrating diversity in science.
Read