Opinion, arguments & analyses from guest experts and from the editors of Scientific American
For decades, scientists have been developing brain-computer linkages they hope will enable people to manipulate objects hands free . Duke neuroscientist Miguel Nicolelis reported a few years ago that a monkey fitted with implanted electrodes could use its brainpower to control the walking patterns of a robot ...
A believer in solar power rarely has a good word to say about nuclear, though the sun generates light in a nuclear way via fusion. Of course, the zealotry works in the other direction as well...
Imagine watching a chemical reaction in real time: atoms breaking bonds with their neighbors and forming new arrangements as heat or pressure changes.
Scientists are great at growing E. coli in the lab. They know exactly under which conditions various strains thrive. Unfortunately, there is only so much that can be learned from the bacteria’s behavior in an ideal, isolated and ultimately unrealistic environment...
Fans of Brian Greene’s NOVA programs, such as The Fabric of the Cosmos, will no doubt enjoy what amounts to a 90-minute live episode. Kicking off the 2013 World Science Festival in New York City on Wednesday night, the show, “Spooky Action: The Drama of Quantum Mechanics" provides an entertaining and thought-provoking journey through the strange reality of quantum mechanics.Greene serves as host and narrator, and he gets help from stage actors who deliver famous (and infamous) lines from physics history, such as Albert Einstein saying that god doesn’t play dice with the universe, Niels Bohr responding that Einstein shouldn’t tell god what to do and Werner Heisenberg saying that Erwin Schrodinger’s wave equations were bullshit (at least that is how his German got translated to English onstage).With the help of a Princeton University colleague, Greene also conducts an onstage double-slit experiment, in which particles passing through two closely spaced slits form over time the classic light-dark interference pattern of waves...
Yesterday brought a flurry of news stories trumpeting a mind-blowing discovery from the lost world of the last ice age: a 10,000-year-old woolly mammoth carcass that preserves muscle tissue the color of fresh meat and blood in liquid form, despite the -10 degrees Celsius temperatures in the Novosibirsk Islands, where Russian researchers discovered the beast...
In April 1963, at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Tucson, Ariz., Peter van de Kamp made what should have been a landmark announcement.
Three suicide bombers stormed the office of the International Red Cross in Jalabad, Afghanistan earlier today and at least one guard has been killed.
“Periodical cicadas have the longest life cycles known for insects. They are called ‘periodical’ because in any one population all but a trivially small fraction are exactly the same age...
In a bid to set the record for longest distance solar flight, Andre Borschberg will pilot the Solar Impulse airplane from Phoenix to Dallas. Total flying distance, barring route deviations due to weather or other factors, would be nearly 1,400 kilometers, or more than 200 kilometers farther than the previous longest flight set in 2012.On May 3, in just under 20 hours, the Solar Impulse airplane flew from Moffett Field near San Francisco to Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix...
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
Already a subscriber? Sign in.
