The Blurry Line between Small and Quantum Small
The late physicist Erwin Schrodinger was probably relieved to know that flesh and blood cats are too big to behave according to the laws of quantum physics.
Observations
Opinion, arguments & analyses from guest experts and from the editors of Scientific American
NASA Adds a New Space Telescope to Its Fleet of Solar Satellites
Despite being the closest star to Earth, the sun still has its secrets. What drives the powerful eruptions of gas known as coronal mass ejections? How does the sun regulate Earth's climate?...
Lonesome George, the Iconic Gal pagos Tortoise, Gets Prepared for Taxidermy [Video]
Lonesome George checks out a keeper in his Galápagos pen, May 3, 2011--a year before he died.Credit: Philip Yam The world’s most famous tortoise will soon make a return to public display—in mounted form.The last of his species, Lonesome George was an icon for conservation and evolution...
How Secret Spying Programs Affect the Clinically Paranoid
So, the government is spying on you.They’re lingering on your landlines, ogling your Googling, and eavesdropping on your emails. You’re no terrorist, but who knows?
Voyager 1 Returns Surprising Data about an Unexplored Region of Deep Space
About the Voyager 1 spacecraft, this much is clear: the NASA probe has traveled farther than any other. Voyager 1 is now more than 18.5 billion kilometers from the sun—almost 125 times the distance between Earth and the sun...
Tar Sands No Worse than Other Oils for Pipeline Spills
The oil derived from Canada's tar sands is more acidic than other forms of petroleum. So does this mean that diluted bitumen (or "dilbit") is more corrosive when flowing through a pipeline?...
Horse Fossil Yields Astonishingly Old Genome Are Similarly Ancient Human Genomes Next?
Researchers have recovered DNA from a nearly 700,000-year-old horse fossil and assembled a draft of the animal’s genome from it. It is the oldest complete genome to date by a long shot--hundreds of thousands of years older than the previous record holder, which came from an archaic human that lived around 80,000 years ago...
Obama Has a Plan for Climate, What If It Involves Tar Sands?
On a sweltering day in Washington, D.C., President Barack Obama sweated as he laid out his new plan to combat climate change. In addition to the mandatory cuts in CO2 pollution from coal-fired power plants and the efforts to protect the country from the ravages of climate change highlighted by my colleague Mark Fischetti, Obama also found time to mention a little pipeline that would connect the tar sands in Alberta, Canada with refineries along the Gulf Coast in Texas...
Science Will Protect Us from Climate Change, Obama Says
Science can save us from the next Hurricane Sandy. That’s what President Barack Obama will say today when he releases his Climate Action Plan, during a highly anticipated speech at Georgetown University.The plan, which consists of a long list of actions the executive branch can take with no help or hindrance from Congress, has three “pillars.” One is to cut carbon dioxide emissions, two is to “prepare the U.S...
WikiLeaks Defends NSA Whistleblower, Condemns PRISM Digital Surveillance
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange held a press conference Monday to weigh in on Edward Snowden’s actions and comment on his organization’s role in helping the National Security Agency whistleblower seek asylum in Ecuador.Assange, who himself has been holed up in Ecuador’s British embassy for the past year to avoid prosecution for WikiLeaks work, defended Snowden’s actions...
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Mathematics: learning it, doing it, celebrating it.
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Adventures in the good science of rock-breaking.
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A Blog About the Weird Wonderfulness of Life on Earth
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Exploring and celebrating diversity in science.
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