Environment
Petroleum Replicas
The language of innovation often stresses disruption--eliminating inefficient industries and replacing them with more streamlined, technologically advanced versions.
Oscillator
Notes, thoughts, and news on synthetic biology.
The Sciences
"What if I told you I was a genetically modified human?"
Megan Daalder's Project Eureka is a shape-shifting and multidimensional narrative about life, science, and technology after the end of the world. At her work-in-progress exhibition at the UCLA Art|Science gallery, which opened this week, she invites us to visit Eureka's future, set in the year 2050...
Technology
The Structure of Industrial Revolutions
This post originally appeared on the brand new Synthetic Biology Engineering Research Center (Synberc) Blog. Check it out for other new posts by Jay Keasling and Linda Kahl on intellectual property law and synthetic biology...
The Sciences
Soil Inspired Cuisine
I'm fascinated by the biology of soil and the history of "dirtiness"--where dirt and bacteria are allowed to be and where we must clean them away. Mary Douglas defines dirt in her classic book Purity and Danger: An Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Taboo as "matter out of place": [Dirt] is a relative idea...
The Sciences
Synthetic Biology News Roundup
There's been a lot of interesting papers out this month in synthetic biology. Here's a quick roundup of some news and research: Oliver Wright, Guy-Bart Stan and Tom Ellis.
Evolution
Synthetic Classification: The Evolution of Imaginary Animals
Darwin's sketch of an evolutionary tree under the heading "I think" is a powerful and enduring image of his theory evolution by natural selection. Phylogenetic trees--branching diagrams that show the relationships between organisms and their evolution from a common ancestor--are now a standard image in biology texts used to situate an organism in biological space and time...
The Sciences
Identity Theft: Nature and Nurture in Art and Science
Art and science address the question of what makes us who we are in different, difficult, often contradictory ways. Since the phrase "nature and nurture" was first used in the late 19th century, trying to separate the contributions of inborn heredity and external environment to our unique individuality, there have been people who argue for the supremacy of our genome, epigenome, connectome, our individual historical moment and social milieux, or all of the above...
The Sciences
The Taxonomy of Wonder
Wonder and amazement at the natural world inspire many blog posts, projects, and even careers in science, but it's rare that you'll see wonder break through the soul-crushing passive voice of the scientific literature...
The Sciences
Bacteriophone: Microbial Wallpapers
I take a lot of photos of bacteria on my phone, and sometimes I use those pictures as my phone's wallpaper. These photos are meta-phone bacteria wallpapers: photographs of bacteria that I collected off the surface of my phone (h/t to Nick for the microbial inspiration)...
The Sciences
Alpha males and adventurous human females : gender and synthetic genomics
In May of 2010, two influential Science papers changed the way that we think about the past and future of genomes. The decoding of the Neandertal genome showed that humans and Neandertals interbred some time before Neandertals went extinct some 30,000 years ago...
Blog Index
@ScientificAmerican
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Anecdotes from the Archive
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Anthropology in Practice
Exploring the human condition.
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Beautiful Minds
Insights into intelligence, creativity, personality, and well-being
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Budding Scientist
Everything you always wanted to know about raising science-literate kids
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Cross-Check
Critical views of science in the news
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Dark Star Diaries
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Dog Spies
Explore the science behind the dog in your bed
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Extinction Countdown
News and research about endangered species from around the world
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Eye of the Storm
The Science Behind Extreme Weather
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Frontiers for Young Minds
Science by and for kids ages 8-15
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Commentary invited by editors of Scientific American
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Hot Planet
Climate science in a changing world
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Illusion Chasers
Illusions, Delusions, and Everyday Deceptions
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Life, Unbounded
Discussion and news about planets, exoplanets, and astrobiology
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Observations
Opinion, arguments & analyses from guest experts and from the editors of Scientific American
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Roots of Unity
Mathematics: learning it, doing it, celebrating it.
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Rosetta Stones
Adventures in the good science of rock-breaking.
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SA Visual
STAFFIllustrating science since 1845
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Talking back
STAFFA science blog, sans blague
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The Artful Amoeba
A Blog About the Weird Wonderfulness of Life on Earth
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Voices
Exploring and celebrating diversity in science.
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