Departments

50 Years Ago: A Look at the Far Side of the Moon
Innovation and discovery as chronicled in past issues of Scientific American

Wanted: Bright Ideas to Change the World
Acting Editor in Chief Mariette DiChristina introduces the December 2009 issue of Scientific American

Readers Respond on "What Now for Nuclear Waste?"
Letters to the editor: Neandertals; GM Crops

Recommended: Science Coffee Table Book Holiday Gift Ideas
Books and recommendations from Scientific American

• Does Inflammation Trigger Insulin Resistance and Diabetes?
• Conditional Consciousness: Predicting Recovery from the Vegetative State
• Piercing the Plasma: Ideas to Beat the Communications Blackout of Reentry
• Extreme Monotremes: Why Do Egg-Laying Mammals Still Exist?
• Tiny tyrannosaurs rewrite evolutionary rules
• Setting Boundaries: 10 Guidelines to Save Earth
• New Microscope Reveals the Shape of Atoms
• Splitting Time from Space—New Quantum Theory Topples Einstein's Spacetime

• Crack Research: Good news about knuckle cracking.

• Zoning for Oceans: Balancing Our Competing Needs in the Seas

• Can We Feed and Save the Planet?

• Political Science: The Psychological Differences in the U.S.'s Red-Blue Divide

• War Is Peace: Can Science Fight Media Disinformation?

 

Features

Illuminating the Lilliputian: 10 Bioscapes Photo Contest Winners Revealed
A gallery of images captured by light microscopy reveals the high art of the natural world
By Gary Stix

World Changing Ideas: 20 Ways to Build a Cleaner, Healthier, Smarter World
From solar power to powering our planet with garbage, Scientific American explores ideas that would improve our planet
By Christopher Mims, Amanda Schupak, Michael Moyer, Sarah Simpson, John Pavlus, Gregory Mone, Melinda Wenner and Katherine Harmon

Portrait of a Black Hole
By adapting a global network of telescopes, astronomers will soon get their first look ever at the dark silhouette of a black hole
By Avery E. Broderick and Abraham Loeb

Decoding an Ancient Computer: Greek Technology Tracked the Heavens
New explorations have revealed how the Antikythera mechanism modeled lunar motion and predicted eclipses, among other sophisticated tricks
By Tony Freeth

Arctic Climate Threat--Methane from Thawing Permafrost
Arctic permafrost is already thawing, creating lakes that emit methane. The heat-trapping gas could dramatically accelerate global warming. How big is the threat? What can be done?
By Katey Walter Anthony

What Undersea Vents Reveal about Life's Origins
Analyses of a recently discovered type of hot vent ecosystem on the seafloor suggest new possibilities for how life evolved
By Alexander S. Bradley

The Double Life of ATP in Humans
The molecule ATP, famous as an essential energy source inside cells, also carries critical messages between cells. That dual role is suggesting fresh ideas for fighting human diseases
By Baljit S. Khakh and Geoffrey Burnstock