Departments

100 Years Ago: Light Coins
Innovation and discovery as chronicled in past issues of Scientific American

Celebrating Science
Editor in Chief Mariette DiChristina introduces the August 2010 issue of Scientific American

Readers Respond on "Freshwater Use"
Letters to the editor from the April 2010 issue of Scientific American

Recommended: The Changing Arctic Landscape
Books and recommendations from Scientific American

• Danger in School Labs: Accidents Haunt Experimental Science
• Tools for Life: What's Next for Cells Powered by Synthetic Genomes?
• How Acquired Diseases Become Hereditary Illnesses
• Charge under Control: Lithium-Ion Car Batteries Get Crash-Tested
• Robot Test Drive
• An Extra Quiet Sun
• Biological Breakdown
• NASA's Plan to Use Commercial Rockets Lifts Off
• Worts and All
• Night Sight: Rapid Eye Movements Seem to Scan the Actions in Our Dreams

• Our Neandertal Brethren: Why They Were Not a Separate Species

• Faith and Foolishness

• Market Reforms, 20 Years Later

• Take Me Out of the Ball Game: When Physics and Physiology Collide

• Catastrophic Thinking: How to Ensure Oil Spill Disasters Do Not Happen Again

 

Features

When the Sea Saved Humanity
Shortly after Homo sapiens arose harsh climate conditions nearly extinguished our species. Recent finds suggest that the small population that gave rise to all humans alive today survived by exploiting a unique combination of resources along the southern coast of Africa
By Curtis W. Marean

Robot Pills
A voyage through the human body is no longer mere fantasy. Tiny devices may soon perform surgery, administer drugs and help diagnose disease
By Paolo Dario and Arianna Menciassi

Origins: Going Back to Where the Story Really Starts
Sometimes we forget where a story really starts. Are electric cars new? Where did malaria start? Who invented spaghetti? Read on, for the surprising origins of many strange and familiar things
By Brendan Borrell, Melinda Wenner Moyer and Mike May

'Super-Earths': Could They Harbor Life?
The night skies are littered with distant planets, but what are they really like? Theoretical models suggest that a surprising number of "exoplanets" could be similar to Earth—and may even support life
By Dimitar D. Sasselov and Diana Valencia

The Hacker in Your Hardware: The Next Security Threat
As if software viruses weren't bad enough, the microchips that power every aspect of our digital world are vulnerable to tampering in the factory. The consequences could be dire
By John Villasenor

Threatening Oceans from the Inside Out: How Acidification Affects Marine Life
Carbon dioxide emissions are making the oceans more acidic, imperiling the growth and reproduction of species from plankton to squid
By Marah J. Hardt and Carl Safina

Plastic Surf: The Unhealthful Afterlife of Toys and Packaging
Small remnants of toys, bottles and packaging persist in the ocean, harming marine life and possibly even us
By Jennifer Ackerman

Filming the Invisible in 4D: New Microscopy Makes Movies of Nanoscale Objects in Action
Picture this: a movie revealing the inner workings of a cell or showing a nanomachine in action. A new microscopy is making such imaging possible
By Ahmed H. Zewail