Departments

100 Years Ago: Baseball's First Night Games
Innovation and discovery as chronicled in past issues of Scientific American

John Rennie Recollects the Moon Landing
Our editor in chief looks back on the Apollo 11 mission as well as his years with Scientific American

News Scan Briefs: Do Rain Forests Make Rain?
Also: ants: "I'm not dead yet," a lower high-water mark, working on the railroad, and temptation zone

Readers Respond on "The Power of Renewables"
Also: letters to the editor on tuberculosis, special relativity and the Conqueror Worm?

Scientific American recommends 3 books about the moon
Also: Becoming Human, and Amazing Animals

Updates: Whatever Happened to Hubble's Last Fix?
Also: updates on mercury in seafood, happiness and choices, and delisting the gray wolf

• Did China's Nuclear Tests Kill Thousands and Doom Future Generations?
• Could Animal Surveillance Have Seen Swine Flu Coming?
• Crawling May Be Unnecessary for Normal Child Development
• Being More Infantile May Have Led to Bigger Brains
• Avatar Acts: Why Online Realities Need Regulation
• Stimulus Funds for Science Raise Concern about Misconduct
• Yanking Pathogens Out of Blood with Magnets

• What Skepticism Reveals about Science

• Still Needed: A Climate Plan--Looking Past Cap and Trade [Extended version]

• Act Now on Global Warming--Energy after the Kyoto Protocol Expires

 

Features

Space Geology: From the Moon to Mars
The only scientist and field geologist ever to visit the moon offers some pointers to those who will one day visit Mars
By Harrison H. Schmitt

The Science of Economic Bubbles and Busts
The worst economic crisis since the Great Depression has prompted a reassessment of how financial markets work and how people make decisions about money
By Gary Stix

Evolutionary Origins of Your Right and Left Brain
The division of labor by the two cerebral hemispheres—once thought to be uniquely human—predates us by half a billion years. Speech, right-handedness, facial recognition and the processing of spatial relations can be traced to brain asymmetries in early vertebrates
By Peter F. MacNeilage, Lesley J. Rogers and Giorgio Vallortigara

Grassoline: Biofuels beyond Corn
Scientists are turning agricultural leftovers, wood and fast-growing grasses into a huge variety of biofuels—even jet fuel. But before these next-generation biofuels go mainstream, they have to compete with oil at $60 a barrel
By George W. Huber and Bruce E. Dale

Forensic Tools Battle Ivory Poachers
The illegal slaughter of African elephants for ivory is now worse than it was at its peak in the 1980s. New forensic tools based on DNA analysis can help stop the cartels behind this bloody trade
By Samuel K. Wasser, Bill Clark and Cathy Laurie

Squashing Superbugs--The Race for New Antibiotics
Scientists are using new tools and tactics in the race to discover novel antibiotics
By Christopher T. Walsh and Michael A. Fischbach

Online Exclusives

Slide Show
Life at the Marine Monuments
The U.S.’s three new national marine monuments host a bounty of life that is now protected.

60-Second Science Blog
Monkey See, Monkey Regret
Researchers used a simian version of the game show Let’s Make a Deal to test whether monkeys, like humans, wonder about what might have been.

Slide Show
Seven Artificial Valves That Lend Hearts a Helping Hand
Artificial designs have evolved over the past five decades to successfully replace natural valves.

60-Second Earth Podcast
Cash for Clunkers
Is the government’s plan to pay people for trading in old, inefficient vehicles an environmental bane or boon?

News
Growth Industry: Honeybee Numbers Expand Worldwide as U.S. Decline Continues
Populations in the U.S. and Europe have been hit hard, but honeybees are on the rise elsewhere.

60-Second Science Podcast
Elderly Who Forget Age Remember Better
In a study, senior citizens who were reminded of their age and of stereotypes about aging performed worse on memory tests than secure seniors did.