en-usScience news and technology updates from Scientific Americanhttp://www.scientificamerican.comCopyright 1996-2012 Scientific Americanhttp://www.scientificamerican.com45http://www.scientificamerican.com/media/logo/SAlogo_144px.gif144 Tue, 29 May 2012 20:20:08 EST http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=does-bad-dog-mean-bad-owner-12-05-29 <p>You see a guy walking a pit bull with a studded collar. What&#39;s your first thought: tough guy, right? Well, probably. But chances are he&#39;s a conscientious, rule-abiding tough guy. So says a study in the journal Anthrozoos . [Vincent Egan and Jason MacKenzie, Does Personality, Delinquency, or Mating Effort Necessarily Dictate a Preference for an Aggressive Dog? ]&nbsp;</p> <a href=http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=does-bad-dog-mean-bad-owner-12-05-29>[More]</a> More Science,Society & Policy,Psychology,More Science,Mind & Brain,Everyday Science Tue, 29 May 2012 17:09:00 EST http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=researchers-discover-hacker-ready-computer-chips <p> A pair of security researchers in the U.K. have released a paper [PDF] documenting what they describe as the first real world detection of a backdoor in a microchip an opening that could allow a malicious actor to monitor or change the information on the chip. The researchers, Sergei Skorobogatov of the University of Cambridge and Christopher Woods of Quo Vadis Labs, concluded that the vulnerability made it possible to reprogram the contents of supposedly secure memory and obtain information regarding the internal logic of the chip. I discussed the possibility of this type of hardware vulnerability in the August 2010 Scientific American article &#8220; The Hacker in Your Hardware .&#8221;</p><p>The security breach is a particular concern because of the type of chip involved. The affected chip, a ProASIC3 A3P250, is a field programmable gate array (FPGA). These chips are used in an enormous variety of applications, including communications and networking systems, the financial markets, industrial control systems, and a long list of military systems. Each customer configures an FPGA to implement a unique and often highly proprietary set of logical operations. For example, a customer in the financial markets might configure an FPGA to make high speed trading decisions. A customer in aviation might use an FPGA to help perform flight control. Any mechanism that could allow unauthorized access to the internal configuration of an FPGA creates the risk of intellectual property theft. In addition, the computations and data in the chip could be maliciously altered.</p> <a href=http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=researchers-discover-hacker-ready-computer-chips>[More]</a> Technology Tue, 29 May 2012 14:35:00 EST http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=white-house-petitioned-make-research-free-access <p>From Nature magazine</p> <a href=http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=white-house-petitioned-make-research-free-access>[More]</a> More Science,Science Education,More Science,Society & Policy Tue, 29 May 2012 13:45:00 EST http://www.scientificamerican.com/citizen-science/project.cfm?id=lowell-amateur-research-initiative Amateur astronomers can work on research projects with Lowell Observatory researchers <a href=http://www.scientificamerican.com/citizen-science/project.cfm?id=lowell-amateur-research-initiative>[More]</a> Space,What's Next,Science in Service,Cosmology,Astrophysics,Extraterrestrial Life,Galaxies,Space Exploration,Physics,Science Education Tue, 29 May 2012 12:45:00 EST http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=could-dwarf-corn-improve-yields <p>Pity the corn plant. Its tall, gangly, inefficient architecture makes it an environmental laggard among plants, one that sucks up water and fertilizer while leaching out gobs of nutrients that run off in rainfall, polluting surface waters from the Midwest to the Gulf of Mexico.</p> <a href=http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=could-dwarf-corn-improve-yields>[More]</a> Energy & Sustainability,Biotechnology,Biotechnology,Society & Policy Tue, 29 May 2012 12:13:20 EST http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=south-africas-telescope-success-may <p>By Jon Herskovitz</p><p>JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's winning the rights to host the bulk of the world's biggest radio telescope looks set to clash with plans to use the high-pressure pumping method fracking, which can cause earth tremors, to extract gas from its vast shale deposits.</p><p>Last week, South Africa won the rights to locate about 70 percent of the "Square Kilometre Array" (SKA), a $2 billion project capable of detecting signs of extraterrestrial life in the far reaches of the universe.</p><p>The project will bring the construction of more than a thousand highly sensitive receptors spread across hundreds of kilometers of arid terrain in the Northern Cape province.</p><p>The area is subject to an astronomy law that prohibits activity interfering with star gazing, which could include hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking" - where drillers blast large amounts of sand and water laced with chemicals deep underground to free natural gas and oil from shale deposits.</p><p>"There is no decision by government on that (fracking). <a href=http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=south-africas-telescope-success-may>[More]</a> Energy & Sustainability,Physics,Space,Technology,Society & Policy,Energy Technology,More Science,Space Exploration,Energy Technology,Environment,Everyday Science Tue, 29 May 2012 12:00:00 EST http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=fracking-boom-spurs-environmental-audit <p style="text-align:left">By Helen Thompson of Nature magazine</p><p style="text-align:left"></p><p style="text-align:left">For Ohio, a Midwestern state hit hard by recession, the promise of an energy boom driven by hydraulic fracturing, or `fracking', would seem to be a sure route to financial health. <a href=http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=fracking-boom-spurs-environmental-audit>[More]</a> Energy & Sustainability,Health,Energy Technology,Environment,Society & Policy Tue, 29 May 2012 08:30:00 EST http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=why-memory-so-good-bad <p>What did you eat for dinner one week ago today? Chances are, you can&rsquo;t quite recall. But for at least a short while after your meal, you knew exactly what you ate, and could easily remember what was on your plate in great detail. What happened to your memory between then and now? Did it slowly fade away? Or did it vanish, all at once?</p> <a href=http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=why-memory-so-good-bad>[More]</a> Mind & Brain,Thought & Cognition,Psychology,Mind & Brain,Neuroscience Tue, 29 May 2012 08:00:00 EST http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=mistakes-faster-than-light-telegraph-that-wasnt <p> </p> <a href=http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=mistakes-faster-than-light-telegraph-that-wasnt>[More]</a> More Science,More Science,History of Science,Everyday Science Tue, 29 May 2012 07:50:08 EST http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=virus-victors-people-who-control-hi-12-05-29 <p>Bruce Walker, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and director of the Ragon Institute of Massachusetts General Hospital, M.I.T. <a href=http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=virus-victors-people-who-control-hi-12-05-29>[More]</a> More Science,Chemistry,Health,Medical Technology,More Science,Infectious Diseases,Biology Tue, 29 May 2012 07:12:00 EST http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=tasters-choice-why-i-hate-raw-tomatoes-and-you-dont <p> I have a confession: I hate raw tomatoes. Really hate them. Really, really hate them. It&#8217;s a positively visceral reaction, beyond my conscious control. Even the smell makes me slightly nauseous. Once, as a kid, my mom got fed up with watching me shove tomatoes to the side of my plate, and insisted I couldn&#8217;t leave the dinner table until I ate them. I put it off as long as possible, but finally, desperate to get away and lose myself in the book du jour , I shoved the offending food into my mouth&#8230; and promptly gagged and spit it up. My mother, to her credit, threw up her hands in resignation. Her daughter would never eat raw tomatoes.</p><p>This intense hatred of raw tomatoes was incomprehensible to my mother; she loves them as much as I despise them. I suppose it&#8217;s equally incomprehensible to all the rest of your tomato-lovers out there. Frankly, it&#8217;s even a little incomprehensible to me, seeing as how I love ketchup and spaghetti sauce, provided there are no huge chunks of tomatoes &#8212; boil and puree those suckers, and season with tons of garlic, olive oil, basil, thyme, and oregano, and it overcomes even my rebellious palate. All my life, I&#8217;ve been vaguely ashamed of my dislike, probably because it was such a profound disappointment to my mother, and naturally I craved her approval.</p> <a href=http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=tasters-choice-why-i-hate-raw-tomatoes-and-you-dont>[More]</a> More Science Tue, 29 May 2012 07:00:00 EST http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=facebook-organ-donation <p>Since launching in February 2004, Facebook has proved highly effective at creating opportunities for the average Web user to create campaigns that reach a mass audience. Most recently such opportunities have extended to organ donation , an area that could benefit from the social network&#39;s attention-- controversy over its recent initial public offering aside , Facebook&#39;s membership is more than 900 million and growing. <a href=http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=facebook-organ-donation>[More]</a> Technology,Health,Society & Policy,Everyday Science,Consumer Electronics,Biotechnology,Ethics,Medical Technology,Communications,Computing,Biology,More Science Tue, 29 May 2012 07:00:00 EST http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=super-supernovae-antimatter-powered <p>In the middle of 2005 the W. M. Keck observatory on Mauna Kea in Hawaii completed an upgrade of one of its giant twin telescopes. By automatically correcting for atmospheric turbulence, the instrument could now produce images as sharp as those from the Hubble Space Telescope. Shrinivas Kulkarni of the California Institute of Technology urged young Caltech researchers--myself among them--to apply for observing time. Once the rest of the astronomy community realized how terrific the telescopes were, he warned us, securing a slot would become very competitive.</p> <a href=http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=super-supernovae-antimatter-powered>[More]</a> Space,Physics,Cosmology,Energy & Sustainability,Science Education,Astrophysics,Environment,More Science Tue, 29 May 2012 07:00:00 EST http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-right-way-to-get-it-wrong <p>Perhaps more than any other profession, science places a premium on being correct. Of course, most scientists--like most living humans--make plenty of mistakes along the way. Yet not all errors are created equal. Historians have unearthed a number of instances in which an incorrect idea proved far more potent than thousands of others that were trivially mistaken or narrowly correct. These are the productive mistakes: errors that touch on deep, fundamental features of the world around us and prompt further research that leads to major breakthroughs. Mistakes they certainly are. But science would be far worse off without them.</p> <a href=http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-right-way-to-get-it-wrong>[More]</a> More Science,Energy Technology,History of Science,Mind & Brain,Physics,Technology,Society & Policy,Everyday Science,Energy & Sustainability,Science Education,Thought & Cognition,Communications,Energy Technology,Biology,Chemistry Mon, 28 May 2012 16:00:00 EST http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=polio-makes-last-stand <p style="text-align:left">By Ewen Callaway of Nature magazine</p><p style="text-align:left"></p><p style="text-align:left">A hard-fought battle against the polio virus may be approaching its endgame. <a href=http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=polio-makes-last-stand>[More]</a> Health,Infectious Diseases,Ethics,Society & Policy,More Science Mon, 28 May 2012 15:16:21 EST http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=fukushima-radiation-seen-in-tuna-of <p>By Deborah Zabarenko</p><p>WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Low levels of nuclear radiation from the tsunami-damaged Fukushima power plant have turned up in bluefin tuna off the California coast, suggesting that these fish carried radioactive compounds across the Pacific Ocean faster than wind or water can.</p><p>Small amounts of cesium-137 and cesium-134 were detected in 15 tuna caught near San Diego in August 2011, about four months after these chemicals were released into the water off Japan's east coast, scientists reported on Monday.</p><p>That is months earlier than wind and water currents brought debris from the plant to waters off Alaska and the U.S. <a href=http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=fukushima-radiation-seen-in-tuna-of>[More]</a> Energy & Sustainability,Health,Society & Policy,Energy Technology,More Science,Evolution,Environment,Everyday Science Mon, 28 May 2012 08:00:00 EST http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=orchid-bee-male-construct-perfume <p>Male orchid bees have a peculiar pastime: flying through the jungle collecting scents from plants to construct their own perfume. Here&#39;s how, and why, scientists think they do it.</p> <a href=http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=orchid-bee-male-construct-perfume>[More]</a> More Science,Everyday Science,Ecology,More Science,Evolution,Biology Mon, 28 May 2012 07:30:00 EST http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=think-before-you-blink <p>Tracking eye movements lets scientists figure out what we pay attention to in a scene. When people blink during such experiments, those few milliseconds are usually discarded as junk data. A new study finds that blinking might reveal important information, too. It turns out that the more we blink, the less focused is our attention. In kids with autism, blink patterns appear to offer clues about how they engage with the world around them.</p> <a href=http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=think-before-you-blink>[More]</a> Mind & Brain,Everyday Science,More Science,Thought & Cognition,Language & Linguistics,Language & Linguistics,Neurological Disorders,Neuroscience,Biology,Science Education Mon, 28 May 2012 07:00:00 EST http://www.scientificamerican.com/gallery_directory.cfm?photo_id=391267E1-0C1D-DA90-668F7920F63BDE34 <a href=http://www.scientificamerican.com/gallery_directory.cfm?photo_id=391267E1-0C1D-DA90-668F7920F63BDE34>[More]</a> Technology Mon, 28 May 2012 07:00:00 EST http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=orchids-need-bees-more-than-bees-need-them <p>Biologists have long believed that orchid bees and orchids rely on each other in equal measure. The shimmering bees pollinate orchids in return for the flowers&rsquo; donation of perfumes, which male bees use to attract females. And so it was thought that the two organisms co-evolved. But a study led by Santiago Ram&iacute;rez, an evolutionary biologist at the University of California, Berkeley, that was published in Science in late 2011 revealed that the bees arose first, thus suggesting that the two are more independent than previously thought.</p> <a href=http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=orchids-need-bees-more-than-bees-need-them>[More]</a> More Science,Environment,Climate,Evolutionary Biology,Biology,Everyday Science Mon, 28 May 2012 06:00:00 EST http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=mt-st-helens-zoned-crystals <p>Thirty-two years ago this month an explosive eruption reshaped Mount Saint Helens in a matter of seconds. An earthquake under the volcano in Washington State on May 18, 1980, triggered the largest landslide in recorded history as billions of cubic meters of mountainside tumbled away, initiating a massive release of gas, lava and ash. The cataclysm killed 57 people and sent a plume some 20 kilometers into the sky.</p> <a href=http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=mt-st-helens-zoned-crystals>[More]</a> More Science,History of Science,Everyday Science,Chemistry,Physics Mon, 28 May 2012 00:12:00 EST http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=stress-and-antidepressants-by-their-powers-combined <p>They are Captain Planet!</p><p> <a href=http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=stress-and-antidepressants-by-their-powers-combined>[More]</a> Mind & Brain Sun, 27 May 2012 13:00:00 EST http://www.scientificamerican.com/video.cfm?id=airborne-particles-blamed-for-2012-05-27 Climate changed had been blamed for the rapid disappearance of the Chacaltaya glacier in the Bolivian Andes. Researchers are now focusing their attention on particles that stick to ice, making it melt faster. More Science,Energy Sun, 27 May 2012 09:00:08 EST http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=another-casualty-of-war-the-environ-12-05-27 <p>&nbsp;</p> <a href=http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=another-casualty-of-war-the-environ-12-05-27>[More]</a> Energy & Sustainability,Green Living,Climate,Ecology,Environment,Clean Air Policy Sun, 27 May 2012 08:59:00 EST http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=the-bacteria-that-commit-honourable-suicide <p>In multicellular organisms it is essential that every cell behaves and does the job it was produced to perform. The survival of a multicellular organism depends on this - every cell in your body is tightly controlled in terms of how big it can grow (fairly big), when it can reproduce (almost never) and what sort of metabolic processes it may carry out. And, like a dystopian sci-fi future, any cell that steps out of line is put to death. Not by surrounding cells, but by its own internal processes.</p><p>Each cell in the human body is programmed to die. Death is their default state. It is only by behaving, by obeying outside orders and carrying out the processes it&#8217;s meant to, that the cell is able to inhibit its own destruction. This is a good thing for the body as a whole, because cells that do manage to escape the tight death-regulation control are cancerous cells, and cause havoc within the body.</p> <a href=http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=the-bacteria-that-commit-honourable-suicide>[More]</a> More Science Sat, 26 May 2012 12:00:00 EST http://www.scientificamerican.com/gallery_directory.cfm?photo_id=61B4A37B-0722-65AB-E0A01077C22F803F <a href=http://www.scientificamerican.com/gallery_directory.cfm?photo_id=61B4A37B-0722-65AB-E0A01077C22F803F>[More]</a> Environment Sat, 26 May 2012 10:30:00 EST http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=old-neurons-new-tricks-trade-roles-aid-memory <p>For decades researchers have known that our ability to remember everyday experiences depends on a slender belt of brain tissue called the hippocampus. Basic memory functions, such as forming new memories and recalling old ones, were thought to be performed along this belt by different sets of neurons. Now findings suggest that the same neurons in fact perform both these very different functions, changing from one role to another as they age.</p> <a href=http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=old-neurons-new-tricks-trade-roles-aid-memory>[More]</a> Mind & Brain,Society & Policy,Everyday Science,Thought & Cognition,Language & Linguistics,Language & Linguistics,Neuroscience,Biology,More Science Sat, 26 May 2012 10:00:00 EST http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=are-eyewitnesses-in-the-z <p>Newly released court documents in the second-degree-murder case against neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman reveal that, in the month following his fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin on Feb. 26, four key witnesses significantly changed their accounts of what they saw and heard that night. The more recent versions of their memories tend to be more damning of Zimmerman than their initial statements.</p> <a href=http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=are-eyewitnesses-in-the-z>[More]</a> Mind & Brain,Thought & Cognition,Psychology,Society & Policy,Everyday Science Sat, 26 May 2012 08:00:00 EST http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=questions-surround-biosecurity-mutant-bird-flu <p>From Nature magazine</p> <a href=http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=questions-surround-biosecurity-mutant-bird-flu>[More]</a> Health,Infectious Diseases,History of Science,More Science,Biology,Health Sat, 26 May 2012 05:00:08 EST http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=watching-shot-can-boost-pain-12-05-26 <p>For some, the quick prick of a needle at the doctor&rsquo;s office is no big deal. For others it can be a nightmare. New research suggests that the difference could lie in what you&rsquo;re looking at.</p> <a href=http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=watching-shot-can-boost-pain-12-05-26>[More]</a> Mind & Brain,Psychology,More Science,Mind & Brain,Everyday Science Fri, 25 May 2012 16:47:08 EST http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=spacex-private-vessel-reaches-iss-12-05-25 <p>It may lack the poetry of &ldquo;the Eagle has landed,&rdquo; but here&rsquo;s major space news: the Dragon has docked.</p> <a href=http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=spacex-private-vessel-reaches-iss-12-05-25>[More]</a> Space,Space,Space Exploration,Society & Policy,More Science,History of Science,Technology Fri, 25 May 2012 16:18:00 EST http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=will-facebooks-saverin-be-happier-with-u-s-citizenship-or-67-million <p class="wp-caption-text">Looking at this photo makes you less happy</p> <p>Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin has renounced his U.S. citizenship, reportedly to save an estimated $67 million on his tax bill (Saverin denies that the decision was based on financial considerations). The move has drawn the ire of Senators , academics and (especially) newspaper columnists , who view it as a cynical attempt to avoid paying his fair share. Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island has called for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to ban Saverin from re-entering the country, and a new bill with bipartisan support would explicitly bar those like Saverin from returning.</p> <a href=http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=will-facebooks-saverin-be-happier-with-u-s-citizenship-or-67-million>[More]</a> Mind & Brain,Technology Fri, 25 May 2012 15:08:00 EST http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=are-medical-schools-squashing-creativity-part-2-lighten-up-on-mandates-and-take-advantage-of-the-informal-curriculum <p>A few weeks ago, I wrote about creativity . With its emphasis on requirements and contrived benchmarks of success, medical school admissions might inadvertently be selecting for those who are skilled at jumping through hoops and weeding out more independent thinkers. I received comments from people who were so inspired that they wanted to discuss ideas about reforming the curriculum. Creativity is missing; how are we going to fix this? It was the epitome of irony to me: attempting to standardize the exact thing that refers to thinking outside standardization.</p><p>In this post, I hope to address my thinking about the subject in a bit more detail. I believe excessive curriculum mandates are a well-meaning but counterproductive approach to solving what we are aiming to solve.</p> <a href=http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=are-medical-schools-squashing-creativity-part-2-lighten-up-on-mandates-and-take-advantage-of-the-informal-curriculum>[More]</a> Health Fri, 25 May 2012 13:16:00 EST http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=sic-transit-venus <p> One brisk wintry day in 1639, a young man named Jeremiah Horrocks &#8212; barely 20 &#8212; set up a telescope in his quarters near Preston, England and focused an indirect image of the sun onto a small card. Lack of finances had cut short his brief academic career at Cambridge, despite his intelligence, but he still had a passion for the stars, bolstered by reading the works of Johannes Kepler and Tycho Brahe.</p><p>Kepler&#8217;s writings were the reason for Horrocks&#8217; homemade experiment. In 1627, Kepler was the first scientist to predict a transit of Venus &#8212; a very rare astronomical event during which the planet Venus passes directly between the Sun and Earth, a black dot obscuring part of of the solar disk. It&#8217;s similar to a solar eclipse by the moon &#8212; we witnessed an annular eclipse just last week! &#8212; except transits of Venus occur every 243 years. Well, it&#8217;s a bit more complicated than that, because they usually happen in pairs: the pattern is eight years, 105.5 years, eight years, and 120.5 years.</p> <a href=http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=sic-transit-venus>[More]</a> More Science Fri, 25 May 2012 13:12:00 EST http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=visualize-and-score-big <p class="wp-caption-text">Jared At Bat. Photo: Erica Angiolillo</p> <p>I love optical illusions. They make me feel clever if I can figure them out and even when I have to peek at the answer, it s still fun to find out how my brain was tricked. But do they serve any purpose in the real world? Can we use them to make us sharper in our everyday lives? Well if you are an athlete or just play sports for fun on the weekends then the answer may be yes. Using illusions to your advantage may help you hit the free throw, putt the ball in the hole in less strokes or even successfully knock one out of the park.</p> <a href=http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=visualize-and-score-big>[More]</a> Mind & Brain,More Science Fri, 25 May 2012 13:10:00 EST http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=private-capsule-arrives-a <p>Two spacecraft, one public and one private, linked in orbit today when SpaceX&#39;s Dragon was attached to the International Space Station .</p> <a href=http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=private-capsule-arrives-a>[More]</a> Space,Space Exploration,Society & Policy,History of Science,Technology Fri, 25 May 2012 13:00:00 EST http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=aging-eyes-hinder-biometric-scans <p style="text-align:left">By Duncan Graham-Rowe of Nature magazine</p><p style="text-align:left"></p><p style="text-align:left">Identifying people by scanning the irises of their eyes may not be as reliable as some governments and the public might think. <a href=http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=aging-eyes-hinder-biometric-scans>[More]</a> Technology,Communications,Society & Policy Fri, 25 May 2012 12:00:00 EST http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=how-worlds-weather-could-quickly-run-amok <p> Adapted from The Fate of the Species: Why the Human Race May Cause Its Own Extinction and How We Can Stop It , by Fred Guterl (Bloomsbury USA, 2012). </p> <a href=http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=how-worlds-weather-could-quickly-run-amok>[More]</a> Energy & Sustainability,Society & Policy,Alternative Energy Technology,Energy Technology,Climate,Ecology,Energy Technology,Environment,Alternative Energy Technology Fri, 25 May 2012 12:00:00 EST http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=recommended-jun-12 <p> Tubes: A Journey to the Center of the Internet <a href=http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=recommended-jun-12>[More]</a> Technology,Computing,Health,History of Science,Society & Policy,Everyday Science,More Science,Evolution,Energy & Sustainability,Science Education,Evolutionary Biology,Ecology,Green Living,Communications,Biology,Environment Fri, 25 May 2012 12:00:00 EST http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=mind-revies-connectome <p> Connectome: How the Brain&rsquo;s Wiring Makes Us Who We Are <a href=http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=mind-revies-connectome>[More]</a> Mind & Brain,Health,Society & Policy,Everyday Science,Ethics,Language & Linguistics,Neuroscience,Psychology,Thought & Cognition,Biology,More Science Fri, 25 May 2012 11:00:00 EST http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=australia-south-africa-share-kilometer-array-telescope <p style="text-align:left">By Geoff Brumfiel of Nature magazine</p><p style="text-align:left"></p><p style="text-align:left">The battle for the world&apos;s largest radio telescope has ended in a draw.</p><p style="text-align:left"></p><p style="text-align:left">South Africa and Australia will split the Square Kilometer Array, a &euro;1.5-billion (US$1.9-billion) project made up of 3,000 15-metre-wide dishes and an even larger number of simple antennas. <a href=http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=australia-south-africa-share-kilometer-array-telescope>[More]</a> Physics,Society & Policy,Cosmology,Astrophysics,Galaxies,Space Exploration,Space,More Science Fri, 25 May 2012 09:18:49 EST http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=alaskan-crews-gear-up-to-tackle-jap <p>By Yereth Rosen</p><p>ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - Cleanup workers will soon attack a jumble of debris from Japan's 2011 tsunami that litters an Alaskan island, as residents in the state gear up to scour their shores for everything from buoys to building material that has floated across the Pacific.</p><p>The cleansing project slated to start on Friday on Montague Island is expected to last a couple weeks, and organizers say it marks the first major project in Alaska to collect and dispose of debris from the tsunami.</p><p>The March 2011 tsunami, caused by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake, killed nearly 16,000 people and left over 3,000 missing on Japan's main island of Honshu, and precipitated a major radiation release at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.</p><p>A U.S. <a href=http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=alaskan-crews-gear-up-to-tackle-jap>[More]</a> Energy & Sustainability,Technology,Energy Technology,Everyday Science,Environment,Society & Policy Fri, 25 May 2012 09:14:23 EST http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=hurricane-bud-churns-towards-mexico <p style="text-align:left">By David Alire Garcia</p><p style="text-align:left">MANZANILLO, Mexico (Reuters) - Hurricane Bud lost some strength as it moved closer to Mexico&apos;s Pacific coast on Friday and was forecast to hit land south of the popular tourist town of Puerto Vallarta, the U.S. <a href=http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=hurricane-bud-churns-towards-mexico>[More]</a> Environment,Climate,More Science,Energy & Sustainability,Society & Policy,Everyday Science Fri, 25 May 2012 08:36:29 EST http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=nuclear-waste-expert-tapped-as-top <p>By Roberta Rampton</p><p>WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Thursday he will nominate Allison Macfarlane, an expert in nuclear waste, as the nation's top nuclear safety cop, seeking to turn the page on a period of bitter acrimony at the U.S. <a href=http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=nuclear-waste-expert-tapped-as-top>[More]</a> Energy & Sustainability,Society & Policy,Energy Technology,Energy Technology,Technology Fri, 25 May 2012 08:34:00 EST http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=a-dragon-in-the-sky-space-x <p>As the docking attempt between the Dragon cargo vehicle and the International Space Station gets underway, here are some of the latest images, plus the LIVE stream to the Dragon/ISS docking at the bottom! [Note: recorded video of final moments of capture by ISS arm now added below]</p> <p class="wp-caption-text">Dragon capsule during &#39;fly-under&#39; of ISS at a distance of 2.4 kilometers (May 24th 2012). Image taken from ISS (NASA). Click for bigger view.</p> <a href=http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=a-dragon-in-the-sky-space-x>[More]</a> More Science,Space,Technology Fri, 25 May 2012 08:00:00 EST http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=an-ailing-planets-path-to-rio20 <p class="wp-caption-text">The UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) will be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from June 20-22. It&#39;s the third conference of its kind. (picture courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)</p> <p>Our planet&#8217;s health is ailing. That&#8217;s the message in short from the 2012 Living Planet Report . Its content is sobering. We are devouring 50 percent more resources than the Earth produces annually. Species populations have plummeted by 30 percent in the last 40 years. Freshwater scarcity abounds, and CO2 levels are soaring.</p> <a href=http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=an-ailing-planets-path-to-rio20>[More]</a> Energy & Sustainability,Technology,More Science Fri, 25 May 2012 07:00:00 EST http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=would-you-like-side-dirt-eating-soil <p>In the fall of 2009 a group of biology students at Tufts University sat down together and ate some dirt. They ground up small clay tablets and swallowed the powder to find out, firsthand, what clay tastes like. This unusual taste test was part of a Darwinian medicine class taught by one of us (Starks). The students were studying the evolution of geophagia--the practice of eating dirt, especially claylike soils, which is something animals and people have been doing for millennia.</p> <a href=http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=would-you-like-side-dirt-eating-soil>[More]</a> Health,Environment,Society & Policy,Green Living,More Science,Energy & Sustainability,Science Education,Ecology,Biology,Everyday Science Fri, 25 May 2012 07:00:00 EST http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=what-plants-smell-plant-unusal-talents <p>Plants seem so passive. Tree branches bow to the wind, losing their leaves. Lettuce just sits there as snails help themselves to a free salad bar. And grass lets everyone walk all over it.</p> <a href=http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=what-plants-smell-plant-unusal-talents>[More]</a> More Science Fri, 25 May 2012 06:01:00 EST http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=how-can-we-cope-with-the-dirty-water-from-fracking-for-natural-gas-and-oil <p>The nation&#39;s oil and gas wells produce at least nine billion liters of contaminated water per day, according to an Argonne National Laboratory report. And that is an underestimate of the amount of brine, fracking fluid and other contaminated water that flows back up a well along with the natural gas or oil, because it is based on incomplete data from state governments gathered in 2007.</p> <a href=http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=how-can-we-cope-with-the-dirty-water-from-fracking-for-natural-gas-and-oil>[More]</a> Energy & Sustainability,Environment,Technology,Society & Policy,Energy Technology,More Science,Energy Technology,Chemistry,Everyday Science Fri, 25 May 2012 05:00:08 EST http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=cuttlefish-use-ancient-ink-formula-12-05-25 <p>Tens of millions of years ago, cephalopods were hiding from their enemies in clouds of ink. And it turns out that cuttlefish today produce ink that&rsquo;s almost identical.</p> <a href=http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=cuttlefish-use-ancient-ink-formula-12-05-25>[More]</a> Evolution,More Science,Biology,Chemistry