Scientific American

Age Brings Happiness

Sat, 25 May 2013 08:00:00 EST

Do people get happier or crankier as they age? Stereotypes of crotchety neighbors aside, scientists have been trying to answer this question for decades, and the results have been conflicting. Now a study of several thousand Americans born between 1885 and 1980 reveals that well-being indeed increases with age--but overall happiness depends on when a person was born.

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Early Land Animals Lacked Good Bites

Fri, 24 May 2013 23:42:08 EST

What had the legs of a ‘gator and the jaws of a fish? Why, the earliest land animals. Because a new study shows that animals evolved weight-bearing limbs long before they had the chompers to really take advantage of a terrestrial diet. The research is in the journal Integrative and Comparative Biology . [Philip S. L. Anderson, Matt Friedman and Marcello Ruta, Late to the Table: Diversification of Tetrapod Mandibular Biomechanics Lagged Behind the Evolution of Terrestriality ]

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E-Tailers Want Amazon and Apple To Set Readers Free

Fri, 24 May 2013 16:26:08 EST

At this early stage in the history of electronic books, there’s Amazon, there’s Apple, and then there’s everyone else. Amazon and Apple want to keep it that way, which is why you can’t just download any old e-book to your Kindle or iPad.

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It's not about predators, it's about journal quality

Fri, 24 May 2013 15:32:00 EST

In the past, a journal title that was unfamiliar to a researcher would be an automatic red-flag for journal quality - if I haven't heard of it, it must not be very good. As the number of journal titles increases exponentially (Larsen and von Ins, 2010), scholars have turned to a wide variety of tools to help separate quality publications from the rest. Journal metrics like the impact factor (Garfield, 2006) and a journal's h-index have been used (and mis-used) extensively. And in recent years, librarian Jeffery Beall has put together a list of the worst journals of all, so-called " predatory publishers ."[caption id="" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Not this kind of predator. CC-BY Image from Flickr user Dimitry B"] [/caption] [More]

Why the Internet Sucks You in Like a Black Hole

Fri, 24 May 2013 14:32:00 EST

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Minor Lunar Eclipse Tonight: How to Watch It Online

Fri, 24 May 2013 14:16:00 EST

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Scour: Why Most Bridges Fail

Fri, 24 May 2013 13:36:00 EST

Yesterday the I-5 bridge spanning the Skagit River in Washington had one of its support girders hit by a truck too wide , and the whole scene of contorting metal fell into the water below. Though a number of people and their cars went into the water along with the bridge, thankfully no one was killed. The collapse of the I-5 bridge has sparked a conversation about the failing infrastructure system of the US, but failures due to girders unable to take a truck impact are hardly a common occurrence. In fact, the most dangerous thing to a bridge is that which it typically takes us over.

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Recommended: High Price

Fri, 24 May 2013 13:00:00 EST

High Price: A Neuroscientist's Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know about Drugs and Society [More]

Net Loss: How We Continually Forget What the Oceans Really Used to Be Like [Excerpt]

Fri, 24 May 2013 12:00:00 EST

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The Cognitive Science of Star Trek

Fri, 24 May 2013 11:12:00 EST

Star Trek needs more advanced cognitive science. The work of Kahneman can augment one of its central philosophical themes. We now have less warped models of intuition, logic, and morality.Take one small but telling example from the latest Star Trek movie: Kirk, in a dire spot, says he wants to be more like Spock: He'd like to choose not to feel. This reiterates an old rationalist desire. Rationalist philosophy, says David Brooks, believes " reason is more powerful than and separable from emotion " and hopes that " reason...triumphs over emotion ." This widely used dichotomy mis-frames what cognitive science shows. [More]

Is Global Warming Cooler than Expected?

Fri, 24 May 2013 11:00:00 EST

LONDON – Several leading authorities on climate change have given a guarded welcome to research suggesting the Earth may warm more slowly than scientists had expected.

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Prehistoric Climate Change May Have Encouraged Human Innovation

Fri, 24 May 2013 11:00:00 EST

Today's scientists are scrambling to develop technology to cope with climate change; carbon capture technology, renewable energy and drought-resilient crops are just a few examples.

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Girls Who Are Sexually Abused More Likely to Start Using Substances before Age 10

Fri, 24 May 2013 10:10:00 EST

Many studies have confirmed the link between childhood sexual abuse and substance-related problems in adulthood. But a new investigation finds that being raped or molested at a young age also makes young girls far more likely to start drinking or doing drugs during their preteen years.

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Mary Roach Takes A Trip Down the Alimentary Canal

Fri, 24 May 2013 10:00:00 EST

Groucho Marx said, “Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.” With this wisdom available for decades, the question arises: Why did author Mary Roach stick her arm inside a living cow's stomach, where it's too dark to write? Answer: Because that's the kind of thing Roach does when she's researching books that will be read outside of a dog. Also, the bovine was what's called a fistulated cow, meaning that you can get in through a hidey-hole, which is important because it's exceedingly messy to go in any other way.

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U.S. Weather Satellite Fails Just Before Hurricane Season

Fri, 24 May 2013 09:57:58 EST

By Irene Klotz

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - A key satellite positioned to track severe weather in the eastern United States has failed, just as the 2013 Atlantic hurricane season is about to start.

The U.S. [More]

This Strange Looking Funnel May Be the Future of Wind Power (Or Not)

Fri, 24 May 2013 08:00:00 EST

By Ben Schiller

Daryoush Allaei thinks the wind power industry has it all wrong. [More]

3-D Printed Windpipe Gives Infant Breath of Life

Fri, 24 May 2013 05:00:00 EST

Kaiba Gionfriddo was six weeks old when he suddenly stopped breathing and turned blue at a restaurant. Kaiba’s parents quickly rushed him to the hospital where they learned that his left bronchial tube had collapsed because of a previously undetected birth defect. During the next few weeks the life-threatening attacks recurred, increasing in number until they became everyday events. Physicians and researchers, however, used some of the most sophisticated bioengineering techniques available to 3-D print a synthetic tube to hold the baby's airway open. Kaiba had the surgery in January 2012 and hasn’t suffered an airway collapse since.

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Studies Cast Doubt on Cancer Drug as Alzheimer's Treatment

Thu, 23 May 2013 18:25:00 EST

From Nature magazine

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An Itch Is Not a Low-Level Form of Pain

Thu, 23 May 2013 18:05:00 EST

From Nature magazine

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Latest Flying Car Design Unveiled

Thu, 23 May 2013 15:38:53 EST

New England aviation company Terrafugia has unveiled its latest conceptual version of a flying car. Unlike its current flying car, which is designed for pilots, the new design incorporates autonomous functionality.

Amphibians in U.S. Declining at "Alarming and Rapid Rate"

Thu, 23 May 2013 15:08:00 EST

A new study finds that frogs, toads, salamanders and other amphibians in the U.S. are dying off so quickly that they could disappear from half of their habitats in the next 20 years. For some of the more endangered species, they could lose half of their habitats in as little as six years. The nine-year study, published on May 22 in PLoS One by scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), examined population trends for 48 species at 34 sites across the country.The researchers found that on average amphibian populations were shrinking a surprising 3.7 percent per year. "Even though these declines seem small on the surface, they are not," lead author Michael Adams, a USGS ecologist, said in a prepared release . "Small numbers build up to dramatic declines with time. We knew there was a big problem with amphibians, but these numbers are both surprising and of significant concern." [More]

Up to 11 Atlantic Hurricanes Forecast for 2013

Thu, 23 May 2013 15:00:35 EST

By Tom Brown

MIAMI (Reuters) - The 2013 Atlantic hurricane season could be "extremely active" and spawn 13 to 20 tropical storms, seven to 11 of which are expected to become hurricanes, the U.S. [More]

Will Great Wines Prove a Moveable Feast under Global Warming?

Thu, 23 May 2013 11:00:00 EST

MONTPELLIER, France -- South Africa, Argentina, Australia and New Zealand export their wines all over the world, a feat that was unthinkable here a few decades ago. Fatalists claim it won't be long until there will be more produced in China than in Europe. To some observers, these prognostications illustrate the wide-ranging adaptive capacity of the wine grape, Vitis vinifera.

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Sonic Science: The High-Frequency Hearing Test

Thu, 23 May 2013 10:00:00 EST

Key Concepts [More]

Once Upon A Time, The Catholic Church Decided That Beavers Were Fish

Thu, 23 May 2013 10:00:00 EST

From time to time, politicians and other rulers-of-men like to categorize the natural world not according to biology, but rather for convenience or monetary gain. Take, for example, the tomato. The progenitor of ketchup is a seed-bearing structure that grows from the flowering part of a plant. It is, by definition, a fruit. In 1893, however, the US Supreme Court ruled in the case of Nix v. Hedden that the tomato was a vegetable, subject to vegetable import tariffs. Even if the tomato is, technically, a fruit, it tends to be treated in American cuisine as a vegetable, wantonly littering our salads with its jelloey gooeyness. [More]

The Art and Science of the Diagram: Communicating the Knowledge of the Heavens, the Earth and the Arcane, Final Part

Thu, 23 May 2013 08:23:00 EST

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Brain's Glial Cells Spark Seizures

Thu, 23 May 2013 08:00:00 EST

When neurons fire together uncontrollably, epileptic seizures ensue. Yet what sparks the cells to go haywire in the first place? In January scientists found an unexpected answer. When glial cells in the cortex of fruit flies cannot properly control their calcium levels, they leave neighboring neurons vulnerable to seizures.

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A Brief History of Mental Illness in Art

Thu, 23 May 2013 08:00:00 EST

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="466" caption="Saint Bartholomew Exorcising, circa 1440-1470 (Google Art Project, via Wikimedia Commons)"] [/caption]"Historically, many cases of demonic possession have masked major psychiatric disorder[s]."- Kazuhiro Tajima-Pozo et. al . BMJ Case Reports 2009 [More]

China Plans Tougher Quality Standards for Coal to Tackle Pollution

Thu, 23 May 2013 07:27:15 EST

By Fayen Wong

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China may impose higher quality standards for imported and locally traded coal to cut air pollution, two sources said, in a move that could slash imports while boosting the fortunes of a faltering domestic industry.

The National Energy Administration (NEA) held a meeting with major state-owned coal producers earlier this month to discuss the new standards, one of the sources said, adding top producer Shenhua Coal, China Coal, Datong Coal, Shanxi Coking Coal Group and Jizhong Energy Group were among firms that took part.

China's government, led by new leader Xi Jinping, has vowed to tackle the country's festering pollution crisis, which has become a flashpoint for growing protests in China.

The NEA now proposes to have for imported coal a minimum calorific value of 4,540 kcal/kg, a maximum sulfur content of 1 percent and 25 percent ash on a net-as-received basis, said a source at a major state-owned coal miner.

The proposed requirements for locally traded coal will be more lax, with a minimum heating value of at least 3,584 kcal/kg, a maximum ash and sulfur content of 40 percent and 3 percent, respectively.

"The main aim of the proposal is to reduce pollution. [More]

Deciphering the Strange Mathematics of Cicadas [Video]

Thu, 23 May 2013 07:00:00 EST

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Summer Blockbuster: A Black Hole Swallows a Cloud

Thu, 23 May 2013 07:00:00 EST

Astronomers have seen it coming. Starting this summer--possibly this month--a large cloud of gas and dust and perhaps a star will begin to ricochet through the dead center of the Milky Way galaxy, the home of a supermassive black hole. The ensuing celestial fireworks should reveal much about the mysterious central core of the galaxy, a region kept shrouded in darkness by dust and distance.

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The Cataclysm: "From Unbaked Fragments to Vitreous Charcoal"

Thu, 23 May 2013 03:49:00 EST

There's a fundamental fact one learns about trees when growing up in dry country forests: they're flammable. Folks in Flagstaff, Arizona can tell what part of summer it is by the smell. If it's all piney-fresh, it's May or early June, and everything's still safely damp from the spring snowmelt; if it smells like warm turpentine and dust, it's mid-June; and if it smells like winter with all of the fireplaces cozily burning logs, its the late-June-early-July dry-lightning season, and you're hoping the monsoon rains come before the whole county burns. I've seen smoke that looks like a volcanic eruption billowing from fierce fires. I've felt like someone caught in the middle of the apocalypse. I've choked on wood ash on hot summer nights. Our forests gets so dry you find yourself avoiding heated language in them. Our trees ceased being lovely green oxygen-producers with sweetly-scented wooden trunks and become tiki torches, just waiting for one stray spark to light the place up.[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="This view of the Schultz Fire, one of Flagstaff's worst, shows just how intense the smoke can get - it looks like the mountains have erupted. You can just barely see the San Francisco Peaks peeking out at the left. "By 1:30 p.m. on June 20, 2010, the Schultz Fire had exploded and was in full-force." No kidding, right? Image courtesy Mike Elson and Coconino National Forest."] [/caption] [More]

Fluoride Loosens Bacterial Enamel Grip

Wed, 22 May 2013 20:24:08 EST

Fluoride helps fight cavities. That’s why it’s in our drinking water and toothpaste. But how this mineral works its dental magic is still somewhat mysterious. Now, researchers offer an incisive solution. They find that fluoride treatment can loosen bacteria’s grip on tooth enamel. The study is in the journal Langmuir . [Peter Loskill et al., Reduced Adhesion of Oral Bacteria on Hydroxyapatite by Fluoride Treatment ]

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Mars Rover Sets Distance Record

Wed, 22 May 2013 18:19:08 EST

[Eugene Cernan on the moon:] “Okay, here we go.”

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Infant Tooth Reveals Neandertal Breastfeeding Habits

Wed, 22 May 2013 17:30:00 EST

The changing ratios of calcium and barium in the teeth of modern humans and macaques chronicle the transition from mother’s milk to solid food -- and may provide clues about the weaning habits of Neandertals, a new study suggests.

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America's Frogs and Toads Disappearing Fast

Wed, 22 May 2013 17:23:10 EST

By Environment Correspondent Deborah Zabarenko

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Frogs, toads and salamanders have been in trouble for decades, but a new U.S. [More]

Why Twisters Hammer Tornado Alley

Wed, 22 May 2013 17:01:00 EST

The tornado that devastated Moore , Okla., has now officially been placed into the highest category--5 on the so-called Enhanced Fujita Scale, meaning winds in excess of 320 kilometers-per-hour. Scientific American corresponded with meteorologist Harold Brooks, a senior scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) National Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman, Okla.

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Rare View of Ancient Galaxy Crash Revealed

Wed, 22 May 2013 16:20:00 EST

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Discover the Secret of the 17-Year Cicada, But It Won t Get You Tenure

Wed, 22 May 2013 15:40:00 EST

All the hoopla over the 17-year cicadas, set to emerge any day now in the Northeast, has so far missed one of the greatest facts about them. Sure, it's no surprise for grand gatherings of male animals to get together and sing their hearts out. Frogs do it, crickets do it, and we all know that humans do it. In animals it's called a lek, in humans it's called a rock band, and these words basically mean the same thing.That's what we thought 17-year cicadas were up to--they emerge only in these rare prime-numbered years after slowly growing underground to live just a few weeks high in the trees to sing, fly, mate and die. The females are just attracted to all this noise and mating then happens. [More]

Hard to Beat Feet for Fostering Fungus

Wed, 22 May 2013 13:30:08 EST

Do fungi have a foot fetish? When researchers mapped the fungal species living on the surface of the human body, they found the skin on the feet harbors the most diverse fungal community. The work is in the journal Nature . [Keisha Findley et al, Topographic diversity of fungal and bacterial communities in human skin ]

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Why Portland Is Wrong About Water Fluoridation

Wed, 22 May 2013 12:53:00 EST

Late last night, Portlanders rejected a plan to fluoridate their city's water supply (and the water of over a dozen other cities). It's the fourth time Portland has rejected the public health measure since 1956. It's the fourth time they've gotten the science wrong.

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How to Use the Bathroom on a 20-Hour Plus Solar Airplane Flight [Video]

Wed, 22 May 2013 12:13:00 EST

In a bid to set the record for longest distance solar flight, Andre Borschberg will pilot the Solar Impulse airplane from Phoenix to Dallas. Total flying distance, barring route deviations due to weather or other factors, would be nearly 1,400 kilometers, or more than 200 kilometers farther than the previous longest flight set in 2012.On May 3, in just under 20 hours, the Solar Impulse airplane flew from Moffett Field near San Francisco to Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix. After the long, slow flight, the solar airplane still had 75 percent of its battery power remaining when pilot Bertrand Piccard, who previously circumnavigated the globe in a balloon, landed the unwieldy aircraft just after midnight local time. A full breakdown of the technology that makes the manned solar airplane possible is here , including a slide show . [More]

The Moon has it all: Explosions, Water, and Clues to the Grand Tack

Wed, 22 May 2013 11:51:00 EST

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We Fit Nature to Us: Evolution's 2-Way Street

Wed, 22 May 2013 11:41:00 EST

It is in our nature to fit nature to us. We are best at it, but other species do it. This obvious but overlooked factor contradicts the dominant one-way-street gene-centric view of adaptation. A better framework for evolution is needed. Its shape isn't clear, but it must incorporate: extracorporeal gene effects, "gene-culture coevolution," "niche construction," reduced randomness, and intelligent influences.George Williams, a founder of the gene-centric school, claimed " Adaptation is always asymmetrical; organisms adapt to their environment, never vice versa ." He was wrong. [More]

Thawing Tundra May Produce Less CO2

Wed, 22 May 2013 10:30:00 EST

Researchers have uncovered a mechanism in the Alaskan tundra that doesn't seem to follow the climate change script for soil carbon.

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U.S. Hurricane Forecasts Could Be Better

Wed, 22 May 2013 10:06:00 EST

It is difficult to focus on hurricane warnings right now, when Oklahoma is reeling from some of the worst tornadoes ever recorded. But the storms do raise questions about the abilities of U.S. scientists to predict severe weather, and the answers are not clear.Just last week the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released an internal study that judged how well its National Weather Service (NWS) did in predicting Hurricane Sandy . The report came to a curious conclusion: "The National Weather Service provided accurate forecasts for Sandy, giving people early awareness of the significant storm churning toward the mid-Atlantic and Northeast.... Forecasters performed well predicting the track of this extremely large and complex storm." [More]

What's Individuality, and Where Does It Come From?

Wed, 22 May 2013 09:43:00 EST

"Let's say you have an axe. Just a cheap one, from Home Depot," opens the horror-comedy novel John Dies at the End . "On one bitter winter day, you use said axe to behead a man." This blow splinters the axe's handle - so the story goes - so you get the hardware store stick a new handle on the blade.The repaired axe sits in your garage until one day the next spring, when you damage the blade while fending off "a foot-long slug with a bulging egg sac on its tail," which requires another trip to the store to replace the axe-head. Unfortunately, when you arrive home, you're greeted by the enraged reanimated corpse of the man you beheaded last year. He takes a long look at the weapon you're holding, and he screams, "That's the same axe that beheaded me!" [More]

Why You Should Care about Pentagon Funding of Obama's BRAIN Initiative

Wed, 22 May 2013 09:35:00 EST

In two recent posts ( here and here ), I complained that the big new BRAIN (Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies) Initiative, to which Barack Obama has committed $110 million next year and possibly billions over the next decade, may be premature. I stupidly neglected to mention an important reason to look askance at the initiative: its biggest funder is the Pentagon, more specifically the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. According to the White House , Darpa is putting up $50 million, more than the National Institutes of Health ($40 million) and National Science Foundation ($20 million). [More]

The Complexity of Greatness: Beyond Talent or Practice

Wed, 22 May 2013 09:30:00 EST

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Frog-Killing Chytrid Fungus Hits Rarely Seen, Wormlike Amphibians

Wed, 22 May 2013 09:20:00 EST

Don't feel bad if you've never seen a caecilian , let alone don't know how to pronounce the word . These rare, legless amphibians--which look like a cross between a worm and a snake--spend most of their time underground, far from the prying eyes of scientists and other humans. Although some of the 190 or so known caecilian (think "Sicilian") species can reach massive lengths--1.9 meters in some cases--they are rarely studied and very little is known about them.Here's something we do know: Caecilians, like the frogs and salamanders to which they are related, are apparently now at risk from the deadly chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis ( Bd ), which has already caused hundreds of amphibian extinctions around the globe. [More]