New Issue: Orbital Catastrophe Ahead? Read Now

Top News from around the World

An Einstein letter rediscovered, the oldest air ever analyzed and more!

Join Our Community of Science Lovers!

U.S.

A team of American and German physicists measured the radiation emitted from a single, orbiting electron for the first time.

FRANCE


On supporting science journalism

If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.


Parisian lawmakers are cracking down on noise pollution. One new mandate: an acoustic asphalt coating on the city's peripheral highway, which could reduce noise by 7.5 decibels (equivalent to a one-sixth reduction in traffic).

U.K.

An aerospace laboratory in Stevenage is in the midst of a three-month microbe-killing “bake-off” in preparation for the construction of the European Space Agency's ExoMars rover. The rover is scheduled to land on the Red Planet in 2019—without earthly contaminants, it is hoped.

BRAZIL

A letter written by Albert Einstein in 1951 was found in a safe at a Jesuit school in Porto Alegre. Addressing students, the Nobel laureate wrote, “Thinking is to man what flying is to birds. Don't follow the example of a chicken when you could be a lark.”

NORWAY

Electric cars 50,000 strong now navigate Norway's roads, a government-set goal met two years ahead of schedule. The zero-emissions vehicles make up nearly 25 percent of all cars sold in the country thanks to incentives such as free parking and zero sales tax.

KAZAKHSTAN

As of June, an unknown illness has killed more than 120,000 saigas, critically endangered antelopes that live throughout Central Asia—about half their global population.

ANTARCTICA

Climate scientists analyzed the chemical composition of million-year-old air—the most ancient air ever recovered from pockets deep within a glacier.

Scientific American Magazine Vol 313 Issue 2This article was published with the title “Quick Hits” in Scientific American Magazine Vol. 313 No. 2 (), p. 25
doi:10.1038/scientificamerican0815-25

Subscribe to Support Independent Journalism

Great science journalism requires human expertise, time, effort and creativity. And it costs money. That’s why I and the journalists here at Scientific American hope you’ll join our community.

When you subscribe, you are supporting staff and freelance journalists who are passionate about telling science stories that are true, important and compelling. Our editors and reporters are often experts in their fields, which means they understand the nuances of big discoveries and can untangle the breakthroughs from the hype. With a subscription, you are also supporting rigorous fact-checking to ensure the words we publish are precise and accurate. And you’re supporting original illustrations, graphics and photos that bring you closer to an advanced laboratory, an ice sheet in Antarctica or a space mission in orbit. You’re helping us craft other types of high-quality journalism as well: Our newsletters are carefully written, edited and curated by staffers you have or will come to know and love. Our Science Quickly podcast is based on original reporting, collaboration with editors and scientists and exacting production.

Subscriptions keep this engine running so we can continue to deliver thoughtful, rigorous and independent science journalism to you. In an era of viral misinformation, this work is crucial. If you value what we do, I hope you’ll consider joining us as a subscriber

Thank you,

Jeanna Bryner, Editor in Chief, Scientific American

Subscribe