Space & Physics
Book Review: Star-Craving Mad
Books and recommendations from Scientific American
Stories by Arielle Duhaime-Ross
Environment
Arctic Pole of Inaccessibility Is on the Move
Adventurers seeking the remotest place in the Arctic now have a new target. (But they'd better hurry—the ice is melting)
Environment
Book Review: Our Once and Future Planet
Books and recommendations from Scientific American
The Sciences
Book Review: Primates of the World
Books and recommendations from Scientific American
The Sciences
Aerial Monitoring Provides Early Sinkhole Detection
Monitoring from above predicts sinkholes months before they occur
Mind & Brain
Flatworms Recall Familiar Environs, Even after Losing Their Heads
Flatworms remember their surroundings, even after being decapitated and growing a new head
Environment
Predators Help Plants Put Away Carbon
Plants store more carbon where predators roam
Mind & Brain
Book Review: Behind the Shock Machine: The Untold Story of the Notorious Milgram Psychology Experiments
Books and recommendations from Scientific American
The Sciences
Book Review: Brave Genius: A Scientist, a Philosopher, and Their Daring Adventures from the French Resistance to the Nobel Prize
Books and recommendations from Scientific American
Health
Bronze Aged: As Teens Turn to Tanning Salons, States Look the Other Way
Ultraviolet light exposure increases the risk of cancer later in life, so medical researchers are calling for stricter regulations of indoor tanning
Previously Unknown Mammal Spent Decades Hiding in Plain Sight
As fans of the TV show CSI: Crime Scene Investigation know, skulls and teeth can provide excellent forensic clues. Yet any taxonomist will tell you that hard-boiled detectives and forensic scientists are far from the only ones to appreciate the investigative powers of craniums and pearly whites...
The Sciences
Patent Watch: Fluorescence Detection of Poison Oak Oil
The Sciences
Souvenir Seafood Menus Offer Glimpse into Hawaii’s Oceans of Old
Kyle Van Houtan, a marine ecologist at Duke University and a researcher for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, has spent the last few months scouring libraries, Web sites and private collections for Hawaiian restaurant menus dating as far back as the late 1800s...
Environment
Test-Tube Burger: Lab-Cultured Meat Passes Taste Test (Sort of)
Faux filets anyone? A researcher serves up hamburger patty created from stem cells, but supermarket sales are still a long way off
Technology
Web Comics Splash with Color Thanks to an Unlikely iPhone Programmer (Q&A)
It only took a few days for Boudewjin Pelt to develop the software tools that digital artists like Jeff Zugale, co-author of the Webcomic Not Invented Here, now call “indispensable.” The tools, which Pelt posted online for free in 2004, gave digital artists the ability to color their artwork with just a few clicks of [...]..
Environment
Anatomy of One of Canada s Worst and Most Costly Natural Disasters
Canadian officials taking stock of the deluge that occurred in mid-June in Alberta have started to characterize it as the worst flood in the province’s history.
Environment
Mystery Lingers around Origin of GM Wheat in Oregon
When the fresh wheat samples arrived at her lab this spring, Carol Mallory-Smith, a weed scientist, didn’t know what to expect. The concerned farmer who sent them had contacted her because a patch of wheat had refused to die after being treated with a powerful herbicide called Roundup...
Mind & Brain
Zero Evidence That Legos Harm Your Kids
LEGO toys have never been so controversial, or angry for that matter, but that should not stop your kids from playing with them. There has been a lot of noise over a study, released June 4, that looked into the evolution of the facial expressions printed on LEGO minifigures—those one and half-inch toy figurines that come with LEGO block sets...
Evolution
Empathy and Disgust Do Battle in the Brain
An injured rat helps us understand the struggle between empathy and disgust
Environment
Your Meat Should Be Raised on Insects, U.N. Says
There has been a lot of press, both positive and negative, about a recent United Nations report in which scientists recommended that we start eating insects to fight world hunger.
