
Could cops track where robbers have been with their hair?
David Biello is a contributing editor at Scientific American.

Could cops track where robbers have been with their hair?

Can fermenting microbes save us from climate change?

How close are we to catastrophic climate change?

Wrangling Renewables and the Smart Grid: How Can the Federal Government Change the Future of Electricity?
The commissioner of the federal agency responsible for electricity supply in the U.S. explains the ongoing transformation of the energy sector

Once more into the breach for Orbital Sciences and the carbon observatory

Does the EPA know what it's doing when it comes to dispersants?

Experto Crede: Climate Expertise Lacking among Global Warming Contrarians
A majority of scientists who dispute global warming lack the climatological expertise to do so

Is Using Dispersants on the BP Gulf Oil Spill Fighting Pollution with Pollution?
It remains unclear what impact chemical dispersants will have on sea life--and only the massive, uncontrolled experiment being run in the Gulf of Mexico will tell

Charge of the light brigade: How quantum dots may improve solar cells

The Green Apple: How Can Cities Adapt to Climate Change?
New York City--and other major metropolises around the globe--face an epic challenge in coping with the impacts of global warming

A vortex of fire erupts at the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico

Slosh and Berm: Building Sand Barriers off Louisiana's Coast to Hold Back Oil Spill Has Low Probability of Success
The oil spill will not just have an environmental impact--the catastrophe, along with efforts to stop it, may reshape the geography of Louisiana's Gulf coast

How Will the Oil Spill Impact the Gulf's Dead Zone?
Microbial activity could end up exacerbating waters with little oxygen--as could the coating of oil

Creation of Life
Synthetic biology remakes organisms, but can it bring inanimate matter to life?

Stringing Offshore Turbines for Uninterrupted Power

Polar Meltdown
The world's biggest particle collider might uncover new slices of space

12 Events That Will Change Everything
In addition to reacting to news as it breaks, we work to anticipate what will happen. Here we contemplate 12 possibilities and rate their likelihood of happening by 2050

"Top kill" fails to stop flow of oil in Gulf of Mexico

"Top kill" goes on into the night [update]

Mud beats oil (so far) to stop Deepwater Horizon spill

BP prepares for "top kill" of Deepwater Horizon oil spill

Slick Solution: How Microbes Will Clean Up the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill
Bacteria and other microbes are the only thing that will ultimately clean up the ongoing oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico

Man-Made Genetic Instructions Yield Living Cells for the First Time
Scientists create the first microbe to live under the instruction of DNA synthesized in the lab

Where Will the Deepwater Horizon Oil End Up?
The short answer is everywhere--the sea surface, deep waters, the Gulf Coast, in deepwater corals and even as far as the Arctic