Can scientists really do anything to reform education?
Biologist and biology educator Joanne Manaster has a thought-provoking guest blog post today on what, if anything, scientists can do to help K-12 science education.
Stories by George Musser
The Unreasonable Beauty of Mathematics [Slide Show]
Mathematical structures both natural and man-made dazzle the eye
20 Solar Apps for Your iPhone
The iPhone seems like the perfect accessory for a solar power enthusiast. Right now, you have to navigate a maze of websites such as PV Watts to calculate how much energy you can expect to produce and how many years a solar array will take to pay itself off...
Physicists Simulate the End of Time in a Maryland Lab
Last September I had an article in Scientific American about what it would mean for time to end—how the world might cease to unfold in a unidirectional sequence of cause and effect...
Beasts of the Stellar Zoo [Slide Show]
From yellow dwarfs to blue supergiants, stars continue to challenge astronomers' understanding of the universe
Phasebook? My(Green)Space? Can Social Networking Be Harnessed for Energy Conservation?
The latest to announce its demise is Google Powermeter. All the efforts to combine social networking with energy conservation seem to be pulling the plug.
Is Reality Digital or Analog? Read the Essays and Cast your Vote
Last week, the Foundation Questions Institute announced the winners of its third essay contest, which Scientific American co-sponsored. (I helped to decide on the question, judge the essays and hand out the awards at the World Science Festival in New York City.) The essay question was, "Is Reality Digital or Analog?" Is nature, at root, continuous or discretized?...
What Would Happen If Earth and Mars Switched Places?
Last Saturday, at a workshop organized by the Foundation Questions Institute, Nobel laureate physicist Gerard 't Hooft gave a few informal remarks on the deep nature of reality.
A Mystery Wrapped in a Crystal
Scientists have shed new light on how these structures melt
More Information on Quantum Entanglement
See what scientists are doing to try to understand the deepest mystery of quantum physics
Space Is an Elaborate Illusion
Editor's Note: This post was intially published May 12 on the World Science Festival's Web site .My dad took a peculiar pleasure in fitting the maximum amount of stuff into the smallest possible space...
Space Shuttle Endeavour Launches Successfully on Its Final Mission
Editor's note: Updated at 12:15 P.M. KENNEDY SPACE CENTER—The space shuttle Endeavour took off on its final flight Monday morning at 8:56 A.M.
Why it scrubbed: NASA engineers troubleshoot Endeavour's electrical problems
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER—When NASA scrubbed the shuttle Endeavour 's final launch here on Friday, engineers said there was a best-case and a worst-case scenario.
Scrubbed! Space Shuttle Launch Delayed at Least 3 Days Due to Electrical Failure
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER—The shuttle Endeavour suffered a minor but potentially troublesome electrical failure that delayed its launch from Friday to Monday at the earliest.
Cosmic-Ray Detector on Space Shuttle Set to Scan Cosmos for Dark Matter
A fancy cosmic-ray detector, the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, is about to scan the cosmos for dark matter, antimatter and more
NASA's shuttle program counts down 'til the end
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER—If I'd jumped, I could have touched the belly of the Discovery. Of course, I would have then been escorted unceremoniously from the Orbiter Processing Facility...
Is a geothermal heat pump right for you?
I've tried it all: caulking cracks, blowing in insulation, replacing drafty windows and—I'm especially proud of this one—installing a mail-slot cover so airtight it could be used in a space shuttle docking module...
Social networking and energy conservation: What went wrong?
It was a match made in geek heaven. Combine the hottest online activity—social networking—with the biggest environmental challenge—energy conservation—and you get something yummier than peanut butter and chocolate...
