Bringing Schrödinger's Cat to Life
Recent experiments have begun to demonstrate how the weird world of quantum mechanics gives way to the familiarity of everyday experience
Stories by Philip Yam
The Forgotten JFK Proposal: A Joint U.S.-Soviet Moon Landing [Video]
We all learned that President John F. Kennedy launched the U.S. effort to land the first men on the moon. “We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard,” he famously stated in his Rice University speech in 1962.But in a span of a year, Kennedy came to have second thoughts on the Apollo program as costs rose, budgets exploded and the scientific value of a moon mission came under question...
Fox News Distorts Climate Science; In Other News, the Pope Is Catholic
For anyone with an interest in journalism, it’s no surprise that Fox News Channel and the opinion pages of The Wall Street Journal lean well to the right.
Introducing Our New Video Series: The Countdown
YouTube has fast become a place where people get their news, and in that vein, we re delighted to join the YouTube Space Lab channel with our new online series, The Countdown.
The Countdown, Episode 1: Earliest Spiral Galaxy, Earth as Art, the Pioneer Anomaly, a Rocket-Loving Gopher, 7 Minutes of Terror
Welcome to The Countdown, the Scientific American show that counts down the five coolest things happening now in space news.Episode 1: July 26, 2012 Story 5 Galaxies from the early universe usually look kind of lumpy or blobby, but scientists have spotted one with a spiral structure, making it look a lot like our own Milky Way galaxy.See Primordial Pinwheel: Astronomers Spot Oldest Prominent Spiral Galaxy Yet...
Can You Explain Science with 7 Everyday Items? Enter Our `Iron Egghead' Video Contest
Credit: Philip Yam Remember MacGyver from the old TV series? He could build a laser from a pair of eyeglasses, a match, and some dental floss and then mount it on a shark, or so it seemed...
The 4th U.S. Case of Mad Cow Disease: Should You Be Concerned?
On April 24, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported the fourth confirmed case of mad cow disease in the U.S., the first since 2006. In an official statement, the department’s chief veterinary officer John Clifford said that the animal (a dairy cow from central California), “was never presented for slaughter for human consumption, so at no time presented a risk to the food supply or human health.” That’s good news: it means that the USDA protection system—banning cattle that cannot walk on their own and testing them for disease—worked...
Google Pays Homage to Zipper Engineer Gideon Sundback
Today, an image of a zipper runs down Google’s home page in celebration of the 132nd birthday of Gideon Sundback, who helped make the device an indispensable item for today's man on the go...
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What Gives Solar Superstorms Their Power? [Video]
A coronal mass ejection can reach Earth in days and disrupt communications, destroy satellites and even knock out power grids. A video from NOVA
When Science and Politics Mix: Fang Lizhi (1936 2012)
I was saddened to learn from The New York Times this past weekend that astrophysicist and human-rights advocate Fang Lizhi had died at age 76. I met Fang in 1994, a few years after he fled China with help from the U.S...
A Titanic Flashback: A Twitter Timeline of the Disaster
Can't stay up to follow all the #Titanic_SA tweets? Here are they are, all collected
Does Pi Encode Shakespeare s Plays? [Video]
Yesterday was Pi Day (3.14, approximately), and appropriately enough comes this analysis of the irrational number by Vi Hart, a recreational “mathemusician” at Khan Academy.
What Processed Food Looks Like during Digestion-of Course It's Not Pretty [Video]
If you ever wondered how your body handled all those packaged ramen noodles you ate during college, this video’s for you. Stefani Bardin, a TEDxManhattan fellow, wants to learn how digestion differs between food chock full of preservatives and food that can actually go bad in a day.To create this video, she and her collaborator, Braden Kuo of Harvard University, had two volunteers swallow a camera pill along with their meals (which included Gatorade and Gummi bears)...
Are Some Science Stories Inevitably Political?
RALEIGH, N.C.—Does writing about climate change or childhood vaccinations necessarily mean you've got an agenda? That's one of the questions tackled at last week's ScienceOnline 2012 meeting, a gathering of some 450 scientists, bloggers, scientist-bloggers, journalists and other communicators on the campus of North Carolina State University.In this particular session, "You Got Your Politics in My Science," attendees related their experiences and their approaches to dealing with perceived advocacy and reactive attacks...
How Cosmic Rays Can Image the Throat of an Active Volcano [Video]
Cosmic-ray muons that pass through Mount Vesuvius could reveal the interior structure, potentially indicating when the deadly volcano will next erupt. A video from NOVA
Trapped in a Car during the Japan Tsunami: Dash Cam Captures the Terror [Video]
This recently released footage, taken on-board a car, shows how quickly the floodwaters surged onto the streets during the March 11 tsunami. Motorists had little time to react, and the way vehicles floated and bobbed reveal the tremendous power of the tsunami.The driver of this car survived...
Evolution and Miss USA: Science Role Models Explain Why Evolutionary Biology Is So Important [Video]
Remember the Miss USA pageant earlier this year, when contestants were asked if evolution should be taught in schools? Only two of the them fully supported Darwin; thankfully, the pageant winner was one of them.Recognizing that these young women often serve as role models for teens, and concerned about their lack of awareness of one of humanity's greatest insights, a group of scientists and science bloggers banded together to make this video, "Let's Talk about Evolution." In it, scientists describe why evolution is important, how it has driven advances in science and medicine and why it belongs in the classroom...
A Brief History of Stephen Hawking: A Video Tribute
In most cases, you need to make a huge donation to have a building named after you. The Perimeter Institute, however, made no such demands on its new Stephen Hawking Centre because, well, he's Stephen Hawking .The renowned physicist, of course, is known for pushing the frontier of science, mentoring and inspiring younger generations, communicating discoveries to the public, and appearing in many television shows...
Do You Use GPS? Say "Thanks" to Norman Ramsey (1915-2011)
Norman F. Ramsey may not be a household name, but he was a giant of 20th-century experimental physics. His basic-science work earned him the 1989 Nobel Prize in Physics and laid the foundation for technologies now used by millions of people...
Recipients of National Medal of Science, Technology Announced
Seven scientists, mostly in molecular biology and genetics, received the National Medal of Science, and five innovators were awarded the technology version, the White House announced this week.“Each of these extraordinary scientists, engineers, and inventors is guided by a passion for innovation, a fearlessness even as they explore the very frontiers of human knowledge, and a desire to make the world a better place,” President Barack Obama said in a prepared statement...
