Artificial life: Was Steven Spielberg onto something in E.T.?
CHICAGO—There is a moment in Steven Spielberg's E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial in which scientists realize that E.T. in fact has DNA, like Earth-based life forms.
Biology12464 articles archived since 1845
A cure for the common cold? Culprit genome sequenced, but ...
Could the common cold become a thing of the past? Scientists have unraveled the genetic code for all 99 strains of the rhinovirus, but there may be a disconnect between excitement over the feat in the lab versus at pharmaceutical companies that would ordinarily develop a cure or vaccine against infection...
Why are octuplet births so rare in humans?
An evolutionary expert explains why Homo sapiens is not equipped to handle eight kids, and why they invest so much energy in a single offspring
Big win for a tiny endangered species, the American pika
The rabbit-like American pika ( Ochotona princeps ) got lucky this week. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, responding to a lawsuit filed by the Center for Biological Diversity and Earthjustice, has agreed to assess whether the increasingly rare animal qualifies for protection under the Endangered Species Act...
Skip the Robotics: Paralyzed Limbs Come to Life with New Connection to Brain
Rerouting signal from neuron to muscle allows the brain to move deadened limbs
Readers Respond on "The Search for Intelligence"
Letters to the editor on stories from Scientific American
Darwin Day Special, Part 3: Origins of Paleontology and the Impact of Religion on the Development of Evolutionary Theory
In part 3 of this special Darwin Day podcast, the Reverend Thomas Goodhue, executive director of the Long Island Council of Churches and author of the book Curious Bones: Mary Anning and the Birth of Paleontology, talks about Anning and how religion informed Darwin and the scientists who led to him...
Masters of Flight: Songbirds' High-Speed Massive Migration
A new light-sensing backpack has mapped songbird migration routes for the first time
Darwin, Cuvier and Lamarck
The finches of the Galapagos Islands, Darwin was convinced, all had a common ancestor. Their variety was proof that species adapt themselves to their special living environment in the course of time...
Charles Darwin's Travels on the HMS Beagle
When Darwin reached the Galapagos Islands in September 1835, he was certain that the archipelago had rather recently risen from the sea, and had become home to birds from the South American continent...
A Cut above the Rest?: Wrinkle Treatment Uses Babies' Foreskins
Male circumcision-derived skin-rejuvenator injections in U.K. have yet to be approved in U.S.
Darwin on a Godless Creation: "It's like confessing to a murder"
200 years after the birth of Charles Darwin, his theory of evolution still clashes with the creationist beliefs of some organized religions. For him personally, it meant the end of his belief in creation by God...
"Digital hand" researchers score second round of NSF funding
A team of researchers developing "digital hand" technology (described in an article last year by Scientific American.com ) designed to help people with carpal tunnel syndrome and other disorders use computers has received nearly $473,000 from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to build a commercial prototype device...
Blooms Away: The Real Price of Flowers
What is the environmental impact of all those flowers given on Valentine's Day?
Salamanders slipping away, global warming may be to blame
Biologists report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences this week that they were unable to find a pair of previously common Guatemalan salamander species -- Pseudoeurycea brunnata and Pseudoeurycea goebeli -- and say they are apparently extinct...
Darwin Day Special, Part 2: Evolutionary Psychology and Religion
In part 2 of this special Darwin Day podcast, Hofstra University religion professor John Teehan discusses the study of religion from an evolutionary psychology perspective
Darwin Day Special: Bicentennial of the Birth of Charles Darwin
In part 1 of this special Darwin Day podcast, celebrating the 200th anniversary of the birth of Darwin on February 12th, Richard Milner performs part of his one-man show about Darwin; Scientific American Editor in Chief John Rennie and Darwin descendant Matthew Chapman read from The Origin of Species ; and Chapman talks about his book 40 Days and 40 Nights, about the Dover intelligent design trial as well as about his efforts to get presidential candidates to discuss science--a project called ScienceDebate...
Weily Soong: A passion for virology translates into a career as an allergist
A 1991 Westinghouse finalist practices "pure medicine" in Birmingham, Ala., and Granada, Nicaragua
Coral reefs: Vital to the oceans, vital to humans
Coral reefs are dying off at record rates, thanks to pollution, disease and global warming. Scientists worldwide are trying to come up with new ideas to conserve and protect not just the coral reefs, but also the biodiversity and human economies that depend upon them for their survival...
What will it take to get you to stop smoking? How about cold, hard cash?
Seventy percent of smokers in the U.S. say they want to quit, but studies show that only 2 percent to 3 percent manage to kick the habit each year. Incentives for quitting—avoiding potentially deadly lung cancer and premature wrinkling, saving thousands of dollars annually (in money spent on cigarettes and medical bills stemming from health-related ills), and perhaps even becoming president of the United States—are just not enough, it seems...
