The Sciences
Tools for Evaluating Scholarly Journals
In an information-rich age, one of my main functions as a librarian isn't helping people find material, but helping them evaluate the material they find.
Computing2328 articles archived since 1845
Technology
Weather Radar Captures Flocks of Birds Taking Off
Several times a week, if not every day, I look at Doppler radar maps so I know whether to take an umbrella when I leave the house. These maps, shown on TV weather reports or websites, are commonplace enough that they don’t feel like impressive technology: mere green blobs slowly shifting across the screen at [...]..
NOVA Cybersecurity Lab
Explore the world of coding, cyber scams and online safety
Space & Physics
Making Astronomy Accessible for the Visually Impaired
A couple of years ago, one of my thesis mentors sought visually impaired scientists working at a major space science agency in the United States.
Virtual-Reality Headset Is Reinventing Exposure Therapy
Researchers are using the Oculus Rift to test immersion treatments for PTSD and phobias
The Sciences
7 Amazing Google Science Fair Projects
Tonight, Google will announce the winners of its fourth annual Google Science Fair, which Scientific American co-sponsors. Watch the awards ceremony here live.
Mind & Brain
Engines of Innovation
Most of humanity now lives in a metropolis. That simple fact helps to fuel our continued success as a species
Environment
An Efficient Process for Recycling Rare Earth Elements
A student team from the University of Houston swept this year's U.S. Department of Energy Clean Energy Business Plan Competition. With their innovative (and proprietary) approach to recycling a pair of critical rare earth materials, the REEcycle team introduced the energy industry to an innovative way to turn waste into a domestic stream of rare [...]..
Prime Numbers Scholar Wins 2014 MacArthur "Genius Grant"
The award, which comes with a no-strings-attached $625,000 stipend paid out over five years, also went to black carbon and nano materials researchers
Space & Physics
Visualizing 4-Dimensional Asteroids
Editor’s Note: The following is a guest post from Jake VanderPlas, a data scientist who worked on the Graphic Science illustration in the October issue of Scientific American magazine...
Staring at a Screen for Hours Changes Your Tears
Office workers exhibit symptoms of dry eye
Crime Ring Revelation Reveals Cybersecurity Conflict of Interest
Hold Security’s nebulous report on the “CyberVor” online hacker gang exposed the cybersecurity world’s troubling practice of uncovering online threats and then selling proposed solutions...
Technology
5 Ways to Thwart Illegal Drug Dealing Online
Recent reports from ABC News and the UK's Daily Mail suggest eBay is providing a platform for sellers engaged in an illegal prescription drug trade.
The Sciences
Eight Great Octopus Videos!
It’s Octopus Chronicles‘ 88th post! To celebrate, I’ve gone on an all-arms hunt through the deep crevasses of the internet to find eight of my favorite octopus videos.
World's First Three-Dimensional Printed Car Made in Chicago
An Arizona company is the first to use 3-D printing to make a car
Technology
Smartphone App Takes Morality Science Out of the Lab and Into the Real World
Just when it seems there's a mobile app for just about everything, psychologists have shown there's room for one more: they are using smartphones to help them better understand the dynamics of moral and immoral behavior out in the community...
Sherry Turkle Explains Why Social Technologies Are Making Us Less Social
For the first time in the history of our species, we are never alone and never bored. Have we lost something fundamental about being human?
Technology
GM Focuses on Safety in Driverless Vehicle Announcement
Driverless cars came to the forefront of transportation discussions this weekend when General Motors CEO Mary Barra announced her company's plan to add "hands-free and feet-free" driving capabilities to some 2017 models...
Technology
New Bond Breaker Game Puts You in the Proton’s Seat
Admit it: haven’t you always longed to experience what it’s like to be a proton at the subatomic scale? No? Just Jen-Luc Piquant then.
Technology
Is Data Really Changing the Nature of Wearable Technology?
Do you have a FitBit story? Last November, S came home with a Fitbit Flex. For those of you who don’t have one of these increasingly ubiquitous devices, it’s a small, plastic band that you wear on your wrist (there are other tracker options as well)...
