Bhopal at 30: Lessons Still Being Learned
In 1989, I was working as an at editor at IEEE Spectrum when I was assigned to write a feature on Bhopal. The thirtieth anniversary of that industrial disaster that killed thousands is tonight.
How the World Can Fight Global Warming No Matter What Happens in Lima
Imagine if the world’s two largest polluters unilaterally decide to cut emissions of carbon dioxide, the ubiquitous gas responsible for the bulk of global warming.
A New Way to Share Articles—and Help Advance Science
Paging through some old Scientific American scrapbooks recently, I found this gem from Gerard Piel, a past publisher, in a 1958 article: "Science moves forward in little jumps with small accretions to the total body of knowledge.
Wireless Gadget Recharging with Sound Waves
An efficient way to beam electricity through the air
People Love Their Smartphones but Hate the Batteries [Survey Results]
Scientific American readers say smartphones have not replaced tablets or PCs, and still need better batteries, cameras and biometric security options
Why Does Cancer Therapy Make Food Taste Terrible?
The chemicals attack taste buds while the brain associates nausea with eating
Scrumptious Science: Great Globs of Gluten!
A tasty Thanksgiving test from Science Buddies
Best of Thanksgiving, Part 1: Let's Talk Turkey!
Turkey scientist Rich Buchholz of the University of Mississippi talks about the turkey on your plate and his own turkey research
DNA Can Survive Reentry from Space
Genetic blueprints attached to a rocket survived a short spaceflight and later passed on their biological instructions
Eastern U.S. Storm Threatens to Foil Thanksgiving Travel
A storm expected to blast the East Coast with rain and snow through Thursday morning is threatening to snarl traffic for millions and impede air travel ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday.
Scientific American's 1930 Football Study Found Little Actual Action
The Wall Street Journal found in 2010 that an NFL game has just 11 minutes of actual action. Eight decades earlier, Scientific American found just about the same thing
South America's Many Remarkable Deer
Deer are strongly associated with Eurasia and North America and less so with the other regions of the world. In this brief article - part of which is an excerpt from my 2013 article on the conservation status of South American mammals (Naish 2013) - I'm going to say a few things about the deer [...]