History of 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.

Some scientists have found highly unethical or duplicitous routes to tamper with and game the peer-review system designed to ensure the validity of findings

I love apostates, believers in or, better yet, conceivers of a theory who turn against it. They restore my faith in science, because they show that scientists can overcome attachment to their own brainchildren, a feat that is essential for progress and cannot be taken for granted.

I came, I saw, Icons

Books and recommendations from Scientific American

Long-sought clues to Maya governance emerge from an exquisitely preserved frieze

Newly discovered Maya artwork illuminates an ancient clash

Books and recommendations from Scientific American

Innovation and discovery as chronicled in past issues of Scientific American

When the World Health Organization recently named blood transfusions from Ebola survivors as its priority experimental therapy for the disease ravaging west Africa there was only one major problem: no data indicating that such transfusions work.

Today marks the 50th anniversary of the launch of NASA’s Mariner IV spacecraft (November 28, 1964). In total, the mission gave us 21 complete images of Mars, including this, our first close view of the planet—courtesy of data transmitted by the interplanetary probe and earth-bound scientists wielding pastels (below).

The latest outbreak in humans represents not just the most recent but also most deadly among several incidents dating back to 1976