History of Science

Innovation and discovery as chronicled in past issues of Scientific American

In what would be his centennial year, Martin Gardner, the longtime author of Scientific American's celebrated Mathematical Games column, continues to inspire mathematicians and puzzle lovers

Is chimpanzee violence a product of nature or nurture? Genes or environment? Two weeks ago Nature published a report, "Lethal aggression in Pan is better explained by adaptive strategies than human impacts," in which 30 primatologists came down on the side of nature.

Europe's particle-physics lab, made famous most recently for the discovery of the Higgs boson, turns 60 this week

Editor's Note: Veteran science journalist Philip Hilts is working and diving with a team of archeologists, engineers and divers off the shore of Antikythera, a remote Greek island, where a treasure ship by the same name sank in 70 B.C.

Discovering a new species isn't always as easy as saying “Look, there’s a new species!” In the case of a rare bird recently identified in Brazil, it took about 20 years for scientists to gather enough evidence to classify it as a new species.

The world's favorite number is seven, at least if the result of a poll conducted by Alex Bellos is to be believed. Some people like it because it is prime, some because they have a lot of sevens in their birthdates.

Today, maintaining privacy without guided assistance is an onerous task, whose initial costs are high, immediate rewards low and solutions fragile and constantly evolving.

Mike meet everyone, everyone meet Mike. No, no, don't wave. He can't see, you're just making this awkward. Also known as Miracle Mike, Mike the Headless Chicken was a plump, five-year-old cockerel when he was unceremoniously beheaded on 10 September 1945.

Samuel Arbesman recently wrote about incorrect mathematical conjectures. I wanted to add one of my favorites, which came up in my math history class a couple weeks ago.

Believe it or not, I do have friends who would describe themselves as not liking math, and every so often one of them will share this meme on Facebook: And then Satan said, "Put the alphabet in math." There are different background pictures each time the meme pops up, but the text is always the [...]

Nature Video presents four short films and an overview trailer on this summer's Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting, which brought early-career biologists together with Nobel Prize–winners