History of Science

Digital mapping shatters the image of Stonehenge as a desolate site that was visited by few

The Devils Hole pupfish (Cyprinodon diabolis) is the rarest fish in the world. Found only in a single, tiny limestone cavern in the Devils Hole geothermal pool about 100 km east of Nevada’s Death Valley National Park, these fish have the smallest known geographic range of any vertebrate in the wild.

It only took 23 years but the Oregon spotted frog (Rana pretiosa) has finally gained protection under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. The small, aquatic frogs—which only reach about 100 millimeters in length—have been considered candidates for protected status since 1991.

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.

One of the most powerful contributions of scientific illustration is to give us an informed visual where it is typically impossible to find one.

Censored: How the Army Eats In this issue, a telling line reads: "The censors have not allowed the press of the world to state whether or not explosives were dropped on the fortifications of Liège." This special "War Issue" contained much on military theory, organization and resources, but apart from a scattering of images little [...]

The following is a guest post by Scott Bennett, principal of eSTEM Academy in Reynoldsburg, Ohio When I first started teaching science 10 years ago, no one ever talked about achievement or thought about data.

Wilderness is dead, long live the Wilderness Act. On Sept. 3, 1964, President Lyndon Johnson and the U.S. Congress signed into law the Wilderness Act.

Scientific AmericanBright Horizons Cruise 22 is in port in Kodiak, Alaska, on September 2nd. We talk about our last few stops and hear from passenger and Manhattan Project veteran Margaret Asprey

Polar bear DNA has been isolated for the first time from footprints left in the snow on an Arctic island, a breakthrough that could help scientists better protect rare and endangered wild animals, experts said on Tuesday. Scientists often spend days tracking rare animals such as snow leopards or orangutans for samples of DNA, for instance from hair or faeces, to understand their movements, monitor their populations and propose ways to protect them.

British and Finnish scientists have found a way of generating renewable propane using a bacterium widely found in the human intestine and say the finding is a step to commercial production of a fuel that could one day be an alternative to fossil fuel reserves.

Innovation and discovery as chronicled in past issues of Scientific American