Scientific American Magazine

One of the most common health problems worldwide and potentially one of the most treatable, iron deficiency can have devastating effects. It can jeopardize a child's mental and physical development

These cagelike molecules constitute the third form of pure carbon (the other two are diamond and graphite). C₆₀, the archetype, is the roundest molecule that can possibly exist

Some 800 million years ago the earth entered a period of major tectonic and environmental change. An increase in oxygen levels probably occurred at this time, which in turn may have opened the door to large animals

The immature immune system produces cells that would attack every tissue in the body. Within the thymus, however, it learns which cells would be harmful, useless or useful

The finches of the Galápagos—the classic example of how natural selection works over millions of years-have now been observed to evolve in real time. A single drought can change a population

Once regarded as "vermin of the skies," asteroids are now known to offer important clues to the birth of the solar system. They are the remnants of a planet that failed to form

Liquid-metal sources, their conical shape generated by electrostatic fields, produce charged atoms that can cut away and rebuild circuits on a microscopic scale

Cleanup technologies, from hot-water washing to fertilizer, were applied to the mess left by the Exxon Valdez oil spill. But nature, it seems, fared better on its own.