Scientific American Magazine

These havens of biodiversity are often endangered because they can be hard to identify. Understanding their variable characteristics can lead to more successful conservation efforts

Between nucleus and neutron star stretches a desert devoid of nuclear matter. Could strange quark matter fill the gap?

These poisons, which periodically and fatally contaminate the water supplies of wild and domestic animals, can also harm humans. But they are being coaxed into doing good

Problems that would otherwise be impossible to solve can now be computed, as long as one settles for what happens on the average

Animals have evolved a range of mechanisms to determine whether an individual takes on masculine or feminine traits. Cross-species comparisons offer some surprising insights into the nature of sexuality

The ancestor of each language was taken to its current territory by pioneers, farmers, traders or a conquering elite. Multidisciplinary studies are clarifying their respective roles

The optical telegraph is almost forgotten. Two centuries ago it moved messages over hundreds of kilometers in a few minutes

Despite dramatic scientific gains, cancer remains an undaunted killer