Scientific American Magazine

Research into childhood nutrition reveals that a poor diet influences mental development in more ways than expected. Other aspects of poverty exacerbate the effects

Two dozen satellites hovering thousands of miles out in space are allowing people to locate themselves on the earth's surface with remarkable precision

With a technique called acoustic-daylight imaging, sounds in the sea can "illuminate" submerged objects, thereby creating moving color pictures without sonar

Enormous outpourings of gas from the centers of nearby galaxies may ultimately help explain both star formation and the intergalactic medium

One half to one third of the world's population harbors Helicobacter pylori, "slow" bacteria that infect the stomach and can cause ulcers and cancer there

Carl Linnaeus classified plants according to their reproductive parts, endowing them as well with sex lives reflecting 18th-century values and controversies

Yearlong computations have helped to confirm the fundamental theory behind quarks -- and, using its principles, even to identify a new particle

An unusual enzyme called telomerase acts on parts of chromosomes known as telomeres. The enzyme has recently been found in many human tumors and is being eyed as a new target for cancer therapy