Scientific American Magazine

Humans and other animals share a heritage of economic tendencies--including cooperation, repayment of favors and resentment at being shortchanged

Scientific uncertainty often becomes an excuse to ignore long-term problems, such as climate change. It doesn't have to be so

What can be done to stanch the flood of junk e-mail messages?

Scientists have long wondered why the polarity of the earth's magnetic field occasionally reverses. Recent studies of our planet's churning interior are offering intriguing clues about how the next reversal may begin

The old axiom "one gene, one protein" no longer holds true. The more complex an organism, the more likely it became that way by extracting multiple protein meanings from individual genes

For years, scientists have promised a new wave of drugs derived from sea life. A recently approved analgesic that is a synthetic version of a snail toxin has become one of the first marine pharmaceuticals

Magnesium diboride defies the once conventional wisdom about what makes a good superconductor. It becomes superconducting near the relatively warm temperature of 40 kelvins--which promises a variety of applications