Scientific American Magazine

Many dams are being torn down these days, allowing rivers and the ecosystems they support to rebound. But ecological risks abound as well. Can they be averted?

New systems may allow people to record everything they see and hear--and even things they cannot sense--and to store all these data in a personal digital archive

Improved engines and exhaust scrubbers, combined with a new fuel, willmake energy-efficient diesels nearly as green as hybrids

Pinpointing the genes involved in cancer will help chart a new course across the complex landscape of human malignancies

A single black hole, smaller than the solar system, can control the destiny of an entire cluster of galaxies

Novel illusions suggest that the brain does not separate perception of color from perception of form and depth

Molecules called predictive autoantibodies appear in the blood years before people show symptoms of various disorders. Tests that detected these molecules could warn of the need to take preventive action