Scientific American Magazine

Abundant liquid water newly discovered underneath the world's great ice sheets could intensify the destabilizing effects of global warming on the sheets. Then, even without melting, the sheets may slide into the sea and raise sea level catastrophically

Many, perhaps all, people harbor a small number of cells from genetically different individuals--from their mothers and, for women who have been pregnant, from their children. What in the world do these foreigners do in the body?

Radio-frequency identification tags label all kinds of inventoried goods and speed commuters through toll plazas. Now tiny RFID components are being developed with a rather different aim: thwarting counterfeiters

Brazilian neuroscientist Miguel A. L. Nicolelis taps into the chatter of neural populations to drive robotic prosthetics. Now he hopes to tap the potential of his country's population by building them a network of science cities

The Editors' introduction to the physics Special Report

To further investigate the intricacies of high-energy particle physics, researchers must construct a more powerful electron-positron collider

A global collaboration of scientists is preparing to start up the greatest particle physics experiment in history

The current Standard Model of particle physics begins to unravel when probed much beyond the range of current particle accelerators. So no matter what the Large Hadron Collider finds, it is going to take physics into new territory