Scientific American Magazine

Studying the Web will reveal better ways to exploit information, prevent identity theft, revolutionize industry, and manage our ever-growing online lives

Our universe may have started not with a big bang but with a big bounce—an implosion that triggered an explosion, all driven by exotic quantum-gravitational effects

Inspired by commercial bar codes, DNA tags could provide a quick, inexpensive way to identify species

IQ is easy to measure and reflects something real. But scientists hunting among our genes for the factors that shape intelligence are discovering they are more elusive than expected

A community of engineers, designers and innovators is collaborating online to make better prosthetic hands and arms for amputees. One of the lead engineers lost his own arm in Iraq

A clever combination of optics and genetics is allowing neuroscientists to identify and control brain circuits with unprecedented precision