Scientific American Magazine

A new wave of start-ups wants to install rooftop solar panels on your house. Upfront cost: nothing

Plug-in hybrid trucks are improving the long view of the short haul

Subwaylike bus lines mobilize the urban future

Marine zoning is a bold remedy for sick seas

Trapped lightning could help zap trash and generate electricity

Tiny, ubiquitous sensors will allow us to index the physical world the way the Web maps cyberspace

Your PC can accomplish any computing task you ask of it. Why isn't the same true for robots?

The military, short on linguists, is building smart phone–based devices to do the job

Complex diseases have complex causes. Luckily, they also leave a multitude of traces

Space-based data are helping to track and predict the spread of deadly diseases

A gallery of images captured by light microscopy reveals the high art of the natural world

The molecule ATP, famous as an essential energy source inside cells, also carries critical messages between cells. That dual role is suggesting fresh ideas for fighting human diseases

From solar power to powering our planet with garbage, Scientific American explores ideas that would improve our planet

By adapting a global network of telescopes, astronomers will soon get their first look ever at the dark silhouette of a black hole

New explorations have revealed how the Antikythera mechanism modeled lunar motion and predicted eclipses, among other sophisticated tricks

Arctic permafrost is already thawing, creating lakes that emit methane. The heat-trapping gas could dramatically accelerate global warming. How big is the threat? What can be done?

Analyses of a recently discovered type of hot vent ecosystem on the seafloor suggest new possibilities for how life evolved