Scientific American Magazine

Diagnoses have soared, but valid treatments are few. Parents have turned instead to dubious, and often risky, alternative therapies

The first step toward transparent government, says White House information czar Vivek Kundra, is to make all its information freely available on the Web

Autonomous machines will soon play a big role in our lives. It's time they learned how to behave ethically

NASA is building an innovative and risky space telescope that promises to surpass the hugely successful Hubble. Here's an exclusive, behind-the-scenes look at the most audacious space project in decades

Our Web survey of readers suggests that the scientifically literate public still trusts its experts—with some important caveats

The Human Genome Project has failed so far to produce the medical miracles that scientists promised. Biologists are now divided over what, if anything, went wrong—and what needs to happen next

New analyses suggest that recent human evolution has followed a different course than biologists would have expected

The octopus sucker can feel, taste, grip, manipulate—and act of its own accord

The ultimate fuel may come not from corn or algae but directly from the sun itself

Physicists have long sought to find one final theory that would unify all of physics. Instead they may have to settle for several