The Migration History of Humans: DNA Study Traces Human Origins Across the Continents
DNA furnishes an ever clearer picture of the multimillennial trek from Africa all the way to the tip of South America
Features
So You Think You Can Dance?: PET Scans Reveal Your Brain's Inner Choreography
Recent brain-imaging studies reveal some of the complex neural choreography behind our ability to dance
Hands-On Computing: How Multi-Touch Screens Could Change the Way We Interact with Computers and Each Other
The iPhone and even wilder interfaces could improve collaboration without a mouse or keyboard
No-Till: How Farmers Are Saving the Soil by Parking Their Plows
The age-old practice of turning the soil before planting a new crop is a leading cause of farmland degradation. Many farmers are thus looking to make plowing a thing of the past
Rubik's Cube Inspired Puzzles Demonstrate Math's "Simple Groups"
A new set of puzzles inspired by Rubik's Cube offers puzzle lovers the chance to get acquainted with the secret twists and turns of mathematical entities called sporadic simple groups
Using Causality to Solve the Puzzle of Quantum Spacetime
A new approach to the decades-old problem of quantum gravity goes back to basics and shows how the building blocks of space and time pull themselves together
Could Our Own Proteins Be Used to Help Us Fight Cancer?
Protective heat shock proteins present in every cell have long been known to counteract stress. Newly recognized roles in cancer and immunity make them potential therapeutic allies
Departments
Is the U.N. Deadline on Curing Malaria Wishful Thinking?
Summarized Cinema: Science Movies Explained in a Sentence
100 Years Ago in Scientific American: Curtiss "June Bug" wins Flight Contest
Jeremy Nicholson's Gut Instincts: Researching Intestinal Bacteria
Ask the Experts
- Letters
Readers Respond: "When Markets Beat the Polls"
- Advances
NASA Satellites Watch Polar Ice Shelf Break into Crushed Ice
How Cells Make Use of Random Biochemical Reactions
Farming Solar Energy in Space
News Scan Briefs: Eating with Tension, Cancerous Marriage, Milk and Diabetes
Looking at Yesterday's Genes for Tomorrow's Cures
Can the "Amphibian Ark" Save Frogs from Pollution/Extinction?
Updates: Whatever Happened to Protecting Cells from Radiation?
Chemical Fossils Preserved in Lava Reveal Remains of Ancient Sea Life
Green Porno: SciAm Talks Insect Sex with Isabella Rossellini
A Milk-Diabetes Connection?
GINA Becomes Genuine
Preemptive Strike Against Mindless Mistakes
- Recommended
Reviews: "A View of Science, Reason and Religion"
- Skeptic
Sacred Science: Using Faith to Explain Anomalies in Physics
- Perspectives
Law Protects Genetic Secrets History Would Rather Let Lie
- In Brief
Data Points: People in Pain
In Brief, July 2008
- Working Knowledge
Cruise Ships: How They Sail Skyscrapers Around the World