New Hypothesis Explains Why We Sleep
During sleep, the brain weakens the connections among nerve cells, apparently conserving energy and, paradoxically, aiding memory
Features
Physicists Debate Whether the World Is Made of Particles or Fields--or Something Else Entirely
Physicists speak of the world as being made of particles and force fields, but it is not at all clear what particles and force fields actually are in the quantum realm. The world may instead consist of bundles of properties, such as color and shape...
Big Data Makes Big Inroads into Schools
Introduction to a special report on the ways technology is remaking every aspect of education—bringing top-notch courses to the world's poorest citizens and reshaping the way all students learn...
Free Online Courses Bring "Magic" to Rwanda
An inside look at a daring global experiment: using freely available online courses to bring top-tier instruction to the neediest parts of the planet
How to Make Online Courses Massively Personal
How thousands of online students can get the effect of one-on-one tutoring
The Founder of Khan Academy on How to Blend the Virtual with the Physical
Technology can humanize the classroom
How MOOCs Can Help India
Online courses may help alleviate faculty shortages and improve education
Online Courses Can Improve Life on Campus
The future of on-campus learning lies in the right combination of digital and traditional tools
How Big Data Is Taking Teachers Out of the Lecturing Business
Schools and universities are embracing technology that tailors content to students' abilities and takes teachers out of the lecturing business. But is it an improvement?
Diane Ravitch: 3 Dubious Uses of Technology in Schools
Technology can inspire creativity or dehumanize learning
Education Is for the (Angry) Birds
What the world's most addictive video game will teach us next
Arne Duncan: How Technology Will Revolutionize Testing and Learning
Greater broadband access will bring the latest digital tools to more teachers and students
Students Say Online Courses Enrich On-Campus Learning
One in five science students surveyed by Nature and Scientific American has participated in a MOOC—and most would do so again
Researchers Explain Why Exercise Works Magic
Being active is good for us for many reasons beyond the old familiar ones
Refloating the Wrecked Costa Concordia Cruise Ship Could Ruin Marine Sanctuary
The smallest mistake in refloating the crippled Costa Concordia cruise ship will sink it, creating an environmental disaster
The Surprising Origins of Evolutionary Complexity
Scientists are exploring how organisms can evolve elaborate structures without Darwinian selection
How to Swim in Molasses: Microbes Have Evolved Many Wacky Ways of Moving Through Fluids
For some of the world's tiniest and most abundant creatures, moving through water is a fantastically difficult feat
Departments
- From the Editor
Bits for Brains: How Technology Is Shaping Learning
- Letters
Readers Respond to "The Low-Cost Ticket to Space"
New Software Gives Robots the Gift of Hearing
The Art of Distraction
Fact-Checking a Frozen Mammoth
How Short-Term Stress Boosts Immune Systems
Geothermal Power Plants Face Rocky Starts
By The Numbers
What is it?
How Math Helped Forecast Hurricane Sandy
Nanoscale Medical Devices Can Have Huge Effects
Patent Watch: Fluorescence Detection of Poison Oak Oil
Bacterial Predators Feast on “Superbugs”
Noisy Stars May Make Phantom Planets
Antibiotics Are More Mysterious Than They Appear
- Forum
Who Said U.S. Particle Physics Is Dead?
- The Science of Health
Experts Urge Mass Dog Vaccination to Eradicate Rabies
- The Science Agenda
Solitary Confinement Is Cruel and Ineffective
- TechnoFiles
Smartphones Mean You Will No Longer Have to Memorize Facts
- Recommended
Book Review: Betting on Famine
Book Review: The Sports Gene
Book Review: The Truth in Small Doses
Book Review: The West without Water
- Skeptic
The 5 Myths of Terrorism—Including That It Works
- Anti Gravity
Fear Not the Fecal Transplant
- 50, 100 & 150 Years Ago
100 Years Ago: Tsetse Fly Breeds Ruin
- Graphic Science
Cost of Storm Damage Will Rise Sharply, Even without Climate Change
