Features1826 articles archived since 1845

Digital Forensics: Photo Tampering Throughout History [Slide Show]

Digital Forensics: 5 Ways to Spot a Fake Photo

What Dictionaries and Optical Illusions Say About Our Brains

Cognitive scientist Mark Changizi does not bother with how the brain accomplishes a task, but rather why it performs the function in the first place.

No Two Alike: Snowflake Photography Reveals Nature's Symmetry [Slide Show]

Kenneth Libbrecht's photography highlights the beauty of each individual flake in his book The Art of the Snowflake

Phoenix Mars Lander Takes a Look Around [Slide Show]

Images from Mars's newest inhabitant document its quest for water

Staying Cool: Green Insulation Gets Warm Reception

Greensulate—made from mushrooms and agricultural waste—promises natural protection from heat and cold

Inside the Kindle E-Book Reader [Interactive]

Threatened Species, from the Very Large to the Very Small [Slide Show]

New wildlife campaign displaying poignant portraits of the planet's endangered creatures

The Illustrations of Roberto Osti [Slide Show]

Roberto Osti's beautifully detailed and wonderfully composed paintings have delighted Scientific American readers for many years

Recruiting a Dangerous Foe to Fight Cancer and HIV

Biotechs have high hopes that a bacterium that causes food poisoning can boost the body's immune system as well as be enlisted to build vaccines against deadly diseases

The Search for a Universal Flu Vaccine: A Q&A with Walter Fiers

A vaccine that can eliminate seasonal flu shots and provide protection against pandemics? Walter Fiers discovered that targeting a particular protein segment on the influenza virus might just do the trick...

A Century of Flight: How Scientific American Helped the "Aeroplane" Get Off the Ground [Slideshow]

Scientific American observes the 100th anniversary of a competition that would bring manned flight to the masses, spawn the aviation industry, and forever change the way we live and travel...

Scenes from the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair [Slide Show]

We were on hand in Atlanta last week as more than 1,500 students competed for $4 million in prizes

News from the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair

Live-blogging from the exhibit hall in Atlanta as students show off projects on everything from lowering cholesterol to killing aphids using weeds, robots made out of Legos, and a battery that runs on air...

A Grain of Sand: Nature's Secret Wonder [Slide Show]

Gary Greenberg photographs the world, one grain of sand at a time, in A Grain of Sand: Nature's Secret Wonder