Scientific American Editor's Picks for the Top Tech Stories of 2014
Wallets, wreckage and digital coin. Before the new year appears, let's look at some of the most important technology stories Scientific American covered over the past 12 months.
"technology"
Extreme Ice Survey: Installing the Palmer Station Cameras
Editors Note: Members of the Extreme Ice Survey team are returning to South Georgia Island and the Antarctic Peninsula to maintain time-lapse camera systems.
The Year in Energy and Environment: It Wasn't All Apocalyptic
‘Tis the season for year end lists. The problem is: news keeps happening. One of the members of this list only happened just last week.
Neutrinos on Ice: Waiting to Fly
It’s another beautiful day in Antarctica, and the time has come to launch ANITA! Finding the right date is tricky. Many factors have to fall into place.
Mars, Ancient Water, Deep Hydrogen, and Life
Two billion year-old water pockets and a revised deep hydrogen content are good news for Earth’s vast subsurface biosphere, and could offer clues to life on Mars and much further beyond...
First Airplane Flight Marks 111th Anniversary!
It was 111 years ago today that the world's first piloted, powered, controllable, heavier-than-air machine built and flown by Orville and Wilbur Wright took to the air.
Advice to Young Science Writers: Ask “What Would Chomsky Think?”
I’ve been pondering my profession again lately, for several reasons: shifts in the Scientific American Blog Network; the launch of a science communication program at my school, Stevens Institute of Technology, which is closely allied with a new program in science, technology and society (STS); and finally a chat with editors at IEEE Spectrum, where [...]..
Behind the Merger of the Rocky Mountain Institute and Carbon War Room - Interview with RMI's CEO Jules Koltenhorst
Today Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), brain-child of famed energy thinker Amory Lovins, and Carbon War Room (CWR), the five-year old climate change outfit of Sir Richard Branson, merged to create a new alliance dedicated to the acceleration of a low carbon energy future...
Extreme Ice Survey: Water and Electronics Don’t Mix
Editors Note: Members of the Extreme Ice Survey team are returning to South Georgia Island and the Antarctic Peninsula to maintain time-lapse camera systems.
Google's Top Searches of 2014
Americans looked to Google for information on Ebola, the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge and the actor Robin Williams’s suicide this year—all of which ranked among the hottest search terms of 2014...
Reflections on My @SciAmBlogs Tenure
After three and a half years or so as a part of the SciAm blogging network, this my last post as a dedicated blog at Scientific American. There will be an announcement from SciAm about the reorganization of the blogging network, and PsiVid, where I’ve posted about science in TV, video and film along with [...]..
So long, Scientific American, and thanks for all the fish
The editors at Scientific American have decided to go in another direction with their blog network. As a result, our Information Culture blog will no longer be hosted on this network.
Erin Gee Blends Emotions, Science, Music and Robotic Pianos
This week’s video comes from a post by Princess Ojiaku over at Science With Moxie. According to the original post: Erin Gee is a Canadian artist and composer who has created a way to directly feed human emotions into music played by robots that she built and programmed herself...
The Greatest Science Music Video Parodies Continue
Tim Blais of A Capella Science has come up with a few great new science music video parodies. First, a chemistry-themed version of Meghan Trainor’s ‘All About That Base’, and second an exam-riddled student’s version of Taylor Swift’s ‘Shake It Off’...
Comet 67P Only Looks Gray, It’s Actually Black
The European Space Agency’s Rosetta mission has now released the first narrow-angle color composite image of Comet 67P – taken through a set of red, green, and blue filters.
First Flexible Airplane Wing Takes Flight
In our May 2014 issue, Sridhar Kota, a professor of engineering at the University of Michigan and founder and president of the company FlexSys, published an article about his long-running campaign to take complex, multipart machines and redesign them as flexible, one-piece devices (subscription required)...
The Art and Science of Peppermint
I love the latest video from the folks at USC Dornsife, all about the art and science of peppermint. In addition to being a fun, fast paced and visually pleasing film, this work gives us a lot of basic information about peppermint from diverse points of view including psychology, history, art, neurobiology — and more...
The Art and Science of Peppermint
I love the latest video from the folks at USC Dornsife, all about the art and science of peppermint. In addition to being a fun, fast paced and visually pleasing film, this work gives us a lot of basic information about peppermint from diverse points of view including psychology, history, art, neurobiology — and more...
Big Mirrors, High Hopes: Extremely Large Telescope Is A Go
In astronomy, bigger is almost always better. The size of a telescope’s aperture (or primary optical element) not only determines how many pesky little photons it can capture, but also the ultimate resolution of the image that can be formed...
Will R&D Ever Get the Tax Break It Deserves?
The innovation industry faces an uncertain future, as long as the United States R&D Tax Credit remains a Congressional roller coaster ride.
