Scientific American

Dozens and Dozens: NASA's Kepler Spies Packs of New Exoplanets

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 14:25:00 EST

[More]

Blue Ribbon Commissions Calls for New Home for Nuclear Waste

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 12:00:00 EST

The embarrassing and damaging failure of U.S. policy on spent nuclear fuel can be repaired if the administration and Congress begin work now on new strategies, the co-chairmen of a presidential commission said yesterday.

[More]

Readers Respond to "Toxins All Around Us" and Other Articles

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 12:00:00 EST

CHEMISTRY COMMENTARY [More]

Can Too Much Information Harm Patients? [Excerpt]

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 11:00:00 EST

Editor's Note: The following is an excerpt from The Creative Destruction of Medicine: How the Digital Revolution Will Create Better Health Care (Basic Books, 2012), by Eric Topol, a professor of innovative medicine and the director of the Scripps Translational Science Institute.

[More]

Are Wallabies Left or Right Handed? Both! (Sometimes)

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 09:30:00 EST

Which limb do you prefer? If you’re like most members of our species, you prefer your right hand for most tasks. If you’re like a smaller minority of our species, you might prefer your left hand. Very, very few of us are truly ambidextrous. Most of us have at least a minor preference for one hand over the other. So do wallabies.

On the one hand (ha!), this shouldn’t be all that surprising. Nervous systems became lateralized quite early in the evolution of vertebrates. For example, there is research showing that fish show a preference for touching the sides of aquariums with one side of their ventral fins or another. And it is not surprising that humans overwhelmingly favor their right hands. When it comes to feeding behaviors, fishes, reptiles, and toads all favor their right eye (and their brain’s left hemisphere). The same is true for birds like chickens, pigeons, quails, and stilts. The right-eye preference can be so strong that one bird – New Zealand wry-billed plover – evolved a beak that slopes slightly to the right. And a study of seventy-five whales showed that sixty of them had abrasions on the right side of their jaws, while the other fifteen had only injured the left side of their jaws. As Peter F. MacNeilage, Lesley J. Rogers and Giorgio Vallortigara pointed out in a 2009 article in Scientific American , the data indicated that whales tended to use one side of the jaw more than the other for gathering food, “and that ‘right-jawedness’ is by far the norm.”

[More]

Guest Post: Shale Gas - The Low Carbon Option?

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 08:23:00 EST

It may be surprising to hear that hydraulic fracturing is not the cause of water contamination , but what may be even more surprising is that shale gas produced using fracking may have lower life cycle greenhouse gas emissions than conventional gas.

According to a recent Environmental Science and Technology report , shale gas life-cycle [greenhouse gas] emissions are 6% lower than conventional natural gas

[More]

MIND Reviews: Thinking, Fast and Slow

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 08:00:00 EST

Thinking, Fast and Slow [More]

Notion in Motion: Wireless Sensors Monitor Brain Waves on the Fly

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 07:00:00 EST

A fighter pilot heads back to base after a long mission, feeling spent. A warning light flashes on the control panel. Has she noticed? If so, is she focused enough to fix the problem? [More]

Apollo 1: The Fire That Shocked NASA

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 06:52:00 EST

The Apollo 1 Command Module after the fire that claimed the lives of Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee. Credit: NASA.

NASA s Apollo program began with one of the worst disasters the organization has ever faced. A routine prelaunch test turned fatal when a fire ripped through the spacecraft s crew cabin killing all three astronauts. Today marks the 45th anniversary of the Apollo 1 fire, a tragic and preventable accident. There were warning signs, similar accidents that had claimed lives both in the United States and abroad. The Apollo 1 crew could have been saved from a gruesome death.

[More]

China Cadmium Spill Threatens Drinking Water for Millions

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 04:45:00 EST

BEIJING (Reuters) - A cancer-causing cadmium discharge from a mining company has polluted a long stretch of two rivers in southern China, and officials warned some 3.7 million people of Liuzhou in the Guangxi region to avoid drinking water from the river, state media reported on Friday.

Pollution of waterways by toxic run-offs from factories and farms is a pressing issue in China, prompting authorities to call for policy tightening, though the problem shows no sign of going away.

Officials opened sluices at four upstream hydrological stations on the Longjiang River, a tributary to the Liujiang that runs through Liuzhou, hoping to dilute the pollutants after the toxic metal cadmium was first detected nearly two weeks ago in Hechi, Xinhua state news agency said.

Many fish died despite efforts by local fire officials to dissolve the cadmium by pouring hundreds of tonnes of neutralizers into the river, and authorities reported panic buying of bottled water by local residents.

Xinhua said officials blamed the Guangxi Jinhe Mining Co. [More]

Bosses Who Work Out Are Nicer

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 21:25:08 EST

We've all heard exercise is good for your physical and mental well-being. But a good workout can actually influence the mental well-being of others, too. Because bosses who hit the gym tend to be less abusive to their employees. That's according to a study in the Journal of Business and Psychology . [James P. Burton, Jenny M. Hoobler and Melinda L. Scheuer, " Supervisor Workplace Stress and Abusive Supervision: The Buffering Effect of Exercise " ]

[More]

Hydrogen and Kinetic Energy Will Keep Phones Ringing

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 19:53:08 EST

Carmakers learned years ago it's not easy to make a practical hydrogen fuel cell. Yet hydrogen fuel cells do work, and they're greener than batteries. So how about using a mini hydrogen fuel cell to recharge something small--like your mobile phone battery?

[More]

3-D Microscopy Casts Blood Vessel's Structure in New Light

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 16:00:00 EST

[More]

Real-life SpiderMan: Thomas Shahan

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 15:33:00 EST

photo by Thomas Shahan

As the science media today is carrying news of how spiders use defocus to judge distance , I thought it an opportune moment to share the portfolio of a master of spider portraiture. Oklahoma artist Thomas Shahan may scarcely be out of college, but he is recognized worldwide for his startling portrayals of jumping spiders. If you’re not yet aware of Shahan’s portraits, drop what you are doing right now and have a look:

[More]

'Mad Cow' and Other Prion Diseases Hide Out in Spleen

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 15:00:00 EST

By Jo Marchant of Nature magazine

Prion diseases such as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) and variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) are able to jump species much more easily than previously thought. [More]

Jumping Spiders Use Blurry Vision to Catch Quick Prey with Precision [Video]

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 14:26:00 EST

Jumping Spider: image courtesy of Science/AAAS

To figure out how far away our dinner plate is our brain melds the slightly different images coming from our two eyes. Other creatures, including many insects, move their heads to glean how far a piece of food might be. But jumping spiders ( Hasarius adansoni ) don’t seem to possess either of these abilities. So how do they manage such quick and exacting lunges to capture their lunches?

[More]

Primitive Attraction: Magnetized Moon Rock Points to Lunar Core's Active Past

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 14:01:00 EST

The moon of today is a static orb with little to no internal activity; for all intents and purposes it appears to be a dead, dusty pebble of a world. But billions of years ago the moon may have been a place of far more dynamism--literally.

[More]

Could a Balloon Fly in Outer Space?

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 13:28:00 EST

Here s the sort of crazy idea that animates our office conversation at Scientific American . It all started with my colleague Michael Moyer s joke that a certain politician could build his moon base using a balloon: just capture the hot air and float all the way up. Ha ha, we all know that balloons don t work in outer space.

But is that really true? Why couldn t they?

[More]

Race and Religion at the Ballot Box: Building a Better Bias Detector

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 13:00:00 EST

The color of a candidate’s skin failed to sway voters to depress the lever for either Obama or McCain in the 2008 election, immediate analyses of that contest seemed to suggest. Some pundits hailed it as the first postracial election.

[More]

Check Your Seed Packets: Garden Varieties Moving North

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 12:00:00 EST

The gardening cycle has been thrown off the rails in Debbie Ricigliano's Howard County, Md., vegetable garden in past years. Shrubs are blooming earlier, cherry buds are opening in the fall and flower bulbs are emerging when they shouldn't.

[More]

Newt to NASA: Stop Talking about Space Exploration-Just Do It

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 11:19:00 EST

Gingrich in New Hampshire. Credit: Patrick Gensel via Flickr/Creative Commons

Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich made a campaign stop on Florida’s Space Coast January 25, laying out a vision for NASA that included a manned moon base within a decade.

[More]

Cabbage Chemistry--Finding Acids and Bases

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 10:00:00 EST

Key concepts [More]

Designers of Exotic Materials Learn New Tricks from Animals (preview)

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 08:45:00 EST

Among the first things you notice when you step into the corner office of Harvard University professor Joanna Aizenberg are the playthings. Behind her desk sit a sand dollar, an azure butterfly mounted in a box, a plastic stand with long fibers that erupt in color when a switch is pulled, and haphazard rows of toys. Especially numerous are the Rubik’s cubes--the classic three-by-three, of course, but also ones with four, five, six and even seven mini cubes along each edge. An eight-year-old would be in heaven.

[More]

New Water-Repelling Surfaces Avoid the Deadly Perils of Icing [Video]

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 08:44:00 EST

Joanna Aizenberg's muse is the whole of the natural world. The Harvard University materials scientist takes her inspiration from creatures that suggest engineering of substances in unexpected ways. Ocean creatures in particular have proved inspirational. The brittle star, a relative of the starfish and the sea urchin, has a shell coated with lenses, which may furnish ideas for new types of optical communication systems. There is also the deep-sea sponge with a crown composed of optical fibers.

[More]

New Orleans Protection Plan Will Rely on Wetlands to Hold Back Hurricanes

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 08:15:00 EST

Encroaching seas have eroded southeastern Louisiana.

More than six years after Hurricane Katrina plowed into New Orleans and the Mississippi River delta, a plan has finally emerged to protect the area from future storms. It relies heavily on the restoration of wetlands to cut down high surges of ocean water like those that flooded the city in 2005 somewhat of a surprise, considering past efforts focused on levees and seawalls.

[More]

The Disappearing Actinides, and Other Frustrations from the Bottom Row of the Periodic Table of the Elements

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 08:04:00 EST

I bought three copies of Sam Kean s The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements . I left the first one in the seat-back pocket of Delta flight 188 from Beijing to Detroit. The second one is sandwiched between ROCK and GEM and The Poisoner s Handbook on an end table in my living room. The third is a Kindle edition that I purchased so that I could quickly search the text.

When I started reading my first copy of The Disappearing Spoon at 2 am local time in a Beijing hotel room, I was fascinated. I followed Kean readily into the introduction, beginning what I could only imagine would be a tantalizing journey through the periodic table.

[More]

Scientists Manipulate and Erase Memories (preview)

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 08:00:00 EST

Joël Coutu knelt on the cold cement floor of the pet supply store he managed in Montreal, his wrists bound behind him with telephone wire. He could feel the barrel of a pistol pressed against the back of his neck. “You’re lying!” the gunman screamed. “And I am going to blow your head off.”

[More]

Romania Uses Army to Save Snow-Trapped Travelers

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 07:06:00 EST

* Snowfalls expected to ease on Thursday evening

* PM says priority is to rescue bus passengers

[More]

Children May Be Exposed to Higher Chemical Concentrations Than Their Mothers

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 07:00:00 EST

Children living near DuPont’s plant in West Virginia are exposed to much higher concentrations of an industrial chemical than their mothers, according to a newly published study.

[More]

Flooding Is Biggest Climate Risk to UK

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 23:58:00 EST

By Nina Chestney

LONDON, Jan 26 (Reuters) - Flooding will be Britain's

biggest climate risk this century, with damage set to cost as

much as 12 billion pounds ($18 billion) a year by the 2080s if

nothing is done to adapt to extreme weather, a report said on

Thursday.

British summers are forecast to get hotter, while winters

will get milder and wetter.

New government-funded research has identified the top 100

effects of climate change and their expected impact on Britain

and magnitude over this century.

The "Climate Change Risk Assessment" found that if no

further action is taken to address climate change, annual flood

damage to buildings could reach between 2.1 billion and 12

billion pounds, compared to current costs of 1.2 billion pounds.

"If I had to pick one particular issue, the flooding issue

is the most dominant," said Bob Watson, chief scientific adviser

at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and

one of report's authors.

Britain is already at risk of extreme weather. [More]

Brown Fat Furnishes Physiological Furnace

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 19:26:08 EST

When it comes to the battle of the bulge, putting on more muscle will burn extra calories even when you're resting. But recent research suggests that there might be a particular type of fat that also uses up more energy than the typical off-white stuff that tends to congregate around American midsections: brown fat.

[More]

People in Power Feel Taller

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 18:49:08 EST

It’s known that taller people tend to have more jobs with more authority--and higher salaries. But there’s a flip side--the more powerful a person is, the taller he or she feels.

[More]

Risk of Heart Disease Underestimated, Researchers Say

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 17:00:00 EST

Image courtesy of iStockphoto/energyy

Heart disease is the leading killer in the U.S., and more than 27 million Americans currently have a cardiac condition . But what is your risk of developing heart disease at some point in your entire life? It might be a lot higher than you think, according to a new paper published online Wednesday in The New England of Medicine .

[More]

Has Petroleum Production Peaked, Ending the Era of Easy Oil?

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 16:31:00 EST

Despite major oil finds off Brazil's coast, new fields in North Dakota and ongoing increases in the conversion of tar sands to oil in Canada , fresh supplies of petroleum are only just enough to offset the production decline from older fields. At best, the world is now living off an oil plateau--roughly 75 million barrels of oil produced each and every day--since at least 2005, according to a new comment published in Nature on January 26. ( Scientific American is part of Nature Publishing Group.) That is a year earlier than estimated by the International Energy Agency--an energy cartel for oil consuming nations.

[More]

State of the Union: Research, Technology and Energy

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 13:00:08 EST

Welcome to the Scientific American podcast Science Talk, posted on January 25th, 2012. I’m Steve Mirsky. Last night, President Obama delivered the State of the Union Address. Here is a little more than six minutes of it, the sections dealing with research, technology and energy. Anywhere I’ve made an edit in the audio, you’ll hear a musical interlude. And I’ve lowered the volume on some of the applause for the sake of all of our ears. I think science-interested listeners across the political spectrum can find points of both strong agreement and major disagreement in these few minutes of the talk:

[More]

Tame Theory: Did Bonobos Domesticate Themselves?

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 11:50:00 EST

Time and again humans have domesticated wild animals, producing tame individuals with softer appearances and more docile temperaments, such as dogs and guinea pigs. But a new study suggests that one of our primate cousins--the African ape known as the bonobo --did something similar without human involvement. It domesticated itself.

[More]

U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions Decline Despite Political Gridlock

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 11:25:00 EST

President Obama mentioned climate change almost in passing during last night's State of the Union address, noting: "The differences in this chamber may be too deep right now to pass a comprehensive plan to fight climate change."

[More]

Introducing SA s Anthology, A Matter of Time [Excerpt]

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 11:15:00 EST

What is time? It begins, it ends, it s real, it s an illusion. It s the ultimate paradox. Scientific American has been covering different aspects of this subject ever since the beginning. In our latest anthology A Matter of Time we ve consolidated more than 20 articles, from How to Build a Time Machine to Could Time End. This special bound collector s edition is on newsstands until March 31, 2012 or available for purchase as a digital copy.

The following is The Editor s introduction to this issue, for more information about this edition, read the table of contents .

[More]

Why the Supreme Court GPS Decision Won't Stop Warrantless Digital Surveillance

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 11:10:00 EST

On January 23 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously that law enforcement authorities do not generally have a right to affix a GPS tracking device to a suspect's car without first obtaining a valid warrant. Of the many things that can be said about the case, which has been called the most important Fourth Amendment test in a decade , perhaps the most sobering in the long run will be this: the decision is based on technology assumptions that are rapidly becoming irrelevant.

[More]

Science Education Experts Respond to Obama's Speech

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 10:54:00 EST

Obama delivering his 2012 State of the Union address

In his State of the Union address last night, President Barack Obama spent less time than in years past discussing his ambitions to reform science education. He referred to his administration’s offer to let states opt out of No Child Left Behind (” … grant schools flexibility to teach with creativity and passion; to stop teaching to the test …”). And he brought up the Common Core State Standards in math and language arts which 45 states plus the District of Columbia have now adopted (“we ve convinced nearly every state in the country to raise their standards for teaching and learning — the first time that s happened in a generation”). (By the way, a state survey out today from the Center on Education Policy reports that most states believe the new standards will improve students’ skills in math, reading and writing but that many are struggling to pay for new curricula and teacher training).

[More]

The American Museum of Natural History Hosts "Beyond Planet Earth" Tweetup with Scientific American

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 10:40:00 EST

I knew it was going to be a wonderful night when I magically found street parking on Central Park West directly across from the American Museum of Natural History. Camera in hand I entered the planetarium where I enjoyed a presentation of vintage films and movies depicting space travel and life on other planets.

I was soon flying towards the dark side of the moon and out into the Milky Way during a 3D presentation of the planets that was out of this world. I then eagerly entered the reception at The Hall of Reptiles and Amphibians where finally the opportunity to shoot presented itself and I took full advantage of capturing the guests, listening to speakers and meeting the editors and bloggers at Scientific American magazine in this magnificent setting.

[More]

Ahem! These Cells Help Clear Your Lungs

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 10:00:00 EST

[More]

Underwater Archaeologists Hunt for Ancient Minoan Shipwrecks

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 10:00:00 EST

By Jo Marchant of Nature magazine

Brendan Foley peels his wetsuit to the waist and perches on the side of an inflatable boat as it skims across the sea just north of the island of Crete. [More]

Citizen Scientists Study Whale Songs: Years of Work Done in Months

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 09:34:00 EST

Pilot Whale wearing sound-recording tag. Credit: Daniel Ottmann; photo was taken taken as part of research conducted under permit 14241 issued by the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service.

In November 2011, Scientific American , Zooniverse and a team of research partners launched the Web site Whale.FM , a citizen-science project devoted to cataloging the calls made by Pilot whales and Killer whales (Orcas), both of which are actually dolphin species. Different whale families have their own dialects and closely related families share calls. Underwater microphones, called hydrophones, typically attached by suction cups to the whales, record the haunting and lovely sounds. Cataloging calls is a step in learning more about the communication of these magnificent marine mammals.

[More]

Certain Brain Cells Become Toxic in Lou Gehrig's Disease

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 09:00:00 EST

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, is a progressive neuromuscular disease that affects about 130,000 people worldwide a year. The vast majority of patients are isolated cases with no known family history of the disease. They usually start developing symptoms of the loss of motor neurons in middle age and die within five years of diagnosis. Researchers know very little about what causes ALS. Now a recent study in Nature Biotechnology suggests that the neuron death associated with the disease may be caused by astrocytes, a type of brain cell that normally helps neurons.

[More]

U.S. Science Degrees Are Up

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 08:00:00 EST

[More]

How to Make Science and Tech Jobs More Enticing to Undergrads

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 07:59:00 EST

The number of U.S. undergraduate degrees being awarded in most STEM disciplines (science, technology, engineering and math) has risen steadily in recent years{link to G Sci page}. Yet some American employers say they are having trouble finding candidates to fill STEM jobs. The mismatch is not occurring because of an actual shortage of graduates; the numbers of job openings and new degree holders align fairly closely. And the shortfall is not because more foreign-born students are returning home after earning U.S. degrees, as has been rumored lately.

[More]

By the Sword: The Science of Sword-Swallowing

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 02:06:00 EST

A couple of weeks ago, new media mogul Arianna Huffington had an unusual experience : assisting veteran sword swallower Dan Meyer, who was visiting the Huffington Post headquarters in New York City. Meyer heads the Sword Swallowers Association International , based in Antioch, Tennessee. He’s a five-time Guiness Book of World Record Holder, and has appeared on America’s Got Talent . He made it to the finals despite having a visibly squicked-out David Hasselhoff pull the plug halfway through Meyer’s audition performance.

But we’re sure he’s most proud of his 2007 Ig Nobel Prize for Medicine , which he shared with Brian Witcombe, a consulting radiologist at Gloucestershire Royal NHS Foundation Trust in England. They were honored “for their penetrating medical report, ‘Sword Swallowing and Its Side Effects,’” which was published to almost no fanfare in the British Medical Journal — maybe because it appeared right around Christmas and people were too busy swallowing Yorkshire pudding and opening prezzies to pay much attention to the findings.

[More]

How Obama Plans to "Double Down" on Clean Energy

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 22:52:00 EST

Early in his state of the union speech, President Obama renewed his call of last year for investments in clean energy. Unbowed by the troubles with Solyndra , Obama said he would direct the defense department to throw its buying power behind clean energy supplies for the U.S. military.

The U.S. military constitutes a huge market for alternative fuels. The Air Force alone burns 2.4 billion gallons of jet fuel a year. The Department of Defense burns $18 billion worth of oil a year , four fifths of the federal governments’ energy tab.

[More]

Clean Up World Seas to Boost Economy, UN Body Says

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 22:01:00 EST

By Nina Chestney

LONDON (Reuters) - Cleaner and better-managed seas and coasts would help boost economic growth and reduce poverty and pollution, a United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) report said on Wednesday.

The report, produced with several other U.N. [More]