Scientific American - History of Science

Volcanoes May Have Sparked Little Ice Age

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 15:15:00 EST

A mysterious, centuries-long cool spell, dubbed the Little Ice Age, appears to have been caused by a series of volcanic eruptions and sustained by sea ice, a new study indicates.

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Did Leonardo da Vinci Copy His Famous "Vitruvian Man"?

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 14:45:00 EST

Leonardo da Vinci 's drawing of a male figure perfectly inscribed in a circle and square, known as the "Vitruvian Man," illustrates what he believed to be a divine connection between the human form and the universe. Beloved for its beauty and symbolic power, it is one of the most famous images in the world. However, new research suggests that the work, which dates to 1490, may be a copy of an earlier drawing by Leonardo's friend.

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New Cornell High-Tech Campus Recalls Former Research Glory of Small New York City Island

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 08:00:00 EST

The aging Goldwater Memorial Hospital on Roosevelt Island--soon to be the site of Cornell University's new NYC Tech Campus --holds a significant place in 20th-century medicine. [More]

New Cornell Campus to Cultivate High-Tech Industry in New York City [Slide Show]

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 07:00:00 EST

For years New York City–based universities have been opening satellite campuses worldwide, whether it is New York University's sites in Abu Dhabi and Tel Aviv or Columbia University's Global Centers in Beijing and Nairobi. Technion–Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa is returning the favor in a big way, partnering with Ithaca, N.Y.–based Cornell University to build a campus on New York City's Roosevelt Island . [More]

How the Hippies Saved Physics: Science, Counterculture, and the Quantum Revival [Excerpt]

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 12:00:00 EST

Editor's Note: Reprinted from How the Hippies Saved Physics: Science, Counterculture, and the Quantum Revival by David Kaiser. Copyright (c) 2011 by David Kaiser. Used with permission of the publisher, W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. Click here to see a Scientific American video that explains quantum entanglement.

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Study Fails to Confirm Existence of Arsenic-Based Life

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 10:30:00 EST

A strange bacterium found in California’s Mono Lake cannot replace the phosphorus in its DNA with arsenic, according to researchers who have been trying to reproduce the results of a controversial report published in Science in 2010.

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Warfare in 1912: A Look in Scientific American 's Archives [Slide Show]

Sat, 21 Jan 2012 08:00:00 EST

These implements of warfare were developed to fill a perceived need or follow a specific doctrine. Some, such as the development of artillery, became a central facet during the Great War, the first “total war” that involved all of its citizens, industries and scientific ingenuity. [More]

100 Years Ago: Vickers Machine Gun

Sat, 21 Jan 2012 07:59:00 EST

February 1962

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MIND Reviews: The Better Angels of Our Nature

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 08:00:00 EST

The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined [More]

Rainforest in Transition: Is the Amazon Transforming before Our Eyes?

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 14:31:00 EST

The Amazon rainforest is in flux, thanks to agricultural expansion and climate change. In other words, humans have "become important agents of disturbance in the Amazon Basin," as an international consortium of scientists wrote in a review of the state of the science on the world's largest rainforest published in Nature on January 19. ( Scientific American is part of Nature Publishing Group.) The dry season is growing longer in areas where humans have been clearing the trees--as has water discharge from Amazon River tributaries in those regions. Multiyear and more frequent severe droughts, like those in 2005 and 2010, are killing trees that humans don't cut down as well as increasing the risks of more common fires (both man-made and otherwise).

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How to Predict the Future of Technology

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 12:00:00 EST

As a tech columnist, I’m often asked to speak about the future of technology. Well, sure. Who doesn’t want to know what the future holds? Yet I’d be in much better shape if I were asked to predict the future of politics or bass fishing. Because nothing changes faster, and more unpredictably, than consumer technology.

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The Uses of the Past: Why Science Writers Should Care About the History of Science And Why Scientists Should Too

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 06:07:00 EST

"The Anatomy Lesson of Homo sylvestris" by Nathaniel Gold

Whether we are exploring our family genealogy or the genetic tree of our primate ancestors, all of us have a common yearning to know from whence we came. Origin stories captivate our imagination and offer a narrative structure for better understanding where we are today. The reality is that a knowledge of the history of science can both challenge our present and inspire the future.

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How 3-D Imaging Helped Halt Germany's War Machine in World War II [Video]

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 09:00:00 EST

Before satellite images and drones could pinpoint the exact location of enemy targets, warfare was often more like a game of Battleship: a complex series of guesses based on spotty information.

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Why Nobel Laureates Are Getting Older

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 08:00:00 EST

Albert Einstein once commented that “a person who has not made his great contribution to science before the age of 30 will never do so.” This may have been an accurate reflection of physics in his time, but it is no longer the case--for physics or any other field. Benjamin Jones, an expert in innovation at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, and Bruce Weinberg of Ohio State University analyzed 525 Nobel Prizes awarded in physics, chemistry and medicine between 1900 and 2008. With a few exceptions--notably quantum mechanics discoveries of the 1920s and 1930s--the trend across all fields is toward researchers being older when they produce their greatest work.

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Is There a Difference between the Brain of an Atheist and the Brain of a Religious Person?

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 08:00:00 EST

Is there a difference between the brain of an atheist andthe brain of a religious person? [More]

Are Physical Constants Really Constant?

Sun, 15 Jan 2012 00:00:00 EST

Some things never change. physicists call them the constants of nature. Such quantities as the velocity of light, c , Newton’s constant of gravitation, G , and the mass of the electron, m e , are assumed to be the same at all places and times in the universe. They form the scaffolding around which the theories of physics are erected, and they define the fabric of our universe. Physics has progressed by making ever more accurate measurements of their values.

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How to Buy Time in the Fight against Climate Change: Mobilize to Stop Soot and Methane

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 16:01:00 EST

Humanity has done little to address climate change. Global emissions of carbon dioxide reached (another) all-time peak in 2010. The most recent international talks to craft a global treaty to address the problem pushed off major action until 2020. Fortunately, there's an alternative-- curbing the other greenhouse gases .

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Can a Vaccine Cure Haiti's Cholera?

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 06:00:00 EST

The cholera epidemic in Haiti has cast a stark light on deep development holes and disagreements about whether a short-term patch--in the form of a cholera vaccine--can help in the long-term fight for better health.

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Female Trailblazer Inspires New Species Name

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 19:29:08 EST

Jeanne Baret was passionate about science. So passionate that, in the 1760s, the Frenchwoman disguised herself as a man. She hid her true identity to accompany her lover, botanist Philibert Commerson, on the first French ship to sail around the world. At the time, women weren’t allowed on French navy vessels, and general sexism prevented them from working in science.

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Doomsday Clock Moved 1 Minute Closer to Midnight

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 16:15:00 EST

In a sign of pessimism about humanity's future , scientists today set the hands of the infamous "Doomsday Clock" forward one minute from two years ago.

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