Scientific American

How Artificial Arms Could Connect to the Nervous System (preview)

Mon, 14 Jan 2013 07:10:00 EST

In one of the most iconic scenes in science-fiction films, Luke Skywalker casually examines his new synthetic forearm and hand. The Star Wars hero is able to move the fingers by extending and contracting pistons shown through an open flap along the wrist. Then he senses the robotic surgeon's pinprick of one of the fingers. Not only can the prosthesis be moved with Skywalker's thoughts, it feels to him like his own hand.

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World Changing Ideas 2012 (preview)

Wed, 14 Nov 2012 12:40:00 EST

Scientists and engineers dream about big advances that could change the world, and then they try to create them. On the following pages, Scientific American reveals 10 innovations that could be game changers: an artificial alternative to DNA, oil that cleans water, pacemakers powered by our blood, and more. These are not pie-in-the-sky notions but practical breakthroughs that have been proved or prototyped and are poised to scale up greatly. Each has the potential to make what may now seem impossible possible. -- The Editors

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Can Controversial Ocean Iron Fertilization Save Salmon?

Wed, 24 Oct 2012 12:15:00 EST

In a bid to restore lost fish abundance, the Haida Salmon Restoration Corp. (HSRC) undertook to mimic the effects of a volcanic eruption by fertilizing the ocean with iron. The idea was to provide the missing nutrient for a plankton bloom that would then trickle up the food web and restore salmon--with the ancillary effects of gathering data on the ocean food web and, potentially, removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

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Does Congress Get a Passing Grade on Science?

Wed, 17 Oct 2012 07:00:00 EST

Presidential candidates snatch the most attention during election seasons, and science usually gets scant mention. Science and technology, however, underpin some of the biggest problems facing the U.S., which is why Scientific American partnered with ScienceDebate.org to ask Pres. Barack Obama and former Gov. Mitt Romney to talk about 14 top challenges facing the country that are ultimately rooted in science.

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The U.S. Could Learn from Germany s High-Tech Manufacturing

Thu, 27 Sep 2012 06:30:00 EST

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Coming Soon: Artificial Limbs Controlled by Thoughts

Wed, 29 Aug 2012 07:00:00 EST

In 2014 billions of viewers worldwide may remember the opening game of the World Cup in Brazil for more than just the goals scored by the Brazilian national team and the red cards given to its adversary. On that day my laboratory at Duke University, which specializes in developing technologies that allow electrical signals from the brain to control robotic limbs, plans to mark a milestone in overcoming paralysis.

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A Countdown to a Digital Simulation of Every Last Neuron in the Human Brain (preview)

Mon, 11 Jun 2012 06:45:00 EST

Reductionist biology--examining individual brain parts, neural circuits and molecules--has brought us a long way, but it alone cannot explain the workings of the human brain, an information processor within our skull that is perhaps unparalleled anywhere in the universe. We must construct as well as reduce and build as well as dissect. To do that, we need a new paradigm that combines both analysis and synthesis. The father of reductionism, French philosopher René Descartes, wrote about the need to investigate the parts and then reassemble them to re-create the whole.

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