2016-01-11 所属栏目:科学美国人

Homo sapiens may dominate Europe and Asia today. But hundreds of thousands of years ago—long before we got there—the land was ruled by our now-extinct cousins, the Nean

2016-01-08 所属栏目:科学美国人

In 1988 the U.S. government instituted a ban on federal funding for needle exchange programs for people who inject street drugs. Here’s a quote from an article in the July 19

2016-01-07 所属栏目:科学美国人

“After Connecticut passed a law requiring background checks and gun safety course, gun deaths decreased by 40 percent. Forty percent.” President Obama today. In his ann

2016-01-06 所属栏目:科学美国人

“In India, as a consequence of stricter protection of wildlife and increased tolerance, numbers of large carnivores are increasing in private lands and lands outside the prot

2016-01-05 所属栏目:科学美国人

Every winter some 20 million tons of salt are dumped on America's roads. The sodium chloride melts ice or prevents its formation, helping to prevent accidents. But road salt has i

2016-01-04 所属栏目:科学美国人

The assumption is that when teenagers want to drink, they buy the cheapest beer or booze or just suck down whatever they can steal from their parent’s liquor cabinets. But a

2015-12-31 所属栏目:科学美国人

Gulls. You may have noticed that gulls can be pretty aggressive when it comes to grabbing food. But that behavior is more intense than you may know. Some kelp gulls snack on baby w

2015-12-31 所属栏目:科学美国人

Polar bears live on floating rafts of sea ice, hunting for seals. But in the Arctic Ocean north of Alaska, the cold polar wind constantly blows that ice from east to west. Which me

2015-12-29 所属栏目:科学美国人

As you sit round the Christmas tree, consider the TLC you give O Tannenbaum: plenty of water and a relatively comfortable climate. Wouldn't want to dry out the tree, after all. No

2015-12-25 所属栏目:科学美国人

Computer chips have two important parts—the logic on the chip, which computes and executes programs. Then there’s the part that sends and receives—gets data to cr

2015-12-24 所属栏目:科学美国人

Young people may seem like they’re attached to their phones—and that whatever’s on their screens is more important than what’s actually happening right in f

2015-12-23 所属栏目:科学美国人

“Creationism evolves and sometimes those new strategies succeed.”

Nicholas Matzke, an evolutionary biologist currently on a fellowship at the Australian National Unive

2015-12-23 所属栏目:科学美国人

The microbes in our gut play a big role in helping us digest our food. But as they break down nutrients, they also generate secondary compounds that can influence our health. Take

2015-12-22 所属栏目:科学美国人

March 27th, 1964: the world's second-most powerful recorded earthquake hits Alaska. <<historic movie clip: "In Anchorage, Alaska's largest city, buildings collapse. Streets and h

2015-12-22 所属栏目:科学美国人

“Early in August&hellip;the New York Times revealed that Coca-Cola was funding an organization based at the University of Colorado, the Global Energy Balance Network, that wa

2015-12-17 所属栏目:科学美国人

The ways teachers view their students can influence how teachers teach. Which affects how and what students learn. Now a study finds that a teacher&rsquo;s racial biases come into

2015-12-16 所属栏目:科学美国人

On December 9th, during the climate talks in France, Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz and Scientific American&rsquo;s David Biello met to talk about the role of technological innov

2015-12-15 所属栏目:科学美国人

By the end of the century, the United Nations reckons the population of Africa could hit 4.3 billion people—four times today's numbers. It's the fastest-growing spot on the

2015-12-15 所属栏目:科学美国人

Microbes play a huge role in our nutrition, our immunity, maybe even our mental health. But we aren&rsquo;t the only ones that rely on these armies of resident bacteria. "Baby cock

2015-12-14 所属栏目:科学美国人

On December 9th, the day when protesters finally made an appearance, a new coalition emerged here at the climate talks in Paris. A group of some 90 nations, including the U.S., uni

2015-12-14 所属栏目:科学美国人

By the end of the century, the United Nations reckons the population of Africa could hit 4.3 billion people—four times today's numbers. It's the fastest-growing spot on the

2015-12-11 所属栏目:科学美国人

“Protected areas are hugely important for conservation. Over the last 20 years there&rsquo;s been a massive growth in the number of protected areas, both in the marine realm

2015-12-11 所属栏目:科学美国人

High blood sugar levels are a risk factor for type 2 diabetes. Doctors today have only general dietary recommendations for how to control those levels, because there&rsquo;s no rea

2015-12-10 所属栏目:科学美国人

Just below the Arctic Circle in northern Sweden sits a town called &Ouml;verkalix. It&rsquo;s home to only about a thousand people. But those inhabitants were the subjects of a sem

2015-12-10 所属栏目:科学美国人

The widespread death of honeybees has some farmers fretting: if honeybees disappear, who will pollinate their crops? "Almost any kind of insect you can think of." Margie Mayfield,