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Scientific American
 Is global warming forcing Bigfoot to move north?
If you were a nine-foot tall animal covered in dense fur – say, Bigfoot – you would probably seek cooler climes if temps began inching up. That’s the hypothesis one Queens College biologist posed to me last night – without, I should note, acknowledging that such an animal exists at all. [More]
Tobacco settlement money squandered by states, advocates charge
Alaska is making the best use of cigarette taxes and Big Tobacco settlement money distributed to states in the decade after authorities negotiated a deal with the companies over smoking-related health costs incurred by the states, according to a new report released today by a coalition of advocacy groups. South Carolina ranks the worst. [More]
A video game that's so real, it may make you vomit
It's been in stores for only one week, but Mirror's Edge (a first-person video game developed by Electronic Arts Inc.) is apparently causing quite a stir. Literally. People playing the game have reported feeling dizzy and, in some cases, so nauseous that they vomit, writes Clive Thompson in his Wired.com blog, "Games Without Frontiers." [More]
Antimatter machine: Are you ready, 007?
It sounds like something a villain might construct in a James Bond film: a laser, trained on a thin gold target, that churns out antimatter to annihilate ordinary matter. But scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have announced that they made just such a device, from which they were able to detect the production of more than a million positrons, the antimatter particle counterpart to electrons. (By this detection they infer the presence of many times more positrons, in the realm of 100 billion particles.) [More]
Dispatches from the bottom of the Earth: Getting to Antarctica--or not
Editor's Note: Marine geophysicist Robin Bell is leading an expedition to Antarctica to explore a mysterious mountain range beneath the ice sheet. Following is the first of her updates on the effort as part of Scientific American.com's In-depth Report on "The Future of the Poles." CHRISTCHURCH, NEW ZEALAND (11/16/08)--Things have improved since the days of ship and dog sleds, but it still is not easy to get to the center of Antarctica. It will have been a month from the time I stepped into the car on a rainy Thursday until we reach our field camp in mid-December. A month, that is, if things go well. Today was an example of things not quite going according to plan. [More]
(Don't) Pump up the Volume: Sound Waves Silence Whales' Song
The noise in the Pacific off the southern California coast has become 10 times louder over the past five decades because of the rumbling of commercial shipping vessels, the clicking of oceanographic research equipment, and the din of Navy operations and sonar systems--all of which are threatening whales that use the same frequency range to communicate. [More]
Gulf War syndrome is the real deal, science panel says
Complaints of memory and concentration problems, headaches, pain and fatigue among Gulf War vets have often fallen on deaf ears – until now. A Department of Veterans Affairs advisory panel has concluded that Gulf War syndrome is a real illness affecting at least 174,000 soldiers, a quarter of those who served in the 1991 Persian Gulf conflict. [More]
Itching for treatments that scratching can't always soothe
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Scientists for years have been scratching their heads over the cause of itching. There were theories that it shared a nerve pathway with pain to the brain – and now comes news that different forms of itching apparently have their own neural routes. The question is how to block their way. Sure there are some treatments like Benadryl and its ilk that stop itching induced by histamines, biological compounds known to cause itching. But no treatments exist for other forms of itching that drive patients to the doctor’s office. [More]
Global warming data blunder: Worth the fuss?
Despite broad consensus on the existence, origins and potentially catastrophic effects of global warming, a vocal minority continues to question the motives, methods and assumptions of climate scientists sounding the alarm. So when temperature data released by NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), one of the leading monitors of climate change, showed an unusually warm October, climate change skeptics cried foul. [More]
Do scientists self-censor in politically charged grant applications?
If you study prostitutes, would you tell the NIH? [More]
Art as Visual Research: 12 Examples of Kinetic Illusions in Op Art
This is the fifth article in the Mind Matters series on the neuroscience behind visual illusions. Scientists did not invent the vast majority of visual illusions. Rather, they are the work of visual artists, who have used their insights into the workings of the visual system to create visual illusions in their pieces of art. We have previously pointed out in our essays that, long before visual science existed as a formal discipline, artists had devised techniques to “trick” the brain into thinking that a flat canvas was three-dimensional, or that a series of brushstrokes in a still life was in fact a bowl of luscious fruit. Thus the visual arts have sometimes preceded the visual sciences in the discovery of fundamental vision principles, through the application of methodical--although perhaps more intuitive--research techniques. In this sense, art, illusions and visual science have always been implicitly linked. [More]
Bernard Rappaport: Living Testimony to the Power of Curiosity
His finalist year: 1961 [More]
Sound Method to Levitate Droplets
[The following is an exact transcript of this podcast.] In theory, scientists could learn a lot about our health by testing tiny amounts of bodily fluids--a drop of blood, a tear, a bead of sweat. But something this small is easily contaminated by other liquids or surfaces. So what are scientists doing? They're making liquids bounce, dance, and float lightly through the air. Researchers from Belgium's University of Liege published their findings November 18th in the New Journal of Physics. [More]
2008 Gadget Guide
ScientificAmerican.com presents some of this year's most exciting high-tech toys as well as gadgets to make the planet greener and inventions designed to deliver the most basic needs to developing countries [More]
Planck Satellite Mission Set to Explore Cosmic Secrets
In a fitting irony, the static that once bothered scientists trying to tune in to the universe has turned out to be an incredibly rich source of information about it. Probing these signals over the past 40 years--known as the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation--scientists have dug out cosmological secrets that have revolutionized the field. Next, European scientists will spy on the relic photons with instruments of unprecedented detail, when they launch the Planck satellite in early 2009. But the Planck mission won’t be about putting the proverbial “one more number after the decimal.” For the first time, it will probe the dynamics of the early inflationary universe. By sifting through the details of how the temperature of the early universe varied slightly in different directions, the many different models of inflation--the furious exponential expansion of space that took place around 10–35 second after the big bang--can be put to the test, as each makes its own unique predictions. The satellite will also look for evidence of primordial gravity waves, providing theorists with more data to apply to their ideas. And it will more accurately measure the densities of ordinary matter, dark matter and dark energy that occur in puzzling proportions in the universe (5, 23 and 72 percent, respectively). [More]
2008 Gadget Guide: 33 Technology Innovations [Slide Show]
Looking for the perfect present for that techno geek in your life? This year's guide has plenty to choose from, including a bunch for the socially conscious in search of green tech that helps curb energy usage, cut down on paper pollution and clean up--sans toxic chemicals. The guide also features innovative uses of technology to provide basic services such as water, sanitation and light to areas that lack them. First: Here's a look at some of this year's high-tech toys, including those that let you watch movies, play video games or pretend to fly an airplane in your own little (virtual) world, or just kick back on a floating chair. [More]
From Bad to Worse: Latest Figures on Global Greenhouse Gas Emissions
The 38 countries that pledged to restrain their emissions of climate change–inducing greenhouse gases, most notably carbon dioxide (CO2), are failing, according to new figures released today. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the body charged with overseeing global emission reduction efforts, says that, overall, greenhouse emissions--measured in terms of the most ubiquitous: carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e)--dropped by 894 million metric tons between 1990 and 2006 (the latest year for which figures are available). [More]
2008 Gadget Guide: 12 Ways to Go Green [Slide Show]
It's not all fun and games. Some gadgets are designed to help measure and curb energy usage, cut down on wasted paper, and clean without the need for toxic chemicals. Green Gadget Slide Show [More]
2008 Gadget Guide: 11 Socially Responsible Inventions to Save the World
Some technology employs the most basic concepts (a hand crank, a straw or bicycle pedals) to find innovative ways of delivering basic needs such as water, light and transportation to areas where they have been absent. Showcase for Socially Responsible Inventions [More]
Cancer drug cures Type 1 diabetes in mice
A new study shows that the cancer drugs imatinib (also known as Gleevec by Novartis) and sunitinib (Sutent, made by Pfizer) halt diabetes in mice. [More]
LHC start-up date pushed back again
The eagerly awaited start-up of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world's largest particle accelerator, has been put off--again. The LHC was shut down in September, just days after being switched on for the first time, when an electrical malfunction caused a helium leak in the collider's tunnel. The repairs, which had been expected to last until spring, will now keep the LHC off-line into early summer, according to published statements from a spokesman for the accelerator's operator. [More]
Computer mouse closes in on the big 4-0
It was 38 years ago today that the U.S. Patent Office officially recognized an invention that would help make computers more accessible to the masses. We are, of course, talking about Douglas Engelbart's "X-Y position indicator for a display system," more commonly known today as the computer mouse. Engelbart, 83, then a researcher at Stanford Research Institute (SRI) in Menlo Park, Calif., filed the patent in 1967 but had to wait three years for the government to acknowledge his technology, which provided the tool needed to navigate graphics-filled computer screens with a simple motion of the hand rather than by wading through screens filled with green-tinted text using keys or a light pencil pressed up against a computer monitor. [More]
"Motrin moms," a-Twitter over ad, take on Big Pharma--And win
Hell apparently hath no fury like a Motrin mom scorned. It began innocently enough--a painkiller ad targeted to aching moms. But seems the spot touched a nerve in the ever-growing blogging mom community, drawing heat for claims that ibuprofen (brand name Motrin) could help cure the pain in the neck, not to mention back and shoulders, caused by carrying a baby in a sling, wrap or "schwing." [More]
Drill for Natural Gas, Pollute Water
In July a hydrologist dropped a plastic sampling pipe 300 feet down a water well in rural Sublette County, Wy. and pulled up a load of brown oily water with a foul smell. Tests showed it contained benzene, a chemical believed to cause aplastic anemia and leukemia, in a concentration 1,500 times the level safe for people. [More]
Mars Lander was way popular on Twitter, Facebook
Like many an unsung artist or writer, the late Mars Phoenix Lander's fame has increased since the robot expired last week -- thanks to social-networking tools that gave it a human voice. [More]
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