Table Of Contents Highlights from 175 Years of Publishing Scientific American began in 1845, and for 175 years we’ve been covering the most fascinating and important stories in science, technology, medicine, and more. Here we share highlights from about a quarter of a million […]
Welcome to Scientific American’s 175th anniversary issue! We’ve had a blast putting it together and hope you enjoy it. Scientific American is the oldest continuously published magazine in the U.S. For our demisemiseptcentennial (also known as, no kidding, a quartoseptcentennial), we are presenting a mix of surprising history stories (featuring Harry Houdini, M. C. Escher […]
Human exposure to extreme heat could increase dramatically across U.S. cities by the end of the century, a new study finds. As climate change worsens, urban development expands and populations grow, more people will experience high temperatures for longer periods of time. In a severe scenario, according to the study, exposure could increase twelvefold to thirtyfold across […]
Computer-generated imagery is supposed to be one of the success stories of computer science. Starting in the 1970s, the algorithms for realistically depicting digital worlds were developed in a monumental joint effort between academic, commercial and federal research labs. Today, we stream the results onto the screens in our homes. Escaping into worlds where computer-generated […]
[Hermit Warbler song] That’s a bird called the Hermit Warbler. It breeds along the U.S. West Coast. “They have a cute little yellow head, and a gray body.” Brett Furnas, a biostatistician at the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. Typically, birds sing the same one song within one region, because the song attracts mates. […]
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Credit: Moritz Stefaner and Christian Lässer Since at least the 17th century, science has struggled with words. Francis Bacon, visionary of a new, experimental natural philosophy, called language an “idol of the marketplace”: a counterfeit currency we trade in so habitually that we no longer notice the gap between words and the world. True […]
Summarizing the history of a 175-year-old magazine—that’s 5,107 editions with 199,694 pages containing 110,292,327 words!—into a series of graphics was a daunting assignment. When the hard drive with 64 gigabytes of .pdf files arrived at my home in Germany, I was curious to dig in but also a bit scared: as a data-visualization consultant with […]
Credit: Moritz Stefaner and Christian Lässer Search a 4,000-word database to see how language in the magazine evolved over time By: Moritz Stefaner close Moritz Stefaner Moritz Stefaner, based in Germany, is an independent designer and consultant with a background in cognitive science and interface design. His work balances analytical and aesthetic aspects in mapping […]
Before the coronavirus pandemic, there was a loneliness epidemic. By some estimates, two thirds of Americans often or always felt lonely in 2019. So when quarantines and shelter-in-place orders began, I was one of many social scientists who raised concerns that loneliness might worsen in the months to come. Would prolonged isolation trigger a “social […]
“I do not accept any absolute formulas for living. No preconceived code can see ahead to everything that can happen in a man’s life. As we live, we grow, and our beliefs change. They must change. So I think we should live with this constant discovery. We should be open to this adventure in heightened […]