Earlier this year Charles Lieber, then chair of Harvard University’s chemistry department and a nanotechnology expert, was arrested and charged with lying to federal law-enforcement officials about secretly working for the Chinese government. (His attorney, Marc L. Mukasey, told Scientific American that Lieber “maintains his innocence and eagerly awaits the chance to tell his side […]
Biologists observing the spread of invasive Asian carp up the Mississippi River Basin had identified two possible barriers—one structural, one biological—that could keep the nemesis fish from invading the Great Lakes. Climate change may nix the biological one, researchers say, meaning the only safeguard against an invasion into Lake Michigan is an $800 million fish […]
On a shallow reef in the Florida Keys, a young Caribbean spiny lobster returns from a night of foraging for tasty mollusks and enters its narrow den. Lobsters usually share these rocky crevices, and tonight a new one has wandered in. Something about the newcomer is not right, though. Chemicals in its urine smell different. […]
In the 19th century, the most photographed man in the world wasn’t Walt Whitman or Ulysses S. Grant or even Abraham Lincoln. It was Frederick Douglass. The famous orator and abolitionist was known for using his eloquent voice to impart the horrors of slavery, which he had experienced firsthand. He traveled all over the country, speaking […]
Originally published in February 1900 Credit: Scientific American Advertisement “Dr. John D. Quackenbos, of Columbia University, has long been engaged in experiments in using hypnotic suggestion for the correction of moral infirmities and defects such as kleptomania, the drink habit, and in children habits of lying and petty thieving. Dr. Quackenbos says, ‘I find out […]
As told to Scientific American When a family member dies, we the Diné, whom Spanish conquistadors named the Navajo, send a notice to our local radio station so that everyone in the community can know. Usually the reading of the death notices—the names of those who have passed on, their ages, where they lived and […]
The Black Lives Matter protests shaking the world have thankfully brought renewed attention not just to police brutality but to the broader role of racism in our society. Research suggests some roots of racism lie in the stereotypes we hold about different groups. And those stereotypes can affect everything from the way police diagnose danger […]
CHRIS LOWE: I’m out here with my team and we’re doing surveys for sharks. So we’re using drones to fly along the beach to look for sharks that we see close to shore. And if we see them from the video we can use that to estimate their size and determine what species. Most […]
Since the coronavirus pandemic started spreading across the U.S. and state governments issued stay-at-home orders, millions of Americans have isolated themselves for months to avoid exposure. One result is that parents across the country have canceled pediatric checkups—and immunization levels for vaccine-preventable diseases have plummeted, a Scientific American investigation has found. The U.S. Centers for […]
Velvety free-tail bats produce sounds that help them locate insect prey, but that simultaneously identify them to their companions. — Read more on ScientificAmerican.com Source link