Originally published in November 1845 Credit: Scientific American Advertisement “The editors and publishers of several newspapers have promptly refused to advertise for grocers or innkeepers who deal in ardent liquors. That is as it should be; and it is to be hoped that all editors, especially those who advocate the temperance cause, will refrain from […]
SpaceX ’s first Crew Dragon spaceship to carry astronauts slid into a dock at the International Space Station Sunday (May 31), concluding a historic 19-hour voyage to for its veteran NASA crew. The arrival marked a major feat: the first docking of a crewed U.S. spacecraft at the station since NASA ’s shuttle fleet retired […]
Frontline clinicians have become the face of our pandemic. They represent the best of humanity, rising to treat critically ill patients, as well as the collateral damage from America’s fragile health care system and disordered government response. Scientific American asked doctors, nurses and respiratory therapists working in hospitals across the country how they were coping […]
Since its birth 30 years ago, proponents of the Human Genome Project have promised that genetics research would yield untold health benefits for all of us. Indeed, in 1990, James Watson asserted that failing to move the project ahead and usher in those benefits as fast as possible would be “essentially immoral.” The COVID crisis, […]
The week I started graduate school, the first science projects were announced for the new Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) telescope in Chile. This groundbreaking facility uses dozens of radio antennas working in concert to create images as detailed as those made by a single telescope 16 kilometers wide. With this extreme resolution, ALMA can […]
Since I last sat down to write From the Editor a few short weeks ago, the toll of the coronavirus pandemic has been staggering: at press time, more than 180,000 deaths globally and countless lives upended. Most of the planet is still on lockdown. At times it seems unreal, although it shouldn’t. Many public health […]
This spring, as the COVID-19 pandemic led people to hunker down at home, outdoor air quality improved dramatically in many cities and countries. In the northeastern U.S., for instance, air pollution dropped by 30 percent. But the lockdowns might be having the opposite effect indoors. In March Airthings, an Oslo-based manufacturer of smart air-quality monitors, […]
The first time I did a pelvic exam on a real patient, that patient was also my instructor. In the exam room, a bathroom and hospital gown draped the upright exam chair; and staring straight at me hung a laminated photo of the external female anatomy. The paper towel, speculum and two bottles of lubricant […]
Introduction Keys to a Healthy Mind: Navigating Anxiety and Depressionby Karin Tucker Section 1: What Happens in the Brain 1.1 Is Depression Just Bad Chemistry? by Hal Arkowitz & Scott O. Lilienfeld 1.2 Depression’s Evolutionary Roots by Paul W. Andrews & J. Anderson Thomson, Jr. 1.3 Bad News for the Highly […]
[Busy street sounds.] This is the sound of a neighborhood in Kolkata, India, in December, 2016. It was recorded by resident Sukanta Majumdar. [Quiet area, birds singing.] And this is what that same neighborhood sounded like on April 1st of this year, after the COVID-19 lockdown. “It’s like a unique place in time that we […]