State of the World’s Science
The pursuit of knowledge is now a global enterprise. Scientific American and Nature have teamed up on this special report on how this trend is changing the way science is done, and how it informs the world.
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NASA Crashes Twin Probes Into the Moon
NASA concluded its Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) moon mission by crashing two probes into the lunar surface — on purpose. The goal of the mission is to map the moon’s gravitational field. To do this, NASA launched two washing-machine-size probes to orbit the moon in September 2011. After both craft achieved orbit, they…
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Exploding Star Missing From Formation of Solar System
A new study challenges the notion that the force of an exploding star forced the formation of the solar system. University of Chicago researchers Haolan Tang and Nicolas Dauphas found the radioactive isotope iron 60 — the telltale sign of an exploding star—low in abundance and well mixed in solar system material. As cosmochemists, they…
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The False Promise of the Education Revolution
For Whom Is College Being Reinvented?
‘Disruptions’ have the buzz but may put higher education out of reach for those students likely to benefit the most -
We Know How to Promote Physics for Development
A successful model for making more out of physics for development is ready to roll out to others, writes Dipali Bhatt-Chauhan. In October, delegates gathered for the European Physical Society’s (EPS) first conference on physics for development to swap experiences and theories on how developing nations can make the most of their physics research.
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Multidimensional Black Holes Get Electric When Flexed
Bending a black hole can juice it up. In extra dimensions, a black hole behaves like a fluid and a solid at the same time, and flexing the solid form may generate an electric field. Although these effects exist only in the theoretical realm, the underlying equations could help us puzzle out some of the…
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Naughty or Nice? A Brain Chemical May Tell
Chemicals in your body can influence how generous or selfish you are, and, in recent years, experiments have explored the role of one called oxytocin — which one researcher calls the “moral molecule.” In an experiment known as the ultimatum game, one of two people is given a sum of money, say $100, and told…
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A More Human Artificial Brain
The latest attempt to build machines that can learn to recognize objects or even develop cognitive skills is caled Spaun. Its full name is the Semantic Pointer Architecture Unified Network, but Spaun sounds way more epic. It’s the latest version of a techno brain, the creation of a Canadian research team at the University of…
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Award-Winning Pictures of the Tiniest Things on Earth
This incredible image of fern spores is just one of the many mind-blowing images that won the Olympus BioScapes Imaging Competition in 2012. Check out the top ten images and videos captured by life-science researchers.
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How Communities Shape Our Morals
As a social primate species, we modulate our morals with signals from family, friends and social groups with whom we identify because in our evolutionary past those attributes helped individuals to survive and reproduce. We do not just blindly concede control to authorities; instead we follow the cues provided by our moral communities on how…