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Editor's note: This article originally appeared in the April 1861 issue of Scientific American.

APRIL 1961 Tiling [More]

Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything by Joshua Foer. Penguin Press, 2011 [More]

By Chaiwat Subprasom MAE SAI, Thailand, March 25 (Reuters) - At least 74 people were killed in a strong earthquake that struck Myanmar, state media said on Friday, while a series of aftershocks have caused panic but only limited damage in Thailand and Laos.

They missed the heavy metal explosion of the 1980s, but this all-girl robotics team from Bronx High School of Science take their name from 80s rockers Iron Maiden. They show off their mechanical talents at a robotics competition in New York

By Yoko Kubota TOKYO, March 25 (Reuters) - Injuries to workers battling to bring Japan's earthquake-damaged nuclear plant under control will set back efforts to stabilise it, officials said, as fear of radiation from the complex spread both at home and abroad. Engineers are trying to regain control of the six-reactor nuclear power station in Fukushima, 240 km (150 miles) north of the capital, two weeks after an earthquake and tsunami battered the plant and devastated northeastern Japan, leaving about 27,400 people dead or missing. Explosions in three reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi power station last week made this the world's worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl and raised fears of a catastrophic meltdown

John Milnor, an American mathematician best known for the discovery of exotic hyperspheres, was awarded the 2011 Abel Prize , the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters announced March 23. [More]

Dear Scientific American Reader: Scientific American is conducting a survey about the future of cities, the results of which will be published in the magazine along with a series of articles on urban life in the 21st century. The survey will poll elected officials, academics, policymakers, and opinion leaders, including Scientific American readers, about ways to improve cities and their livability.

Pervasive, elusive and tough, cancer has proved to be a formidable foe against generations of bright and well-funded researchers. [More]

Some 15,500 years ago early nomadic North Americans had already set up camp near Buttermilk Creek in central Texas's hill country, where they left behind impressive array of stone tools and artifacts. [More]

VIENNA, March 24 (Reuters) - Japanese scientists have found measurable concentrations of radioactive iodine-131 and caesium-137 in seawater samples taken 30 km (18 miles) from land, the U.N. [More]

By Fredrik Dahl VIENNA (Reuters) - The closing of aging nuclear reactors is expected to peak in 2020-30, posing a major challenge in terms of safety and the environment, a draft U.N. atomic agency report says

Social gaming firm Zynga has blossomed into a billion-dollar company thanks to the popularity of games like CityVille, FarmVille, and Café World.

Underlying the wave of unrest across North Africa and the Middle East is the fact that some of the cries for democracy are coming from mouths in need of food. Media outlets around the world were quick to make the link between food and the protests in Egypt, Tunisia and Algeria, pointing to one specific grain: wheat. Egypt is the largest importer of wheat in the world, with Algeria not far behind.

An oil spill off the South Atlantic island of Nightingale has put nearly half of the world's population of endangered northern rockhopper penguins ( Eudyptes moseleyi ) at risk. The Maltese-registered ship MS Olivia ran aground on Nightingale Island on March 16. The New York Times reported Wednesday that more than 725 metric tons of fuel oil--half the cargo--had already leaked from the ship, surrounding the island in an 13-kilometer-wide oil slick.