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Few people have ever claimed to see three rainbows arcing through the sky at once. In fact, scientific reports of these phenomena, called tertiary rainbows, were so rare—only five in 250 years—that until now many scientists believed sightings were as fanciful as Leprechaun's gold at a rainbow's end.

Looking for the Web Exclusive mentioned in the October 2011 issue of Scientific American ?

%excerpt% Read the rest here: Space – It’s not just for Astronauts: Personal reflections from a NASATweetup

Metrologists are measurement artists who are very precise – in the case of the Boltzmann constant up to the sixth decimal place. Whoever is able to determine it very exactly will cause a small revolution in the field of worldwide temperature measurement: The temperature unit will then no longer be based - as hitherto - on a chemico-physical material property, i.e. the triple point of water, but on an unchangeable fundamental constant.

Legend tells of Greek engineer and inventor Archimedes using parabolic mirrors to create "heat rays" to burn the ships attacking Syracuse. Though the underpinnings of that claim are speculative at best, a modern-day team of researchers at the Scientific and Production Association in Uzbekistan has proposed a more scientifically sound method of harnessing parabolic mirrors to drive solar-powered lasers.

Since the attacks of September 11, Congress has approved nearly $1.3 trillion for military spending. Much of that money has gone into mounting Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and Operation Iraqi Freedom. But some of the funds have been used to dream up and develop futuristic-sounding military devices such as exoskeletons

I love science, and I love the scientific method.

The Advances section of Scientific American 's September issue reports on a vaccine against nicotine addiction, a new x-ray technique inspired by large particle accelerators, how the brains of city folk may differ from their country cousins', and more. For those interested in learning more about the developments described in this section, a list of selected further reading follows

In conjunction with Scientific American ’s special September 2011 issue on cities, we present an archival look back at the documented growth of urban environments. [More]

The annual Scientific American September single topic issue is all about cities.

NEW YORK--A magnitude 5.8 earthquake that shook parts of the mid-Atlantic U.S. and New England Tuesday afternoon sent workers and residents streaming outdoors. In lower Manhattan , surrounding the Scientific American office, vehicle traffic quickly came to a standstill--with New York Police Department officers ordering drivers to back their vehicles out of the Holland Tunnel

A note from the Editor in Chief: Scientific American is celebrating its 166th year. [More]

Jon Huntsman posted a statement on his official Twitter account yesterday that is sure to endear the Republican presidential hopeful to the scientific community: The statement was retweeted widely, along with a few warnings that many people would, indeed, call Huntsman crazy for holding those beliefs. [More]

In the September issue of Scientific American , Harvard University economist Edward Glaeser describes how education and entrepreneurship can make or break cities.

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