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Decades of research have suggested that our sodium habit is killing us via hypertension and heart disease. But other research suggests it's not salt's fault after all

You’ve heard of tennis elbow. Well, a friend of mine has gamekeeper’s thumb. When he told me his diagnosis, it rang a bell

Watch Scientific American editor in chief Mariette DiChristina host the first Google Science Fair awards dinner.

By Marian Turner of Nature magazine The unique physiology of the human liver means that the toxicity of some candidate drugs is not picked up during preclinical tests in animals. [More]

The scandal that helped shutter Rupert Murdoch's News of the World tabloid and left at least nine News International journalists facing possible criminal charges has brought phone hacking into the spotlight as a means of subversively gathering information for news articles. As investigators study the scope of the problem, including the role phone hacking played in News of the World 's coverage of the disappearance and death of teen Milly Dowler in 2002, it's become clear that breaking into someone else's voicemail isn't very difficult

At a recent meeting of the American Astronomical Society, Bill Borucki , principal investigator for NASA's planet-finding Kepler spacecraft, provided an update on Kepler's hunt for distant worlds, especially those Earth-like planets that might be habitable: [More]

The brain is an amazing organ.

By Natasha Gilbert of Nature magazine Kenya is expected to become the fourth African country to allow the commercial production of transgenic crops. The country's National Biosafety Authority is due to publish long-awaited regulations governing the cultivation of genetically modified (GM) crops in open fields for research and commercial purposes

Last week, an official at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) told a congressional panel that hardware sold in the U.S. has been compromised by foreign agents

With the click of a light switch and the whoosh of a hair dryer, Bob Smerbeck can unleash a tornado on his living room anytime he likes. And he does, often

UNITED NATIONS -- They are the carbon offsetting projects most hated by environmentalists, but there may now be an opportunity to put an end to them. Currently, there are five coal-fired power plants registered as emission reduction projects under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), an international offsetting program run by an arm of the United Nations. Pressure from developing nation governments led to their inclusion in the program, as supporters claim the newer supercritical coal plants avoid carbon dioxide emissions by preventing dirtier plants from being built instead.

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With budgets getting tighter and health care needs growing, it makes sense to funnel shrinking resources to the most effective care. But, as Sharon Begley explains in " The Best Medicine " in the July 2011 issue of Scientific American , finding the best bang for our medical buck would be easier if we used the increasingly important analytical tool of comparative-effectiveness research.

Strokes cripple more people in the U.S. than any other disease.

Given the ubiquity of automated teller machines (ATMs) in most Western countries, it may be difficult to envision places in the world where people have never set foot in a bank much touched an ATM. Efforts to change this are often stymied not only because locals are unfamiliar with the concept of financial services but also because they are semi-literate or illiterate, making the use of an ATM challenging.