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Around the world, frogs and other amphibians are disappearing due to habitat loss, climate change, pollution and the deadly chytrid fungus , which has already driven a few dozen species into extinction. But with critical information on many species still lacking, scientists can only go so far when trying to help save those in crisis. [More]

False positives and exaggerated results in peer-reviewed scientific studies have reached epidemic proportions in recent years.

By David Brough LONDON (Reuters) - Food prices could double in the next 20 years and demand will soar as the world struggles to raise output via a failing system, international charity Oxfam said Tuesday, warning of worsening global hunger. [More]

Where do health and science news stories come from? The cynical answer would be "the news agency" or "the press release." Both, unfortunately, are true.

The article, “Religious factors and hippocampal atrophy in late life,” by Amy Owen and colleagues at Duke University represents an important advance in our growing understanding of the relationship between the brain and religion. The study showed greater atrophy in the hippocampus in individuals who identify with specific religious groups as well as those with no religious affiliation. It is a surprising result, given that many prior studies have shown religion to have potentially beneficial effects on brain function, anxiety, and depression.

To predict the stock market, there’s no need to look into a crystal ball. [More]

A few weeks ago, Satoshi Kanazawa, a blogger at Psychology Today who was already notorious for his dubious claims about racial differences, especially with respect to intelligence, proclaimed on the basis of a bizarre data analysis that Black women are “objectively” the least attractive females of all the races. Objectively , mind you, which implies that it’s a matter of fact rather than his personal taste

Worrying about hackers breaking into your laptop and cell phone is bad enough, but soon your car may be vulnerable, too. With each new model year, the automobile becomes less a collection of mechanical devices and more a sophisticated network of computers linked to one another and to the Internet. Earlier this year a group of researchers proved that a hacker could conceivably use a cell phone to unlock a car’s doors and start its engine remotely, then get behind the wheel and drive away.

By Annika Breidthardt BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany plans to shut all nuclear reactors by 2022, Chancellor Angela Merkel's ruling coalition announced on Monday, in a policy reversal drawn up in a rush after the Fukushima disaster in Japan. [More]

This month Scientific American launched 20 free at-home science activities with our inaugural Bring Science Home series. We hope you've enjoyed trying some of them and that you will continue to visit our Education page for more ways to do a little more science every day--at any age.

Halfway into a recent performance at New York City's Bohemian National Hall violinist Mari Kimura had already performed "Preludio" from Bach's Partita No. 3 in E Major followed by several pieces in which she deftly demonstrated her innovative "subharmonics" techniques for extending the octave range of her instrument. Then things got really interesting.

By Timothy Gardner WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Global warming will likely open up coastal areas in the Arctic to development but close vast regions of the northern interior to forestry and mining by mid-century as ice and frozen soil under temporary winter roads melt, researchers said. [More]

The Norse came to a new land around the end of the first millennium, borne on the backs of their Viking long ships and lured away from Iceland by the promise of Erik the Red's Greenland. The land was indeed green when they landed--and stayed that way for several centuries until natural variations in the planet's climate cooled the world's largest island by 4 degrees Celsius

By Muriel Boselli PARIS (Reuters) - Global emissions of carbon dioxide hit their highest level ever in 2010, with the growth driven mainly by booming coal-reliant emerging economies, the International Energy Agency's Chief Economist said on Monday. [More]

MOSCOW, RUSSIA. “As has often happened in Russia, we have had the priority in scientific invention, but completely lose the market,” Anatoly Chubais, chief executive of the Russian Corporation of Nanotechnologies, Rusnano[www.rusnano.com], told members of the Scientific American international editions during a visit today