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Highly technical scientific debates are usually hashed out behind closed doors--in labs, in subscription-based journals, in the hallways at conferences attended only by a few specialized researchers. But in May the rest of us saw three real academic arguments playing out in public, largely via Twitter, blogs and wikis

Name: Christopher P.

OK, I will start with the confession. [More]

By Yuko Takeo TOKYO, Aug 15 (Reuters) - To meet growing demand for [More]

We at Scientific American welcome responses to our articles. [More]

The Amazon rainforest near Manaus in Brazil was almost completely cleared decades ago for cattle grazing.

Old Yeller dies, Darth Vader is Luke's dad, Little Red Riding Hood lives. Did I spoil it?

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan is considering joining a U.S.-led global nuclear compensation treaty in a bid to fend off excessive overseas damage claims related to nuclear accidents, the Nikkei newspaper reported on Sunday, without citing sources. The U.S., Morocco, Romania and Argentina have agreed to the Convention on Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage, but the treaty needs at least five countries in order to go into effect. [More]

By Laura Zuckerman SALMON, Idaho (Reuters) - Conservation groups on Saturday asked a federal appellate court to stop upcoming hunts in Montana and Idaho that target more than 1,000 wolves. [More]

Need to solve a tough problem? A study published online February 11 in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin suggests you are more likely to succeed if you solve it on another person’s be

More dugongs (Dugong dugon) have died in Australia this year than in all of 2010. [More]

Showy birds' nests have attracted many fans across the ages, from female bowerbirds to 19th-century young naturalists. The domiciles are a great resource for scientists, too, revealing the architects' feeding habits, genetic relationships and more, as described in the August issue of Scientific American . To protect bird populations, the U.S

The government has come under fire this week for revelations that it knew about antibiotic resistant Salmonella in poultry products that has killed at least one person and sickened more than 100 across the country. [More]

The deadly mob violence that wracked England this past week has abated, as police came out in force and used surveillance images to track down and arrest some 1,900 alleged rioters. As London and other cities in the nation recover, officials and the public may be left wondering how to prevent such rioting in the first place. A key misunderstanding, however, seems to pervade popular thinking: that mobs are irrational and are driven to violence by a few bad apples

By Ron Cowen of Nature magazine Planetary scientists thought they knew what to expect when NASA's Dawn spacecraft returned the first close-up portrait of the giant asteroid Vesta last month. [More]