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Editor's note (3/11/11): This article is from the forthcoming April issue of S cientific Aemrican . We are posting the text of the article early in light of the deadly Japan earthquake and resulting tsunami

Our partners at Nature have a correspondent in Japan.

This post is a slightly edited version of my December 29, 2004, post written in reaction to media reports about a "sixth sense" in animals, that supposedly allows them to avoid a tsunami by climbing to higher ground.

Like many Americans, I have recently been diagnosed with a vitamin D deficiency. In addition to drinking milk, eating dark leafy greens, and taking 2000 IU’s of D a day, I’ve also been trying to get as much sunlight as possible. When I came across this article in the November 7, 1903 Scientific American , I realized that a possible reason for my deficiency is my home’s inability to rotate

Elephants are smart, social animals. And now we know that they can organize themselves into teams to accomplish tasks. A research team that included renowned primatologist Franz de Waal taught 12 Thai elephants--who already work with human trainers called mahouts--to get a bowl of food by pulling a rope attached to an out-of-reach table

Dear EarthTalk : What specific issues and protections are covered by the Food Safety Modernization Act recently signed into law? --P.

Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking (The Cooking Lab, 2011) is a six-volume, 2,348-page work that relies heavily on photography and illustrations to make the science and technology of modern cooking accessible and engaging to everyone from science buffs to professional chefs. One of our goals in producing the book, by inventor and physicist Nathan Myhrvold, along with co-authors Chris Young and Maxime Bilet, was to give readers insight into what happens inside food as it cooks. So we developed a unique "cutaway" style of photo illustration that reveals all the action occurring at the center of, say, a pot of steaming broccoli or a pair of burgers on a Weber grill.

Climate change will pose major new hurdles for U.S. naval forces, forcing the military to grapple with an emerging Arctic frontier, increasing demand for humanitarian aid and creating rising seas that could threaten low-lying bases, the National Academy of Sciences said yesterday. "Even the most moderate current trends in climate, if continued, will present new national security challenges for the the U.S.

(indicates a new or updated entry) [More]

(Adds researchers' quotes, background) By Osamu Tsukimori and Kiyoshi Takenaka [More]

(Adds researchers' quotes, background) By Osamu Tsukimori and Kiyoshi Takenaka [More]

Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things by Randy O. Frost and Gail Steketee. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2010 [More]

Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things by Randy O.

* Obama sends condolences, promises aid * Pentagon readies ships to help [More]

* Obama sends condolences, promises aid * Pentagon readies ships to help [More]