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Who we know determines who we are. Three new books reveal how much heroes and even distant acquaintances influence us.

Editor's note: This article originally appeared in the March 1961 issue of Scientific American. In the days when civilized men believed that the world was flat they had no reason to think about gravity. There was up and down

Bear-size beavers, mammoths, horses, camels and saber-toothed cats used to roam North America, but by 11,000 years ago most such large mammals had died off. To this day, experts debate what caused this late Pleistocene extinction: climate change, overhunting by humans, disease--or something else? Eric Scott, curator of paleontology at the San Bernardino County Museum in Redlands, Calif., suggests it was something else: namely, the immigration of bison from Eurasia

March 1961 Food for Climate Skeptics [More]

Every villain has his Achilles' heel. And microscopic scoundrels are no exception.

By Leigh Coleman BILOXI, Mississippi (Reuters) - Marine scientists are debating whether 80-plus bottlenose dolphins found dead along the U.S. Gulf Coast since January were more likely to have perished from last year's massive oil spill or a winter cold snap. [More]

By Amy Maxmen Precious memories need not fade if a report today bears fruit. [More]

As the familiar battles over evolution education continue to play out in U.S. state legislatures and school boards, other countries are facing very different dynamics. Much of the world lives outside of any law that requires separation of church and state, making creationism trickier to disentangle from public school curricula.

In 2010, a new U.S. Air Force test vehicle, the X-37B, took flight from Cape Canaveral in Florida.

After decades of development and years of clinical trials, an optical prosthesis capable of restoring at least partial vision to those suffering from retina-damaging diseases will hit the market.

A collection of delicate stone tools discovered on California's Channel Islands indicates that early humans in the Americas were hunting local waterfowl some 11,200 to 12,200 years ago. [More]

BOSTON--A novel treatment for HIV could involve changing the genes in a person's immune cells and, ultimately, in his or her stem cells, as well. It might even lead to a cure for that deadly disease

If you had $1 billion to spend on just one project, what would it be? Here's how an astrobiologist, a broadcaster, a skeptic and a Nobel laureate, amongst others, would spend the money. Filmed at the 2010 Science Foo Camp in California, this is the last of four videos in this series.

Whenever an endangered species lives in just one location, it is at increased risk of being wiped out by a single disease, fire or catastrophic weather event.

By Zach Howard HADLEY, Massachusetts (Reuters Life!) - The eastern cougar, a large and elusive tawny wild cat that once prowled over wilderness in 21 states, is now extinct, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said on Wednesday. [More]