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Before we get self-driving cars and road-trains, MIT researchers think emergency co-drivers that only take control in dangerous situations are the near-future for robot driving. At least while we still have fallible human drivers driving around like maniacs. MIT's whiz kids have been busying themselves with a tricky problem--how to build a semi-smart car that could take control when the situation ahead of a human driver looks to dangerous to be left to our weak biological instincts

Smallpox was eradicated so long ago that few living people have seen a case. What does it look like?

Oxytocin is known as the “love hormone” because it encourages trust, cooperation and social bonding. [More]

That grouper on your plate may not be grouper at all--unless it has an electronic tag saying otherwise.

Experimental cap could offer third approach to treating common sleep disorder, after medications and behavioral therapy

Last week, my colleagues and I wrapped up our second annual Maymester course to Guam and Palau.While the course participants returned to Los Angeles, I stayed behind on the island of Guam to catch up with old friends and colleagues, and to begin sketching out a rough draft of next year’s scientific course content.

Santiago Ram

Last week, the Foundation Questions Institute announced the winners of its third essay contest , which Scientific American co-sponsored. (I helped to decide on the question, judge the essays and hand out the awards at the World Science Festival in New York City.) The essay question was, "Is Reality Digital or Analog?" Is nature, at root, continuous or discretized

Magician David Copperfield waved his hand over the envelope, which popped open. He wiggled his fingers, and the card slid upward

Federal regulators will require sunscreen manufacturers to test their products' effectiveness against sun rays that pose the greatest risk of skin cancer.

By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent BONN (Reuters) - Tighter limits on soot and smog provide a quick and easy way to fight global warming while protecting human health and raising crop output, a U.N. study said on Tuesday.

By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent BONN (Reuters) - Tighter limits on soot and smog provide a quick and easy way to fight global warming while protecting human health and raising crop output, a U.N. study said on Tuesday. [More]

Food-safety watchdog organization says pesticide residues especially common on 12 produce items

The most surprising part of this story was that they managed to record brainwave activity from the sharks. This tale is about one of the most fascinating figures in the history of neuroscience: Dr.

We are prejudiced against all kinds of other people, based on superficial physical features: We react negatively to facial disfigurement; we avoid sitting next to people who are obese, or old, or in a wheelchair; we favor familiar folks over folks that are foreign. If I asked you why these prejudices exist and what one can do to eliminate them, your answer probably wouldn't involve the words "infectious disease." Perhaps it should.