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When Deidre Ramos moved with her infant son to the Parker Street section of New Bedford, Mass., little did she know that her new neighborhood was toxic. [More]

By Katherine Rowland of Nature magazine As plumes of pollution rise over the booming industrial towns of Asia, satellite data could help to alert people in other regions to the approach of drifting smog.

When the 10-meter-high tsunami wave that followed the March 2011 magnitude 9.0 earthquake in Japan receded, it took with it some 23 million metric tons of material, including pieces of buildings, wood, plastics and more. Whereas most of the wreckage sank to the ocean floor, some of it is still floating toward other Pacific nations . The "debris field"--the visible wave of material--has dissipated, leaving the junk invisible to satellites.

The earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan last March created an estimated 25 million tons of debris, large amounts of which washed into the ocean. Soon after the disaster, satellites photographed and tracked large mats of wreckage--building parts, boats and household objects--floating off the Japanese coast

The Bronx Zoo Monkey House. | Photo by Geoff Stearns, Creative Commons

Three books suggest ways to improve your life.

You are covered with fungus right now. But wouldn't it be cooler if you did it on purpose

Anyone who has ever devoured a triple-chocolate brownie after an intense workout knows how tempting it can be to indulge after behaving virtuously.

The Advances section of Scientific American 's March issue discusses how reducing soot emissions could be a quick, if temporary, fix for global warming; explains why cramming for tests doesn't work; and examines physicists' latest efforts to make an object disappear. To learn more about these, and all our other stories, click on the links below

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By Susan Guyett and John D. [More]

Is it possible to use more of our brain? [More]

In 1912 airships and balloons, powered and unpowered, were being developed to explore, to entertain, to travel, and to wage war. Aerostats (any lighter-than-air craft) remained highly sensitive to weather and many were floated by flammable hydrogen (at least until the destruction of the Hindenburg in May 1937) but despite the limitations, great hopes were placed on these frail craft. [More]

March 1962 [More]

Ponytails in motion. Credit: Mike Adams/Flickr via Creative Commons BOSTON At long last, one of the hairiest problems in modern physics has been solved. Researchers have devised a theoretical model to describe the shape of a ponytail.