Editor’s note: This is the second of a two-part series on security and privacy during the age of drone warfare. Part one is available here . [More]
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Feed SubscriptionFlying on a Wing and Oil from Plants
If you flew from Houston to Chicago on November 7, your jet might have been fueled by something new-- specially grown algae . United Flight 1403 burned a blend of traditional petroleum-based jet fuel and bio-jet fuel refined from algal oil . [More]
Read More »How We View Half-Naked Men and Women
We typically think of women as the targets of body objectification. In fact, research by psychologist Helen Fisher found that men viewed bikini-clad women much as they would a set of tools
Read More »Hot and Steamy: Beautiful Volcano Lakes Hold Data Trove and Potential Danger [Slide Show]
Only 12 percent of the world's active volcanoes are topped with lakes.
Read More »iPhone 4S Assistant Siri Does Her Beta Best
One of the most talked about features on Apple's new iPhone 4S is Siri.
Read More »The Duggars Demonstrate Life History Trade-Offs Around Quality Versus Quantity of Offspring
A picture of the Duggar family (public domain). Back in the day, when many anthropologists assume we were all egalitarian foragers living off the land, women may not have thought on how many offspring they wanted.
Read More »Magnetic Cows Finding Disputed by Researchers
By Daniel Cressey of Nature magazine In 2008, the world's media was captivated by a study apparently showing that cows like to align themselves with magnetic fields. [More]
Read More »A Modest Proposal: Star-Trek-like Communicator Badges for Siri
In the series “A Modest Proposal,” my colleagues and I will propose inventions and projects that I think are eminently doable and would love made real. A Star Trek communicator badge [More]
Read More »MIND Reviews: Brandwashed: Tricks Companies Use to Manipulate Our Minds and Persuade Us to Buy
Brandwashed: Tricks Companies Use to Manipulate Our Minds and Persuade Us to Buy by Martin Lindstrom. Crown Business, 2011 [More]
Read More »November 2011 Advances Section Additional Resources
The Advances section of Scientific American 's November issue took readers into the air with the world's highest flying geese, back in time with an unlikely ancestor, into space to rendezvous with some garbage, to the Internet for a new way of conducting clinical trials, and beyond. For readers interested in learning more about the developments described in this section, a list of further background material follows: "On the Trail of Space Trash" [More]
Read More »Can Memories Be Counted?
The series Too Hard for Science? discusses ideas scientists would love to explore that they think are difficult or impossible to investigate. The Scientist: Robert Stickgold, director of the Center for Sleep and Cognition at Harvard Medical School
Read More »China Official Says Air Pollution Rules Too Lax
BEIJING (Reuters) - China's air pollution standards are too lax, a senior environment official said in comments published on Friday, the highest level comment following complaints that authorities are understating the extent of smog that often envelops Beijing. The level of air pollution in the capital varies, depending on winds. But in recent weeks, a cocktail of smokestack emissions, vehicle exhaust, dust and aerosols have blanketed the city in a pungent, beige shroud for days on end, prompting residents to denounce official readings of "slight" pollution as a gross undercount
Read More »Do You Use GPS? Say "Thanks" to Norman Ramsey (1915-2011)
Norman F. Ramsey may not be a household name, but he was a giant of 20th-century experimental physics.
Read More »Should Gay, Endangered Penguins Be Forced to Mate?
What do you do when a species is rapidly disappearing in the wild and two of its most likely in-captivity studs decide to cuddle with each other instead of with eligible bachelorettes? That’s the problem Toronto Zoo is encountering this week as two endangered male African penguins ( Spheniscus demersus ) recently brought to the zoo for breeding purposes seem more concerned with spending time with one another than with two eager females. [More]
Read More »EPA Finds Fracking Compound in Wyoming Aquifer
As the country awaits results from a nationwide safety study on the natural gas drilling process of fracking, a separate government investigation into contamination in a place where residents have long complained that drilling fouled their water has turned up alarming levels of underground pollution. A pair of environmental monitoring wells drilled deep into an aquifer in Pavillion, Wyo., contain high levels of cancer-causing compounds and at least one chemical commonly used in hydraulic fracturing, according to new water test results released yesterday by the Environmental Protection Agency. [More]
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