The ancient scourge smallpox was relegated to biowaste bin of history more than 30 years ago, the result of the world's first and only successful disease eradication programs. Since then, however, cases of monkeypox--a serious, although less severe smallpoxlike illness--have substantially increased in central Africa, according to a study published August 30 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . The authors stress that better surveillance and a thorough assessment of the public health threat posed by this once-rare viral infection are needed."I'm concerned about
At the recent AAAS meeting, Stony Brook University’s Robert Crease talked about a doomsday scare involving Scientific American and Brookhaven National Lab’s Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, or RHIC:“As the accelerator neared completion in 1999, Scientific American ran an article about RHIC, called ‘A Little Big Bang,’ with the title referring to the machine’s ambition to study forms of matter in the early universe.” [More]
Bacteria in ocean sediments appear to string together nanowires to connect complementary but spatially separated chemical processes, according to a new study. The finding is the first example of a natural electrical circuit bridging a macroscopic gap, in this case more than a centimeter across, to mediate a biogeochemical process on either side. [More]
Remember the last time that something a friend did caught you off guard? Probably--and that's because the human brain is specially tuned to remember things that are out of the ordinary. [More]
There's more to figure skating than spandex and sequins, specifically physics. Learn more about the science behind curling, speed skating and other Olympic events [More]
Dear EarthTalk : I recently got my car detailed at a local place and then gasped at the chemical fumes when I got inside. Are there green detailers out there, or products that I could use myself to keep my vehicle clean and my family out of harm’s way? --David Berkowitz, Newton, Mass. [More]
Few observers, in 2000, would have foreseen Facebook being a ubiquitous presence on the Internet in 2010. Even fewer would have felt comfortable predicting whether some phenomenon like it would be “good" or bad” for human interaction, or for society's use of the English (or any other) language, for that matter. Undaunted by the perils of prognostication, the Pew Research Center's Internet and American Life Project recently asked nearly 900 tech-savvy professionals to “imagine the Internet” in 2020. More specifically, the project presented people will five
Wanna be lazy and productive at the same time? Try a nap--because napping can improve learning. So said U.C. Berkeley’s Matthew Walker February 21st at the meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in San Diego. [More]
A decade ago psychologist Ronald Levant, then at Nova Southeastern University, was telling some of his colleagues at a conference about patients with schizophrenia whom he had seen recover. One of them asked rhetorically, “Recovery from schizophrenia? Have you lost your mind, too?”Until recently, virtually all experts agreed that schizophrenia is always, or almost always, marked by a steady downhill progression. But is this bleak forecast warranted? Certainly schizophrenia is a severe condition. Its victims, who make up about 1 percent of the population, experience a loss of
Ignition is close now. Within a year or two the 192 laser beams at the National Ignition Facility (NIF)--the world’s largest and most powerful laser system, a 13-year, $4-billion enterprise--will focus their energy onto a pellet no bigger than a peppercorn. Energy from the laser beams will crush the pellet’s core with such force that the hydrogen isotopes inside will fuse together and release energy, an H-bomb in miniature.The trick has been tried before--and with success. But every time scientists have fused together these isotopes, they have had to pump far more energy into the ...
Editor's Note: Journalist and crew member Kathryn Eident and scientist Jeremy Jacquot are traveling on board the RV Atlantis on a monthlong voyage to sample and study nitrogen fixation in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean, among other research projects. This is the fourth blog post detailing this ongoing voyage of discovery for ScientificAmerican.com RV ATLANTIS MAIN DECK--For years scientists have thought that the amount of nitrogen coming into and out of the world's oceans was relatively equivalent, creating a "balanced" and naturally maintained budget. But this theory ...
The U.S. government has stepped up its efforts to warn computer users about the security vulnerabilities that come with using peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing networks , the most popular of which today are perhaps BitTorrent and LimeWire . The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) reported Monday that it has sent letters to nearly 100 businesses, schools and government organizations warning that personal information, including sensitive data about customers and/or employees, has been shared from their computer networks and is available on P2P networks to any users of those networks. P2P
A plague of oxygen-deprived waters from the deep ocean is creeping up over the continental shelves off the Pacific Northwest and forcing marine species there to relocate or die. Since 2002 tongues of hypoxic, or low-oxygen , waters from deeper areas offshore have slipped into shallower near-shore environments off the Oregon coast, although not close enough to be oxygenated by the waves. The problem stems from oxygen reduction in deep water, a phenomenon that some scientists are observing in oceans worldwide, and that may be related to climate change. [More]
Dear EarthTalk : Are there any conservation efforts focused on animal species endemic to islands likely to be submerged by rising sea levels? --H. Wyeth, Anahola, Hawaii [More]
SAN DIEGO -- For plants, animals and marine life whose environment changes, their options are stark and simple: Move, adapt or die.But when the marine life in question is a coral reef cemented to the ocean floor and the threat is climate change , the outlook appears grimmer, said scientists presenting new findings here at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science . [More]
Figure skating is one of the most popular sports in the winter Olympics. In this exclusive Scientific American video, contributing editor Christie Nicholson takes you inside the sport, to explore the physics behind a figure skater’s spectacular moves. Along the way, she discovers her inner Kristi Yamaguchi. [More]
