American Scientist Online

Abundant Water Worries

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 14:00:00 EST

Living Harmoniously

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 14:00:00 EST

In the News

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 14:00:00 EST

Icebergs of the Southeast

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 14:00:00 EST

During the most recent ice age, huge chunks of ice left gouges in the U.S. continental shelf off the Carolinas

Reversal of Fortune

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 14:00:00 EST

County-by-county comparison of death rates finds that lifespans dropped in some U.S. counties

The Language Playing Field

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 14:00:00 EST

To improve your communication abilities, try taking up hockey

Structures Smaller than Light

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 14:00:00 EST

Jane S. Richardson's elegant ribbon drawings have helped biologists understand protein function

Rocket Science and Russian Spies

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 14:00:00 EST

The race to develop solid fuels involved secrecy, explosions and espionage

UV Lights Up Marine Fish

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 14:00:00 EST

Many fish both capture and cope with ultraviolet light

Virtual Fossils from 425 Million-year-old Volcanic Ash

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 14:00:00 EST

Exceptional fossils reveal a diverse Silurian sea-floor community

Genomics Confounds Gene Classification

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 14:00:00 EST

Large-scale genomic studies challenge traditional definitions of genes and require new approaches to classifying life at the molecular level

The Rat's Tale

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 14:00:00 EST

A historical "document" isn't always a writing sample

Tower Cranes

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 14:00:00 EST

These visible symbols of economic health must grow with the buildings they make possible

Getting Your Quarks in a Row

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 14:00:00 EST

A tidy lattice is the key to computing with quantum fields

Why Is a Raven Like a Writing Desk?

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 14:00:00 EST

Musing on the power of convention

Schrödinger's Goose

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 13:39:00 EST

A review of The Scientific Life: A Moral History of a Late Modern Vocation, by Steven Shapin. Have the advantages of entrepreneurial science been oversold? Are contemporary funding regimes subtly eroding the integrity of science? Quite possibly so, Porter concludes

Keeping the Net Stupid

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 13:36:00 EST

A review of The Future of the Internet—And How to Stop It, by Jonathan Zittrain. The creative work inspired by the enormous flexibility of the Internet is threatened, says Zittrain, by a trend away from open platforms and toward what he calls "tethered appliances"

Never at Rest

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 13:33:00 EST

A review of Kelvin: Life, Labours and Legacy, edited by Raymond Flood, Mark McCartney and Andrew Whitaker. Why, asks Lindley, has Lord Kelvin's remarkable catalog of achievements left so little impression?

John O'Mountains

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 13:33:00 EST

A review of A Passion for Nature: The Life of John Muir, by Donald Worster. Worster has expertly sifted and sorted the details of Muir's complex life story to produce an engaging biography that should be considered definitive, says Branch

Electoral Games People Play

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 13:27:00 EST

A review of Gaming the Vote: Why Elections Aren’t Fair (and What We Can Do About It), by William Poundstone. Poundstone explores the unintended consequences of plurality voting and the pros and cons of the various electoral systems that have been proposed as alternatives