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Science news and technology updates from Scientific American
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Generic heart drugs as good as brand-names
Generic heart medications work just as well as their brand-name counterparts, despite negative commentary on the no-name drugs in medical journals and mainstream media, a new analysis says. [More]
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Dispatches from the bottom of the Earth: Bookshelf Science
Editor's note: Marine geophysicist Robin Bell is leading an expedition to Antarctica to explore a mysterious mountain range beneath the ice sheet. Following is the sixth of her updates on the effort as part of ScientificAmerican.com's in-depth report on the "Future of the Poles."McMURDO ST ...
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Exoplanet orbiting red giant gives hints of Earth's future
Astronomers have discovered a new planet in another solar system orbiting a red giant star that provides clues into what may happen to our own solar system 5 billion years from now when our own, younger Sun becomes a gigantic old star. [More]
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Free Internet for all? FCC to vote on plan wireless industry hates
Free, broadband Internet service could become available across the country if the government okays a proposal to open up unused public airwaves to bidders. [More]
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PVC producer fined $12 million for environmental damage
The feds yesterday ordered a major U.S. producer of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) resin, a known cancer-causing agent, to pay $12 million in fines and to clean up its facilities after determining that it violated antipollution laws. [More]
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LHC org nixes rumors of delay, says collider set to go next year
It's a good indication of the rabid anticipation surrounding the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) that any tidbit about the giant particle accelerator's restart is scrutinized as if it were the Zapruder film. A case in point is a single image from a 52-slide presentation given recently by Jörg Wenni ...
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Is a bioterrorism attack in the U.S. imminent?
As India picks up the pieces of last week's deadly terrorist attacks in Mumbai, a congressional study warns of a possible bioterror strike in the U.S. by 2013. [More]
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Space shuttle Endeavour creates sonic booms over California as it comes in for a landing
Residents of southern California were treated to a pair of sonic booms as the U.S. space shuttle Endeavour passed overhead yesterday en route to its safe landing at Edwards Air Force Base. [More]
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Medical residents need sleep, docs say
Could more sleep be on the horizon for fatigued medical residents? If not, it should be, says the Institute of Medicine (IOM), which in a report released today recommends shorter shifts and scheduled time for snoozing. [More]
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Cyberchondria: Online Diagnosis Leads to Obsessive Fear
[Below is the original script. But a few changes may have been made during the recording of this audio podcast.]Imagine this: you find a strange rash on your arm, scratch it, then decide to visit Dr. Google, and within three mouse clicks, waves of anxiety reverberate through your body because you're ...
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The moon, Jupiter and Venus come together
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Cyberchondria: Obsessive Fear of Online Diagnosis
[Below is the original script. But a few changes may have been made during the recording of this audio podcast.]Imagine this: you find a strange rash on your arm, scratch it, then decide to visit Dr. Google, and within three mouse clicks, waves of anxiety reverberate through your body because you're ...
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Kid-Safe and Ecofriendly Holiday Gifts
Dear EarthTalk: Can you recommend some sources for toys and other holiday gifts that are both safe and not harmful to the environment? -- Tracy Gately, Marblehead, MA [More]
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Ghost Stories: Visits from the Deceased
Carlos Sluzki’s cat died a while ago now, but he still sometimes visits. Now more of a shadow cat, the former pet seems to lurk at the edges of Sluzki’s vision, as a misinterpreted movement amid the everyday chaos of domestic life. All the same, the shadow cat is beginning to slink away ...
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Robot Clam Achieves Feat with Foot
[The following is an exact transcript of this podcast.]M.I.T. scientists have designed a new robot. You’ll probably never see it though--it’s meant to be hidden. Because it’s a robot clam. Engineers wanted to design a lightweight anchor that could be easily set and then picked up. ...
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Robot Clam Achieves Feat With Foot
[The following is an exact transcript of this podcast.]MIT scientists have designed a new robot. You’ll probably never see it though--it’s meant to be hidden. Because it’s a robot clam. Engineers wanted to design a lightweight anchor that could be easily set and then picked up. Tha ...
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Turning Back the Cellular Clock: A Farewell to Embryonic Stem Cells?
When historians chronicle the stem cell research wars, Shinya Yamanaka will likely go down as a peacemaker. The Japanese scientist has helped send the field on a surprising end run around the moral debate surrounding embryonic stem cells, the creation of which requires the destruction of embryos. La ...
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Psychiatric Drugs Replacing Talk Therapy
In the 1960s, the heyday of psychoanalysis, psychiatrists often saw their patients five days a week. But the number of psychiatrists today who focus on talk therapy is dwindling, according to a recent study that analyzed trends in psychiatry offices across the U.S. The study’s authors determin ...
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Bug vs. bug: How do mosquitoes survive deadly viruses unscathed?
Why can mosquitoes carry deadly viruses without succumbing to them and live on to give humans West Nile, dengue fever, and a host of other fatal illnesses. According to new research, the insects' primitive immune systems recognize that the viruses are dangerous and slice the microbes' genetic materi ...
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Can genes predict athletic performance?
What if sideline rage could be nipped in the bud with a quick genetic test that told Mom and Dad what sports – if any – Junior could master? The Boulder, Colo., company Atlas Sports Genetics today began selling just that sort of product: for $149, it says it will screen for variants of t ...
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