For going on two decades, Scientific American's "Ask the Experts" column has been answering reader questions on all fields of science. We've taken your questions from the basic to the esoteric and reached out to top scientists, professors and researchers to find out why the sky is blue or whether we really only use 10% of our brains. Now, we've combed through our archives and have compiled some of the most interesting questions (and answers) into a series of eBooks. Organized by subject, each eBook provides short, easily digestible answers to questions on that particular branch of the sciences. The first eBook in our series – Physics and Math – explains a wide range of natural phenomena and mathematical concepts. Have you ever wondered what exactly antimatter is? How about game theory, quantum mechanics and the origin of pi? Mathematicians and professors from universities across the country tackle these topics, drawing on their extensive expertise to give answers that are at once accurate and comprehensible by those who haven't studied physics or math since high school.
The past few years have seen tremendous strides in our understanding of cancer, including new hypotheses about its genetic origins and new treatment alternatives using the body’s own immune response. In this eBook, The Science of Cancer, we examine what we know and what we’re finding out about this scourge of humankind. We delve into the molecular basis and complex causes of cancer, the arguments for and against screenings, new and targeted therapies, and minimizing risk. In “How Cancer Arises,” Robert Weinberg presents what has been the central dogma of cancer genetics, which says that a handful of essential mutations in specific genes lead to tumor growth; however, recent discoveries are challenging this theory, as we see in “Untangling the Roots of Cancer” and “Stem Cells: The Real Culprits in Cancer?” Early detection of cancer is important for treatment, but not all screening tests are created equal. In “The Great Prostate Cancer Debate,” Mark Garnick lays out the controversy over the value of the prostate-specific antigen test for prostate cancer and the rationale against screening. With our increasing knowledge of cancer’s causes, exciting targeted therapies are on the rise, including homing in on stem cells, making use of viruses, and manipulating the immune system as we see in “A New Ally against Cancer,” which focuses on treatment with therapeutic vaccines. Does this mean a cure is around the corner? Perhaps not, according to Scientific American Editor Dina Fine Maron in “Can We Truly ‘Cure’ Cancer?” But with remission rates rising for certain types of cancers and with new discoveries opening up further avenues of research, there is reason for optimism.
A Question of Time: The Ultimate Paradox by the Editors of Scientific American "What time is it?" That simple question is probably asked more often in contemporary society than ever before. In our clock-studded world, the answer is never more than a glance away, and so we can blissfully partition our days into ever smaller increments for ever more tightly scheduled tasks. Modern scientific revelations about time, however, make the question endlessly frustrating. If we seek a precise knowledge of the time, the infinitesimal flash of now dissolves into a scattering flock of nanoseconds. Because we are bound by the speed of light and the velocity of nerve impulses, our perception of the "present" reflects the world as it occurred an instant ago – for all that human consciousness pretends otherwise, we can never catch up. Even in principle, perfect synchronicity escapes us. Relativity dictates that, like a strange syrup, time flows slower on moving trains than in the stations and faster in the mountains than in the valleys. The time for our wristwatch is not exactly the same as the time for our head. This eBook, A Question of Time, summarizes what science has discovered about how time permeates and guides both our physical world and our inner selves. That knowledge should enrich the imagination and provide practical advantages to anyone hoping to beat the clock, or at least to stay in step with it. Synchronize your watches...
Fact or Fiction: Science Tackles 58 Popular Myths by the Editors of Scientific American Did NASA really spend millions creating a pen that would write in space? Is chocolate poisonous to dogs? Does stress cause gray hair? These questions are just a sample of the urban lore investigated in this eBook, Fact or Fiction: Science Tackles 58 Popular Myths. Drawing from Scientific American's "Fact or Fiction" and "Strange But True" columns, we've selected 58 of the most surprising, fascinating, useful and just plain wacky topics confronted by our writers over the years. Each brief article uncovers the truth behind everyday mythology, starting with Section One, "In the Animal Kingdom," where we examine some of the more outlandish claims about our fellow earthly inhabitants, such as whether elephants really remember everything and whether a cockroach can live without its head. Other sections cover reproduction, the environment, technology and personal and mental health. While the answers to some questions, such as whether toilets really do flush in the opposite direction south of the Equator, may only serve to raise your Trivial Pursuit knowledge, others, such as whether to pee on a jellyfish sting or wake a sleepwalker, may come in handy. Although this eBook represents a fraction of circulating folk wisdom and urban mythology, we hope that it's an enjoyable fraction and that it encourages you to do some debunking yourself.
Why is the night sky dark? How do dolphins sleep without drowning? Why do hangovers occur? Will time travel ever be a reality? What makes a knuckleball appear to flutter? Why are craters always round? There's only one source to turn to for the answers to the most puzzling and thought-provoking questions about the world of science: Scientific American. Writing in a fun and accessible style, an esteemed team of scientists and educators will lead you on a wild ride from the far reaches of the universe to the natural world right in your own backyard. Along the way, you'll discover solutions to some of life's quirkiest conundrums, such as why cats purr, how frogs survive winter without freezing, why snowflakes are symmetrical, and much more. Even if you haven't picked up a science book since your school days, these tantalizing Q & A's will shed new light on the world around you, inside you, below you, above you, and beyond!
In the world of physics, very little in the universe is what it first appears to be. And science fiction has imagined some pretty wild ideas about how the universe could work – from hidden extra dimensions in Interstellar to life as a mental projection in The Matrix. But these imaginings seem downright tame compared with the mind-bending science now coming out of physics and astronomy, and in this eBook, Physics: New Frontiers, we look at the strange and fascinating discoveries shaping (and reshaping) the field today. In the world of astrophysics, the weirdness begins at the moment of creation. In “The Black Hole at the Beginning of Time,” the authors discuss theories of what might have come before the big bang. Could our 3-D universe have sprung from the formation of a black hole in a 4-D cosmos? The math says: maybe. Later, in “The Giant Bubbles of the Milky Way,” the authors describe massive structures dubbed “Fermi bubbles” at its center – structures that no one noticed until recently. Technological innovations make much of this new science possible, as we see again in “Neutrinos at the Ends of the Earth,” where 5,000-odd sensors frozen deep within a cubic kilometer of ice in Antarctica aim to catch neutrinos in order to study distant cosmic phenomena. Scientists are also dissecting molecules with the most powerful x-ray laser in the world, as explored in “The Ultimate X-ray Machine.” Even our most fundamental notions of what reality is are up for debate, as examined in “Does the Multiverse Really Exist?” and the aptly named “What Is Real?” in which the authors question whether particles are indeed material things at all. While all of this abstraction might seem like a fun exercise in mental gymnastics, living things must also abide by the laws of physics, which, according to “The Limits of Intelligence,” may prevent our brains from evolving further. Then again, as we’ve learned, things could be different than they appear...
The editors of Scientific American’s best-selling eBook, "Fact or Fiction: Science Tackles 58 Popular Myths," return with "Fact or Fiction 2: 50 (More) Popular Myths Explained." In it, we cast an analytical eye on another collection of urban lore and cultural myths that persist so long in our collective consciousness they acquire a ring of truth. Who hasn’t heard the “5-second rule,” which insists that food dropped on the floor is safe to eat if it’s picked up within 5 seconds? How many of us have been told by well-meaning relatives or friends to “feed a cold, starve a fever?” Each article explores whether science can back up these and 48 other long-standing claims on a variety of topics including mind and brain, health and body, food, sustainability and more. In some cases, such as whether a “base tan” protects against sunburn or people swallow eight spiders a year while they sleep, the explanation is relatively brief. Others, including whether diets work or if divorce is bad for children, require a little more digging. Either way, the science behind our mythology is surprising, fascinating and – in the case of nocturnal spider-eating – reassuring.
For going on two decades, Scientific American's "Ask the Experts" column has been answering reader questions on all fields of science. We've taken your questions from the basic to the esoteric and reached out to top scientists, professors and researchers to find out why the sky is blue or whether we really only use 10% of our brains. Now, we've combed through our archives and have compiled some of the most interesting questions (and answers) into a series of eBooks. Organized by subject, each eBook provides short, easily digestible answers to questions on that particular branch of the sciences. The second eBook in our series – Astronomy – looks skyward and explains a variety of universal phenomena and theories. Are you curious about how planets acquire rings or what creates those gorgeous spiral arms around galaxies? Or maybe you want to know why the Big Bang didn't collapse into a black hole. Astrophysicists, professors and scientists tackle questions about stars, planets, asteroids, galaxies and nebulae, the expanding universe as well as the oddities – black holes, wormholes and dark matter. Look inside and find out what we know and what we don't know about these wonders.
It's hard to believe 2012 is coming to a close. Lucky for us, this year has seen some amazing science, and in this eBook, we've compiled Scientific American's best stories of 2012 with an eye on content, authorship and news value. Section One kicks off with the award-winners. This year, Scientific American editors received awards from the National Association of Science Writers, the American Society of Anesthesiologists, the L'Oreal Fellowships for Women in Science Program and the International Fund for Animal Welfare on stories that ranged from the role of propofol in Michael Jackson's death to advocating support to ban research testing on chimpanzees. Subsequent sections focus on those stories that made headlines and captured our imagination – scientists found a Higgs-like particle after decades of research, NASA landed the Curiosity Rover safely on Mars and the Supreme Court upheld the Affordable Care Act. Fracking was also in the media forefront this year, and the bird flu stirred up trouble when scientists created a mutated version that was contagious between ferrets, a potential precursor to human-to-human transmission. The final section is devoted to technology, sports and health – especially relevant as the world watched Oscar "Blade Runner" Pistorius become the first double-leg amputee to participate in the Olympic Games this July. While it's impossible to include everything, we hope you find these stories as fascinating as we do.
The Science of Education: Back to School by the Editors of Scientific American Updated Edition. This eBook has been updated to include content from two special reports on education. Scientific American's popular "Learning in the Digital Age," is included almost in its entirety as the new Section 7 and analyzes the positive and negative effects of the digital revolution on education. In addition, two new articles from Scientific American Mind's report "The Science of Better Learning" are included in Section 2: "For the Love of Math" and "The Science of Handwriting." The first examines the benefits of guided-discovery programs like JUMP in teaching math, and the second discusses research that shows forming words by hand rather than typing may lead to longer-term memories. These and the rest of the articles in this collection explore how learning is a scientific process and offer the latest theories of education. Section 1, "The Lesson Plan," begins with how children learn and includes an eye-opening piece by Scientific American Editor Ingrid Wickelgren on how honing certain psychological skills not only enhances learning but also helps kids fight frustration and ward off stress. Other sections cover teaching the three Rs, the unique requirements of gifted children, controversies of class size, roles of parents and teachers and the imperative to improve science teaching. Individual articles delve into specific issues such as how a focus on intellect over effort can negatively affect potential, the role that errors play in retention, how physical activity boosts academic achievement, the effects of parents versus peer groups on behavior and much more. In this anthology, Scientific American has gathered some of its best reporting on the challenges, successes and the execution of a scientific approach to education. Together, they help construct a path for success for the next generation.
Remember When? The Science of Memory by the Editors of Scientific American We don't often marvel at the process of remembering-that is, until we forget. What allows us to remember, and how do we forget? Most importantly, why do we remember certain things and not others? In this e-book, Remember When? The Science of Memory, we explore what science can tell us about memory, starting with an introductory section defining what memory is, including what makes something memorable and some common misconceptions about memory. A surprising piece by Gary Stix, "You Must Remember This ... Because You Have no Choice," explores why some people can remember what they had for lunch on a Tuesday 20 years ago while others can't. There's also a fascinating Q&A with Eric Kandel, neuroscientist and psychiatrist who won the Nobel Prize for his groundbreaking work on how neurons fire together in order to store memories in the brain. Section 2 delves deeper, analyzing the anatomy of memory, from how memories are saved to how they're transferred from short-term storage in the hippocampus to long-term storage in the cortex. Other sections explore various aspects of memory from its role in learning to the effects of trauma and age. Joe Z. Tsien discusses his technique of genetically tweaking certain receptor proteins on neurons in "Building a Brainier Mouse." In "Erasing Painful Memories," long-time journalist Jerry Adler looks at research into both behavioral therapies and drugs that can help to alter painful or traumatic memories after the fact. Finally, the last section looks at ways to improve your memory. One story links dreaming to improved learning. In another, R. Douglas Fields summarizes the work behind the idea of a "smart pill," based on the relatively recent discovery that a specific protein kinase might boost memory and could be given in pill form to enhance that most mysterious process.
A 24 hour Journal of What's Happening in Your Brain as you Sleep, Dream, Wake Up, Eat, Work, Play, Fight, Love, Worry, Compete, Hope, Make Important Decisions, Age and Change
A 24 hour Journal of What's Happening in Your Brain as you Sleep, Dream, Wake Up, Eat, Work, Play, Fight, Love, Worry, Compete, Hope, Make Important Decisions, Age and Change
Have you ever wondered what’s happening in your brain as you go through a typical day and night? This fascinating book presents an hour-by-hour round-the-clock journal of your brain’s activities. Drawing on the treasure trove of information from Scientific American and Scientific American Mind magazines as well as original material written specifically for this book, Judith Horstman weaves together a compelling description of your brain at work and at play. The Scientific American Day in the Life of Your Brain reveals what’s going on in there while you sleep and dream, how your brain makes memories and forms addictions and why we sometimes make bad decisions. The book also offers intriguing information about your emotional brain, and what’s happening when you’re feeling love, lust, fear and anxiety—and how sex, drugs and rock and roll tickle the same spots. Based on the latest scientific information, the book explores your brain’s remarkable ability to change, how your brain can make new neurons even into old age and why multitasking may be bad for you. Your brain is uniquely yours – but research is showing many of its day-to-day cycles are universal. This book gives you a look inside your brain and some insights into why you may feel and act as you do. The Scientific American Day in the Life of Your Brain is written in the entertaining, informative and easy-to-understand style that fans of Scientific American and Scientific American Mind magazine have come to expect.
Scientific American" celebrates its 150th anniversary with the publication of this collection of essays on the themes of discovery, understanding, technological capability and optimism. The book explores such topics as the birth of the universe, the emergence of life and the future in detail. Contributors include Stephen Weinberg, Carl Sagan, Marvin Minsky and Stephen J. Gould.
How do we define genius? For the Mega Society, it means a one-in-a-million level score on an IQ test, which is why the society only has 27 members. Standardized testing to measure intelligence began in the first half of the 20th century, but a high IQ score is only one way to quantify genius. Another is by virtue of extraordinary achievement and expertise in science and the arts. The second is probably more useful, but these debates illustrate how little we know about the origins, development or processes of intelligence. In this eBook, Eureka! The Science of Genius, we review the latest research on the nature of intellectual and creative achievement, including traits that geniuses tend to share, how much of their ability is nature versus nurture, the cognitive processes involved during the stages of discovery and creativity, and, most importantly, what we can do to enhance intelligence. While genetics have a large role to play, even geniuses have to work to gain the necessary expertise – although they have to spend less time to acquire it than their less endowed counterparts – as Dean Keith Simonton points out in the eBook’s namesake article, “The Science of Genius.” Imaging research also indicates that there is no one “blueprint” for intelligence. In “What Does a Smart Brain Look Like?” Richard J. Haier explains how women and men with the same IQ scores show different patterns of gray and white matter, suggesting that the structural roots of intelligence may differ by gender. Many articles look at either nurturing intelligence in children or enhancing it in adults, and the good news is that intellectual abilities are not set in stone. In fact, one method is surprisingly simple – move. As Christopher Hertzog points out in “Fit Body, Fit Mind?” physical activity is linked to mental acuity and can help slow the cognitive decline that comes with aging. Research is also providing insight into what happens in the brain when we learn, leading to changes in educational practices. In “What Works, What Doesn’t,” psychology professors describe study techniques that accelerate learning—and reveal that the most popular methods are actually a waste of time, and in “Calisthenics for a Child’s Mind,” Ingrid Wickelgren reports on brain-training exercises that show promise in classrooms. Carol S. Dweck advocates the importance of a “growth mind-set” that focuses on effort and effective strategies rather than innate intelligence in her article “The Secret to Raising Smart Kids.” This approach emphasizes hard work and love of the challenge of learning, an approach that could benefit everyone, regardless of IQ score.
Doing the Right Thing: Ethics in Science by the Editors of Scientific American Most of us have probably had those discussions, either in a classroom setting or otherwise, where a hypothetical situation is given and you're asked to choose between two or more unsatisfying options. If you follow option A, five people die; if you follow option B, one person dies. What do you do? Option B looks like the lesser of the evils, but then there's a wrinkle. Option B requires you to actively murder the one person to save five. Now what do you do? Making ethical decisions involves more than listening to an inner moral compass, a feeling in the gut of what's right and wrong; and questions of ethics in science are becoming increasingly complex, especially as technology encroaches upon even our most private cellular spaces. In this eBook, Doing the Right Thing: Ethics in Science, we cover a wide range of areas in science and medicine where complicated ethical questions come to bear, beginning with the first section, "Genomics." In "Are Personal Genome Scans Medically Useless," Sally Lehrman examines the value, or lack thereof, in the information obtained from direct-to-consumer genotyping tests, a field that exploded in the '00s. The middle sections are devoted to ethics in research, where informed—and ethically sound—choices are the basis of many scientific studies. Sections 2, 3 and 4 analyze the challenges unique to three areas, respectively: medical, pharmaceutical and basic research. Medical studies often reveal more information than researchers are looking for, and two articles, "The Ethics of Scan and Tell" and "Reporting Unrelated Findings in Study Subjects," examine questions of responsibility toward study subjects. Later, Charles Seife ferrets out doctors' financial ties to pharmaceutical companies in "Is Drug Research Trustworthy?" and Katherine Harmon calculates "The Cost of Misconduct" to the taxpayer. Finally Section 6, "Ethics and the Mind," analyzes the process of how we resolve moral conflicts when we make decisions. The interaction between reasoning and emotion is poorly understood, as seen in both "Anguish and Ethics" and "When Morality Is Hard to Like," but studies show that the emotional and memory regions of the brain are more active when confronted with difficult moral questions. These decisions are usually made after great inner struggle – think again of option B. What would you do?
Why do we do the things we do? The human brain is a marvelous, mysterious piece of evolution that on one hand empowers us to be rational, self-aware and innovative. On the other, the disciplines of psychiatry and psychology are a testament to our attempts to understand the human brain and behavior. Why do we persist in believing opinions despite scientific evidence to the contrary? What exactly is déjà vu? What causes prejudice? For more than a decade, Scientific American MIND’s long-running feature “Ask the Brains” has addressed questions like these from our readers on the quirks and quandaries of human behavior, psychology and neurology. Here in Ask the Brains, Part 1, we’ve compiled 55 of the best and most interesting inquiries on the form and structure of the brain, intelligence, learning, memory and more and have enlisted professors, instructors and other experts to provide answers that are accurate, understandable and just plain fascinating.
A unique A-to-Z reference of brilliance in innovation and invention Combining engagingly written, well-researched history with the respected imprimatur of Scientific American magazine, this authoritative, accessible reference provides a wide-ranging overview of the inventions, technological advances, and discoveries that have transformed human society throughout our history. More than 400 entertaining entries explain the details and significance of such varied breakthroughs as the development of agriculture, the "invention" of algebra, and the birth of the computer. Special chronological sections divide the entries, providing a unique focus on the intersection of science and technology from early human history to the present. In addition, each section is supplemented by primary source sidebars, which feature excerpts from scientists' diaries, contemporary accounts of new inventions, and various "In Their Own Words" sources. Comprehensive and thoroughly readable, Scientific American Inventions and Discoveries is an indispensable resource for anyone fascinated by the history of science and technology. Topics include: aerosol spray * algebra * Archimedes' Principle * barbed wire * canned food * carburetor * circulation of blood * condom * encryption machine * fork * fuel cell * latitude * music synthesizer * positron * radar * steel * television * traffic lights * Heisenberg's uncertainty principle
The human mind is capable of amazing and often baffling things. Baseball fans remember the cautionary tale of Steve Blass, the All-Star pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates whose career was undone prematurely when he couldn’t resolve a case of “the yips,” or the tendency to choke under pressure. Though the example is extreme, Blass isn’t alone. From irrational phobias to a midlife crisis, we've all experienced moments of utter confusion about the nature of our own behavior, emotions or perception of reality. Many women report a decline in memory and attention during pregnancy, but does “pregnancy brain” really exist? What causes the physical chest pain experienced with emotional heartbreak? In Part 2 of Ask the Brains, we’ve gathered 62 of the most interesting reader questions from Scientific American MIND’s popular Q&A column. In this eBook, neurologists and other scientists share what they know about how the mind works, including some of these baffling psychological experiences.
Eat, Move, Think: Living Healthy by the Editors of Scientific American While many of us strive to live healthy lives, the task can be daunting and the information overwhelming. Should we be more concerned with our diet or with keeping our weight down? How important is exercise? What kinds of diseases should we really be worried about getting—or preventing? In this eBook, "Eat, Move, Think: Living Healthy," we've assembled a number of stories on what we think sums up a healthy lifestyle, as well as some of the common obstacles faced in trying to achieve it. Some would argue that diet is the cornerstone of healthy living. To that end the first section, "Diet for Health," opens with a story by nutritionist Marion Nestle, who sums up what it means to eat right in "Eating Made Simple." Subsequent sections look at the efficacy of vitamins and supplements, the benefits of exercise and the importance of coping with mental stress. Because obesity cannot be ignored—it is increasing at epidemic rates worldwide—Section 3 covers "The Obesity Epidemic." While lifestyle can be a component of many diseases, including cancer and heart disease, we chose to include a section on diabetes because, like obesity, it too is increasing rapidly. The key to living healthfully is making informed choices, whether those involve the food you eat, where to live, your ideal weight or how to stave off depression. Armed with the right knowledge, everyone can live a healthier life—and that means a happier life.
The fundamental outlines of the physical world, from its tiniest particles to massive galaxy clusters, have been apparent for decades. Does this mean physicists are about to tie it all up into a neat package? Not at all. Just when you think you’re figuring it out, the universe begins to look its strangest. This eBook, “Ultimate Physics: From Quarks to the Cosmos,” illustrates clearly how answers often lead to more questions and open up new paths to insight. We open with “The Higgs at Last,” which looks behind the scenes of one of the most anticipated discoveries in physics and examines how this “Higgs-like” particle both confirmed and confounded expectations. In “The Inner Life of Quarks,” author Don Lincoln discusses evidence that quarks and leptons may not be the smallest building blocks of matter. Section Two switches from the smallest to the largest of scales, and in “Origin of the Universe,” Michael Turner analyzes a number of speculative scenarios about how it all began. Another two articles examine the mystery of dark energy and some doubts as to whether it exists at all. In the last section, we look at one of the most compelling problems in physics: how to tie together the very small and the very large – quantum mechanics and general relativity. In one article, Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow argue that a so-called “theory of everything” may be out of reach, and in another, David Deutsch and Artur Ekert question the view that quantum mechanics imposes limits on knowledge, arguing instead that the theory has an intricacy that allows for new, practical technologies, including powerful computers that can reach their true potential.
How Neuroscience, Brain-Machine Interfaces, Neuroimaging, Psychopharmacology, Epigenetics, the Internet, and Our Own Minds are Stimulating and Enhancing the Future of Mental Power
How Neuroscience, Brain-Machine Interfaces, Neuroimaging, Psychopharmacology, Epigenetics, the Internet, and Our Own Minds are Stimulating and Enhancing the Future of Mental Power
This fascinating and highly accessible book presents fantastic but totally feasible projections of what your brain may be capable of in the near future. It shows how scientific breakthroughs and amazing research are turning science fiction into science fact. In this brave new book, you'll explore: How partnerships between biological sciences and technology are helping the deaf hear, the blind see, and the paralyzed communicate. How our brains can repair and improve themselves, erase traumatic memories How we can stay mentally alert longer—and how we may be able to halt or even reverse Alzheimers How we can control technology with brain waves, including prosthetic devices, machinery, computers—and even spaceships or clones. Insights into how science may cure fatal diseases, and improve our intellectual and physical productivity Judith Horstman presents a highly informative and entertaining look at the future of your brain, based on articles from Scientific American and Scientific American Mind magazines, and the work of today’s visionary neuroscientists.
Free when packaged with any Worth text. This special collector's edition features articles that reveal the mysterious inner workings of mind and brain.
Becoming Human: Our Past, Present and Future by the Editors of Scientific American We humans are a strange bunch. We have self-awareness and yet often act on impulses that remain hidden. We were forged in adversity but live in a world of plenty. How did we get here? What is to become of us? To these age-old questions, science has in recent years brought powerful tools and reams of data, and in this eBook, Becoming Human: Our Past, Present and Future, we look at what these data have to tell us about who we are. We know, for instance, that three million years ago, a group of primates known as the australopithecines was walking capably on two legs—the better to navigate the African savanna—and yet still had long arms suited to life in the trees. In Section One, "Becoming Us," we search for how and why this and other transitions occurred. In "Lucy's Baby," author Kate Wong discusses what the oldest juvenile skeleton tells us about how early humans walked the Earth. Another article, "The Naked Truth," examines why humans lost their hair and how hairlessness was a key factor in developing other human traits. Section Two covers "The Secrets of our Success," and we see that human evolution and culture are often related. In "The Evolution of Grandparents," Rachel Caspari shows us that as humans started to live longer, grandparents played a role in family life, which in turn made possible more complex social behaviors. In Section Three, "Migration and Colonization," we look at how scientists are studying the minuscule bits of DNA that differ from one individual to another for clues to our origins and settlements. "The First Americans" illustrates the findings that have pushed back the date at which hunter-gatherers colonized the Americas. And in Section Four, "Vanished Humans," the discovery of "hobbits"—a human species of small stature—has turned the science of human origins on its ear. Where is evolution taking us? We present two points of view in Section Five, "Our Continuing Evolution." In "How We Are Evolving," Jonathan K. Pritchard argues that selection pressure typically acts over tens of thousands of years, which means we probably won't evolve much anytime soon. But stasis is only one possible future, says Peter Ward in "What May Become of Us." In adapting to new environments—say, a colony on Mars—our human species may eventually diverge into two or more. Or we could go the cyborg route and merge with machines. Whichever option you prefer, there is plenty to ponder.
The complex story of human evolution is a tale seven million years in the making. Each new discovery adds to or revises our story and our understanding of how we came to be the way we are. In this eBook, The Human Odyssey, we explore the evolution of those characteristics that make us human. The first section, “Where We Came From,” looks at our family tree and why some branches survived and not others. Swings in climate are emerging as a factor in what traits succeeded and failed, as we see in “Climate Shocks;” meanwhile in “Human Hybrids,” DNA analyses show that Homo sapiens interbred with other human species, which played a key role in our survival. Section Two, “What Makes Us Special,” examines those traits that separate us from other primates. Recent data indicate that our hairless skin was important to the rise of other human features, and other research is getting closer to illuminating how humans became monogamous, as shown in “The Naked Truth” and “Powers of Two,” respectively. In the final section, “Where We Are Going,” we speculate on the future of human evolution in a world where advances in technology, medicine and other areas protect us from harmful factors like disease, causing some scientists to claim that humans are no longer subject to natural selection and our evolution has ceased. Far from that, in “Still Evolving,” author John Hawks discusses how humans have evolved rapidly over the past 30,000 years, as seen in relatively recent traits like blue eyes or lactose tolerance, why such rapid evolution has been possible and what future generations might look like. Like us, our story will continue to evolve.
Lights Out: How It All Ends by the editors of Scientific American Traditionally, the four horsemen of the apocalypse are war, famine, plague and death; but while classical authors were familiar with only four horsemen, modern ones could add events such as environmental devastation and nearby supernovas. In this eBook we look at several "end of the world" scenarios – or at least, things that could make human life really difficult. Each section discusses a different horseman, from plague, famine and war to cosmic events, extreme weather and environmental collapse. Some are apocalyptic, others less so, but they show that even if one doesn't take the Book of Revelation or the supposed Mayan prophecy as a template, thinking about our own end is fascinating – and sobering. Some endings only affect humans – mass starvation for us isn't likely to bother rats – whereas others eliminate all life on Earth. The good news is that the ability to map out the end also grants us the power to avert it, at least in some cases. Included in this book is a seminal piece outlining the possibility of "nuclear winter." Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev has stated that such studies were a major impetus for him to seek to reduce tensions with the United States. As a species we've tackled ozone depletion, and there's no reason other environmental problems can't be dealt with as well. The question was never technical ability, only political will. So while much of this book might seem a gloomy exercise, there's an optimistic side too: we may not endure eternally, but stupidity or hubris doesn't have to end our world prematurely.
Give your students the best of both worlds-the most current, interesting applications in cell biology, genetics, and molecular biology paired with the authority, reliability, and clarity of Benjamin Cummings' texts. This exclusive special supplement from Scientific American is available at no additional cost when packaged with select Benjamin Cummings titles. Each article was carefully chosen to match the level of your course, and to capture some of the most exciting developments in biology today-from gene therapy to a potentially looming influenza pandemic and more. Also included are end of chapter comprehension and discussion questions for both cell biology and genetics.
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