Departments

100 Years Ago: Madame Curie's Research
Innovation and discovery as chronicled in past issues of Scientific American

Limits of Perception
Editor in Chief Mariette DiChristina introduces the March 2010 issue of Scientific American

Readers Respond on "A Path to Sustainable Energy by 2030"
Letters to the editor from the November 2009 issue of Scientific American

Recommended: Amazing Animals... And More
Books and recommendations from Scientific American

• Invasion of the Drones: Unmanned Aircraft Take Off in Polar Exploration
• The Deadliest Catch: A Proposed Trade Ban Could Take Bluefin Tuna off the Menu
• Numbers Wars: School Battles Heat Up Again in the Traditional versus Reform-Math Debate
• Stem Cell Vitamin Boost
• Dark Side of Black Holes: Dark Matter Could Explain the Early Universe's Giant Black Holes
• Carbon Rock Lock: Storing CO₂ on the East Coast
• Easy Flier
• Supersonic Bathtub Physics
• Mutant Cholesterol Fends Off Dementia
• Heavy Brows, High Art

• Breaking the Climate Debate Logjam

• End-of-Days Danger

• Scooting toward Oblivion

• Surviving Death on Larry King Live

• Start Science Sooner

 

Features

The Brain's Dark Energy
Brain regions active when our minds wander may hold a key to understanding neurological disorders and even consciousness itself
By Marcus E. Raichle

The Moon That Would Be a Planet
Titan, Saturn's largest natural satellite, scarcely deserves to be a called a mere moon. It has an atmosphere thicker than Earths and a surface that is almost as varied
By Ralph Lorenz and Christophe Sotin

Fusion's False Dawn
Scientists have long dreamed of harnessing nuclear fusion—the power plant of the stars—for a safe, clean and virtually unlimited energy supply. Even as a historic milestone nears, skeptics question whether a working reactor will ever be possible
By Michael Moyer

Evolution of Minerals
Looking at the mineral kingdom through the lens of deep time leads to a startling conclusion: most mineral species owe their existence to life
By Robert M. Hazen

Toxic Gas, Lifesaver
Hydrogen sulfide, a lethal gas best known for smelling like rotten eggs, turns out to play key roles in the body—a finding that could lead to new treatments for heart attack victims and others
By Rui Wang

Worm Charmers
As Charles Darwin had suspected, earthworms that flee from ground vibrations do so to escape hungry moles—even though sometimes it is humans chasing them
By Kenneth Catania

Climate Change: A Controlled Experiment
Scientists have carefully manipulated grasslands and forests to see how precipitation, carbon dioxide and temperature changes affect the biosphere, allowing them to forecast the future
By Stan D. Wullschleger and Maya Strahl