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Pluto vote ‘hijacked’ in revolt
A fierce backlash has begun against the decision by astronomers to strip Pluto of its status as a planet.

NEW! BLOG: SciAm Observations
Opinions, arguments and analyses from the editors of Scientific American featuring John Rennie, Editor in Chief.

Gyromagnetic ratio of a lone trapped electron is measured to better than a part per trillion
The new measurement subjects quantum electrodynamics to its most stringent test yet. And the theory passes once again, thwarting hopes of a revealing discrepancy.

News: Cold Comfort: Cool Receptors May Ease Chronic Pain

David Biello

Profile: Brothers Chudnovsky
The story of two brilliant mathematicians, a unicorn, and a homemade supercomputer
NOVA scienceNOW

Improving students’ understanding of quantum mechanics
To address the misconceptions that students typically hold concerning quantum mechanics, instructors should couple computer-based visualizations with research-based pedagogical strategies

Dispatch: “Dear Friends and Family”
Ivor Van Heerden, seen in our January broadcast on hurricanes, wrote a stirring letter 10 days into the disaster.
Ivor Van Heerden

Goodbye, bifocals?
An ultrathin liquid crystal layer sandwiched between layers of glass could render bifocals obsolete, say optical scientists at the University of Arizona and Georgia Institute of Technology in a recent paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

A World on Fire: A Heretic, an Aristocrat, and the Race to Discover Oxygen, J. Jackson (reviewed by J. W. Severinghaus)
Review of Joe Jackson’s “A World on Fire: A Heretic, an Aristocrat, and the Race to Discover Oxygen”

Skeptic: Fake, Mistake, Replicate
Economists have a shoot-out over the meaning of "replicate."
Michael Shermer