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By Andrew R.C. Marshall and Manuel MogatoTACLOBAN, Philippines (Reuters) - The United States is sending an aircraft carrier to the Philippines to help speed up relief efforts after a typhoon killed an estimated 10,000 people in one city alone, with fears the toll could rise sharply as rescuers reach more devastated towns.The USS George Washington aircraft carrier should arrive in 48 to 72 hours, the Pentagon said, confirming a Reuters report....

The nation’s first mandatory attempt to cut back on greenhouse gas emissions is now a fact—and it will show up in a driveway near you in 2012. The new policy, aimed at combating climate change, will curb the greenhouse gases spewing from car and truck tailpipes. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Department of Transportation (DoT) released rules that set limits on the amount of greenhouse gas emissions allowed and accelerate an increase in overall fuel efficiency to 14....

Peter Nalin, associate professor of clinical family medicine and director of the family practice residency program at Indiana University, explains. Fever is an elevated temperature of the human body that is substantially beyond the normal range. Normal body temperature fluctuates daily from about one degree below 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit to one degree above that number. Lower body temperatures usually occur before dawn; higher temperatures in the afternoon. Body temperature also varies slightly depending on where on the human body it is measured....

My PhD supervisor, a brilliant and inspiring man, used to jokingly tell me that he had passed his prime and that it was up to me to make the Nobel-prize winning discovery for our group. After all, Albert Einstein was just 26-years-old when he wrote his paper on Special Relativity. But are we really at our smartest in our 20s? What about the wisdom and experience that come with age? At what age do we strike the right balance between cognitive ability and expertise?...

We all probably know someone who is intelligent but does surprisingly stupid things. My family delights in pointing out times when I (a professor) make really dumb mistakes. What does it mean to be smart or intelligent? Our everyday use of the term is meant to describe someone who is knowledgeable and makes wise decisions, but this definition is at odds with how intelligence is traditionally measured. The most widely known measure of intelligence is the intelligence quotient, more commonly known as the IQ test, which includes visuospatial puzzles, math problems, pattern recognition, vocabulary questions and visual searches....

What do a chilly reception, a cold-blooded murder, and an icy stare have in common? Each plumbs the bulb of what could be called your social thermometer, exposing our reflexive tendency to conflate social judgments—estimations of another’s trust and intent — with the perception of temperature. Decades of fascinating cross-disciplinary studies have illuminated the surprising speed, pervasiveness and neurobiology of this unconscious mingling of the personal and the thermal. The blurring of ‘heat’ and ‘greet’ is highlighted in a recent experiment by Ohio University’s Matthew Vess, who asked whether this tendency is influenced by an individual’s sensitivity to relational distress....

Even with all of the water in Earth’s oceans, we satisfy less than half a percent of human water needs with desalinated water.* We currently use on the order of 960 cubic miles (4,000 cubic kilometers) of freshwater a year, and overall there’s enough water to go around. There is increasing regional scarcity, though. So why don’t we desalinate more to alleviate shortages and growing water conflicts? The problem is that the desalination of water requires a lot of energy....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. It is said that Chester is the richest city in Britain in terms of archaeological and architectural treasures. One of the finest strategic outposts of the Roman Empire, it is one of the few walled cities left in Britain today. Rachael Lindsay takes us on a personal tour of her home town....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. The ancient Egyptians experienced the same wide array of disease that people do in the present day, but unlike most people in the modern era, they attributed the experience to supernatural causes. The common cold, for example, was prevalent, but one’s symptoms would not have been treated with medicine and bed rest, or not these alone, but with magical spells and incantations....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. The Story Begins from a Dead End August 25, 2015 was a very hot day of summer but its omen was a very promising one! That day, I was with my friend, Mr. Hashim Hama Abdulla, director of the Sulaymaniyah Museum in Iraq, walking in the main hall of the Museum....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. Scythian women garnered leadership roles and a raised level of status in their day, which is perhaps without parallel until recent times. While many female figures rose to pivotal roles in history, their rise was not a reflection of systemic opportunity. Historically, women often led segregated, labor-filled lives, but for Scythian women, the historical and archaeological record indicates something different....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. The imposing archaeological site of Delphi sits over 1800 feet up on the south-western spur of Mount Parnassus, about 6 miles inland from the Corinthian Gulf, central Greece. The ancient temple complex of Delphi, which dates back at least 2700 years, was known throughout ancient Greece and beyond as the home of the celebrated oracle of Apollo, the Greek god of prophecy, music, healing, and light....

When asked about her childhood in the film Alive Inside, a 90-year-old woman with dementia replies, “I’ve forgotten so much, I’m very sorry.” Filmmaker Michael Rossato-Bennett then plays music from her past for her. “That’s Louis Armstrong,” she says, “He’s singing ‘When the Saints Go Marching By’ and it takes me back to my school days.” She then proceeds to recall precise details from her life: that her mother told her not to listen to Louis Armstrong, the date of her birthday, that she worked at Fort Jackson during wartime, and much more....

How did the big bang shape the structure of the universe? What would happen to reality if we tweaked the fundamental forces? Why is gravity just so strange? In our new three-part video miniseries, Scientific American contributors Jared Kaplan and Emily V. Driscoll ponder these weighty existential issues with you through the lens of beautifully rendered explanatory animations created by artist Lottie Kingslake. Think of it as your cosmic therapy session for our on-edge times....

Every year in Lindau, Germany, winners of Nobel Prizes join young researchers for panel discussions, presentations and informal conversation. This year, from June 26 to July 1, about 20 Nobel laureates in physiology or medicine and 550 rising science stars chosen from more than 60 countries are participating. To commemorate the event, Scientific American has selected excerpts from some of its most memorable articles authored by laureates in the biological sciences....

Dear EarthTalk: Has recycling lived up to its promise to reduce waste and pollution, save energy and provide jobs in our ailing economy?—Ian Atkinson, New York City Americans still don’t recycle as much as they could. Nonetheless, the practice is already considered a huge success given that it keeps about a third of the solid waste we generate out of our quickly filling landfills and saves natural resources while generating much-needed revenue for struggling municipal governments....

Within a few years quantum computers could catch up to or even outperform classical computers thanks to significant work on hardware and the algorithms to run on it. Quantum computers exploit quantum mechanics to perform calculations. Their basic unit of computation, the qubit, is analogous to the standard bit (zero or one), but it is in a quantum superposition between two computational quantum states: it can be a zero and a one at the same time....

Bacteria may soon be muscling in on new kinds of manufacturing. Researchers have developed a technique that uses the common bacterium Escherichia coli to synthetically produce a muscle protein called titin, which could someday build tough and pliable fibers. Uses could range from medical sutures to impact-resistant or biodegradable fabrics. The titin is dozens of times larger than most molecules that have been produced in a laboratory, the researchers say. Because E....

More than 80,000 chemicals are produced, used and present in the United States. These are some of their stories. Preserved food sure is convenient, but is there a health cost? A Stroll Down the Aisle of a Typical Convenience Store Convenience is a big part of our modern lifestyle, and that is not less true when it comes to food and drink. Wechoose disposable bottles over refillable ones. Our grocery stores (and especially our so-called convenience stores) are filled with foods designed to have long shelf lives so that they stay “fresh” on both the stores’ shelves and our own until we get around to consuming them....

By Heidi LedfordBrain imaging has allowed a man who was previously considered unconscious to answer a series of yes-or-no questions. The study, published this week in the New England Journal of Medicine, challenges clinicians’ definition of consciousness and provides an unprecedented opportunity to communicate with those who show no outward signs of awareness.Patients are classified as unconscious, or being in a “vegetative state,” if they are unable to respond in any fashion to an extensive series of questions and requests....