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New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman has a new book out called Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution—and How It Can Renew America. He makes the case that going green isn’t bad for the economy—in fact, it’s the only way for America to remain an economic leader. I interviewed Friedman for the weekly Scientific American podcast (available at www.SciAm.com/podcast). And an abridged Q&A version of that interview can be found here....

Editor’s Note: Paul Anastas, the father of green chemistry, is leaving his high-ranking post at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency next month and returning to Yale University. During an interview with Jane Kay of Environmental Health News, Anastas, who will remain at his post for another month or so, said there has been a “growing realization across EPA” that green chemistry “can meet environmental and economic goals simultaneously.” During his two years as science advisor and assistant administrator at EPA’s Office of Research and Development, Anastas played a key role in many important decisions and issues, including the use of dispersants during the Gulf oil spill and the agency’s long-awaited analysis of dioxin....

LONDON (Reuters)—Scientists have successfully used “reprogrammed” stem cells to restore functioning brain cells in monkeys, raising hopes the technique could be used in future to help patients with Parkinson’s disease. Since Parkinson’s is caused by a lack of dopamine made by brain cells, researchers have long hoped to use stem cells to restore normal production of the neurotransmitter chemical. Now, for the first time, Japanese researchers have shown that human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS) can be administered safely and effectively to treat primates with symptoms of the debilitating disease....

Roughly five million liters of dispersants have now been used to break up the oil spilling into the Gulf of Mexico, making this the largest use of such chemicals in U.S. history. If it continues for 10 months, as long as Mexico’s Ixtoc 1 blowout in 1979 in the same region, the Macondo well disaster has a good chance of achieving the largest global use of these chemicals, surpassing 10 million liters....

Six Italian scientists and a government official have been sentenced to six years in prison over statements they made prior to a 2009 earthquake that killed 309 in the town of L’Aquila. A year-long trial came to a close today (Oct. 22) with the verdict, which alarmed earth scientists worldwide. “I hope the Italians realize how backwards they are in this L’Aquila trial and its verdict,” Erik Klemetti, an assistant professor of geosciences at Denison University in Ohio, wrote on Twitter, adding that the verdict was a “terrible precedent....

WASHINGTON, D.C.—A private spaceflight company that has been operating in secret for two years announced yesterday an ambitious plan to launch manned missions to the moon. The company, named Golden Spike after the ceremonial railway spike that marked the completion of the first transcontinental railway, would send two-person crews to the lunar surface and back at a cost of $750 million per passenger. If the plan comes to fruition, the first astronauts to step out of a Golden Spike lander could be the first human beings to set foot on the moon since the final Apollo mission in 1972....

Drugs traditionally used to treat depression are also effective in easing widespread pain, sleep disturbances and dismal moods associated with fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS), according to a large-scale analysis published today in JAMA The Journal of the American Medical Association. The study confirms earlier research about the meds’ effect on symptoms associated with this mysterious disease. Fibromyalgia, an often overlooked disorder believed to cause widespread muscle pain, sleep disturbances, depression and fatigue, affects up to 12 million people (4 percent of the U....

Just after 6 AM local time on Tuesday in Japan, a sound like an explosion was heard near the suppression pool of reactor No. 2 at the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. This followed an explosion March 11 that ripped the roof off reactor No. 1 and another at reactor No. 3 on March 14 that injured 11 workers. The culprit in all three cases is likely a build-up of explosive hydrogen gas—as occurred at Three Mile Island in the U....

The danger to whales and other large marine mammals from oceangoing vessels’ propellers and bows has long been recognized. And efforts are in place to track and curb such ship strikes. But a new study published in Frontiers in Marine Science finds that ships are also hitting large numbers of smaller marine animals—which are suffering severe injuries or dying at higher rates than previously thought. The researchers sifted through necropsy results, eyewitness reports, and other anecdotal data from around the world and found that ships and smaller craft hit at least 75 species—including dolphins, sharks, sea otters, seals, penguins and sea turtles....

About three years ago Eva Salem got into some trouble with a crocodile. It snapped her hand in its jaws. In a panic, she managed to knock out the crocodile and free herself. Then, she woke up. “I imagine that’s what it’s like when you’re on heroin. That’s what my dreams were like—vivid, crazy and active,” she says. Salem, a new mother, had been breast-feeding her daughter for five months before the croc-attack dream, living on four hours of sleep a night....

Key concepts Human biology Taste Taste buds Introduction Have you ever noticed that some people are a lot pickier about the food they eat than other people are? They might be more selective because they are supertasters! To supertasters, the flavors of foods are much stronger than to average tasters. Whether or not someone is a supertaster comes down to the taste buds on his or her tongue, and you can actually investigate a person’s supertaster status by looking at this....

In 1998 Elizabeth “Liddy” Dole, wife of former U.S. senator and presidential candidate Bob Dole, fielded an unusual question during a news conference. Her husband had just told the world on Larry King Live that he was in clinical trials for a new erectile dysfunction pill known as Viagra, calling it a “great drug.” The next day, a reporter asked Liddy Dole, then president of the American Red Cross, what advice she had about the pill....

Early in his new book, Everything Is Obvious: *Once You Know the Answer (Crown Business, 2011), Duncan Watts tells a story about the late sociologist Paul Lazarsfeld, who once described an intriguing research result: Soldiers from a rural background were happier during World War II than their urban comrades. Lazarsfeld imagined that on reflection people would find the result so self-evident that it didn’t merit an elaborate study, because everyone knew that rural men were more used to grueling labor and harsh living standards....

Robert Burton is the former chief of neurology at the University of California at San Francisco-Mt. Zion hospital. He recently wrote a book, On Being Certain, that explored the neuroscience behind the feeling of certainty, or why we are so convinced we’re right even when we’re wrong. He and Jonah Lehrer, the editor of Mind Matters, discussed the science of certainty. LEHRER: What first got you interested in studying the mental state of certainty?...

Leonardo da Vinci: Experience, Experiment and Design by Martin Kemp Princeton University Press, 2006 Seen/Unseen: Art, Science, and Intuition from Leonardo to the Hubble Telescope by Martin Kemp Oxford University Press, 2006 Published almost simultaneously, these very different books present a double view of Martin Kemp’s original and often brilliant approach to the connection between science and art. Leonardo focuses on a single genius; Seen/Unseen pulls back the lens to investigate the nature of creativity thematically, using profiles of extraordinary artists/scientists over a span of 500 years....

The realm of sleep and dreams has long been associated with strangeness: omens or symbols, unconscious impulses and fears. But this sometimes disturbing world of inner turmoil, fears and desires is grounded in our day-to-day experience, sleep researchers say. “The structure and content of thinking looks very much like the structure and content of dreaming. They may be the product of the same machine,” said Matthew Wilson, a neuroscientist at MIT and a panelist at the New York Academy of Sciences discussion “The Strange Science of Sleep and Dreams” on Friday (Nov....

By 2050 vast photovoltaic arrays in the Southwest would supply electricity instead of fossil-fueled power plants and would also power a widespread conversion to plug-in electric vehicles. Excess energy would be stored as compressed air in underground caverns. Large arrays that concentrate sunlight to heat water would also supply electricity. A new high-voltage, direct-current transmission backbone would carry power to regional markets nationwide. The technologies and factors critical to their success are summarized at the right, along with the extent to which the technologies must be deployed by 2050....

Despite their endearing trained performances for human audiences, killer whales (Orcinus orca) in captivity have been known to live up to their moniker. The SeaWorld trainer who was pulled into a tank and drowned by a 5,400-kilogram bull orca Wednesday in Orlando, Fla., was the latest in a string of incidents in the past two decades involving cetaceans that have harmed or killed a person. But with more than 40 killer whales currently in captivity across the globe, the number of serious incidents might be considered low....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. The Brihadishvara Temple, ThanjavurJean-Pierre Dalbera (CC BY) Adisthana - the decorative raised platform on which a temple is built. Figure en toilette, KhajurahoAnindita Basu (CC BY-NC-SA) Alasa kanya - a decorative female figure. Muktesvara Temple, BhubaneshwarAmartyabag (CC BY-SA) Amalaka - a large fluted stone disc placed on top of a Nagara tower taking its form from the amla or myrobalan fruit native to India....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. For the ancient Egyptians life was a celebration, and so, just as one would want to look one’s best at any party, personal hygiene was an important cultural value. The Egyptians bathed daily, shaved their heads to prevent lice or other problems, and regularly used cosmetics, perfumes, and breath mints....