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Humanity has done little to address climate change. Global emissions of carbon dioxide reached (another) all-time peak in 2010. The most recent international talks to craft a global treaty to address the problem pushed off major action until 2020. Fortunately, there’s an alternative—curbing the other greenhouse gases. Specifically, in the case of rapid action to slow catastrophic climate change, the best alternatives appear to be: methane and black carbon (otherwise known as soot)....

From Nature magazine Clocks around the world are routinely adjusted to keep them ticking in synchrony with the rising and setting of the Sun – but is that effort just a waste of time? That was the issue under debate this week by the World Radiocommunication Assembly of the International Telecommunication Union in Geneva, Switzerland. Delegates from about 150 countries discussed whether to stop adding a second — called a leap second — to calendars every year or so, a practice that keeps atomic clocks in step with Earth’s rotation and the position of the Sun in the sky....

Two American banks announced plans yesterday to become carbon neutral and power their branches and offices entirely with renewable energy in the next few years. Bank of America Corp. said it would reach that goal by 2020, while Amalgamated Bank, a New York company that calls itself the nation’s “leading progressive bank,” said it would achieve that target in 2017. The banks made their pledges on renewable energy as part of a campaign called RE100, an effort organized by environmental advocacy groups to get leading companies to commit to shrinking their carbon footprints....

Rinsing with menthol-flavored mouthwash causes a tingly, cooling sensation because the compound triggers a cold-sensitive ion channel in sensory neurons. Now scientists have found a compound that is even more chilling. Isolated from nutmeg, the chemical is the most potent activator of the cooling channel yet found in nature (ACS Med. Chem. Lett. 2017, DOI: 10.1021/acsmedchemlett.7b00104). l-Menthol, which comes from mint, is the king of naturally derived cooling compounds and is added to products such as cough drops and cosmetics....

Researchers have invented a real-life Transformer, a device that can fold itself into two shapes on command. The system is hardly ready to do battle with the Decepticons—the tiny contraption forms only relatively crude boat and airplane shapes—but the concept could one day produce chameleonlike objects that shift between any number of practical shapes at will. Self-folding sheets are just one facet of programmable matter. “Instead of programming bits and bytes, you program mechanical properties of the object,” says Daniela Rus, a roboticist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology....

Competitive athletes are always seeking ways to improve their performance. The results of a new study indicate that they need only look in their closets. A paper published today in Nature suggests that athletes wearing red uniforms experience a slight advantage over those decked out in other colors. Russell A. Hill and Robert A. Barton of the University of Durham analyzed the outcomes of four sporting events in the 2004 Summer Olympic Games: boxing, tae kwon do, Greco-Roman wrestling and freestyle wrestling....

Litspam was only the beginning, to be followed by splogs, content farms and more. Enter the spam underworld for a second day. A table of contents guides you through the chapter—and, if you missed it, go back and read Part One of this captivating book excerpt. TABLE OF CONTENTS Filtering: Scientists and Hackers [Excerpt, Part 1] Part 1 of the Spam book excerpt series Inventing Litspam Fooling spam filters by including neutral words lifted from works of great literature The New Suckers Weaknesses in filtering and in spam attacks persist....

If the prospect of an ever-expanding universe that eventually stretches into a vast emptiness isn’t depressing enough, there’s this: the universe may have cracks in it. Cracks, called cosmic strings, are topological defects in spacetime that might have formed when the universe was young. Experiments haven’t found any proof that cosmic strings are even out there, but that hasn’t stopped physicists from calculating how many strings we might expect there to be if, in fact, they turn out to exist after all....

A millennium ago a physicist under house arrest rewrote the scientific understanding of optics—the study of the behavior and properties of light. In a book that has been compared in its revolutionary effect with Newton’s Principia more than 700 years later, a Muslim scientist in Cairo—Abu Ali al-Hasan ibn al-Hasan ibn al-Haytham (or as he is known in the West, Alhazen)—proved that light traveled in straight lines via various experiments that employed mirrors and refraction....

Scientific American presents Math Dude by Quick & Dirty Tips. Scientific American and Quick & Dirty Tips are both Macmillan companies. After our 3 frequently asked questions about math puzzles episode last week, math fan Cynthia wrote to tell me about one of her favorite puzzles. As luck would have it, Cynthia’s puzzle is based upon one of the same ideas that—as we’ll soon find out—makes our as-yet-unexplained third-and-final puzzle from last time tick....

At the beginning of 2021, President Joe Biden exclaimed that “science is back” as we continued our efforts to address the COVID emergency. That phrase continues to ring true across the federal government. Science and its applications are being used at every agency—to address public health challenges, build new transportation infrastructure, inform policy decisions and tackle the climate crisis. At the Department of the Interior, using the best available science isn’t just critical, it is a necessity for everything we do....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. Located at the southern tip of the Istrian peninsula, Croatia’s westernmost outcrop, Pula is a town of extraordinary beauty with a 3000-year history. This important Istrian port boasts a rich and varied cultural heritage and has some of the best-preserved Roman monuments in Croatia, including the impressive Roman amphitheatre, the Pula Arena, which dominates the city’s landscape....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. The Hellenistic World (from the Greek word Hellas for Greece) is the known world after the conquests of Alexander the Great and corresponds roughly with the Hellenistic Period of ancient Greece, from 323 BCE (Alexander’s death) to the annexation of Greece by Rome in 146 BCE. Although Rome’s rule ended Greek independence and autonomy it did nothing to significantly change nor did it in any way halt the Hellenization of the world of the day; in fact, it encouraged it....

A prcis of environmental news and happenings over the holidays. With the holiday season behind us and 2014 upon us, it’s time to get back into the work groove. And in that spirit, we will continue our practice of providing a rundown of some of the big environmental stories that broke while we were away. This season, climate change and energy appear to be common threads. Cool United States, Warm Globe In the wake of the storm known as Hercules, which mostly lived up to its name, Americans across the Midwest and the Northeast as well as inparts of the South are girding for plunging temperatures expected from a blast of Artic air sent our way courtesy of a polar vortex....

Oxytocin is often thought of as a “love drug,” and is linked with all kinds of feel-good emotions in people such as trust, empathy and generosity. Increasingly, however, scientists are finding that the hormone has a dark side—and now researchers have discovered it also can promote ethnocentrism, potentially fueling xenophobia, prejudice and violence. Past studies have shown that oxytocin fosters social feelings—between mates, for example, or mother and child—which explains why this “cuddle chemical” might be linked with goody-goody behavior such as altruism....

Since they were invented 50 years ago, lasers have become extraordinarily commonplace. Anyone with a few dollars to spare can get themselves a laser pointer, and every CD, DVD or Blu-ray player uses a laser to read the bits encoded on discs. (It goes without saying that the same is true of those old LaserDisc players.) Just about everyone knows how lasers work, at least on the most superficial level—a concentrated beam of light comes out when energy goes in....

My girlfriend, “Emily,” is always telling me I have to read this or watch that. I usually resist. I have my own obsessions to indulge, like quantum mechanics. What’s annoying is that her recommendations, when I grudgingly comply with them, often turn out to be sound. This happened with two of Emily’s recent picks. One is The Social Dilemma, a documentary on Netflix. It sounded boring—another expose of the perils of social media....

We humans have trouble functioning when we are sleep-deprived, but some birds accomplish great migratory feats with little nighttime sleep. They may make up for the sleep they lose flying at night by snoozing—sometimes resting only half their brain for seconds at a time—while perched during the day. Studying these “micro-naps” may yield clues about how to combat human ailments related to sleep deprivation. By examining EEG recordings, scientists recently con­firmed that captive Swainson’s thrushes fall asleep almost immediately and nap for five to 10 seconds during periods of drowsiness....

Imagine if when you tried to learn something new, whether a person’s name or your 15th e-mail password, your brain received an electrical boost. This little jolt of electricity would shock neurons into action and make them pay attention, increasing your likelihood of being able to recall the information when you needed it. This type of implantable neural device is no longer purely science fiction—or an episode of Black Mirror. Scientists have developed an apparatus that will electrically nudge the brain when it seems at risk of forgetting new information....

You’re not supposed to kick a guy when he’s down. Of course, in reality, when he’s down is the perfect time to kick him. He’s closer to your feet, for one thing. But the particular kicking I have in mind should be thought of as tough love. These kicks at the freshly defeated McCain-Palin ticket, as I write in early November, are an attempt to knock some sense back into the group of my fellow Americans who seem determined to ignore or even denigrate valuable scientific research because it’s something outside the realm of Joe the Plumber’s daily activities....