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Michael Bloomberg likes to say that being fired from his high perch at Salomon Brothers in the summer of 1981 was one of the best things that happened to him. Freed from the golden shackles of one of Wall Street’s most iconic investment firms, the future mayor of New York City wasted little time. He used his newfound freedom—and a $10-million payout—to quickly hire three computer programmers and launch the tech and media powerhouse that would eventually make him one of the wealthiest people on the planet....

From Nature magazine An eerie “red crucifix” seen in Britain’s evening sky in ad 774 may be a previously unrecognized supernova explosion — and could explain a mysterious spike in carbon-14 levels in that year’s growth rings in Japanese cedar trees. The link is suggested today in a Nature Correspondence by a US undergraduate student with a broad interdisciplinary background and a curious mind. A few weeks ago, Jonathon Allen, a biochemistry major at the University of California, Santa Cruz, was listening to the Nature podcast when he heard about a team of researchers in Japan who had found an odd spike in carbon-14 levels in tree rings....

Rats, like humans, love sugar. So it comes as no surprise that during two weeks of training for a recent lab experiment, the rodents queued up twice daily for small doses of sugar water. What researchers did not anticipate was the apparent effect of the sweet stuff on their stress levels: when they placed the rats in stressful circumstances at the end of those two weeks, the animals were less agitated than expected....

What scientific and technological milestones can we envision 50, 100 and 150 years hence? Each month we have the luxury of being able to look back into the past, to what people were writing 50, 100 and 150 years ago. We can do this because Scientific American has put its readers at the forefront of science and technology for more than 167 years. To mention just one example, our October 1962 issue featured Francis Crick, co-discoverer of the structure of DNA, explaining the meaning of this wondrous molecule, and psychologist Leon Festinger writing on what he meant by the term “cognitive dissonance....

A first-of-its-kind study by the Federal Emergency Management Agency shows that modern building codes are averting $1 billion a year in structural damage in California and Florida, the nation’s most disaster-prone states, according to preliminary findings. The study could be groundbreaking in the agency’s effort to convince states and localities to adopt up-to-date building codes and to overcome opposition from builders, who have successfully argued in some areas that strengthened codes only increase construction costs....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. Architectural Elements of the ParthenonF.Banister (Public Domain) Abacus - a large slab placed above the column capital to support the architrave or an arch placed above it. AkroterionECeDee (CC BY-SA) Akroterion - a decorative piece added to the roof of a temple at the apex and corners, usually made of clay or bronze and often in the form of a palm or statue, for example of Nike....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. Ghosts (obake or yurei) appear in ancient Japanese folklore and literature, usually in moral tales designed to both warn and entertain but they were also an important element of ancestor worship. If the deceased members of a family were not honoured, they could bring havoc to the daily lives of those who had forgotten them....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus were a pair of tribunes of the plebs from the 2nd century BCE, who sought to introduce land reform and other populist legislation in ancient Rome. They were both members of the Populares, a group of politicians who appealed to the average citizens and that opposed the conservative Optimates in the Roman Senate....

JULY 1955 NEW ELEMENT–“For a few days early this year there was something new under the sun, but not much of it. Chemists at the University of California had made 17 atoms of element 101. The substance, named mendelevium (abbreviated Mv) [now Md] after the father of the periodic table, was produced by bombarding element 99 with energetic alpha particles from a cyclotron. The isotope thereby obtained, the atomic weight of which is 256, decays by spontaneous fission with a half-life somewhere between half an hour and several hours....

Like many people, rats are happy to gorge themselves on tasty, high-fat treats. Bacon, sausage, chocolate and even cheesecake quickly became favorites of laboratory rats that recently were given access to these human indulgences—so much so that the animals came to depend on high quantities to feel good, like drug users who need to up their intake to get high. A new study, published online March 28 in Nature Neuroscience, describes these rats’ indulgent tribulations, adding to research literature on the how excess food intake can trigger changes in the brain, alterations that seem to create a neurochemical dependency in the eater—or user....

In September 2000 the world’s leaders, assembled at the United Nations, adopted the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as shared commitments to fighting extreme poverty, hunger and disease through 2015. Halfway to the target date, there are heartening examples of dramatic progress, such as the 91 percent reduction in measles deaths in Africa and new inroads against malaria. Overall, the gains remain too slow, especially in Africa. Yet specific and accelerated investments in the poor countries can still deliver the MDGs on schedule....

By Jeff Tollefson of Nature magazineWhen US government scientists began sampling the air from a tower north of Denver, Colorado, they expected urban smog–but not strong whiffs of what looked like natural gas. They eventually linked the mysterious pollution to a nearby natural-gas field, and their investigation has now produced the first hard evidence that the cleanest-burning fossil fuel might not be much better than coal when it comes to climate change....

Climate change is disproportionately affecting the poor and minorities in the United States - a “climate gap” that will grow in coming decades unless policymakers intervene, according to a University of California study. Everyone, the researchers say, is already starting to feel the effects of a warming planet, via heat waves, increased air pollution, drought, or more intense storms. But the impacts - on health, economics, and overall quality of life - are far more acute on society’s disadvantaged, the researchers found....

Live Fast, Die Young Living fast is a rock ‘n’ roll clich, and now scientists have quantified that speed. They analyzed the fates of European and North American musicians who became famous between 1956 and 1999, based on the artists’ appearance in a 2000 poll of the all-time top 1,000 albums. The genres covered were rock, punk, rap, R&B, electronica and new age. Although the celebrities studied do not affect overall mortality statistics, the scientists worry that their risky behaviors could negatively influence their millions of fans....

Every seven years, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) publishes three colossal reports about global warming. The second of that set of three, focusing on impacts and adaptation, was just released (ClimateWire, March 31), and on its heels have come calls for the structure of those reports to change. On Friday, David Griggs, a professor and director of the Monash Sustainability Institute at Australia’s Monash University, who has been involved in the last three IPCC reports, was the latest to weigh in with a proposal for reconfiguring the IPCC....

In 2000, Julia Roberts won the Oscar for best actress for portraying a scrappy young lawyer who fought water contamination and corporate greed. Twenty years later, Erin Brockovich—the real woman who inspired the film—is broadening her battle to water pollution around the world. Her efforts now center on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), a group of chemicals linked to cancer and other health effects. “I think these chemicals should be studied before they even get into the marketplace, before they’re ever put into the water system or the public is exposed to them over long periods of time,” Brockovich said in a recent interview....

Sandy Lundahl, a 50-year-old health educator, reported to the behavioral biology research center at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine one spring morning in 2004. She had volunteered to become a subject in one of the first studies of hallucinogenic drugs in the U.S. in more than three decades. She completed questionnaires, chatted with the two monitors who would be with her throughout the eight hours ahead, and settled herself in the comfortable, living-room-like space where the session would take place....

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India officially declared on Monday that nearly 6,000 people were missing a month after flash floods ravaged large parts of its northern state of Uttarakhand, but stopped short of saying they were presumed dead.The figure of 5,748, based on tallies of missing persons from around the country, was the first official estimate following weeks in which the numbers of dead and missing fluctuated wildly from a few hundred to several thousand....

Humans are hardwired to love the sweet, savory and salty foods that provide the energy, protein and electrolytes we need. In an age of mass-produced products laden with sugar and salt, however, our taste proclivities can readily bring on obesity, heart disease and type 2 diabetes—all among society’s biggest health problems. But what if a handful of tiny compounds could fool our brains into eating differently? That is the idea behind the new science of flavor modulation....

BAR HARBOR, Maine – Jane Disney steered her kayak along an edge of Frenchman Bay a mile or so north of here. “Look, there’s a great blue heron,” she said, gesturing toward the shoreline, where the elegant bird perched on a rock. It was a postcard scene in a setting that is increasingly feeling man’s imprint, especially underwater. For generations, Mainers have scoured the depths of this bay for pleasure and profit....