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A couple of times a month—sometimes more, sometimes less—an explosion goes off on the surface of the sun, releasing energy that’s equal to millions of hydrogen bombs. Mind boggling as that number is, this tremendous energy output cannot explain how material that is spit out by these explosions gets ramped up to nearly the speed of light. It’s like expecting a golf cart motor to power a Ferrari. In a new study, researchers provide a first-of-its-kind look under the hood of these solar eruptions, taking specific aim at the physical process that accelerates the superfast particles....

The little girl felt poorly, but both she and her mom thought they knew the reason. Aliyah Davis, just nine years old, was battling COVID. Fatigued, repeatedly sick to her stomach, with no sense of smell or taste and some shortness of breath, she seemed to have a near-textbook case of the virus. Aliyah had a history of asthma, so her mother, Christina Ortiz, took her to the emergency department, where she was told the symptoms were likely COVID-related....

Our bodies are wired to move, and damaged wiring is often impossible to repair. Strokes and spinal cord injuries can quickly disconnect parts of the brain that initiate movement with the nerves and muscles that execute it, and neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson’s disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) draw the process out to the same effect. Scientists have been looking for a way to bypass damaged nerves by directly connecting the brain to an assistive device—like a robotic limb—through brain-computer interface (BCI) technology....

By Eric Hand of Nature magazineCan the time-warping ways of Einstein’s theory of general relativity be measured by the quantum ’ticking’ of an atom? In 2010, researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, claimed in Nature that they had used an inexpensive table-top apparatus to show how gravity had altered a fundamental oscillation of two atoms.But a group of French researchers now say that these atomic oscillations don’t work like clocks at all....

One of my favorite things about New York City is our almost complete lack of earthquakes and hurricanes. Most reviews of the city don’t start with its lack of natural disasters, but I also love spaghetti because it doesn’t have any bones. Of course, New Yorkers do suffer the occasional small tem­blor, but those are indistinguishable from the shaking caused by subways, truck traffic or incredibly powerful bass notes coming from car stereos blocks away....

Moviemakers continue to up the ante in their quest to make film animation as realistic as live action, thanks to improvements in 3-D computer-generated (CG) graphics. These efforts can pay off in big ways—James Cameron’s Avatar earned a mountain of money and three Academy Awards. But, as New Zealand digital effects–maker Weta Digital can attest, painstakingly creating three-meter-tall blue bioluminescent aliens required an unprecedented amount of computing power and data storage—and those resources are likely be dwarfed by subsequent projects....

A Russian rocket crash July 1 was likely caused by an emergency shutdown of the booster’s engines 17 seconds into the flight, according to news reports. The unmanned Russian Proton-M rocket launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstanat 10:38 p.m. EDT (0238 GMT). The crash of the 17-story booster destroyed three onboard navigation satellites, which were worth almost $200 million. Video of the rocket crash from Russian state-run Rossiya-24 television shows the vehicle veering off course shortly after liftoff, and then breaking apart in mid-air and exploding in a fiery blaze once it hit the ground....

The San Francisco Bay Area yesterday became the first region in California to pass regulations governing development in areas prone to sea-level rise. The San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC) voted unanimously to pass a development plan for land within 100 feet of the coastline, giving the agency a tool to deny permits for development in coastal areas susceptible to flooding. Rising seas could put as much as 180,000 acres off-limits by 2050, according to state projections of 16 inches of rise by then....

It is not unusual for conservative politicians in the United States to question the value of social-science research. Studies of anything from global social networks to the history of conservation in South America have proved irresistible to Republicans keen to argue that funding would reap greater rewards elsewhere. But this year, researchers in the field received a sharp shock when those criticisms morphed into tangible restrictions. “What’s different this time is they succeeded,” says Howard Silver, executive director of the Consortium of Social Science Associations....

Editor’s Note: This article is part of a special report on the Top 10 Emerging Technologies of 2016 produced by the World Economic Forum. The list, compiled by the Forum’s Meta-Council on Emerging Technologies, highlights technological advances its members, including Scientific American Editor in Chief Mariette DiChristina, believe have the power to improve lives, transform industries and safeguard the planet. It also provides an opportunity to debate any human, societal, economic or environmental risks and concerns that the technologies may pose prior to widespread adoption....

By Eugenie Samuel Reich of Nature magazineWhen President Barack Obama announced a government-wide effort to protect federal science from political interference, the Department of the Interior (DOI) took an early lead. In 2011, it became the first agency to finalize a new policy on scientific integrity and it has hired ten scientific-integrity officers to work with staff in its various bureaus. But the DOI may also be the first to run into a problem with the way the policies are implemented, as one of those officers claims to have been fired for upholding the guidelines....

Tiny temperature increases in the tropics could have a big impact on cold-blooded insects, lizards and amphibians, according to a new study. Weather records show the tropics have warmed about 0.5 degrees Celsius since 1980, a fraction of the roughly 1.5-degree-Celsius jump recorded in the Arctic. But the authors of the new study – published today in the journal Nature – say the relatively mild warming could have outsized impacts on cold-blooded species that live near the equator....

SINGAPORE—This is a rich island nation, and despite pressures to help combat climate change, it fully intends to stay that way. Standing on the peak of Jurong Hill, looking out across a man-made isle off the mainland bearing the same name, it’s easy to see why. Manufacturing facilities crowd the artificial land mass. Silver-colored storage tanks and giant chimneys painted in red and white indicate its status as one of the top three oil refining centers in the world....

The article below is excerpted from The Universe in the Rearview Mirror: How Hidden Symmetries Shape Reality, by Dave Goldberg. Dutton, 2013. It is generally a bad idea to watch science fiction in the hopes of bolstering your understanding of science. Doing so would give you a very distorted impression of, among other things, how explosions sound in deep space (they don’t), how easy it is to blast past the speed of light (you can’t), and the prevalence of English-speaking, vaguely humanoid, but still sexy, aliens (they’re all married)....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. When we think about ancient Athens, it is almost always about the classical city. We think of such things as its numerous monuments (the Parthenon on the Acropolis for example), beautifying everywhere, the Agora swarming with people doing business, discussing current affairs, and chit-chatting, and its flourishing intellectual, artistic, and literary life, including great philosophers like Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, orators like Pericles and Demosthenes, and festivals that both honored the gods and provided a focal point for people....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. The Mongol Empire accepted and promoted many other cultures. Historians often talk about cultural exchange across Asia in the Mongol Empire as something that was just facilitated by peace and stability across such a huge area – the ‘Pax Mongolica’. However, the Mongols were active agents in this process, trying to use the many cultures of their empire(s) to expand and consolidate their rule....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. Tattoos are an ancient form of art appearing in various cultures throughout history. One of the earliest (and possibly the oldest) pattern of tattoos in the world was discovered on the frozen remains of the man known as Otzi the Iceman who was buried in a glacier on the Austrian-Italian border c....

SEPTEMBER 1960 EVOLUTION OF MAN— “Mutation, sexual recombination and natural selection led to the emergence of Homo sapiens. The creatures that preceded him had already developed the rudiments of tool-using, toolmaking and cultural transmission. But the next evolutionary step was so great as to constitute a difference in kind from those before it. There now appeared an organism whose mastery of technology and of symbolic communication enabled it to create a supraorganic culture....

There is a lot not to envy about the life of the naked mole rat: imagine passing your days in a stuffy, pitch-black system of tunnels two or three metres underground with 100 of your closest relatives. But there is one thing that humans might covet: as far as anyone knows, the animal never gets cancer. Native to the Horn of Africa, this small rodent (Heterocephalus glaber) is neither a mole nor a rat; it is actually more closely related to porcupines and guinea pigs....

California’s landmark system for curbing greenhouse gases can continue through at least 2020, a state court ruled yesterday. The decision by the 3rd District Court of Appeal in Sacramento found that the cap-and-trade program is not an illegal tax as industry groups had contended. It frees the state to continue holding auctions through 2020. Lawmakers, however, still hold the key to the market after the end of the decade. “It’s great for the state,” said Danny Cullenward, a research associate at the Carnegie Institution for Science who has been analyzing the market since its inception....