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Should gun control really be so controversial? “There are people who want to own guns for recreational or self-defense purposes, and on the other side, I don’t think anyone wants to see someone walk into a crowded movie theater and kill people,” said Art Markman, professor of psychology at the University of Texas. The goal is obvious: protect the former while minimizing the chance of the latter. But history seems to have brought us to a point where the two considerations cannot be reconciled....

A species of chameleon small enough to easily perch on a match head has been discovered on a tiny island off Madagascar, a group of scientists has announced. In addition to the discovery of Brookesia micra, now the tiniest chameleon ever discovered, the researchers also announced the discovery of three additional tiny chameleon species. Adult males of the B. micra species grow to only just over a half-inch (16 millimeters) from nose to bottom, making them one of the smallest vertebrates ever found on Earth....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. The Battle of Sobraon on 10 February 1846 was the last of four major victories for the British East India Company (EIC) against the Sikh Empire during the First Anglo-Sikh War (1845-6). Lieutenant-General Sir Hugh Gough (1779-1869) commanded the largest army yet seen in the campaign and, despite heavy losses in attacking the Sikhs’ well-fortified positions, won the battle and with it the war....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. Daily life in the Inca empire was characterised by strong family relationships, agricultural labour, sometimes enforced state or military service for males, and occasional lighter moments of festivities to celebrate important life events in the community and highlights in the agricultural calendar. The Family & Ayllu The family was a fundamental component of Inca society, and strong attachments were made between even distant relations, not just close family....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. The diet of the Mongols was greatly influenced by their nomadic way of life with dairy products and meat from their herds of sheep, goats, oxen, camels, and yaks dominating. Fruit, vegetables, herbs, and wild game were added thanks to foraging and hunting. Once they established their empire, the Mongols came into contact with many new foodstuffs and recipes from across Asia, and these were often integrated into their own diet to create dishes such as roast wolf soup with pepper and saffron....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. Norse cosmology divided the universe into nine realms. The center of the universe was the great world-tree Yggdrasil and the nine realms either spread out from the tree or existed in levels stretching from the roots down and, marginally, side-to-side. Earlier Norse works (known as Eddic and Skaldic poetry) assume a knowledge of the cosmology and do not bother much with descriptions of locations or, in some cases, even specifics of what the realms were like and, because of this – and the fact that Norse religion had no written scripture – some of the realms are less clear than others....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. Phoenician names are generally composite words with a specific meaning. The naming of children had a significance in the Ancient Near East that is difficult to understand nowadays. By choosing a name for their child, the parents could not only celebrate their joy of having created life, but they believed that the naming of the child would greatly influence which divine being would benevolently influence the life of the child....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. The Plague of Athens (429-426 BCE) struck the city, most likely, in 430 BCE before it was recognized as an epidemic and, before it was done, had claimed between 75,000-100,000 lives. Modern-day scholars believe it was most likely an outbreak of smallpox or typhus, but bubonic plague is still considered a possibility....

In the 19th century, French clinician Guillaume-Benjamin-Amand Duchenne posited that humans universally use their facial muscles to make at least 60 discrete expressions, each reflecting one of 60 specific emotions. Charles Darwin, who greeted that number with some skepticism, was invested in exploring the universality of facial expressions as evidence of humanity’s common evolutionary history. He ended up writing a book about human expressions, leaning heavily toward the idea that at least some were common across all cultures....

Ethanol is not the most energy-dense of fuels nor the cheapest. Consequently, Amyris Biotechnologies in Emeryville, Calif., has come up with a potentially better solution. It did so by starting with a long roster of organic compounds from which it chose potential replacements for gasoline, diesel and jet fuel that could be burned in modern engines and would be compatible with the existing petroleum infrastructure. Then the company used custom-designed microbes to produce the new fuels by fermentation from a conventional ethanol feedstock....

How do computer hackers “get inside” a computer? —D. IKAVUKA LA MIRADA, CALIF. Julie J.C.H. Ryan, assistant professor at George Washington University and co-author of Defending Your Digital Assets Against Hackers, Crackers, Spies, and Thieves, explains: Essentially, hackers get inside a computer system by taking advantage of software or hardware weaknesses that exist in every system. Before explaining how they do this, a few definitions are in order. The term “hacker” is fairly controversial: some use this word to describe those whose intrusions into computer systems push the boundaries of knowledge without causing intentional harm, whereas “crackers” want to wreak havoc....

“I don’t like to scare people,” says microbiologist Paul Keim. “But the worst-case scenarios here are just enormous.” Keim, who chairs the US National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB), is reflecting on its unprecedented recommendation to censor two scientific papers describing how to make a more transmissible form of the H5N1 avian flu virus. On December 20, the board said that although the general conclusions could be published, the papers (currently under review at Nature and Science) should not include “the methodological and other details that could enable replication of the experiments by those who would seek to do harm”....

Plants have evolved many direct defenses against herbivores, such as thorns, slippery leaves, lethal toxins and irritating resins. But some plants also employ indirect defenses by releasing chemicals that attract the natural enemies of herbivores. When a caterpillar starts feasting on a tobacco plant, for example, the leaves waft volatile compounds that attract some predatory and parasitoid insects. These predators hunt the caterpillars and their eggs, which benefits the plant by reducing the number of its attackers....

A Republican who has supported abortion rights and said humans “have some effect” on climate change, Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen from New Jersey, is expected to become the new chairman of the House Appropriations Committee in January. He has pledged to work vigorously to fund science, technology and health-related research. The committee controls the purse strings for federal programs in science, health and other areas, and typically allocates funds after the House Budget Committee provides broader spending guidelines each year....

The summer heat is oppressive. Mr. M, seated beside his pool, looks at the cold water. “What could be better than a refreshing dip?” he thinks. He dives headfirst into the water and takes a couple of powerful strokes. Then, suddenly, he stops. He exhales, sinks to the bottom and simply stares straight ahead. “I’m drowning,” he realizes, strangely unperturbed. He knows that a few strong kicks would bring him back to the surface....

“Slow sperm … now that’s a problem,” said Jonathan Havenhand, his British accent compounding the gravity of the message. “That means fewer fertilized eggs, fewer babies and smaller populations.” We were sharing a hilly cab ride along the glistening northern coast of Spain to attend an international symposium about the effects of climate change and excess atmospheric carbon dioxide on the world’s oceans. As researchers, we were concerned about the underappreciated effects of changing ocean chemistry on the cells, tissues and organs of marine species....

Note: This article was published prior to the last total solar eclipse on March 29, 2006. Since the beginnings of astrophotography, countless images of total solar eclipses have been taken at great expense that contain much information about the corona of the sun. What is the best way to salvage this treasure? There are three main reasons why photographing total eclipses of the sun is among the most difficult tasks of astrophotography....

In the fall of 2016 an environmental struggle in rural North Dakota made headlines worldwide. The local Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and climate activists were pitted against the corporate and government backers of the Dakota Access Pipeline, which was being built to carry oil from the state’s Bakken shale fields to a terminal in Illinois. Private security guards unleashed attack dogs on protesters, and the police blasted them with water cannons in freezing weather....

Scientific American presents Math Dude by Quick & Dirty Tips. Scientific American and Quick & Dirty Tips are both Macmillan companies. There are tons of practical, real-world applications of math—building skyscrapers, launching satellites, programming video games and movie special effects, and running banks and stock markets. There are also tons of applications of math that aren’t necessarily as practical, but are just as much—if not even more—fun. So today we’re going to focus on this purely fun side of math and talk about a few number tricks that you can use to amaze your friends....

1966 Health of a Nation “What will be the effects on health of the increasing concentration of the population in cities and large urban aggregations? In spite of such known urban pressures on health as air and water pollution, water shortage, overcrowding, poor housing, the stresses of city transportation and the generally accelerated pace of city life, there is no substantial evidence from the National Health Survey that the overall health of the urban resident is worse than that of the rural resident....