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Inspired by a YouTube video, scientists in the US have confirmed that a simple bounce test can be used as a technique to indicate charge in a battery. Alkaline AA batteries are one of the most common battery types and there are a range of approaches to assess the charge in these batteries, often entailing electronic indicators. Now, a team led by Daniel Steingart of Princeton University have correlated the coefficient of restitution (COR), a measure of bounce, with batteries at various charges and determined their charge to a similar degree of accuracy as in situ energy-dispersive x-ray diffraction (EDXRD)....

SACRAMENTO – California air regulators approved the world’s first plan yesterday for reducing carbon emissions from transportation fuels after making concessions aimed at placating the biofuels industry and expressing concerns about the rule’s impact on the state’s battered economy. The Air Resources Board’s 9-1 decision is aimed at achieving a 10 percent reduction in motor vehicles’ emissions of greenhouse gases by 2020 and spurring commercial development of low-carbon fuels like hydrogen and cellulosic ethanol....

There has been tremendous concern recently over misinformation on social media. It was a pervasive topic during the 2020 U.S. presidential election, continues to be an issue during the COVID-19 pandemic and plays an important part in Russian propaganda efforts in the war on Ukraine. This concern is plenty justified, as the consequences of believing false information are arguably shaping the future of nations and greatly affecting our individual and collective health....

Magician David Copperfield waved his hand over the envelope, which popped open. He wiggled his fingers, and the card slid upward. A moment later we heard the winner’s name: “Scientific American.” The guests at our tables roared with approval. A group of Scientific American colleagues were at the 2011 National Magazine Awards, the Oscars of publishing. The magazine won for General Excellence in the category of “Finance, Technology and Lifestyle Magazines....

Is Mindfulness Good for Everything? Maybe Not for Learning to Ride a Bike Preliminary data from a new study rattles the consensus view on the benefits of mindfulness My Brain Made Me Pull the Trigger Neuroscience has entered the courtroom in a big way, despite what academic experts believe about the use of brain scans at trial A Blind Person Understands the Way a Sighted Friend “Sees” the World Neuroscientists are exploring how sensory inputs shape subjective mental states...

For more than 2 billion people, safe drinking water isn’t a given. Not for them a clean, reliable supply of treated water splurting out on demand from a kitchen tap—instead, they face often long treks to wells, rivers, pools of rainwater or faucets that yield water laced with disease-transmitting feces and other contaminants. More than 500,000 deaths a year from diarrhea are linked to this very basic lack, and public health officials, philanthropic groups and researchers have worked to move the needle on the problem for decades....

With a deadline looming for approval of a federal plan that would open the Gulf of Mexico to deepwater fish farming, House lawmakers and conservationists are plotting strategies to block such offshore ventures until Congress creates a system to regulate them. Democratic Rep. Gene Taylor (Miss.) introduced legislation last Friday that would prevent the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and regional fishery management councils from permitting offshore aquaculture under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Management Act....

Human ancestors may have begun evolving the knack for consuming alcohol about 10 million years ago, long before modern humans began brewing booze, researchers say. The ability to break down alcohol likely helped human ancestors make the most out of rotting, fermented fruit that fell onto the forest floor, the researchers said. Therefore, knowing when this ability developed could help researchers figure out when these human ancestors began moving to life on the ground, as opposed to mostly in trees, as earlier human ancestors had lived....

Along with his article submission, the scientist included an apologetic note to the editors: “The article is somewhat long and not quite easy to grasp. I should, therefore, not be astonished if you find it unsuited for publication in your magazine.” Despite the author’s concern, the publisher, Gerard Piel, and the editor in chief, Dennis Flanagan, ran the article in Scientific American. They also framed the letter. The author? Albert Einstein....

In 2012, I had my first psychedelic experiences, as a subject in a clinical trial at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine’s Behavioral Pharmacology Research Unit. I was given two doses of psilocybin spaced a month apart to treat my cancer-related depression. During one session, deep within the world the drug evoked, I found myself inside a steel industrial space. Women were bent over long tables, working. I became aware of my animosity towards my two living siblings....

What makes one country better than another in science? It’s not an easy thing to measure. Publishing research papers is a good way to get a bead on basic research, but it doesn’t say much about whether a nation is taking advantage of those good ideas. For this, other metrics come into play. Patents give a clue as to how well a country is exploiting its ideas for commercial gain. What a nation spends on R&D captures not only what universities and government research programs do but also the contribution from industry....

The moon’s poles have shifted over the eons, likely as a result of geological activity beneath the lunar crust, a new study suggests. This finding—which is based on an analysis of the distribution of water ice near the lunar north and south poles—sheds light on the structure and evolution of the moon, and also provides clues about where Earth’s water came from, researchers said. “The ice at the poles of the moon records the interior evolution of the moon, which seems crazy—that is the last place you would think to look,” said study lead author Matt Siegler, of the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Arizona, and Southern Methodist University in Dallas....

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison have found that during meditation, Zen Buddhist monks show an extraordinary synchronization of brain waves known as gamma synchrony—a pattern increasingly associated with robust brain function and the synthesis of activity that we call the mind. Brain waves are produced by the extremely low voltages involved in transmitting messages among neurons. Most conscious activity produces beta waves at 13 to 30 hertz, or cycles per second....

Why do some expectant fathers experience pregnancy symptoms such as vomiting and nausea? —D. Barrera, McAllen, Tex. Katherine E. Wynne-Edwards is a professor of biology at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, who studies hormonal changes in expectant fathers. She answers: MANY FACTORS—from social to hormonal—could play a role when an expectant father experiences typical pregnancy side effects such as nausea, weight gain, mood swings and bloating. The condition is called couvade, from the French verb couver, which means “to hatch” or “to brood....

Editor’s note: This Q&A is a part of a survey conducted by Scientific American of executives at companies engaged in developing and implementing non–fossil fuel energy technologies. What technical obstacles currently most curtail the growth of biofuels? What are the prospects for overcoming them in the near future and the longer-term? For plant oil–based biofuels, such as jatropha, the main obstacle is the lack of research and practice in large-scale commercial cultivation, as well as mechanized harvesting....

Key Concepts Physics Angles Energy Friction Introduction Have you ever played mini golf? It might seem like just a fun game, but there’s a lot of science behind it! Learn about the physics behind a rolling, bouncing mini golf ball—and design your own mini golf course in this fun science activity. Background In most mini golf courses there is not a direct path from where you start the ball to the hole....

The items below are highlights from the free newsletter, “Smart, useful, science stuff about COVID-19.” To receive newsletter issues daily in your inbox, sign up here. A calculator recently published at The New York Times estimates your “place in line” for a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine among the full U.S. population. It spits out a result based on your age, county of residence, occupation, and underlying health conditions. The calculator draws on vaccine priority recommendations issued by an advisory committee to the U....

His finalist year: 1955 His finalist project: Making conjectures about a fossilized animal skull What led to the project: David Fleishhacker’s high school, The Webb Schools in Claremont, Calif., has a long history with paleontology. As it notes on its Web site, it is the only high school in the country with an actual accredited paleontology museum—the Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology—on campus. During his summers, Fleishhacker would travel with his school’s programs to dinosaur digs in places like the Badlands of South Dakota....

A memo detailing how U.S. EPA would cut its budget by one-third shows that the agency would eliminate hundreds of employees working on climate change, including 20 lawyers who provide support for the Clean Power Plan. Overall, EPA would reduce staffing from about 15,000 to a full-time equivalent (FTE) ceiling of 11,547, according to the document, which was first reported by The Washington Post. Acting Chief Financial Officer David Bloom sent the blueprint to the heads of EPA departments on March 21....

Science advisors to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) voted on 31 May to review a series of controversial rules that the agency has proposed over the past eight months. They include a plan that would limit the types of scientific research that the EPA could use to justify environmental regulations, and proposals to strike down limits on greenhouse-gas emissions. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt framed the data rule as part of a push for transparency—and against ‘secret science’—when he released it on 24 April....