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Tyrannosaurus rex, king of the dinosaur age, wasn’t a North American native as many experts had previously thought, a new study suggests. Instead, the giant tyrannosaur was likely an invasive species from Asia that dispersed into western North America once the opportunity presented itself, paleontologists said. “It’s possible that T. rex was an immigrant species from Asia,” said study co-researcher Steve Brusatte, a paleontologist at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland....

Lester Brown asks for a window seat whenever he flies so that he can look down at the earth. That’s one more vantage point from which to view the evolving environmental panorama he has been examining for almost half a century. He spends a lot of time in the air, heading to audiences in all corners of the planet where his controversial predictions have gained attention. Over the years Brown, who founded the Worldwatch Institute and the Earth Policy Institute, both in Washington, D....

Editor’s Note (12/21/21): This article is being showcased in a special collection about equity in health care that was made possible by the support of Takeda Pharmaceuticals. The article was published independently and without sponsorship. The shameful secret is out: Although the number of women who die in childbirth globally has fallen in recent decades, the rates in the U.S. have gone up. Since 1987 maternal mortality has doubled in the U....

In 1940 Action Comics introduced a brilliant supervillain named Lex Luthor who tries to kill Superman to advance his plot to rule the world. More recently, news articles portrayed Bernard Madoff as an “evil genius” because of his Ponzi scheme that siphoned some $20 billion from investors. We think of an evil genius as someone who devises a clever plan for wrongdoing on a large scale. According to behavioral economist Dan Ariely of Duke University, however, the genius of the perpetrators often manifests itself not in elaborate planning of misdeeds but in almost the exact opposite: an unplanned escalation of a minor wrong they imaginatively have justified to themselves....

Not all planets have a home. For decades, astronomers and science fiction authors alike have speculated about orphaned orbs cast adrift from their home stars, endlessly wandering the boundless reaches of interstellar space. Most theorists hold that such ejections should be quite common during the chaotic tumult of a planetary system’s early days, when closely-packed worlds whirling around a star can scatter off each other like billiard balls in a break shot....

In an attempt to understand what makes us tick, researchers have been probing various regions of the brain, such as the premotor cortex, which helps make movement possible, and the auditory cortex, responsible for processing what we hear. But neuroscientists now say communication between regions—as opposed to within the areas themselves—may be the key that has eluded analysis until now, in part, because of technological obstacles. Earl Miller, a professor of neuroscience at Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, says that today’s faster computers and more advanced electronics may provide scientists with the tools they need to unlock the brain’s mysteries....

IT’S SO BORING, the usual human’s-eye view. Seasons come and go, but terra firma itself never varies. Even an earthquake or a mudslide seems like a random incident unconnected to any larger or more complex patterns. But put on the lenses of a geologist and take another look. Reading the stories imprinted on the rocks and crystals gives scientists the ability to examine our world as it has evolved over millions, even billions, of years....

As social beings, when thinking about autism we tend to focus on its social challenges, such as difficulty communicating, making friends and showing empathy. I am a geneticist and the mother of a teenage boy with autism. I too worry most about whether he’ll have the conversational skills to do basic things like grocery shopping or whether he will ever have a real friend. But I assure you that the nonsocial features of autism are also front and center in our lives: intense insistence on sameness, atypical responses to sensory stimuli and a remarkable ability to detect small details....

A new vision research center opening in India today becomes the latest in a handful of facilities dedicated to exploring the potential of adult eye stem cells to repair vision damage. The Champalimaud Center for Translation Eye Research (C-TRACER), part of the LV Prasad Eye Institute in Hyderabad, India, will continue research begun by LV Prasad scientists, who use eye stem cells from living adults to grow new cells that are then implanted into damaged eyes....

By Laura Zuckerman (Reuters) - State regulators failed to collect air samples in the week following a radiation release at a New Mexico nuclear waste dump because of a vacancy in the office responsible for monitoring the site at the time, a state official said on Friday. The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, where drums of plutonium-tainted refuse from government nuclear weapons laboratories are buried in caverns a half a mile deep, has been closed since Feb....

Many of us, particularly those who prefer to eat our cake and look like we have not done so, have a love-hate relationship with artificial sweeteners. These seemingly magical molecules deliver a dulcet taste without its customary caloric punch. We guzzle enormous quantities of these chemicals, mostly in the form of aspartame, sucralose and saccharin, which are used to enliven the flavor of everything from Diet Coke to toothpaste. Yet there are worries....

Australia’s summers are getting increasingly brutal—but they’re also inspiring new climate science that could lead to better predictions and carbon accounting. Five years ago, a study in the Journal of Climate by Australian and U.K. scientists predicted climate change would deliver more intense summers to Australia. That study, led by Tim Cowan of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), forecast that by the end of this century, the northern tropical reaches of Australia will experience longer and more frequent heat waves, while the hottest parts of southern Australia will see increases in maximum temperature of around 5....

Key concepts Physics Energy Newton’s laws Spaceflight Introduction If you have ever watched a rocket launch on TV, you might have noticed that rockets have multiple stages. Some parts of the rocket fall off and burn up in the atmosphere whereas the rest of the rocket keeps going. Why does this happen? Try this activity to find out and build your own two-stage rocket using balloons! Background Imagine you are carrying a heavy backpack while hiking up a mountain....

Click here for a full list of our coverage of the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show. LAS VEGAS–On their final day at CES, the SciAm team declared victory on the imposing, sprawling conference. Sure there were cavernous showrooms, hordes of gadget-lusting revelers and rampant consumerism. But, after cutting through the plethora of touchscreens and iPod docks, getting pummeled by gaming outerwear and sitting down for a chat with the world’s second richest man, it was time for a victory lap....

As of December 4, 2019, 565 people from 41 countries have gone into space. That’s it. 565 out of more than 7 billion of us currently on this planet. And that’s using the definition of space travel to include any flight over 62 miles or about 100 kilometers. Many of these space travelers are, of course, NASA astronauts. That means they went through a rigorous application and training process. So, what exactly does it take to be an astronaut?...

By Alister Doyle OSLO, (Reuters) - Global warming will cut Antarctica’s 600,000-strong emperor penguin population by at least a fifth by 2100 as the sea ice on which the birds breed becomes less secure, a study said on Sunday. The report urged governments to list the birds as endangered, even though populations in 45 known colonies were likely to rise slightly by 2050 before declining. Such a listing could impose restrictions on tourism and fishing companies....

All of us have snapped at some point. A stranger cuts in line or a distracted driver nearly hits us and we lose our cool in a sudden fit of rage. As mass shootings continue to make headlines, it is becoming increasingly important to understand the brain circuits that underlie these flashes of emotion. R. Douglas Fields, a neuroscientist at the University of Maryland, College Park, and the National Institutes of Health, explores this very issue in his new book Why We Snap: Understanding the Rage Circuit in Your Brain (Dutton, 2016; 408 pages)....

To avoid a potentially nasty cleanup, students are deprived of food for four hours before entering the experimental chamber. Inside, they step onto a force-sensing platform and stare at a paper map of the U.S. The walls begin sliding back and forth on a track a mere 1.8 centimeters with each cycle. At the right frequencies, this movement triggers a tugging sensation that begins somewhere in the brain and mysteriously travels to the belly....

One metric ton of coal is roughly human-size, maybe five feet (1.5 meters) tall and a few feet wide. Black as night, this enormous lump contains enough energy to power an average American home for two months—and release 2.5 metric tons of carbon dioxide, the most common greenhouse gas implicated in climate change. A model of such a brick of coal is buried within a new exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH): “Climate Change”....

Sexual harassment is more prevalent in academia than in any sector of society except the military. According to a groundbreaking June 2018 report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, harassment hurts individuals, diminishes the pool of scientific talent and ultimately damages the integrity of science itself. To understand the problem and how best to tackle it, a committee of 21 experts spent two years surveying existing data and commissioning new research....