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Every Summer Olympics features a handful of superhumans the likes of Usain Bolt, Gabby Douglas and Michael Phelps. Rio will be no exception. With shows of supreme physical strength and grace, the standouts in the 2016 Games will sprint, flip and glide their way through a gauntlet of grueling events. They will captivate the crowds, smash records and, in all likelihood, leave Brazil with an impressive haul of gold. But what, exactly, sets these superelite athletes apart?...

The 20th century dawned with both excitement and concern for the water future of California and the rapidly growing but arid American West. Gold fever was receding, urban populations were burgeoning, and tentative efforts at modern, irrigated agriculture were expanding. The articles in this Scientific American collection reveal beliefs common at the time: Any water flowing unused to the sea was wasted. Growth of the West could happen only through expansion of irrigated agriculture and a blossoming of the desert....

Experts generally agree that the world came closest to nuclear war during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, when the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. faced off on the issue of Soviet ballistic missiles being installed just 90 miles away from the American mainland. In the end, President John F. Kennedy found a way to back away from the brink of disaster: he was rational enough to see the inevitable catastrophe that would have resulted from “pushing the button....

In mid-May the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new guidelines stating that fully vaccinated people were not required to wear masks in most settings, including indoors at restaurants and in other public spaces. The decision was soundly rooted in science, although it felt jarring to many—even those of us writing and reporting about COVID-19 on a daily basis. After more than a year of masks and social distancing, the idea of overnight returning to mostly normal was a shock to the system....

More than 80,000 chemicals are produced and used in the United States. This is one of their stories. FDA to soap industry: Prove it or lose it. America Is Awash in Antibacterial Products Killing microbes has become a full-time business for those in the business of selling personal hygiene products. There’s antibacterial toothpaste and antimicrobial hand sanitizers andantibacterial soaps. For a good many of these products the antibacterial agent is a chemical known as triclosan — apolychloro phenoxy phenolif you care to know....

Frank Underwood, the treacherous main character of the Netflix series House of Cards, uses a combination of deceit, manipulation, and even violence to transform himself from a U.S. senator to contender for the White House. In each episode Underwood makes asides to the camera, summarizing his strategy for gaining power. In one episode he tells us: “For those of us climbing to the top of the food chain, there can be no mercy....

It is no secret that we all have secrets. Maintaining them can be draining, but not for the reason most researchers have long assumed. A new study redefines “secrecy” itself and offers a novel explanation for its known link to depression, anxiety and poor overall health. The researchers suggest that secrecy is primarily the intention to conceal information, regardless of any active concealment around others. And that hurts us by making us feel inauthentic, even when we are alone....

By Barbara ListonORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) - Wildlife forensic experts will examine the remains of an endangered Florida panther to determine who shot and killed the animal recently in the Big Cypress National Preserve near Miami, Florida.Park spokesman Bob DeGross said on Thursday the illegal shooting of the panther, which was discovered Saturday, was only the fourth case of Florida panther poaching since 1983. Arrests were made in the earlier three cases, he said....

While we sleep this spring, billions of birds will be flying through the night from their wintering grounds to their breeding territories. Bird migration is a mind-bendingly astonishing phenomenon: these tiny creatures fly thousands of kilometers with enough precision to return to the same nesting site year after year. They use three types of compass, guided by the stars, sun and, most mysteriously, Earth’s magnetic field. In this issue’s cover story, scientists Peter J....

Bumblebees are a resourceful bunch: when pollen is scarce and plants near the nest are not yet flowering, workers have developed a way to force them to bloom. Research published on Thursday in Science shows that the insects puncture the plants’ leaves, which causes them to flower, on average, 30 days earlier than they otherwise would. How the technique evolved and why the plants respond to bumblebee bites by blooming remain unclear....

California’s top energy bosses soon will decide when to snuff out natural gas flames in new homes. The seismic move toward omitting some gas appliances comes as the California Energy Commission retools state building codes for energy-efficient homes. It’s an expansion of the state’s first-in-the-nation mandates requiring solar panels on all new homes starting last year. The agency now plans to tighten rules on natural gas for home heating and hot water, a code update that would take effect in 2023....

For the first time, a U.S. government agency last week acknowledged “some concern” over the common plastic ingredient bisphenol A (BPA)—used to make the polycarbonate and epoxy resins in everything from DVDs to baby bottles. Three days later, the Canadian government proposed a ban on BPA in baby bottles. Studies have linked exposure to the chemical—which can rapidly leach out of plastic bottles when they are exposed to a hot liquid—to damage in developing brains and tissues as well as a heightened risk of cancer later in life....

In children with a deletion on chromosome 22, having autism does not boost the risk of developing schizophrenia later in life, according to a new study1. The children in the study have 22q11.2 deletion syndrome, which is linked to a 25-fold increase in the risk of developing a psychotic condition such as schizophrenia. A deletion in the region is also associated with an increased risk of autism. Some researchers have suggested that the relatively high autism prevalence in this population is the result of misdiagnoses of early signs of schizophrenia....

A truck tire supporting a 36,300-kilogram load repeatedly traverses an 18-meter stretch of road, day in and day out, rolling up 483,000 kilometers on the odometer at the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DoT) testing facility in Virginia. The goal is to thoroughly challenge any new paving techniques and see how the road surface holds up. Now imagine putting a solar panel under there. That’s exactly what Scott Brusaw of Sagle, Idaho–based Solar Roadways hopes to do next February....

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - EU car emissions fell 2.6 percent in 2012 from 2011, official figures showed on Wednesday, adding to a fierce Brussels debate on how quickly automakers can improve vehicle fuel efficiency.The decline took average new car carbon emissions down to 132.2 grams per kilometer (g/km) in 2012, close to a 130 g/km target for 2015, according to the data from the European Environment Agency (EEA), which provides scientific data to guide policy-making....

A new biofuels project at Abu Dhabi’s Masdar Institute of Science and Technology will unite Boeing, Honeywell and others in search of a system to produce fuel and other useful products from biomass and seawater. The Sustainable Bioenergy Research Project is focused on integrating aquaculture and farming to create a closed-loop system that thrives in areas where fresh water is scarce. Waste from the aquaculture project will be used to fertilize mangrove forests and plantations of another saltwater plant, and the resultant biomass will be used to make aviation biofuels and clean energy....

SAN FRANCISCO — More than 150 years ago, a fault ringing the Caribbean shook half the Atlantic, including New York City, with a mega-earthquake. The quake rivaled those that have struck Indonesia in recent years, geologists reported last week at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union. The Caribbean’s beautiful tropical islands and coral reefs rise above a complex junction of four major tectonic plates. Many of the islands sit above a subduction zone, where two plates meet and one slides haltingly under the other, down into the Earth’s mantle....

About 2,000 household cleaning products will be reformulated to reduce smog-forming compounds under a new regulation adopted Thursday in California. The rule will trigger a new, mandatatory wave of “green” products, including window cleaners, general purpose cleaning sprays, degreasers, oven cleaners, metal polishes, furniture sprays, heavy-duty hand soaps and spot removers. Household cleaners, which contain highly reactive solvents known as VOCs, or volatile organic compounds, are a substantial source of smog....

Seismologist David Oppenheimer of the U.S. Geological Survey Earthquakes Hazards Team explains (as told to Katherine Harmon): Traditional geothermal drilling bores into hot rock such as sandstone that has water or steam trapped in its pore spaces and natural fractures. When a drilled hole intersects these fractures, the water flashes into steam because of the sudden drop in pressure—like bubbles that come out of a soda bottle when the cap is removed....

When Allison Baker moved to what she calls “snake heaven,” a home on 2.5 acres just outside of Dallas–Fort Worth, Tex., her greatest fear was a dangerous encounter between her young children and one of heaven’s residents. Baker’s anxiety was understandable. After all, Texas is one of the snakiest states in the nation, with more than 80 species, 11 of them venomous. And the previous homeowners had found venomous snakes on the property, including a cottonmouth coiled by the pool....