Science News

Dear EarthTalk: What happens to major appliances that get carted off when new ones take their place? We have a dishwasher and a refrigerator that are both on the blink now and may need replacement. I’d rather fix them than buy new, even if it’s more expensive to do so, because I don’t want to add these big clunkers to the waste stream. What’s your take on this? --D. M., Westport, Conn.

The ubiquitous David Pogue, author of the Missing Manual series and tech columnist for The New York Times , talks with podcast host Steve Mirsky (picture at left) aboard a cruise ship in the Atlantic during MacMania, produced by insightcruises.com . [More]

By Alla Katsnelson

What makes two individuals different? Biologists now know that the genome sequence holds only a small part of the answer, and that key elements of development and disease are controlled by the epigenome--a set of chemical modifications, not encoded in DNA, that orchestrate how and when genes are expressed. [More]

Editor's Note: William Gilly , a professor of cell and developmental biology and marine and organismal biology at Stanford University, is traveling with a group of students on board the Don José in the Sea of Cortez. They will monitor and track Humboldt squid and sperm whales in their watery habitats. This is the group's first blog post for ScientificAmerican.com. [More]

Schizophrenia involves some of the same genetic variations as autism and attention deficit disorders, a new whole-genome study has confirmed. [More]

This special issue, 169 Best Illusions , contains a smorgasbord of static images that appear to be moving (such as the Hatpin Urchin shown here), “impossible” sculptures, freaky faces, ghostly afterimages and even some edible illusions.

Illusions make great eye candy, but they also serve a serious purpose. When we look at an illusion, we “see” something that does not match the physical reality of the world around us. Scientists take advantage of this discrepancy between perception and reality to gain insights into how our eyes and brains gather and interpret (or misinterpret) visual information. Here’s a sneak peek at 10 different types of illusions and what they reveal.

One of the world's last Javan rhinos ( Rhinoceros sondaicus annamiticu s) has been shot and killed by poachers in Vietnam, the World Wildlife Fund said Monday. The animal was shot and its horn, valued in traditional Asian medicine, was cut off.

No one knows exactly how many Javan rhinos remain in the world, but estimates for the population range from 40 to 60 animals, with possibly eight existing in Vietnam's Cat Tien National Park . The critically endangered species is elusive, rarely photographed and almost never observed in the wild. None exist in captivity.

By Erwin Seba

ROBERT, Louisiana (Reuters) - The huge slick from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill threatened Louisiana shores west of the Mississippi Delta on Monday as BP Plc said it was trying several options to control the leak without being sure they would work.

At the spinning heart of the modern electric grid lies what used to be called the dynamo--a generator composed of stacks of copper rotating in an electromagnetic field. But it's a turbine that spins the dynamo--and efforts to squeeze more efficiency and cut greenhouse gas emissions and other pollution from a smart grid may rest on improving this core technology. [More]