Scientific American Online

Gargantuan whales and hefty cephalopods are typically thought of as the classic marine mammoths, but they might have to make way for the mighty microbes, which constitute 50 to 90 percent of the oceans' total biomass, according to newly released data. [More]

Perhaps the most common manifestation of our urge to be "green" these days is recycling.  

After all, it makes intuitive sense to get the most use out of any given object. And when it’s applied, recycling generally works as designed, turning waste paper into fresh paper or old aluminum cans into new ones.  

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Maybe science really is back in vogue. Or maybe "dark matter" is a case of remarkably successful scientific branding--who wouldn't be drawn in by a name like that? Then again, maybe people just want to know what the heck makes up the vast majority of the universe, a question to which science has provided only sketchy answers. [More]

You know that psychedelics are making a comeback when the New York Times says so on page 1. In “Hallucinogens Have Doctors Tuning In,” John Tierney reports on how doctors at schools like Harvard, Johns Hopkins, UCLA and NYU are testing the potential of psilocybin and other hallucinogens for treating depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, alcoholism--and for inducing spiritual experiences. 

Health care workers are subject to the same human foibles as the rest of the population. But prejudice can get in the way of care, especially when it determines how a health professional decides to work with a patient. [More]

When Sen. David Vitter persuaded the EPA to agree to yet another review of its long-delayed assessment of the health risks of formaldehyde, he was praised by companies that use or manufacture a chemical found in everything from plywood to carpet. [More]

TORONTO--Like electrical wires, neurons are insulated. But in multiple sclerosis (MS), the insulation (called myelin) is stripped or worn down, slowing conduction along the axons--the wires of the nervous system. MS is widely considered to be an autoimmune disease , in which the myelin is attacked by the body’s own T cells. But Paulo Zamboni, director of the Vascular Diseases Center at the University of Ferrara in Italy, thinks a blockage in the veins that drain blood from the brain is the part of the problem. In his pilot study, published December 2009 in The Journal of Vascular Surgery , MS patients who had such blockages (called chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiencies) fixed surgically, including Zamboni's wife, showed a significant improvement.

By Michael Holden

A U.S. District Court judge's recent decision to invalidate patents on two genes commonly tested to determine risk for breast and ovarian cancers is an important step toward removing legal hurdles that have slowed the development of new genetic testing technology, according to a team of Duke University researchers. [More]

By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent

Big test coming up? Having trouble concentrating? Try a little estrogen.

Neuroscientists at the University of California, Berkeley, report in a recent study that hormone fluctuations during a woman’s menstrual cycle may affect the brain as much as do substances such as caffeine, methamphetamines or the popular attention drug Ritalin.

Rare: Portraits of America’s Endangered Species by Joel Sartore. National Geographic Focal Point, 2010

Invasive species can decrease biodiversity and drive resident species to the brink of extinction. But how do these interlopers fare so well in unfamiliar territory? One idea is that they’ve escaped their enemies, for example, the parasites that keep them in check on their home turf. But a study in the journal Biology Letters [Jaimie Dick et al., http://bit.ly/dnRRRl ] suggests that notion doesn’t always stand up. Because at least one kind of invasive shrimp is an even bigger pest when it has a parasite on board. [More]

By Nicola Nosengo

Around four tons of ancient Roman lead was yesterday transferred from a museum on the Italian island of Sardinia to the country's national particle physics laboratory at Gran Sasso on the mainland. [More]

Like most businesses, health and life insurance companies are out to make a buck, and one way they augment their income is by investing in other industries. [More]

President Obama laid out his timeline and destinations for manned space exploration during a speech Thursday, a blueprint that includes a trip to Mars orbit and back in the 2030s. At the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Obama pledged his commitment to the space agency and to manned exploration of the solar system, at a time when his controversial budget proposal for NASA awaits approval from Congress. [More]

By Omar Valdimarsson