Why is the night sky dark? How do dolphins sleep without drowning? Why do hangovers occur? Will time travel ever be a reality? What makes a knuckleball appear to flutter? Why are craters always round?

There's only one source to turn to for the answers to the most puzzling and thought-provoking questions about the world of science: Scientific American. Writing in a fun and accessible style, an esteemed team of scientists and educators will lead you on a wild ride from the far reaches of the universe to the natural world right in your own backyard. Along the way, you'll...

The science and technology of acoustics embrace an unusually wide range of disciplines, from aircraft noise reduction to ultrasonics in medicine, and from psychoacoustics to signal processing. The student of acoustics must become familiar with a corresponding range of specialist terms in order to communicate with others and to understand the literature.

Here, for the first time, in one informative...

The rate at which technology is changing our world--not just on a global level like space travel and instant worldwide communications but on the level of what we choose to wear, where we live, and what we eat--is staggeringly fast and getting faster all the time. The rate of change has become so fast that a concept that started off sounding like science fiction has become a widely expected outcome in the near future - a singularity referred to as The Spike.

At that point of singularity, the cumulative changes on all fronts will affect the existence of humanity as a species and cause...

The evolution of science through the ages has often been marred by people's misconceptions. From pre-historic times, when myths played a major role in people's lives, to present-day debates concerning the environment, people have sought ways to explain the world around them and have often come up with incorrect answers. Science has grown through the correction of these misconceptions. This unique reference source can be used by students, teachers, and other interested researchers to explore this growth as it pertains to both the field of science and the process of scientific...

Understanding the terms used in science is important in order to succeed in science - students at all levels need to quickly recognize terminology in order to do well in the lab, on tests, and in the real world of the working scientist. But this terminology can be confusing because so much of it conists of combinations of roots, prefixes, and suffixes from other languages, primarily Latin and Greek, and students are often required to waste precious class time in rote memorization. Science Terms Made Easy is a dictionary of several thousand common science terms that are broken down...