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December 1963 Cold War “Premier Khrushchev, in a note of congratulation on John H. Glenn’s orbital flight, had suggested last February that the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. pool some of their space-research efforts. President Kennedy answered by proposing co-operation in space medicine, weather satellites, communications satellites, mapping the earth’s magnetic field and tracking space vehicles. Last June, Soviet rocket expert Anatoli A. Blagonravov and Hugh L. Dryden, Deputy Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, met and drew up recommendations for specific joint programs in three of those areas....

Earth’s biggest volcano, its peak nearly two kilometers beneath the Pacific Ocean waves, is beginning to reveal its secrets. New magnetic data suggest that the gigantic underwater mountain known as Tamu Massif, 1,600 kilometers east of Japan, is a kind of volcanic hybrid—a mash-up of long chains of volcanoes and one enormous eruption. “We’re looking at something that’s in between a mid-ocean ridge and a simple conical volcano,” says William Sager, a marine geophysicist at the University of Houston....

Scientists have suspected for more than two decades that schizophrenia is linked to defects in the brain’s white matter. They could not tell, however, whether changes in the information-transmitting region of the brain detected by brain scans or autopsies were the cause or the symptoms of the illness. A new study not only clarifies the association but also links it to genes previously tied to the debilitating mental disorder and chemical changes believed to occur in the schizophrenic brain....

When the blowout of the Deepwater Horizon oil well sent some 400,000 tonnes of methane into the Gulf of Mexico in April 2010, many scientists and others feared it would linger. So researchers were pleasantly surprised when studies suggested that methane-eating bacteria had consumed nearly all of it by August. But new evidence suggests an alternate scenario. Research published today in Nature Geoscience finds that although these bacteria consumed much of the gas, they slowed down considerably after a few months....

Editor’s Note: This is the extended version of the “Sustainable Developments” column from the January 2009 issue of Scientific American. The global economic crisis is akin to a power blackout. In both cases, a disturbance in one part of a complex “tightly coupled” system results in a cascade of failures through an entire network. In the case of a power blackout, a single downed power line or transient overload causes power to be shunted to another part of the grid, which in turn leads to new overloads, more shunting and ultimately to a cascade of failures that pushes a region into darkness....

By Dan Whitcomb(Reuters) - An online video of two Boy Scouts of America leaders knocking over a 170-million-year-old rock formation in a Utah State Park has touched off worldwide outrage, state officials said on Friday, and the two men may face charges.The video was posted on YouTube showing scout leader Glenn Taylor dislodging the massive rock free from its tiny perch in Goblin Valley State Park as Dave Hall films him while singing and laughing....

Designing and sticking to a healthy diet is a challenge for many Americans who are barraged with often conflicting advice about what to eat. Recommended fat intake, for one, can range from none to unlimited. New findings suggest that for middle-aged men, the most important variable is not how much fat they consume, but what type. Previous research indicated that consumption of polyunsaturated fats had a beneficial effect on levels of LDL, the so-called bad cholesterol, whereas eating saturated fats served to increase it....

A loud rumble, a scuffle and 33 long minutes of coordinated attacks by a female orangutan and her male partner led to the death of an older female orangutan in a Borneo forest, in what scientists say is the first incident of lethal aggression among orangutans ever observed by researchers. Female orangutans are not normally aggressive. They are solitary, and rarely engage in fights, according to primatologist Anna Marzec, of the University of Zurich in Switzerland, who witnessed the event....

In New Orleans, the city’s planners would love to see block-by-block estimates of how sea-level rise might affect neighborhoods and critical infrastructure. In Seattle, they want to know how to shape their municipal culture so that even basic budgeting decisions factor in evolving climate patterns, and not just the past weather patterns that planners have relied on for decades. Everyone is looking for something different from the next National Climate Assessment, including the scientists and decisionmakers who put together the current guiding document for climate policy in this country....

Philosopher and historian Thomas S. Kuhn has suggested that scientific disciplines act a lot like living organisms: instead of evolving slowly but continuously, they enjoy long stretches of stability punctuated by infrequent revolutions with the appearance of a new species–or in the case of science, a new theory. This description is particularly apt for my own area of study, the causes and consequences of mass extinctions–those periodic biological upheavals when a large proportion of the planet’s living creatures died off and afterward nothing was ever the same again....

Does Mars need protection from our microbes? Conventional wisdom says yes, as does space law—the United Nations Outer Space Treaty prohibits the contamination of potentially fertile worlds with earthly bacteria. Yet some researchers disagree: Mars will be just fine on its own, they say, and the stringent safeguards now in place discourage scientists from exploring the Red Planet. On missions dedicated to searching for life, costs “could easily double because of planetary protection procedures,” says Cornell University astrobiologist Alberto G....

On Thursday, July 17, four science experts served as witnesses at the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation hearing, “The Federal Research Portfolio: Capitalizing on Investments in R&D.” The hearing considered the federal government’s role in research and development (R&D), and the nation’s STEM education and outreach initiatives. Attendees in the Capitol hearing room were Mariette DiChristina, editor in chief and senior vice president of Scientific American; Vinton G....

By Eric Hand of Nature magazineIt took years of fierce debate to winnow the dozens of potential landing sites for NASA’s Mars Curiosity rover down to just one. But although the US$2.5-biallion machine won’t land in Gale Crater until August, Mars scientists are already thinking about where they want to go to next. On Wednesday, at a workshop held in Herndon, Virginia, 40 of them developed a list of ten high-priority sites that must be characterized in preparation for future missions....

This month the American Psychiatric Association (APA) will publish the fifth edition of its guidebook for clinicians, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM-5. Researchers around the world have eagerly anticipated the new manual, which, in typical fashion, took around 14 years to revise. The DSM describes the symptoms of more than 300 officially recognized mental illnesses—depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and others—helping counselors, psychiatrists and general care practitioners diagnose their patients....

Renowned neuroscientist Mu-Ming Poo is playing a key role in China’s contribution to the push by national and regional governments to set up gargantuan neuroscience research endeavors. The China Brain Project has yet to put forward funding specifics. But Poo, who directs the Institute of Neuroscience of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and has held multiple academic posts at U.S. universities, is helping to shape the project’s 15-year timeline. To circumvent the paucity of drugs for neurological illnesses, Poo’s own team wants to focus on finding solid evidence for video games and other behavioral training methods that might produce near-term cognitive benefits for China’s aging population....

By Carey Gillam(Reuters) - A deadly winter storm that drove parts of the United States into a deep freeze over the weekend kept a tight grip on the nation on Monday, as bitter temperatures, snow and ice spread across the East Coast, snarling traffic and knocking out power to thousands.As much as 5 inches of snow were forecast for Monday night into Tuesday for an area stretching from Virginia into New York, the National Weather Service (NWS) said....

Changes to a single gene in a model organism in plant biology, Arabidopsis thaliana, have been found to promote faster-growing and larger root systems—an application that could help researchers engineer bigger, better crops capable of sequestering more atmospheric carbon. The gene and its operations are described in the November 11 issue of the journal Cell. Bigger root systems mean more climate-warming carbon could essentially be buried, because plants build their roots using atmospheric carbon....

The Scottish government has announced that it intends to ban the cultivation of GM crops approved by EU regulatory authorities within its borders. Scotland’s GM crop ban became feasible legally earlier this year after the European parliament approved a new law that allowed EU member nations to ban GMOs for reasons ‘other than science’, including country planning and socio-economic impact. The new law also extends to devolved administrations, such as Scotland’s, as well as member states....

Delivering diapers and groceries at 25 miles per hour. The debut of self-driving cars in Miami has been rather more prosaic than the futuristic and speedy science fiction dream. The fleet of several dozen delivery cars is an experimental collaboration between Ford, Walmart and Miami, and part of a broader effort to mold autonomous vehicles (AV) to fit the needs of Miami shoppers and businesses and Ford itself, which has committed to investing $4 billion to launch an AV fleet by 2023....

A significant portion of the world’s emissions of heat-trapping gases emitted by air conditioners, refrigeration and other applications comes from the developing world, finds a new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. In addition, developed nations are making mistakes when reporting emissions of the gases, called hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs, to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the study finds. The study follows international negotiations last week in Bangkok, Thailand, where nations discussed the phaseout of HFCs under the Montreal Protocol, a global treaty meant to protect the planet’s ozone layer....