Browsing: American

When Czech writer Karel Čapek coined the word “robot” in his 1920 play R.U.R., he imagined tireless “artificial workers” liberating people from drudgery. The lead character…

Rod Paige, an educator, coach, and administrator who rolled out the nation’s landmark No Child Left Behind law as the first African American to serve as…

December 7, 20253 min read Add Us On GoogleAdd SciAmDeath by Fermented FoodSome fermenting foods can carry the risk of a bacterium that produces an extremely…

Each year around this time, we ask the staff of Scientific American to recommend the best books they read this year. Here are the 67 new…

Battles over what children should learn in history classes, a fixture of American education debates over the past five years, are once again heating up as…

As a child growing up on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota in the 1970s and 80s, Sean Sherman, an Oglala Lakota member and a…

“Raise your hand if you’ve heard of Thomas Jefferson,” I said to a group of about 70 middle schoolers in Memphis. Hands shot up across the…

Archaeologists in Peru have found new evidence showing how the oldest known civilization in the Americas adapted and survived a climate catastrophe without resorting to violence.A…

On first appraisal, the nine universities that the Trump administration singled out appeared to have no real choice but to concede to the administration’s demands. As…

Colin Wallace wanted a snack. Specifically, he wanted one delivered to his classroom during lecture (he had long lectures). This was 2006, when delivery was mostly…