Will Trackless Trams Gain Traction in the U.S.?

Trouble viewing? View in your browser. View all Scientific American publications.

    

March 23, 2021

Automotive Will Trackless Trams Gain Traction in the U.S.? A hybrid form of transportation could be an alternative to buses or light rails By Sophie Bushwick

Climate Taking Action Can Cure Your Climate Grief Personal changes can empower people to reduce emissions and also widen public support for bold carbon policies By Ellen Airhart

Engineering Mississippi River Rescue Plan Called Too Big to Fail Controversy surrounds the plan to cut the river's massive levee in an attempt to save disappearing wetlands By Daniel Cusick,E&E News

Behavior & Society The Search for a Cause of Transness Is Misguided It can be well-intentioned, but it's a dangerous path that leaves little room for a real understanding of gender and gender identity By Nat Mulkey

The Body Is Estrogen Deficiency Really a Thing? The catch-all term plays into a cultural notion that estrogen is what makes a woman a woman By Jerilynn C. Prior

Environment Noisy Cicadas Are Emerging Earlier More and more broods are crawling out of the ground sooner than expected By Chelsea Harvey,E&E News

Space How to Photograph a (Possible) Alien Artifact We don't know if the interstellar object 'Oumuamua was natural or artificial—but a new telescope coming online in a few years could help us identify the next one By Avi Loeb

Policy & Ethics Prosecuting Asian-American Scientists for Espionage Is a Shortsighted Strategy Overeager indictments stifle international collaboration, cause a drain of intellectual capital and violate citizens' civil rights By Alicia Lai

Evolution A Tsunami Likely Hurled Huge Rocks onto a Tiny Island A Caribbean island's giant rocks were thought to be deposited by enormous waves By Katherine Kornei

Biology Pilot Whales Show Possible Orca-Mimicking Repertoire Southern long-finned pilot whales' calls could help them outsmart an apex predator By Doris Elín Urrutia

FROM THE STORE Ask the Experts: Chemistry In this installment of the Ask the Experts series, Chemistry, our professors, scientists and researchers tackle reader questions about the substances that compose all matter, their properties and how they interact and change. Queries range from elementary questions, such as why some elements change color over a flame, to how chemistry works in everyday life to how certain substances affect the body and more.

ADVERTISEMENT

QUOTE OF THE DAY "What impressed me in China was that the ride quality was ... equivalent to what I had experienced on a modern light rail, where everything is fixed on a steel track." Peter Newman, researcher at the Curtin University Sustainability Policy Institute in Perth, Australia

LATEST ISSUES

Questions?   Comments?

Download the Scientific American App

To view this email as a web page, go here. You received this email because you opted-in to receive email from Scientific American. To ensure delivery please add news@email.scientificamerican.com to your address book. Unsubscribe     Manage Email Preferences     Privacy Policy     Contact Us