Between 1966 and 1977, the social scientist David Chambers asked 4,807 elementary-school children, mostly from Canada and the United States, to draw a scientist. Their illustrations regularly featured ...

Observation is fundamental to science. In fact, one could even argue that science is observation, nourished and channeled for the purpose of better understanding what our world is and how it works.

Imagine asking a classroom full of elementary school students to draw a scientist. Now try to guess how many of them would sketch a female or male scientist. In the decade that spanned 1966 to 1977, ...

Scientists often struggle to explain their research to nonscientists, whether it’s at a cocktail party, on an airplane, or when speaking to a journalist. For Julie Rorrer, the struggle began with a ...

Take a look at these neurons. Ignore the fact that several of the brain cells look like snowflakes and at least one looks like an avocado. Can you pick out the drawings done by experienced, ...

This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American As someone who works at the intersection of ...

For some people, creating art is a passion, for others it's a hobby, and the rest would prefer to just admire art made by someone else. If you fall into that last category and haven't made art since ...