Terms of Use

DATED 2026-07-23 · VERSION 20260729_rev01 · COMPARED WITH 20260302_rev01

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 **Terms of Use**
+Updated February 20th, 2025
+Updated July 23rd, 2026
+Welcome to ScientificAmerican.com, a service of Scientific American, a division of Springer Nature America, Inc. Please read these Terms of Use. By using this website, you accept all the terms and conditions below. You may wish to print this page for your reference.
+Welcome to ScientificAmerican.com, a service of Scientific American. Please read these Terms of Use. By using this website, you accept all the terms and conditions below. You may wish to print this page for your reference.
 These Terms of Use apply only to individual licenses to Scientific American or to visitors without any license to the site. If you are affiliated or employed by an institution that has an Institutional License to Scientific American, please consult your librarian for the terms that govern your use, which are set forth in the Institutional License agreement.
 **I.** **General Provisions**
 ScientificAmerican.com includes both free and fee-based services. This document outlines Terms of Use for both free and fee-based services that you have purchased or may purchase in the future.
 **VI. Ownership and Permissions**
 This site and the contents thereof (including but not limited to software, interfaces, files, graphics, text and data found on the site) is the property of and owned by Scientific American or its licensors and is protected by copyright, trademark and other laws of the United States and other countries. Scientific American grants you a revocable license to display and electronically copy, download and print hard copy versions of the material contained on the site for your personal and noncommercial use, provided you do not modify or delete any copyright, trademark or other proprietary notice that appears on the material you copy, download or print. No other use of any of the contents of the site is licensed, and you agree that you will not make any other use of the material on the site, including but not limited to the copying, modification, distribution, transmission, performance, broadcast, publication, licensing, reverse engineering, transfer or sale of, or the creation of derivative works from, any of the contents of the site, systematically download any content to your own or any third-party server, use routines designed to continuously and automatically search and index the content of the site (full text and meta data), such as web-crawling or spider programs or engage in any activity likely to burden the site.
 All Text and Datamining (TDM) rights reserved. TDM is therefore only permitted to the extent that it is authorized by a corresponding contractual or statutory provision.
+Requests for permission to reproduce or distribute materials found on our website should be sent to Scientific American, a division of Springer Nature America, Inc., Permissions Department, One New York Plaza, Suite 4500, New York, NY 10004-1562 or randp@sciam.com. No Framing. Without the prior written permission of Scientific American, you agree that you will not frame or establish inline links to any of the content of our website, nor may you incorporate into another website or other product or service any intellectual property of Scientific American or any of its licensors. Requests for permission to frame, or to establish inline links to, our content may be sent to the Permissions Department, at the email or physical address above. Trademarks. This site features trademarks, service marks and logos that are the property of Scientific American and/or its licensors. The site also may include trademarks, service marks or logos of other third parties. All of these trademarks, service marks and logos are the property of their respective owners, and you agree not to use them in any manner without the prior written permission of the applicable owner.
+Requests for permission to reproduce or distribute materials found on our website should be sent to Scientific American, Permissions Department, 1000 N West Street, Suite 1200, Wilmington, Delaware 19801 or randp@sciam.com. No Framing. Without the prior written permission of Scientific American, you agree that you will not frame or establish inline links to any of the content of our website, nor may you incorporate into another website or other product or service any intellectual property of Scientific American or any of its licensors. Requests for permission to frame, or to establish inline links to, our content may be sent to the Permissions Department, at the email or physical address above. Trademarks. This site features trademarks, service marks and logos that are the property of Scientific American and/or its licensors. The site also may include trademarks, service marks or logos of other third parties. All of these trademarks, service marks and logos are the property of their respective owners, and you agree not to use them in any manner without the prior written permission of the applicable owner.
 **VII. Materials You Submit
 **This section applies to any materials you submit to or through this website, including, without limitation, any comment you post to the site. You acknowledge that you are responsible for any submission you make, including the legality, reliability, appropriateness, originality and copyright of any such material. You represent, warrant, and agree you own all rights to the content you post or otherwise control sufficient rights to grant the rights you grant by these Terms of Use; that the content is accurate; that use of the content you supply does not violate this policy and will not cause injury to any person or entity; that you will not upload to, distribute or otherwise publish through this site any content that (i) is libelous, defamatory, obscene, threatening, invasive of privacy or publicity rights, infringing on intellectual property rights, abusive, illegal or otherwise objectionable, (ii) may constitute or encourage a criminal offense, violate the rights of any party or otherwise give rise to liability or violate any law, or (iii) may contain software viruses, political campaigning, chain letters, mass mailings, or any form of "spam." If you submit any video content through this site, you further represent, warrant and agree that you have the written consent or permission of each identifiable individual in such content to use their name and likeness and grant the rights you grant in these Terms of Use. You may not use a false email address, impersonate any person or entity, or otherwise mislead as to the origin of any content. You may not upload commercial content onto the site. We reserve the right (but are not under an obligation) to remove or edit any content you provide.
 If you do submit material, and unless we indicate otherwise, you grant Scientific American and its affiliates a nonexclusive, royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, transferable and fully sub-licensable right to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, display and perform such content throughout the world in any media now known or hereafter invented. You grant Scientific American and its affiliates the right to use the name you submit in connection with such content, if they so choose.
 Waiver: By submitting content to this site, you waive, and agree not to bring at any time, any claims of any type whatsoever against Scientific American or its affiliates, or their officers, directors, employees, contractors, agents, licensors or suppliers in any way arising from or relating to the submitted content, including without limitation any claims asserting: (a) infringement of rights of publicity or misappropriation of likeness or image; (b) invasion of privacy; (c) false light (such as any allegedly false or misleading portrayal of you); (d) infliction of emotional distress (whether intentional or negligent); (e) breach of contract; (f) copyright or trademark infringement; (g) defamation; (h) fraud; or (i) false designation of origin.
 **VIII. Intellectual Property Rights of Others**
 We respect the intellectual property rights of others, and we request that our visitors do the same. If you think your work has been copied or used in a manner that constitutes copyright infringement, you may notify our copyright agent, who can be reached at:
 Scientific American
+c/o Springer Nature
+One New York Plaza, Suite 4500
+New York, NY 10004
+N West Street, Suite 1200
+Wilmington, Delaware 19801
 Attention: Legal Department
+Email: [copyrightagent@springernature.com](https://web.archive.org/web/20240514204529/mailto:copyrightagent@springernature.com)
+Phone: +1-212-460-0220
+Email: editorial@sciam.com
 Please include all of the following in your notification:
 a physical or electronic signature of the person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive copyright that is allegedly infringed;
 a description of the copyrighted work you claim has been infringed;
 **XV. Miscellaneous** If any provision of this agreement is unlawful, void or unenforceable, the remaining provisions of the agreement will remain in place. These Terms of Use constitute the entire agreement and understanding between you and Scientific American with respect to use of the website and the contents thereof, superseding all prior or contemporaneous communications. A printed version of these Terms of Use shall be admissible in judicial or administrative proceedings based on or relating to use of the website to the same extent and subject to the same conditions as other business documents and records originally generated and maintained in printed form.
 **XVI. How to Contact Us** If you have any questions or comments about these Terms of Use, please write us at:
 Scientific American
+c/o Springer Nature
+One New York Plaza, Suite 4500
+New York, NY 10004
+N West Street, Suite 1200
+Wilmington, Delaware 19801
 Attention: Legal Department
+Email: [copyrightagent@springernature.com](https://web.archive.org/web/20240514204529/mailto:copyrightagent@springernature.com)
+Phone: +1-212-460-0220
+Email: editorial@sciam.com