Poem: ‘Rocket Launch Laconic’

Science in meter and verse | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 3 months ago

Dark Matter Hunters May Never Find the Universe’s Missing Mass

Dark matter has turned out to be more elusive than physicists had hoped | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 3 months ago

Review: In Toward Eternity, People Merge with AI but Cling to Music and Poetry

A sweeping novel about a war-torn future explores personhood and identity | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 3 months ago

Review: How Henrietta Leavitt and the ‘Harvard Computers’ Launched Modern Cosmology

A new biography of astronomer Henrietta Leavitt celebrates meaning making in science | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 3 months ago

New Insights on Dinosaurs, Pain and Carbon Capture

How we’ll learn more about dark matter, quantum gravity and substitutes for lab animals | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 3 months ago

September 2024: Science History from 50, 100 and 150 Years Ago

Mysterious Mercury; spiders predict the weather | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 3 months ago

Many Older People Maintain and Even Gain Cognitive Skills

Contrary to stereotypes of the doddering elderly, research shows that half of people older than age 70 stay mentally sharp | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 3 months ago

Science Improves When People Realize They Were Wrong

Science means being able to change your mind in light of new evidence | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 3 months ago

Review: ‘Third-Ear Listening’ Is the Secret to Perceiving the World

A new book about the art and science of listening explores our sonic universe | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 3 months ago

Readers Respond to the April 2024 Issue

Letters to the editors for the April 2024 issue of Scientific American | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 3 months ago

Trump's Weird Debate Strategies Come From Creationist Tactics

A dishonest creationist debating tactic shouldn’t go unchallenged in American life. Or in national politics | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 3 months ago

Watch the Blue Supermoon Rise Tonight

August’s supermoon will be the first of four supermoons in a row | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 3 months ago

How the Harris-Walz and Trump-Vance Health Policy Records Compare

As Democrats convene in Chicago to make official their presidential and vice presidential nominees, Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz together are raising the prominence of health care as a 2024 election issue | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 3 months ago

New Satellite Will Track Methane Super Emitters

Tanager-1 is the first in a series of satellites that aim to pinpoint major emitters of carbon dioxide and methane, major greenhouse gases | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 3 months ago

People Are Overdosing on Semaglutide Drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy

Dosing errors in the medication semaglutide, prescribed as Wegovy and Ozempic, can cause severe or prolonged gastrointestinal issues that require medical attention | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 3 months ago

Bird Flu Is Infecting Pet Cats. Here’s What You Need to Know

As bird flu spreads in cats, cows and other animals, it has more opportunity to adapt to easily infect humans | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 3 months ago

Here Are the Five Health and Wellness Tools Everyone Needs Now

Prevention is key to health and wellness. Don’t wait too late to have these simple, essential, medical devices on hand | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 3 months ago

Complex, Hidden Landscape Mapped a Mile under Greenland Ice

A new Greenland map suggests how geology might shift and twist below the ice | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 3 months ago

Dark Energy Measurements Suggest the Universe Might Be Way Weirder Than We Thought

Cosmic surveys suggest the force pulling the universe apart might not be constant after all | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 3 months ago

On OceanXplorers, James Cameron Brings His Love of the Oceans to New Audiences

James Cameron takes us behind the scenes and beneath the waves in a discussion of the new National Geographic show OceanXplorers on today’s episode of Science Quickly. | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 3 months ago

The ‘Confetti Illusion’ Makes Fruit Appear Riper Than It Really Is

Fruit seems riper when it is wrapped in a net that matches its optimal color, such as a really orangey orange | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 3 months ago

How Food Banks Prevent Climate Change by Averting Carbon Emissions

Redistributing food to food banks before it’s tossed or wasted doesn’t just fight hunger—such efforts also fight climate change | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 3 months ago

1 in 4 Unresponsive People with Brain Injuries May Be Conscious

More people than we thought who are in comas or similar states can hear what is happening around them, a study shows. | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 3 months ago

Climate Change Made 2023’s Wildfire Season So Much Worse

Global warming made hot, dry weather that fuels wildfires more likely in places such as Canada, Greece and the Amazon rainforest last year, new research says | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 3 months ago

The WHO Declared Mpox a Global Health Emergency. Here's Where the Virus Is Spreading and What Vaccines and Treatments Exist

A new type of mpox has infected thousands in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and other African countries, but vaccines and treatments are hard to come by | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 3 months ago

The Paradox of 1 – 1 + 1 – 1 + 1 – 1 + …

Why a mathematician thought this infinite series explained how God created the universe | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 3 months ago

Common Causes of Food Poisoning Recalls and How to Avoid Getting Sick

Foodborne illnesses such as E. coli, Salmonella, Listeria and Norovirus can make you seriously sick. Here’s how to protect yourself | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 3 months ago

Why People Procrastinate, and How to Overcome It

To stop putting off tasks, think about the positive | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 3 months ago

How to See Sunspots with Your Own Eyes

Surging solar activity means enormous sunspots are in the space-weather forecast. Here’s how to view them safely | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 3 months ago

What a Survey On Anal Sex and Masturbation Reveals About Prostates and Pleasure

Here’s what the team at Science Vs learned about prostates and pleasure in its quest to understand the “male G-spot.” | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 3 months ago

Asteroid That Killed the Dinosaurs Came from beyond Jupiter

New evidence points to a carbonaceous asteroid from the outer solar system as the culprit for Earth’s most recent mass extinction | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 3 months ago

Ants Bite Off Each Other's Limbs to Save Them from Deadly Infections

Carpenter ants carry out lifesaving amputations on their colony siblings to save them | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 3 months ago

Postal Service Ignoring Heat Risks to Mail Carriers, Investigation Finds

Internal records show the U.S. Postal Service has tried to get workers out of air-conditioned offices. The allegations come one year after the agency was accused of falsifying heat-training records | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 3 months ago

Tardigrade Fossils Reveal When ‘Water Bears’ Became Indestructible

252 million years ago, tardigrades may have escaped extinction using this one weird trick | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 3 months ago

Three of the Strangest Paradoxes in Mathematics

A barber shaves all men who don’t shave themselves. Does he shave himself? Mathematics offers explanations for this and other curious contradictions | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 3 months ago

Eating Disorders Are Not Just a Rich White Girl Disease

Misconceptions that eating disorders mostly afflict white, affluent, young females have led to disparities in the treatment of these deadly diseases | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 3 months ago

Google’s Project Green Light Uses AI to Take on City Traffic

A Google experiment to improve stoplights shows early positive results. But AI-assisted software won’t replace human traffic engineers just yet | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 3 months ago

Brain-to-Speech Tech Good Enough for Everyday Use Debuts in a Man with ALS

A highly robust brain-computer interface boasts low error rates and a durability that allows a user to talk all day long | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 3 months ago

Drop Everything and Watch This Stunning Video of Northern Lights from the Space Station Now

Coronal mass ejections from the sun sparked dazzling auroras that were visible from the ground and from space | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 3 months ago

Cleaned Up Shipping Emissions Have Revealed Additional Global Warming

New shipping regulations set limits on sulfur in maritime fuel, reducing harmful pollution but inadvertently ceasing a cooling effect on Earth’s climate | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 3 months ago

SpaceX Set to Launch First-Ever Crew over Earth's Poles

Launching in late 2024, the Fram2 mission will be the first human spaceflight to explore the planet's polar regions | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 3 months ago

Stonehenge’s Strangest Rock Came from 500 Miles Away

A new analysis of Stonehenge’s “Altar Stone” suggests Neolithic people walked or sailed some 500 miles to transport the six-ton boulder | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 3 months ago

Mars Hides Colossal Ocean Deep Below Its Surface

An underground Martian ocean could hold enough liquid to cover the Red Planet with a mile of water | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 3 months ago

Meet Saturn’s ‘Death Star’ Moon and the Intriguing Ocean It May Hide

The possibility of liquid water beneath the surface of Saturn’s moon Mimas may offer clues to how such seas form, and another spot to search for life | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 3 months ago

Mystery Droplets Inside Cells May Play Vital Roles in Life

The novel physics of biomolecular condensates could explain how these droplets help cells do their jobs | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 3 months ago

How An Astronomer Responded when Space Junk Fell on a Nearby Farm

The space junk polluting low-Earth orbit sometimes makes its way to Earth. Here’s how one astronomer responded when SpaceX debris fell on a nearby farm. | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 3 months ago

Hurricane Prediction Relies on the Tricky Art of Identifying Which Storms Will Grow

New techniques are helping forecasters spot storms that could develop into dangerous hurricanes earlier than ever | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 3 months ago

FDA’s Rejection of MDMA Psychotherapy for Trauma Draws Criticism from Psychedelic Experts

Many experts criticize the FDA’s recent negative ruling on MDMA therapy for PTSD, saying the agency ignored solid overall results from clinical trials | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 3 months ago