Can a Cartoon Raccoon Keep Schoolkids Safe from COVID-19?

Well, why not? It worked for Smokey the Bear and forest fires | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

Altered Mice Breathe Water Instead of Air

Originally published in August 1968 | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

Nine Important Things We've Learned About the Coronavirus Pandemic So Far

Some early public health messages about COVID-19 have been overturned | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

Misdiagnosing Our Cyberhealth

Why do we ignore information that could improve our ability to predict the odds of a personal cyberattack? | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

How Do Scientists Determine the Ages of Human Ancestors, Fossilized Dinosaurs and Other Organisms?

Experts explain how radiometric dating allows them to reconstruct ancient time lines | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

How Dozens of Languages Help Build Gender Stereotypes

Usage patterns shape biases worldwide, whether in Japanese, Persian or English | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

After Being Swallowed Alive, Water Beetle Stages 'Backdoor' Escape from Frog's Gut

Life’s journey sometimes takes you to unexpected places | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

Wildfires Can Poison Drinking Water--Here's How Communities Can Better Prepare

Using less plastic in water meters and other building code changes could help prevent contamination | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

U.S. Offshore Wind Needs to Clear a Key Hurdle: Connecting to the Grid

A piecemeal approach risks overloading electrical systems and tangle of deep sea cables | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

NASA Astronauts Splashdown Safely after Historic SpaceX Mission

The first-ever crew-carrying commercial orbital mission is a major spaceflight milestone | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

Fluoridated Water Criticized as Socialized Medicine

Originally published in February 1955 | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

Paired Comparisons Could Mean Better Witness Identifications

Compared with traditional lineup techniques, a series of two-faces-at-a-time choices led to more accurate identification by study witnesses. | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

Sequential Comparisons Could Mean Better Witness Identifications

Compared to traditional lineup techniques, a series of two-faces-at-a-time choices led to more accurate identification by study witnesses. | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

How to Evaluate COVID-19 News without Freaking Out

Disinformation expert Carl Bergstrom gives tips on how to stay calm and make sense pandemic news | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

How to Evaluate COVID-19 News without Freaking Out

Disinformation expert Carl Bergstrom gives tips on how to stay calm and make sense pandemic news | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

We'll Never Fix Systemic Racism by Being Polite

Contrary to the sanitized version we sometimes hear about the civil rights movement, change was not achieved solely by protest marches and people singing “We Shall Overcome” | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

Health Care Is Long Overdue for a Social Justice Reckoning

Biases in the system put the lives and well-being of women and minorities at risk | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

Neural Switch Flips on Aggression in Male Mice

A separate set of cells in the same region regulate sexual behavior | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

Black Holes: Going to Extremes

Once dismissed as a mathematical curiosity, black holes are so strange they almost defy belief. Since their existence was confirmed, research into the nature of black holes has opened up new vistas in physics, and in this eBook, we examine some of the most fascinating discoveries … | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

Foxes Have Dined on Our Leftovers for 30,000 Years

Analysis of fox fossils found evidence that they scavenged from wolf and bear kills until H. sapiens supplied plenty of horse and reindeer remains. | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

Are We Living in a Computer Simulation?

High-profile physicists and philosophers gathered to debate whether we are real or virtual—and what it means either way | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

Medical Schools Need to Get Better at Addressing Structural Racism

An incoming medical students points out that the field has always been political, prioritizing some bodies over others | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

A Movie of the Evolving Universe Is Potentially Scary

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory will reveal all sorts of short-term changes in the cosmos—and some could have dire consequences for humanity | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

A Movie of the Evolving Universe, Potentially Scary

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory will reveal all sorts of short-term changes in the cosmos—and some could have dire consequences for humanity | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

The Weirdness of Watching Yourself on Zoom

We learn as babies that it's ourselves we see in a mirror—but online meeting rooms are a whole different thing | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

Mexico Caves Reveal Ancient Ocher Mining

Now submerged caves in the Yucatán Peninsula contain remains of ocher-mining operations that date back at least 10,000 years. | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

Mexico Caves Reveal Ancient Ochre Mining

Now-submerged caves in the Yucatán Peninsula contain remains of ochre mining operations that date back at least 10,000 years. | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

Coronavirus News Roundup, July 25-July 31

Pandemic highlights for the week | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

With Fires, Heat and a Cyclone, Arctic Breaks Melting Record

Sea ice loss could ultimately beat the record low season of 2012 | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

Fauci Optimistic About COVID-19 Vaccines, Though Immunity Unknowns Complicate Development

Teams are starting to test vaccines using messenger RNA or chimpanzee cold viruses to inoculate humans. Will their benefits last? | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

Rubber Airplane Propellers Can Eliminate Icing

Originally published in June 1994 | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

Concerns about Waning COVID-19 Immunity Are Likely Overblown

The decline seen in some studies is normal, experts say. But scientists must wait to see whether infection confers long-term protection | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

Why Are Blue Whales So Gigantic?

Dinosaurs were big, but these are the largest animals in the history of the planet—and we’re just beginning to understand the reasons | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

Do Animals Anticipate Earthquakes? Sensors Hint They Do

Cows, sheep and dogs increased their activity before tremors, seemingly reacting in part to one another | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

How Your Homes and Buildings Affect You

Journalist and author Emily Anthes talks about her book The Great Indoors: The Surprising Science of How Buildings Shape Our Behavior, Health, and Happiness. | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

Los Angeles Accelerates Efforts to Electrify Its Infamous Traffic

The city aims to add more electric chargers and to convert its bus fleet to meet its emissions-reduction goals | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

NASA Has Launched the Most Ambitious Mars Rover Ever Built: Here's What Happens Next

Perseverance will stow away rocks for eventual delivery to Earth, and will listen for Martian sounds for the first time | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

The Scientific Question Machine

Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

Vintage Scientific American Covers by Fish Illustrator Stanley Meltzoff

The latest science book recommendations from our editors | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

The Mystery of Titan's Expanding Orbit

A surprising discovery in the outer solar system could change our ideas about moons that orbit giant planets | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

Plants Have Hormones, Too, and Tweaking Them Could Improve Food Supply

Crops sense and respond to drought, pests and other stressors in surprising ways, researchers are discovering | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

Disaster Management Is Too White, Official Tells Congress

More diversity is needed to reverse long-standing inequities in disaster response policies | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

Why NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover Uses Nuclear Energy

Radioactive plutonium is crucial for keeping this and other power-hungry deep-space missions warm and working for yeras on end | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

One Mystery of Stonehenge's Origins Has Finally Been Solved

Detailed testing of the chemical signature of the Neolithic monument’s most prominent large stones pinpointed where they came from | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

One Mystery of Stonehenge's Origins Has Finally Been Solved

Detailed testing of the chemical signature of the Neolithic monument’s most prominent large stones pinpointed where they came from | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

The Real Reason for Daylight Savings Time: Gas

Originally published in August 1908 | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

The Real Reason for Daylight Saving Time: Gas

Originally published in August 1908 | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

GDP Is the Wrong Tool for Measuring What Matters

It’s time to replace gross domestic product with real metrics of well-being and sustainability | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago