The Perils of "Survivorship Bias"

Computational and behavioral scientist Sendhil Mullainathan describes how to avoid a common fault in reasoning | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

Light Pollution Isn't Just a Problem for Stargazers

Artificial illumination is helping to devastate the earth’s insects  | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

Slaughter House Designed to Dump Waste into River

Originally published in August 1866 | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

Slaughterhouse Designed to Dump Waste into River

Originally published in August 1866 | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

Footprint Find Could Be a "Holy Grail" of Pterosaur Research

How early pterosaurs walked on the ground has been a complete mystery. Now the first known trackways of their footprints offer answers | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

Is an Antidepressant Right for You? Ask Your Brain Waves

EEGs successfully picked out which depressed individuals got better on the drug Zoloft | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

Solar Orbiter Launches on a Mission to Study the Sun's Poles

The probe's long, historic journey is underway | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

Second Year of Major Spring Floods Forecast for U.S. Heartland

Swollen rivers could impede levee repairs, inundate homes and delay the planting of crops | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

A Proposed EPA Regulation Would Endanger the Public's Health

Under a new rule, the agency would be prevented from using crucial studies that include confidential information | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

Bombs Dropped from Zeppelins Are Highly Accurate

Originally published in May 1914 | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

Meet "Spikey," a Possible Pair of Merging Supermassive Black Holes

A flare predicted for this spring could confirm the object is indeed two monstrous black holes coming together | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

Why Do We Laugh?

We laugh even before we can speak, but why? Science has some answers to the mystery of human laughter, and some of them might surprise you | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

Readers Respond to the October 2019 Issue

Letters to the editor from the October 2019 issue of Scientific American | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

Vindicating the Hot Hand with the Mathematics of Streaks

Nearly every basketball player, coach or fan believes that some shooters have an uncanny tendency to experience the hot hand | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

Can Avoiding Caffeine Boost Your Athletic Performance?

The ergogenic effects of caffeine on muscle strength and aerobic endurance are significant but do you have to forego your morning cup of joe for a while to really feel those | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

How Quickly Can Iran Make a Nuclear Bomb?

With an international deal in serious jeopardy, Iran is not racing to build nuclear weapons—but its capabilities are growing | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

Neandertals Tooled Around with Clams

Neandertals ate clams and then modified the hard shells into tools for cutting and scraping.    | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

What to Eat to Prevent Kidney Stones

Passing a kidney stone is excruciating! Here are some tips to reduce the chances that you'll ever have to endure that pain or relive past misery | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

Rising Temperatures Are Partly to Blame in Bumblebees' Decline

The combination of climate change, habitat loss and pesticide use is leading to local extinctions of bee species | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

Like Taxicabs, New Airplanes Will Need Roofs

Originally published in January 1912 | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

How Does the New Coronavirus Compare with the Flu?

The flu has already caused about 10,000 deaths this season in the U.S. alone | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

Ancient Giant Galaxy Grew Fast and Died Young

Astronomers are puzzling over how this cosmic giant arose and expired so quickly in the early universe | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

New Process Could Provide More Sustainable Plastic Production

A common component of plastics could come from existing carbon sources | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

Fingering Fake Whiskies With Isotopes

Whiskies claimed to be from the 19th century are revealed to be made with much more recently grown barley thanks to the unique isotopic fingerprint of the nuclear testing era.   | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

Fingering Fake Whiskeys with Isotopes

Whiskeys claimed to be from the 19th century are revealed to be made with much more recently grown barley, thanks to the unique isotopic fingerprint of the nuclear-testing era.   | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

How Does a Mammalian Brain Forget?

A mouse study shows immune cells gobbling up the connections between memory-associated neurons | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

Why Does Sugar Taste So Good?

Put down that jelly donut and learn the evolutionary science behind why sugar makes us salivate | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

Ocean Currents Are Speeding Up, Driven by Faster Winds

Climate change may in part be spurring the acceleration, which could change how heat and nutrients are pushed around the oceans | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

Rocks, Rockets and Robots: The Plan to Bring Mars Down to Earth

Coordinated by NASA and ESA, an ambitious effort to retrieve samples from the Red Planet faces major obstacles | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

Navy Suggests Clocks Be Set to "Boston Mean Time"

Originally published in September 1849 | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

Rocks, Rockets and Robots: The Plan to Bring Mars Down to Earth

Coordinated by NASA and ESA, an ambitious effort to retrieve samples from the Red Planet faces major obstacles | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

Having an Albatross Around Your Boat

By outfitting 169 albatrosses with GPS data loggers, scientists were able to track fishing boats apparently trying to hide their location. Christopher Intagliata reports. | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

Will the New Coronavirus Keep Spreading or Not? You Have to Know One Little Number

Whenever there’s a new outbreak, scientists rush to calculate a number called R0, or R-naught | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

Trump Touts Tree Planting, But Ignores Climate in State of the Union Speech

Several GOP lawmakers have pushed tree planting as a climate mitigation strategy, though scientists say it alone will not curb emissions | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

MICE Cold: Collaboration Demonstrates Muon Ionization Cooling

Physicists take the first step toward taming the short-lived particle | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

How Coronaviruses Cause Infection--from Colds to Deadly Pneumonia

The novel coronavirus outbreak raises questions about how such pathogens evolve and what makes infections mild or severe | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

How Coronaviruses Cause Infection--from Colds to Deadly Pneumonia

The novel coronavirus outbreak raises questions about how such pathogens evolve and what makes infections mild or severe | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

Step Aside, CRISPR: RNA Editing is Taking Off

Making changes to the molecular messengers that create proteins might offer flexible therapies for cancer, pain or high cholesterol, in addition to genetic disorders | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

Meteor Strikes Much Greater than Thought

Originally published in February 1960 | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

Peru's Peatlands Could Greatly Accelerate Global Warming

The vast region may stay wet—or dry up and burn—depending on whether indigenous people want to continue to work the land | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

Can You Use Yoga to Improve Your Athletic Performance?

Get-Fit Guy picks the brain of yoga practitioner, Abi Carver of Yoga15.com, to find out how she works with athletes to do just that | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

Miami Is the "Most Vulnerable" Coastal City Worldwide

In the next two decades, sea level rise, storm surge and winds will chew away at Florida’s $1 trillion economy, a new report warns | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

Cost to Message London Is "Exorbitant"

Originally published in August 1866 | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

No One Can Explain Why Planes Stay in the Air

Do recent explanations solve the mysteries of aerodynamic lift? | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

Penicillium Fungus Hosts Surprising Opioid Compounds 

Next-generation opioids may spring from a tiny fungus protein  | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

Science News Briefs from All Over

A few brief reports about international science and technology from around the world, including one from Congo about a toad that has evolved coloring that makes it look like a deadly snake's head. | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

U.S. Army Corps Looks to Avoid Repeat of 2019 Midwest Floods

The Corps will study how to improve the vast flood control systems along the lower reaches of the Missouri River | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago

School Teaches Lions How to Star in Movies

Originally published in May 1914 | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 4 years ago