How Do I Know If My Tap Water Is Safe?

Everyday Einstein explains what contaminates our water, how it gets there, and what we can do to test it | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

Scientists Uncover California's Hidden Earthquakes

Nearly two million tiny tremors could help explain the inner workings of key faults | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

A Genetic Risk Score Tries to Predict Whether A Child Will Become Obese

A still-controversial test could be administered to toddlers to gauge their chances | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

It's A Match: Satellite and Ground Measurements Agree on Warming

The consenus gives confidence to satellite estimates of temperature rise in remote areas with few weather stations | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

How We Roll: Study Shows We're More Lone Wolves than Team Players

Results may explain why collective action on climate change and health policy is so difficult | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

Why Are Girls Getting Their Periods So Young?

Female puberty is starting earlier and earlier, with worrying consequences for women’s health | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

How Old Are Saturn's Rings? The Debate Rages On

Pinning down the ring system’s age has profound implications for the entire Saturnian system | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

Liver Illness Strikes Latino Children Like a "Silent Tsunami"

Fatty liver disease, linked to gene interactions with a high-sugar diet, can cause cancer and organ failure | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

What Chickens Can Teach Hearing Researchers

At an event honoring Nobel and Kavli Prize winners, neuroscientists James Hudspeth and Robert Fettiplace talked about the physiology of hearing and the possibility of restoring hearing loss.   | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

Pig Experiment Challenges Assumptions around Brain Damage in People

The restoration of some structures and cellular functions in pig brains hours after death could intensify debates about when human organs should be removed for transplantation, warn Stuart Youngner and Insoo Hyun | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

Watch Now: Einstein's Scientific Revolution and the Limits of Quantum Theory

Cosmologist Lee Smolin says that at certain key points, the scientific worldview is based on fallacious reasoning | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

Part-revived Pig Brains Raise Slew of Ethical Quandaries

Researchers need guidance on animal use and the many issues opened up by a new study on whole-brain restoration, argue Nita A. Farahany, Henry T. Greely and Charles M. Giattino | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

How France Can Rebuild Notre Dame

An expert offers a scientific perspective on what has been lost and what can be restored | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

Heat Pumps Gain Traction as Renewable Energy Grows

A switch from natural gas-powered home heating and cooling could be cheaper and reduce carbon emissions | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

Stanford Clears Three Faculty Members of "CRISPR Babies" Involvement

A review concluded that the scientists did not take part in a Chinese researcher’s experiment to edit the genomes of twin human embryos | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

'Oumuamua-like Objects Might Supercharge Planet Formation

Showers of interstellar debris could speed up the assembly of worlds around young stars | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

Don't Ignore Your Core

Get-Fit Guy explains why core strength is crucial and provides a core workout that will keep you fit, healthy, and mobile | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

How Long Do Neutrons Live? Physicists Close in on Decades-old Puzzle

Researchers are narrowing down their measurements of how long the subatomic particle survives on its own | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

Nobelist Says System of Science Offers Life Lessons

At an event honoring Nobel and Kavli Prize winners, economist Paul Romer talked about how the social system of science offers hope for humanity and for how we can live with each other. | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

Heaviest U.S. Rains Will Happen More Often Even if Warming Targets Are Met

Extreme rainfall projections inform plans to increase infrastructure resilience | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

Do Microdoses of LSD Change Your Mind?

A rigorous study has intriguing results | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

To Prevent Women from Dying in Childbirth, First Stop Blaming Them

Two-thirds of all U.S. maternal deaths are considered preventable. Racism—not race—is a critical factor | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

What is the Point of a Period?

Age-old taboos against menstruation have led to a lack of research on how women's cycles work, with serious consequences for their health | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

Fertile Ground: The Long-Neglected Science of Female Reproductive Health

When the discussion of reproductive health is dominated by the political will to control it, gaps in medical research get overshadowed | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

Inconceivable: The Science of Women's Reproductive Health

What we don’t know, why we don’t know it, and where we go from here | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

Cuttlefish Are Dazzling, But Do They Dream?

The marine mollusks display behavior that resembles sleep, including cycles of rapid eye movement  | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

How Much Fat Can You Lose?

The faster you are losing weight, the less fat you're likely to be losing | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

Microplastics Are Blowing in the Wind

Atmospheric currents are transporting plastic pollution into remote, pristine areas, showing the global nature of the problem | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

Washington Aims to Decarbonize its Electricity Grid

It is the fourth state to pursue such a plan, with a couple others looking at following suit | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

Environmental Thinker Bill McKibben Sounds Warning on Technology

Known for climate change work, the pioneer says global warming, AI and genetic engineering are self-inflicted threats to humanity | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

How Climate-Friendly Would Flying Cars Be?

Flying electric cars would have lower emissions over long trips than standard electric vehicles | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

Squeezed Potassium Atoms Straddle Liquid and Solid

At extreme pressures, potassium atoms can be both liquid and solid at the same time, a phase of matter known as 'chain melt.' Christopher Intagliata reports.  | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

A Second Planet May Orbit Earth's Nearest Neighboring Star

Informally called “Proxima c,” the candidate world appears to be six times the mass of Earth, and orbits in the frigid outskirts of the Proxima Centauri system | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

"Hair Dryer" Winds Could Strain Vulnerable Antarctic Ice Shelf

Warm, dry winds can cause major melt as they sweep across the ice, even during frigid winter months | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

Behind the Buzz: How Ketamine Changes the Depressed Patient's Brain

The anesthetic-cum-party drug restores the ability to make connections among brain cells | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

The Mathematics of (Hacking) Passwords

The science and art of password setting and cracking continues to evolve, as does the war between password users and abusers | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

Urban Coyote Evolution Favors the Bold

Coyotes become fearless around people in just a few generations—which isn’t good for their longterm co-existence with humans in cities. Jason G. Goldman reports. | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

After A $14 Billion Upgrade, New Orleans' Levees Are Sinking

Sea level rise and ground subsidence will render the flood barriers inadequate in just four years | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

Israeli Spacecraft Fails to Make First Private Lunar Landing

Private organization SpaceIL’s Beresheet lander crashes down on the moon following engine and communications problems | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

Philippine Fossils Add Surprising New Species to Human Family Tree

The second tiny ancestor found in the islands of southeast Asia, Homo luzonensis challenges prevailing views of early human dispersal and adaptability | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

Tests on Astronaut and Twin Brother Highlight Spaceflight's Human Impact

NASA Study reports physiological and behavioral results that could shape future space missions | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

Mars Methane Hunt Comes up Empty, Flummoxing Scientists

Trace Gas Orbiter spacecraft did not find the gas in red planet’s atmosphere during its first months of operation | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

Environment Watchdogs Harness AI to Track Overflowing Factory Farm Waste

Floods dump tons of pathogen-laden manure into U.S. waterways, often from hard-to-identify farms | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

Computers Turn an Ear on New York City

NYU’s “Sounds of New York City” project listens to the city—and then, with the help of citizen scientists, teaches machines to decode the soundscape. Jim Daley reports.  | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

How to Disclose a Mental Health Issue

Should you tell your best friend? Your date? Your impatient boss? This week, Savvy Psychologist Dr. Ellen Hendriksen walks you through this tough decision | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

An Exit Chute from the Universe: The Story of a Historic Effort to Image a Black Hole

After more than a decade of effort, a global network of radio telescopes has revealed the first-ever picture of an enigmatic hole in spacetime | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

At Last, A Black Hole's Image Revealed

The Event Horizon Telescope captures one of the universe’s most mysterious objects | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

A New Way to Detect Parkinson’s—by Smell

Discovery of odorous markers for neurodegenerative disease | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago