"Hyperscans" Show How Brains Sync as People Interact

Social neuroscientists ask what happens at the level of neurons when you tell someone a story or a group watches movies | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

Whitening Strips Alter Proteins in Teeth

Hydrogen peroxide in whitening treatments penetrates enamel and dentin, and alters tooth proteins. Christopher Intagliata reports. | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

Mountain Glaciers Are Major Contributors to Rising Seas

They are as big a source of sea level rise as the Greenland Ice Sheet and larger than Antarctica | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

Proof Without Words

The sum of squares | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

A Geological "Orrery" Could Reveal Planetary Dynamics in Deep Time

Paul Olsen drills into the Earth’s sedimentary record for clues about the evolution of the solar system | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

Infrared Light Offers A Cooler Way to Defrost

Light tuned to a specific frequency warms ice more than water—which could come in handy for defrosting delicate biological samples. Adam Levy reports. | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

Geneticist Sydney Brenner, Who Made a Tiny Worm a Scientific Legend, Has Died

The Nobel-prizewinning biologist pioneered the use of C. elegans as an animal model | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

Coal's Days in Navajo Country Are Numbered

The Navajo Nation’s shift away from coal and toward renewables is a test case for a wider U.S. transition | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

Deadly Volcanic Flows Glide on Their Own Cushion of Air

The discovery helps explain why pyroclastic flows can travel so far, so fast | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

Gravitational Observatories Hunt for Lumpy Neutron Stars

New data reinforces the notion that these exotic stellar corpses are among the universe’s most perfect spheres | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

Do people only use 10% of their brains? (2008)

What's the matter with only exploiting a portion of our gray matter? | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

Readers Respond to the December 2018 Issue

Letters to the editor from the December 2018 issue of Scientific American | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

How the Samoan Tattoo Survived Colonialism

Several factors, from geography to group identity, helped this traditional body art endure—even as similar practices were lost in other cultures | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

Japanese Space Probe Drops Explosive on Asteroid Ryugu

Hayabusa2 released the projectile to make a crater on the asteroid's surface | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

States Target Potent Greenhouse Gases in Absence of Federal Action

The push to restrict hydrofluorocarbons is one of the clearest examples of states banding together on climate policy | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

How to Turn Failure into Success  

Research reveals strategies for staying motivated in the face of challenges  | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

How Some U.S. Cities Saw 70 Degree F Temperature Swings between January and February

The polar vortex struck in January, giving Chicago a brief blast of Arctic weather  | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

Tiny Footprints May Have Been Made by World's Smallest Nonavian Dinosaur

The raptorlike prints could also have been from juveniles of a larger species | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

Machines That Read Your Brain Waves

How to make sure noninvasive neural interfaces stay that way | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

A New View of Life on Earth, the Paradox of Quantum Reality and Other New Science Books

Book recommendations from the editors of Scientific American | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

Cyberchondriacs Just Know They Must Be Sick

Researchers are unraveling the psychological reasons why some people relentlessly self-diagnose themselves online for hours a day | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

Spider Monkeys Optimize Jungle Acoustics

The monkeys lower the pitch of their "whinnies" when they're far from the rest of their group, which might help the calls travel further through jungle foliage. Christopher Intagliata reports. | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

A Heavy-Metal Planet Orbiting a Dead Star May Foretell Our World's End

The iron core of what was once a world has been found around a white dwarf star, shedding light on the final days of planetary systems—including our own | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

Zapping Lead Pipes with Electricity Could Make Them Safer for Drinking Water

A new technology can rapidly rebuild a protective coating on existing lead pipes, but some consider this approach impractical | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

Anti-Aging Discovery Could Lead to Restorative Skin Treatments

Loss of collagen protein depletes renewal cells that serve as skin’s fountain of youth | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

Climate Preparation Report Released by Panel Previously Disbanded by Trump

The panel, which provides guidance on climate change to communities, was reconstituted by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

In Case You Missed It

Top news from around the world | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

Cats Recognize Their Own Names--Even If They Choose to Ignore Them

Domestic felines distinguish between their monikers and similar-sounding words, new research shows | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

How Calculus Was the Unsung Hero in the Fight against HIV

The story of a differential equation and a medical breakthrough | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

1969: We Used Flints for Threshing; 1919: We Wanted Airships for Travel

Innovation and discovery as chronicled in Scientific American | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

Solar Power's Benefits Don't Shine Equally on Everyone

Racial and ethnic minorities have less access to solar power, regardless of income, highlighting the need for environmental justice | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

Watch Now: Gravitational Waves as New Windows on the Universe

Astrophysicist Chad Hanna discusses how ripples in spacetime are revolutionizing our understanding of the cosmos | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

How the World's First Dengue Vaccination Drive Ended in Disaster

Is a runaway immune reaction making a dengue vaccine dangerous? | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

As Sea Ice Disappears, So Do Nutrients for Wildlife

Increasingly threatened young ice is crucial in transporting nutrients to the deep, central Arctic Ocean | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

Scientific American Is the Source of More Than 1,000 New Terms

A famous dictionary cites the magazine for new words and new meanings of old words | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

A Three-Hour Fix for Phobia, a Four-Day Therapy for OCD

Brief but intensive treatments are proving to be effective for many anxiety disorders | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

Forests Are a Low-Tech but High-Impact Way to Fight Climate Change

Keeping forests intact can go a long way toward saving the planet | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

Gravitational-wave Hunt Restarts--with a Quantum Boost

Detailed data on space-time ripples are set to pour in from LIGO and Virgo’s upgraded detectors | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

The World Health Organization Gives the Nod to Traditional Chinese Medicine. Bad Idea

The World Health Organization is now promoting unproved traditional Chinese medicine | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

"Toffee Planets" Hint at Earth's Cosmic Rarity

Exoplanets with stretchy, flowing rock may be bereft of plate tectonics—and of complex life | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

Tennessee Whiskey Relies on Missing Ingredients

Food chemists precisely measured how charcoal filtration contributes to Tennessee whiskey's smoother flavor. Christopher Intagliata reports. | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

Mars Has Methane--But Does It Have Life?

Multiple lines of evidence suggest the gas occasionally surges into the Red Planet’s atmosphere. Could it be a sign of a subsurface biosphere? | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

New York Looks to Congestion Pricing to Control Pollution

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@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

How to Prevent Perinatal Depression

New research provides strong evidence for a low tech, relatively low cost solution—without medication | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

Building a Brain Implant for Smell  

Researchers are developing a device that could restore olfaction, much as a cochlear implant restores hearing | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

Shocking Secrets of the Electric Eel

Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

Machines That Translate Wants into Actions  

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@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago

Rebuilt Wetlands Can Protect Shorelines Better Than Walls

Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 5 years ago