A galaxy cluster bends light from seven background galaxies around it, letting astronomers peer into space and time | Continue reading
Efficient machines, paper ballots and human checks make the U.S. voting system robust | Continue reading
Analysis of a strain of the virus circulating in Central Africa shows genetic mutations indicative of sustained human-to-human spread | Continue reading
People are really stressed about the U.S. presidential election. A psychiatrist offers several self-help methods to reduce feelings of despair | Continue reading
The discovery of a new prime number highlights the rising price of mathematical gold | Continue reading
Long before it orbited Earth, the Hubble Space Telescope starred in a famous Superman comic | Continue reading
A heart attack unleashes immune cells that stimulate neurons in the brain, leading to restorative slumber | Continue reading
Pesky leaks on the International Space Station aren’t the most serious issue facing U.S. human spaceflight | Continue reading
At dusk and dawn, the sky dances with three phases of in-between light | Continue reading
The outcome of the 2024 U.S. presidential election could reshape policies from health care at home to nuclear proliferation abroad | Continue reading
Torrential rain, made worse by climate change, has lashed Spain, with Valencia bearing the brunt of the floodwaters | Continue reading
Humans and pigs could both serve as mixing vessels for a bird flu–seasonal flu hybrid, posing a risk of wider spread | Continue reading
When chemist Dora Richardson’s employer decided to terminate the breast cancer research on the drug Tamoxifen in the early 1970s, she and her colleagues continued the work in secret. | Continue reading
The 2024 presidential election will have enormous consequences for the climate, and the health and future of children | Continue reading
A strange supernova remnant first appeared as a “guest star” seen in 1181 by sky watchers in China and Japan | Continue reading
Election polls are increasingly vulnerable to huge mistakes | Continue reading
Put your own spin on a zoetrope with homemade drawings—or carve one into a pumpkin | Continue reading
No, but the direction of our hair whorls could teach us about human development | Continue reading
A science photo book probes the colors we can see—and even “forbidden” colors we can’t | Continue reading
Scientific American staff and sleep experts share advice on how to get better sleep in the stressful days leading up to the U.S. presidential election—and those that come after | Continue reading
Global temperatures through September point to 2024 besting 2023 as the hottest year on record. How many future years set records depends in part on the outcome of the 2024 U.S. presidential election | Continue reading
A review of 47,282 tree species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature found that more than one third are at risk of extinction | Continue reading
During the pandemic, researcher Daniela Rößler couldn't go out, so she started looking around her for her next research project. Then she found a really big one, and it had been right in front of her all along. | Continue reading
If the influenza virus infecting cattle workers starts a pandemic, help in the form of a vaccine is months away | Continue reading
When voters decide between two alternatives, as is effectively the case in the U.S. presidential election, it usually comes down to a neck-and-neck race. Researchers can now explain this mathematically | Continue reading
Recent studies show that the Supreme Court ruling that overturned the national right to abortion led to a sharp increase in people—particularly younger, single individuals—seeking a vasectomy or a tubal sterilization procedure | Continue reading
This blazingly-fast star is shooting through the Milky Way with a planet in tow | Continue reading
Host Rachel Feltman and behavioral scientist Coltan Scrivner explore our fascination with fear and what drives our obsession with all things spooky. | Continue reading
An ancient temple made by Arabian immigrants from the Nabataean culture has finally been found off the Italian coast | Continue reading
Scientific American columnist Martin Gardner started a long mathematical conversation that continues today | Continue reading
To heal political division, start with common moral ground, a study suggests | Continue reading
A self-building sponge that efficiently collects gold could eliminate some harsh methods used to process e-waste | Continue reading
Anti-intellectualism is a prevalent and pernicious force in American public life. Stimulating interest in science may combat its influence | Continue reading
Harris recently proposed a Medicare plan that would cover at-home health aides and other long-term care services, which could provide much needed relief to older adults and caregivers | Continue reading
A small number of fast-moving wildfires cause almost all the property damage by forcing firefighters to focus on saving lives | Continue reading
A new United Nations expert study of the effects of nuclear war would spur informed and inclusive global debate on what nuclear war means for people and the planet today | Continue reading
These therapies dampen fears absent direct exposure—no need to be in the room with a live tarantula | Continue reading
We cover a 3.26-billion-year-old meteorite impact, the spread of bird flu and a scurvy case study that serves as a cautionary tale in this week’s news roundup. | Continue reading
A special spacecraft will guide the space station through Earth’s atmosphere, but what about other large pieces of space debris? | Continue reading
Convicted of a crime that never happened, Roberson’s case is a prime example of how the U.S. legal system often fails to recognize advances in scientific knowledge | Continue reading
The world is well on track to blow past a goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius that many countries have put at the center of their climate efforts | Continue reading
The Whip-Poor-Will’s shrill, death-proclaiming song populates the works of Stephen King and H.P. Lovecraft. But the bird itself has fallen on hard times. Could it become a ghost of Halloweens past? | Continue reading
We can anticipate many false claims as we approach the U.S. presidential election—including untrue allegations of mass voting by noncitizens or of “suspicious vans” outside polling booths—and should quickly counter them, a misinformation expert says | Continue reading
New rolling, hopping robots navigate via fungus | Continue reading
Wegovy and similar weight-loss medications are becoming widely prescribed for teenagers with obesity, but little is known about their long-term effects | Continue reading
The Spanish brought peaches to the U.S., but Indigenous peoples spread the fruit across the eastern half of the U.S. | Continue reading
If you’ve ever seen faces in clouds, these heavenly entities will leave you haunted | Continue reading
An open body of water can be particularly eerie. It’s part of what led creator and author Geo Rutherford to make her viral videos on Spooky Lakes. | Continue reading