Hurricane Helene Disrupted Abortion Care in the South

Damage from Hurricane Helene forced the only abortion clinic in western North Carolina to shutter, disrupting health care for pregnant people across a large region | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 29 days ago

These Hornets Can Thrive on Just Alcohol without Getting Buzzed

Social wasps can hold their liquor | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 29 days ago

Apples Have Never Tasted So Delicious. Here’s Why

Apple experts divide time into “before Honeycrisp” and “after Honeycrisp,” and apples have never tasted so good | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 29 days ago

The Forgotten Developer of Tamoxifen, a Lifesaving Breast Cancer Therapy

Her name was on the patent for tamoxifen, but Dora Richardson’s story was lost until now | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 29 days ago

Climate Change Is Raising the Temperature on Global Conflict

In a new book, a long-time foreign correspondent examines the underappreciated links between climate change and violent conflict | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 29 days ago

Anyone Can Learn Echolocation in Just 10 Weeks—And It Remodels Your Brain

Human echolocation repurposes parts of the brain’s visual cortex for sound, even in sighted people | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 29 days ago

The Daring Russian Geneticist Whose Experiments on Silver Foxes Explained Domestication Has Died

Lyudmila Trut devoted her life to studying the process of domestication by selectively breeding friendly foxes | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 29 days ago

Largest-Ever Pair of Black Hole Jets Stretches 23 Million Light-Years

Supermassive black holes can expel jets of material so vast and powerful that they may shape the large-scale structure of the cosmos | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 1 month ago

Lost Silk Road Cities Discovered High in the Mountains of Central Asia

On the Silk Road, these lost twin cities may have sustained themselves in a foreboding landscape with metallurgy and commerce | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 1 month ago

How Society’s Beauty Standards Could Impact Breast Cancer Outcomes

An epidemiologist explores a troubling rise in early-onset breast cancer diagnoses and discusses the potential link to chronic exposure to endocrine disruptors. | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 1 month ago

Jeff VanderMeer on How Scientific Uncertainty Inspires His Weird Fiction

In Absolution, the fourth novel in Jeff VanderMeer’s Southern Reach saga, scientists try to know the unknowable | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 1 month ago

As Hurricane Floodwaters Recede, a Public Health Threat Rises

A potable water shortage and a toxic stew of sewage and other pollutants that Hurricane Helene’s flooding left behind have prompted a race to avert a public health crisis in North Carolina | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 1 month ago

Anosmia, the Inability to Smell, Changes How People Breathe

A small study of people with congenital anosmia found changes in breathing that suggest the condition may affect more than just the ability to smell | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 1 month ago

Indigenous People Mix Ancient and Modern Science to Protect Salmon and Bears

The Heiltsuk of British Columbia are using a mix of traditional principles and modern implementation to protect salmon and bears in their territory | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 1 month ago

We Need More Meds, Not Beds, to Help People Recovering from Addiction

People recovering from substance use disorders need homes, jobs and medication-centered, quality health care, not just a bed in a residential treatment center | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 1 month ago

How Earth's Early Life Thrived amid Catastrophic Asteroid Impacts

A gigantic space rock that slammed into Earth more than three billion years ago grievously wounded the biosphere—and then helped it heal | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 1 month ago

How Your Brain Processes Zero (It’s Not Exactly ‘Nothing’)

What we think about when we think about “zilch” is surprisingly complex, neuroscientists find | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 1 month ago

Thunderstorm Gamma-Ray Flashes May Be Missing Link for Lightning Bolts

Observations from a retrofitted spy plane hint at a connection between powerful gamma-ray flashes and a thunderstorm’s lightning | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 1 month ago

Did Decriminalizing Drugs Such As Fentanyl Cause Opioid Overdose Increase?

Oregon decriminalized hard drugs in 2021 and recriminalized them last month. A new analysis shows the laws likely had little effect on opioid deaths | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 1 month ago

Worldschooling Is Catching On. Here’s What You Need to Know

People are pulling their kids out of traditional education to learn while they travel. Data on educational success are limited, but there are other reasons to consider worldschooling | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 1 month ago

Whooping Cough Makes a Comeback, Microbes Evolve to Eat Cleaners, and Solar Maximum Is Confirmed

Kick off the week by catching up on the latest science news. | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 1 month ago

The Colors of Fall Leaves Are Shaped by Climate Change and Tree Health

A tree’s fall palette offers a glimpse at its health and the weather it has experienced in a given year | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 1 month ago

How GPS Tracking of Teens 24/7 Impacts Parent-Child Relationships

Phone apps can tell whether your kid is playing hooky. But remotely surveilling your child might not be great for navigating the trials of the teen years | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 1 month ago

Long COVID Is Harming Too Many Kids

Pediatric long COVID is more common than many thought, and we keep letting kids be reinfected with new variants | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 1 month ago

Why Does the Moon Look Bigger Near the Horizon?

The rising moon looks huge on the horizon, but it’s all in your head | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 1 month ago

AI Regulation and the Challenges of Misinformation in the 2024 Presidential Election

The next U.S. president will have to contend with regulations around AI—and the electorate is already facing AI-generated misinformation. | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 1 month ago

Small Business Disaster Loans to Hurricane Victims Are Halted as Cash Runs Out

The Small Business Association has announced that loans to those affected by hurricanes and other disasters have been halted to wait for more money from Congress. But the House speaker says nothing will happen until after the presidential election | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 1 month ago

Don’t Panic. AI Isn’t Coming to End Scientific Exploration

Science is filled with tools that once seemed revolutionary and are now just part of the research tool kit. That time may have come for artificial intelligence | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 1 month ago

Millions of Aging Americans Are Facing Dementia by Themselves

In a health care system that assumes older adults have family caregivers to help them, those facing dementia alone often fall through the cracks | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 1 month ago

'Wonder Drug' Explores Thalidomide’s Secret History and Harms in the U.S.

In her book Wonder Drug, Jennifer Vanderbes explores the history of thalidomide’s secret history—and harms—in the U.S. | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 1 month ago

Donald Trump Wants to Make Eugenics Great Again. Let’s Not

Trump’s anti-immigrant good-gene-bad-gene screeds are nothing but factless eugenics for a new era | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 1 month ago

Ancient ‘Age of Dinosaurs’ Seafloor Found beneath Pacific Ocean

A vast, ancient slab of seafloor plunged beneath the Pacific Ocean and has hovered in Earth’s mantle for more than 120 million years, a new study suggests | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 1 month ago

You Don’t Need Words to Think

Brain studies show that language is not essential for the cognitive processes that underlie thought | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 1 month ago

Biden’s Withdrawal Made Containing War in the Middle East Harder

As tensions soar in the Middle East, the president’s lame duck status hinders efforts to manage the escalation of risks in the region | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 1 month ago

Hurricane Helene Damage Strains Dialysis Care Nationwide

Hurricane Helene devastated a North Carolina facility that produces peritoneal dialysis fluid, which is used by about 80,000 people nationally | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 1 month ago

Numbers Are Persuasive—If Used in Moderation

Despite high levels of innumeracy and math anxiety, people often appreciate numeric data | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 1 month ago

Flying Conservationists Teach Endangered Birds to Migrate

Inspired by a classic movie, conservationists are teaching endangered Northern Bald Ibises to fly south for the winter | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 1 month ago

Climate Change Action Depends on the 2024 Election

Harris would continue the Biden administration’s landmark climate efforts; Trump would roll the country back to more oil and gas | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 1 month ago

How Implicit Bias Affects Your Medical Care

How do you stop implicit bias from getting in the way of better health? This doctor wants to make learning how to manage bias as important as learning how to suture. | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 1 month ago

SpaceX Catches a Falling Starship—A First in Spaceflight History

SpaceX’s fifth Starship flight test concluded with mechanical arms snatching the descending rocket booster out of the air | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 1 month ago

Climate-Fueled Disasters Are Raising Insurance Rates

Increasingly intense hurricanes, wildfires and other climate disasters have forced these state-run backstop insurance groups into a role typically assumed by the private sector as the primary insurer within their borders | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 1 month ago

Smart Tech Would Make Your Office Building Greener

Implementing smart technologies such as demand-controlled ventilation could reduce the carbon footprint of office buildings, which contribute more than one third of fossil fuel emissions globally | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 1 month ago

What is Implicit Bias, and how Might it Affect Your Next Medical Visit?

We talk to Cristina Gonzalez, a physician at New York University, who runs a lab that uses simulations to help medical professionals check their implicit bias at the exam room door. | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 1 month ago

Science Crossword: Girl With Kaleidoscope Eyes

Play this crossword inspired by the November 2024 issue of Scientific American | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 1 month ago

Hidden Patterns in Folk Songs Reveal How Music Evolved

Songs and speech across cultures suggest music developed similar features around the world | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 1 month ago

Could ‘Early Dark Energy’ Resolve the Mystery of Cosmic Expansion?

Estimates of how fast the universe is expanding disagree. Could a new form of dark energy resolve the problem? | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 1 month ago

Readers Respond to the June 2024 Issue

Letters to the editors for the June 2024 issue of Scientific American | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 1 month ago

Book Review: Inside the Global Movement to Protect Forests from Climate Change

Lessons from the people making forest ecosystems more resilient | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 1 month ago