AI-human collaboration could possibly achieve superhuman greatness in mathematics | Continue reading
A finger-sized clay cylinder from a tomb in northern Syria appears to be the oldest example of writing using an alphabet rather than hieroglyphs or cuneiform | Continue reading
Voters supported abortion rights measures while electing antiabortion candidates in the 2024 election. The split reflects a complicated abortion landscape post-Dobbs | Continue reading
Called Olbers’ paradox, the seemingly simple mystery of the sky’s darkness is something that stumped astronomers for centuries | Continue reading
Social psychologists could turn artificial-intelligence-powered tools like ChatGPT on to writings from past cultures. Will this help us study ancient civilizations? | Continue reading
Female chimps who migrate to new social groups bring skills and technology with them, helping to drive development of increasingly complex tool sets | Continue reading
Canada’s first human case of bird flu has left a teenager in critical condition as human infections continue to emerge in the western U.S. | Continue reading
This Black physicist’s work on the Manhattan Project inspired a County in Florida two generations after her death | Continue reading
Samples from the far side of the moon gathered by China’s Chang’e-6 mission record eons of tumultuous lunar history | Continue reading
The 3.2-million-year-old human ancestor known as Lucy sparked a revolution in scientists’ understanding of the origins of clever hands and stone tools | Continue reading
Despite investigative genetic genealogy revolutionizing cold case investigations, it has been underused to free the wrongly convicted | Continue reading
Every Atlantic hurricane that formed this year had higher wind speeds because of climate change. Two likely would have remained tropical storms without its influence | Continue reading
The sixth test flight of SpaceX’s giant rocket ended with a fiery splashdown rather than a clean “chopstick” catch | Continue reading
Trumps retreat from climate agreements and tech funding will help China dominate global clean energy markets | Continue reading
Sweeping reorganization and more research scrutiny could be on the way for the U.S. National Institutes of Health | Continue reading
A social scientist looks at the portrait of U.S. voters, and voting, in the aftermath of the 2024 presidential election that put Trump into the White House | Continue reading
Researchers directed electric current to activate targeted facial muscles and then asked study participants how they felt | Continue reading
A study of births in New Jersey reveals a troubling disparity between unscheduled C-sections for Black people. | Continue reading
A major windstorm and an atmospheric river are set to unleash a “firehose” of precipitation from California to British Columbia | Continue reading
Forests absorb planet-warming pollution, but world leaders shouldn’t include them in plans to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions, a new study recommends | Continue reading
Prominent vaccine skeptic RFK, Jr., is a proven menace to public health. But with a bird flu outbreak looming, he is poised to take a perch atop the federal public health enterprise | Continue reading
Play this crossword inspired by the December 2024 issue of Scientific American | Continue reading
Oak trees have genetic flexibility that allows them to solve ecological problems. But even they will need our help to survive climate change | Continue reading
Archaeological and genetic discoveries topple long-standing ideas about the domestication of equines | Continue reading
New diagnostic techniques can pick up these brain injuries and ensure people get help | Continue reading
Understanding curiosity can help people—and robots—learn faster | Continue reading
In End of the World and Hard-Boiled Wonderland, the title is flipped, but cyberpunk pleasures remain | Continue reading
Alcohol in space; basking in the limelight | Continue reading
How are these numbers organized? | Continue reading
Mathematicians have found a new kind of shape with connections to nature and art | Continue reading
Oil rigs around the world are habitats for marine species. When they stop producing oil, should they be removed or allowed to stay? | Continue reading
Intense health anxiety is a true mental illness and threatens lives. The good news is that it’s treatable | Continue reading
Censoring what children read deprives them of reality and the chance to feed their curiosity and develop empathy | Continue reading
Changing the ocean’s chemical and biological makeup could force it to pull vast amounts of planet-warming carbon from the atmosphere. But is that a line we want to cross? | Continue reading
U.N. statistics show progress toward the goal of gender equality but a long way left to go | Continue reading
Science in meter and verse | Continue reading
The fossil-fuel industry argues that we can’t live without its deadly products. It is wrong | Continue reading
The far side of the moon offers grounds for compromise between advocates and opponents of lunar development | Continue reading
Letters to the editors for the July/August 2024 issue of Scientific American | Continue reading
Writers, artists, photographers and researchers share the stories behind the stories | Continue reading
Discovering weird new shapes, turning oil rigs into reefs and making the ocean absorb more greenhouse gases | Continue reading
The nearby star Vega, featured in the 1997 movie Contact, appears to have a smooth disk devoid of giant planets for reasons we can’t explain | Continue reading
A unique crystalline compound soaks up CO2 with great efficiency | Continue reading
Chris Wright, CEO of a fracking services company and Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Energy, has said “there is no climate crisis” | Continue reading
Food anxiety can peak during the holidays. Here’s how to manage it and enjoy yourself | Continue reading
Lizards in France have grown lighter in color and so are many insects and birds across the globe. The effects of a changing climate are plainly visible throughout the animal kingdom | Continue reading
A serious bird flu infection in Canada, a troubling projection of future plastic waste and dispatches from a global climate convention. | Continue reading
Four counties in Florida that voted for Trump also voted to conserve open space, reduce flood damage and protect habitat | Continue reading