The Evolutionary Reasons We Are Drawn to Horror Movies and Haunted Houses

Scary play lets people—and other animals—rehearse coping skills for disturbing challenges in the real world | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 6 months ago

Stunning Images Reveal Rogue Planets of the Orion Nebula

The James Webb Space Telescope’s infrared gaze sheds new light on the Orion nebula, an icon of the night sky | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 6 months ago

U.S. Plan to Put Weapons-Grade Uranium in a Civilian Reactor Is Dangerous and Unnecessary

The Biden administration’s intention to use dozens of bombs’ worth of highly enriched uranium as fuel in a new civilian reactor sets a dangerous precedent, one that could help our foes get nuclear weapons | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 6 months ago

Why Is Asthma Worse in Stormy Weather?

New research offers insight into how rain and thunderstorms break up and spread respiratory irritants, such as pollen, fungal spores and pollutants | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 6 months ago

The Sun's Magnetic Poles Are Vanishing

The sun’s magnetic poles are about to reverse as part of a regular 11-year sunspot activity cycle | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 6 months ago

Why Is the Sky Dark Even Though the Universe Is Full of Stars?

The darkness of the night sky offers a profound insight on the nature of the cosmos | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 6 months ago

Wildlife Poop Is the Climate Solution You've Never Heard Of

A new book reveals the surprising roles of wildlife scat | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 6 months ago

This Virus Hunter Hunter Fought a Pandemic Using a Garage Full of Guinea Pigs

It's a global pandemic. The year is not 2020 but 1918, and Harriet Jane Lawrence is developing a vaccine against the deadliest influenza outbreak the world has ever seen | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 6 months ago

These Bizarre Devices Could Generate Power from Ocean Waves

A facility off the coast of Oregon is being constructed to test devices to harness wave power that resemble everything from buoys to carpets | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 6 months ago

A Nasty Tropical Skin Disease Is Now Endemic in the U.S.

A unique U.S. strain of leishmaniasis has just been reported | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 6 months ago

No One Should Die Waiting for an Organ Transplant. These Doctors Want to Ensure That Doesn't Happen

Advances are increasing the supply of organs. But this isn’t enough. Enter the genetically modified donor pig | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 6 months ago

Popular Weight-Loss Drugs Come with Side Effects

Recent studies evaluate risks associated with drugs such as Wegovy and Mounjaro | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 6 months ago

A New Way to Inspire People to Get a COVID Vaccine

Research on what makes people willing to donate organs shows how to motivate many of the unvaccinated this fall | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 6 months ago

Traces of Oldest and Largest Solar Storm Found in Buried French Forest

An enormous “Miyake event”—a bombardment of Earth by particles from the sun—hit 14,300 years ago. Such an event today would have devastating effects | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 6 months ago

This Public Health Measure Bridges the National Divide over Firearms--Just Don't Call It Gun Control

Some states have begun to buy into the need for off-site firearm storage to protect those at risk of suicide | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 6 months ago

Your Personal Information Is Probably Being Used to Train Generative AI Models

Companies are training their generative AI models on vast swathes of the Internet—and there’s no real way to stop them | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 6 months ago

Simultaneous Megafires Will Increasingly Plague the Western U.S.

The Western U.S. faces a future of fighting multiple large wildfires at once—a situation that is more difficult than handling a single blaze, even if the total acreage is similar | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 6 months ago

New Pill Helps COVID Smell and Taste Loss Fade Quickly

The antiviral drug ensitrelvir, which has not been approved outside of Japan, shortens sensory problems | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 6 months ago

Milestone Pig-to-Human Heart Transplant May Pave the Way for Broader Trial

Surgeons transplanted a genetically modified pig heart into a human for the second time ever, and the recipient is continuing to recover more than three weeks later | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 6 months ago

'Virtual' Power Plants Give the Grid Vital Flexibility

Virtual power plants are aggregations of electricity producers, consumers and storers that power grid managers can call on to balance electricity demand and supply | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 6 months ago

Protecting Plants and Animals at Risk Must Start before They Need the Endangered Species Act

The Endangered Species Act is an emergency measure turning 50 this year. Focusing on ecosystem preservation can keep us from ever needing it | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 6 months ago

How Would We Know There's Life on Earth? This Bold Experiment Found Out

Thirty years ago, astronomer Carl Sagan convinced NASA to turn a passing space probe’s instruments on Earth to look for life — with results that still reverberate today | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 6 months ago

Grammar Changes How We See, an Australian Language Shows

An Aboriginal language provides unexpected insight into how language influences perception | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 6 months ago

How to Handle This New COVID Season

The dangerous virus is still here. Here’s how you can stay safe. | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 6 months ago

New DNA Tests Are Identifying Missing Persons and Solving Crimes

Every year about 1000 human remains go unidentified in the U.S. New genetic technology can give them names and return them to their families | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 6 months ago

Animals of the Safari Are More Afraid of Humans Than Lions

The savanna is a dangerous place: it has lions, buffalo and poachers. What scares animals the most in a South African national park? | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 6 months ago

Nuclear Waste Is Piling Up. Here's How to Fix the Problem

Congress must end the exemption of nuclear waste from environmental law if we ever hope to end a 60-year logjam on how to safely store it | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 6 months ago

Drag Queens Tag Sharks in Annual Florida Science Celebration

The annual “Drag ’n Tag” expedition takes place amid a wave of antitransgender legislation | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 6 months ago

Scientists Discover Ghost of Ancient Mega-Plate That Disappeared 20 Million Years Ago

A long-lost tectonic plate dubbed “Pontus” that was a quarter of the size of the Pacific Ocean was discovered by chance by scientists in Borneo | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 6 months ago

'Climate Gentrification' Will Displace One Million People in Miami Alone

More than half of Miami-Dade County residents will face pressure to move as rising seas push residents inland to reach higher ground, a new study finds | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 6 months ago

Ways to Extend Your Healthy Years, Not Just Your Life

The biology of aging shows ways to lengthen your healthspan, years free of serious disease | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 6 months ago

Women Who Hunt, Organ Transplants and 50 Years of the Endangered Species Act

Why scary things can be fun, how to grow materials in space, and language’s influence on the mind | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 6 months ago

'Monster Quake' Hints at Mysterious Source within Mars

Images from each and every spacecraft now orbiting Mars have ruled out a meteorite strike as the cause of a 4.7-magnitude marsquake, the strongest temblor ever detected beyond Earth | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 6 months ago

The Theory That Men Evolved to Hunt and Women Evolved to Gather Is Wrong

The influential idea that in the past men were hunters and women were not isn’t supported by the available evidence | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 6 months ago

AI is Becoming a Band-Aid over Bad, Broken Tech Industry Design Choices

After decades of messy, thoughtless design choices, corporations are using artificial intelligence to sell basic usability back to consumers | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 6 months ago

The Heroic Black Nurses Who Helped Cure Tuberculosis

Maria Smilios’ new book The Black Angels chronicles the history of the nurses of Sea View Hospital and the cure for tuberculosis | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 6 months ago

AI Reads Ancient Scroll Charred by Mount Vesuvius in Tech First

For the first time, a machine learning technique has revealed Greek words in CT scans of fragile rolled-up papyrus | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 6 months ago

Treating Mental Health as Part of Climate Disaster Recovery

Mental health specialists discuss strategies for residents reexperiencing trauma in the aftermath of hurricanes, wildfires and floods | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 6 months ago

Will the Next Supercontinent Really Drive Mammals to Extinction?

The formation of Pangaea Ultima some 250 million years from now would be bad news for mammalian life. But whether it would mean the end for mammals—or whether the supercontinent will form at all—is far from certain | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 6 months ago

Police Blame 'Excited Delirium' for Deaths in Custody, But It's Not a Real Medical Condition, Experts Say

Doctors want to ban the term ‘excited delirium,’ which has been cited as a possible factor in high-profile police killings of George Floyd and others but is not a recognized medical diagnosis | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 6 months ago

American Catholics Call for Climate Action after Pope Francis Encourages Change

Pope Francis’s new encyclical says irresponsible lifestyles are the biggest impediment to reducing carbon emissions | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 6 months ago

Is the Novavax COVID Vaccine Better than mRNA Vaccines? What We Know So Far

Novavax’s protein-based vaccine is the latest FDA-authorized COVID booster available this fall. Here’s what you should know | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 6 months ago

As Arctic Sea Ice Breaks Up, AI Is Starting to Predict Where the Ice Will Go

Sea ice is changing fast. Are forecasts, created by artificial intelligence, the best way to keep up with the pace of a warming climate in the far north? | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 6 months ago

As Arctic Sea Ice Breaks Up, AI Is Starting to Predict Where the Will Pieces Go

Sea ice is changing fast. Are forecasts, created by artificial intelligence, the best way to keep up with the pace of a warming climate in the far north? | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 6 months ago

A Married Bachelor Proves That Unicorns Exist

The “principle of explosion” explains why a single contradiction would destroy math | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 6 months ago

Should Insurance Cover Wegovy, Ozempic and Other New Weight-Loss Drugs?

Insurance plans could cover blockbuster weight-loss medications such as Wegovy and Ozempic, but the benefits may not be accessible to everyone | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 6 months ago

We Need to Think about Conservation on a Different Timescale

Restoring habitats to how they were centuries ago, not years ago, could mean more successful conservation efforts | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 6 months ago

This Is The Largest Map of The Human Brain Ever Made

Researchers catalogue more than 3,000 different types of cell in our most complex organ | Continue reading


@scientificamerican.com | 6 months ago