Highly processed foods resemble drugs of misuse in a number of disturbing ways | Continue reading
Historical bad practices have left a legacy of pollution in the fragile ecosystem of Antarctica, but efforts are underway to chart a better future | Continue reading
Telecommunications grids are vulnerable to worsening climate disasters—which highlights the importance of one age-old survival system | Continue reading
Reintroducing large herbivores into fire-prone areas can help combat the global rise in megafires | Continue reading
After weeks at 100 degrees F, the drought and heat wave in Texas are taking their toll | Continue reading
Are you working really hard to learn something? Remember this counterintuitive fact, and you might improve your learning curve. | Continue reading
Within days of each other, Hurricane Jova in the Pacific and Hurricane Lee in the Atlantic rapidly ballooned into Category 5 storms | Continue reading
Within days of each other, Hurricane Jova in the Pacific and Hurricane Lee in the Atlantic rapidly ballooned into Category 5 storms | Continue reading
A newly described fossil is as old as the “first bird,” Archaeopteryx, and represents a birdlike dinosaur that might have specialized in running or wading instead of flying | Continue reading
Generative AI has made giant strides toward machine intelligence. Can machine consciousness be far behind? | Continue reading
Humans are feeding the invisible world of ocean microbes a punishing diet of pollutants, boosting the impact of climate change, and hastening the destruction of life as we know it | Continue reading
Self-driving cars are expanding their ranges in a handful of U.S. cities, but the reality doesn’t yet match the hype | Continue reading
Earth is bombarded by millions of bits of cosmic debris every day. Here’s how to distinguish between the different types | Continue reading
U.S. census tracts with high exposure to climate impacts will get extra federal funds to build resilience | Continue reading
Lise Meitner, an Austrian-born Jewish physicist, never received the Nobel Prize she deserved for her pioneering work on nuclear fission | Continue reading
Nearly every person on the planet saw high temperatures that were made at least twice as likely by climate change this summer | Continue reading
Anscombe’s quartet and the datasaurus dozen demonstrate the importance of visualizing data | Continue reading
Discovered only last month, Comet Nishimura is drawing attention before close approaches to the sun and Earth in the coming weeks | Continue reading
Seemingly trivial differences in training data can skew the judgments of AI programs—and that’s not the only problem with automated decision-making | Continue reading
Often nicknamed “making biscuits,” kneading is a good sign that your cat is happy, experts say | Continue reading
A new technique for analyzing modern genetic data suggests that prehumans survived in a group of only 1,280 individuals | Continue reading
Many states prioritize using money from a federal energy assistance program for low-income people to defray energy costs for heating rather than cooling bills | Continue reading
What dermatologists say about sun sensitivity, cancer risk and the products they use for sun protection | Continue reading
The bite of the lone star tick makes people allergic to a sugar found in mammal products, and many doctors don’t know about it. | Continue reading
The full death toll from extreme heat waves, hurricanes and other climate-related disasters often isn’t revealed until weeks, months or even years after an event occurs | Continue reading
Amtrak will soon get 28 high-speed rail cars. But they won't operate at high speeds because Amtrak tracks are outdated | Continue reading
Doom and gloom, or realism and hope? Here’s how six climate experts describe the future to their young children | Continue reading
Extreme heat can slow and even damage electronics ranging from computers to cars | Continue reading
A new interpretation of Isaac Newton’s writings clarifies what the father of classical mechanics meant in his first law of motion | Continue reading
Extreme heat is becoming more common across the U.S. The federal government and employers owe workers better safety measures | Continue reading
The simple and fun act of reading for pleasure in early childhood produces better cognition, mental health and educational attainment in adolescence | Continue reading
Researchers will inseminate female ocelots in zoos with sperm from the few remaining wild ocelots, then train kittens for the wild | Continue reading
There are talented scientists worldwide who do not speak fluent English. We have to accommodate the language barrier or risk losing their potential | Continue reading
An updated COVID vaccine will be available soon, but certain groups may benefit more than others | Continue reading
Denial of climate change is driven by ideology, leaving its consequences to harm us all—especially the world's poorest | Continue reading
New research suggests that blood clotting from COVID infections could contribute to long-term brain fog and other cognitive issues | Continue reading
An experiment at the University of Cambridge highlights the environmental cost of a well-manicured lawn | Continue reading
Here’s how newfound “spicy” birds resist their potent neurotoxin | Continue reading
An electrode inspired by soft robotics could provide less invasive brain-machine interfaces | Continue reading
A new technique for sending hidden messages is mathematically proven to escape detection | Continue reading
Do try this at home | Continue reading
A striking purple species is one piece of the fungal kingdom’s uncharted diversity | Continue reading
Nanoparticles can allow long-term freezing of transplant organs | Continue reading
Drunk intestines; speedy pigeons | Continue reading
Letters to the editors for the April 2023 issue of Scientific American | Continue reading
The Luddites did not hate technology—but they did fight the way it was used to exploit humans. | Continue reading
Yellow, white or maybe even green—the sun’s hue depends on how you see it | Continue reading
Researchers in Hawaii are studying the effects of the deadly blazes on its island of Maui, including how they have impacteddrinking-water quality and might affect local marine ecosystems | Continue reading