Scientific American

Earth’s Oldest Impact Crater Discovered in Australia

Sat, 08 Mar 2025 13:00:00 +0000

Scientists with a new theory about how Earth’s early continents formed predicted where a superold impact crater should be—then found it

Stand Up for Science Rallies Draw Crowds Protesting Trump Cuts

Fri, 07 Mar 2025 22:45:00 +0000

Scientists and supporters rallied in cities across the U.S. and Europe to protest dramatic funding cuts and other attacks from the Trump administration

Daylight Saving Time and Early School Start Times Cost The Economy Billions

Fri, 07 Mar 2025 20:40:00 +0000

The current system of daylight saving time and early school start times wastes billions while causing more car accidents, workplace injuries and health issues

Trump Administration Likely to Drop Chloroprene Lawsuit. Here’s What That Means

Fri, 07 Mar 2025 20:15:00 +0000

Trump could drop a federal lawsuit against a petrochemical plant that emits chloroprene. Here’s a look at the cancer-causing chemical

Trump's FEMA Disaster Aid Freeze Threatens 'Acute Harm,' Judge Rules

Fri, 07 Mar 2025 17:30:00 +0000

The Federal Emergency Management Agency must show in one week whether it is complying with a judge’s ruling that blocks the Trump administration disaster aid freeze

Why Is the Trump Administration Politicizing Weather?

Fri, 07 Mar 2025 13:00:00 +0000

Climate change is real. Dismantling our federal weather agency won’t change that

Leading a Meaningful Life through Storytelling Skills

Fri, 07 Mar 2025 13:00:00 +0000

People who are rated as good storytellers exhibit a purpose-oriented mindset and big-picture thinking more often than others

Five Years after the COVID Pandemic Began, Fatigue and Frustration Remain

Fri, 07 Mar 2025 12:30:00 +0000

The “quarantine fatigue” of 2020 became an ongoing “pandemic fatigue,” a complex set of emotions that continues to affect the nation

How to Watch the Total Lunar Eclipse on March 13

Fri, 07 Mar 2025 11:45:00 +0000

The March 13–14 lunar eclipse will be an all-night affair you won’t want to miss

John Green on His New Nonfiction Book Everything Is Tuberculosis

Fri, 07 Mar 2025 11:00:00 +0000

Novelist John Green talks about his new nonfiction book, Everything is Tuberculosis, and the inequities in treatment for the highly infectious disease.

NASA’s Voyager Probes Lose One Instrument Each as Power Wanes

Thu, 06 Mar 2025 19:00:00 +0000

NASA’s twin Voyager probes, which launched in 1977, are the longest-running missions to send data home. But as their power supplies wane, scientists are saying goodbye to one instrument on each spacecraft

Intuitive Machines’ Athena Lander Reaches the Moon Lopsided—Just Like Its Predecessor

Thu, 06 Mar 2025 18:30:00 +0000

Despite some connection delays postlanding, the lunar lander Athena is officially set to study what lies beneath the moon’s surface over the next 10 days

Trump's CDC Firings Will Gut Public Health at the State and Local Level

Thu, 06 Mar 2025 17:15:00 +0000

The Trump administration’s sudden dismissals have stripped training programs across the nation that bolstered state and local public health departments

As Trump and DOGE Block Federal Grants, Wildfire Prevention Projects Are at Risk

Thu, 06 Mar 2025 16:00:00 +0000

Efforts to limit wildfires in a conservative swath of northern Colorado are the latest casualty of the Trump administration’s on-and-off federal spending freeze

Why This Year’s Flu Season Is the Worst in More Than a Decade

Thu, 06 Mar 2025 13:30:00 +0000

Outpatient flu visits and hospitalizations are higher than at any time in the past 15 years

Learning Human Echolocation with a Neuroscientist

Thu, 06 Mar 2025 13:00:00 +0000

Neuroscientist Lore Thaler speaks about her efforts to make echolocation training more accessible

NASA’s Mars Plans Complicated by Eye Problems during Long Spaceflights

Thu, 06 Mar 2025 13:00:00 +0000

A mysterious neuro-ocular syndrome remains an unknown risk for long-term spaceflight

Killing a Nuclear Watchdog’s Independence Threatens Disaster

Thu, 06 Mar 2025 12:00:00 +0000

A Trump administration plan would end the independence of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, where similar oversight muzzling has led to nuclear disasters overseas

In State of the Union Speech, Trump Touts Fossil Fuels and Critical Minerals Plan

Wed, 05 Mar 2025 18:15:00 +0000

In his State of the Union Speech, President Trump pushed fossil fuel extraction, a plan for developing critical minerals and an Alaska natural gas pipeline

How Early Could Life Have Emerged in the Universe?

Wed, 05 Mar 2025 17:00:00 +0000

New simulations suggest that habitable worlds could have begun forming only 200 million years after the big bang

Trump’s Plan to Lower Egg Prices and a Threat to Bird Flu Vaccines Explained

Wed, 05 Mar 2025 15:00:00 +0000

The CDC has sequenced bird flu viruses from people in Nevada and Wyoming, and the Trump Administration has released a strategy for reducing egg prices

How Ants May Save You from Future Traffic Jams

Wed, 05 Mar 2025 13:00:00 +0000

Ants’ tactics to avoid traffic jams could be applied to future self-driving cars

Microsoft’s and Google’s Quantum Computing Claims Add to Consumer Confusion

Wed, 05 Mar 2025 12:00:00 +0000

Schrödinger’s cat is scratching its head over the “topological” qubit that is causing a buzz in quantum computing. We should be, too

On COVID’s Fifth Anniversary, Scientists Reflect on Mistakes and Successes

Wed, 05 Mar 2025 11:45:00 +0000

Public health experts discuss lessons learned from the U.S. response to the COVID pandemic, on topics ranging from school closures to trust in science

How Are Microplastics Getting into Our Brain?

Wed, 05 Mar 2025 11:00:00 +0000

Many people are concerned about microplastics reaching our brain—but few realize how this connects with petroleum production and the climate crisis

Trump Administration Is Blocking Disaster Aid to States

Tue, 04 Mar 2025 18:30:00 +0000

Court documents indicate the administration has begun a campaign to block states from receiving funds for projects that would reduce climate-related damage

Company Seeking to Resurrect the Woolly Mammoth Creates a ‘Woolly Mouse’

Tue, 04 Mar 2025 17:30:00 +0000

On its quest to bring back the extinct woolly mammoth, Colossal Biosciences has developed the woolly mouse

The AI Future Is Here

Tue, 04 Mar 2025 14:00:00 +0000

AI’s integration into everything—untangling traffic snarls, dictating drug prescriptions, rewriting the rules of scientific discovery—is accelerating quickly

Does Stopping Ozempic Cause Rebound Weight Gain and Health Problems?

Tue, 04 Mar 2025 12:00:00 +0000

Ozempic and similar GLP-1 weight-loss medications are designed to be a lifelong treatment. But a new study finds the majority of people who use these drugs quit after just two years

Neuroscientists Should Set a High Bar for Evidence against Free Will

Tue, 04 Mar 2025 12:00:00 +0000

Neuroscience research claiming to question the existence of free will may have been misinterpreted

Your Candy Cravings Might Be Controlled by This Gut Bacterium

Tue, 04 Mar 2025 11:45:00 +0000

Mouse and human studies suggest a connection between a gut microbe and the appetite-regulating hormone GLP-1

Trump Official Who Tried to Downplay Major Climate Report Now Will Oversee It

Mon, 03 Mar 2025 21:15:00 +0000

Stuart Levenbach alarmed scientists years ago when he attempted to meddle with a congressionally mandated climate report

The Surprisingly Difficult Mathematical Proof That Anime Fans Helped Solve

Mon, 03 Mar 2025 13:00:00 +0000

When a fan of a cult anime series wanted to watch its episodes in every possible order, they asked a question that had perplexed combinatorial mathematicians for years

Cutting a Parent Out of Your Life Isn’t Always the Right Solution

Mon, 03 Mar 2025 12:00:00 +0000

Popular culture paints going “no contact” as the best way to deal with hard family relationships. But it’s not always the right choice

First Measles Death, Outbreaks of Mysterious Illness in DRC and Microbes in Space

Mon, 03 Mar 2025 11:00:00 +0000

In this news roundup, we cover outbreak updates, microbes in space and a brain turned to glass.

Blue Ghost, a Private U.S. Spacecraft, Successfully Lands on the Moon

Sun, 02 Mar 2025 09:00:00 +0000

After its successful lunar touchdown, Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost mission could soon be joined on the moon by two more commercial spacecraft

Interjections Are, Uh, More Important than We Thought

Fri, 28 Feb 2025 20:00:00 +0000

Utterances like um, wow and mm-hmm aren’t garbage—they keep conversations flowing

Virtual Reality Remote Tasting Might Be Coming Soon

Fri, 28 Feb 2025 19:00:00 +0000

This tiny instrument lets users taste things—without actually eating them—by releasing a combination of chemicals that reconstruct different tastes. But replicating associated smells and textures will take some time

Solar and Wind Energy Are Surging But CO2 Is Still Climbing Because of Natural Gas Use

Fri, 28 Feb 2025 16:00:00 +0000

Renewable energy broke records last year, but so did gas generation. That's a climate problem

How Bad Air Quality Slows Down Marathon Runners

Fri, 28 Feb 2025 15:30:00 +0000

Even modest amounts of air pollution may affect athletic performance, a new study finds

The Measles Outbreak in Texas Is Why Vaccines Matter

Fri, 28 Feb 2025 13:00:00 +0000

Opting against vaccines may uphold ideas of personal freedom, but it has doomed the county at the center of the Texas measles outbreak

New NASA Space Telescope Will See the Universe in 102 Colors

Fri, 28 Feb 2025 13:00:00 +0000

NASA’s SPHEREx mission will survey the entire sky in 102 different “colors” of light, offering scientists an unprecedented look at the earliest days of the universe and much more

Do Aliens Know We’re Here?

Fri, 28 Feb 2025 11:45:00 +0000

Whether aliens could detect our modern civilization depends on what signs they’re looking for—and, crucially, their distance from us

Why Do Songs Get Stuck in Your Head?

Fri, 28 Feb 2025 11:00:00 +0000

Some songs get stuck in our head more than others, and scientists have uncovered what makes them so irresistible.

GAO Issues Unprecedented Warning on State of U.S. Disaster Response as Trump Cuts FEMA Staff

Thu, 27 Feb 2025 18:45:00 +0000

The delivery of disaster aid is on the Government Accountability Office's High-Risk List for the first time as climate-related costs soar, Federal Emergency Management Agency staffing lags, and the Trump administration makes further cuts

The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) Is Safe from Climate Collapse―for Now

Thu, 27 Feb 2025 18:30:00 +0000

The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation likely won't completely collapse with global warming, but any weakening could have grave consequences worldwide

The International Space Station May Need More Microbes to Keep Astronauts Healthy

Thu, 27 Feb 2025 17:50:00 +0000

The overly sterile environment of the International Space Station is missing important microbes, a new detailed map shows. If we want to live off Earth, we may need to take more of our bacterial friends with us

This Twist on Einstein’s Greatest Theory Deserves More Attention

Thu, 27 Feb 2025 17:00:00 +0000

A nearly century-old offshoot of Einstein’s general theory of relativity may hold promise for solving the mysteries of dark matter, dark energy and more

Private ‘Athena’ Moon Lander and NASA ‘Trailblazer’ Launch to Hunt for Lunar Water

Thu, 27 Feb 2025 16:30:00 +0000

Intuitive Machines’ Athena lander is planned to touch down near the moon's south pole on or around March 6

What Was It like to Be a Female Doctor during the Ming Dynasty?

Thu, 27 Feb 2025 16:00:00 +0000

A Chinese medical textbook published in 1511 led to a novel about an all-but-forgotten female doctor who practiced during the Ming Dynasty