We often hear about glacier melting and predictions of what climate change could do. But very little is mentioned about the effects on ecosystems or the animals that call them home. To redress some of this imbalance, an international team of researchers set out to map this
In 2013, Chicago Public Schools closed 49 elementary schools—the largest mass public school closure in U.S. history at the time. A new study from researchers at the University of Chicago and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, published in Social Science &
A tropical butterfly has evolved an ingenious anti-aging strategy by delaying the aging process, enabling it to live far longer than its closest relatives, according to a new University of Bristol-led study published in Nature Communications. Found throughout the tropical
It's the time of year when parents are thinking of registering their children for kindergarten in September—a much-anticipated moment in the lives of many parents and their young ones.
AI helped researchers develop an experimental blood test that might let doctors diagnose overlapping dementias.
Early research suggests that some mental health conditions could stem from metabolic disorders. If so, the findings could change how we treat mental illness
In a strong El Niño winter, normally dry regions can suddenly drown in rain. NASA notes that "typically dry regions can experience nearly two times as much rain during a strong El Niño." Indeed, the blockbuster El Niños of 1982–83 and 1997–98 unleashed record-breaking
"What do dads do on Tuesdays?" This wasn't a rhetorical question when I posed it to my wife as our daughter's birth approached. Before my daughter was born, I had seen my father just once in the past 27 years. That's more than 1,400 Tuesdays. In fact, as a kid I hardly saw
An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.5 shook eastern Japan, including Tokyo, on Tuesday, but there was no danger of a tsunami, the meteorological agency said.
Fable 5 was built to help with advanced cybersecurity work. Its sudden shutdown highlights a dilemma at the heart of AI security: the same tools can aid both defenders and attackers
A night dive to study wild sharks that can walk on land has surfaced with something even rarer—a species unknown to science. "New shark species don't come along that often, and it's most definitely the first one named after me," said a surprised Dr. Christine Dudgeon of the
The grocery store is a busy place, full of signs and signals that we may or may not always notice. Picture yourself in your usual store: Do your eyes get drawn to a "limited quantities" sign or a "buy now before it's gone" promotion?
Thanks to the X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission, or XRISM, University of Michigan researchers are helping chip away at one of astronomy's cosmic mysteries: The universe's most massive galaxies appear to be missing stars.
The ocean is home to some of the richest biodiversity on Earth. From coral reefs and mangrove forests to the deep sea, marine ecosystems sustain countless species, support coastal communities, regulate the climate and underpin global food security.
A new view of the prisoner’s dilemma The post Does Cooperation Beat Cheating After All? appeared first on Nautilus .
Merino wool is warm, comfortable and surprisingly adaptable, making it a smart choice for days when the weather can't quite make up its mind. But exactly why is it such a good material?
Could Earth have seeded Jupiter's moon Europa with bacterial life, where it could have taken hold in Europa's ocean and perhaps evolved into something more? That's the hypothesis of a new paper in the International Journal of Astrobiology by Zaza Osmanov of the Free University
One of the hardest things to calculate for an asteroid is its mass—but it is such a critical feature. It determines how much of an impact it would have if it hits something, or how many resources are potentially available on it. But to accurately measure it, we typically use
Hemiscyllium dudgeonae is the tenth recorded species of walking shark, which use their pectoral fins to move across reef flats, and its limited range means it may be at high risk of extinction
Our search for technosignatures—clear signs of advanced civilizations beyond Earth—takes many forms. Many are driven by the famous Drake equation, which attempts to estimate how many technological civilizations there are in the Milky Way. However, there's a big fat question
For a frog no bigger than a fingernail, survival depends on how it spends every bit of energy. New research from the University of Florida shows that young frogs prioritize growing quickly even when infected with a deadly pathogen, shifting energy toward immune defense only
Viking 1 kicked off the search for Martian life 50 years ago. Now NASA’s shifting priorities are putting the quest in limbo.
At the start of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, Bielefeld University is looking for fans of all national teams. The Football Fever Study uses smartwatch data to record how match events affect fans' heart rates and stress levels. Anyone wearing a device from one of 13 supported brands,
Researchers from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) have created an open database with 124 carbon-14-dated samples that have made it possible to construct the chronological sequence of 380 sites located in the Aigüestortes i Estany de Sant Maurici National Park. The
A new telemetry study published in the Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences finds that the method used to raise juvenile lake sturgeon before stocking has little bearing on how the fish behave after release—an important finding for ongoing efforts to restore the
Researchers are celebrating the release of the once locally extinct burrowing bettong back into the NSW desert—with the aim of training them to survive alongside feral cats and foxes.
Italian astronomers have used the Very Large Telescope (VLT) to perform polarimetric observations of the star WRAY 15-1880 and its young circumstellar disk. Results of the new observations, presented June 10 on the arXiv preprint server, suggest that this disk may host a
Evidence is mounting that there are distinct subtypes of autism, and now, scientists have found that the condition can vary according to the strength of people's brain connections
A newly established alliance, comprising leading researchers and conservation experts, has mobilized to safeguard the Atlantic Ocean's leatherback turtle populations. The Wilkes Atlantic Leatherback Turtle Alliance is led by the University of Exeter, with more than 50 partner
Scientists have modeled the potential size of this current outbreak, which some experts think could become one of the worst Ebola epidemics on record
While Reno families were celebrating the 1997 New Year, the Truckee River was surging into the city's downtown streets. A rainstorm was falling on the Sierra Nevada's deep snowpack, melting it rapidly and creating a hazardous situation for downstream communities.
As public trust in the U.S. Supreme Court continues to fall, new research from the Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC) of the University of Pennsylvania finds that jury service is associated with more positive attitudes toward courts and judges—but that Americans'
Disappearing sea ice is letting more sunlight in the Arctic Ocean and boosting phytoplankton growth, but this has depleted a crucial nutrient, which could severely affect animals higher up the food chain
Writing with AI can look deceptively simple. Effortless, even. Type in a prompt and a polished paragraph appears in seconds. Tidy, confident, clean. But that apparent ease is also deceiving, says Abram Anders, associate professor of English and the Jonathan Wickert Professor of
Astronomers have detected one of the most powerful ultra-fast outflows ever seen from a distant supermassive black hole. Using XMM-Newton and NuSTAR, a team studied a hyper-luminous quasar at cosmic noon and found two distinct wind components blasting away from the black hole,
Find the lengths of the sides of the square in this math puzzle
It was something infectious disease expert Heather Ferguson never expected to see in her lifetime: a mosquito-borne virus originally from Africa spreading in Scotland.
The Department of Energy bills Genesis as an AI push for scientific discovery. Its first public challenges tell a different story
Play this crossword inspired by the July/August 2026 issue of Scientific American
Letters to the editors for the March 2026 issue of Scientific American
A meditation on life and the von Neumann–Wigner interpretation of quantum mechanics
Natural fission reactor uncovered; geometry of soap bubbles
In his final interview, the “swashbuckling” geneticist pointed the way for science
These young scientists are making waves in their own ways. Keep an eye on them—great things are ahead
On reclaiming America’s edge in research and public health
On safeguarding independent research in the age of big tech