What do a thriving coral reef and a bustling city neighborhood have in common? More than you might think. A Perspective by Federico Botta and colleagues published in PNAS Nexus proposes a method for measuring urban vibrancy by studying cities the way ecologists study
Using the MeerKAT radio telescope, an international team of astronomers has discovered 15 new millisecond pulsars in 47 Tucanae—one of the closest and best studied globular clusters. The finding is reported in the latest issue of Astronomy & Astrophysics.
A biotech company that aims to resurrect lost creatures said Tuesday it has hatched live chicks in an artificial environment—a development that was met with mixed reviews from scientists and critics of its de-extinction mission.
Scientists are jettisoning their worst and best case scenarios for a warming world as no longer plausible. That shows how modest gains in the fight to curb climate change have dialed back the most catastrophic of future heating but also confirmed that there's no chance to limit
Vibrant, tiny, and sporting a bright red grin on its back, the Happy-Face spider is one of the most famous and recognizable arachnids in the world. For over a century, this cheerful-looking creature was thought to be a unique resident of the Hawaiian Islands, a biological
A major French policy designed to make hotel prices more competitive online may not have worked as intended, but it did unlock cheaper deals for customers booking directly with hotels. The new study of European hotel markets finds that banning "price parity clauses"—rules which
A new article in the journal BioScience argues that the stewardship practices of Indigenous Peoples and other place-based knowledge holders have been systematically underrepresented in both conservation research and international policy along with the knowledge holders and
Soil DNA from Chile to the Antarctic Peninsula ties warmer climates to more plant fungal pathogens, with abundance projected to double by 2100.
I'm a proud Yorta Yorta and Barapa Barapa man, an Indigenous astronomer and a trainee ecologist. When I look at the night sky, I don't just see stars. Instead, I see an ancient knowledge system that has guided people, culture and Country for tens of thousands of years.
Food insecurity—or the uncertain access to sufficient, nutritious and safe foods—is a "wicked problem" affecting 1 in 3 people worldwide. Social supermarkets are slowly emerging in Australia as a different approach to food relief, offering affordable food access with social
Colossal Biosciences, the company that says it resurrected the dire wolf, now says it has developed artificial eggshells so it can replicate the huge eggs of the moa. Independent experts say this isn't nearly enough to bring back these giant birds
Strong relationships with school staff and a sense of belonging at school can protect teenagers' mental well-being and help reduce absences, according to new findings from The University of Manchester's #BeeWell program. The large-scale study published in the Journal of the
Nautilus ventures into the urban world to map the mysterious complexity of cities The post The Science of Cities. 10 Books You Must Read appeared first on Nautilus .
Per and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), often called "forever chemicals," are now found almost everywhere scientists look. They have been detected in rivers, oceans, wildlife, food and even human blood.
Cosmologists have long struggled to determine whether the universe's accelerating expansion is being driven by a simple cosmological constant, or whether dark energy's influence is evolving over time. In a new analysis published in Physical Review D, Samsuzzaman Afroz and
Asteroid mining seems simple in theory. A spacecraft flies up to a giant rock in space, scoops out some material, and either processes it on site or returns it back to a huge central processing facility. But in practice, it is certainly not that simple, and a new paper from
The middle of the twentieth century was a period of significant scientific advancement, particularly in the realm of physics. Within this rapidly changing landscape, academic disciplines emerged and evolved to keep pace with scientific discoveries. The new subdiscipline of
Mosaic depictions of a weapon-wielding female gladiator are the first physical evidence showing women in ancient Rome could be skilled beast hunters
An exotic new molecule is shaped like a butterfly, complete with "wings" made from electrons. The discovery could provide a gateway to completely new parts of the quantum realm
Quantum computing could lead to revolutions in cryptography, materials design and telecommunications. But fulfilling those promises could be many years away
The intimidating legacy of the scariest problem in mathematics
Play this crossword inspired by the June 2026 issue of Scientific American
Letters to the editors for the February 2026 issue of Scientific American
Will computers based on quantum physics really change the world?
Ozempic and just getting older take off muscle. New therapies could retain it
A massive digitization project has nearly doubled the known extent of the first continent-scale road network
To build its moon base, NASA needs a lot of power
Door-building spiders; a new quantum liquid
Commercial satellites can now watch much of Earth in near-real time. Militaries are learning new ways to fool them
This company says its pulsed plasma machine will deliver electricity to the grid by 2029. Some physicists warn that its promises are outrunning what the technology has proved
Robots are becoming more a part of our lives every year, and worries about a robot army rising up have long plagued the technology. But columnist Annalee Newitz talks to nanobot researchers and finds out the real robot army could be a welcome solution to medical or
Seabirds such as albatrosses and petrels are retreating into smaller areas of ocean and traveling further to find new places to live as the climate warms. Scientists from the University of Reading studied more than 120 species of Procellariiformes (the group that includes
Tidal wetlands are critical, yet vulnerable ecosystems. Tidal marshes, mangrove forests, and tidal flats support biodiversity, protect against flooding and storm surges, sequester carbon, and improve water quality. Due to human development and climate change, tidal wetland
Sound plays an important role for many animals, helping them navigate and hunt. Echolocation is the ability of animals like bats and dolphins to locate objects by emitting sound waves and interpreting the returning echoes. But detecting meaningful information in a noisy
Scientists attempting to determine whether or not hantavirus is present in Argentina's Ushuaia on Monday laid the very first traps to catch rodents potentially carrying the disease, AFP journalists observed.
In a lot behind a disused West Virginia gas station at the foot of the Appalachian Mountains, Roy Funkhouser is surrounded by about a dozen beekeepers and countless buzzing bees.
A joint European-Chinese spacecraft blasted into orbit Tuesday to investigate what happens when extreme winds and giant explosions of plasma shot out from the sun slam into Earth's magnetic shield.
A fast-growing wildfire sparked by the fatal crash of a small medical plane outside Ruidoso, New Mexico, has triggered evacuations for a rural area north of the Capitan Mountains and closures in the Lincoln National Forest, officials said Monday.
A large European study revealed that a lower-calorie Mediterranean diet paired with exercise and coaching dramatically reduced the risk of type 2 diabetes. Participants who made these lifestyle changes were 31% less likely to develop the disease over six years. They also lost
Antarctica’s Hektoria Glacier collapsed with shocking speed, retreating 15 miles in only 15 months and setting a modern record for grounded ice loss. Scientists say warming conditions and ocean-driven instability turned the glacier from seemingly stable to rapidly unraveling
Black holes crashing together may be revealing clues about dark matter hidden across the universe. Physicists created a new model predicting how dark matter could subtly distort gravitational waves produced during black hole mergers. When they tested the method on real LIGO
Physicists may have uncovered a surprising new clue that string theory—the idea that the universe is built from unimaginably tiny vibrating strings—could be more than just a mathematical fantasy. Instead of assuming strings existed from the start, researchers began with a few
A global analysis has found that urban animals are bolder and more aggressive, exploratory and active than their rural counterparts. The findings are published in the Journal of Animal Ecology.
DNA is everywhere in the world's oceans—not only packaged inside cells from skin, scales, mucus, feces, and blood, but also floating freely. Sequencing such "environmental DNA" (eDNA) from open water has long been used as a cost-effective way of gauging the number and identity
Public infrastructures like roads and electricity are so essential to society that people almost take their value for granted. A new report by Frontier Economics, commissioned by EMBL's European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), shows that open data resources have become a
Before Smile can begin studying how Earth responds to the streams of particles and bursts of radiation from the sun, the spacecraft had to complete an extraordinary journey here on Earth.
