For dolphins, the ocean is a world of sound. Their whistles carry social information, helping them communicate and stay connected, while echolocation—rapid-fire clicks—functions like underwater sonar, helping them navigate their surroundings and detect potential prey.
A major push is underway to catch and vaccinate more than 5,000 little penguins in Victoria to protect them against the virulent H5N1 bird flu.
From wall-mounted smartphone docks to old-fashioned coiled-phone handsets, a growing trend for retro phone accessories may be a sign that many people are looking for ways to create distance from their smartphones.
Close to a phase transition, very different materials can follow the same mathematical rules. The concept of universality, which groups seemingly distinct systems based on their common properties, was developed to describe this phenomenon.
Simultaneous belief in logically incompatible claims is linked to conspiratorial thinking, according to a study that models belief using a Bayesian framework.
Scientists at VIB and Ghent University have produced the first high-resolution, cell-by-cell map of how tomato roots respond to colonization by arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. These ancient fungal partners help plants absorb nutrients from the soil.
In 'Spider-Man: Brand New Day,' Peter Parker devises a superpower inhibitor based on a real therapy using RNA.
Ashes to ashes, stardust to stardust The post A Dazzling Image of a Dying Star, Featuring the Great Recycling System of the Cosmos appeared first on Nautilus .
Superconductors are materials in which electrical current flows with a resistance of zero, typically below specific temperatures. In conventional superconductors, this state of matter emerges when two electrons bind together at low temperatures, forming so-called Cooper pairs.
The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope recently imaged NGC 2392 (also known as the Lion Nebula), named for its distinctive appearance, which resembles a lion's face seen head-on.
The mantle, a rocky layer accounting for more than 80% of Earth's volume, circulates at rates of only a few centimeters per year. This circulation drives plate tectonics and influences major geological phenomena such as earthquakes and volcanic activity. Despite its fundamental
The summers of recent years have been hot, but not unusual from a meteorological perspective. According to researchers at Leipzig University, though, the next extreme summer would far exceed anything we have experienced so far.
Researchers at Karolinska Institutet and Stockholm University have developed a new tool that estimates a cell's biological age by analyzing its gene activity. In an article published in the journal Advanced Science, they also demonstrate how the tool can be used to identify
Massive storms like Hurricane Katrina in 2005, which caused more than $100 billion in damage, were once considered lifetime events. Increasingly, however, they are becoming the norm: a direct result of climate change, which has made large storms more frequent, intense and
Mice use almost completely distinct sets of neurons for their two different types of vocalizations—the squeaks they produce when in distress or fighting and the whistle-like ultrasonic vocalizations they use when communicating socially, Cornell neuroscientists have found. The
So far, most of the minerals found on Mars tell a story of lava poured out by ancient volcanoes, followed by long stretches in which water trickled through and slowly reshaped the rock. However, some rocks scattered across the Martian surface seem to hint at a different
A baby sits on the floor and reaches toward a red ball on the floor and grunts. The mother responds, "Do you see the ball?" She picks it up, holds it in front of the baby and says, "Do you want to hold the ball?" The baby shrieks in excitement as the mother hands the ball to
Readers of a certain age will remember a golden era of asteroid films, capped by two with very different endings. "Deep Impact" drove home the devastating consequences of letting a large piece of rock hit our planet, whereas "Armageddon," though arguably the kitschier of the
Quantum sensors, devices that collect measurements by exploiting quantum-mechanical phenomena, could potentially detect extremely weak magnetic, gravitational and electromagnetic signals with greater sensitivity than classical sensors. Some quantum sensors leverage
Two new missions are revealing how robotic repair and assembly could become routine on the final frontier
Nature has answered the same way for 3.5 billion years The post Is Immortality Possible? appeared first on Nautilus .
An air pollution monitoring network has provided one of the most detailed long-term views yet of the role of black carbon, or soot produced by fires, diesel vehicles and other combustion sources, in Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa. The detailed measurements show how pollution
Going back to school can be an exciting time for students from elementary school through college, whether it's finding the perfect outfit to wear on the first day, returning to campus or filling a chalkboard with career dreams.
A study examining how feral water buffalo interact with landscapes has uncovered the pest's disastrous impacts on northern long-necked turtles in the Top End's tropical wetlands.
Biologists, zoologists and psychologists have been trying to trace the origins of human language for centuries. One well-known theory, known as the social brain hypothesis, suggests that increasingly complex social lives prompted primates to evolve increasingly larger brains,
For decades, an influential theory blamed the Rapanui for their own downfall—a story made famous by Jared Diamond’s book Collapse . New evidence tells a different tale
Neuroscience is revealing how our brains are wired for narrative
A heavenly read; a 25-foot eye; a case of double personality
The conservative think tank’s report claims that high-intensity and elite sports training has lasting effects on menstrual cycles and fertility
Play this crossword inspired by the September 2026 issue of Scientific American
A recent change in ownership is an opportunity for SciAm to be even better and have some fun
Letters to the editors for the April 2026 issue of Scientific American
Here are four reasons solar energy has seen a meteoric rise in recent years
Soaring numbers of satellites could pose grave threats to the heavens above and our planet below
Zipline’s tethered delivery system lowers packages from the sky. Now it has to show that people want the service
NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will soon launch to unravel the mysteries of dark energy and dark matter
Golden Dome’s most audacious element would require a vast constellation of weapons that does not yet exist. Defense companies are already lining up to build it
Companies are making big bets on technology to solve lingering challenges in the clean-energy rollout. Here are four of the most ambitious projects
We are rightfully told to eat more fiber. But our depleted gut microbiomes may not benefit from superhigh levels
Two American companies are pursuing rival manufacturing strategies for these long-promised cells in an industry China dominates
What if the secret to drought-resistant crops isn't how much water plants use, but when they use it? A new study identifies a daily window that could help breeders develop tomatoes that better withstand drought without sacrificing yield.
"WHALE AT ONE O'CLOCK!" Eager cruise passengers zipping around New York's southern shores rush to the starboard bow: A humpback whale is up for air, a breathtaking sighting set against Manhattan's iconic skyline.
The two largest reservoirs in the United States have fallen to record lows as a severe drought grips the country's West, according to data released over the weekend.
Borneo in Indonesia, home to pristine rainforest and protected species, is burning. Meteorologist Safillah Anggie Wahyuni hopes a solution lies in the clouds.
The threat that rising temperatures fueled by climate change pose to the health of older people has been dramatically underestimated, according to a U.S. modeling study published Tuesday.
An unstable mountain rock formation looming above the Swiss village of Kandersteg threatens a landslide that could rival the disaster that destroyed nearby Blatten last year, a collapse scientists linked to thawing permafrost and glacier dynamics.
A magnetar’s colossal magnetic field may have revealed a quantum effect predicted by Werner Heisenberg nearly 90 years ago, in which seemingly empty space alters the behavior of light. If confirmed, the discovery could offer the first direct evidence of vacuum birefringence and
Einstein’s abandoned cosmological constant made a spectacular comeback when astronomers discovered that the universe’s expansion is accelerating. It now sits at the heart of our best cosmological model—a model that works extraordinarily well, yet may still be wrong.