Stay informed about scientific discoveries, research developments and new findings from around the world.
Ecologist Merritt Turetsky’s devotion to bogs, fens and other fascinating water-logged spaces saturates her new book.
Astronomers have discovered that winds from a supermassive black hole are about 100 times more powerful than previously thought. XRISM observations showed the resulting turbulence spreading roughly 300,000 light-years, extending far beyond the black hole’s host galaxy. The energy involved rivals several billion supernova explosions, revealing just how dramatically black holes can influence the space around them.
Hang a painting poorly in this math puzzle
Climate change is often discussed in terms of rising temperatures, extreme weather and environmental loss. But there's another consequence that can be harder to see: The impact on our mental health.In this exclusive video, we explore how heat exposure influences mental state, drawing on research by Kim Meidenbauer, a neuroscientist at Washington State University who studies the effect of heat on emotion and behavior.Editor's Note: This text was updated at 12:30 p.m. EDT to correct the spelling of Kim Meidenbauer's name.Burning up: How can we adapt to a warming world?As the planet warms, our environment will be transformed, but so will our bodies. This video is part of a series where we inves...
QUICK FACTSWhere is it? Lake Pueyrredón and Lake Posadas, Argentina [-47.41961002, -71.87622200]What's in the photo? The point where two different-colored lakes meetWho took the photo? An unnamed astronaut on board the International Space StationWhen was it taken? Sept. 15, 2020This eye-catching astronaut photo shows the point where an ancient Patagonian lake has been split by a peculiar land bridge, creating two contrastingly colored bodies of water.Lake Pueyrredón (on the left in the photo) is the Argentine half of a roughly 40-mile-long (65 kilometers) glacial lake, which stretches across the country's border with Chile in Patagonia — a region in South America that is well known for its d...
The flesh eating New World screwworm has returned to the United States, threatening livestock, wildlife, pets and potentially people as it spreads north. A new UC San Diego tracking system aims to predict where the parasite could strike next while officials revive the eradication strategy that defeated it decades ago.
After decades of hype, directed-energy weapons may offer the U.S. military a cheaper answer to the expensive problem of stopping drones
Letters to the editors for the May 2026 issue of Scientific American
Could the hunt for the universe’s missing matter be the biggest wild goose chase in scientific history?
The company’s push into physical AI is putting Gemini inside humanoids—and testing whether its intelligence can survive in the real world
The latest gravitational-wave discoveries include record-breaking cataclysms
Deep-orange yolks could have a slight health benefit, but it’s easy for producers to fake it
Will some of the biggest mysteries in science remain forever unsolved?
Science in meter and verse
Smallpox eradication; skyscraper excavations; research on the racetrack
And how they might have helped save the future of American apples
Play this crossword inspired by the October 2026 issue of Scientific American
Our understanding of consciousness could be fundamentally wrong
Physicists are searching for what lies underneath the particles we know
Scientists are pursuing the limits of longevity
Some questions may never be answered, but maybe that’s not the point
Scientists disagree on how biology got started and on whether we can ever know for sure
The biggest questions in science inspire us even when we lack answers
Sleep app tracks link between air pollution and a bad night’s sleep Sarah Collins Tue, 09/15/2026 - 10:00 Researchers from the University of Cambridge, Tsinghua University and the sleep technology company Sleep Cycle analysed coughing sounds from 32 cities in 12 countries over 500 days, and found that higher daily air pollution levels were strongly linked to nighttime coughing levels, even where local pollution levels were below the World Health Organization’s recommended daily exposure limit. The researchers used cough sounds passively recorded by the mobile app via the phone’s microphone. Cough sounds were counted on individual devices and pooled by city to build an unprecedented dataset o...