Our Nearest Sunlike Star Might Have a Planet, JWST Shows in Stunning Finding
In some of its most ambitious work yet, the James Webb Space Telescope looked to spot a planet in a potentially habitable orbit around Alpha Centauri A, the nearest sunlike star to our solar system
How China Brought Clean Energy to Antarctica’s Frigid Darkness
Can Astronomers and Satellite Operators Learn to Share the Sky?
AI Took on the Math Olympiad—But Mathematicians Aren’t Impressed
Spellements: Thursday, August 7, 2025
Students Find Hidden Fibonacci Sequence in Classic Probability Puzzle
Why mRNA Vaccines Are So Revolutionary—And What’s at Stake if We Lose Them
The Law That Saved the Whales Is Under Attack
MRI Accidents Explained: What Causes Deaths and Injuries in Scanners
How an Article about the H-Bomb Landed Scientific American in the Middle of the Red Scare
Reckoning with Our Mistakes
Jigsaws: SciAm Cover Art
Evolution of the Scientific American Logo
Create as many words as you can!
Stretch your math muscles with these puzzles.
The Secret to the Strongest Force in the Universe
Why Aren’t We Made of Antimatter?
Russia’s Earthquake, Wonders of Walking and Plant Genetics
Claude 4 Chatbot Raises Questions about AI Consciousness
This Summer’s Extreme Weather Explained: Flash Floods and Corn Sweat
Summer Meteor Showers, Short Summer Days and Ancient Arthropods
How to Detect Consciousness in People, Animals and Maybe Even AI
Insights from human brains could inform how scientists search for awareness in all its possible forms
Terracotta Is a 3,000-Year-Old Solution to Fighting Extreme Heat
Companies are adapting this humble clay-based ceramic to keep people cool—without electricity
The Law That Saved the Whales Is Under Attack
Proposed amendments to the Marine Mammal Protection Act would cut down protections to whales, dolphins, polar bears and other species
First Hormone-Free Male Birth Control Pill Shown Safe in Early Human Trial
A hormone-free pill, called YCT-529, that temporarily stops sperm production by blocking a vitamin A metabolite has just concluded its first safety trial in humans, getting a step closer to increasing male contraceptive options
AI Took on the Math Olympiad—But Mathematicians Aren’t Impressed
AI models supposedly did well on International Math Olympiad problems, but how they got their answers reminds us why we still need people doing math
Students Find Hidden Fibonacci Sequence in Classic Probability Puzzle
Though the Fibonacci sequence shows up everywhere in nature, these young mathematicians were surprised to find it in the answer to a variation of the pick-up sticks problem—a nearly two-century-old form of puzzle
