Outlet
Scientific American(subscription required) Subscription required
Latest headlines
- OpenAI’s ‘shepherds’ affirm blockbuster physics result
The company’s appointed team of experts has verified and released the groundbreaking AI-generated proof, which validates bedrock assumptions of the Standard Model of particle physics
- Mountain heights across the country are about to change. Gravity is to blame
A national system that defines where things are across the country will get a complete overhaul
- El Niño will push temperatures above 1.5 degrees C. Will we ever come back down?
The astonishing strength of this El Niño could mean we surpass an important climate threshold—possibly for good
- What an exceptionally powerful El Niño could mean for hurricanes, drought and flooding
One of the strongest El Niños ever recorded is pushing the climate into uncharted territory
- Was Isaac Newton’s contribution to calculus stolen?
Newton accused Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, another mathematical giant of the time, of stealing the concept of infinitesimals. Here’s the real story
- The U.S. may be on the cusp of losing its measles elimination status
Years after being officially eliminated, measles is rampant in the U.S. Could it be back for good?
- Oil prices are so high that CO2 emissions from fossil fuels are dropping
The war in Iran has put 2026 on track for a dip in annual fossil-fuel carbon emissions
- Virtual fruit fly brains can play Doom and trade bitcoin
Researchers created a new map of the fruit fly brain. Then the Internet found it
- 5 things to know going into the COP31 climate meeting
Nearly 200 countries will participate in this year’s climate talks, held in Antalya, Türkiye
- Eli Lilly shows GLP-1 weight-loss pill Foundayo can dramatically improve sleep apnea
Foundayo, a daily pill, successfully reduced obstructive sleep apnea, according to clinical trial data
- The coin-flipping trick that counts the Internet
Here’s how the ubiquitous HyperLogLog algorithm works
- Bursts of ‘pink noise’ during sleep could help your brain clean itself
Triggering a flow of the brain’s cleaning fluid could lead to better sleep—and may decrease harmful waste particles
- Why measles is spreading again, how hackers are targeting freezers, and whether cats fart
One story asks whether cats fart. The others are a lot less funny
- Why do some people hear pitch better than others? Internal noise may be the key
The less internal noise you have, the more reliably you can tell similar sounds apart
- Acorns—not deer—can predict a rise in Lyme-spreading ticks
Despite deer’s essential role in tick reproduction, looking to acorn numbers instead can forecast Lyme disease booms almost two years in advance
- NASA reveals new lunar rover, PROMISE, to launch to moon in 2028
At a press event on Saturday, the agency’s officials stressed that rovers and other infrastructure will be critical to ensuring human survival on the moon
- Earth’s rocks have a missing layer spanning up to a billion years. Scientists finally know what happened to it
The “Great Unconformity” has puzzled scientists since its discovery in the 1870s
- The mathematical trick that explains how to find a needle in a haystack
We asked a statistics expert how difficult it would be to find a needle in a haystack—the answer is: just as hard as you think
- Nothing can be fully transparent, physicists discover
Quantum researchers show how materials inevitably absorb light
- Math Puzzle: Secret formula
Can you guess the puzzle writer’s secret formula?
- This brain change can make foxes act like pet dogs
Using data from a 1950s Russian experiment, researchers are getting “to the heart of brain programming” in foxes
- Have astronomers spotted Planet Nine?
Archived observations appear to show a moving object in the far-distant outer solar system, but its reality is unclear
- Kevin Roose says the race to build superintelligence is accelerating
What happens when a technology becomes more powerful than its creators can fully understand?
- Ancient humans used cannabis in burial rituals 2,800 years ago
New findings from a Siberian tomb offer the earliest direct evidence for human marijuana use
- These are the doctors and scientists elected in the 2026 midterms
Learn more about the scientific community coming into office in January
- The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is changing the color of the ocean
The ocean’s blue and green hues near the infamous zone of debris have gotten brighter over the past 20 years, satellite data show
- Hundreds of stunning ice age drawings discovered inside Spanish cave
The find includes 280 engravings, including 55 depictions of animals
- How George Clinton’s Mothership landed onstage in 1976
Fifty years after its spectacular debut, George Clinton’s smoke-spewing spaceship remains a marvel of live-music technology and Afrofuturist imagination
- 2026 election results show widespread opposition to AI data centers
Across 10 states this Election Day, voters overwhelmingly backed restrictions on data center development or rejected measures that would have eased their construction
- The Super El Niño is already soaking the U.S. Expect more flooding to come
This week Florida and the Four Corners region have been hammered by major rain events, swamping roads and washing away homes
- Science advocates react to Democrats’ historic midterm rout: ‘It’s a new day in Washington’
Researchers and advocates say they hope the “blue wave” could signal more accountability after two years of attacks on science
- Could SpaceX’s retirement of Falcon 9 spark a launch crisis?
What happens when the most successful rocket in history stops flying? The world is about to find out
- The polar vortex is about to go haywire
“Everybody’s hair is on fire in the climate or meteorologist community”
- What a historic ‘blue wave’ midterm means for climate action
Democrats swept Congress and won in red states. Here are the races that matter most for decarbonization, disasters and data centers
- NASA’s Swift telescope plunges back to Earth
The observatory had spent decades studying powerful cosmic explosions and was the target of an unsuccessful rescue mission earlier this year
- NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is wobbly—scientists have a fix that could reveal new alien worlds
By modeling the James Webb Space Telescope’s tiny movements, a new technique can reveal up to 15 times fainter alien worlds