Pure Science

Scientific American

The particles that make up wildfire smoke may raise the risk of dementia even more than similar airborne pollutants from other sources

Scientific American

Once a tragic example of degraded wildlife habitat, the Klamath River’s dam removal demonstrates how people can halt the decline of, and even restore, wildlife

Scientific American

With the help of a powerful rare-earth alloy, magnet fishers pull garbage out of polluted waterways

Scientific American

Celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz recently held broad investments in health care, tech, and food companies

Scientific American

When life feels difficult, humor can be a coping mechanism that relieves stress and offers the breathing room to keep going, scientists say

Scientific American

A renowned psychiatrist and activist compares Trump’s election to other pivotal historical moments in which the ultimate victim was truth itself

Scientific American

We need targeted public health interventions to reduce transmission from asymptomatically infected individuals. Like COVID, silently spreading pathogens can lead to far more infections and fatalities

Scientific American

RFK, Jr., could restructure the CDC, FDA and NIH in pursuit of his flawed vision of public health. Plus, we discuss chimpanzees at play and the first-ever close-up image of a star.

Scientific American

Federal climate databases remained largely intact during President-elect Donald Trump’s first term. Scientists say the threats are bigger this time

Scientific American

The Trump administration could embolden Republicans to make sweeping changes to how the affordable care act functions and is enforced

Scientific American

AI-human collaboration could possibly achieve superhuman greatness in mathematics

Scientific American

Voters supported abortion rights measures while electing antiabortion candidates in the 2024 election. The split reflects a complicated abortion landscape post-Dobbs

Scientific American

A finger-sized clay cylinder from a tomb in northern Syria appears to be the oldest example of writing using an alphabet rather than hieroglyphs or cuneiform

Scientific American

Called Olbers’ paradox, the seemingly simple mystery of the sky’s darkness is something that stumped astronomers for centuries

Scientific American

Social psychologists could turn artificial-intelligence-powered tools like ChatGPT on to writings from past cultures. Will this help us study ancient civilizations?

Scientific American

Female chimps who migrate to new social groups bring skills and technology with them, helping to drive development of increasingly complex tool sets

Scientific American

Canada’s first human case of bird flu has left a teenager in critical condition as human infections continue to emerge in the western U.S.

Scientific American

The 3.2-million-year-old human ancestor known as Lucy sparked a revolution in scientists’ understanding of the origins of clever hands and stone tools

Scientific American

This Black physicist’s work on the Manhattan Project inspired a County in Florida two generations after her death

Scientific American

Samples from the far side of the moon gathered by China’s Chang’e-6 mission record eons of tumultuous lunar history

Scientific American

Despite investigative genetic genealogy revolutionizing cold case investigations, it has been underused to free the wrongly convicted

Scientific American

Every Atlantic hurricane that formed this year had higher wind speeds because of climate change. Two likely would have remained tropical storms without its influence

Scientific American

The sixth test flight of SpaceX’s giant rocket ended with a fiery splashdown rather than a clean “chopstick” catch

Scientific American

Sweeping reorganization and more research scrutiny could be on the way for the U.S. National Institutes of Health

Scientific American

Trumps retreat from climate agreements and tech funding will help China dominate global clean energy markets

Scientific American

Researchers directed electric current to activate targeted facial muscles and then asked study participants how they felt

Scientific American

A social scientist looks at the portrait of U.S. voters, and voting, in the aftermath of the 2024 presidential election that put Trump into the White House

Scientific American

A study of births in New Jersey reveals a troubling disparity between unscheduled C-sections for Black people.

Scientific American

A major windstorm and an atmospheric river are set to unleash a “firehose” of precipitation from California to British Columbia

Scientific American

Forests absorb planet-warming pollution, but world leaders shouldn’t include them in plans to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions, a new study recommends

Scientific American

Writers, artists, photographers and researchers share the stories behind the stories

Scientific American

The far side of the moon offers grounds for compromise between advocates and opponents of lunar development

Scientific American

Archaeological and genetic discoveries topple long-standing ideas about the domestication of equines

Scientific American

Changing the ocean’s chemical and biological makeup could force it to pull vast amounts of planet-warming carbon from the atmosphere. But is that a line we want to cross?

Scientific American

Oil rigs around the world are habitats for marine species. When they stop producing oil, should they be removed or allowed to stay?

Scientific American

In End of the World and Hard-Boiled Wonderland, the title is flipped, but cyberpunk pleasures remain

Scientific American

Understanding curiosity can help people—and robots—learn faster

Scientific American

Mathematicians have found a new kind of shape with connections to nature and art

Scientific American

Letters to the editors for the July/August 2024 issue of Scientific American

Scientific American

U.N. statistics show progress toward the goal of gender equality but a long way left to go

Scientific American

Intense health anxiety is a true mental illness and threatens lives. The good news is that it’s treatable

Scientific American

Science in meter and verse

Scientific American

New diagnostic techniques can pick up these brain injuries and ensure people get help

Scientific American

Alcohol in space; basking in the limelight

Scientific American

Discovering weird new shapes, turning oil rigs into reefs and making the ocean absorb more greenhouse gases

Scientific American

Oak trees have genetic flexibility that allows them to solve ecological problems. But even they will need our help to survive climate change

Scientific American

Censoring what children read deprives them of reality and the chance to feed their curiosity and develop empathy

Scientific American

The fossil-fuel industry argues that we can’t live without its deadly products. It is wrong

Scientific American

How are these numbers organized?

Scientific American

Prominent vaccine skeptic RFK, Jr., is a proven menace to public health. But with a bird flu outbreak looming, he is poised to take a perch atop the federal public health enterprise