Astronomy

When engineers struggled to make 3D printer nozzles narrow enough for their needs, they turned to nature and found the proboscis of a female mosquito had exactly the properties they needed

The depths of the Arctic Ocean have warmed more than scientists expected. New research has placed the blame on warmer water from Greenland

Matter with “forbidden” symmetries was once thought to be confined to lab experiments, but is now being found in some of the world’s most extreme environments

Google’s latest model reportedly beats its rivals in several benchmark tests, but issues with reliability mean concerns remain over a possible AI bubble

To make quantum computers more efficient and reliable, some of their basic components must be constantly reused – several quantum computer designs can now do just that

An experiment 180 years ago first demonstrated a connection between light and electromagnetism – but the link is deeper than we thought

An experiment 180 years ago first demonstrated a connection between light and electromagnetism – but the link is deeper than we thought

What has happened to Comet Lemmon's tail?

If this is Saturn, where are the rings?

Andromeda and Friends

Florida Northern Lights

Few cosmic vistas can excite the imagination like

What are those colorful rings around the Moon?

What does the Milky Way look like in radio waves?

Rather than being a recent cultural development, kissing may have been practised by other early humans like Neanderthals and our ape ancestors

Rather than being a recent cultural development, kissing may have been practised by other early humans like Neanderthals and our ape ancestors

Galaxies grow massive through mergers with other galaxies. Massive galaxies like the Milky Way and Andromeda not only merge with other large galaxies, they also absorb their much smaller satellite dwarf galaxies. But these smaller galaxies can become quenched long before they're absorbed, and new research examines this process at Andromeda (M31).

If you enjoyed Beth Gardiner’s feature about big oil’s bet on plastics, here are more books curated by Scientific American

NGC 1068, a relatively nearby spiral galaxy, appears in this image released on July 23, 2025.

A comprehensive UN report has found that cities and towns are home to 81 per cent of the world’s population, much more than previously thought