Astronomy

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

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

In recent weeks, dozens of infants in the U.S. have been infected with botulism in an outbreak linked to ByHeart powdered infant formula

Ancient rock art was meant to be heard as well as seen and now acoustic archaeologists are bringing the sounds of prehistoric rituals to life

Ancient rock art was meant to be heard as well as seen and now acoustic archaeologists are bringing the sounds of prehistoric rituals to life

Watch an Oort Cloud comet disintegrate before your eyes. Meanwhile, interstellar intruder 3I/ATLAS is brighter than expected.

The post Comet K1/ATLAS Crumbles, Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS Delights appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

All motion is relative. That simple fact makes tracking the motion of distant objects outside our galaxy particularly challenging. For example, there has been a debate among astronomers for decades about the path that one of our nearest neighbors, the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), took over the last few billion years. A new paper from Scott Lucchini and Jiwon Jesse Hand from the Harvard Center for Astrophysics grapples with that question by using a unique technique - the paths of hypervelocity stars.

AlphaEvolve, an AI system created by Google DeepMind, is helping mathematicians do research at a scale that was previously impossible - even if it does occasionally "cheat" to find a solution

AlphaEvolve, an AI system created by Google DeepMind, is helping mathematicians do research at a scale that was previously impossible - even if it does occasionally "cheat" to find a solution

Deep emotional distress after birth kills many mothers. A new kind of drug offers better, faster treatment

When anyone can forge reality, society can’t self-govern. Borrowing Denmark’s approach could help the U.S. restore accountability around deepfakes

Letters to the editors for the July/August Issue 2025 issue of Scientific American

Heimlich maneuver; training fleas

Solve a holey shape conundrum in this math puzzle

These valuable but difficult-to-extract metals are increasingly important to modern life

What can AI “griefbots” do for those in mourning?

Science in meter and verse