Scientific American.com

Can you assign a size to every object? The surprising answer is no

A new report finds that AI matches or outperforms people at tasks such as competitive math and reading comprehension

Facing budgetary pressure for its Mars Sample Return program, NASA has turned to private industry for ideas—perhaps with one specific company in mind

Mental health recommendations for pilots and air traffic controllers bring new ideas to old problems; the FAA must decide what’s next

A philosopher who lived centuries before artificial intelligence might be able to help us understand the field's personhood questions

Movies and TV shows frequently depict physical and biological sciences well, but often depict psychological and brain sciences poorly. Here’s why, and what we can do about it

“A mass bleaching event is, by definition, a mass mortality event,” a leading coral reef expert says

At least 2.1 million cases of dengue fever have been reported in North and South America, and this year 1,800 people have died from the mosquito-borne disease

This eight-legged probe would scour Mars’s underground lava tubes for places where explorers might camp—or for signs of past life

A black hole weighing as much as 33 suns lurks a mere 2,000 light-years away from our solar system

How long can humanity’s artifacts endure on the lunar surface? A new installation from artist Jeff Koons is inadvertently putting this question to the test

When astronauts return to the moon later this decade, they’ll bring along science experiments to study moonquakes, lunar water ice and extraterrestrial agriculture

AI can better education, not threaten it, if we learn some lessons from the adoption of the calculator into the classroom

Uncontrollable sobbing is uniquely human, and it may be our emotions running out of our faces, a way to connect us with other people

Mixotrophs, which have characteristics of both animals and plants, could help blunt the effects of marine heat waves on ocean ecosystems

Volcano detectives use artificial intelligence to sleuth out ancient secrets in Alaska. 

The tale of how the "backfire effect" ultimately, itself, backfired, and what scientists can learn from being wrong

More U.S. states are requiring online ID checks. A proposed French strategy aims to balance child safety with users’ privacy rights

Major discoveries during the past 10 years have transformed prostate cancer treatment, enabling it to proceed even for the most advanced form of the disease

Experts describe ways to turn down the volume, from earbuds to smartphone apps that detect harmful noise levels