Scientific American.com

A new study identifies a mechanism for how COVID vaccines may, in infrequent cases, drive heart inflammation, a condition that can be caused by the disease itself

NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft didn’t phone home as expected on December 6

French health officials are trying to trace all the contacts of two men who contracted MERS, a potentially lethal disease that is typically confined to the Middle East

Making fire on demand was a milestone in the lives of our early ancestors. But the question of when that skill first arose has been difficult for scientists to pin down

An idea about the sun’s magnetic field called the terminator model could help predict dangerous space weather more accurately

Cross-species “defense pacts” help animals keep tabs on parasites and predators

NASA’s Perseverance rover has gathered groundbreaking Mars samples, but the mission to bring them home is facing serious challenges.

On our Best Fiction of 2025 list, Emma Pattee imagines Portland’s worst Earthquake in her debut novel Tilt

FDA officials are newly scrutinizing several approved therapies to treat RSV in babies despite the fact that these shots were shown to be safe in clinical trials

A major new study lays out plans for crewed missions to Mars, with the search for extraterrestrial life being a top priority

Astronomers have sighted the oldest known stellar explosion, dating back to when the universe was less than a billion years old

Lime granules trapped in ancient walls show Romans relied on a reactive hot-mix method to making concrete that could now inspire modern engineers

On our 2025 Best Nonfiction of the Year list, Karen Hao’s investigation of artificial intelligence reveals how the AI future is still in our hands

X-ray space telescopes caught a supermassive black hole flinging matter into space at a fifth of the speed of light

As far as annual meteor showers are concerned, 2025 has saved the best for last. This year’s Geminids are not to be missed

Space-based computing offers easy access to solar power but presents its own environmental challenges

A type of chaos found in everything from prime numbers to turbulence can unify a pair of unrelated ideas, revealing a mysterious, deep connection that disappears without randomness

These miniature displays can be the size of your pupil, with as many pixels as you have photoreceptors—opening the way to improved virtual reality

Europe’s climate agency said 2025 is likely to be the second or third hottest on record

The International Committee of the Red Cross warned that artificial intelligence models are making up research papers, journals and archives