Scientific American.com

The decision to help a friend or stranger—and the amount of help that one chooses to give—may be powerfully shaped by the brain’s basolateral amygdala

Physicists are a step closer to using quantum computers for simulations that are beyond the ability of any ordinary computers

Evidence from Earth’s deep past suggests dramatic subduction zones can spread like a contagion

A near-complete census of our interstellar neighborhood hopes to answer how stars, brown dwarfs and rogue planets form throughout the universe

The Asian needle ant looks ordinary, but its sting can be worse than a fire ant’s and can be dangerous for anyone who has experienced anaphylaxis

This Father’s Day, we’re celebrating the unusually involved Djungarian hamster dads

The EPA has contradicted itself—and legal precedent—in its bid to undo Biden-era limits on power-plant climate pollution

A new brain-computer interface turns thoughts into singing and expressive speech in real time

The game-changing Vera C. Rubin Observatory will collect more astronomical data in its first year than all other telescopes combined

Our skin’s epithelial cells send electrical signals like neurons to cry out for help

Senators grilled NIH director Jayanta Bhattacharya the day after more than 300 NIH staff members sent him a fiery letter protesting the cancellation of thousands of research projects

States will continue to get FEMA federal disaster aid this year but may see less assistance after changes made in 2026

This tally of animals’ effect on Earth’s geology, equivalent to that of thousands of extreme floods, most likely is an underestimate

Gun violence is the leading cause of death of children in the U.S.—and states with loose gun control laws bear the heaviest burden, a new study found

Solar Orbiter isn’t the first spacecraft to study the sun’s poles—but it’s the first to send back photographs