Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

— Arthur C. Clarke's Third Law

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Scientific American is the essential guide to the most awe-inspiring advances in science and technology, explaining how they change our understanding of the world and shape our lives.
Updated: 23 hours 3 min ago

Gravitational Wave Science Faces Budget Cuts Just Years After Breakthrough Discoveries

Thu, 07/24/2025 - 10:00am

Less than a decade since the first detection of gravitational waves—ripples in spacetime itself—proposed budget cuts threaten to silence this groundbreaking science

Categories: Astronomy

Polymetallic Nodules, a Source of Rare Metals, May Hold the Secrets of 'Dark Oxygen'

Thu, 07/24/2025 - 10:00am

When researchers discovered "dark oxygen" last year, the news spread around the world, but the biggest challenge to the science comes from its funders.

Categories: Astronomy

U.S. Ends Support for CMB-S4 Project to Study Cosmic Inflation

Wed, 07/23/2025 - 1:00pm

Researchers hoped CMB-S4, a $900-million cosmology experiment, would answer one of the greatest questions in physics. Instead it’s become another cautionary tale of pursuing big science amid shrinking budgets

Categories: Astronomy

Heat Dome’s Extreme Heat and Humidity Triggers Alerts across Eastern U.S.

Wed, 07/23/2025 - 12:45pm

High humidity and low overnight temperatures will put tens of millions of people under heat alerts over the course of the coming week

Categories: Astronomy

Physicists Blast Gold to Astonishing Temperatures, Overturning 40 Years of Physics

Wed, 07/23/2025 - 11:00am

Physicists superheated gold to 14 times its melting point, disproving a long-standing prediction about the temperature limits of solids

Categories: Astronomy

Can a Chatbot be Conscious? Inside Anthropic’s Interpretability Research on Claude 4

Wed, 07/23/2025 - 11:00am

As large language models like Claude 4 express uncertainty about whether they are conscious, researchers race to decode their inner workings, raising profound questions about machine awareness, ethics and the risks of uncontrolled AI evolution

Categories: Astronomy

Study Finds COVID Pandemic Accelerated Brain Aging in Everyone

Wed, 07/23/2025 - 8:00am

A study of nearly 1,000 people showed that brain aging was not linked to infection status

Categories: Astronomy

Trump Administration Changes at NIH, EPA, NASA, NSF Spark Internal Dissent

Wed, 07/23/2025 - 7:00am

Hundreds of staffers at the National Institutes of Health, Environmental Protection Agency, NASA and the National Science Foundation have signed public letters to leadership opposing the direction in which the agencies are headed

Categories: Astronomy

Nonfiction and Fiction Summer Reading Recommendations from Scientific American

Wed, 07/23/2025 - 6:00am

If you’re seeking a summer read, Scientific American has some fantastic fiction and notable nonfiction to recommend.

Categories: Astronomy

Ozzy Osbourne, Who Suffered with a Form of Parkinson’s, Dies at 76

Tue, 07/22/2025 - 5:00pm

Ozzy Osbourne, lead singer of Black Sabbath, has died at age 76. He said he had been previously diagnosed with a form of Parkinson’s disease linked to the gene PRKN

Categories: Astronomy

Biggest Trial of Four-Day Workweek Finds Workers Are Happier and Feel Just as Productive

Tue, 07/22/2025 - 11:00am

The largest yet study on a four-day workweek included 141 companies, 90 percent of which retained the arrangement at the end of the six-month experiment

Categories: Astronomy

Why I’m Suing OpenAI, the Creator of ChatGPT

Tue, 07/22/2025 - 9:00am

My lawsuit in Hawaii lays out the safety issues in OpenAI’s products and how they could irreparably harm both Hawaii and the rest of the U.S.

Categories: Astronomy

NASA Employees Warn Science and Safety Are at Risk from White House Budget Cuts

Tue, 07/22/2025 - 8:00am

A declaration of dissent from past and present NASA employees warns that science and safety are at risk and joins similar documents from staff at other federal science agencies

Categories: Astronomy

Male Birth Control Pill YCT-529 Passes Human Safety Test

Tue, 07/22/2025 - 5:00am

A hormone-free pill, called YCT-529, that temporarily stops sperm production by blocking a vitamin A metabolite has just concluded its first safety trial in humans, getting a step closer to increasing male contraceptive options

Categories: Astronomy

Optimists Are Alike, but Pessimists Are Unique, Brain Scan Study Suggests

Mon, 07/21/2025 - 3:00pm

Optimists have similar patterns of brain activation when they think about the future—but pessimists are all different from one another, a brain scan study suggests

Categories: Astronomy

Try These Logic Puzzles from the International Logic Olympiad

Mon, 07/21/2025 - 1:30pm

In only its second year, the International Logic Olympiad is already booming as logic becomes more and more crucial in our ever changing world

Categories: Astronomy

Humidity from Corn Sweat Intensifies Extreme Heat Wave in U.S. Midwest

Mon, 07/21/2025 - 11:55am

Humid heat is blanketing the eastern U.S. this week, exacerbated by “corn sweat” in the Midwest

Categories: Astronomy

Could AI Have Prevented SkyWest Airliner’s Near Collision with a B-52 Bomber?

Mon, 07/21/2025 - 11:53am

A SkyWest pilot’s last-second decision could have prevented a collision that air-traffic controllers may not have foreseen

Categories: Astronomy

How Humility Can Restore Trust in Expertise

Mon, 07/21/2025 - 10:00am

Acknowledging the limits of one’s own knowledge could be as important a signal of expertise as credentials and confidence

Categories: Astronomy

Landmark Langlands Proof Advances Grand Unified Theory of Math

Mon, 07/21/2025 - 8:00am

The Langlands program has inspired and befuddled mathematicians for more than 50 years. A major advance has now opened up new worlds for them to explore

Categories: Astronomy