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New high‑resolution map transforms what we know about Roman roads and the Roman Empire
A massive digitization project has nearly doubled the known extent of the first continent-scale road network
Quantum computing is reaching its make-or-break moment
Will computers based on quantum physics really change the world?
How commercial satellites are changing modern warfare
Commercial satellites can now watch much of Earth in near-real time. Militaries are learning new ways to fool them
Readers respond to the February 2026 issue
Letters to the editors for the February 2026 issue of Scientific American
New ways to keep from losing muscle on Ozempic
Ozempic and just getting older take off muscle. New therapies could retain it
Helion Energy is building a fusion power plant. Can its technology deliver?
This company says its pulsed plasma machine will deliver electricity to the grid by 2029. Some physicists warn that its promises are outrunning what the technology has proved
The Riemann hypothesis is a million-dollar math problem hardly anyone is trying to solve
The intimidating legacy of the scariest problem in mathematics
Science crossword: At the same time
Play this crossword inspired by the June 2026 issue of Scientific American
June 2026: Science history from 50, 100 and 150 years ago
Door-building spiders; a new quantum liquid
A lamp flickering on and off inspires the math mystery of Thomson’s lamp
If you switch a lamp on and off an infinite number of times, will the light end up on or off? Somehow math says both
Ebola outbreak triggers U.S. ban on travelers from three African nations
At least six Americans are believed to have been exposed to the Ebola virus, and one person who appears to have contracted the virus has been evacuated to Germany
How scientists developed a hantavirus PCR test in a weekend
Researchers at the Nebraska Public Health Laboratory worked round the clock to develop a test for the Andes virus at the center of the deadly cruise ship outbreak
Hidden copy of the oldest known poem in the English language leaves researchers ‘speechless’
Researchers discovered the copy of the 1,300-year-old poem lurking inside a historical text in an Italian library
The world is less prepared for a pandemic than before COVID. Here’s why
As world health leaders face deadly outbreaks of hantavirus and Ebola, a major pandemic preparedness report finds we are less safe from viral outbreaks than before COVID
See a Lincoln Memorial-sized asteroid pass within just 56,000 miles of Earth today
The asteroid will swing by Earth on Monday and be close enough to be visible using an amateur telescope
Trump administration ousts top NIH infectious disease leaders
Eight of the top 10 officials at the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases have now been pushed out since President Donald Trump took office
The programmer whose code underpins the Internet
Sharla Boehm, a math teacher, spent her summers coding. She’d go on to build what would eventually evolve into the Internet
How marijuana rewires the teenage brain
A growing body of research suggests cannabis poses risks to the developing brain
Hantavirus cruise ship, PCOS name change, a fish that hides in another animal’s ‘butthole’
What you should know about hantavirus, why PCOS is getting a new name, and how some fish hide in an unusual spot
