Scientific American.com

Flock shape, speed and structure are key in deciphering whether radar readouts are birds, bats, insects or weather

Digital distractions can undermine our focus, but research suggests that our inherent capacity to pay attention hasn’t diminished

Seen just 800 million years after the big bang, an object called LAP1-B is a galactic building block that seems to hold some of the first stars to ever shine

Mapping their starting point like bees do helps autonomous drones find their way

Malaria incidence is increasing, progress on maternal mortality is stalling, and some childhood vaccine rates are plateauing or have dipped below the threshold for herd immunity

People exposed to the Andes strain of the hantavirus may not develop symptoms for up to 42 days, a delay that makes tracing infections more difficult

With millions of people now using GLP-1 drugs such as Wegovy and Zepbound, scientists are racing to find ways to help people retain their weight loss after they stop taking the medication

Long-held assumptions tell us that atoms with the same number of protons, neutrons and electrons are indistinguishable, but one physicist wants to put this idea to the test

Are we really falling short on protein—or is the high-protein craze overblown?

There is no cure for the hantavirus that has so far sickened at least nine people and killed three of them on a cruise ship outbreak, but several therapies have shown promise in animal studies

There is no hard evidence that ivermectin can treat cancer, but that hasn’t stopped people from trying it

Probability theory and the Saint Petersburg paradox can help you determine whether the stakes of a game are too great

Makary, a face of Trump’s Make America Healthy Again agenda, oversaw the embattled agency as it dealt with vaping, abortion and other issues

This test flight comes at a pivotal moment for Elon Musk’s SpaceX as the company pushes to go public this year and show it’s ready for NASA’s planned 2027 Artemis III mission

For the last 1.7 million years, China’s Yangtze River has been stealing water from the Yellow River, new research shows

A multiyear effort to rename polycystic ovary syndrome finally revealed the condition’s new name: polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome

Margaret Hamilton designed safety features for NASA inspired in part by her four-year-old

NASA’s Mars rovers have found traces of minerals akin to those that make up precious gems on Earth. But their appearance and abundance on Mars is likely very different, experts say

Researchers who study political violence say that the U.S. is in a period of more intense political rhetoric, but there have been far darker periods in the nation’s history

The practice of “cloacal diving” could help remoras hide from predators—it could also be a feeding strategy or help the fish hitchhike