Behold, directly overhead, a certain strange star was suddenly seen...
Amazed, and as if astonished and stupefied, I stood still.

— Tycho Brahe

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Updated: 9 hours 9 min ago

Mathematicians sign declaration to rein in AI use

Tue, 06/02/2026 - 6:01am

A group of researchers have proposed rules to prevent artificial intelligence from overpowering humans in math

Categories: Astronomy

Questioning everything

Tue, 06/02/2026 - 6:00am

Where did stars, and light itself, come from? Is there a hidden sector of particles and forces called “dark energy” affecting the cosmos?

Categories: Astronomy

How Gödel numbers turn mathematical laws against themselves

Tue, 06/02/2026 - 12:00am

By encoding mathematical statements into numbers, mathematician Kurt Gödel used ordinary arithmetic to check whether a statement can be proved

Categories: Astronomy

Trump’s psychedelics executive order could accelerate new treatments—even for children

Mon, 06/01/2026 - 5:00pm

The Trump administration has fast-tracked research into psychedelics, and experts say it is likely a matter of time before the drugs are used to treat minors

Categories: Astronomy

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is being explored as a long COVID treatment. Here’s what the research shows

Mon, 06/01/2026 - 2:15pm

Some clinics are touting pressurized oxygen chambers as a treatment for long COVID, but the evidence is mixed

Categories: Astronomy

Oldest cave art in the U.K. discovered inside Welsh cave

Mon, 06/01/2026 - 12:30pm

A new analysis of red lines inside a cave in Wales suggests they were made deliberately by ancient humans some 17,000 years ago

Categories: Astronomy

How the war in Iran is affecting your dinner plate

Mon, 06/01/2026 - 12:00pm

Agriculture is at risk of a crisis because of this Middle East conflict. The reason why has to do with how fertilizer is made

Categories: Astronomy

Andrew Scott talks about World War II, D-Day and weather forecasting for his new film Pressure

Mon, 06/01/2026 - 11:35am

Andrew Scott plays World War II meteorologist James Stagg in a new film Pressure, which explores the crucial role weather forecasting played in D-Day

Categories: Astronomy

Join the Scientific American Summer Reading Challenge

Mon, 06/01/2026 - 11:30am

Fill your bingo card with fascinating science stories, discoveries and ideas all summer long for a chance to win prizes

Categories: Astronomy

China launches rival to SpaceX Falcon 9 with zero warning

Mon, 06/01/2026 - 11:30am

China apparently didn’t issue any airspace or maritime notices ahead of the maiden launch of this rocket on Monday

Categories: Astronomy

Hurricane season explained—and what to expect in 2026

Mon, 06/01/2026 - 6:30am

Hurricane season is shaped by the ingredients needed to produce a tropical cyclone, and this year the Atlantic may be relatively quiet

Categories: Astronomy

Scientists are racing to stop a type of Ebola we have no vaccine for

Mon, 06/01/2026 - 6:00am

A deadly Ebola outbreak is spreading fast—and U.S. cuts to foreign aid are making it worse

Categories: Astronomy

These exotic particles could break physics

Sun, 05/31/2026 - 8:00am

‘Penguin’ decays from CERN’s latest Large Hadron Collider experiment hint at weird new physics

Categories: Astronomy

Top U.S. science funder slows research grants to universities

Sun, 05/31/2026 - 7:00am

It's not clear why the National Science Foundation may be limiting funding to certain U.S. universities

Categories: Astronomy

New protein-folding AI vastly expands on Alphafold's efforts

Sat, 05/30/2026 - 8:00am

The new open-source atlas, generated by an AI tool called ESMFold2, vastly increases the known protein universe

Categories: Astronomy

NASA’s Hubble captures gorgeous new photo of a spiral galaxy as it wanders through the Virgo Cluster

Sat, 05/30/2026 - 6:00am

Messier 88 is an active galaxy with a central supermassive black hole that is gobbling up gas and dust

Categories: Astronomy

How the success of D-Day hinged on a weather forecast

Fri, 05/29/2026 - 5:27pm

As General Dwight D. Eisenhower prepared for D-Day, he needed a forecast. The new movie Pressure shows the tense make-or-break weather prediction that led to the successful invasion of Europe that spelled the beginning of the end of World War II

Categories: Astronomy

Why high-bandwidth memory is a bottleneck for AI chips

Fri, 05/29/2026 - 3:00pm

High-bandwidth memory keeps powerful AI chips fed with data, and demand for it helped Boise, Idaho–based Micron briefly top $1 trillion in market value

Categories: Astronomy

Retatrutide results spark questions about how rapid weight loss affects the body

Fri, 05/29/2026 - 10:30am

New-generation GLP-1 drugs, such as retatrutide, are achieving higher rates of weight loss. How much weight is too much and too fast to lose?

Categories: Astronomy

Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket explodes in massive fireball, imperiling NASA moon missions

Fri, 05/29/2026 - 10:00am

The latest flight of the New Glenn rocket was meant to prepare Blue Origin for a series of NASA-funded lunar voyages. Instead it ended before it began

Categories: Astronomy