Ajdina Halilovic is a science writer and researcher based in London. She holds a degree in neuroscience from the University of Cambridge. She writes, most often and most dearly, about intelligence. Fo ...

Why is there something rather than nothing? Philosopher Martin Heidegger called this “the first of all questions,” and it has vexed scholars and theologians alike throughout history. Science has yet ...

A tropical storm is barreling toward Hawaii. The cyclone—which could reach near-hurricane strength—is expected to make landfall on the islands this weekend, bringing heavy rains, strong wind, and the ...

Researchers are finally learning the mechanism behind one of the most prescribed medicines in the U.S., primarily used to treat or prevent type 2 diabetes ...

The 2026 total solar eclipse has come and gone, but that doesn’t mean the wonder has to end. Scientific American contributor and eclipse chaser Lucie McCormick watching the eclipse unfold from central ...

A new study of the Helix Nebula shows a never-before-seen detail of how dying stars recycle elements. Researchers found it by ...

In the timelapse, on the left limb of the sun—that's the outer edge—we can see what is known as a solar prominence. This bright red structure is evidence of that plasma, extending out from the sun's ...

Any parent of school-age children will tell you: squishies are it. The viral squeezable toys come in all shapes and sizes—some of the most popular look like food items such as dumplings, bananas, ...

There’s a $1-million prize for proving the Riemann hypothesis. Claude couldn’t pull that off, but it made significant progress on a related problem ...

One of the central mysteries of the brain is how it achieves so much with so little. At any given moment, it processes an entire world of input, pilots a body and generates conscious experience—all ...

The 2026 total solar eclipse is finally upon us, marking the first total solar eclipse visible from parts of mainland Europe in almost three decades. Today, for a few brief moments, some one billion ...

This study was originally published in 2024 and was criticized as being misleading by other scientists at the time ...