After decades of hype, directed-energy weapons may offer the U.S. military a cheaper answer to the expensive problem of stopping drones ...

But whether it comes from paprika additives or foraged greens, the pigment in the eggs you eat may still benefit your health. Xanthophylls such as lutein and zeaxanthin reach the retina and accumulate ...

The Bullet Cluster is nigh impossible to explain by modifying Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein’s theories of gravity. So are other recent observations, such as galaxies with anomalously slight or ...

The company’s push into physical AI is putting Gemini inside humanoids—and testing whether its intelligence can survive in the real world ...

The possibly never-ending quest toward an explanation is the purview of a scientific field called Origins of Life, or OoL (a word that seems like it would be a good name for the first-ever organism).

These questions inspired our special package on “Impossible Questions,” which explores mysteries that are not just unsolved but potentially unsolvable. Scientific American spoke to Unexplainable host ...

Our understanding of consciousness could be fundamentally wrong This article is part of a special package on “Impossible ...

Ever since humans recognized we have a limited lifespan, that knowledge has shaped our cultures, religions and philosophies. Although we make plans, pursue careers and behave as though we will live ...

For more than 2,000 years mathematicians chased a problem called squaring the circle, in which they tried to craft a square with the same area as a circle, using only a compass and a straightedge.

1976, Social Order of Macaques: “Researchers observed a so-called subleader policing episode in a group of macaques. The episode, which lasted 1.5 seconds, starts with Tulip, a juvenile female, ...

The combined statistical significance of the datasets surpassed the threshold needed to claim a discovery. The Higgs boson was real. Celebratory cheers erupted down the corridor. “Everybody smiled ...

Jennifer Blackledge is a Detroit-area poet who works in the automotive industry. She was awarded the 2025 Zócalo Public Square Poetry Prize. Her work has been published in JAMA, Rattle, ONE ART, I-70 ...