Scientific American

While “protein maxxing” is all the rage, reducing your protein intake could add years to your life

Discovered by an amateur mathematician in 2022, this strange construct can tile an infinite surface without repeating. But can it be useful in the real world?

Physicists, mathematicians and philosophers have been exploring the possibility of going forward to the future or back to the past

Many of these structures date to around C.E. 100–300, during the time of the Aquiry civilization, and may have been used for ceremonial purposes

The extreme conditions of atomic bomb explosions create “uncontrolled microexperiments” that, in Hiroshima, forged a never-before-seen metallic alloy

New work explains how avocado trees coordinate a complex reproductive strategy, switching every day between male and female

Some female daddy longlegs will perform fellatio, perhaps to avoid potential violence from males, while males of another species entice females with a secretion on their penises

These proposed changes have seen significant bipartisan pushback and have been criticized by scientists across disciplines

An M.I.T. Ph.D. student and two University of California system cryptographers used GPT-5.6 Sol Ultra in different ways, raising new questions about independent discovery and scientific credit

A high-profile court case is calling attention to this rare and understudied condition

Lakes of liquid methane on Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, could offer exhilarating—and terrifying—opportunities for otherworldly surfing

In searches for past and present Martian life, some scientists say we’ve been too cautious to see what’s right in front of us

Frothy rock floating on the ocean near Papua New Guinea is the sign scientists needed that, hidden from view, an underwater volcano was erupting

Historian Craig Fehrman unpacks the science, politics and human stories behind one of America’s most famous expeditions

Space agencies around the globe are coordinating missions to visit the asteroid Apophis during a close encounter with Earth in 2029

David Haskell brings readers through millions of years of botanical history for his latest book, How Flowers Made Our World

Centuries-old DNA that was found in these mummies belongs to an extinct viral lineage of smallpox that was brought across the Atlantic during European colonization of the Americas

The U.S. has been pummeled with heat waves this summer. Here’s how hot overnight temperatures can get in the way of a good night’s rest—in three charts

A newly discovered change in ribosomal RNA makes protein production more precise, potentially safeguarding these cephalopods’ complex nervous systems

This agent pursued its objective far beyond what researchers intended, revealing how difficult to contain powerful AI systems can be

Joan Birman popularized the Burau representation problem decades ago. Now she and two colleagues have a proof that reveals brand new insights into the geometry of braids

The Psyche spacecraft flew by Mars earlier this year on its way to a metal-rich asteroid, capturing the images along the way

In an episode of the cartoon, a machine lets characters swap bodies, but they can’t switch back with the same person. Math helps all the characters return to their original bodies

The 2026 Fields Medals recognize breakthroughs in the math of messy fluids, tangled knots, spinning pencils, and more

The Arctic Ocean is one of the most extreme environments on Earth, but that’s not stopping this cephalopod

A hormone produced by the thymus helps tamp down age-related inflammation, a new study in mice found

During a lost ‘golden age’ of language, humans may have spoken tens of thousands of different tongues, a new study suggests

Astronomers have a plan to observe an errant piece of a SpaceX rocket as it hits the moon to better understand impact events

A new skull-based analysis of Neanderthal brains suggests that these ancient hominins’ range of intelligence largely overlapped with our own

A private spacecraft launched to boost the decaying orbit of NASA’s Swift Observatory is now suffering from potentially mission-ending malfunctions

Are GLP-1s for life? What we know about getting older on weight-loss drugs

These findings challenge a long-held belief about weapons found in female burial sites

Smell can bring back vivid childhood memories—the so-called Proust’s madeleine phenomenon—and neuroscientists now think they know why

More sunlight in the evenings doesn’t always equate to better health

Giant black holes adrift in deep space are normally invisible—unless they’re dining on stars

This incident underscores concerns over the increasingly powerful cybersecurity capabilities of new AI models