Scientific American

A stretch of the Via Appia showing the straight construction and stone paving associated with classic Roman roads

ArchaeologyMay 19, 2026

New map reveals lost roads of the Roman Empire

A massive digitization project has nearly doubled the known extent of the first continent-scale road network

Tom Brughmans

A nurse wearing protective medical clothing prepares a syringe by drawing a dose from a vaccine vial inside a red tent.

VaccinesMay 20, 2026

Ebola vaccines exist, but not for the strain in the current outbreak

Paul Adepoju

Flat, frondlike and blobby creatures explore or extend from the ocean floor in an illustration.

PaleontologyMay 20, 2026

These bizarre fossils represent some of the earliest moving, sexually reproducing life ever discovered

Jack Tamisiea

This view of a crescent Mars was captured on May 15, 2026, at about 5:03 A.M. PDT by NASA’s Psyche mission as it approached the planet for a gravity assist. The image has been processed into a natural-color view using red, green and blue data from the multispectral imager instrument.

MarsMay 20, 2026

NASA’s Psyche captures gorgeous Mars crescent photo on way to asteroid

Adam Kovac

A robot hand reaches toward bubbles with letters in them

GamesMay 20, 2026

Today’s Spellements

Emma R. Hasson

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Robert F Kennedy Jr in a blue suit and in front of the American flag

Mind & BrainMay 20, 2026

Screen time limits can protect children’s health, U.S. surgeon general advisory says

Claire Cameron

Poster with the text "Ebola" in red alongside several phone numbers

Public HealthMay 20, 2026

An Ebola outbreak is spreading fast. Should you be worried?

Jackie Flynn Mogensen

Colorado Avalanche players, including center Martin Necas (88), left wing Gabriel Landeskog (92), center Nazem Kadri (91) and defenseman Cale Makar (8), celebrate after a goal by center Nathan MacKinnon (29) at Ball Arena in Denver, Colo., on May 5, 2026.

ExerciseMay 20, 2026

The Colorado Avalanche is dominating the NHL. The reason could lie in a quirk of geography

Adam Kovac

An image of the full moon on a starry background

Nuclear energyMay 20, 2026

Putting a nuclear reactor on the moon: big promise, bigger challenges

Rachel Feltman, Robin George Andrews, Fonda Mwangi, Alex Sugiura

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June 2026 Issue

A chandelier-shaped cooling system for the quantum computer IBM Quantum System Two.

Quantum Physics

Quantum computing is reaching its make-or-break moment

Adam Becker

An illustration of green computer chips and purple spheres representing quantum bits seem to fly out from a central point of light.

Quantum Computing

What’s a quantum computer good for, anyway?

Zeeya Merali

A stretch of the Via Appia showing the straight construction and stone paving associated with classic Roman roads

Archaeology

New map reveals lost roads of the Roman Empire

Tom Brughmans

An orange and red cross-hatched gradient forms a four-lobed shape over a vast coordinate plane. Along the “x-axis” at the center is a black blob, shaped like a horizontal tear-drop.

Mathematics

The million-dollar math problem hardly anyone is trying to solve

Joseph Howlett

NASA’s Space Launch System rocket launches on a fiery pillar of exhaust surrounded by billowing clouds, sending the Orion crew capsule of the space agency’s Artemis II lunar mission into orbit.

Space Exploration

NASA’s Artemis II launched on first crewed moon mission of the 21st century

Nadia Drake

A false-color view of the moon's Orientale Basin.

Planetary Science

NASA’s Artemis era may finally solve three major moon mysteries

Robin George Andrews

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Games

A robot hand reaches toward bubbles with letters in them

Spellements

Create as many words as you can!

Illustration of a hand and multiple numbers against a purple background.

Math Puzzles

Stretch your math muscles with these puzzles.

A robot hand unleashes a swirl of puzzle pieces, crosswords, and circles with numbers and letters

All Games

Science inspired games, puzzles and quizzes

Special Edition

A number of suns floating with Red Blood cells

Health

Can sunlight cure disease?

Rowan Jacobsen

Pile of peanuts

Public Health

Can peanut allergies be cured?

Maryn McKenna

Illustration of a Vitamin D pill bottle with yellow balloons flying out of it, then being popped by a pin in a hand.

Public Health

How much vitamin D do you need to stay healthy?

Christie Aschwanden

Illustration of a row of human figures (minimialist in style—just outlines, even stick figures), each in a different rainbow color, with a row of vaccines (eg needle plus vial) above the row of humans.

Medicine

Personalized mRNA vaccines will revolutionize cancer treatment—if funding cuts don’t doom them

Rowan Moore Gerety

Illustration of a face, with an enlarged nasal cavity. Inside the nasal cavity are three health care professionals with nasal spray bottles and colorful patterns

Pharmaceuticals

New nasal vaccines offer better protection from COVID and flu—no needle needed

Stephani Sutherland

Illustration of a doctor in a white lab coat, using a bow and arrow.

Pharmaceuticals

These cancers were beyond treatment—but might not be anymore

Jyoti Madhusoodanan

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Podcasts

An image of the full moon on a starry background

Putting a nuclear reactor on the moon: big promise, bigger challenges

Rachel Feltman, Robin George Andrews, Fonda Mwangi, Alex Sugiura

Illustration of passengers From hantavirus-stricken cruise ship MV Hondius arriving at Eindhoven Airport

Public HealthMay 18, 2026

Hantavirus outbreak has new updates, PCOS is now PMOS, fish hides in another animal’s ‘butthole’

Rachel Feltman, Tanya Lewis, Andrea Gawrylewski, Sushmita Pathak, Alex Sugiura

An illustration of a book cover of a women's silhouette on a dark purple background.

CancerMay 15, 2026

Black women’s ‘womb crisis’ extends far beyond maternal mortality

Rachel Feltman, Fonda Mwangi, Alex Sugiura

An image of boxes of Barilla Protein Plus pasta displayed on a shelf in a supermarket, highlighting a high protein content

NutritionMay 13, 2026

Why everyone is obsessed with protein—and whether you actually need more

Rachel Feltman, Bethany Brookshire, Fonda Mwangi, Alex Sugiura

An image of gloved hands holding a Hantavirus sample in a tube while wearing a blue scrubs.

Public HealthMay 11, 2026

Hantavirus outbreak occurs at sea, microplastics may contribute to warming, and Alaska landslide sparks tsunami

Rachel Feltman, Tanya Lewis, Andrea Gawrylewski, Fonda Mwangi, Alex Sugiura

Discussions

Do you think the Riemann Hypothesis is true? Will anyone ever prove it?

1View the Discussion

What do you want to know about hantavirus?

2View the Discussion

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Popular Stories

SpaceX's Starship launches during a test flight in 2025.

SpacecraftMay 19, 2026

SpaceX punts Starship launch as investigation opens into Starbase worker’s death

SpaceX is now targeting the evening of May 21 to launch the latest and largest version of its Starship megarocket for the first time

Claire Cameron

A stretch of the Via Appia showing the straight construction and stone paving associated with classic Roman roads

ArchaeologyMay 19, 2026

New map reveals lost roads of the Roman Empire

A massive digitization project has nearly doubled the known extent of the first continent-scale road network

Tom Brughmans

An orange and red cross-hatched gradient forms a four-lobed shape over a vast coordinate plane. Along the “x-axis” at the center is a black blob, shaped like a horizontal tear-drop.

MathematicsMay 19, 2026

The million-dollar math problem hardly anyone is trying to solve

The intimidating legacy of the scariest problem in mathematics

Joseph Howlett

A tesellated, geometriclandscape of blue with triangles connecting white dots, against a sunset-like horizon.

MathematicsMay 19, 2026

‘Sensational’ proof topples decades-old geometry problem

The sudden resolution of a well-known conjecture highlights the growing adoption of AI as an assistant in high-level mathematics

Joseph Howlett

A chandelier-shaped cooling system for the quantum computer IBM Quantum System Two.

Quantum PhysicsMay 19, 2026

Quantum computing is reaching its make-or-break moment

Will computers based on quantum physics really change the world?

Adam Becker

A painting by artist James Doyle Penrose.

HistoryMay 18, 2026

Hidden copy of the oldest known poem in the English language leaves researchers ‘speechless’

Researchers discovered the copy of the 1,300-year-old poem lurking inside a historical text in an Italian library

Jackie Flynn Mogensen

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