Scientific American

Most adults have levels of a dangerous type of cholesterol that are above 100, but this new drug can reduce levels to around 50

SpaceX is launching the latest version of its Starship megarocket for a test flight that—if all goes to plan—should look a lot like the last one

What’s the secret to prompting an AI to solve math problems that have left humans stumped? Tell it to believe in itself

A controversial new ruling from the Federal Communications Commission leaves no one responsible for regulating light pollution and other ill effects from skyrocketing numbers of satellites

Case numbers of this parasite-caused illness have exploded in the last week. An expert explains how to try and stay safe

A new breakthrough pushes the limits of randomness, bringing a decades-old mathematical mystery closer to resolution

An ancient sample shows calcite threading through this material’s cracks and pores, offering possible lessons for making modern concrete last longer

Start your morning with today’s Spellements. Create as many words as you can from our daily selection of letters—including one tied to recent science news. Play now.

Equipping spacecraft with x-ray machines could boost safety for long-duration spaceflights—like a crewed mission to Mars

The signature of Sak Tahn Waax, or “White-Chested Fox,” was found inscribed in a 1,000-year-old chamber beneath present-day Guatemala

Put your science knowledge to the test with this week’s news quiz. Play now.

Solar eclipses are a rare and brief opportunity for scientists to gather data on everything from the physics of the sun to air pressure in the upper atmosphere

A 23-year-old student overturned an ancient conjecture about one of math’s simplest operations

Shaving under a minute off our daily commutes costs Americans $22 million daily

The new species, Colobus congoensis, may already be endangered

The White House nominated Erica Schwartz, a former deputy surgeon general, to head the nation’s top public health agency

Indonesia is building a new capital city in the heart of Borneo to replace sinking Jakarta. As construction transforms one of the world’s most biodiverse rainforests, scientists and their Indigenous collaborators are racing to record the sounds of the forest—and preserve generations of ecological knowledge before it’s lost.

Erythrulose—a sugar found in raspberries—is also prevalent in a giant molecular cloud close to our galaxy’s core, scientists have discovered

Beta Pictoris d is more than twice the size of Jupiter, but it is a baby compared to its humongous neighbors

Skygazers are in for a treat in August, as one of the most spectacular meteor showers coincides with a total solar eclipse

Alpha-gal syndrome is increasing across the U.S., driven by lone star ticks

Several children who had aggressive recurrent brain tumors remained disease-free years after this treatment, according to an early-stage trial

Scientists have long suspected that this star cluster was a hotspot for a certain kind of black hole. But for decades, they had been unable to spot any

This massive dinosaur skeleton sold for more than $50.1 million on Tuesday

This climate system is tied to more powerful typhoons, as well as famine and wildfires

Cyclosporiasis case numbers have skyrocketed from several dozen nationwide in June to now more than 1,000 in the state of Michigan alone

Smoke from northern Minnesota and western Ontario wildfires is pouring over the Great Lakes, mid-Atlantic and Northeast, bringing record levels of hazardous air pollution to major cities

A recent study in the journal Nature carries cosmos-quaking implications for our understanding of the universe—except a new preprint says that it’s wrong

New research identifies five distinct sleep subtypes, revealing links between brain patterns, behavior and health

The SpudCell certainly resembles a living cell, but a key structure inside the cell falls short of the real thing

Hundreds of thousands of scientists, including Nobel laureates, warn that changes to the way federal grants are approved would greatly damage American science

Record-breaking heat waves are beginning to blur together—here’s why and what’s making them so unbearable

A best-yet measurement of one of general relativity’s most mind-boggling effects is “another feather in Einstein’s cap”