Scientific American

A chatbot’s result for the 80-year-old “unit distance” conjecture is the first AI proof that would likely be published in math’s top journal if humans had done it alone

Some extinct human ancestors and modern-day apes appear to share wrist traits that raise the question of whether our last common ancestor walked on its knuckles

Experts question this study’s design and its recommendations—and point out that you probably get more exercise than you think

A deadly Ebola outbreak in parts of Africa is raising international alarm. Still, experts stress that the chance of a pandemic is low

The intimidating legacy of the scariest problem in mathematics

Denver’s hockey team is studded with stars, but training and playing the game some 5,000 feet above sea level may give their athletic performance a boost over that of their rivals

This launch, when it comes, will mark the 12th flight test of Starship and the first demonstration of its V3 design. A new attempt could come as soon as Friday

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.

The Trump administration warned that too much screen time for children has been linked to poor sleep, bad behavior, and less physical and social activity

Gold doesn’t tarnish like similar metals do. A new paper says that the key is the intricate “herringbone” pattern of its atoms.

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

A decade after Ebola vaccines changed outbreak response, a new epidemic in central Africa is caused by a strain the world never fully prepared for

This eerily simple math says our days are numbered—and nobody can agree why it’s wrong

Our galaxy and its nearest large companion, Andromeda, may be headed for a collision on a cosmic scale. What happens then?

This company says its pulsed plasma machine will deliver electricity to the grid by 2029. Some physicists warn that its promises are outrunning what the technology has proved

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

How an experiment involving a made-up skin condition exposes the risks of increasingly popular AI medical advice

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

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

Constructed by ancient Egyptians, the Great Pyramid has survived multiple earthquakes through the ages—now researchers think they know why

Will computers based on quantum physics really change the world?

An out-of-this-world weather report from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope reveals how clouds move across a giant planet hundreds of light-years from Earth

These critters were carrying the Sin Nombre variant of hantavirus, which can be spread from rodents to humans but not from one person to another

Ozempic and just getting older take off muscle. New therapies could retain it

This year’s expected El Niño could hamper hurricanes in the Atlantic but boost them in the central and eastern Pacific

While drugs such as Wegovy target a single gut hormone, retatrutide is among a new class of GLP-1 drugs that aims at three hormone receptors

The new image shows the galaxy NGC 1266, a transitional object with a clutch of young stars that likely collided with a smaller galaxy 500 million years ago

The wobbly, lanky arachnids known as harvestmen or daddy longlegs may be overlooked as predators of small vertebrates such as frogs, researchers say

The science of de-extinction does not exist, but Colossal Biosciences’ “artificial egg” is an interesting technical feat

Mosaic depictions of a weapon-wielding female gladiator are the first physical evidence showing women in ancient Rome could be skilled beast hunters

New trove of fossils reveals that ancestral animals likely emerged in the deep sea

Nuclear power could enable long-term lunar missions, but NASA’s timeline may be too ambitious

Here are six ways to build a quantum computer

If you switch a lamp on and off an infinite number of times, will the light end up on or off? Somehow math says both

A growing body of research suggests cannabis poses risks to the developing brain

Scientific American spoke to one of the people who are currently being monitored for possible hantavirus infection at the National Quarantine Unit in Nebraska

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

At least six Americans are believed to have been exposed to the Ebola virus, and one person who appears to have contracted the virus has been evacuated to Germany

NASA’s Psyche snapped images as it flew by Mars last week. The spacecraft used the planet’s gravity to give itself a boost on its journey toward its target asteroid

Sometimes science does make our world turn upside down

Commercial satellites can now watch much of Earth in near-real time. Militaries are learning new ways to fool them

Sharla Boehm, a math teacher, spent her summers coding. She’d go on to build what would eventually evolve into the Internet