Stories by Alex Sugiura

A linguist lays out what communicating with aliens could actually involve—and what that tells us about human language

How scientists are engineering the perfect World Cup pitch—one so flawless that players never notice it

World Cup crowds spark outbreak tracking as AI tensions rise and ancient Rome’s roads get a stunning reboot

A physician involved in the long push to change the name PCOS to PMOS takes us behind the scenes of this subtle yet consequential change

From slow elevators to perfectly split pizza, math quietly explains the quirks of everyday life

A deadly Ebola outbreak is spreading fast—and U.S. cuts to foreign aid are making it worse

A new look at how everything from handwriting to AI quietly reshapes our bodies, habits and sense of connection

Author Jeremy Lent argues that human society runs on a flawed, exploitative worldview—and that embracing interconnectedness could enable a more sustainable future

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

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

What you should know about hantavirus, why PCOS is getting a new name, and how some fish hide in an unusual spot

A new book argues that disparities in fibroids, cancer and diagnosis reveal a lifelong gynecologic health crisis for Black women

Are we really falling short on protein—or is the high-protein craze overblown?

A deadly hantavirus outbreak occurs on a cruise ship, scientists warn that microplastics may be contributing to climate warming, and a retreating-glacier‑triggered landslide unleashed a massive Alaska tsunami

As peptide “stacking” takes over social media feeds, we separate the science from the hype of the Internet’s latest wellness obsession

Journalist Evan Ratliff explores what happens when AI agents are given real autonomy to build and run a start‑up from scratch

A look at what makes scorpions so deadly, why there’s hope for preeclampsia and how President Trump is gutting wind energy

Tracing how psychedelics have undergone a revival in the U.S. and what the White House’s new psychedelic push means for research

A physicist explores how poetry, pop culture and imagination help us understand spacetime and our place in the universe

What NASA’s Curiosity Rover found on Mars, how youth suicides dropped after the launch of the 988 crisis line, and what people think of AI voice clones

New research shows the global wildlife trade is rapidly accelerating the spread of animal pathogens that can jump to humans

This Earth Day three environmental experts share stories about times when environmental action succeeded in saving the planet—and explain why this can be done again

“Cocaine hippos,” underground bees, and fresh insights into aging and heart health

How a few unique traits helped modern-style birds—the last living dinosaurs—survive the asteroid apocalypse that took out T. rex and other mighty beasts