Stories by Jeanna Bryner

When their queen dies, naked mole rat females usually wage bloody battles of succession. But peace may be possible, a new study suggests

Synchronous fireflies; Grand Canyon fossil footprints

Modern luxury watches can be traced back to one of Napoleon Bonaparte’s younger sisters

A quorum of quarks; asbestos surprises

Scientists have captured footage of a sleeper shark farther south than ever before, suggesting Antarctica’s Southern Ocean is not shark-free

A Greenland mystery; booming dunes

Americans are living longer than ever but still well behind the life expectancy of other developed countries

Giant atoms; corpses for science

Scientific American hosted an event at Morehouse School of Medicine to highlight medical advances in treating sickle cell disease and how far we still have to go

Hidden beneath the hills of southern China, the JUNO observatory shows promise in solving neutrino mysteries

These images of Hurricane Melissa show the Category 5 storm in all its power

Living with type 1 diabetes today is leaps and bounds easier than it was decades ago. Things are only getting better

This autoimmune disease impacts millions of people worldwide, with some underserved communities bearing the brunt

Inside this double issue of SciAm, you’ll find black holes that burp up their stellar meals, metal detectorists that hit pay dirt, hope for psychopathy, the truth about testosterone and a consumer guide to sustainable clothes shopping

The June 2025 issue of Scientific American is packed with exciting features, from magnificent mitochondria and a plan to refreeze the Arctic to the universe’s first light and recent human evolution

The May issue of Scientific American takes you on a deep-sea mining mission, explores dark comets and examines an invisible threat to the food we eat

In the April issue of SciAm, follow a man’s journey to a diagnosis, learn about exciting new schizophrenia treatments, and more

Astronomers search for missing planets, a salty food movement takes hold, and it may be time to redefine the second

Our February issue covers new Alzheimer’s guidelines, teens’ transcendent thinking, Neandertal DNA in all of us, and more

A vast, ancient slab of seafloor plunged underneath the Pacific Ocean and has hovered in Earth’s mantle for more than 120 million years, a new study suggests

Physicists showed that photons can seem to exit a material before entering it, revealing observational evidence of negative time

A tiny human relative called the hobbit, or Homo floresiensis, may have evolved from a larger ancestor that shrunk upon arriving on the Indonesian island of Flores, a new fossil suggests

The tourist submersible Titan imploded while diving to visit the wreckage of the Titanic, which sank in 1912

Thanks to huge advancements in technology to monitor and treat type 1 diabetes, families like mine can sleep throughout the night