Stories by Laura Helmuth

A Big Day Birding and a Possible Fifth Force of Nature

Reduction of food waste, infinite math and quantum physics experiments designed by AI in our October issue

Progress on Autoimmune Disorders, Mountain Lions and Venus

Training science writers for a future of solutions

Animal Play Is Delightfully Meaningful

Brown dwarfs, stuttering, quantum chemistry, and more

Why Humans Are So Thirsty

Artificial proteins, carbon-sucking rocks, particle accelerators, and more

Do People Who Enjoy Science Have a High Tolerance for Disturbing Ideas?

Killer fungi, killer asteroids, buzzy cicadas, brain sensations, and more unsettling discoveries

Dolphin Spins, Adolescent Brains and a Very Big Map

Sharing “an acute appreciation for science”

How to Be an Effective Science Communicator

Telescopes on the moon, the mathematics of connections, new hope for dark matter, and realistic mythical beings

Social Justice Movements, Exomoons and a Century of Bird Banding

What we’re learning about how solar systems and civilizations developed

Cosmic Mysteries, Zombie Battles and Science for the Future

Scientists are figuring out the loss of smell in COVID—but not the energy of the not so empty cosmos

2020 Has Been a Huge Year for Understanding the Process of Science

For COVID-19, climate, dinosaurs, and more, we’re seeing how science works

What We’re Thankful for at Scientific American

From our virtual Thanksgiving table to yours

Sharing the Human Side of Science

Exploding stars, Top 10 Emerging Technologies, hand transplants, and more in the December issue of Scientific American

Election 2020: The Stakes for Science

Scientific American’s editor in chief sets up this week’s series of podcasts about how this election could affect science, technology and medicine.

Resist Misinformation, Watch Birds and Remember Plagues

Our November issue features space wars, a mysterious disorder of mind and brain, and past pandemics

COVID-19 Dreams, Synchronicity and Visitors from Another Solar System

Welcome to the October issue of Scientific American

Nine Important Things We’ve Learned about the Coronavirus Pandemic So Far

Some early public health messages about COVID-19 have been overturned

Celebrating Scientific American’s 175th Anniversary

Enjoy some surprising history and the most dizzying discoveries

Quarantine Lessons from Lobsters, Guppies, Finches and Galileo

In this issue, a quantum mystery is solved, and we learn how to measure what matters

Know the Enemy

Highlights from the July 2020 Issue from a New Editor in Chief

Neutrinos, weather forecasts, the trouble with weight-centric medicine, a coronavirus close-up, and more