Stories by Maddie Bender

In Pillars of Creation, Richard Panek gets up close to the JWST

In Night Magic, darkness is revered, and its secrets are revealed

A riveting quest to map the world; quantum physics in a four-act drama; climate solutions that show what we’re doing right

Rats as you’ve never seen them; the journey of restoring a garden; stories from a “post-Impact” future

Butterfly markings work better when they’re “looking” toward prey

Predicting severity can help address deadly effects to olive groves

The marker material conserved samples for up to a week

A key player is revealed in the acne-causing immune battle

Space agencies are partnering with car manufacturers to custom build new rovers—or retrofit commercial vehicles—for future missions to the moon and Mars

A low-cost design helps shaking buildings roll to a stop

High-powered chemistry lets researchers trace a beer back to its ingredients

A deep-sea sponge’s unique structure helps it eat and mate while reducing drag

The rodents’ personalities may help them to secure territory and avoid prey.

The platform could aid climate science, space junk cleanup and planetary exploration

Top news from around the world

By inserting some genes and knocking down others, scientists solved a core problem in synthetic biology

The phenomenon triggers strong negative reactions to everyday sounds but might come from subconscious mirroring behavior

About 80 conditions can be described as autoimmune disorders, although definitions are still changing

An educational experiment used escape rooms and the undead to set the stage for a terrible situation that would become all too real

Here’s how researchers are zeroing in on the culprit

Scientific American presents the winner and honorable mentions of the 11th annual Art of Neuroscience contest

An ocean-powered buoy brings technology closer to the dream of obtaining energy from the sea

Top news from around the world

Today we bring you a new episode in our podcast series COVID, Quickly. Every two weeks, Scientific American’s senior health editors Tanya Lewis and Josh Fischman catch you up on the essential developments in the pandemic: from vaccines to new variants and everything in between.

You can listen to all past episodes here.