Books

An illustration of a book cover with two people next to each other on a purple background.

BooksSeptember 11, 2026

Can an AI chatbot replace human connection?

What do we lose when machines become our closest confidants?

Brianne Kane, Jeffery DelViscio, Fonda Mwangi, Alli Rodgers, Rachel Feltman, Alex Sugiura

An illustration of a book cover with hands reached out to each other.

BooksSeptember 4, 2026

Can technology optimize companionship? A novelist imagines the extreme answer

Author Sarah Pierce explores dating apps, loneliness and human connection through a novel about a corpse-matching algorithm

Brianne Kane, Fonda Mwangi, Alex Sugiura, Rachel Feltman

New Issue: Science’s Impossible Questions. Read Now

the cover of Cloudy with a Chance of Starships by Seven Rasmussen floating over an illustration of space alien warfare

BooksAugust 28, 2026

Where are all the aliens? A new book explores possible answers

Seven Rasmussen, an astrobiologist and author of the new book Cloudy with a Chance of Starships, gives readers a tour of the astonishing science behind modern searches for alien life

Brianne Kane

Cover of Jill Lepore's book, The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State, floating above a colorful background

BooksAugust 26, 2026

Silicon Valley reads a lot of science fiction. It often gets it wrong

Historian Jill Lepore explains what tech leaders miss in their favorite stories—and why the fight over AI data centers may be where the machine stops

Brianne Kane

An illustration of an orange book cover with different inventions on it floating on a purple background

Artificial IntelligenceAugust 19, 2026

How the history of human creativity can help us navigate the age of AI

Moiya McTier explores what makes human creativity unique in the age of AI

Rachel Feltman, Fonda Mwangi, Alex Sugiura

Book cover of How Flowers Made Our World by David Haskell floating above photo of flowers

Book RecommendationsJuly 30, 2026

How flowers shaped the world as we know it

David Haskell brings readers through millions of years of botanical history for his latest book, How Flowers Made Our World

Brianne Kane

Four book covers floating in space, including Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, The Long Way to a Small and Angry Planet, Contact and The Dispossessed

Book RecommendationsJune 12, 2026

The alien stories Scientific American editors keep coming back to

The 24 alien books the Scientific American staff love, from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy to Contact and beyond

Brianne Kane

BooksJune 1, 2026

Scientific American Summer Reading Challenge

Fill your bingo card with fascinating science stories, discoveries and ideas all summer long for a chance to win prizes

Brianne Kane

An illustration of a book cover with a hand print on a starry dark background.

BooksMay 29, 2026

What our phones, playlists and AI companions reveal about being human

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

Brianne Kane, Rachel Feltman, Fonda Mwangi, Alex Sugiura

A monolith rises out of the fog on the cover of There Is No Antimemetics Division by qntm

BooksMay 27, 2026

This sci-fi novel asks—can what you will never know kill you?

There Is No Antimemetics Division explores how to survive when memories and meaning are malleable

Sarah Lewin Frasier

An illustration of a book cover of a women's silhouette on a dark purple background.

CancerMay 15, 2026

Black women’s ‘womb crisis’ extends far beyond maternal mortality

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

Rachel Feltman, Fonda Mwangi, Alex Sugiura

BooksMay 9, 2026

The leader of NASA’s Psyche mission has tips for interplanetary team building

Lindy Elkins-Tanton, principal investigator of NASA’s Psyche mission, explains in her new book how lessons from interplanetary exploration can help people solve problems together

K. R. Callaway