Culture

If we lose sight of why empathy matters, both individual dignity and democracy suffer

Fast fashion may seem cheap, but it’s taking a costly toll on the planet—and on millions of young people

With the help of a powerful rare-earth alloy, magnet fishers pull garbage out of polluted waterways

The far side of the moon offers grounds for compromise between advocates and opponents of lunar development

Letters to the editors for the July/August 2024 issue of Scientific American

Writers, artists, photographers and researchers share the stories behind the stories

Discovering weird new shapes, turning oil rigs into reefs and making the ocean absorb more greenhouse gases

Today’s cannabis plant is highly cultivated and incredibly potent. Treating it like a commodity, and not a testable, regulated medicine, is hurting people

What was once fair under the law may become unfair when science changes. The law must react to uphold due process

No, but the direction of our hair whorls could teach us about human development

To heal political division, start with common moral ground, a study suggests

In Absolution, the fourth novel in Jeff VanderMeer’s Southern Reach saga, scientists try to know the unknowable