Culture

Giant leaf piles, the Mythbusters and remembering what it was like to be a curious kid

Dyson’s principle of maximum diversity says that without hardship and suffering, life would be too dull

Thierry Zomahoun, president of the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences, talks about the potential and needs of science on the continent.

Letters to the editor from the January 2018 issue of Scientific American

The latest book recommendations from Scientific American

Brown University biologist and author Ken Miller talks about his new book The Human Instinct: How We Evolved to Have Reason, Consciousness and Free Will.

Science is messy, full of plot twists and competing interpretations—and the way we talk about it should reflect that truth

In a study of children interacting with toy animals Native American kids and non-Native kids imagined the animals very differently.

Seven scientists did it well enough to become finalists in an international competition

Deeply weird but beautifully illustrated new children’s book channels Hieronymous Bosch

Math can be experienced as play much as music is—just what’s needed to enlarge the tribe of creative problem solvers in mathematics and other human disciplines

What if kids pictured STEM careers like getting to spend every day talking to people who are just as excited about space, dinosaurs or butterflies as they are?