Scientific American Magazine

Scientific American asked leading scientists and science writers to look forward to what the world will be like in the years 2063, 2113 and 2163, and tell us what role science and technology will play in our future

The only way to bring flying cars to the masses is to leave the flying to the car

If the world can't manage to cast off the ultimate weapons by the middle of the century, we may face extinction

Gene therapy, once off to a rocky start, transforms medicine by getting at the root cause of many diseases

By the next century lions, tigers and other marquee species will be gone or confined to zoos

Solar engineering and other exceptionally ambitious new technologies to deal with the reality of rising global temperatures come riddled with uncertainties. To illustrate how complex the problem is and what kind of challenges lie ahead, here are three contrasting, and somewhat fantastical, scenarios

What today's prophets of technology say about the day after tomorrow

How future generations will make the voyage from our earthly home to the planets and beyond—and what it means for our species

Newly discovered states of matter embody what Einstein called “spooky action at a distance.” They defy explanation, but lately answers have come from a seemingly unrelated corner of physics: string theory

A new way to link artificial arms and hands to the nervous system could allow the brain to control prostheses as smoothly as if they were natural limbs

Light microscopy reveals hidden marvels of the natural world

Our many different senses collaborate even more than previously realized. What we hear depends a lot on what we see and feel

Huge flows of vapor in the atmosphere, dubbed "atmospheric rivers," have unleashed massive floods every 200 years, and climate change could bring more of them