Latest Stories

The U.S. has been pummeled with heat waves this summer. Here’s how hot overnight temperatures can get in the way of a good night’s rest—in three charts

Space agencies around the globe are coordinating missions to visit the asteroid Apophis during a close encounter with Earth in 2029

The extreme conditions of atomic bomb explosions create “uncontrolled microexperiments” that, in Hiroshima, forged a never-before-seen metallic alloy

Many of these structures date to around C.E. 100–300, during the time of the Aquiry civilization, and may have been used for ceremonial purposes

A newly discovered change in ribosomal RNA makes protein production more precise, potentially safeguarding these cephalopods’ complex nervous systems

Giant black holes adrift in deep space are normally invisible—unless they’re dining on stars

A private spacecraft launched to boost the decaying orbit of NASA’s Swift Observatory is now suffering from potentially mission-ending malfunctions

Smell can bring back vivid childhood memories—the so-called Proust’s madeleine phenomenon—and neuroscientists now think they know why

New work explains how avocado trees coordinate a complex reproductive strategy, switching every day between male and female

SciAm books editor Bri Kane shares her favorite science books for every summer mood

Discovered by an amateur mathematician in 2022, this strange construct can tile an infinite surface without repeating. But can it be useful in the real world?

Physicists, mathematicians and philosophers have been exploring the possibility of going forward to the future or back to the past