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A black-and-white historical illustration of a trapdoor spider on a tree limb with water and plants in the background. First appeared in the June 24, 1876 edition of Scientific American.

HistoryMay 19, 2026

June 2026: Science history from 50, 100 and 150 years ago

Door-building spiders; a new quantum liquid

Jeanna Bryner

Games illustration with a green background

LanguageMay 19, 2026

Science crossword: At the same time

Play this crossword inspired by the June 2026 issue of Scientific American

Aimee Lucido

A drawing of two sparkling blue horseshoe crabs with floating kelp around them.

ArtsMay 19, 2026

Poem: ‘Horseshoe Crab’

Science in meter and verse

Henry Stimpson

An orange and red cross-hatched gradient forms a four-lobed shape over a vast coordinate plane. Along the “x-axis” at the center is a black blob, shaped like a horizontal tear-drop.

MathematicsMay 19, 2026

The million-dollar math problem hardly anyone is trying to solve

The intimidating legacy of the scariest problem in mathematics

Joseph Howlett

A cylindrical fusion prototype glows white and pink inside a dark test bay, surrounded by cables, hoses and metal supports.

Nuclear energyMay 19, 2026

Helion Energy wants to build fusion power on a start-up timeline

This company says its pulsed plasma machine will deliver electricity to the grid by 2029. Some physicists warn that its promises are outrunning what the technology has proved

Alex Pasternack

People can lose muscle as they age, even if they work out regularly. Illustration shows a person exercising with a weight in one hand and the other hand giving a GLP-1 injection.

MedicineMay 19, 2026

Keep muscle while losing weight, even on Ozempic

Ozempic and just getting older take off muscle. New therapies could retain it

Lori Youmshajekian

Cover of the February 2026 issue of Scientific American against a teal background

CultureMay 19, 2026

Readers respond to the February 2026 issue

Letters to the editors for the February 2026 issue of Scientific American

Aaron Shattuck

Overhead satellite view of a narrow coastal naval base, with a large dark area of apparent strike damage near the harbor.

WarfareMay 19, 2026

War is getting harder to hide from space

Commercial satellites can now watch much of Earth in near-real time. Militaries are learning new ways to fool them

Sarah Scoles

A chandelier-shaped cooling system for the quantum computer IBM Quantum System Two.

Quantum PhysicsMay 19, 2026

Quantum computing is reaching its make-or-break moment

Will computers based on quantum physics really change the world?

Adam Becker

A stretch of the Via Appia showing the straight construction and stone paving associated with classic Roman roads

ArchaeologyMay 19, 2026

New map reveals lost roads of the Roman Empire

A massive digitization project has nearly doubled the known extent of the first continent-scale road network

Tom Brughmans

Six spheres are shown, each holding a different qubit icon.

Quantum ComputingMay 19, 2026

An illustrated field guide to qubits

Here are six ways to build a quantum computer

Clara Moskowitz, Ben Gilliland, Amanda Hobbs

Cover of the June 2026 issue of Scientific American, displaying a quantum device with colorful blocks flying out of it, against a periwinkle background.

Quantum ComputingMay 19, 2026

A real quantum leap

Sometimes science does make our world turn upside down

David M. Ewalt

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