Latest Stories

A model of a brain wrapped in a tangle of glowing lights.

StressSeptember 7, 2026

Music helps sooth the brain when we are stressed

Music doesn’t just mask stress, it guides our brain back to a calm state

Payal Dhar

A rocket soars into space, leaving an arc of light in the dark sky.

Space ExplorationSeptember 7, 2026

How many spaceports does the U.S. need?

A new executive order calls for more than 1,000 U.S. rocket launches per year by the end of the decade. Rethinking the nation’s spaceports will be key

Elizabeth Howell

Blue illustration of a face with numbers, implying math and AI.

Artificial IntelligenceSeptember 7, 2026

How introverted or extroverted you are may influence how you use AI

How people interact with their inner and outer worlds may shape how they approach generative AI

Paul Jones, The Conversation US

A lit firefly clings to a single blade of grass.

NeuroscienceSeptember 7, 2026

Nature may have a preferred tempo

From flashing fireflies to human music, many biological rhythms appear to converge on the same rhythmic range

Anirban Mukhopadhyay

Large bronze statue in the foreground is of Julius Caesar with a domed building in the background beneath a bright blue sky with puffy clouds.

ArchaeologySeptember 6, 2026

What archaeology reveals about the rise of all-powerful rulers

Autocracy wasn’t inevitable in early civilizations. But when riches were there to monopolize, strongmen and inequalities emerged

Tim Vernimmen, Knowable Magazine

Cube-like structures with cartoon arms and legs starting to fill up a geometric hole.

RoboticsSeptember 6, 2026

These smart bricks know what object they make up

Collectively intelligent bricks figure out if they’re in a boat, chair or guitar

Matthew Hutson

This digitally generated image shows a glowing purple brain on a black background. The abstract brain looks like it’s dissolving to suggest neurodegeneration.

GeneticsSeptember 5, 2026

New brain scan tool could help expose a devastating and incurable genetic condition

Huntington’s disease is an inherited condition that gradually robs people of their ability to move, speak and even think clearly—there is no cure

Claudia Metzler-Baddeley, The Conversation

Blurred view of a person in black walking past a wall of museum paintings.

MathematicsSeptember 5, 2026

Mathematicians discover the worst way to hang a painting

New solutions found to picture-hanging problems

Emma R. Hasson

MathematicsSeptember 4, 2026

Geometry Reveals the Tricks behind Gerrymandering

Some voting districts are tilted intentionally toward one party or another—a factor in the midterms. Geometry plays a critical role in gerrymandering

Manon Bischoff

Ig Nobel Soil Science prize winners (From L) Marcel van der Heijden, Franz Bender, Atlant Bieri and Pia Viviani reacts on stage during the award ceremony in Zurich, on September 3, 2026. The team were awarded "for burying 1000 identical pairs of underpants in more than 25 countries, and then digging them up after two months".

AnimalsSeptember 4, 2026

2026 Ig Nobels honor cockroach milk, interspecies kissing, taunting venomous snakes, and more

The silliest science awards of the year are here, but the Ig Nobels aren’t just funny business

Adam Kovac

PolicySeptember 4, 2026

Pentagon pauses controversial testosterone policy guidelines

Experts say there is not enough evidence to support broadly screening men for testosterone without any symptoms

Jackie Flynn Mogensen

An abstract illustration showing three glowing blue boxes stacked one top one another and surrounded by ghostly blue wisps of numbers and data.

MathematicsSeptember 4, 2026

Was this record-setting encryption crack a fluke—or the new normal?

A researcher’s social media post that revealed how to break part of a popular encryption protocol has gone viral. But did he really do it with just “good old paper and pencil”?

Peter Hall