The Sciences

The successor to the Hubble currently honors a man who acquiesced to homophobic government policies during the 1950s and 1960s

Letters to the editor from the November 2020 issue of Scientific American

Science in meter and verse

Big-brained cephalopods could shine light on the evolution and neurobiology of intelligence, complexity, and more—and inspire medical and technological breakthroughs

The failure of the U.S. to respond appropriately to the pandemic could have been predicted if anyone had bothered to ask social scientists

Southern long-finned pilot whales’ calls could help them outsmart an apex predator

The 9,000-year-old settlement of Çatalhöyük in Turkey shows how humans began putting down roots

Advances in laser-receiver technology could deliver high-quality, reliable communications for future space exploration, such as sending humans to Mars

Book recommendations from the editors of Scientific American

When the sun disappeared, tiny coccoliths turned to hunting

A Caribbean island’s giant rocks were thought to be deposited by enormous waves

Some days we gain one minute; some days we gain three