The Sciences

Amid the pandemic, candidates in tight contests in Arizona and Kansas contrast their understanding of science with opponents’ disregard

A compound of hydrogen, carbon and sulfur has broken a symbolic barrier—but its high-pressure conditions make it difficult to analyze

Four hundred years ago Galileo Galilei’s scientific findings were rejected because they didn’t fit the prevailing beliefs of the time. His story is disturbingly relevant today. Astrophysicist and author Mario Livio and Scientific American editor Clara Moskowitz to discusses lessons from Galileo’s life for dealing with science deniers now, plus a historical detective story about Galileo’s famous motto, “And yet it moves.”

The ancestors of today’s dogs already exhibited some playfulness, which became a key trait during domestication.

Debate erupts over how best to estimate the sizes of the largest creatures ever to have walked the earth

Stop arguing with people about what is true. Instead ask how they are voting

Simulation games help newsrooms prepare for covering a chaotic election season

Frederick Douglass, Antonio Maceo and the outrages of “racial science”

A stretch of Neandertal DNA has been associated with some cases of severe COVID-19, but it’s unclear how much of a risk it poses. Christopher Intagliata reports. 

Remembering the maverick physicist who pioneered an “anthropic” approach to cosmology

The pandemic offers colleges and universities an unexpected opportunity to reinvent themselves in ways that better serve students and faculty

A microscopic image reveals a plant’s vascular system