Videos

Benton Harbor, Mich., needs to exhume thousands of corroded lines, and a machine learning algorithm is helping to figure out where to dig first.

We’ve all lived through the pandemic, but these scientific experts lived inside it—fighting nearly every day to understand the novel coronavirus, predict its spread, decode its dangers and fight it on the front lines of care.

Yet the unfit creatures survive, challenging our long-held view of evolution

After decades of false starts, a new push for nuclear-powered rocketry could make or break the space agency’s plans to send astronauts to the Red Planet

A new engineering project would bring much needed land to eroding marshes but at a huge cost to the fishing industry

We investigate the curious, charged circumstances surrounding the resignation of the director of pediatrics at Columbia University’s Babies Hospital and one pathologist at the center of it all: Dorothy Andersen

In 2021 the search phrase “what precious metal is in a catalytic converter” saw a more than 5,000 percent increase in use. Here’s why.

The future of these guardians of the forest, some thousands of years old, is not assured

Lost Women of Science digs deep to uncover stories of scientists that have long been overlooked

It governs a lot of your digital life these days, but the story of where it first materialized is likely deeper than you know. 

There’s a good possibility that at least one of the dishes you eat this holiday will contain a gelling agent. But what is that, exactly? A new video series from Scientific American and Spektrum der Wissenschaft gives you a serving of science. 

In our final episode, we explore pathologist Dorothy Andersen’s legacy—what she left behind and how her work has lived on since her death. Describing her mentor’s influence on her life and career, pediatrician Celia Ores gives us a rare look into what Andersen was really like. We then turn to researchers, doctors and patients, who fill us in on the progress that has grown from Andersen’s initial work. These major developments include the discovery of the cystic fibrosis gene, the tremendous impact of the drug Trikafta and the potential of lifesaving gene-editing techniques