News

Highlights from the July 2020 Issue from a New Editor in Chief

The coronavirus that has killed hundreds of thousands of people and staggered the world's economy is just about 88 nanometers…

5 years ago

Why Do People Avoid Facts That Could Help Them?

In our information age, an unprecedented amount of data are right at our fingertips. We run genetic tests on our…

5 years ago

Using Poetry to Combat Loneliness and Social Isolation

“Thank you for leading us to these places of comfort,” one participant said. “It helped me feel connected to a…

5 years ago

Printed Coral Could Provide Reef Relief

Coral reefs are among the most productive ecosystems in the world. They’re also in serious danger—climate change and other threats…

5 years ago

A Screen of ‘Old Smoke’ Hangs Around in the Atmosphere

Scientists have begun to penetrate a mystery of climate change: the effects of smoke from forest and agricultural fires on…

5 years ago

Why Racism, Not Race, Is a Risk Factor for Dying of COVID-19

COVID-19 is cutting a jarring and unequal path across the U.S. The disease is disproportionately killing people of color, particularly…

5 years ago

Why COVID-19 Makes People Lose Their Sense of Smell

One morning a few weeks ago I was chatting with my friend Horacio, a mathematician in the New York City…

5 years ago

‘Air Towel’ Ends Public Health Menace

Originally published in July 1914 Credit: Scientific AmericanAdvertisement “Protest against the roller, or common, towel for public use has swept…

5 years ago

Biggest Ever Yellowstone Eruption Revealed

Roughly 8.7 million years ago, in areas that would become southern Idaho and northern Nevada, the grasslands began to break…

5 years ago

Switch in Mouse Brain Induces a Deep Slumber Similar to Hibernation

A well-worn science-fiction trope imagines space travelers going into suspended animation as they head into deep space. Closer to reality…

5 years ago