When their queen dies, naked mole rat females usually wage bloody battles of succession. But peace may be possible, a new study suggests

If the U.S. is ever to set up a permanent outpost on the moon, it will need nuclear power. The White House just released a road map to get it as soon as 2028

Do declining immune systems explain the trend, or is something else going on? Experts explain

Laying eggs may have helped mammal ancestors thrive after Earth’s worst mass extinction

By making people feel as if they inhabit a younger version of their own face, researchers can bring childhood memories into sharper focus

As Pokémon turns 30, we take a look at how the beloved Japanese kids’ franchise was inspired by—and has shaped—real-world science

Sperm whales, which make clicking sounds to communicate, use different “vowels” in ways similar to human speech

After attempts at relocation and sterilization have failed, invasive hippos introduced by the infamous drug lord will be culled, the country announced

In 2027’s Artemis III mission, the space agency aims to test two challengers, SpaceX and Blue Origin, for a lunar landing mission

Summer is here—in April? Many East Coast states will see unusually hot days this week

This whopping bee aggregation is one of the largest and oldest ever recorded, according to a new study

The Pokémon franchise, including its recent game Pokémon Pokopia , is inspired by real animals and their ecology. It’s no surprise that so many scientists love to try and “catch ’em all”

Scientists finally understand why birds were the only dinosaurs to pull through the end-Cretaceous mass extinction

Immune system overreactions may be the true culprit of cardiac illness—and lifesaving drugs can calm them down

Modern luxury watches can be traced back to one of Napoleon Bonaparte’s younger sisters

Binoculars and other far-range optics span a gamut of price points. Here’s what separates top-tier from entry-level

At Givaudan and IFF, chemists build—and safeguard—new aroma molecules tightly linked to emotion and memory

The Diffie-Hellman key exchange secures everything from your text messages to government secrets

How the discovery of altermagnets could change physics and computing

Creatine does help build muscle, but social media claims for methylene blue dye are way overblown

Sometimes innovation can be traced back to bizarre places: a muddy streambed, a volcanic ash field or even a hotel-company boardroom

Biologists are racing to save America’s freshwater mussels—the water-filtering keystone species that once filled the country’s rivers and streams—from extinction

Science in meter and verse

The SciFy program tests whether adversaries’ most outlandish scientific claims add up or fall apart

Scientists have designed a new kind of paradoxical shape

As rich ore gets harder to find, the mining industry is using subatomic particles to map rock deep underground

Play this crossword inspired by the May 2026 issue of Scientific American

Take apart the grid in this math puzzle

Synchronous fireflies; Grand Canyon fossil footprints

Letters to the editors for the January 2026 issue of Scientific American

With the rise of private orbital habitats, vacations in space are becoming a real possibility for the ultrawealthy

A Polish mathematician's theory on the famous problem of bisecting three solids using one plane

These images, conservationists say, are evidence that wildlife corridors are paying off

A man with HIV has gone into remission after receiving bone marrow from his brother, who has a rare mutation that prevents the function of receptors that HIV binds to

After all these years, Dream Chaser—a commercial U.S. space plane—is still chasing the dream of spacecraft that can fly from orbit to airports

Scientists thought glassy substances had to be either moldable or impact-resistant—but compleximers are both

A burgeoning field is launching its first clinical trial to find out whether dialing back cell development can safely refresh aged tissues and organs

Artemis II ’s safe return from lunar orbit sparks a debate over the costs, climate effects and long‑term value of going back to the moon

Scientists are exposing the biological information hidden in ancient parchments without leaving a mark

Parasitic beetles are the first animals known to imitate floral scents

The Artemis II mission’s 10-day odyssey around the moon and back was captured in stunning photographs at every moment. Here are 12 of our favorite images

When presented with two different types of decisions, the brain accumulates evidence in a similar way

Artemis II ’s views from space trigger a special type of awe. Psychologists suggest holding onto it

With performance three times better than copper’s, this new material could substantially improve heat management of electronics, data centers and energy systems

The triumph of NASA’s first crewed lunar mission in a half-century is a reminder of what the moon really means for Earth—and why we’re going back

NASA’s Orion capsule and the four astronauts on board have made it back to Earth after 10 days in space and a record-breaking mission around the moon and back

Award winning duo James S. A. Corey show humanity’s struggle with staggering alien power in their latest installment of the Captive’s War series

A new calculation helps narrow down the mass of the W boson, one of the heaviest fundamental particles in the universe

On Friday these four astronauts and their Orion spacecraft will splash down in the Pacific Ocean after a 10-day mission around the moon