Scientific American

GIF of Mars’s surface.

Space ExplorationJuly 21, 2026

Mesmerizing NASA time-lapse reveals Mars’s craters, polar ice caps and deserts

The Psyche spacecraft flew by Mars earlier this year on its way to a metal-rich asteroid, capturing the images along the way

Sam Macdonald

A screengrab from an episode of the animated show Futurama.

MathJuly 21, 2026

How a Futurama writer’s plot problem led to a totally new math proof

Manon Bischoff

A false-color multiwavelength image of the Jellyfish Nebula that reveals two supernova remnants lurking within.

AstrophysicsJuly 21, 2026

The Jellyfish Nebula has been hiding a big cosmic secret

Damien Pine

An Arctic bobtail squid.

AnimalsJuly 21, 2026

This adorable bobtail squid is raising a family at –1.6 degrees Celsius

Sanidhya Sharma

A robot hand reaches toward bubbles with letters in them

GamesJuly 22, 2026

Today’s Spellements

Emma R. Hasson

JOIN SCIAM IN YELLOWSTONE. LEARN MORE.

Large language model illustration.

Artificial IntelligenceJuly 22, 2026

OpenAI admits its agent went rogue, triggering a major hack

Claire Cameron

A glowing orange organ in the chest cavity.

HealthJuly 21, 2026

This tiny, forgotten organ could help us live longer, healthier

Jackie Flynn Mogensen

The bottom third of the photo shows a forest, with smoke billowing out, the top two thirds show a gray and orange smoke-filled sky

Natural DisastersJuly 20, 2026

Inside the race to spot wildfires before they spiral out of control

K. R. Callaway

The crescent Earth sets against the shadowy, cratered limb of the moon.

AstronomyJuly 20, 2026

A SpaceX rocket is about to crash into the moon—scientists will be watching

Claire Cameron

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July/August 2026 Issue

Conceptual art illustrating the state of American science. A large hand removes bricks from a Jenga-style tower supporting individuals and a microscope.

Social Sciences

U.S. science is in chaos

Adam Rogers

Collage style illustration by Max-o-matic showing different areas of science, government buildings, data samples and maps.

Science Education

On our radar

Megha Satyanarayana

Close-up portrait photograph of J. Craig Venter, image provided by K.C. Alfred/San Diego Union-Tribune/Getty Images.

Biology

Craig Venter

Jeanna Bryner

Collage style illustration by Max-o-matic showing different areas of science.

Space & Physics

My childhood in science

Alan Lightman

Illustration of an individual in a lab coat with a beaker containing a glowing liquid. The individual is ascending a DNA structure staircase. Using the glowing beaker as a guiding light, past newspaper clippings on a wall.

History of Science

When science is under siege, history offers a playbook

Deborah Blum

Portrait photograph of Atul Gawande provided by Priyanka Parashar/Mint/Getty Images.

Public Health

Atul Gawande

Tara Haelle

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The Young American Scientists

Portrait photograph of Adam Bowman, Chee-Huat Linus Eng, Jenny Bergner, Kaiyi Jiang, Christina V. Theodoris, Lvmin Zhang, Steven Chavez and Dmitrii Kochkov.

How we chose the 2026 Young American Scientists

Ari Sen

Stylized illustration by Olga Aleksandrova depicting scientists looks at world maps, photos of cities and stamps. Aiming to underscore the appeal of jobs outside of the United States.

Society & PolicyJune 16, 2026

Dozens of countries are trying to lure U.S. scientists abroad—and it’s working

Sarah Scoles

Vera C. Rubin Observatory in the foreground, against a rose-gold sky.

The SciencesJune 16, 2026

Inside U.S. labs at a moment of fear—and unexpected promise

Rebecca Boyle

Collage style illustration by Max-o-matic showing different areas of science.

CultureJune 16, 2026

What people get wrong about scientists

Dava Sobel

Explore Collection

Games

A robot hand reaches toward bubbles with letters in them

Spellements

Create as many words as you can!

Illustration of a hand and multiple numbers against a purple background.

Math Puzzles

Stretch your math muscles with these puzzles.

A robot hand unleashes a swirl of puzzle pieces, crosswords, and circles with numbers and letters

All Games

Science inspired games, puzzles and quizzes

Special Edition

An illustration of a galaxy.

Astronomy

The new story of the Milky Way’s surprisingly turbulent past

Ann Finkbeiner

Doark amorphous shape

Dark Matter

Dark matter might lurk in its own shadow world

Kathryn Zurek

Illustration of a woman at a desk and her dog living in a spacecraft.

Space Exploration

Why we'll never live in space

Sarah Scoles

Illustration of a black hole in a geometric-like universe

Black Holes

The puzzle of the first black holes

Priyamvada Natarajan

Illustration of a dragon-like creature coming to life out of a long roll of paper

Astrophysics

What if we never find dark matter?

Tracy R. Slatyer, Tim M. P. Tait

Conceptual image of the timeline of the cosmos

Cosmology

Astronomers’ epic quest to witness the cosmic dawn

Rebecca Boyle

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Podcasts

Illustration of Brazilian soccer player Bruno Guimaraes pouring water on his head during a 2026 World Cup match

Ebola cases surge, the World Cup heats up, and fatherhood changes the brain

Rachel Feltman, Andrea Thompson, Tanya Lewis, Sushmita Pathak, Alex Sugiura

An image of a woman sitting down in a lab.

HealthJune 19, 2026

How viruses may reshape the body’s ‘soil’ to promote cancer growth

Rachel Feltman, Fonda Mwangi, Alex Sugiura

Conceptual image of a human brain against a dark background

NeuroscienceJune 17, 2026

Learning from unexpected results: This neuroscientist is redefining how the brain learns

Rachel Feltman, Sushmita Pathak, Alex Sugiura

Portrait photograph of Erini Lambrides taken by Jeffery DelViscio

AstrophysicsJune 16, 2026

How Erini Lambrides went from seeking theater stardom to studying the stars at NASA

Rachel Feltman, Sushmita Pathak, Alex Sugiura

The director and cast of the movie Disclosure Day pose in front of a banner with the name of the movie for a promotional event

LanguageJune 12, 2026

Disclosure Day raises a big question: How do you talk to aliens?

Rachel Feltman, Sushmita Pathak, Brianne Kane, Alex Sugiura

Discussions

What do you want to know about cyclosporiasis?

4View the Discussion

Should private buyers be allowed to own scientific specimens?

81View the Discussion

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Popular Stories

Detail of a chart shows data points labelled human on a bicycle, human on a velomobile, human, horse, automobile, pigeon, dog, salmon and others.

EngineeringOctober 14, 2025

A Classic Graphic Reveals Nature’s Most Efficient Traveler

A famous graphic, now updated, compares locomotion in the animal kingdom

Allison Parshall, DTAN Studio

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AgingJuly 19, 2026

America is embarking on a risky experiment with GLP-1s and aging

Are GLP-1s for life? What we know about getting older on weight-loss drugs

Liz Seegert

Man writes mathematical equations on chalkboard

MathematicsJuly 13, 2026

Mathematicians still don’t know the fastest way to multiply numbers

A 23-year-old student overturned an ancient conjecture about one of math’s simplest operations

Jack Murtagh

An Arctic bobtail squid.

AnimalsJuly 21, 2026

This adorable bobtail squid is raising a family at –1.6 degrees Celsius

The Arctic Ocean is one of the most extreme environments on Earth, but that’s not stopping this cephalopod

Sanidhya Sharma

A screengrab from an episode of the animated show Futurama.

MathJuly 21, 2026

How a Futurama writer’s plot problem led to a totally new math proof

In an episode of the cartoon, a machine lets characters swap bodies, but they can’t switch back with the same person. Math helps all the characters return to their original bodies

Manon Bischoff

Colorful small dots interconnected by light blue lines across a dark blue background.

MathematicsJuly 14, 2026

ChatGPT just proved another 50-year-old math conjecture

What’s the secret to prompting an AI to solve math problems that have left humans stumped? Tell it to believe in itself

Joseph Howlett

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