The Best of Scientific American

A start-up has surprised the scientific community with a breakthrough: translating a modern proof into a programming language for verification using AI. But not everyone is celebrating

Astronauts are flying to the moon for the first time since 1972, and scientists are preparing specialized space suits for the next milestone—landing there

Thousands of markings on objects made around 40,000 years ago may have been more than just doodles, a new analysis suggests

Auroras, shimmering bands of light that shoot through the night sky near the Earth’s poles, can follow patterns known as arcs

If a pulsar that may lie at the center of our galaxy is confirmed, it could enable more precise measurements of the spacetime around the Milky Way’s central supermassive black hole

You might have a love-hate relationship with daylight saving time, but research shows that urban wildlife may stand to benefit

An expert on aging thinks humans could live to be 1,000 years old—with a few tweaks to our genetic “software”

Gaslighting isn’t just between people in a relationship—it involves social power, too

The weaponization of medical language emboldened white supremacy with the authority of the white coat. How will we stop it from happening again?

Math is called the “universal language,” but a unique dialect is being reborn

The James Madison University mathematician raises a glass to a lavishly impractical theorem about knots

In a new study, participants who consumed sugar substitutes showed an altered microbiome and spikes in blood glucose

Archaeologists reconstructed a Neolithic woman’s complete genome and oral microbiome from a piece of birch tar she chewed

Researchers debate whether grandiosity always masks vulnerability

Self-enhancement through spiritual practices can fool some of us into thinking we’re evolving and growing when all we’re growing is our ego

A laboratory demonstration of the classic “Wigner’s friend” thought experiment could overturn cherished assumptions about reality

Solving a notorious quantum quandary could require abandoning some of science’s most cherished assumptions about the physical world

A new experiment hints at surprising hidden mechanics of quantum superpositions

The universe according to quantum mechanics is strange and probabilistic, but our everyday reality seems nailed down. New experiments aim to probe where—and why—one realm passes into the other

Metabolism studies reveal surprising insights into how we burn calories—and how cooperative food production helped Homo sapiens flourish

Do efforts to create life—by cooking up imitations in computers, robots and molecules—point toward a universal definition of biology?

The laws of physics allow time travel. So why haven’t people become chronological hoppers?

«It seems there is a chronology protection agency, which prevents the appearance of closed timelike curves and so makes the universe safe for historians,” Hawking wrote in a 1992 paper in Physical Review D.»

We already have the means to skip ahead in time, but going backward is a different wormhole

The evolutionary history of humans explains why physical activity is important for brain health

«They found an additive effect: exercise alone was good for the hippocampus, but combining physical activity with cognitive demands in a stimulating environment was even better, leading to even more new neurons»

An artificially intelligent first author presents many ethical questions—and could upend the publishing process

Who decided that nothing should be something?

Infants can form memories, just not the kind that recalls specific experiences

Studies show that people may experience enormous variability in personality traits throughout the course of the day