Deimagine/Getty Images/Ryan Wills Thomas Anderson – otherwise known as Neo – is walking up a flight of stairs when he sees a black cat shake itself and walk past a doorway. Then the moment seems to replay before his eyes. Just a touch of déjà vu, he thinks. But no, his companions insist: he is…
A new climate record suggests that Homo floresiensis — pint-size human relatives nicknamed “hobbits” — endured thousands of years of intensifying drought before disappearing from their Indonesian island home of Flores. The prolonged drying may have stressed both the hobbits and the miniature elephant-like animals they hunted for food, researchers report December 8 in Communications…
In some parts of the world, record numbers of people are being diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). In the United States, for example, government researchers last year reported that more than 11% of children had received an ADHD diagnosis at some point in their lives — a sharp increase from 2003, when around…
December 7, 2025 3 min read Add Us On GoogleAdd SciAm Death by Fermented Food Some fermenting foods can carry the risk of a bacterium that produces an extremely strong toxin called bongkrekic acid By Michaela Maya-Mrschtik danikancil via Getty Images I only developed an enthusiasm for fermented foods a few years ago. I used…
December 3, 2025 3 min read Add Us On GoogleAdd SciAm Scientists Pinpoint Gene in Sperm That May Be Key to Male Infertility Without the gene Poc5, male mice produced no viable sperm, pointing to a possible link to infertility By Humberto Basilio edited by Claire Cameron Ultrastructure expansion microscopy of murine male germ cells…
December 4, 2025 3 min read Add Us On GoogleAdd SciAm How an Overlooked Eruption May Have Sparked the Black Death The Black Death ravaged Europe, and scientists and historians are still working to understand how it became so deadly By Meghan Bartels edited by Andrea Thompson An 1877 engraving based on a painting showing…
The Lost Women of Science, by Melina Gerosa Bellows and Katie Hafner, is an exciting book for young readers that brings to life the stories of 10 remarkable women who changed the world of science but have been forgotten—or written out of history completely. Published by Penguin Random House’s Bright Matter imprint, the book transforms…
December 4, 2025 3 min read Add Us On GoogleAdd SciAm AI Chatbots Are Shockingly Good at Political Persuasion Chatbots can measurably sway voters’ choices, new research shows. The findings raise urgent questions about AI’s role in future elections By Deni Ellis Béchard edited by Claire Cameron Stickers sit on a table during in-person absentee…
Kendra Pierre-Louis: For Scientific American’s Science Quickly, I’m Kendra Pierre-Louis, in for Rachel Feltman. The birth of a child comes with a swirl of positive emotions: awe, joy, relief. And yet, for many birthing parents, this postpartum period can also be accompanied by months—or even years—of debilitating depression. For some of these parents, traditional antidepressant…
It’s always amazing, and more than a little humbling, when the universe reminds us that our “common sense” is provincial, falling apart on cosmic scales. If you’re on the surface of Earth—and I’m betting you are—there are many ways to reliably estimate the distance to some object. One we use almost subconsciously is to compare…
