December 5, 2025 3 min read Add Us On GoogleAdd SciAm Newly Discovered ‘Fire Amoeba’ Pushes the Boundaries of Life on Earth It was thought that complex cells couldn’t survive above a certain temperature, but a tiny amoeba has proven that assumption wrong By Andrea Thompson edited by Sarah Lewin Frasier Incendiamoeba cascadensis (meaning “fire…
Under 16s in Australia will be banned from social media on 10 December Mick Tsikas/Australian Associated Press/Alamy The world’s first attempt to ban all children under 16 from social media is about to come into force in Australia – but teenagers are already fighting back. Announced in November last year by the Australian prime minister…
Alien invasion stories are among the earliest science fiction in the Western canon—they not only explore the strange and unknown but also heighten the stakes by bringing danger inside human civilization. Daniel H. Wilson’s newest techno-thriller Hole in the Sky, which was voted one of Scientific American’s best fiction books of 2025, examines the tropes…
The double-slit experiment demonstrates the quantum nature of reality RUSSELL KIGHTLEY/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY A thought experiment that was at the heart of an argument between famed physicists Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr in 1927 has finally been made real. Its findings elucidate one of the core mysteries of quantum physics: is light really a wave,…
If the moon were to suddenly turn to cheese, the movie pitches would be insufferable. Astronauts would be irritated, grad students would be demoralized and news articles would overflow with terrible puns. The great jaws of the Internet would get hold of the details, churning out doomsday scenarios, memes and conspiracies. And that’s even before…
The Tsimané people in Bolivia consider humility to be a sign of a worthwhile individual David Mercado/Reuters It is a trope so well worn that it has become a cliché: hunter-gathers sharing their spoils equally among the tribe with a noble generosity absent from high-income societies. Only it isn’t an accurate picture, according to a…
Proof that Neandertals hadn’t adapted to cold was right under their noses. Unique video from the naval cavity of a bizarrely well-preserved Neandertal skull confirms the hominid’s enormous noses were not an adaptation to cold climates, as was proposed in the early 20th century. Neandertal nasal cavities were much the same as those of our…
December 5, 2025 1 min read Add Us On GoogleAdd SciAm A Garbage Truck of Plastic Will Be Dumped Every Second by 2040 Unless We Act Now, Report Finds An estimated 280 million metric tons of plastic waste will enter the air, water, soil, and human bodies every year by 2040, data shows By Andrea…
Comet 3I/ATLAS is only the third known visitor to our solar system from elsewhere International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/Shadow the Scientist; J. Miller & M. Rodriguez (Intl Gemini Observatory/NSF NOIRLab), T.A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage/NSF NOIRLab), M. Zamani (NSF NOIRLab) The interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS is belching out carbon-rich chemical compounds at higher rates than almost any…
The altered Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, without new data to justify a reassessment, will no longer recommend universal hepatitis B vaccination at birth. The committee voted 8–3 to limit vaccination of newborns to those whose mothers test positive for the virus. For mothers who test negative during pregnancy, ACIP now recommends waiting until their…
