November 26, 2025 3 min read Mars Has Lightning, Scientists Prove The presence of electrical activity has implications for surface chemistry, future human exploration and habitability on the Red Planet By Payal Dhar edited by Clara Moskowitz Lightning on Mars likely arises from electrical charge built up by dust devils, scientists say. NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona…
Severe, poorly-controlled asthma could increasingly be treated with a monthly injection Jacob Wackerhausen/Getty Images People with severe asthma sometimes rely on daily steroid pills, which raise the risk of diabetes, infections and bone problems. Now, a study supports the idea that a monthly antibody injection is a safer alternative. Asthma that is not controlled by…
In 2009, Yohannes Haile-Selassie and his team were combing the desert landscape of Burtele, a paleontological site in the Afar Region of Ethiopia, when Stephanie Melillo found something remarkable: an ancient, humanlike foot bone. “It was half of the fourth metatarsal ray,” says Haile-Selassie, a paleoanthropologist at Arizona State University in Tempe, referring to the bone…
November 26, 2025 2 min read China’s Giant Underground Neutrino Observatory Just Released Its First Results—And They’re Promising Hidden beneath the hills of southern China, the JUNO observatory shows promise in solving neutrino mysteries By Jeanna Bryner edited by Claire Cameron JUNO’s central detector is filled with scintillating fluid and surrounded by photomultiplier tubes (shown…
The moai statues on Easter Island Maurizio De Mattei/Shutterstock Easter Island’s monumental stone statues may have been created through a decentralised artistic and spiritual tradition, with many different communities making their own carved stone giants, rather than a unified effort coordinated by powerful rulers. That is the finding of an attempt to definitively map the…
When the wind blows on Mars, electricity crackles through the air. For the first time, scientists have detected electricity in the Red Planet’s atmosphere. A microphone on NASA’s Perseverance rover captured the sounds and electrical interference of dozens of electrical discharges generated by colliding dust grains, researchers report November 26 in Nature. The jolts are…
November 26, 2025 3 min read Mysterious Fossil Foot Belonged to Ancient Human that Lived Alongside ‘Lucy’ Newly identified bones tie the mysterious Burtele foot to a new Australopithecus species that lived alongside Lucy more than three million years ago By Humberto Basilio edited by Claire Cameron The Burtele foot (left) and the foot embedded…
Belém, Brazil — The Amazon rainforest is a poster child for the perils of climate change. Deforestation and warming temperatures threaten to push the iconic forest past its limits. So Belém, in the heart of the Amazon, was a momentous place for global climate leaders to meet on the 10th anniversary of an international pledge to…
Kendra Pierre-Louis: For Scientific American’s Science Quickly, I’m Kendra Pierre-Louis, in for Rachel Feltman. For millions of Americans, Thanksgiving is simply not Thanksgiving without turkey. The bird is native to North America. And yet by the middle of last century, the most likely place to find one was on the dinner table. A combination of…
Gratitude is arguably as quintessential to Thanksgiving as turkey, cranberry sauce and the kumbaya story of Pilgrims and Native Americans coming together. The word “thanks” is, after all, right there in the holiday’s name. Yet if the idea of counting your blessings or writing a heartfelt letter to a loved one fills you with dread,…
