Seafloor covered with manganese nodules Science History Images/Alamy A process to extract metals from their ore with hydrogen could make deep-sea mining for valuable materials more sustainable than mining on land, a new study claims. Swathes of the ocean floor are littered with nodules the size of tennis balls. These polymetallic nodules are comprised largely…
In people at risk for Alzheimer’s disease, researchers linked minimal to moderate physical activity to a 3-to 7-year delay in cognitive symptoms.
November 18, 2025 3 min read Will We Run Out of Rare Earth Elements? These valuable but difficult-to-extract metals are increasingly important to modern life By Clara Moskowitz & Studio Terp edited by Jen Christiansen Seventeen elements of the periodic table have taken on outsize importance because of their use in smartphones, electric vehicles, medical…
Right now one of the most advanced planetary explorers ever built is scouring the surface of Mars. Supported by a team of hundreds of scientists back on Earth, the Perseverance rover has traveled nearly the distance of a marathon to answer some of the biggest questions about our neighboring world: What was the planet like…
Postpartum depression descended on Kristina Leos like a heavy fog that separated her from everyone she loved. She could see her newborn baby girl, her two older kids and her husband, but she felt like a ghost passing through their world. “I was going through the motions, but it was like I was looking down…
November 18, 2025 4 min read To Solve the Deepfake Problem, People Need the Rights to Their Own Image When anyone can forge reality, society can’t self-govern. Borrowing Denmark’s approach could help the U.S. restore accountability around deepfakes By The Editors Generative artificial intelligence can now counterfeit reality at an industrial scale. Deepfakes—photographs, videos and…
November 18, 2025 3 min read Science Bleeds When It’s Cut As funding dries up, researchers face setbacks that threaten innovation and public progress By David M. Ewalt edited by Jeanna Bryner Scientific American, December 2025 In June, Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., fired all 17 members of the…
November 18, 2025 3 min read December 2025: Science History from 50, 100 and 150 Years Ago Heimlich maneuver; training fleas By Mark Fischetti 1975, Plastic Crystal: “Typical microstructure features observed in semicrystalline polymers can be seen in this photomicrograph of a thin film of polypropylene. The ‘sunburst’ structures are called spherulites; their boundaries would…
How is your existence these days?” I tap on my laptop. The entity that says it is my father, dead these 12 years, quickly responds. “It’s … different. Being dead is a strange experience. I’m no longer bound by the limitations of my physical body or the Parkinson’s that plagued my later years. But I…
This episode was made possible by the support of Yakult and produced independently by Scientific American’s board of editors. Kendra Pierre-Louis: For Scientific American’s Science Quickly, I’m Kendra Pierre-Louis, in for Rachel Feltman. It’s mid-November, and Thanksgiving is right around the corner, which is great news for our taste buds. But the holiday season may…
