October 14, 2025 4 min read Contributors to Scientific American’s November 2025 Issue Writers, artists, photographers and researchers share the stories behind the stories By Jen Schwartz Lori YoumshajekianSupplements That Fight Inflammation “So many of my story ideas come from a friend asking me, ‘Did you see this thing on TikTok?’” says Lori Youmshajekian (above),…
Oscar Isaac makes for an obsessive and charismatic Victor Frankenstein Ken Woroner/Netflix Frankenstein Directed by Guillermo del Toro, Out now in select UK and US cinemas, streaming on Netflix from 7 November Guillermo Del Toro has long been fascinated by the borderlands where science, myth and monstrosity meet. In his new film, Frankenstein, he turns at last…
To improve the quality of life of people with cancer, oncologists have regularly recommended exercise. Staying fit can make patients feel and function better. But exercise itself was never considered a formal treatment for the disease. “The thinking in the medical community was that you need biomedical interventions—surgery, radiation therapy, drugs—to treat cancer,” says Kerry…
It all started one summer lunchtime in 1992 on the terrace outside the CERN cafeteria. If you had happened to be there at the physics research lab near Geneva at the time, you might have overheard conversations about the enormous new particle accelerator being planned – a machine that would become known as the Large…
October 14, 2025 3 min read Being Wrong Is a Scientific Superpower Snake oil, smuggling and a fundamental change in the way we understand life By David M. Ewalt Scientific American, November 2025 One of the things I love most about science is that sometimes it gets things wrong. In other disciplines, errors are fatal;…
Homo sapiens may have evolved to be more tolerant of lead exposure than other hominids frantic00/Shutterstock Prehistoric hominids have been exposed to poisonous lead for at least 2 million years, a study of fossil teeth suggests, and modern humans may have evolved to cope with the toxic metal better than our ancient relatives. Lead poisoning…
Many science fiction and fantasy stories are enveloped in a warm glow, and it’s not just because of nostalgia. Some characters literally glow — from ET’s fingertip to the demon markings in this year’s hit movie K-Pop Demon Hunters. This glow-up is easy to draw or add in post-production for movie magic. But while we…
In his laboratory at the University of Poitiers in France, Abderrazak El Albani contemplates the rock glittering in his hands. To the untrained eye, the specimen resembles a piece of golden tortellini embedded in a small slab of black shale. To El Albani, a geochemist, the pasta-shaped component looks like the remains of a complex…
A computer illustration of a cross-section of a lipid nanoparticle carrying the mRNA of a virus (orange strands) Science Photo Library / Alamy Vaccines that resemble viruses generally produce a stronger immune response, while mRNA versions are much quicker and cheaper to make. Now we are getting the best of both worlds, in the form…
A telltale hint was on the bee’s knees. An analysis of 127 fossil flowers, flower buds and bees from central Germany revealed pollen particles that precisely matched ancient flowers to their pollinators. The fossils date to around 24 million years ago. While evidence of earlier pollen-covered insects exists, this is the oldest example of a…
