September 22, 2025 2 min read San Francisco Rattled by Predawn Earthquake The San Francisco Bay Area was rattled early this morning by a magnitude 4.3 earthquake along the Hayward fault line By Meghan Bartels edited by Andrea Thompson USGS/CISN: Northern California Seismic System (UC Berkeley, USGS Menlo Park, and Partners) Sleeping residents of California’s…
Reading or listening to information can change how our brains process and respond to it Tony Anderson/Getty Images As an avid reader – and an author, too – I’m disheartened by frequent reports of a decline in reading for pleasure among young people. But when a friend recently asked me whether her daughter was getting…
New insights into an ancient swimming reptile are more than skin deep. An analysis of a 240-million-year-old fossil, published August 29 in the Swiss Journal of Palaeontology, offers clues to how a reptile similar to those that evolved into the Mesozoic’s iconic and long-necked “sea monsters” — plesiosaurs — adapted to life underwater. The specimen is…
Millennia ago a piece of the sky fell toward East Africa, streaking overhead, born of an ancient collision of asteroids. The meteorite landed, probably with more of a thud than a boom, in a river valley where camels now forage near the village of El Ali in Somalia. Known locally as Shiid-birood (“the iron rock”),…
Illegal deforestation in the Amazon in Mato Grosso state, Brazil Paralaxis/Alamy Life in the Amazon region following total deforestation of its rainforest sounds pretty bleak: dry spells punctuated by bouts of extreme rain; strong winds that stunt any forest regrowth; and rising temperatures that cause heat stress for both people and wildlife. That is according…
Nuclear fusion promises a green and infinitely renewable supply of energy—if we can harness it. Fusion happens all the time inside the sun. But to recreate the process on Earth, we must control incredibly hot, chaotic matter in an exceedingly dense state. Prototypes of several different fusion-reactor designs are being tested around the world. The…
September 16, 2025 2 min read New Hope in Alzheimer’s Research: A Special Report Breakthrough therapies, new diagnostics and preventive measures for fighting a devastating disease By Lauren Gravitz This article is part of “Innovations In: Alzheimer’s Disease” an editorially independent special report that was produced with financial support from Eisai. A diagnosis of Alzheimer’s…
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This article is part of “Innovations In: Alzheimer’s Disease” an editorially independent special report that was produced with financial support from Eisai. When Juli comes home after work, her husband doesn’t regale her with stories about his photography business the way he once did. Instead he proudly shows her a pill container emptied of the…
September 16, 2025 4 min read Can Dogs, Cats and Other Pets Truly Improve Your Health? Pets can improve your health—but only if you have a strong relationship with the animals By Lydia Denworth edited by Josh Fischman This article was made possible by the support of Yakult and produced independently by Scientific American‘s board…
