Tuck into a green dish of bivalves Shutterstock/Plateresca Picture an environmentally friendly food. Your mind might turn to the humble lentil, but is it possible to eat more luxuriously while still staying green? Bivalves such as oysters, mussels, clams and scallops already have green credentials, thanks to their ability to clean polluted water. Now, some…
Exercise doesn’t have to last long to deliver big benefits SOL STOCK LTD If you don’t exercise for the sake of exercising, doing five or six vigorous activities, each lasting just 10 seconds or so every day, can make a big difference. A study in the US has found that people who did a total…
September 1, 2025 2 min read The Primal Pull of People Watching Our social voyeurism may have deep evolutionary roots By Clarissa Brincat edited by Sarah Lewin Frasier Whitworth Images/Getty Images The human fascination with watching others—whether through reality TV, Instagram stories or overheard drama—is often dismissed as nosiness. But new research suggests this impulse…
In Mason Coile’s Exiles, a human crew arrive on Mars Shutterstock/Gorodenkoff There are some sci-fi heavy hitters with new novels out this month, from Cixin Liu and Stephen Baxter to John Scalzi. I’m keen to check out Ian McEwan’s venture to a flooded version of 2119 – a drowned-world trope also taken up by Yume…
August 31, 2025 3 min read Huge Cracks in the Earth Are Slicing through Cities, Swallowing Houses and Displacing Thousands of People Hundreds of thousands of people are at risk of losing homes, businesses—and lives—as giant “gullies” expand into cities across Africa By Miryam Naddaf & Nature magazine A view of a deep urban gully…
August 31, 2025 3 min read AI Spots Hidden Signs of Consciousness in Comatose Patients before Doctors Do A machine-learning algorithm spotted signs of “covert consciousness” in coma patients—in some cases, days before doctors could do so By Andrew Chapman edited by Allison Parshall Design Cells/Science Source Imagine lying in a hospital bed, awake but…
August 30, 2025 5 min read Turn the Page on Summer: August’s Essential Book Picks Check out this collection of nonfiction and fiction books recommended by Scientific American By Brianne Kane edited by Andrea Gawrylewski UnitoneVector/Getty Images The dog days of summer have been nipping at our heels this August: the humidity has been oppressive,…
August 30, 2025 3 min read EPA Fires ‘Dissent’ Statement Signers The EPA fired five agency employees who signed a June declaration decrying moves that contradict science and undermine public health, alongside four more served removal notices By Dan Vergano edited by Jeanna Bryner EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images The Environmental Protection Agency…
A SpaceX Starship rocket launches in its tenth flight test from Launch Complex 1 at Starbase, Texas UPI/Alamy The world’s most powerful rocket, SpaceX’s Starship, has completed a successful suborbital test flight following a run of three disappointing launches that ended in fiery explosions. SpaceX is several years into its development programme for Starship, intended…
Unexpectedly bright northern lights illuminated UK skies in 2024 John Hayward/SWNS If you’re a fan of the aurora borealis, or northern lights, then you’re in luck. Last year was a bonanza, with auroras visible from all over the world – and twice they showed up brighter and farther south than in recent living memory. With…
