A glacial outburst has sent floodwaters rushing through the town of Juneau, Alaska, forcing residents to evacuate parts of the state capital. The unusual event, called a glacial lake outburst flood, or GLOF, happened as water spilled out of an ice-dammed lake and gushed downstream through melted tunnels in the underside of a large glacier….
August 13, 2025 2 min read Why Glacial Lake Outbursts like the One in Alaska May Happen More Often Meltwater from a glacial lake outburst is flooding Juneau, Alaska. Such events are likely to happen more often as climate change destabilizes ice and glacial lakes fill with more meltwater By Stephanie Pappas edited by Andrea…
An illustration of a protein complex binding to DNA in the production of the key signalling molecule interferon Martin McCarthy/Getty Images Just one weekly puff from an asthma-like inhaler might one day protect you from the viral infections that make winters miserable – and could even save your life in the event of another pandemic….
The knotted, intricately braided string was like no other anthropologist Sabine Hyland had ever seen. Called a khipu, such devices were typically made and used by Inca elite to record astronomical events, take the census and maybe even collect taxes. And this one was “beautifully made, with fine braiding and variation in cord size,” Hyland…
Artificial intelligence chatbots don’t judge. Tell them the most private, vulnerable details of your life, and most of them will validate you and may even provide advice. This has resulted in many people turning to applications such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT for life guidance. But AI “therapy” comes with significant risks—in late July OpenAI CEO Sam…
Yoga came out on top, when it came to improving sleep Shutterstock/Drazen Zigic The last thing I want to do after a bad night of sleep is exercise, even though I know it will probably help me to sleep better. Strenuous activity just isn’t appealing when you are running on a few hours of shut-eye….
Sun-powered fliers could use photophoretic forces to hover in the mesosphere, gathering data from a region off limits to planes and balloons.
Rachel Feltman: For Scientific American’s Science Quickly, I’m Rachel Feltman. When it comes to birth control, men have exactly two reliable options: condoms or a vasectomy. That’s it. For decades researchers have been working to expand those choices, but progress has been slow. Now a new pill for men has just passed its first safety…
GPT-5 is the latest version of OpenAI’s large language model Cheng Xin/Getty Images AI’s latest step forward isn’t so much a giant leap as a tentative shuffle. OpenAI has released its newest AI model, GPT-5, two years after rolling out GPT-4, whose success has driven ChatGPT towards world domination. But despite promises of a similar…
August 13, 2025 2 min read These Spiders Puke Up Toxic Digestive Fluid to Marinate Their Prey Alive Without a venomous bite, some spiders use a disturbing second option to prepare their food By Gennaro Tomma edited by Sarah Lewin Frasier Stefan Sollfors/Alamy Stock Photo You don’t always need a book or movie for a…
