Since the beginning of the year, I’ve been gearing up to cover the launch of NASA’s Artemis II mission. This launch aims to bring humans back to the vicinity of the moon for the first time in more than 50 years, with an eventual eye toward landing humans on the moon and learning how to…
February 27, 2026 2 min read Add Us On GoogleAdd SciAm 180 years after disappearing, a tortoise returns to its Galápagos home The release of 158 specially bred Floreana giant tortoises is a win for both the animal and its long-lost island ecosystem By Rachel Nuwer edited by Andrea Thompson One of the Floreana hybrid…
Alkaline sodium hydroxide was dumped into the Gulf of Maine to test its effect on carbon uptake and marine life Daniel Cojanu, Undercurrent Productions, ©Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Can we safely remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by counteracting ocean acidification? Maybe, suggests a trial in which ships poured 65,000 litres of alkaline sodium hydroxide…
Kendra Pierre-Louis: For Scientific American’s Science Quickly, I’m Kendra Pierre-Louis, in for Rachel Feltman. Wildlife poaching is a serious issue in many parts of the world. One way of monitoring poaching activity is to put recorders in the forest to listen for gunshots. [CLIP: Gunshot] On supporting science journalism If you’re enjoying this article, consider…
Psst! Can you keep a secret? Yana Iskayeva/Getty Images The average person is keeping nine types of secrets, ranging from having told a lie to covert romantic desires. This can be a major burden, because secrets have the troubling habit of flashing into the mind unbidden. Confessing them can sometimes bring relief, but some secrets…
The 1930s prove to be an exceptional decade for research at the General Electric Company. Katharine Burr Blodgett works closely alongside her boss, Irving Langmuir, who wins the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1932. In 1938 Blodgett’s meticulous experiments with thin film coatings on solid surfaces lead to her most important breakthrough: nonreflecting glass. GE’s…
Our solar system, shown in this composite image, has had a big effect on humanity NASA/Bettmann Archive/Getty Images Ripples on the Cosmic OceanDagomar DegrootViking, UK; Belknap Press, US If you pay attention to news from beyond Earth – and, as a New Scientist reader, the chances are you do – then you may have heard…
February 26, 2026 2 min read Add Us On GoogleAdd SciAm DHS agents detain Columbia University neuroscience student Federal officers entered Columbia University property and detained a student on Thursday, university officials said By Claire Cameron edited by Clara Moskowitz Peter Titmuss/Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images Department of Homeland Security agents detained a…
A false-colour X-ray showing a large neural tube defect (red) on both sides of the lower back in someone with spina bifida SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY A patch made of stem cells from donor placentas has been used to treat fetuses in the womb with a severe form of spina bifida as part of a world-first…
Finding out what gut microbes a person carries may not be as easy as many companies advertise. Seven direct-to-consumer microbiome testing companies each got three identical fecal samples but returned different results about which gut microbes were present, researchers report February 26 in Communications Biology. The results highlight discrepancies among companies that claim to give…
