February 24, 2026 2 min read Add Us On GoogleAdd SciAm Ghostly UV sparks light up forests as thunderstorms pass overhead Thunderstorms can generate weak electrical discharges on the plants underneath, but until now, they had never been observed in nature By Claire Cameron edited by Jeanna Bryner For almost a century, scientists have wondered…
Vitiligo involves paler, less-pigmented skin patches Getty Images A first-of-its-kind cream that targets the underlying cause of vitiligo will be made available on the National Health Service in England. In clinical trials, the cream significantly increased pigmentation in the white skin patches caused by the condition, but the treatment has previously been described as controversial,…
Rufus net-casting spiders can tune the stiffness and elasticity of their webs thanks to loops of silk, scanning electron microscope images reveal.
February 24, 2026 3 min read Add Us On GoogleAdd SciAm See the rosy glow of Uranus in its full 3D glory Fresh observations from the James Webb Space Telescope show how vivid auroras surge through Uranus’s tilted magnetic field By Lee Billings edited by Claire Cameron Multiple views of Uranus, as seen by the…
A woman receiving the measles vaccine in Mexico JULIO CESAR AGUILAR/AFP via Getty Images I am currently arranging to get a shingles vaccination. I had shingles at university and still bear the scars, so I really don’t want to risk getting it again. But I also have in mind the fact that the benefits of…
Deepfakes first spread as a tool of a specific and devastating kind of abuse: nonconsensual sexual imagery. Early iterations often were technically crude, with obvious doctoring or voices that didn’t quite sound real. What’s changed is the engine behind them. Generative artificial intelligence has made convincing imitation faster and cheaper to create and vastly easier…
A Temnothorax kinomurai queen ant K. Kinomura A parasitic species of ant from Japan is the first ever found to have done away with both males and female workers – instead, every individual is a queen that tries to take over the nests of other species. Typically, ant colonies consist of a queen, female workers…
Illustration of the Iron Age mass grave at Gomolava Sara Nylund Women and children may have been deliberately targeted in one of the largest prehistoric mass killings discovered in Europe. Buried together in one grave more than 2800 years ago, most of the 77 victims suffered violent deaths in what seems to have been an…
February 23, 2026 2 min read Add Us On GoogleAdd SciAm Why the Northeast blizzard’s snow is ideal for snowballs and snowmen School is out as heavy, wet snow blankets parts of the Northeast. Though it will be a pain to shovel, it makes for perfect snowballs and the most structurally sound snowmen By Stephanie…
