Ryugu is an asteroid that sometimes passes close to Earth JAXA All five of the main ingredients for DNA and RNA have been found in samples from the asteroid Ryugu. This strengthens the idea that asteroids may have brought the ingredients for the first living organisms to Earth long ago. Japan’s Hayabusa 2 spacecraft visited…
The data your smartwatch already collects could soon help flag an early warning sign for type 2 diabetes. Hidden in the patterns of heart rate, sleep and daily activity captured by everyday wearables are subtle clues that, when combined with routine health data and analyzed with artificial intelligence (AI), can reveal insulin resistance, researchers report…
In the ongoing campaign by artificial intelligence companies to take over pure mathematics, another round is commencing. The team behind First Proof, an effort to benchmark the ability of large language models (LLMs) to contribute to research-level mathematics, has announced its next exam. For this second round, which it plans to roll out over the…
J R Eyerman/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock What is now? The nature of the ever-changing present moment has always fascinated me, because there is a paradox at its heart. From a personal perspective, the present is everything: it is the only time we can ever act or choose; the only thing we can ever experience or…
It was a typical Florida story. In January 2014, Missy Williams stood at the edge of a park-and-fly in Dania Beach near Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. She watched the boundary where a chain-link fence stood between a strip of mangroves and the parking lot. Williams waited. Less than 20 minutes later, she saw them: wild…
Kendra Pierre-Louis: For Scientific American’s Science Quickly, I’m Kendra Pierre-Louis, in for Rachel Feltman. You’re listening to our weekly science news roundup. Last Wednesday the International Energy Agency announced that its member countries would release 400 million barrels of oil from their emergency reserves to “address disruptions in oil markets stemming from the war in…
Quantum mechanics is both the most powerful theory physicists have ever devised and the most baffling. On the one hand, countless experiments have confirmed its predictions; the theory undergirds modern technology and enables the electronic devices we use every day. On the other hand, quantum mechanics describes an underlying reality that is utterly at odds…
March 11, 2026 2 min read Add Us On GoogleAdd SciAm Where did magic mushrooms come from? Scientists just got closer to an answer Scientists just discovered a new species of magic mushroom, Psilocybe ochraceocentrata, that appears to have shared a common ancestor with the popular Psilocybe cubensis some 1.5 million years ago By Jackie…
March 11, 2026 2 min read Add Us On GoogleAdd SciAm Sports gambling could be boosting binge drinking in young men Men aged 35 or younger who already drink heavily may be even more likely to binge alcohol because of legal online sports betting, a new study has found By Claire Cameron edited by Clara…
Kendra Pierre-Louis: For Scientific American’s Science Quickly, I’m Kendra Pierre-Louis, in for Rachel Feltman. The global reality TV show franchise The Traitors has a simple premise: among a cast of, say, 23 people, roughly 20 are “faithfuls,” and about three are “traitors.” The job of the traitors is to lie so they remain undetected. The…
