Someone inhales fungal spores. They feel strange. They might get a bit bitey. Possibly a bit dead. And then… POP! Something gruesome happens and the horror spreads. Such is the fate of many in Cold Storage, a new film in which a trio of unlikely heroes try to save the world from apocalypse. Their enemy?…
The Antarctic Peninsula is an early warning system for the southernmost continent when it comes to climate change. And the prognostications are grim — but it’s not yet too late to avoid irreversible changes, researchers report February 20 in Frontiers in Environmental Science. In the new study, the team first documented how the peninsula is…
February 20, 2026 3 min read Add Us On GoogleAdd SciAm Newly discovered horned dinosaur was like a unicorn from hell Spinosaurus mirabilis was a force to be reckoned with By K. R. Callaway edited by Claire Cameron Spinosaurus mirabilis waded away from its inland home to hunt aquatic prey. Millions of years before the…
Jon G. Fuller/VWPics/Alamy Pollution is making many cities unlivable for their human inhabitants, but it is also tearing ant families and communities apart. Ants recognise each other by sniffing a thin layer of hydrocarbons on the outside of their exoskeletons; each colony has a specific “smell”. But a new study reveals that ozone emissions can…
These days, many people can skip the dreaded Pap smear in favor of a far less invasive and more private way to screen for cervical cancer: disposable, DIY swabs that can be used to test for high-risk variants of HPV, the virus responsible for most cases of cervical cancer. In January, the U.S. Health Resources…
February 19, 2026 3 min read Add Us On GoogleAdd SciAm Robot libraries filled with tiny glass ‘books’ could store data for millennia A Microsoft Research study suggests glass blocks etched with lasers could provide enduring data archives By Damien Pine A piece of glass with a copy of Microsoft Flight Simulator map data encoded…
A 30-second exposure showing a Falcon 9 upper stage re-entering the atmosphere above Berlin, Germany, on 19 February 2025 Gerd Baumgarten A SpaceX rocket that burned up after re-entering the atmosphere unleashed a plume of vaporised metals over Europe, a type of pollution that is expected to increase as spacecraft and satellites multiply. The upper…
Over 600 million years ago, most of Earth completely froze over, becoming “Snowball Earth.” But even during this frigid period, the climate still behaved in familiar ways, earth scientist Chloe Griffin and colleagues report in the April 1 Earth and Planetary Science Letters. There even seems to have been a tropical climate cycle, like modern…
February 19, 2026 2 min read Add Us On GoogleAdd SciAm NASA says a litany of failures led to 2024 Boeing Starliner astronaut stranding On Thursday NASA leadership outlined how 2024’s glitch-plagued Boeing Starliner mission jeopardized astronaut welfare and the space agency’s culture of safety and accountability By Claire Cameron edited by Lee Billings Boeing’s…
Artist’s interpretation of Spinosaurus mirabilis Dani Navarro Were the mysterious dinosaurs known as spinosaurs excellent swimmers that could dive to catch prey? Or were they “hell herons” that plucked huge fish from shallow waters? Fossils of a new spinosaur species that lived around 1000 kilometres inland should settle the debate, say its discoverers, confirming that…
