Cornflowers and poppies were once seen as “troublesome weeds” Heather Drake/Alamy One of the most common claims in traditional gardening lore is that weeds only grow in poor soil. Improve the fertility of your plot, and the weeds will disappear. If true, this simple trick could save gardeners hours of work, just by adding plant…
February 5, 2026 2 min read Add Us On GoogleAdd SciAm Menstrual blood can be used to detect HPV, hinting at broader uses A new study shows that blood collected on a sanitary pad can be used for cervical cancer screening, opening the door to new diagnostics By Christina Szalinski edited by Tanya Lewis Malte…
Meditation and a low dose of the psychedelic 5-MeO-DMT had very similar effects on a spiritual teacher janiecbros/Getty Images A master meditator has spent 15 years learning to quiet his sense of self – and brain scans suggest he achieved a similarly altered state with a powerful psychedelic. “There seems to be, with that low…
Humanity’s first successful lunar lander is missing. Sixty years ago the Soviet Luna 9 became the first human-made object to achieve a soft landing on the moon—or, for that matter, any celestial body. Yet today its exact location remains a mystery. While NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) and India’s Chandrayaan-2 have mapped nearly the entire…
“Space travel is the setting but not the heart of the Star Trek franchise” … A scene from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Everett Collection Inc/Alamy To live in the US at this moment is to live through a series of strange juxtapositions. I prepare myself for how to respond if the construction workers at…
Kendra Pierre-Louis: For Scientific American’s Science Quickly, I’m Kendra Pierre-Louis, in for Rachel Feltman. Think of a psychiatric condition, something like attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, panic disorder or anorexia nervosa. Nowadays many of us take for granted that a mental health care professional can help determine if we have one of these conditions. But how do they…
Ralph Fiennes in 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple Sony Pictures You wait decades for another sequel to Danny Boyle’s virus-based horror classic 28 Days Later and then two come along. Hot on the heels of last year’s 28 Years Later, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple picks up almost straight after the provocative final…
February 6, 2026 2 min read Add Us On GoogleAdd SciAm Seattle heads back to the Super Bowl. What even is a seahawk anyway? Many different bird species have been affiliated with the Seattle Seahawks’ mascot, but none is technically a “seahawk” By Jenna Ahart edited by Andrea Thompson Blitz, mascot of the Seattle Seahawks,…
No tour of the cosmos is complete without a description of black holes MARK GARLICK/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY A Brief History of UniverseSarah Alam Malik, Simon & Schuster (UK, 12 February) William Morrow (US, 5 May) IN 1988, Stephen Hawking published A Brief History of Time, an exploration and explanation of cosmology by the renowned physicist…
February 7, 2026 3 min read Add Us On GoogleAdd SciAm What watching the Super Bowl does to your health Watching sporting events like the Super Bowl can influence our brains and bodies—and not always in a good way By Jackie Flynn Mogensen edited by Claire Cameron Fans watch the Patriots face off against the…
