January 29, 2026 2 min read Add Us On GoogleAdd SciAm U.S. life expectancy hits all-time high Americans are living longer than ever but still well behind the life expectancy of other developed countries By Jeanna Bryner edited by Claire Cameron Amanda Montañez; Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (data) The latest death data…
There’s more going on when we yawn than we had realised VIVEK PRAKASH/AFP via Getty Images Yawning isn’t just a deep breath indicating tiredness or boredom, but a process that reorganises the flow of fluids out of the brain, according to MRI scans that also suggest we each yawn in a slightly different way. Most…
On April 24, 1990, humanity launched a scientific revolution. I mean “launched” literally: on that date the space shuttle Discovery roared into the sky with the Hubble Space Telescope nestled in its cargo bay. The telescope was on a mission destined to forever change our view of the universe. Hubble wasn’t the largest telescope ever—its…
Billionaire Elon Musk recently spoke at the World Economic Forum Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg via Getty Images Elon Musk is a busy man, heading up multiple billion-dollar companies. While he is increasingly a divisive figure, there is no doubt that Tesla and SpaceX, his two most important ventures, have done much to advance the future of electric…
For one population of whales, teamwork makes the dream work. Decades after commercial whaling nearly drove them to extinction, a feeding behavior known as bubble netting is helping a group of humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) in Canada recover. Observational data collected over 20 years suggest a few key individuals are passing the knowledge through social…
January 30, 2026 3 min read Add Us On GoogleAdd SciAm The latest winter wallop: a bomb cyclone and Florida freezes In the latest bout of winter weather, a bomb cyclone could bring blizzard conditions to the Carolinas while freezing temperatures reach all the way to Florida By Tom Metcalfe edited by Andrea Thompson Commuters…
Biologist George Church maintains a list of potentially beneficial gene variants DON EMMERT/AFP via Getty Images “Why should only the tall have access to tall genes? And why should only the smart have access to smart genes?… our goal is to give as many people as possible the opportunity to choose their genes for themselves…
Surrounded by metal pipes and tangles of cables, two researchers point to bright orange squiggles on a computer screen. The squiggles are a poem written in ancient Greek about heavenly phenomena, seen for the first time by human eyes in nearly a millennium and a half. “There’s an appendix which includes coordinates of the stars…
January 30, 2026 2 min read Add Us On GoogleAdd SciAm For predatory dinosaurs, the Late Jurassic was an all-you-can-eat sauropod buffet Some 150 million years ago sauropods dramatically shaped the dinosaur ecosystem in what is now the western U.S., according to a new study By Jackie Flynn Mogensen edited by Claire Cameron The Morrison…
The plaques and tangles associated with Alzheimer’s disease usually cause devastating symptoms, but some people seem to be resilient to them Associated Press / Alamy Some people develop Alzheimer’s-related brain changes without experiencing symptoms of the disease, such as memory loss. We don’t know exactly why this occurs, but two recent studies are inching us…
