Malta is one of the Mediterranean’s most remote islands. The nearest land is Sicily, about 85 kilometres north. Today, with ferries and planes, getting there is light work, but in the distant past, Malta was difficult to reach. It’s far enough from Sicily that you can’t see it over the horizon, at least from ground…
Whale hunting began far earlier — and much farther south — than scientists previously suspected. Five-thousand-year-old whalebone harpoons and other artifacts along Brazil’s southern coast suggest that Indigenous communities actively hunted whales at least 1,500 years before the earliest evidence to date, researchers report January 9 in Nature Communications. The findings not only rewrite the…
January 28, 2026 2 min read Add Us On GoogleAdd SciAm Weekend winter storm that battered eastern U.S. was supercharged by climate change A warmer atmosphere can hold more moisture, and that’s why last weekend’s winter storm dumped more snow, sleet and freezing rain than similar weather systems might have in the past By Andrea…
Epstein-Barr virus is a very common infection, but that doesn’t make it harmless Science History Images/Alamy About 1 in 10 people carry genetic variants that make them particularly vulnerable to the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), a ubiquitous pathogen that is increasingly being linked to conditions like multiple sclerosis and lupus. The finding, which comes from a…
A new deep-learning AI model may help scientists better decipher the plot of the genetic instruction book and learn how typos alter the story. AlphaGenome, created by Google DeepMind, is the latest in an ever-improving line of AI models built to analyze vast stretches of DNA. The previous front-runner, a model called Borzoi, could predict…
Most brain organoids lack blood cells, limiting their use Imago/Alamy A tiny version of the developing cerebral cortex – a brain region involved in thinking, memory and problem-solving – has been grown in a lab dish, with a system of blood vessels that closely resembles the real thing. This clump of cells is one of…
When new dietary guidelines for Americans came out in early January, I couldn’t help but notice “healthy fats” at the top of the inverted food pyramid. Like the food pyramid itself, the new guidelines have upended previous nutrition advice, which favored fats from plants over those from animals. Now the U.S. Department of Agriculture and…
Kendra Pierre-Louis: For Scientific American’s Science Quickly, I’m Kendra Pierre-Louis, in for Rachel Feltman. In late 2024 Nicola Coughlan, the actor famous for her work on Derry Girls and Bridgerton, was asked about her work with Ncuti Gatwa, who played the 15th Doctor on Doctor Who. Her reply was: “He’s amazing—and he smells amazing.” Look,…
In the 1920s, Albert Einstein thought he had found a fundamental flaw in quantum physics. This set off a chain of investigations that, over several decades, showed he had instead discovered a crucial feature of quantum theory – and one of its oddest. This property, now called Bell non-locality, which involves quantum objects maintaining coordinated behaviours even…
January 21, 2026 3 min read Add Us On GoogleAdd SciAm California wildfire smoke linked to increased autism diagnoses, new study finds Children born to mothers who were exposed to smoke in southern California showed increased rates of autism, although the reason why is unclear By Jackie Flynn Mogensen edited by Claire Cameron Svetlana Repnitskaya…
