In northern Vermont, where I live, old newspaper clippings show pictures of people driving trucks across Lake Champlain. Those icy, ephemeral corridors, though, seem like relics of a bygone era. Roughly half a century ago, maybe more, the region started to warm. At first, the change was imperceptible. The lake froze every year between 1850…
March 13, 2026 2 min read Add Us On GoogleAdd SciAm No U.S. states had a record cold winter. Nine had a record hot one Though it may surprise East Coasters, the story of this winter was not record cold but record heat By Andrea Thompson edited by Clara Moskowitz Average temperatures for December through…
Quantum computers won’t be truly useful until they can correct their mistakes davide bonaldo / Alamy Quantum computers are already here, but they make far too many errors. This is arguably the biggest obstacle to the technology really becoming useful, but recent breakthroughs suggest a solution may be on the horizon. Errors creep into traditional…
In the U.S.- and China-led race to put astronauts back on the moon, there is, in fact, one overlapping goal: establishing a sustainable, permanent, crewed moon base. But each of the two nations’ specific plans to achieve that moonshot are far from similar, with key differences that could dictate which country gets there first—and, just…
Deaths related to the opioid fentanyl have rapidly declined in the US Thomas Simonetti/Bloomberg/Getty Images Drug overdose deaths have plummeted in the US, which can be traced to illegal supplies of fentanyl becoming less pure, and therefore less potent. The question is: does this mark a turning point in the opioid epidemic or just a…
Celebrate Pi Day and read all about how this number pops up across math and science on our special Pi Day page. Grab something circular, like a cup, measure the distance around the circle, and divide that by the distance across the widest part. What you’ll get is a pretty good estimate of the irrational…
Mya, aged 3, and her mother Vicky playing with an AI toy called Gabbo during an observation at the University of Cambridge’s Faculty of Education Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge Even the most cutting-edge AI models are prone to presenting fabrication as fact, dispensing dangerous information and failing to grasp social cues. Despite this,…
March 12, 2026 3 min read Add Us On GoogleAdd SciAm NASA says teams are ‘go’ for fresh Artemis II moon launch attempt but admits risks remain NASA is planning to roll its moon mission rocket back out later this month, with an April 1 target launch date By Claire Cameron edited by Jeanna Bryner…
Calculating the chemical properties of molecules could be a job for quantum computers ETH Zurich Quantum chemistry calculations that could advance drug development or agriculture have recently emerged as a promising “killer application” of quantum computers, but a new analysis suggests this is unlikely to be the case. Progress in building quantum computers has greatly…
March 12, 2026 Add Us On GoogleAdd SciAm Ryan Gosling says Project Hail Mary is ‘a reminder of what we’re capable of’ Ryan Gosling plays a science teacher turned (reluctant) astronaut in the upcoming film adaptation of Project Hail Mary, a science fiction novel by author Andy Weir By Brianne Kane edited by Kelso Harper…
