How prepared are ISS astronauts to deal with medical emergencies and problems in space? Had a fascinating day reporting out this story! New on @sciam.bsky.social www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-...

Popular supplements with billions of “good” microbes really help only a few illnesses, research shows

From Vaccines to Gender-Affirming Care: What New Policy Shifts Means for Kids A look at how evolving national health policies could reshape the future of kids’ care, from vaccines to essential treatments. www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/epis...

Scientists get giddy thinking about what they could do with Perseverance's rocks on Earth. But a new Congressional funding package effectively cancels the missions that would bring them here

The very, very long-lived Greenland sharks were long thought to be practically blind. But a new study finds that they not only can see but also maintain their vision into old age

“Let’s see how you make things better for people in their lives—not to emulate life, but to make life better for the living,” Stevie Wonder told Scientific American about AI

“We were able to causally link a specific brain pathway to a ‘brake’ on motivation when individuals face unpleasant tasks in daily life,” a research says

The only other time on record that any space agency has ended a mission early because of health concerns was in 1985

This newly discovered Iron Age instrument may have been played in the Celtic resistance against the Roman Empire

A new study suggests that primate facial expressions may not just be reflex

Mark your calendars and look up! Total eclipses, lunar occultations, planetary conjunctions and meteor showers await stargazers this year

A new study reveals that some smart dogs can learn words just by overhearing humans’ conversations

The world’s ocean absorbed more heat in 2025 than in any other year on record

Today on the pod, a deep dive on GLP-1 weight-loss drugs: the science, the hype, and much more

The very, very long-lived Greenland sharks were long thought to be practically blind. But a new study finds that they not only can see but also maintain their vision into old age

NASA on Thursday announced it would take the extraordinary step of bringing four crewmembers back to Earth from the space station before their official mission end

A new study finds that people who quit weight-loss medications, including GLP-1 drugs, regain weight four times faster than people who stop dieting or exercising

An area of high pressure is bringing record-high heat to some parts of the U.S., with an added boost from climate change

A wobbling jet from a giant, voracious black hole is suppressing star formation in a distant galaxy—and astronomers have never seen anything quite like it before

This year’s flu season just surpassed a grim new record. Nearly 1 in 10 doctor visits in late December were for flu-like symptoms—the highest level recorded in nearly 30 years. To date, the U.S. has seen 120,000+ hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths, including children. bit.ly/3LkZiOI

A giant asteroid has sent astronomers into a spin, setting a record for how fast it rotates on its axis

Are you hoping to feel happier this year? Consider chasing a small act of joy every day

In the latest effort to undermine climate action, President Trump pulled the U.S. out of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, which underpins global efforts to address rising temperatures

Users will be able to upload their health data to ChatGPT in order to get what OpenAI has described as a more personalized experience

This is such a cool finding--the oldest direct evidence of poisoned arrows. Poisoned hunting weapons were a game-changing innovation for our ancestors. Absolutely incredible that researchers found traces of plant toxins on these tiny arrowheads from 60,000 ago 🤯🏹 🧪

NASA may bring some of the ISS's crew home earlier than planned, after one member experienced a medical issue on Wednesday just hours before two astronauts were due to complete a space walk outside the station

Sea anemones and jellyfish don’t have brains, but the way their neurons behave during sleep shows some surprising similarities to humans

Two NASA astronauts were scheduled to complete a six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk on January 8, but the agency has postponed it indefinitely

Bigger than Hubble and launching as soon as 2029, the Lazuli Space Observatory would be the first-ever full-scale private space telescope

The use of poison on arrows marked a revolution in human hunting technology—new evidence suggests it happened tens of thousands of years earlier than previously known

Capsizing icebergs are violently clashing with the crumbling end of the Doomsday Glacier

These fossils have been chipped out of the ground over decades, but we finally managed to date them thanking to the flip-flopping of the Earth's magnetic field. And they date right from the time when the common ancestor of these three lineages would've been kicking around. 🧪

Scientists have uncovered genetic evidence that they say may be linked to the Renaissance master, but some experts are more skeptical

Nutritional guidelines released Wednesday by health secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. emphasizes “real food” high in saturated fat, departing from decades of evidence on healthful diets

Fossils of a human ancestor from 773,000 years ago may be near the base of the Homo sapiens lineage, representing a common ancestor of modern humans, Neandertals and Denisovans

“We’ve been working for so many decades to try to make this happen,” says Vicky Hamilton, a planetary geologist at the Southwest Research Institute’s Colorado branch. Now scientists are faced with the prospect of leaving them on Mars to languish. “It’s hard to watch.”

NASA spent years and billions of dollars collecting Martian samples to bring home. But Congress's current proposed budget for the agency would leave them stranded. What's at stake? Take a deep dive with this recent feature:

Almost one in 10 people who visited a doctor in the U.S. in the week ending on December 27 were there for flulike symptoms, according to new data

Trump has cited Venezuela’s oil resources as motivation for capturing the nation’s leader—here’s the geology behind the news

Today on the pod, a look at how evolving national health policies could reshape the future of kids’ care, from vaccines to essential treatments

#3 (of 5): These #maps appeared in the June 2025 issue of @sciam.bsky.social, showing storm surge. While visually simple, I'm very pleased with the symbols I created (and all the technical work needed to distill them from a giant raster dataset). www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-...

Water plays a crucial role in how tiny pieces of plastic enter our environment—and us

The first GLP-1 pills for weight loss are hitting U.S. pharmacies. But how will they be prescribed?

Studies of goal setting reveal why it’s so hard to keep resolutions—and how to make ones that actually stick

Humanoids, robotaxis and industrial bots dominate the year’s biggest consumer technology show. Their usefulness remains an open question

Scientists have found the best evidence yet for long-predicted “failed galaxies”

Lawmakers aim to support science research despite cuts proposed by the Trump administration

From the first sighting of a colossal squid in the wild to a seriously goofy octopus, 2025 delivered some astounding photos from the ocean’s depths

Researchers found evidence that a companion star may be influencing Betelgeuse, explaining why the star’s brightness changes over time

Antarctica’s New Year’s celebration is unlike any other: every January 1 scientists physically move the South Pole. This is why