Shaking and slowness of movement may be the most obvious symptoms, but they are often not the most debilitating ones.

Call it football, fútbol, calcio, or soccer, there is some striking science behind the Beautiful Game and its sophisticated sphere.

Research impact is no longer measured in prestige publications, but in successfully producing patents, licenses, partnerships, spin-offs, and technology transfer pipelines.

Unless people are mycologists or foragers, or the rare kind of person inclined to slow down and really pay attention, fungi remain invisible. When mushrooms appear, they are often treated as something out of place, such as weird growths or suspicious-looking blobs; things to step around and ignore.

In his quest to “make poetry visible, ” Belgian artist and surrealist René Magritte painted impossible and contradictory scenes that purposely violate the rules of 3D space.

Parkinson’s disease is the fastest-growing neurological condition in the world, currently affecting around 0.1 percent of the population and rising to 3 percent of those over the age of 65.

A recent book explores geology through the lenses of science, history, and culture. Read more of Isabel F. Barton's review of UNDER THE METAL SKY: A Journey through Minerals, Greed, and Wonder:

Trees simultaneously represent refuge, wilderness, commodity, and livelihood. They are at once time-traveling sentinels that function on unimaginable temporal scales as well as organisms that serve as landmarks for navigation of our own lives.

The FIFA World Cup occurs every four years, and each tournament uses a newly designed football that has unique flight characteristics. Cover image by Ben Kirshner.

A woman reported that she could “smell” neurodegenerative disease. That ability led researchers to potential biomarkers for early screening.

Focused ultrasound shows promise as a treatment for neurological conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease and addiction.

Animals raised in captivity live wildly different lifestyles than animals in the, well, wild. But how captivity affects animals on the anatomical level is little understood.

Fresh starts are powerful—but temporary. They won’t carry you far on motivation alone. Fresh starts get you on the path. Systems are what keep you there.

Artemis II is scheduled to launch today. It has been 53 years since Apollo 11 and the Moon landing. This time, astronauts Reid Wiseman, Artemis II commander, left; Victor Glover, Artemis II pilot; Christina Koch, Artemis II mission specialist; (cont.) Image credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

Whether you love astronomy, dark skies, spaceflight, or space history, there’s something for everyone on this list. www.americanscientist.org/blog/science...

Scientists have cracked a key aspect of avian evolution: the mystery of how the keen eyes of birds can function despite their retinas being starved of oxygen.

There’s no master list of science-backed life hacks that works for everyone. Behavior change isn’t one-size-fits-all.

Termites, one of nature’s most gifted structural engineers, build dwellings that hold hundreds, thousands, or millions of individuals without any planning or direct communication with one another.

A new documentary focuses on a decade-long search for an elusive elephant.

Project Hail Mary is such a genre mash-up of a movie that it practically dares the viewer to contemplate its ancestral elements. It’s Interstellar meets Short Circuit! It’s an extraterrestrial version of The Odd Couple! It’s like E.T. crossed with Outbreak and, uh, 21 Jump Street!

When a nonprogrammer asks a coder what they do all day or why they find coding so exciting, the answers are rarely easy to condense into a sentence or two.

A new film documents the career of pilot and retired astronaut Eileen Collins.

Headed to the movies this weekend? Check out @americanscientist.org reviews of two space movies: Project Hail Mary (thanks to @coreyspowell.bsky.social) www.americanscientist.org/blog/science... and Spacewoman, about the first female Space Shuttle pilot. www.americanscientist.org/blog/science...

Good art makes me long for great art. So I enjoyed "Project Hail Mary," but I couldn't help wishing for the great, science-inspired movie it could have been. My review for @americanscientist.org (contains spoilers if you haven't seen the trailer). 🧪🔭 www.americanscientist.org/blog/science...

Metamorphosis represents one of life’s most mysterious processes: transformation. From the pupae of insects to the transitions of human life, scientists, poets, and philosophers have tried to make sense of metamorphosis for more than 2,000 years. Image by Inna Gertsberg

What policymakers in Germany do so well is population-level prevention, rather than leaving disease prevention up to individual behavior.

Understanding the process of evolution can be humbling because of its power to explain the history and diversity of life on Earth over the past 3.5 billion years.

Generative AI is flooding scientific research with quick and easy text, figures, and citations that are either partially inaccurate or wholly false—and very difficult to detect.

A hidden geological process reframes our understanding of how diamonds erupt and continents evolve.

"American Scientist has a long history of covering scientific innovation, but because many of our readers are researchers, we wanted to also cover the range of issues that scientists face in the process of doing science itself. For that reason,..."

Some prominent scientists have rejected awards and accolades as counter to the point of doing science, and some have questioned whether these prizes promote elitism.

In Strata: Stories from Deep Time, science journalist Laura Poppick offers a compelling and scientifically grounded narrative that traces the planet’s most consequential transitions as recorded in its lithological archive.

Big news: American Scientist is a 2026 NEAL Awards Finalist in two categories! Kudos to our editorial team for their outstanding work.

The retina can reveal subtle signs of disease long before cognitive and behavioral symptoms appear.

Interstellar objects have unbound orbits: They approach the Sun, head back out, and never return.

Journalist Ryan Goldberg’s Bird City: Adventures in New York’s Urban Wilds is a hyperlocal travelogue that embeds the reader in the experience of finding birds in New York City, illustrating how birding can connect us to our home places, even the profoundly urban.

James Welsh recently co-authored an article titled "Weathering Space" in the January-February 2026 issue of American Scientist. Welsh joined the New Books Network podcast to talk more about his research. Check out the interview paired with the article.

A new book explores the arts and creativity from a numerical perspective.

Astronomers find unexpected links between interstellar objects and cryptic "dark comets." Also in this issue: 💎 Mantle waves and the origin of diamonds 👁 The eyes as windows to Alzheimer's detection 🖥 Cutting the cycle of AI Slop in journals

Tales of a warming Arctic frequently make national and international news. Yet the seasonal human-animal rhythms that structure life in the region are missing in media coverage of permafrost and melting glaciers.

Although an ocean's horizon may look flat, the body of water certainly isn't. Ocean water is constantly mixing, left and right, up and down. Understanding this movement is critical to understanding changing climate patterns worldwide.

Gathering data, however, presents some challenges. How does one find out what's going on in the middle of the ocean if tide gauges are on the coasts? Some are well monitored; others haven't collected data in decades.

Good afternoon! My name is Daniela and I'm one of SCONC's new interns. For today's Science by the Slice, we're delighted to welcome UNC's Dr. Tamlin Pavelsky for his talk, "The Surface Water and Ocean Topography Mission: NASA's Eye in the Sky for Earth's Water" Stay tuned for more!

Curious about NASA’s Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission that helps scientists better understand climate change and ocean dynamics from space? Our next Science by the Slice with UNC's Dr. Tamlin Pavelsky is next Wed. at 12:30pm. #hybrid LEARN MORE: sconc.wildapricot.org/event-6509622

"One successful way of making this happen is championed by my colleague Judith Harackiewicz, where we get them to think about what we call utility value of whatever it is that we need them to be interested in. In other words, how is it useful to you?"

In this roundup, associate editor @ngerbis.bsky.social summarizes notable recent developments in scientific research, selected from reports compiled in the free electronic newsletter Sigma Xi SmartBrief. www.americanscientist.org/article/brie...

The perspectives and experiences of deaf people in the United States are complex, varied, and ever-evolving.

Ecological awareness and activism often begin with a personal story or connection to nature, and Priyanka Kumar has zeroed in on an iconic fruit that is part of American lore.

What would change if we valued growth over looking competent? Listen to the full episode here: open.spotify.com/episode/48cG...

Simon A. Levin is known for the development of the foundations of spatial ecology and his work on pattern and scale. More recently, his research has focused on the interface between ecology and economics, especially regarding problems of public goods and communally pooled resources.