My feature is on the cover of @sciam.bsky.social !! This is one of the more fascinating, maddening, mind-boggling stories I've reported in a long time. Please come on this journey with me.

We assumed that chunks in Roman cement were the mark of poor mixing. Turns out they're the key to the self-healing properties that have made the cement so durable. 🧪 (By @humbertobasilio.bsky.social)

In 2015 a powerful new book about sudden changes to the moon and their far-reaching consequences for Earth and society as we know it hit the shelves—and science fiction author @scalzi.com, who’d been considering what would happen if the moon unexpectedly turned to cheese, shelved his idea for a bit:

If you need some holiday reading or gifting ideas, the @sciam.bsky.social staff read a bunch of books we really liked this year:

I'm here to tell you that my primary profession of being a shit poster is no more. I recently started (temporarily) hosting the Science Quickly podcast for @feltman.bsky.social while she's out on leave. Here is Rachel and I discussing the most important scientific subject on earth: Mayo

Heck, I'd take a two-bedroom at 1,080 square feet.

Me when I hear the snack drawer has been refilled (the latest in strange bug goings-on from @sciam.bsky.social has so many great videos www.scientificamerican.com/article/stat...)

After decades of speculation, two writers uncovered the answer to the Kryptos code’s final cipher

Nice @sciam.bsky.social article by @sarahexplains.bsky.social on the NASA Exoplanet Archive reaching 6,000 planets! “You’re no longer just asking “what”; you’re asking “why”—“and that’s, for me, where it gets exciting.”

We've reached 6,000 confirmed exoplanets! I talked with @aussiastronomer.bsky.social about where things go from here. (A great graphic by @unamandita.bsky.social visualizes the amazing jumps in planet finds since the first ones were confirmed in the 1990s.)

A little bit of good news for you. And a reminder that we *can* solve big, global problems--when we want to. 🧪 (by @meghanbartels.bsky.social)

LAST CHANCE! 📸 Join the #SciAmInTheWild photo challenge! 🎁 You could win an Unlimited subscription to Scientific American—plus exclusive prizes for your next adventure. ⌛ Hurry! Contest ends September 5 at 11:59 p.m. ET ⚠️ Terms & Conditions apply. See rules for entry: sciam.com/180contest

www.scientificamerican.com/article/subl... Funky fact about the way that AI learns. I had a lot of fun writing this piece for @sciam.bsky.social

How much does the environment we’re raised in change how we see the world? Wonderful piece in @sciam.bsky.social by @norabradford.bsky.social, ft. an interview with @dorsaamir.bsky.social about our work on the 'cultural byproduct hypothesis'. www.scientificamerican.com/article/does...

You never know what you might find... @sciam.bsky.social's 180th birthday celebration includes a photo contest! Take a look at the rules here: sciam.com/180contest #SciAmInTheWild PS The prize pack is really cool, although I'm pretty sure it doesn't include a stuffed penguin

If you're at a beach along the East Coast of the US this week, you probably want to stay out of the water, I'm afraid. Here's why. 🧪 www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-...

Pick-up Sticks, Probability, and Pinecones, oh my! (My newest math article for @sciam.bsky.social) www.scientificamerican.com/article/stud... #mathsky #probability

From deep oceans to distant galaxies, every Scientific American cover is an invitation to explore. Now show us where curiosity takes you! 🤳 Enter the #SciAmInTheWild photo contest 🎁 Prizes include gadgets and gear to elevate your next adventure ⚠️ Terms & Conditions apply: sciam.com/180contest

I had an enlightening conversation with mathematician Hannah Cairo about how she broke a huge conjecture in Harmonic Analysis at just 17 years old, what being a transgender mathematician means to her and how math has supported her along her journey! 🏳️‍⚧️ 🌊 ✨ Read the Q&A here:

I will never look at Sudoku the same way. Mind-bending math puzzle from our columnist Jack Murtagh!

Now on @sciam.bsky.social, from @philplait.bsky.social: The sky is falling—from another star. There's no "Chicken Little" nonsense here, though—this is legit: Some fraction of the meteors that streak thru Earth's skies are from beyond the solar system! www.scientificamerican.com/article/inte...

Feel like breaking your brain a little? The latest from @dodecalemma.bsky.social: www.scientificamerican.com/article/try-... - try the puzzles reliable sources say it's "too 'after 4pm' for"!

worms worms worms worms WORMS WORMS WORMS WORMS

We finally made it to Bluesky—just a few billion years after the Big Bang, and only slightly late to the party ✨🌌 We’re sharing some of our best stories from the year so far to kick off our Bluesky journey!

I can't quite pinpoint why, but a certain book by @scalzi.com is going through my head as I contemplate this headline...

Vaccination schedules on the CDC website have already started changing under RFK Jr. So we published a guide to the evidence-based vaccine recommendations in place *before* all 17 members of the advisory panel were abruptly dismissed by the new admin. www.scientificamerican.com/article/see-... 🧪

Mathematicians are jittery after AI proves shockingly good at outsmarting them www.scientificamerican.com/article/insi...

Venus is alive! ... sort of. No aliens this time, just rocks. There are weird circle-y volcanic on Venus called coronae, and now scientists think that they're itty bitty baby circular subduction zones! How cool is that? 🧪🔭 Me for @sciam.bsky.social: www.scientificamerican.com/article/stra...

It's a cicada sex party! Wait, who invited the zombies? Periodical cicadas in Brood XIV are starting to appear, and so is the fungus Massospora cicadina, which infects and zombifies the cicadas. I wrote about what scientists hope to learn from Brood XIV cicada zombies, for @sciam.bsky.social 🧪

This caterpillar is metal as hell 🤘 🧪

“After 13 years of staring at the heads of twin and singleton babies, [Marjolaine Willems and her colleagues’] paper on the association between global hemisphere and _____ won the 2024 IgNobel prize in anatomy.” a. follicle density; b. scalp pointiness; c. hair whorl formation; d. bad hair days

www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-... "Congestion gets better for a little bit, and then we’re back to where we were. And then somebody says, ‘Oh, we’ve got to widen again.' ... So how far is it going to go?”

This is a really nice, simple distillation of the vital role NOAA and the NWS play and how private companies cannot replace what they do.

Happy 5th "Large boulder the size of a small boulder" anniversary! #Geology ⚒️

Why the heck did it snow so much on the Gulf Coast? Basically a perfect confluence of events. 🧪

This week at SciAm, check out new science mini-crosswords Monday-Thursday! www.scientificamerican.com/game/mini-cr... Spellements will be back on Friday; it's a good time to catch up on the back catalogue... www.scientificamerican.com/games/spelle...

they did quantum physics on a grape! (credit: Fawaz, Nair, Volz) journals.aps.org/prapplied/ab...

Worth the login to watch a bee sucker punch an ant

Generative AI is good for a few things, but it's been clear for a while now that search is not one of them!

This was published while I was at the National Assembly so I never really got a chance to promote it, which is kind of insane? It's one of the best features that The Verge has ever published. When I first read the draft I went "what the fuck did I just read??????" www.theverge.com/c/24300623/a...

One of the things I'm most excited about is our new monthly crosswords tied to Scientific American issues—soon to be in print as well as online! Here's the latest.

Here's a why and here is a how: bsky.app/profile/drem...

There really are alternate timelines. But for now we're stuck in this one 🧪 www.scientificamerican.com/article/are-...

A List of Things People Blamed on Flappers 🧵

See the spooky side of science...if you dare! www.scientificamerican.com/game/hallowe...

As someone who grew up before the Honeycrisp changed the game, I think it's hard for younger folks to understand just how much the apple was kind of a garbage-tier fruit back in the day. It's so much better now. Article by @laurahelmuth.bsky.social: www.scientificamerican.com/article/appl...

At Scientific American, Alan Scherstuhl calls The Dispossessed—which will be released in a 50th anniversary edition next month—"inexhaustibly rich and wise."

We've got in-depth pieces on what this presidential election means for eight different areas of science. Read up and VOTE! www.scientificamerican.com/report/how-t...

🚨📢JOB ALERT📢🚨 Scientific American is hiring a News Intern to report and write weekly news and analysis articles for the website and at least one short story per month for the print magazine's news section, Advances. springernature.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com/es/SpringerN...