Efforts by leaders of the US national academies to adjust to the new political reality have spurred member concerns about ...

When one person takes the time to regularly be still and attend to a specific cue, such as their breath or a mantra, their ...

Recent observations have revealed carbon monoxide venting from the largest comet ever seen, providing clues about its origins ...

Claims that an asteroid or comet airburst destroyed the biblical Sodom captured the public’s imagination. Its retraction ...

Efforts have been underway for years to improve the replicability of research studies, but some are skeptical of the US ...

A rapidly warming Arctic is driving long-lasting summer extremes, such as this month’s sweltering temperatures, new research ...

A vitriolic war of words between President Donald Trump and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk could have profound repercussions for the nation’s civil and military space programs ...

We’re all familiar with the sun’s daily motion in the sky. It rises in the east, gets higher in the sky until circa noon, then begins its hours-long descent to set on the western horizon.

This article was originally published with the title “ Contagious Quakes ” in Scientific American Magazine Vol. 333 No. 1 (July/August 2025), p. 14 doi: ...

Phil Plait is a professional astronomer and science communicator in Virginia. His column for Scientific American, The Universe, covers all things space. He writes the Bad Astronomy Newsletter.

Big data can help make Americans healthier, and the Trump Administration has stated—in its recently released Make America ...

On a weekend in mid-May, a clandestine mathematical conclave convened. Thirty of the world’s most renowned mathematicians traveled to Berkeley, Calif., with some coming from as far away as the U.K.