Science

Right arm extended, thumb waggling wildly against a forefinger pointed left, I am peering, I think, into the future. The future, however, is not going well. “Try flicking your thumb in an exaggerated way,” says Jason, who is running this high-tech demo for me. Why We Wrote This Meta and Ray-Ban have teamed up for

As a kid in the 1970s, I watched the Apollo moon missions on TV, drawn like a curious moth to the cathode-ray tube’s glow. The English band Pink Floyd blared through the speakers of my mom’s Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme, beckoning us to the dark side of the moon. The far side of the moon, the

February 1, 2026 1 min read Add Us On Google Add SciAm The National Reconnaissance Office has now declassified a satellite program used to spy on America’s adversaries By Jackie Flynn Mogensen edited by Claire Cameron National Reconnaissance Office Join Our Community of Science Lovers! Some forty years ago, the U.S. launched a series of

Kendra Pierre-Louis: For Scientific American’s Science Quickly, I’m Kendra Pierre-Louis, in for Rachel Feltman. When it comes to our cultural understanding of who can be a scientist, the idea that it’s largely a career for men tends to still dominate. This season the podcast Lost Women of Science digs into the life of the American

January 29, 2026 3 min read Add Us On Google Add SciAm These polar bears appear to be maintaining their physical health despite the loss of sea ice—their preferred hunting grounds By Jackie Flynn Mogensen edited by Claire Cameron A sedated polar bear lies on the ice with its cub huddled against it. Jon Aars/Norwegian

January 29, 2026 2 min read Add Us On Google Add SciAm Heathrow dropped its 100-ml liquids rule. This scanner tech made it possible New CT scanners can build a 3D model of your carry-on, helping airport staff spot risks without making you unpack or decant liquids into tiny bottles By Eric Sullivan edited by

We may never know the universal wave function VICTOR de SCHWANBERG/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/Getty Images From the vantage point of quantum physics, the universe may in some ways be fundamentally unknowable. In quantum physics, every object, such as an electron, is matched to a mathematical formula called the wave function. The wave function encodes all the

Mathematics While snakes and ladders is purely a game of chance, there is a way to add some strategy, says mathematician Peter Rowlett By Peter Rowlett Facebook / Meta Twitter / X icon Linkedin Reddit Email Does skill have any influence on the outcome when playing Snakes and Ladders? Sipa US/Alamy Have you ever played

Pilot-wave theory may act like waves steering bottles on the sea Philip Thurston/Getty Images Beyond the Quantum Antony Valentini, Oxford University Press Physics, it is fair to say, hasn’t gone to plan. After decades of hopeful searching, dark matter still hasn’t been directly detected. We found the Higgs boson, but nothing to pave the way

Health workers by a triage tent for people suspected of having covid‑19 in Lisbon, Portugal, in April 2020 PATRICIA DE MELO MOREIRA/AFP via Getty Images The Great Shadow Susan Wise Bauer, St. Martin’s Press It may be perverse to say it, but this is a fine time to publish a book about the history of