Category Science

The new year can be a clean slate, giving us an opportunity to reinvent ourselves as someone who reads more. While we’re trying to predict what this year will bring, it’s important to keep one thing in mind: there are…

January 22, 2025 3 min read Why Does Snow Bring Childlike Joy? Snow’s appeal is more than just a fond nostalgia for childhood days away from school By Meghan Bartels edited by Sarah Lewin Frasier Just a few degrees’ difference…

Rachel Feltman: For Scientific American’s Science Quickly, I’m Rachel Feltman. Earlier this month net neutrality was back in the news, thanks to a U.S. appeals court ruling. The decision stated that the Federal Communications Commission, or FCC, didn’t have the…

Semaglutide and other GLP-1 agonists are injected Iuliia Burmistrova/Getty Images Drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy, called GLP-1 agonists, carry more benefits than risks when taken for their approved uses, according to a comprehensive analysis of their effects on 175 conditions.…

January 21, 2025 2 min read A Sensitive Electronic Tongue Can Taste When Juice Starts to Go Bad An AI analysis and a chemical sensor determine drinks’ dilution, freshness and type By Simon Makin edited by Sarah Lewin Frasier The…

Is space-time the fabric of the universe, or is there something deeper? Shutterstock Afuza What is the structure of our physical reality? Physicists have long imagined space and time interweaving into “space-time”, the metaphorical fabric that underlies the cosmos. But…

January 21, 2025 4 min read Painful Endometriosis Can Affect the Whole Body, Not Only the Pelvis This disease is now genetically linked to widespread inflammation, asthma, migraines, and more By Lydia Denworth edited by Josh Fischman The pain from…

Artist’s visualisation of the gas giant planet WASP-127b ESO Calçada A vast alien planet has blistering winds racing around its equator at nearly 30 times the speed of sound on Earth. Lisa Nortmann at the University of Göttingen, Germany, and…

TIME IN MINDFULNESS In “Ultrasound Meditation” [Advances], Lucy Tu reports on a study by Brian Lord of the University of Arizona and his colleagues on using brain stimulation to enhance mindfulness, published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. The article is…

Strategic napping can aid recovery from sleep deprivation Jean Gaumy/Magnum Photos Sleep researchers dedicate their careers to understanding how and why we sleep – so what do they do to get a better night’s rest? It might be reassuring to know…