Scientific American

Close-up of woodpecker perching on tree trunk

AnimalsJanuary 2, 2026

How Woodpeckers Turn Their Entire Bodies into Pecking Machines

These birds’ drilling approach is more like extreme tennis playing than weight lifting

Rohini Subrahmanyam

Multiple bright blue stars of the Pleiades, a star cluster

The UniverseJanuary 2, 2026

The Pleiades Star Cluster Has a Secret Stellar Family Scattered across the Milky Way

Phil Plait

A series of yellow speech bubbles with the words

Social SciencesSeptember 19, 2025

The Linguistic Science behind Viral Social Media Slang

Rachel Feltman, Allison Parshall, Jeffery DelViscio

This artist’s concept shows an ice-encrusted, Earth-mass rogue planet drifting through space alone.

Space & PhysicsJanuary 1, 2026

Scientists Just Clocked a ‘Rogue’ Planet the Size of Saturn

Jackie Flynn Mogensen

An astronaut with jetpack investigates a Sudoku grid nestled among planets in a retro illustration

GamesJanuary 2, 2026

Killer Sudoku: January 2, 2026

HOLIDAY SALE: SAVE ON ALL SUBSCRIPTIONS

Quadrantid meteor

Space & PhysicsJanuary 1, 2026

You Need to See the First Fiery Meteor Shower of 2026

Claire Cameron

a semiconductor chip close up

TechnologyDecember 31, 2025

The Push to Make Semiconductors in Space Just Took a Serious Leap Forward

Jackie Flynn Mogensen

The cluster appears here as a large collection of brilliant white lights, each a distinct galaxy. A neon purple cloud stretches across the cluster’s crowded core. Many of the hundred-plus galaxies in the cluster are in two clumps of galaxies towards the top and bottom of center. Some are encircled by a faint glowing haze, while a few foreground stars gleam with diffraction spikes. Some of the smaller galaxies are tinted blue, orange, or red, and some appear more oblong than round, suggesting spiral shapes viewed edge-on. The neon purple cloud sits at the heart of the image, surrounding the most densely-packed part of the cluster. This cloud, which spreads vertically across the cluster, is multimillion-degree gas observed by Chandra. The two clumps of observable galaxies, and the spread of superheated gas, reveal that the Champagne Cluster is in fact two clusters in the process of colliding.

AstronomyDecember 31, 2025

Cheers! Ring in the New Year with Glittering ‘Champagne Cluster’ Image

Meghan Bartels

Mid-infrared data from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (in white, gray, and red) and X-ray data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory (in blue) come together in this photo of colliding spiral galaxies released on Dec. 1, 2025. The pair grazed one another millions of years ago; billions of years in the future, they will merge into a single galaxy.

Space & PhysicsDecember 31, 2025

Colliding Spiral Galaxies Captured in Sparkling Detail

Claire Cameron

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January 2026 Issue

Orca emerging from the water

Conservation

These Orcas Are on the Brink—And So Is the Science That Could Save Them

Kelso Harper

Illustration of a person peeking into a dark room lined with cabinets from floor to ceiling. Stars and bursts of light appear and disappear.

Astronomy

Mysterious Bright Flashes in the Night Sky Baffle Astronomers

Ann Finkbeiner

The TidyBot making a bed in a lab

Robotics

Meet Your Future Robot Servants, Caregivers and Explorers

Ben Guarino

Illustration of two human profiles in mirrored view. One is in tune with body’s signals. No external noise. Brain is healthy and figure feels in balance. In the other, eternal noise prevails. Figure feels on edge.

Psychology

A Distorted Mind-Body Connection May Explain Common Mental Illnesses

Diana Kwon

Tuatara facing the camera directly, under the glow of warm light.

Biology

Rising Temperatures Could Trigger a Reptile Sexpocalypse

Elizabeth Preston

House of cards with a small figure in a hospital gown sitting on the top. Faces of cards include heart, kidney and pancreas illustrations.

Health

Heart and Kidney Diseases and Type 2 Diabetes May Be One Ailment

Jyoti Madhusoodanan

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Games

A robot hand reaches toward bubbles with letters in them

Spellements

Create as many words as you can!

Illustration of a hand and multiple numbers against a purple background.

Math Puzzles

Stretch your math muscles with these puzzles.

A robot hand unleashes a swirl of puzzle pieces, crosswords, and circles with numbers and letters

All Games

Science inspired games, puzzles and quizzes

Special Edition

Photographs of 3D-printed shapes show soft cells derived from space filling polyhedra. Blue is derived from a truncated octahedron, pink is from a hexagonal prism and green is from a cube.

Mathematics

Mathematicians Discover a New Kind of Shape That’s All over Nature

Elise Cutts

Many discrete loops. Each looks like a close shape made of a continuous black line drawn in 3D space.

Mathematics

Mathematicians’ Favorite Shapes Hold the Key to Big Mathematical Mysteries

Rachel Crowell, Violet Frances

Colorful abstract illustration

Neurology

How Squishy Math Is Revealing Doughnuts in the Brain

Kelsey Houston-Edwards

Jar full of gumballs

Cognition

Babies Are Born with an Innate Number Sense

Jacob Beck, Sam Clarke

Pool balls inside a roulette and a group of people coming out of half open ball shells on the ground.

Mathematics

Citizens’ Assemblies Are Upgrading Democracy: Fair Algorithms Are Part of the Program

Ariel Procaccia

Illustration of geometric pieces.

Mathematics

Inside Mathematicians’ Search for the Mysterious ‘Einstein Tile’

Craig S. Kaplan

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Podcasts

An image of a man cutting down a Christmas tree in a farm.

December 24, 2025

Fighting Drought and Heat: The Science of Growing Climate-Resilient Christmas Trees

Kendra Pierre-Louis, Fonda Mwangi, Sushmita Pathak

The word "science" on a cracked surface.

Public HealthDecember 22, 2025

From Agency Chaos to Dark Energy Shocks: How Politics, Health, Climate Policy and Space Science Defined 2025

Dan Vergano, Tanya Lewis, Andrea Thompson, Lee Billings, Fonda Mwangi, Alex Sugiura, Kendra Pierre-Louis, Jeffery DelViscio

Two Hawaiian monk seals laying on each other in the water.

ConservationDecember 19, 2025

The Secret Voices of Hawaiian Monk Seals: Scientists Uncover 20 New Underwater Calls

Melissa Hobson, Fonda Mwangi, Alex Sugiura, Kendra Pierre-Louis

A killer whale leaps from the water

ConservationDecember 17, 2025

Orcas on the Brink—What a Dog Named Eba and a Team of Scientists Are Fighting For

Kendra Pierre-Louis, Kelso Harper, Fonda Mwangi, Alex Sugiura, Jeffery DelViscio

An image of an archaeologist surveying the cave at Liang Bua where the 'hobbit' remains were discovered.

Climate ChangeDecember 15, 2025

A Hobbit Mystery Is Solved, 2025 Nears a Climate Record, and More Parents Refuse Vitamin K for Newborns

Kendra Pierre-Louis, Andrea Thompson, Fonda Mwangi, Alex Sugiura

Popular Stories

This artist’s concept shows an ice-encrusted, Earth-mass rogue planet drifting through space alone.

Space & PhysicsJanuary 1, 2026

Scientists Just Clocked a ‘Rogue’ Planet the Size of Saturn

Astronomers just measured the mass of a free-floating planet without a star for the first time

Jackie Flynn Mogensen

Mid-infrared data from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (in white, gray, and red) and X-ray data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory (in blue) come together in this photo of colliding spiral galaxies released on Dec. 1, 2025. The pair grazed one another millions of years ago; billions of years in the future, they will merge into a single galaxy.

Space & PhysicsDecember 31, 2025

Colliding Spiral Galaxies Captured in Sparkling Detail

Astronomers combined data from NASA’s JWST and Chandra X-ray Observatory to create a stunning new image of two merging spiral galaxies

Claire Cameron

Quadrantid meteor

Space & PhysicsJanuary 1, 2026

You Need to See the First Fiery Meteor Shower of 2026

The new year has arrived, and the Quadrantid meteor shower is coming in hot. Here’s how to see this often-spectacular shower at its peak

Claire Cameron

Digital illustration of a brain against yellow background with circular, radiating line pattern

NeuroscienceDecember 18, 2025

The 10 Most Mind-Blowing Discoveries About the Brain in 2025

From glowing neurons to newborn memories, here are the most fascinating brain discoveries of 2025

Allison Parshall

Illustration of toothpaste flowing out of a bottle of toothpaste

ChemistryAugust 1, 2019

How to Make Elephant Toothpaste

Learn how to make “elephant toothpaste” with this bubbly science project from Science Buddies

Science Buddies, Ben Finio

Omega 3 Fish Oil capsules in a spoon against a yellow background

HealthOctober 14, 2025

Which Anti-Inflammatory Supplements Actually Work?

Experts say the strongest scientific studies identify three compounds that fight disease and inflammation

Lori Youmshajekian

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