Science

image:  Leadership from ORNL and Rutherford Energy Ventures at the FULCRA kick-off meeting on June 19, 2026.  view more  Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy The Department of Energy’s…

Updated July 28, 2026 at 11:30 AM A magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck just south of the city of Kumamoto on the southern Japanese island of Kyushu on Tuesday afternoon local…

Quantum mechanics is so odd that even the visionary genius who described the secrets of the Universe seemed to dismiss certain aspects as eerie. “Spooky action at a distance” is…

WASHINGTON — A spacecraft launched nearly a month ago in a high-risk bid to boost the orbit of a NASA astrophysics satellite is suffering from attitude control problems that could…

NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory has observed a rare supermassive black hole far from the center of a distant galaxy as it tore apart and consumed a star. Astronomers describe…

This article is from Proof Positive, our friendly math newsletter that’s delivered to your inbox every Tuesday afternoon. Sign up today and read it first. We all have some past…

Nuclear power startup Antares Nuclear said Monday that it has raised $470 million to build small reactors for U.S. military bases. The Series C round, which was led by Paradigm…

There are a few iconic symbols of Game of Thrones, but none of them are as recognizable as the Iron Throne. It’s the image that was emblazoned on posters, parodied…

This scenario will feel familiar to many parents: Imagine spending the day watching your kids—making them breakfast, settling arguments, answering their questions and trying to keep them from getting bored….

NASA’s Psyche spacecraft completed a highly successful flyby of Mars, giving the mission a carefully planned gravitational boost while also producing valuable scientific data. Researchers are now examining those observations…

Around 7,500 spoken and signed languages are used worldwide today. Yet this extraordinary diversity may represent only a fraction of the linguistic richness humanity once possessed. A new modeling study…

China has taken a major step towards building an artificial Sun after completing and testing the world’s largest superconducting fusion magnet, a key component needed to generate clean, virtually limitless…

Insects are everywhere: from fruit flies to ants to bees to cockroaches, they are seemingly inescapable. But there is one place on Earth where insects are nowhere to be found:…

Constipation and abdominal pain often occur together, but scientists still don’t fully understand how the nervous system coordinates movement through the bowel with the sensations arising from inside it. In…

Driving while listening to the radio; making breakfast while talking to the family; eating a sandwich while reading a book. Our daily lives are built on multitasking, but are our…

A small clinical trial suggests that limiting food intake to fewer hours each day could provide modest cognitive benefits for older women, beyond those associated with weight loss alone. The…

Environmental groups are suing the U.S. government over a proposed land deal with SpaceX. If approved, the deal will grant SpaceX hundreds of acres in a wildlife refuge in South…

Princeton University spinout Thea Energy has secured a $20 million award from the US Department of Energy’s ARPA-E program to scale production of high-temperature superconducting magnets for its fusion technology….

Cannabis is widely considered to be a stress reliever – at least for some – but there’s new evidence that it might actually have the opposite effect when used regularly….

NASA astronaut Chris Williams returned to Earth on Sunday after completing an eight month science mission aboard the International Space Station. He traveled home with Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and…

For hard-tech startups, manufacturing is a pricey endeavor. Now, Thea Energy has a leg up courtesy of a Department of Energy grant. The fusion power startup told TechCrunch Monday that…

Why do some dreams feel so vivid that they seem almost real, while others unfold as confusing fragments that are difficult to remember or understand? New research suggests the answer…

Last year, the God of War series turned 20. Kratos has been slaughtering his way through ancient monsters of myth and entire pantheons of gods for over two decades now,…

Jupiter and Saturn are the two largest planets in the Solar System, and both are surrounded by enormous families of moons. Jupiter currently has more than 100 reported moons, while…

Rachel Feltman: Happy Monday, listeners! For Scientific American’s Science Quickly, I’m Rachel Feltman. This isn’t our weekly science news roundup, because this week we’re doing something different. Today’s, Wednesday’s and…

Mass extinctions. Giant volcanic eruptions. Oceans suddenly deprived of oxygen. At first glance, Earth’s biggest geological disasters seem to have little in common beyond their sheer scale. But for decades,…

Genenta (Nasdaq: GNTA)-backed Sòphia High Tech, an Italian aerospace and defense manufacturer, announced ROMAN, a robotic arm for remote inspection and maintenance inside the RFX-mod2 nuclear fusion…

A surprisingly large number and diversity of bee species – 74 out of 96 tested – have magnetic properties, according to research my colleagues and Irecently published in the journal…

As recently as 2019, U.S. military health researchers had concerns about testosterone levels among the troops. Their worries were not that male service members didn’t have enough of the hormone,…