On March 10, 2020, 61 choir members rehearsed in a church hall in Skagit County, Wash. As they sang, a microscopic germ wafted through the air. Before the month’s end, 58 members were infected and ...

AFTER THE second world war, Leo Szilard, a pioneering nuclear physicist who had worked on the Manhattan Project, decided to move into biology instead: life; not death. But there was a problem. As a ...

Rachel Feltman: For Scientific American’s Science Quickly, I’m Rachel Feltman. You probably don’t spend too much time thinking about the air you breathe—at least relative to the amount of time you ...

Imagine being a paleontologist exploring Utah’s Jurassic-aged rocks. Imagine discovering the bones of a 20-meter-long, 20-ton herbivorous dinosaur. Then consider: How could any beast become so big?

This works with any area of science, or indeed human life. In a way, the authoritarian excesses of the Earth-based regime known as the Mandate in my novel Alien Clay are as much a thought experiment ...

Kid lit experts weigh in on some of the year’s best science titles. Plus, what to look for when choosing a book for the child in your life. Are you hoping to inspire a young reader in your life with ...

Billions of years ago, Earth’s atmosphere was hostile, with barely any oxygen and toxic conditions for life. Researchers from the Earth-Life Science Institute studied Japan’s iron-rich hot springs, ...

While mirror bacteria may sound like a fun time, a group of 40 renowned scientists conclude it is probably not worth the risk.