"When beggars die, there are no comets seen;
The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes."

— William Shakespeare
Julius Cæsar

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Scientific American is the essential guide to the most awe-inspiring advances in science and technology, explaining how they change our understanding of the world and shape our lives.
Updated: 7 hours 16 min ago

China’s Tianwen-2 spacecraft arrives at one of Earth’s mysterious ‘quasi-moons’

Thu, 06/11/2026 - 9:30am

The Tianwen-2 spacecraft is slowly closing in on the near-Earth asteroid Kamo‘oalewa, on a mission that would bring China’s first asteroid samples back to Earth in 2027

Categories: Astronomy

El Niño is here and could tip Earth to a new record hot year

Thu, 06/11/2026 - 9:10am

Scientists have been expecting El Niño to set in for quite a while now—and it’s finally official

Categories: Astronomy

What AI-herding scientists can learn from watching ‘sheepdog YouTube’

Thu, 06/11/2026 - 6:45am

Controlling a small group of “noisy” sheep holds hints for computer algorithms

Categories: Astronomy

The 2026 World Cup will bring the heat. Here's how to keep cool

Thu, 06/11/2026 - 6:30am

Extreme heat poses a risk to players, spectators and workers—find out where the danger is and how to keep cool

Categories: Astronomy

The U.S. is getting hit with severe stormy weather—here’s what’s stewing in the atmosphere

Wed, 06/10/2026 - 4:04pm

Cold fronts colliding with warm, humid air from the Gulf of Mexico could cause dangerous weather conditions, forecasters say

Categories: Astronomy

Report of gene-edited human embryos sparks worries about the technology’s future uses

Wed, 06/10/2026 - 2:00pm

Eight years after a Chinese scientist's report of gene-edited babies shocked the world, U.S. scientists reported editing embryos not meant for pregnancies using a more precise technique

Categories: Astronomy

AI scores a ‘C–’ on its hardest math test yet

Wed, 06/10/2026 - 1:00pm

The second batch of “First Proof” problems is meant to evaluate AI’s usefulness for research-level math. The best model got six or seven of the 10 questions basically right

Categories: Astronomy

How to build kids’ ‘cognitive endurance’ in an age of distraction

Wed, 06/10/2026 - 12:15pm

The ability to run “mental marathons” is a skill children can learn through simple, but dedicated, practice

Categories: Astronomy

How to tell if your dog is left-pawed or right-pawed, according to science

Wed, 06/10/2026 - 11:56am

A step-by-step guide to the “Doginburgh Inventory,” a new pawedness test developed by dog behavior researchers

Categories: Astronomy

Largest whale ‘graveyard’ discovered, with skeletons spanning 5 million years

Wed, 06/10/2026 - 11:00am

The fossilized remains of more than 450 whales have amassed along a 750-mile-long stretch of the Indian Ocean floor

Categories: Astronomy

How FIFA is engineering natural grass for the 2026 World Cup

Wed, 06/10/2026 - 10:00am

FIFA is building temporary natural-grass fields meant to play consistently across 16 stadiums in three countries

Categories: Astronomy

Cats, unlike dogs and toddlers, help you only when it helps them

Wed, 06/10/2026 - 9:20am

Dogs spontaneously aid struggling humans the way young children do—whereas cats wait until they stand to benefit

Categories: Astronomy

How Canadian rock duo Angine de Poitrine play with neurobiology and physics to make viral music

Wed, 06/10/2026 - 7:00am

Angine de Poitrine don't abide by the usual rules of Western music, using their own custom-built guitar to strike notes that shouldn't exist

Categories: Astronomy

The World Cup could be a petri dish for disease. Wastewater could sound the alarm

Wed, 06/10/2026 - 6:30am

As millions of soccer fans pack FIFA World Cup venues, public health scientists created a wastewater monitoring network to forecast potential disease threats—from measles to Ebola

Categories: Astronomy

The surprising science behind the 2026 World Cup grass

Wed, 06/10/2026 - 6:00am

How scientists are engineering the perfect World Cup pitch—one so flawless that players never notice it

Categories: Astronomy

How the new FDA-approved ingredient bemotrizinol enhances sunscreen protection

Tue, 06/09/2026 - 4:55pm

Dermatologists and skincare aficionados are excited for the U.S. to finally get a new, more protective sunscreen filter after more than 20 years of regulatory roadblocks. Here’s how bemotrizinol works

Categories: Astronomy

How math’s ‘hairy ball theorem’ could explain bad hair days

Tue, 06/09/2026 - 2:00pm

An idea from topology explains why you can never get rid of your cowlicks—and, oddly enough, it’s critical in nuclear fusion

Categories: Astronomy

Americans’ trust in the CDC has plummeted since 2025, new poll finds

Tue, 06/09/2026 - 12:22pm

A mere 12 percent of Americans say they trust the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recommendations “a great deal”

Categories: Astronomy

NASA reveals astronauts who will fly Artemis III, its next step toward a moon landing

Tue, 06/09/2026 - 12:00pm

NASA’s Artemis III crew includes three NASA astronauts and one European Space Agency astronaut

Categories: Astronomy

Inside the new Siri AI and the privacy paradox of Apple Intelligence

Tue, 06/09/2026 - 11:00am

To run errands across apps, Apple’s upgraded assistant needs deep access to personal data that the company has walled off for years

Categories: Astronomy