Scientific American.com
Search for alien technology on interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS comes up empty
Even though astronomers didn’t detect alien tech signals from a rare interstellar visitor, the results are worthwhile, they say
White House reclassifies federal epidemiologists and other scientists from civil servants to ‘at-will’ hires
The long-anticipated “Schedule F” order strips job protections meant to safeguard federal employees from political interference
Scientists just built a powerful AI computer worm that learns as it spreads
This prototype could help the world prepare for AI malware threats, according to the researchers who made it
Landmark pancreatic cancer treatment paves way for targeting other tricky tumors
Unprecedented results against a stubbornly hard-to-treat cancer are boosting optimism that other challenging tumors will be next
NASA’s Mars mission MAVEN is lost forever
MAVEN was the first successful mission designed to study the atmosphere of Mars. It also became a vital node of NASA’s communications network at the Red Planet
Edison may not have been the first to record the human voice, new evidence suggests
Could a predecessor to the phonograph have appeared a century earlier?
The reason why elevators feel slow—and the surprising math behind everyday life
From slow elevators to perfectly split pizza, math quietly explains the quirks of everyday life
Ötzi the murdered Iceman’s microbiome is still active
More than 5,300 years after Ötzi’s death, researchers identified yeasts in his gut microbiome that continue to be active—and they used it to make bread
U.S. science must innovate or die, National Academy of Sciences president says
The past year has been “filled with turmoil” for science, National Academy of Sciences president Marcia McNutt said during her State of the Science address
In a first, scientists transplanted both a pig liver and kidneys into a person who was brain-dead
The transplanted pig organs functioned for 36 hours before showing signs of rejection
Microsoft’s upgraded Majorana quantum computing chip fizzles with physicists
Microsoft’s announcement of a new quantum computing breakthrough with its Majorana 2 chip continues a trend of bold claims followed by scant evidence
Sturgeon fish sex sounds like ‘thunder’
These sounds could be used to track the health of populations of the endangered Atlantic sturgeon
Trump’s new AI executive order drastically shifts the administration’s stance on the tech
This order asks artificial intelligence companies to give the U.S. government up to 30 days to assess frontier models before they are released
Trump administration takes aim at crucial ocean monitoring network
The Ocean Observatories Initiative has been collecting data on physical, chemical, geological and biological conditions in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans for the past decade
Mathematicians sign declaration to rein in AI use
A group of researchers have proposed rules to prevent artificial intelligence from overpowering humans in math
Questioning everything
Where did stars, and light itself, come from? Is there a hidden sector of particles and forces called “dark energy” affecting the cosmos?
How Gödel numbers turn mathematical laws against themselves
By encoding mathematical statements into numbers, mathematician Kurt Gödel used ordinary arithmetic to check whether a statement can be proved
Trump’s psychedelics executive order could accelerate new treatments—even for children
The Trump administration has fast-tracked research into psychedelics, and experts say it is likely a matter of time before the drugs are used to treat minors
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is being explored as a long COVID treatment. Here’s what the research shows
Some clinics are touting pressurized oxygen chambers as a treatment for long COVID, but the evidence is mixed
Oldest cave art in the U.K. discovered inside Welsh cave
A new analysis of red lines inside a cave in Wales suggests they were made deliberately by ancient humans some 17,000 years ago
