Hotnews

What’s the most massive star in the universe?

Just how big can a star become?

Modern rocketry turns 100—and NASA says the best is yet to come

A century after Robert Goddard’s first-ever launch of a liquid-fueled rocket, two NASA experts weigh in on what his legacy still holds for spaceflight’s future

scientificamerican 19h ago 21°

How the Project Hail Mary directors brought science to the big screen

Project Hail Mary directors Christopher Miller and Phil Lord talk about astrobiology, optimistic science fiction, heist films and handsome scientists

scientificamerican 17h ago 19°

What animal are you? Humans and animals tend to like the same mating calls

Whether it’s a canary’s chirp or a treefrog’s croak, humans tend to prefer many of the same sounds that animals do themselves, a new study finds

scientificamerican 2h ago 17°

The real science (and the fun fiction) behind Project Hail Mary

The author of the novel Project Hail Mary breaks down aliens, anxiety and the process of bringing his story to the screen

scientificamerican 45h ago 15°

Nebraska is battling its largest wildfires in history. Worse may be yet to come

About 800,000 acres have burned because of these fires, with at least one person reported dead

scientificamerican 18h ago 14°

When did plate tectonics on Earth begin? New research finds some of the earliest clues

Scientists have found the oldest direct evidence for tectonic motion on Earth by more than half a billion years

scientificamerican 42h ago 14°

There might be less water on the moon than we’d hoped

New satellite data come up dry as the search for lunar ice continues

scientificamerican 25h ago 14°

The math of March Madness brackets

When can mathematicians reverse engineer basketball tournament results from your friends’ brackets?

scientificamerican 42h ago 11°

COVID probably killed 150,000 more people in its first two years than official U.S. tolls show

We have severely undercounted the number of COVID deaths, scientists say

scientificamerican 44h ago 11°

The Iran war disrupts global helium supply and artificial intelligence chipmakers

The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has trapped a third of the world’s commercial helium, threatening the irreplaceable coolant that makes MRI scanners and advanced microchips possible

scientificamerican 25h ago 10°

Something extremely weird is happening to our galactic neighbor. Scientists think they know why

The stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud aren’t behaving the way they should.

scientificamerican 20h ago 10°

The world’s happiest countries report calls attention to youth well-being

An annual world happiness ranking for 2026 explores how the use of social media influences well-being

scientificamerican 43h ago 10°

This overlooked organ may be more vital for longevity than scientists realized

The role of the thymus in our long-term immunity and health is poorly understood.

scientificamerican 25h ago 9°

Gerd Faltings, mathematician who proved the Mordell conjecture, wins the Abel Prize at age 71

The Mordell conjecture—now known as Faltings’s theorem—concerns the number of special points on a curve

scientificamerican 19h ago 5°

Drug retatrutide helps people lower blood sugar and lose weight, clinical trial results show

Retatrutide is among a new class of weight-loss drugs that are being tested for effectiveness

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