Tag: Researchers
Birds Went Silent during the Great North American Eclipse—Here’s What Researchers Discovered
Birds Went Silent during the Great North American Eclipse—Here’s What Researchers Discovered The “Great North American Eclipse” of April 2024 was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to study how birds and other wildlife respond to total solar eclipses By Humberto Basilio edited by Lee Billings A Savi’s warbler (Locustella luscinioides) male sings at sunset. When a total…
2025 Nobel Prize in Physics Goes to Researchers Who Brought Quantum Mechanics into the Macroscale World
The 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics Goes to Researchers Who Showed Quantum Tunneling on a Chip John Clarke, Michel H. Devoret and John M. Martinis shared the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics for their work showing how bizarre microscopic quantum effects can infiltrate our large-scale, everyday world By Lee Billings edited by Dan Vergano The…
The Science behind Hurricane Katrina: What Researchers Knew before the 2005 Disaster
The Storm That Drowned a City—And the Science That Saw It Coming Two decades after Katrina, we revisit the storm and discuss the evolution of hurricane preparedness since then. By Mark Fischetti, Andrea Thompson, Rachel Feltman, Fonda Mwangi, Jeffery DelViscio & Alex Sugiura Rachel Feltman: For Scientific American’s Science Quickly, I’m Rachel Feltman. Twenty years…
How Trump’s Federal Funding Cuts Are Hurting Early-Career Researchers and American Health
U.S. Budget Cuts Are Robbing Early-Career Scientists of Their Future Canceled grants and slashed budgets are disproportionately affecting junior health researchers, dealing a major blow to the future of science and society in the U.S. By Rachel Nuwer edited by Lauren J. Young People rally during a “Kill the Cuts” protest against U.S. President Donald…
Researchers say the true cost of prisons and jails is higher than many realize
Meg Anderson Dorothy Gaines knows firsthand the burdens prison can put on a family. She was in federal prison for seven years with three children at home. “My oldest daughter was 18,” she says. “She had to come out of college, and try to take care of them. So it was a lot of stress…
These researchers think the sludge in your home may help save the planet
Ari Daniel There are places where the Earth’s inner rumblings burble to the surface — like Iron Spring, located just outside the bustling town of Manitou Springs in central Colorado. Every few seconds, a burst of water surges out of a narrow pipe, splashing into a concrete basin that’s partly dyed a bright orange. Henriksen…
EU’s ‘chocolate crisis’ worsened by climate breakdown, researchers warn
Cocoa one of six commodities vulnerable to environmental threats in ‘extremely worrying picture’ for food resilience Climate breakdown and wildlife loss are deepening the EU’s “chocolate crisis”, a report has argued, with cocoa one of six key commodities to come mostly from countries vulnerable to environmental threats. More than two-thirds of the cocoa, coffee, soy,…
Researchers Discover New Color That’s Impossible to See without Lasering Your Retinas
This Impossible New Color Is So Rare That Only Five People Have Seen It Researchers discover a new color outside the range of human color vision, but you have to laser your retinas to see it By Jacek Krywko edited by Allison Parshall Teal is as close as you can get to seeing the new…
Move over, Med diet – plantains and cassava can be as healthy as tomatoes and olive oil, say researchers
Findings from Tanzania’s Kilimanjaro region indicate traditional eating habits in rural Africa can boost the immune system and reduce inflammation Plantains, cassava and fermented banana drink should be added to global healthy eating guidelines alongside the olive oil, tomatoes and red wine of the Mediterranean diet, say researchers who found the traditional diet of people…
Amid Trump Cuts, Climate Researchers Wait for the Ax to Fall
Climate Researchers Wait for the Ax to Fall Climate experts whose research is funded by federal grants hide, whisper and wait for their jobs to disappear By Ariel Wittenberg, Chelsea Harvey & E&E News The Trump administration has slashed jobs and funding at the National Institutes of Health. CLIMATEWIRE | The National Institutes of Health…
Gaza war death toll could be significantly higher, researchers say
The Palestinian death toll from the war in Gaza could be substantially higher than official figures reported by the Hamas-run health ministry, research published in The Lancet medical journal suggests. The UK-led study covered the first nine months of the war, which began when Hamas gunmen attacked Israel on 7 October 2023. It used data…
The strange story of how one researcher’s photo made it onto a banknote
Everyone has a hobby. Trond Larsen’s is photography. As the Rapid Assessment Program director at Conservation International, Larsen spends his days organizing international teams of scientists to find and document wildlife in far-flung locales. His camera goes with him to the wild, and his photos — predominantly of the animals he encounters in the field…
The World’s Smallest Pasta Is Not Very Tasty
Chemists Seeking Better Bandages Make World’s Smallest Pasta Researchers seeking better bandages are creating extremely thin fibers of starch By Ben Guarino edited by Sarah Lewin Frasier A bowl of plain noodles (a strand of the world’s tiniest pasta, not pictured, is invisible). Join Our Community of Science Lovers! The skinniest pasta yet made—let’s call…
How Rare ‘Alice in Wonderland Syndrome’ Warps Reality
How Rare ‘Alice in Wonderland Syndrome’ Warps Reality Researchers are learning what causes Alice in Wonderland syndrome, a rare neurological condition that can appear to warp bodies, time and reality itself By Allison Parshall edited by Jeanna Bryner An illustration by John Tenniel depicts a scene in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. When Lene was a…