Scientific American Content: Global

The selection of Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy to temporarily lead NASA adds to the deep political uncertainties already facing the space agency

Nanoplastics—particles smaller than a human hair—can pass through cell walls and enter the food web. New research suggest 27 million metric tons of nanoplastics are spread across just the top layer of the North Atlantic

A new analysis warns that AI facilities could be forced to stop operating because of water shortages and blackouts

Molecules from the 20-million-year-old teeth of a rhino relative are among the oldest ever sequenced, opening tantalizing possibilities to scientists

Tests in London and Singapore could reveal whether AI can improve the safety of air travel

If Americans don’t fight back against efforts to dismantle higher education, the U.S. will lose lifesaving medical research, innovation that spurs our economy and the ability to freely study science and society

Autism has at least four subtypes, an analysis of more than 5,000 children’s genes, traits and developmental trajectories has shown

A protest at a congressional office building highlighted future research findings that vast cuts to science will erase

Texas has identified more than $50 billion in flood control needs, but lawmakers have devoted just $1.4 billion to address them

Japan’s new earthquake-detection network lengthens warning times, and researchers in Wales have harnessed nuclear blast detectors to gauge tsunami risks. But the U.S. lags in monitoring the massive Cascadia megathrust fault

ChatGPT and Gemini AI write in different idioms, linguists find

The underwater world relies on sound signals—so what happens when a noisy reef falls silent?

Babies lacking in key gut bacteria are at greater risk of developing asthma, allergies or eczema

Forecasts and warnings largely worked during the recent flooding catastrophe in Texas. Those systems are expected to degrade as President Donald Trump’s cuts to the National Weather Service, satellites and other key services take hold

History tells us what happens when great nations attack science

An attosecond—or 0.000000000000000001 second—is no time at all for a person. That is not so for electrons, atoms and molecules, and laser-wielding scientists are revealing the action

A hydrologist explains why Texas Hill Country is known as Flash Flood Alley and how its geography and geology can lead to heavy downpours and sudden, destructive floods

Being conscientious will serve kids in the long run. Here are some tips to help them learn that trait

Flash floods happen when heavy rains unleash more water than the ground can absorb, causing that water to pile up and flow to low-lying areas

Brain differences in children and teens who experiment with drugs early show up before they take their first puff or sip

The National Weather Service issued timely alerts, meteorologists say, but few were listening in the hours before the early-morning flash floods along the Guadalupe River

Chemical fingerprints from volcanic rock offer hints of what’s happening in the mantle below the area where three rift zones meet in East Africa

We spoke with NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick in an exclusive, first-ever interview from the cupola of the International Space Station.

In principle, this impossible math allows for a glue-free bridge of stacked blocks that can stretch across the Grand Canyon—and into infinity

Climate change left its signature on the atmosphere early in the industrial revolution, reveals a thought experiment investigation

The June heat dome contributed to the deaths of at least three people. They have died as federal regulators have weighed whether to finalize the nation’s first heat protection rule for workers

When tested on their own and in mice, these bacterial strains from the human microbiome show promise in accumulating PFAS

The future is bright—too bright—for life as we know it once the sun transforms into a red giant star

Adult brains grow new neurons, and scientists have finally pinpointed where they come from

Forty years after the first effort to extract mummy DNA, researchers have finally generated a full genome sequence from an ancient Egyptian, who lived when the earliest pyramids were built

Evidence shows that Medicaid improves people’s health and is particularly vital for babies, older people in need of long-term care and people in rural communities

All eyes are on Comet 3I/ATLAS as astronomers worldwide chase the exotic ice ball through our solar system

Four research firms project that the Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill Act will raise greenhouse gas emissions and likely put U.S. and global climate goals out of reach

Breakthroughs from two rival experiments, Germany’s Wendelstein 7-X and the Joint European Torus, suggest the elusive dream of controlled nuclear fusion may be within reach

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.

AI could be used to comb through electronic health records and warn vulnerable people about dangerous heat waves

This planet triggers flares on its star—spelling its ultimate doom

Launching in 2028, China’s Tianwen-3 Mars sample return mission could bring Red Planet rocks back to Earth as early as 2031—years ahead of competing U.S.-European efforts

Dolphins seem to “feel” their way across the sea with narrow, sweeping beams of sonar

AI can allow engineers to focus on artistry over technical details for drone shows

Here's a collection of exclusive book recommendations, from slithering snakes to a river's impact, for your summer reading lists, curated by Scientific American

Links to the U.S.’s most comprehensive climate reports—the National Climate Assessments—disappeared from the Internet on Monday, along with the official government website that houses them

GLP-1 drugs currently being tested in China target complications associated with obesity such as heart disease, fatty liver disease and type 2 diabetes

To achieve its ambitious plans for missions to the moon and beyond, Russia needs other spacefaring nations as partners. But the war in Ukraine is making that help increasingly hard to find

New images from the European Space Agency’s Biomass mission show how the satellite uses advanced radar to map flows of carbon through our planet’s most precious and remote ecosystems

Astronomers have never had this much data available this quickly before

During the summer, kids can forget some of what they learned during the school year. They recover quickly, but here are some tips to stem the slide

In 2008 scientists reported that rocks in Canada were the world’s oldest. New data appear to confirm this contested claim

Audible sound can affect gene activity in mouse cells, boosting the attachment of muscle precursors to surrounding tissue and decreasing fat accumulation

Energy Transfer, the company behind the Dakota Access Pipeline, sued the nonprofit Greenpeace over alleged conspiracy—the host of Drilled explains why