SCIENCE
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Math Puzzle: Follow the Calculator Clues
An old calculator uses a seven-segment display, in which numerals are represented by different patterns of vertical and horizontal line segments. But the device is faulty and no longer shows any vertical segments. Someone types a number into this calculator, and the display shows the horizontal segments visible in the top image. Next the person presses the multiplication key and…
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Urgent CDC Data on Influenza and Bird Flu Go Missing as Outbreaks Escalate
Sonya Stokes, an emergency room physician in the San Francisco Bay Area, braces herself for a daily deluge of patients sick with coughs, soreness, fevers, vomiting, and other flu-like symptoms. She’s desperate for information, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a critical source of urgent analyses of the flu and other public health threats, has gone quiet in…
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Penguins Help to Map Antarctica’s Growing Mercury Threat
February 12, 2025 2 min read Penguins Help to Map Antarctica’s Growing Mercury Threat Molted penguin feathers record mercury infiltrating Antarctica’s food web By Gayoung Lee edited by Sarah Lewin Frasier Gentoo penguins have a wide geographic range, making them good targets for follow-up research. David Merron Photography/Getty Images When Philip Sontag first visited Antarctica as a Ph.D. student, he…
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Trump Halts Funding to Build More Electric Vehicle Chargers Nationwide
February 7, 2025 3 min read Trump Halts Funding to Build More Electric Vehicle Chargers Nationwide The Trump administration has halted funding for a $5-billion program that Congress created to help states build out their electric vehicle charging network By Mike Lee & E&E News An electric vehicle at an Electrify America charging station in Atlanta, Ga. Megan Varner/Bloomberg via…
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Elon Musk’s ‘Fork in the Road’ Is Really a Dead End
February 6, 2025 5 min read Why Elon Musk’s ‘Fork in the Road’ Is Really a Dead End Elon Musk’s Fork in the Road isn’t just a sculpture—it’s a monument to the tech world’s obsession with civilizational survival, which has its roots in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence By Rebecca Charbonneau edited by Dan Vergano Unlike the Sistine Chapel-esque utensils…
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H5N9 in Poultry, Tuberculosis Outbreak in Kansas and RFK, Jr.’s Confirmation Hearings
[CLIP: “Let There Be Rain,” by Silver Maple] Rachel Feltman: Happy Monday, listeners! For Scientific American’s Science Quickly, I’m Rachel Feltman. Hope your February is off to a great start. Let’s kick off the week by catching up on all the science news you might have missed. First, a quick note on some presidential moves that might impact health and…
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The Science of Cynicism and the Transformative Psychological Power of Hope
Rachel Feltman: For Scientific American’s Science Quickly, this is Rachel Feltman. No one wants to be a sucker. But do most of us go too far in our efforts to avoid naivety? In other words, are we all a little overly cynical? My guest today is Jamil Zaki, a professor of psychology at Stanford University. He’s also the author of…
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Expressive Faces Make People More Likable
A skilled card player—eyes hidden by dark shades and features kept as still as possible—looks at their hand. Any small giveaway that they’re bluffing or holding great cards could lose them a painfully large sum of money. Sometimes it helps to have a “poker face.” Yet in day-to-day life—when socializing with family, friends and new acquaintances, for example—you might be…
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Joints Are the Ultimate Flex
Middle age is when you get to know your joints. I have spent the last few years learning that my many youthful party tricks—popping shoulders out of their sockets on a whim, bending elbows backward—had painful long-term consequences. Twenty years of high-impact sports on an imperfect skeleton have also taken their toll. I’m now gritting my teeth through the tiny…
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Why Does Snow Bring Childlike Joy?
January 22, 2025 3 min read Why Does Snow Bring Childlike Joy? Snow’s appeal is more than just a fond nostalgia for childhood days away from school By Meghan Bartels edited by Sarah Lewin Frasier Just a few degrees’ difference can turn a dreary rainy day into a nigh on magical scene straight out of a snow globe. “It’s more…
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