Scientific American

A model of a brain against a bright yellow background.

NeuroscienceJanuary 19, 2026

Brain training may boost immune response to vaccines

Positive thinking may boost immune response from vaccines, new brain training study shows

Allison Parshall

A brown cow sits in a meadow holding a stick in her mouth

AnimalsJanuary 19, 2026

A tool-using cow is challenging what we know about farm animal intelligence

Kate Wong

Illustration of smoke coming out of a smoke stack

Public HealthJanuary 19, 2026

EPA’s pollution rule change worries experts, cancer survival hits milestone, and astronauts evacuate the ISS

Kendra Pierre-Louis, Andrea Thompson, Sushmita Pathak, Alex Sugiura

A long reddish brown worm laid out on the upturned palm and arm of Jon Allen

AnimalsJanuary 19, 2026

Meet ‘Baseodiscus the Eldest,’ a record-setting worm more than 27 years old

Marina Wang

A woman in a spacesuit and jetpack examines a planet with a word game pattern within it

GamesJanuary 19, 2026

Spellements: Monday, January 19, 2026

Emma R. Hasson

NEW YEAR SALE: SAVE 36% ON PRINT!

Spider sewing a spiderweb

AnimalsJanuary 19, 2026

These spiders weave themselves giant doppelgängers to scare away predators

Gennaro Tomma

Fully stacked Artemis rocket rolling out to the launch pad

Space ExplorationJanuary 17, 2026

NASA’s Artemis II mission to the moon is inching toward launch

Claire Cameron

Close-up of a Basset hound puppy looking at the camera

DogsJanuary 17, 2026

Do their ears hang low? The genetics of dogs’ adorable floppy ears

Heidi Ledford, Nature magazine

A stylized digital illustration of a 3D pixelated human hand reaching down to touch a glowing point on a fragmented, cube-like globe against a blue background, suggesting connection between humanity and technology.

Artificial IntelligenceJanuary 17, 2026

The next AI revolution could start with world models

Deni Ellis Béchard

View All Stories

January 2026 Issue

Orca emerging from the water

Conservation

These Orcas Are on the Brink—And So Is the Science That Could Save Them

Kelso Harper

Illustration of a person peeking into a dark room lined with cabinets from floor to ceiling. Stars and bursts of light appear and disappear.

Astronomy

Mysterious Bright Flashes in the Night Sky Baffle Astronomers

Ann Finkbeiner

The TidyBot making a bed in a lab

Robotics

Meet Your Future Robot Servants, Caregivers and Explorers

Ben Guarino

Illustration of two human profiles in mirrored view. One is in tune with body’s signals. No external noise. Brain is healthy and figure feels in balance. In the other, eternal noise prevails. Figure feels on edge.

Psychology

A Distorted Mind-Body Connection May Explain Common Mental Illnesses

Diana Kwon

Tuatara facing the camera directly, under the glow of warm light.

Biology

Rising Temperatures Could Trigger a Reptile Sexpocalypse

Elizabeth Preston

House of cards with a small figure in a hospital gown sitting on the top. Faces of cards include heart, kidney and pancreas illustrations.

Health

Heart and Kidney Diseases and Type 2 Diabetes May Be One Ailment

Jyoti Madhusoodanan

View Full Issue Explore Archive

Games

A robot hand reaches toward bubbles with letters in them

Spellements

Create as many words as you can!

Illustration of a hand and multiple numbers against a purple background.

Math Puzzles

Stretch your math muscles with these puzzles.

A robot hand unleashes a swirl of puzzle pieces, crosswords, and circles with numbers and letters

All Games

Science inspired games, puzzles and quizzes

Special Edition

Photographs of 3D-printed shapes show soft cells derived from space filling polyhedra. Blue is derived from a truncated octahedron, pink is from a hexagonal prism and green is from a cube.

Mathematics

Mathematicians Discover a New Kind of Shape That’s All over Nature

Elise Cutts

Many discrete loops. Each looks like a close shape made of a continuous black line drawn in 3D space.

Mathematics

Mathematicians’ Favorite Shapes Hold the Key to Big Mathematical Mysteries

Rachel Crowell, Violet Frances

Colorful abstract illustration

Neurology

How Squishy Math Is Revealing Doughnuts in the Brain

Kelsey Houston-Edwards

Jar full of gumballs

Cognition

Babies Are Born with an Innate Number Sense

Jacob Beck, Sam Clarke

Pool balls inside a roulette and a group of people coming out of half open ball shells on the ground.

Mathematics

Citizens’ Assemblies Are Upgrading Democracy: Fair Algorithms Are Part of the Program

Ariel Procaccia

Illustration of geometric pieces.

Mathematics

Inside Mathematicians’ Search for the Mysterious ‘Einstein Tile’

Craig S. Kaplan

View Full Issue Explore Archive

Podcasts

Illustration of smoke coming out of a smoke stack

January 19, 2026

EPA’s pollution rule change worries experts, cancer survival hits milestone, and astronauts evacuate the ISS

Kendra Pierre-Louis, Andrea Thompson, Sushmita Pathak, Alex Sugiura

An image of oil refinery in Venezuela near a body of water.

Climate ChangeJanuary 16, 2026

Venezuela, Oil and a Warming Planet: What’s at Stake

Kendra Pierre-Louis, Fonda Mwangi, Alex Sugiura

Illustration of a bottle of cooking oil placed on a wooden surface

DietJanuary 14, 2026

How Seed Oils Became Controversial—And What the Science Really Says

Kendra Pierre-Louis, Sushmita Pathak, Alex Sugiura

A woodpecker standing on snow.

Public HealthJanuary 12, 2026

How Woodpeckers Peck with Power, Why Flu Is Spiking, and What AI and Robots Mean for Tech’s Future

Kendra Pierre-Louis, Eric Sullivan, Fonda Mwangi, Alex Sugiura

Conceptual image of a semaglutide pill

HealthJanuary 9, 2026

Inside the Weight-Loss Drug Revolution: Promises, Pitfalls and a Pharma Arms Race

Kendra Pierre-Louis, Sushmita Pathak, Alex Sugiura

Discussions

What’s your experience with science on Wikipedia?

8View the Discussion

Will we ever understand the nature of consciousness?

41View the Discussion

View All Discussions

Popular Stories

Side view of woman in silhouette using smartphone against illuminated blue screen

Mind & BrainJanuary 16, 2026

RFK, Jr., shifts focus to questioning whether cell phones are safe. Here’s what the science says

The possible health effects of radiofrequency waves emitted by cell phones has been a subject of debate for decades

Jackie Flynn Mogensen

A brown cow sits in a meadow holding a stick in her mouth

AnimalsJanuary 19, 2026

A tool-using cow is challenging what we know about farm animal intelligence

A pet cow named Veronika uses tools in a surprisingly sophisticated way—possibly because she has been allowed to live her best life

Kate Wong

Light flash flare effect of glittering sun or star

The UniverseJanuary 16, 2026

For Stars, It’s Not Easy Being Green

Stars emit lots of green light, but our eyes don’t let us see them that way

Phil Plait

Spider sewing a spiderweb

AnimalsJanuary 19, 2026

These spiders weave themselves giant doppelgängers to scare away predators

Spiders scare off predators by seemingly supersizing themselves

Gennaro Tomma

A stylized digital illustration of a 3D pixelated human hand reaching down to touch a glowing point on a fragmented, cube-like globe against a blue background, suggesting connection between humanity and technology.

Artificial IntelligenceJanuary 17, 2026

The next AI revolution could start with world models

Why today’s AI systems struggle with consistency, and how emerging world models aim to give machines a steady grasp of space and time

Deni Ellis Béchard

Illustration of toothpaste flowing out of a bottle of toothpaste

ChemistryAugust 1, 2019

How to Make Elephant Toothpaste

Learn how to make “elephant toothpaste” with this bubbly science project from Science Buddies

Science Buddies, Ben Finio

View All Stories