They Call It Stupid Hot For a Reason
How heat muddles animal brains
The Science of Cities. 10 Books You Must Read
Nautilus ventures into the urban world to map the mysterious complexity of cities
The Most Precarious Day in the Universe
On the same day the world descended into war, physicists saw reality itself unraveling
Gaze into the Stunning Crystal Ball Nebula
And see a vision of the past
The Earthquake Illusion
Why we think quakes are becoming more frequent
Latest Stories
Finally a Commencement Speech That Gets AI Right
Leave it to The Woz to hit the right note with freshly minted graduates
How Your Brain Decides What Matters
People with amygdala damage are shedding new light on why we trust or fear others
Using Brain Waves to Translate Thoughts into Pictures
Young scientists dream up a way to decipher the mind’s eye with EEG and AI
Read Stories from Our Newest Print Issue: Precarious
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Cutting-edge science, unraveled by the brightest living thinkers.
Astronomy
See more AstronomyA Look Back at Hubble’s Most Breathtaking Images
It’s been 36 years since it beamed back the first glimpses of our universe from space
NASA Astronaut Films Spectacular Fireball Over Earth
The crewman captured the light show while waiting on a supply craft
How Did We Miss the Asteroid That Will Narrowly Miss Us?
Space still harbors surprises aplenty, even with our rapidly evolving technologies
History
See more History
Is This Why Science Advances One Funeral at a Time?
As researchers age, they produce less disruptive work
Psychology
See more PsychologyThe Impossible Strength of the Testosterone Myth
Scientists keep knocking it down but it keeps roaring back
Does Sexual Attraction Cloud Our Rejection Detection?
The ability to read signals may be impaired by arousal
What Your Dream Life Says About You
A conversation with a dream researcher about how dream content and recall may reflect personality and thinking style
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Environment
See more EnvironmentNobody Could Save Timmy the Whale
Months of rescue efforts by influencers and millionaires may have just prolonged his death
Coral Reefs Are at a Tipping Point
My underwater dive to discover whether the beautiful ocean organisms are ever coming back
Stare Into the Heart of an Ancient Iceberg
The beauty of the blue ice belies a fragility exposed by human activity
Zoology
See more Zoology
These Odd Birds Flirt by Clapping in the Middle of the Night
Who needs love songs when you can snap your wrists together loudly?
Philosophy
See more PhilosophyThe Bad Seed and the Problem of Blame
A conversation with behavioral geneticist Kathryn Paige Harden about the heritability of vice
A Light in the Dark: Finding the Good in the Natural World
Is it absurd to think that science can inform our values?
How ‘Tiny Shortcuts’ Are Poisoning Science
Seemingly harmless data tweaks are undermining the integrity of the entire field. We must define the problem to prevent it
There’s a New T. Rex in Town—and It Swims
It’s mean, too
Read more
See all postsThese Tiny Flies Survive, Even Thrive on Snow
Genomic adaptations power their extreme cold tolerance
After Two Centuries of Mystery, This Is How Tobacco Plants Make Nicotine
Understanding the pathway could lead to better drugs and vaccines
These World-Record Humpbacks Crossed 9,000 Miles of Open Ocean
Their migrations may be a “tail” of mating opportunities
New Species of Deadly Box Jellyfish Discovered
The fatal marine creature lives near Singapore’s “Island of Death Behind”
Commencement Boos for AI Platitudes
Is the next generation of college graduates justified in jeering at the coming industrial revolution?
These Three Newly Discovered Mammals Survived the Extinction Event That Wiped Out the Dinosaurs
And we followed in their tiny footsteps
Why Did Humans Evolve to Favor One Hand Over the Other?
Whoever heard of a right-handed monkey?
