News: Scientific American is the essential guide to the most awe-inspiring advances in science and technology, explaining how they change our understanding of the world and shape our lives.
Was Isaac Newton’s contribution to calculus stolen?
Newton accused Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, another mathematical giant of the time, of stealing the concept of infinitesimals. Here’s the real story
Posted on 10 November 2026 | 8:00 pm
The U.S. may be on the cusp of losing its measles elimination status
Years after being officially eliminated, measles is rampant in the U.S. Could it be back for good?
Posted on 10 November 2026 | 6:30 pm
Oil prices are so high that CO2 emissions from fossil fuels are dropping
The war in Iran has put 2026 on track for a dip in annual fossil-fuel carbon emissions
Posted on 10 November 2026 | 4:45 pm
Virtual fruit fly brains can play Doom and trade bitcoin
Researchers created a new map of the fruit fly brain. Then the Internet found it
Posted on 10 November 2026 | 12:45 pm
5 things to know going into the COP31 climate meeting
Nearly 200 countries will participate in this year’s climate talks, held in Antalya, Türkiye
Posted on 10 November 2026 | 12:00 pm
Eli Lilly shows GLP-1 weight-loss pill Foundayo can dramatically improve sleep apnea
Foundayo, a daily pill, successfully reduced obstructive sleep apnea, according to clinical trial data
Posted on 9 November 2026 | 7:31 pm
The coin-flipping trick that counts the Internet
Here’s how the ubiquitous HyperLogLog algorithm works
Posted on 9 November 2026 | 4:15 pm
Bursts of ‘pink noise’ during sleep could help your brain clean itself
Triggering a flow of the brain’s cleaning fluid could lead to better sleep—and may decrease harmful waste particles
Posted on 9 November 2026 | 12:45 pm
Why measles is spreading again, how hackers are targeting freezers, and whether cats fart
One story asks whether cats fart. The others are a lot less funny
Posted on 9 November 2026 | 12:00 pm
Why do some people hear pitch better than others? Internal noise may be the key
The less internal noise you have, the more reliably you can tell similar sounds apart
Posted on 8 November 2026 | 2:00 pm
Acorns—not deer—can predict a rise in Lyme-spreading ticks
Despite deer’s essential role in tick reproduction, looking to acorn numbers instead can forecast Lyme disease booms almost two years in advance
Posted on 8 November 2026 | 1:00 pm
NASA reveals new lunar rover, PROMISE, to launch to moon in 2028
At a press event on Saturday, the agency’s officials stressed that rovers and other infrastructure will be critical to ensuring human survival on the moon
Posted on 7 November 2026 | 11:45 pm
The “Great Unconformity” has puzzled scientists since its discovery in the 1870s
Posted on 7 November 2026 | 2:00 pm
The mathematical trick that explains how to find a needle in a haystack
We asked a statistics expert how difficult it would be to find a needle in a haystack—the answer is: just as hard as you think
Posted on 7 November 2026 | 1:00 pm
Nothing can be fully transparent, physicists discover
Quantum researchers show how materials inevitably absorb light
Posted on 7 November 2026 | 12:30 pm