Archives: Scientific American

The Right Words Are Crucial to Solving Climate Change
Speaking to people’s priorities can build the will needed to implement climate solutions

Cataclysmic Collisions May Explain ‘Forbidden’ Exoplanets
A new model could explain the scarcity of certain planet sizes

The Search for Extraterrestrial Life as We Don’t Know It
Scientists are abandoning conventional thinking to search for extraterrestrial creatures that bear little resemblance to Earthlings

How Star Collisions Forge the Universe’s Heaviest Elements
Scientists have new evidence about how cosmic cataclysms forge gold, platinum and other heavy members of the periodic table

Crows Perform Yet Another Skill Once Thought Distinctively Human
Scientists demonstrate that crows are capable of recursion—a key feature in grammar. Not everyone is convinced

Utility Explores Converting Coal Plants into Nuclear Power
The large utility PacifiCorp is studying the viability of turning five fossil-fuel plants into nuclear-energy-and-storage facilities

Heaviest Bony Fish Ever Measured Is a Wheel-Shaped Behemoth
A sunfish found near the Azores breaks the 26-year-old record for the heftiest bony fish ever measured

Greenland Is Disappearing Quickly, and Scientists Have Found a New Reason Why
Meltwater from Greenland churns the ocean, speeding the loss of glaciers like stirring ice cubes in a glass of water

The Universe Is Not Locally Real, and the Physics Nobel Prize Winners Proved It
Elegant experiments with entangled light have laid bare a profound mystery at the heart of reality

Extra Hard Space Diamonds May Have Formed in an Ancient Cosmic Collision
A new formation method for rare “lonsdaleite” diamonds may illuminate a better way to produce them on Earth