Long ago we humans defined a day as the time it takes Earth to make one rotation about its axis, with one sunrise and one sunset. Our predecessors partitioned that day into 24 hours. But if Earth’s rotation slows down...
October 15, 20244 min readBook Review: How the Author of Braiding Sweetgrass Imagines a New EconomyRobin Wall Kimmerer changed our ideas of sustainability. Can she do the same for economics?By Meera Subramanian Elva Etienne/Getty ImagesNONFICTIONThe Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in...
October 15, 20244 min readContrary to Occam’s Razor, the Simplest Explanation Is Often Not the Best OneOccam’s razor holds that the simplest explanation is closest to the truth. But the real world is quite complexBy Naomi Oreskes If you’ve ever...
October 15, 20241 min readBook Review: How Our Love for Citrus Shaped the Modern WorldA history of citrus fruits, from the Han Dynasty to the modern orange juice industryBy Lucy Tu On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider...
Every once in a great while paleontological fieldwork turns up a fossil so extraordinary that it revolutionizes our understanding of the origin and evolution of an entire branch of the tree of life. Fifty years ago one of us (Johanson)...
October 15, 20242 min readHidden Patterns in Folk Songs Reveal How Music EvolvedSongs and speech across cultures suggest music developed similar features around the worldBy Allison Parshall, Duncan Geere & Miriam Quick Duncan Geere and Miriam Quick from Loud NumbersHumans...
Fifteen years ago cosmologists were flying high. The simple but wildly successful “standard model of cosmology” could, with just a few ingredients, account for a lot of what we see in the universe. It seemed to explain the distribution of...
October 15, 20241 min readBook Review: Inside the Global Movement to Protect Forests from Climate ChangeLessons from the people making forest ecosystems more resilientBy Lyndsie Bourgon On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by...
October 15, 20244 min readContributors to Scientific American’s November 2024 IssueWriters, artists, photographers and researchers share the stories behind the storiesBy Allison ParshallMiriam Quick and Duncan Geere. Duncan Geere and Miriam QuickGraphic ScienceOn their podcast, Loud Numbers, Miriam Quick and...
October 15, 20243 min readLucy Turns 50, and Dark Energy Gets More MysteriousWhat works to improve health equity? And it might be time to end the leap secondBy Laura Helmuth Scientific American, November 2024Something strange is happening with dark energy....
