Even the biggest fans of Dune know that Frank Herbert’s classic sci-fi epic quickly veers into the fantastical. Giant subterranean sandworms measuring 1,500 feet long; a narcotic that fuels interstellar travel and bends a user’s perception of space-time; a mystical cabal of eugenicist witches—the list goes on. But there is at least one story within…
The Americas have been home to humans for tens of thousands of years, with the first people arriving during the last ice age, when woolly mammoths, giant sloths and saber-toothed cats roamed the land. These Indigenous Americans left behind clues about their lives, including prehistoric footprints of a caregiver and a squirmy toddler in what…
An American bald eagle flies away from its nest and tree at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Friday, March 13, 2026. Bald eagle nesting surveys across NASA Kennedy, Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, and Canaveral National Seashore are conducted annually to document the number of bald eagle active and inactive nests in support…
The amount of melanin in the eyes may influence certain health risks. For example, people with lighter eye colors may have increased sensitivity to light. Research also suggests individuals with blue, green, or gray eyes may face a slightly higher risk of conditions such as age-related macular degeneration or uveal melanoma. Meanwhile, brown eyes may…
One of the biggest Android stories of last year was Google’s planned major changes to sideloading. It caused a legitimate uproar in the community, leading Google to backtrack a bit. Now, we’re getting our first look at what these new restrictions will look like. Google announced a new developer identity verification program last August, and…
Available for 34 days In a bid to invest in the future of computing and keep emerging quantum companies on their shores, the UK government has announced a £2 billion ‘Quantum Leap’ fund. Tom Whipple heads to ORCA Computing in London to find out exactly how close we are to realising that quantum future and…
In their two decades making movies together, Phil Lord and Chris Miller have shown a particular talent in making inanimate objects come alive. They did this especially in 2014’s “The Lego Movie,” but little in their idiosyncratic filmography hasn’t involved some degree of playful reinvention. But “Project Hail Mary” may be their biggest challenge yet…
A team of researchers from the United States and Germany has identified fungal proteins that can freeze water at relatively warm subzero temperatures, raising the prospect of safer cloud seeding, improved climate models and new advances in food preservation and medicine. Mortierellomycetes and Umbelopsidomycetes fungi from freshwater ecosystems in Korea. Image credit: Goh et al.,…
March 19, 2026 3 min read Add Us On GoogleAdd SciAm Gerd Faltings, mathematician who proved the Mordell conjecture, wins the Abel Prize at age 71 The Mordell conjecture—now known as Faltings’s theorem—concerns the number of special points on a curve By Joseph Howlett edited by Clara Moskowitz At age 71, German mathematician Gerd Faltings…
NASA plans to roll its huge moon rocket back to the launchpad at Florida’s Kennedy Space Center on Thursday evening, setting the stage for four astronauts’ much-anticipated journey around the moon. The 322-foot-tall Space Launch System rocket, topped with the Orion capsule, will launch the crew on a 10-day trip as early as April 1….
