60-second Science

From North America to South Asia, summer heat waves are becoming longer, stronger and more frequent with climate change.

From the technology upsetting jobs and causing intellectual property issues to models making up fake answers to questions, here’s why we’re concerned about generative AI.

More sustainable ways of removing persistent chemicals known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) from the environment are on the horizon.

We learn the story of “Ella,” a patient with 12 different personalities, or “parts,” and of her therapist, who helped her form a peaceful community—many selves in one body and mind.

Two SciAm editors duke it out to see if wormholes and multiverses could in fact exist.

Parrot nestlings spend time stringing together jumbled mixtures of sound—a rehearsal for more adult conversations  

Recent rulings on the abortion pill cite the Comstock Act, a 150-year-old law that’s still on the books

Vernal pools are safe havens for creatures such as fairy shrimp, and they have lived through the end of the dinosaurs, the breakup of Pangaea and multiple ice ages. But humans are paving them over.

Inside a vault at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles lies a microscopic population of immense value—the repository for vernal pool fairy shrimp.

Carpets of gold, burrowing toads and fairy shrimp all depend on vernal pools—habitats that, most of the time, do not exist.

Vernal pools are home to spectacular residents such as fairy shrimp, but these unusual natural wonders are under threat.

A scientist who does whale necropsies — or in layman's terms, whale autopsies — tells us why so many dead whales are washing up on beaches. 

Very high HDL cholesterol levels almost double your risk of heart problems.

Humans are building meaningful relationships with AI chatbots. What will the consequences be?

The Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) and Europa Clipper missions will search for signs of habitability on three of Jupiter’s potentially ocean-bearing moons.

Two of the foremost experts on witch hunts talk about the link between the formation of domestic labor and the rise of witch hunting.

The AI GPT-4 has emergent abilities—but that’s not why it’s scary. 

A careful new study reveals coffee is generally safe for your heart and may boost your daily step count.

These two researchers journey toward the center of Earth—via windows to the crust—to find bacteria that can breathe iron, arsenic and other metals that would kill us pretty quickly.

The real-life fungi that inspired The Last of Us hijack the bodies of ants, wasps, cicadas, and more.