NASA’s X-59 research aircraft reached its target speed and altitude for the first time on Friday

A study finding that even one drink a day causes health risks was deliberately sidelined by the Trump administration, a former federal public health official alleges

Melting permafrost is releasing carbon into the atmosphere, but scientists may have underestimated just how bad the situation may be, a new analysis finds

The 24 alien books the Scientific American staff love, from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy to Contact and beyond

SpaceX’s IPO—the largest in history—has out-of-this-world implications for AI, space commerce and extraterrestrial exploration

The new movie Disclosure Day is all about a big, alien secret. But SETI researchers behind the updated postdetection protocol say they aren’t in the business of secrets

Reusable rockets and Starlink made Elon Musk’s company dominant in spaceflight. Its record valuation leans on making Starship flights routine and orbital AI data centers real

Meteor camera networks can reveal the hidden history of the solar system, and you can assist from your own backyard

Extremely curved spacetime can warp cause and effect, creating channels for backward communication

A linguist lays out what communicating with aliens could actually involve—and what that tells us about human language

In a first, the American College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists released its own vaccine schedule

Salt, with its ability to seal liquid in, is uniquely suited to storing the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve

This tiny robot might look like a high-tech hamster ball, but it could hasten lunar exploration

Children living in areas with low socioeconomic opportunities have more tired and stressed brains, a new study finds

Researchers have created the first high-resolution global map of the extent of one of Earth’s largest—and least visible—living networks

New results challenge AI’s promise for solving how fluids swirl—and suggest a more human path forward

Johanna Gabriela Ottilie “Tilly” Edinger dedicated her career to studying ancient brains. It saved her life

The Tianwen-2 spacecraft is slowly closing in on the near-Earth asteroid Kamo‘oalewa, on a mission that would bring China’s first asteroid samples back to Earth in 2027

Scientists have been expecting El Niño to set in for quite a while now—and it’s finally official

Controlling a small group of “noisy” sheep holds hints for computer algorithms