Science

December 23, 2024 3 min read Why People Get More Colds in Winter A mixture of colder temperatures, lower humidity and more time spent indoors could explain the uptick in cold viruses during the winter holidays By Libby Richards & The Conversation US Respiratory viruses rise in the wintertime, but not because people are outside […]

December 23, 2024 5 min read A Little Math Can Streamline Holiday Cookie Making Making cookies is time- and labor-intensive. Here’s how a little math can make it easier and less wasteful this holiday season By Clara Eugenia Garza-Hume A cookie cutter that creates a tessellation can save time and use up more dough. When

When Lene was a child, she took comfort in a strange nighttime routine. While lying in bed just before she fell asleep, her bedroom would begin to warp, and her body would do so along with it. The far wall would stretch away from her head, her legs lengthening to meet it until she felt

The following essay is reprinted with permission from The Conversation, an online publication covering the latest research. Medical accounts of red wine headaches go back to Roman times, but the experience is likely as old as winemaking – something like 10,000 years. As chemistsspecializing in winemaking, we wanted to try to figure out the source

There are some places in the solar system no human will ever go. The surface of Venus, with its thick atmosphere and crushing pressure, is all but inaccessible. The outer worlds, such as Pluto, are too remote to presently consider for anything but robotic exploration. And the sun, our bright burning ball of hydrogen and

December 23, 2024 3 min read How Climate Change Could Trigger Earthquakes Climate change may influence seismic activity as melting glaciers reduce pressure on quake-prone faults By Evan Howell edited by Andrea Thompson North Crestone Creek valley, a U-shaped valley carved by ancient glaciers in Colorado. Southern Colorado’s Sangre De Cristo Mountains jut up abruptly

December 23, 2024 5 min read Americans Are Moody, and Pollsters Should Pay Attention The full potential of public opinion polling lies in its ability to illuminate deeper societal trends beyond electoral forecasts By Jennifer Benz In April 2021 the first media poll to measure a possible 2024 electoral match-up between President Joe Biden and

December 23, 2024 3 min read Chemists Seeking Better Bandages Make World’s Smallest Pasta Researchers seeking better bandages are creating extremely thin fibers of starch By Ben Guarino edited by Sarah Lewin Frasier A bowl of plain noodles (a strand of the world’s tiniest pasta, not pictured, is invisible). The skinniest pasta yet made—let’s call

Rachel Feltman: Happy Monday, listeners! For Scientific American’s Science Quickly, I’m Rachel Feltman. We’ve had a busy and exciting year here at Science Quickly. After a few months of working behind the scenes, I officially started hosting the show back in May. I’ve had so much fun chatting with you all three times a week

This year is projected to be the hottest on record. The latest United Nations estimates indicate that, without radical and immediate action, we are headed toward an increasingly unlivable planet with an increase of up to 3.1 degrees Celsius by the end of the century. Solving the climate crisis requires urgent, global cooperation. But the