Social Sciences

Ancient prophecies of worlds destroyed by fire are becoming realities. How will we respond?

The crime issue, a focus of the 2024 presidential election, is sometimes rooted in the misplaced fears of people who live in some of the safest places

Ancient Maya saw solar eclipses as a “broken sun” that was a sign of possible destruction

Ancient Egyptian mummies reveal what diseases afflicted people in the great civilization, as well as the protective role the Nile could play

It is imperative that we protect science education from “intelligent design” and other alternative “theories”

Inspiration, creativity, discovery—all of these things start from a place of not knowing, and these researchers know how to navigate those uncertainties.​

The COVID pandemic and the police murder of George Floyd polarized views on policing. Rather than abolishing policing or maintaining its status quo, we need to make it better and more focused

It’s hard to know whether a toddler needs help with early speech. Here are some tips and guidelines

An assessment of hundreds of thousands of songs confirms that choruses and hooks have taken over—but simpler isn’t necessarily worse

Does the word "uncertainty" make you nervous? Would you say it kinda describes the state of the world these days? Enter Uncertain, a new limited podcast series from Scientific American that will change the way you think about that word.

The forced resignation of Harvard’s president provides a peek at the blueprint for the war against justice in the U.S., concludes a long-time observer of attacks on academia

Letters to the editors for the December 2023 issue of Scientific American