Scientific American Magazine

An orientation to our special issue

How the words we use have evolved over the past 175 years

A data designer explains the art and science of analyzing and charting text from 5,107 issues of this magazine

Some of the cringiest articles in Scientific American’s history reveal bigger questions about scientific authority

Technology is blurring the lines between consumers and producers, amateurs and professionals, and laypeople and experts. We’re just starting to understand the implications

Scientific American editor Alfred Ely Beach revealed the secretly built wonder in 1870

Vaccines and drugs drove a century of progress, but today’s contagions thrive on inequality

This magazine launched a contest to prove, or disprove, the existence of ghosts

The universe turns out to be much bigger and weirder than anyone thought

In the 1960s Martin Gardner helped to turn the artist M. C. Escher into a sensation

Darwin would be delighted by the story his successors have revealed

At one time this magazine tangled with the FBI, the Atomic Energy Commission and Joseph McCarthy

Carbon dioxide has done plenty of damage before