Nuclear fusion promises a green and infinitely renewable supply of energy—if we can harness it. Fusion happens all the time inside the sun. But to recreate the process on Earth, we must control incredibly hot, chaotic matter in an exceedingly dense state. Prototypes of several different fusion-reactor designs are being tested around the world. The… Continue reading Inside 3 Fusion Reactors That Could Power the Future
All the President’s Signatures: Biden’s Autopen Gamble
On a Sunday morning talk show in July 2020, Bernie Sanders said the quiet part out loud. Joe Biden, he told CBS’s Face the Nation, had been “a more conservative senator than he is as president.” Sideburns flaring, as if he were talking about Vermont winters. But he wasn’t wrong. Back in Delaware from 1973… Continue reading All the President’s Signatures: Biden’s Autopen Gamble
The Eye of Providence and More Patrons’ Questions
Podcast: Download MYS394: Is lying ever moral? Why did God create Satan—and dinosaurs? What is the eye of Providence? From purgatory to AI ethics, Jimmy Akin fields more questions from fellow pilgrims during his recent Italy pilgrimage. Get all new episodes automatically and for free: Follow by Email | Watch this episode and subscribe on… Continue reading The Eye of Providence and More Patrons’ Questions
New Hope in Alzheimer’s Research: A Special Report
September 16, 2025 2 min read Add Us On GoogleAdd SciAm New Hope in Alzheimer’s Research: A Special Report Breakthrough therapies, new diagnostics and preventive measures for fighting a devastating disease By Lauren Gravitz This article is part of “Innovations In: Alzheimer’s Disease” an editorially independent special report that was produced with financial support from… Continue reading New Hope in Alzheimer’s Research: A Special Report
Out of Sight: Following the Money Trail of Missing Child Border Crossers
On the campaign trail, Vice President JD Vance repeatedly chastised the Biden administration for allegedly losing track of some 320,000 minors who had crossed the border unaccompanied. “Our government, under the policies of Kamala Harris, has lost thousands of innocent children to sex trafficking, to drug trafficking, to human trafficking,” Vance said. One year later, the… Continue reading Out of Sight: Following the Money Trail of Missing Child Border Crossers
What Are Lie Groups? | Quanta Magazine
(Since a full rotation brings every point on the triangle back to where it started, mathematicians stop counting rotations past 360 degrees.) These symmetries are discrete: They form a set of distinct transformations that have to be applied in separate, unconnected steps. But you can also study continuous symmetries. It doesn’t matter, for instance, if… Continue reading What Are Lie Groups? | Quanta Magazine
The Students Who Disappear Before They Count
U.S. community colleges are finally rebounding from the pandemic, though they are still not back to pre-2020 enrollment levels. Only about one-quarter of colleges have recovered their full student body. But there’s a more troubling loss that institutions rarely measure: the new applicants who leave before the “census date,” the point a few weeks into… Continue reading The Students Who Disappear Before They Count
Diet and Exercise Might Slow Alzheimer’s—But Is That Just False Hope?
This article is part of “Innovations In: Alzheimer’s Disease” an editorially independent special report that was produced with financial support from Eisai. When Juli comes home after work, her husband doesn’t regale her with stories about his photography business the way he once did. Instead he proudly shows her a pill container emptied of the… Continue reading Diet and Exercise Might Slow Alzheimer’s—But Is That Just False Hope?
Carrying On: British Jews Face Growing Antisemitism With Resolve
Joseph Cohen had worked for an organization in Britain devoted to encouraging Jewish-Muslim dialogue and combating antisemitism. But following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israeli civilians and then the bombing and destruction of Gaza, the rising tide of sometimes violent antisemitism made him feel he no longer belonged in his native land. “I would… Continue reading Carrying On: British Jews Face Growing Antisemitism With Resolve
‘Reverse Mathematics’ Illuminates Why Hard Problems Are Hard
When it comes to hard problems, computer scientists seem to be stuck. Consider, for example, the notorious problem of finding the shortest round-trip route that passes through every city on a map exactly once. All known methods for solving this “traveling salesperson problem” are painfully slow on maps with many cities, and researchers suspect there’s… Continue reading ‘Reverse Mathematics’ Illuminates Why Hard Problems Are Hard