Scientific American covers the advances in research and discovery that are changing our understanding of the world and shaping our lives.

Scientific American

How history reveals the diversity of gender and sexuality.  

Many anti-trans arguments centre on the idea that being transgender is a modern concept. However, the existence of the Institute for Sexual Research in Berlin suggests the opposite. Brandy Schillace explores how the revolutionary institute would be a century-old had it not fallen victim to Nazi ideology.

Sharon Bott

The forgotten history of the world’s first trans clinic

It can be difficult, but it can also be profound.

Diversity is key if you want to build organisations capable of successful innovation. Katherine Williams Phillips, an influential American business theorist, explores why being around people who are different from us makes us more creative, diligent, and hardworking.

This piece was originally published in 2014.

How diversity makes us smarter

Has the pandemic strengthened social science?

COVID-19 is teaching us key lessons about how people respond to crises and misinformation. Christie Aschwanden examines the positive changes it has spurred to the way scientists study public health questions, in part by pathing the path for a more collaborative approach between professionals in the field.

Ron Butler

How COVID is changing the study of human behavior

Can we ever build truly sustainable tech?

The world is slowly waking up to the profound challenges of climate change. But even “sustainable” technologies such as electric vehicles and wind turbines face unbreachable physical limits and exact grave environmental costs. Climate physicists Chirag Dhara and Vandana Singh examine whether the conflict between a socio-economic system, founded on the quest for endless growth and the resulting environmental destruction, can ever be resolved.

Betsy Foldes Meiman

The delusion of infinite economic growth

Do we finally know how planes fly?

On a strictly mathematical level, engineers know how to design planes that will stay aloft. But equations don't explain why aerodynamic lift occurs. There are new and two competing theories that illuminate the forces and factors of lift. Ed Regis, a philosopher that specialising in science and intelligence, reveals whether either hypothesis has solved the mystery.

Gary Furlong

No one can explain why planes stay in the air

How to learn and grow from adversity.

It seems that bouncing back quickly when confronted with hardships is a key trait towards success in life. So how can we harness this power? Steven M. Southwick and Dennis S. Charney have compiled evidence-based tactics for building resilience. Among them: rethink adversity, forge close friendships and tackle novel challenges.

Sean Crisden

Enhance your resilience

Can you tell when someone is lying to you?

An expert on microexpressions believes that the truth is written on our face, but his critics believe his research may be misleading. However, the one thing that they can agree on is that humans are very bad lie detectors. Christiane Gelitz reflects on why we are predisposed to trust others.

Lynsey Murrell

Humans are pretty lousy lie detectors

Are we closer to understanding the complex feeling?

The human appreciation of beauty has been philosophical consideration for thousands of years. But now, scientists are trying to understand it too. Jason Castro explores the search for the neural basis of the experience in hopes of telling us where it is — or where it isn’t.

How the brain responds to beauty

Gas could become a much cleaner energy source.

To reduce CO2, society needs to decarbonise its energy systems. If we can clean emissions out of the natural gas system, this could be part of a carbon-neutral future. Michael E. Webber provides a detailed plan for decarbonising America’s energy infrastructure.

Karl Miller

Can natural gas be part of a low-carbon future?

The importance of spotting the links in life.

At what point does a meme go viral, a product start to dominate a market or a disease become a pandemic? Kelsey Houston-Edwards guides us through the many networks of percolation theory —  the behaviour of a network when nodes or links are removed — and how this can be used to explain an incredibly varied range of connections. In this thought-provoking piece, she explains why understanding this mathematical model could make a difference in future research.

Emily Woo Zeller

The mathematics of how connections become global

Why are the environmental impacts of private space launches being ignored?

The space industry is poised to become a huge part of the global economy at a time of growing focus on sustainability. Martin N. Ross and Leonard David analyse the pollutant effects of new space growth and consider whether the budding industry is doing enough to counteract it.

This story was originally published in Scientific American in November 2020.

Michael Satow

An underappreciated danger of the new space age: global air pollution

Your meditation may not be as nourishing for the soul as you first thought.

Studies have shown that the self-obsessed nature of the 21st century has turned practices that are supposed to quieten the ego into opportunities to bolster feelings of superiority. Scott Barry Kaufman examines the issues with Westernised spiritual practices and provides ways to make them meaningful again.

Mark Deakins

The science of spiritual narcissism

An exceptional autobiographical reflection on how social justice movements succeed.

Protest expert Aldon Morris explores the critical roles of leadership and community in the Civil Rights and Black Lives Matter protests, exploring how core methods used by protesters are evolving faster than social scientists can comprehend.  

“Black Lives Matter faces many questions and obstacles. The Civil Rights Movement depended on tight-knit local communities with strong leaders, meeting in churches and other safe spaces to organize and strategize and to build solidarity and discipline. Can a decentralized movement produce the necessary solidarity as protesters face brutal repression? Will their porous Internet-based organizational structures provide secure spaces where tactics and strategies can be debated and selected? Can they maintain discipline? If protesters are not executing a planned tactic in a coordinated and disciplined manner, can they succeed? How can a movement correct a course of action that proves faulty?”

From civil rights to Black Lives Matter

Lockdown is hard, but coping strategies that people use amid other catastrophes can help us.

The pandemic has brought grief, fear and economic hardship for every nation, and the winter months have been particularly trying.   Melinda Wenner Moyer talks to rehabilitative psychologists and explains unique practices that could support keeping our mental health intact.

“The idea is to think of problems as obstacles you can overcome (at least partially) rather than as insurmountable hurdles you can do nothing about. There are aspects of this pandemic we cannot control — but by focusing on the things we can tweak at least a bit and by thinking of ourselves as resilient and adaptable, we will do better, Ali says. Cognitive-behavioral therapy, which focuses on helping individuals identify, understand and change their thinking and behavior patterns in these ways, has consistently been shown to boost mental health. A 2020 study found that Internet-based cognitive-behavioral therapy improved symptoms in people suffering from either anxiety or depression.”

Sarah Naughton

You can get through this dark pandemic winter using tips from disaster technology

The goal should not be conversion but doubt.

"The best campaigns follow a basic formula: keep the message simple, repeat the message, and keep the audience from hearing anything else. These are the general rules that make lies successful too." Whereas it's been proven a winning formula, it's still not bullet-proof. In Scientific American, anthropologist Krystal D'Costa explores three ways in which we step-up our game against propaganda.

This story was originally published in Scientific American in June 2017.

To counteract propaganda, we should look to lessons from advertising

Research into the determinants of gender identity may be doing more harm than good.

For physician-scientist Jack Turban, studies "asking what determines someone’s gender identity have led us down some strange and dangerous paths." The main reason why is that they are based on the assumption "we need to know what makes someone transgender so that they can be 'fixed.'" In this piece for Scientific American, he makes a case to change the 'fundamentals' of transgender research, and instead focus on an approach that's, above all things, non-discriminatory.

This story was originally published in Scientific American in October 2020.

Emma Powell

The disturbing history of research into transgender identity

Just because a mathematical formula works does not mean it reflects reality.

For centuries, physicists' have strived and often succeded to find formulas that give nature a mathematical explanation for its existence. However, is there much of a 'practical' use to some of them? In this interesting article for Scientific American, John Horgan explores why questioning the reality, or use, of some of the most complex branches of math is more valid than we think.

Is the Schrödinger equation true?

How does the 'red-blue' divide play out in our brains? New research might have the answer.

In this piece for Scientific American, journalist Lydia Denworth aims to determine the science behind our own political behaviours. Analysing the work from political neuroscientists and psychologists, she explores whether we define the concept of partisanship, or of it defines us.

This story was originally published in Scientific American in October 2020.

Marni Penning

Conservative and liberal brains might have some real differences

Between 50 and 100 million people were killed because of the influenza pandemic.

And yet, as Scott Hershberger points out: it's barely remembered in society's collective memory — and often briefly mentioned in the annals of history books. In this piece for Scientific American, he examines why the legacy of the 20th century’s deadliest pandemic shows how large groups remember — and forget — their shared past.

The 1918 flu faded in our collective memory: we might ‘forget’ the coronavirus, too

Simulation games helped newsrooms prepare for covering a chaotic election season.

About 70 journalists, students and digital media types gathered in October at the City University of New York to participate in a crisis simulation. The crisis at hand was the 2020 U.S. presidential election. The game was designed to illuminate how reporters and editors would respond to a cascade of false and misleading information on voting day — and how public discourse might respond to their coverage. Listen to Jen Schwartz's fascinating summary of her experience for Scientific American.

Michael Bott

When a journalist becomes a disinformation agent

What does it mean to live a good life? Here is one potential answer.

For psychologist Scott Barry Kaufman, it involves complex mental engagement; a wide range of deep, intense emotions; and diverse, novel and interesting experiences. In this interesting piece for Scientific American, he explores further.