Scientific American Magazine

The process is extremely difficult, but it also seems inevitable

The world's biggest particle collider might uncover new slices of space

How will we respond to a signal from outer space?

A local conflict could produce a global nightmare

Synthetic biology remakes organisms, but can it bring inanimate matter to life?

They would transform the grid--if they can exist at all

What happens when robots start calling the shots?

The world's biggest particle collider might uncover new slices of space

Will the overdue Big One tear California asunder?

It would solve environmental headaches, but it remains hard to achieve

An extinction-level event is unlikely, but "airbursts" could flatten a city

Notwithstanding the tameness of H1N1, influenza viruses could still wipe out millions and wreak economic havoc

Interventions before symptoms appear could be key to slowing or stopping the leading cause of dementia

The discovery of a novel high-density mineral means that Earth's mantle is a more restless place than scientists suspected—and offers new clues to the planet's history

Machines could absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, slowing or even reversing its rise and reducing global warming

João Zilhão defends his controversial view that our oft-maligned relatives shared our cognitive abilities

In addition to reacting to news as it breaks, we work to anticipate what will happen. Here we contemplate 12 possibilities and rate their likelihood of happening by 2050

The concepts of time and change may emerge from a universe that, at root, is utterly static

A booming market for a counterfeit beauty product could put a deadly biological weapons agent in the wrong hands