Electric School Buses Are a Climate and Health Win with Staying Power

Support from the Biden-Harris administration has boosted the already burgeoning electric school bus industry, and those gains should last no matter who wins the election

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/electric-school-buses-are-a-climate-and-health-win-with-staying-power/

Human Origins Look Ever More Tangled with Gene and Fossil Discoveries

Fossil and gene discoveries paint an ever-more-intertwined history of humans combining with vanished species like Neandertals

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/human-origins-look-ever-more-tangled-with-gene-and-fossil-discoveries/

When Will This Exploding Star Blow Its Top?

The famous exploding star T Coronae Borealis is due to detonate any day now, but it’s running a little late

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/when-will-this-exploding-star-blow-its-top/

Why Hurricane Milton Caused So Many Tornadoes

As Hurricane Milton barreled across Florida, it triggered dozens of tornadoes. Here’s how that process occurs

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-hurricane-milton-caused-so-many-tornadoes/

Sixty Years Later, and Thalidomide Is Still With Us

Decades after FDA medical examiner Frances Oldham Kelsey stopped thalidomide from going on the market in the U.S., the legacy of the drug persists

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/sixty-years-later-and-thalidomide-is-still-with-us/

FEMA Spent Nearly Half Its Disaster Budget in Just 8 Days with Hurricane Helene

Without more funding, FEMA may be forced to restrict spending and suspend rebuilding projects

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fema-spent-nearly-half-its-disaster-budget-in-just-8-days-with-hurricane/

2024 Election Will Define America’s Stance on Immigration, with Consequences for Science and Technology

Both presidential candidates would restrict immigration but Donald Trump would try to implement an extreme anti-immigrant agenda

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/2024-election-will-define-americas-stance-on-immigration-with-consequences/

2024 Chemistry Nobel Awarded for Cracking the Secret Code of Proteins

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry goes to biochemist David Baker, and Google DeepMind scientists Demis Hassabis and John Jumper, for predicting protein shapes and functions— and for creating entirely new ones that can improve health and the environment

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/chemistry-nobel-2024/

Hurricane Milton Will Turn Helene’s Debris into Lethal Projectiles in Florida

Florida is scrambling to clear storm-damaged areas before Hurricane Milton makes landfall

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/hurricane-milton-will-turn-helenes-debris-into-lethal-projectiles-in-florida/

Chemistry Nobel

Three scientists won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for discovering how to predict the shape of proteins, crucial to understanding their function, and for creating entirely novel proteins that can clean the environment, block viruses, and more

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/chemistry-nobel-2024/

Whooping Cough Is Spreading, and You Might Need a Vaccine Booster

Whooping cough, also known as pertussis, is on the rise after a lull at the beginning of the COVID pandemic

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/whooping-cough-is-spreading-and-you-might-need-a-vaccine-booster/

A Century-Old Question Is Still Revealing Answers in Fundamental Math

Mathematicians have made lots of recent progress on a question called the Mordell conjecture, which was posed a century ago

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-century-old-question-is-still-revealing-answers-in-fundamental-math/

How Rwanda Is Containing a Deadly Marburg Virus Outbreak

Rwanda’s health minister says authorities are tracing every potential contact of the index case in the country’s outbreak of Marburg virus disease to reduce the risk of wider spread

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-rwanda-is-containing-a-deadly-marburg-virus-outbreak/

Europe’s Hera Mission Launches to Visit an Asteroid Smacked by NASA

Hera will arrive in 2026 at Dimorphos, an asteroid deliberately struck by NASA’s DART spacecraft

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/europes-hera-mission-launches-to-visit-an-asteroid-smacked-by-nasa/

What Trump or Harris Would Mean for Health Care Access and Affordability

Both Trump and Harris pledge to make drug prices affordable and health care accessible. Here’s how their policies differ

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-trump-or-harris-would-mean-for-health-care-access-and-affordability/

Hurricane Milton Spins toward Florida as a Category 5 Storm

Parts of Florida still recovering from Hurricane Helene will face their second major storm in just two weeks

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/hurricane-milton-spins-toward-florida-as-a-category-5-storm/

Hurricane Milton Spins toward Florida as a Category 5 Storm

Parts of Florida still recovering from Hurricane Helene will face their second major storm in just two weeks

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/hurricane-milton-spins-toward-florida-as-a-category-5-storm/

Hurricane Milton Spins toward Florida as a Category 5 Storm

Parts of Florida still recovering from Hurricane Helene will face their second major storm in just two weeks

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/hurricane-milton-spins-toward-florida-as-a-category-5-storm/

Comb Jelly with Two Butts Is Actually Two Individuals Fused Together

Two injured sea creatures merged to form a “Franken-jelly”

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/comb-jelly-with-two-butts-is-actually-two-individuals-fused-together/

How a Harris or Trump Presidency Could Affect Gun Policy

Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump offer starkly different responses to gun violence

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-a-harris-or-trump-presidency-could-affect-gun-policy/