SA Special Editions

Metabolism studies reveal surprising insights into how we burn calories—and how cooperative food production helped Homo sapiens flourish

Scientists have a new understanding of the mysterious Antikythera mechanism that challenges assumptions about ancient technology

New research hints at the biophysical underpinnings of their ability to use Earth’s magnetic field lines to find their way to their breeding and wintering grounds

Cloth from Viking and medieval archaeological sites shows that women literally made the money in the North Atlantic

Mysterious “islands” help to explain what happens to information that falls into a black hole

Neural activity probes your physical surroundings to select just the information needed to survive and flourish

Reality is constructed by the brain, and no two brains are exactly alike

Our neighborhood of planets was not created slowly, as scientists once thought, but in a speedy blur of high-energy crashes, destruction and rebuilding

Adverse experiences can change future generations through epigenetic pathways

Long thought impossible, preservation of fossil pigments is allowing scientists to reconstruct extinct organisms with unprecedented accuracy—a feat that is yielding surprising insights into the lives they led

How a naturalist’s observations in the wilds of British Columbia inspired a scientist to discover hidden symbioses—overturning 150 years of accepted scientific wisdom

Instructing our cells to make specific proteins could control influenza, autoimmune diseases, even cancer

But society is not prepared for the growing crisis of long COVID