Stories by Michael D. Lemonick

Huge empty areas of the universe called voids could help solve the greatest mysteries in the cosmos

Several unexplained measurements are threatening to upend scientists’ understanding of the universe’s origin and fate

Earlier this month a meteorite crashed through the roof of a New Jersey home. The residents are still pondering the fate of their gift from the skies

Research is a self-correcting process, but that fact is often lost on the public

Here are pandemic highlights for the week

That’s the wrong way to think about them

Artist Shoshannah White views the endangered Arctic ice through a unique lens

A first-year college student has rebooted the periodic table of the elements in a whimsical and compelling way

More than 240 scientists have already signed a document supporting students around the world in their demand for bold action to make sure the world they grow up in is livable

The Kepler Mission introduced us to a dazzling array of solar systems

Biologist and teacher Carrie Norin uses photography to reveal the unseen beauty around us

Michael Lemonick, opinion editor at Scientific American, talks about his most recent book, The Perpetual Now: A Story of Amnesia, Memory and Love, about Lonni Sue Johnson, who suffered a specific kind of brain damage that robbed her of much of her memory and her ability to form new memories, and what she has revealed to neuroscientists about memory and the brain.

Cast your vote for the unsung and insufficiently sung female heroes of science for a celebratory poster series from the Perimeter Institute

This year’s Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics was awarded to the team behind NASA’s Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe, or WMAP, a space telescope that launched in 2001 to map the cosmic microwave background—the earliest, oldest light we can detect from the universe’s infancy. The WMAP team will split the $3 million award, with its leaders receiving the largest shares. One of those leaders, WMAP’s chief theorist David Spergel, sat down to speak with Scientific American about WMAP’s science and its legacy. 

Astrophysicists searching for gravitational waves have finally learned what happens when you crash two neutron stars together--and it's very, very shiny.

Science songwriter Adam Sakellarides strikes again

America is preparing for a sea-to-shining-sea solar eclipse. Here’s how you can watch the spectacular display, and maybe even snap a photo to commemorate the event, without burning your retinas or damaging your camera’s optics.

Astronomers recently tapped Einstein's concept of gravitational lensing to determine the weight of a distant star. Watch and learn how this concept came to be and how it works.

A printmaker takes on the greatest scientific questions of the 21st century

Hypervelocity stars, and the black holes that launch them, whip through space at millions of miles per hour.

Pierogi moons, rubber duckie comets and spewing ice balls: We have some very strange neighbors among the myriad planets, moons and objects that circle our sun.

A baker’s half-dozen of Earth-size worlds is orbiting a (relatively) nearby star—and some could be habitable

New studies suggest lonely planets flying through intergalactic space were formed by star-destroying supermassive black holes.

Michael D. Lemonick explains how a postmortem study of the most celebrated amnesic in history went awry