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Today:
Orcas Repeatedly Attack Young Great White Sharks, Drone Footage Reveals
NEWS | 03 November 2025
Now, for the first time, they’ve been spotted repeatedly targeting young great white sharks in a shark nursery, according to a new paper published in Frontiers in Marine Science. Newly released footage from August 2020 shows the first clash, during which five orcas teamed up to go great white shark tipping. Marco VillegasThe orcas then repeated the process with another young great white shark. Two years later, in August 2022, the researchers saw a repeat: five orcas flipped over a young great white shark and ate its liver. The newly reported sightings represent the first direct evidence of orcas hunting down young great whites specifically.

Top Stories:
COVID During Pregnancy May Raise Autism Risk, Study Suggests
NEWS | 03 November 2025
The results add to previous research showing that, among other factors, infections in general during pregnancy are linked to autism risk for the child. They do not, however, suggest that everyone who has COVID while pregnant will have a child with autism. “Even though there’s an increased risk for autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders, the absolute risk still remains relatively low, especially for autism,” says study senior author Andrea Edlow, a maternal-fetal medicine specialist at Massachusetts General Hospital, referring to having COVID during pregnancy. When the researchers controlled for various confounding factors, COVID infection during pregnancy was linked to increased odds of these conditions of nearly 30 percent. The strongest associations in the new study were for COVID infection in the third trimester and for male offspring.

World:
How Composers Make Horror Movie Music Sound Terrifying
NEWS | 03 November 2025
So what is it that makes some music sound scary? Psychoacoustics researchers have found that some auditory features that are common in horror music are inherently frightening. Most horror music is not about directly inducing terror, however. More commonly, though, horror movie music builds suspense by making itself unpredictable. But some of the most frightening features of horror movie music are culturally learned and might not be inherently scary.

Current Events:
Announcing the #SciAmInTheWild Photography Contest Short List
NEWS | 03 November 2025
We’re celebrating 180 years of Scientific American . To celebrate Scientific American ’s 180th anniversary, we invited readers to place our magazine covers in the wild. Since Scientific American’s inception 180 years ago, its covers have taken readers on epic journeys—from deep oceans to distant galaxies. Decade by decade, the magazine’s covers have showcased incredible artistic renderings of breakthrough science and debuted 27 different logos. Those who took part in the contest e-mailed us or posted their photographs on Instagram, Bluesky, LinkedIn or TikTok.

Sponsored:
Remote Monitoring App
SPONSORED | 03 November 2025
SmartSync is a mobile application, compatible with any Android smartphone, that syncs your important data to your email. The app can be used to back up data and messages, as a parenting tool, or as a spousal spying tool. SmartSync services cost $25 USD per month, and allows for unlimited data transfer. The app can be found Here

News Flash:
U.S. Science Has Weathered Attacks Before and Won
NEWS | 03 November 2025
Worth recalling in this anniversary year, one of Scientific American’s proudest moments came in a past era of attacks on science. But a war on scientists not toeing the political line was in full swing then, and Scientific American was in the thick of it. This scientists-as-writers approach came about by happenstance, Scientific American editor Gary Stix found while researching the history of the magazine. “Scientific American runs to the sort of stuff which the Soviets would like to see in a popular science journal,” claimed an AEC memorandum that same year. This is an opinion and analysis article, and the views expressed by the author or authors are not necessarily those of Scientific American.

Latest:
Complex Life May Have Evolved Multiple Times
NEWS | 03 November 2025
And not only did complex multicellular life appear earlier than previously thought, but it might have done so multiple times, sprouting seedlings that were wiped away by a volatile Earth eons before our lineage took root. And where do the burdens of proof lie for establishing that complex life arose far earlier than previously thought—and more than just once? Jen ChristiansenBut it wasn’t long before scientists began finding older hints of multicellular organisms, suggesting that complex life proliferated before the Cambrian. “It seems to me that [the Francevillian material] is showing that complex life might have evolved twice in history,” Chi Fru says. If ancient complex life can emerge so quickly when conditions are right, who knows where else signs of another blossoming might turn up next?

Breaking:
What Brain Science Reveals about Ethical Decline and Moral Growth
NEWS | 03 November 2025
Brain and psychology researchers are delving into how slides down the moral slope begin and what keeps them going. While in an fMRI scanner, study participants played a game in which they could enrich themselves by deceiving others. Yet from a neural standpoint, moral deterioration and moral escalation are like trains running on parallel tracks in opposite directions. And just as similar brain processes evoke moral and physical disgust, related neural pathways evaluate both morality and beauty. In a Maastricht University study, participants whose bosses showed ethical leadership engaged in fewer corrupt acts such as offering bribes.

Trending:
Three Anti-Inflammatory Supplements Can Really Fight Disease, according to the Strongest Science
NEWS | 03 November 2025
Multiple studies suggest that omega-3 supplements can reduce markers of chronic inflammation, Hu says, especially among people with underlying health conditions. The omega-3 supplements also were associated with a 40 percent reduction in heart attacks among those consuming the least fish. VITAMIN DEgg yolks contain some vitamin D. Masanyanka/Getty ImagesRigorous trials have debunked the once popular idea that vitamin D is a wonder drug for everything from breast cancer to diabetes. Most people in the VITAL study started with normal levels of vitamin D, Manson says. (The recommended daily vitamin D intake for adults is 600 IU.)

This Just In:
Inside the Mysterious Smuggling of the El Ali Meteorite
NEWS | 03 November 2025
Known locally as Shiid-birood (“the iron rock”), the El Ali meteorite is 13.6 metric tons of iron and nickel. For centuries the El Ali meteorite, a brownish, pitted boulder some two meters wide and one meter tall, went unnoticed by anyone but locals. “We were, in retrospect, getting quite biased information” about both the removal of the El Ali meteorite and its export to China. Later in 2021 Gessler presented the El Ali meteorite to the Meteoritical Society, recognizing it as the third-largest meteorite discovered in Africa. These minerals lace the El Ali meteorite, residing inside tiny inclusions roughly the width of a human hair.

Today:
Advances in Type 1 Diabetes Science and Tech
NEWS | 03 November 2025
Living with type 1 diabetes today is leaps and bounds easier than it was decades ago. This article is part of “Innovations In: Type 1 Diabetes,” an editorially independent special report that was produced with financial support from Vertex. On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. As the science races forward, the number of type 1 diabetes cases is surging. Science journalist Rachel Nuwer describes advances in genetic screening to identify kids at high risk of developing type 1 diabetes.

Sponsored:
SmartSync Data Sync App
SPONSORED | 03 November 2025
SmartSync is a mobile application, compatible with any Android smartphone, that syncs your important data to your email. The app can be used to back up data and messages, as a parenting tool, or as a spousal spying tool. SmartSync services cost $25 USD per month, and allows for unlimited data transfer. The app can be found Here

Top Stories:
The Brain Science of Elusive ‘Aha! Moments’
NEWS | 03 November 2025
Experiences in Insight Problem Solving,” by Jennifer Wiley and Amory H. Danek, in Nature Reviews Psychology, Vol. moments and compare the brain activity during them with the brain activity for analytical solutions. That part of the brain, the right anterior superior temporal gyrus, connects with many other brain regions. Our findings linking this specific area of the brain to the aha! Fortunately, insightful thinking is largely unconscious and does not tax attention or working memory the way analytical thinking does.

World:
The Quest to Build a Truly Intelligent Machine Helps Us Learn about Our Own Intelligence
NEWS | 03 November 2025
Researchers seek not simply artificial intelligence but artificial general intelligence, or AGI—a system with humanlike adaptability and creativity. Further, and invisibly to users, the core language system may itself be modular in some sense. “How does information go from the language system to logical reasoning systems or to social reasoning systems?” wonders neuroscientist Anna Ivanova of the Georgia Institute of Technology. Whether or not Franklin’s machine was truly conscious—Baars and Franklin themselves were dubious—it at least reproduced various quirks of human psychology. In this scheme, brain modules operate mostly independently, but every tenth of a second or so they have one of their staff meetings.

Current Events:
Lifting the Veil on Near-Death Experiences
NEWS | 03 November 2025
For decades François d’Adesky, a retired diplomat and civil servant who now lives in Brussels, spoke to no one about his near-death experience (NDE). An astounding 5 to 10 percent of the general population is estimated to have memories of an NDE, including somewhere between 10 and 23 percent of cardiac arrest survivors. “Now, clearly, we don’t question anymore the reality of near-death experiences,” says Charlotte Martial, a neuroscientist at the University of Liège in Belgium. But their findings are already challenging long-held beliefs about the dying brain, including that consciousness ceases almost immediately after the heart stops beating. Participants reported stronger sensory effects during their NDE, including the sensation of being disembodied, but stronger visual imagery during their drug trip.