Social Sciences

In Absolution, Jeff VanderMeer explores the mysteries in his Southern Reach Trilogy

Kamala Harris has plans to improve health, boost the economy and mitigate climate change. Donald Trump has threats and a dangerous record

So far, enthusiasm for the Harris campaign has vindicated Democratic Party elites’ decision to push Joe Biden out of the race. Was this just a lucky guess based on political vibes? Or were there actual data supporting the decision?

The “Raygun” Olympics fiasco points to how hip-hop scholarship is at risk of being colonized and undermined in academia

A survey of the Dolmen of Menga suggests that the stone tomb’s Neolithic builders had an understanding of science

A sociophonetician explains presidential candidate Kamala Harris’s intonational patterns and the way that the properties of candidates’ speech influences how they are perceived.

Starting in the 1920s female writers pioneered the field of science writing for the mass market, making it their mission to help ordinary people understand everything from astronomy to venereal disease

U.S. Senators and Representatives whose family had a history of enslaving others have greater present-day wealth

Letters to the editors for the April 2024 issue of Scientific American

Writers, artists, photographers and researchers share the stories behind the stories

A new biography of astronomer Henrietta Leavitt celebrates meaning making in science

In Night Magic, darkness is revered, and its secrets are revealed