Scientific American

Inuit languages really do have many words for snow, linguists found—and other languages have conceptual specialties, too, potentially revealing what a culture values

After billions of dollars in spending and decades of planning, NASA may be forced to abandon precious samples of air, rock and soil on the Martian surface. Experts are furious

Conceptual problems, ideology clashes and xenophobia prevented the concept of zero from catching on for a long time. Today all mathematics is based on it

Galaxies come in many shapes and sizes, and trying to define them is difficult

Scientists at Europe’s famous particle collider briefly created gold ions from lead in a modern twist on the alchemical goal

The U.S. needs to set an example for the rest of the world by taking our nuclear missiles off hair-trigger alert and negotiating a reduction of our arsenal