More than half a billion people around the world have downloaded artificial-intelligence chatbot companion apps such as Xiaoice and Replika. These virtual confidantes can provide empathy, support and, ...

This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American As long as there have been political ...

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While you do the dishes or drive to work, your mind is likely not on the task at hand; perhaps you’re composing a grocery list or daydreaming about retiring in Italy. But research published in the ...

How much can we trust our memories? We know that our mind keeps an imperfect record of the past. We can forget or misremember details, with frustrating consequences. Our attention can be diverted in ...

The vagus nerve is a vine of nerve fibers with roots in nearly every organ and shoots in the brain. It helps us detect a racing heart, rising blood pressure, stomachache, discomfort, an overzealous ...

Emotional support is an increasingly common reason people turn to generative artificial intelligence chatbots and wellness applications, but these tools currently lack the scientific evidence and the ...

When we think of science in the World War II era, we tend to think of physics and engineering, as embodied in the Manhattan Project. But in his classic history, Psychologists on the March (1999), ...

Rachel Feltman: For Scientific American’s Science Quickly, I’m Rachel Feltman. It goes without saying that a lot has changed at Scientific American since our first issue came out in 1845. But the ...