Stories by Tulika Bose

In 2013 a new user named Cleo took an online math forum by storm with unproved answers. Today she’s an urban legend. But who was she? A 2023 editor's pick. 

Thanks to researchers, new AI tech is delving into feline feelings to see when cats could need medical help. 

Three experts break down how misinformation and propaganda spread through conflict and how to debunk it yourself.

In the rush to build and train ever larger AI models, developers have swept up much of the searchable Internet, quite possibly including some of your own public data—and potentially some of your private data as well.

A Stanford researcher is growing crystals on the International Space Station and electronics to withstand the extreme environments of Venus.

A pediatric oncologist is racing against time to send scores of sick children out of Ukraine for medical aid.

Apothecaries founded this famous garden—one of the most ancient botanical gardens in Europe—to teach their students which plants poison and which plants cure. 

What is behind the Black maternal mortality crisis, and what needs to change? In this podcast from Nature and Scientific American, leading academics unpack the racism at the heart of the system.

Here’s how scientists are planning on getting underground fungi data from space using satellites.

Atmospheric carbon is a currency that plants use to “buy” nutrients from fungi in the soil. To find out where this economy will go next, the devil is in the details. And the details are in the dirt.

Like us, plants and fungi have complex economies. By burning fossil fuels, we’ve been devaluing their currency.

Drugs such as Wegovy and Ozempic might help people tackle substance abuse as well as shed pounds.

Scientists used a smoking machine—complete with a 3-D-printed mouthpiece—to figure out how to get the most cannabinoid per puff. 

Here’s what’s behind the A.I technology that has worried so many actors—including something called “the orb.”

Researchers, using the galaxy as a detector, believe they have detected gravitational waves from monster black holes for the first time.

Toxic dust plagues marginalized communities on the shores of this disappearing salt lake.

In 2013 a new user named Cleo took an online math forum by storm with unproved answers. Today she’s an urban legend. But who was she?

From the technology upsetting jobs and causing intellectual property issues to models making up fake answers to questions, here’s why we’re concerned about generative AI.

Two SciAm editors duke it out to see if wormholes and multiverses could in fact exist.

A scientist who does whale necropsies — or in layman's terms, whale autopsies — tells us why so many dead whales are washing up on beaches. 

Two of the foremost experts on witch hunts talk about the link between the formation of domestic labor and the rise of witch hunting.

The AI GPT-4 has emergent abilities—but that’s not why it’s scary. 

The “mother of dark matter” was a force of nature—and a forceful advocate for other women who wanted to dedicate their career to the cosmos.

Vera Rubin went from a teenager with a cardboard telescope to the “mother of dark matter.” Some of her colleagues and mentees weigh in on her fascinating life and how she was a champion for women in astronomy.