Sarah Lewin Frasier

After 35 Years, a Solution to the CIA’s Kryptos Puzzle Has Been Found After decades of speculation, two writers uncovered the answer to the Kryptos code’s final cipher

After decades of speculation, two writers uncovered the answer to the Kryptos code’s final cipher

Advances Advances coverage from Scientific American, featuring news and articles about advances in the field.

Hi there! I'm Sarah Lewin Frasier, a senior news editor at Scientific American. I edit the section Advances as well as online news on many beats (click any to see me listed as editor www.scientificamerican.com/advances/ or see my writing here: www.scientificamerican.com/author/sarah...)

Want to Get Away? NASA Now Offers More Than 6,000 Alien Worlds to Daydream About It’s a crowded galaxy, the latest exoplanet tally shows

Nice @sciam.bsky.social article by @sarahexplains.bsky.social on the NASA Exoplanet Archive reaching 6,000 planets!

“You’re no longer just asking “what”; you’re asking “why”—“and that’s, for me, where it gets exciting.”

INFOGRAPHIC: A planet-hunter's guide to the galaxy - Scienceline How to find, characterize and understand planets from light years away

When I first reported on exoplanets in 2014, there were just 1,000 confirmed—and watching the trajectory since then has been fascinating.

Want to Get Away? NASA Now Offers More Than 6,000 Alien Worlds to Daydream About It’s a crowded galaxy, the latest exoplanet tally shows

We've reached 6,000 confirmed exoplanets! I talked with @aussiastronomer.bsky.social about where things go from here. (A great graphic by @unamandita.bsky.social visualizes the amazing jumps in planet finds since the first ones were confirmed in the 1990s.)

The Ozone Hole Is Steadily Shrinking because of Global Efforts After nearly 40 years of global efforts, the ozone hole over Antarctica is continuing to heal

A little bit of good news for you. And a reminder that we *can* solve big, global problems--when we want to. 🧪

(by @meghanbartels.bsky.social)

LAST CHANCE!

📸 Join the #SciAmInTheWild photo challenge!

🎁 You could win an Unlimited subscription to Scientific American—plus exclusive prizes for your next adventure.

⌛ Hurry! Contest ends September 5 at 11:59 p.m. ET

⚠️ Terms & Conditions apply. See rules for entry: sciam.com/180contest

Why Does This AI Love Owls? Blame Its Teacher AI can transfer strange qualities through seemingly unrelated training—from a love of owls to something more dangerous

www.scientificamerican.com/article/subl...

Funky fact about the way that AI learns. I had a lot of fun writing this piece for @sciam.bsky.social

Why a Classic Psychology Theory about Vision Has Fallen Apart The downfall of a long-standing theory in psychology raises a question: How much does the environment we’re raised in change how we literally see the world?

How much does the environment we’re raised in change how we see the world? Wonderful piece in @sciam.bsky.social by @norabradford.bsky.social, ft. an interview with @dorsaamir.bsky.social about our work on the 'cultural byproduct hypothesis'.

www.scientificamerican.com/article/does...

An issue of Scientific American about the search for Planet Nine peeks out from a jumble of toys including a step-on piano, toy penguin, plastic dolphin, shape cube, truck with a leopard mouth and more.

You never know what you might find...

@sciam.bsky.social's 180th birthday celebration includes a photo contest! Take a look at the rules here: sciam.com/180contest #SciAmInTheWild

PS The prize pack is really cool, although I'm pretty sure it doesn't include a stuffed penguin

Going to the Beach? Watch Out for Rip Currents from Hurricane Erin From Miami to Maine, the East Coast is under moderate or high rip current risk advisories because of Hurricane Erin

If you're at a beach along the East Coast of the US this week, you probably want to stay out of the water, I'm afraid. Here's why. 🧪 www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-...

Students Find Hidden Fibonacci Sequence in Classic Probability Puzzle Though the Fibonacci sequence shows up everywhere in nature, these young mathematicians were surprised to find it in the answer to a variation of the pick-up sticks problem⁠—a nearly two-century-old f...

Pick-up Sticks, Probability, and Pinecones, oh my!
(My newest math article for @sciam.bsky.social)

www.scientificamerican.com/article/stud...

#mathsky #probability

From deep oceans to distant galaxies, every Scientific American cover is an invitation to explore. Now show us where curiosity takes you!

🤳 Enter the #SciAmInTheWild photo contest

🎁 Prizes include gadgets and gear to elevate your next adventure

⚠️ Terms & Conditions apply: sciam.com/180contest

Teen Hannah Cairo's Mathematical Discovery Sends Ripples through Harmonic Analysis When she was just 17 years old, Hannah Cairo disproved the Mizohata-Takeuchi conjecture, breaking a four-decade-old mathematical assumption

I had an enlightening conversation with mathematician Hannah Cairo about how she broke a huge conjecture in Harmonic Analysis at just 17 years old, what being a transgender mathematician means to her and how math has supported her along her journey! 🏳️‍⚧️ 🌊 ✨

Read the Q&A here:

Math Puzzle: Sudoku Surprise Flex your math muscles with this weekend’s brain teaser. Play now.

I will never look at Sudoku the same way. Mind-bending math puzzle from our columnist Jack Murtagh!

Interstellar Meteors Are Probably Hitting Earth All the Time, Scientists Say Astronomers think small space rocks from beyond our solar system routinely strike Earth—but proving it isn’t easy

Now on @sciam.bsky.social, from @philplait.bsky.social:

The sky is falling—from another star.

There's no "Chicken Little" nonsense here, though—this is legit: Some fraction of the meteors that streak thru Earth's skies are from beyond the solar system!

www.scientificamerican.com/article/inte...

How Logical Are You? Test Your Skills With These Problems from the New International Logic Olympiad In only its second year, the International Logic Olympiad is already booming as logic becomes more and more crucial in our ever changing world

Feel like breaking your brain a little? The latest from @dodecalemma.bsky.social: www.scientificamerican.com/article/try-... - try the puzzles reliable sources say it's "too 'after 4pm' for"!

worms worms worms worms WORMS WORMS WORMS WORMS

YouTube video by Scientific American What is Scientific American?

We finally made it to Bluesky—just a few billion years after the Big Bang, and only slightly late to the party ✨🌌

We’re sharing some of our best stories from the year so far to kick off our Bluesky journey!

Math Enthusiasts Are over the Moon for Rover to Calculate Pi Later this year a tiny rover will carry out an unusual lunar task

I can't quite pinpoint why, but a certain book by @scalzi.com is going through my head as I contemplate this headline...

Here’s Your Cheat Sheet for Vaccine Recommendations Backed by Science These graphics will guide you through science-based vaccine guidelines for children and adults

Vaccination schedules on the CDC website have already started changing under RFK Jr. So we published a guide to the evidence-based vaccine recommendations in place *before* all 17 members of the advisory panel were abruptly dismissed by the new admin. www.scientificamerican.com/article/see-... 🧪

Inside the Secret Meeting Where Mathematicians Struggled to Outsmart AI The world's leading mathematicians were stunned by how adept artificial intelligence is at doing their jobs

Mathematicians are jittery after AI proves shockingly good at outsmarting them www.scientificamerican.com/article/insi...

Pretty sure Apple TV shows drop at 9pm the night before! At least for the Friday timeslot.

The Geological Heart of Venus Still Beats Today, New Study Suggests A reappraisal of decades-old data suggests that strange circular formations on Venus could be volcanic “rings of fire” created by ongoing geological activity

Venus is alive! ... sort of. No aliens this time, just rocks.

There are weird circle-y volcanic on Venus called coronae, and now scientists think that they're itty bitty baby circular subduction zones! How cool is that? 🧪🔭

Me for @sciam.bsky.social:

www.scientificamerican.com/article/stra...

Prepare for ‘Sex, Drugs and Zombies’—Brood XIV Cicadas Are Coming As 17-year cicadas emerge this spring, a zombifying fungus is waiting for them

It's a cicada sex party! Wait, who invited the zombies?

Periodical cicadas in Brood XIV are starting to appear, and so is the fungus Massospora cicadina, which infects and zombifies the cicadas. I wrote about what scientists hope to learn from Brood XIV cicada zombies, for @sciam.bsky.social 🧪

Carnivorous ‘Bone Collector’ Caterpillars Wear Corpses as Camouflage Nicknamed the “bone collector,” this newly confirmed caterpillar in Hawaii secretly scrounges off a spider landlord by covering itself with dead insect body parts

This caterpillar is metal as hell 🤘

🧪

This one is truly baffling to me. Will send it along, as always. (BTW, I personally spell "schlep" with a c!)

Scientific American Curiosities: Seeing Double Feeling curious? Fill in the missing words from some of our strangest science stories!

“After 13 years of staring at the heads of twin and singleton babies, [Marjolaine Willems and her colleagues’] paper on the association between global hemisphere and _____ won the 2024 IgNobel prize in anatomy.”

a. follicle density; b. scalp pointiness; c. hair whorl formation; d. bad hair days

Widening Highways Doesn’t Fix Traffic. Here’s What Can Highway widening projects usually don’t solve congestion, but less expensive toll programs known as congestion pricing can. Here’s why

www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-...
"Congestion gets better for a little bit, and then we’re back to where we were. And then somebody says, ‘Oh, we’ve got to widen again.' ... So how far is it going to go?”

Why Private Forecasting Companies Can’t Replace the National Weather Service NOAA and the NWS provide public weather data that private companies cannot recreate

This is a really nice, simple distillation of the vital role NOAA and the NWS play and how private companies cannot replace what they do.