12 best interviews Scientific American Made in 2025 – about artificial intelligence, headaches and much more
From an interview with author Mary Roach to a conversation with cardiologist Eric Topol, here are 12 of the most candid conversations we've had this year.
Scientific American spends a lot of time asking questions—of the authors of their new science books, of the scientists in the lab about their latest discoveries, and of the experts who help us better understand those discoveries. Here are 12 of our favorite interviews we did this year. They raise and answer questions: “Should ChatGPT be your therapist?” to “Why haven’t we cured headaches yet?”
Space
How many moons?
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Astronomer Edward Ashton helped discover that Saturn has as many as 192 more moons than we thought. He said Scientific American about how he found all these hidden natural satellites, and about a technique known as “shift and add” that is used to create a quasi-inverted book of images of potential moons.
History of CO2
Senior Physical Sciences Editor Lee Billings spoke with science journalist Peter Brannen. about his latest bookHistory of CO2 This is the story of everything, to discuss how the same chemical compound is both a harmful pollutant and “essentially the key factor that makes Earth a special, habitable place.”
The Journey of Life in Space
Author Caleb Scharf talks about what he calls “dispersion,” or the study of how life will have “increasingly divergent trajectories” as a result of space travel. Scharf told us that he “thinks of our unfolding space age as another evolutionary leap of sorts.”
See the aurora from space
In April, four passengers aboard a SpaceX rocket circled the planet from pole to pole. giving them a potentially unprecedented view of Earth's auroras. Senior reporter Megan Bartels spoke with Katie Herlingshaw, an astronaut physicist at the Norwegian University Center in Svalbard, about how Fram2 The purpose of the mission was to shed light on this brilliant phenomenon.
Health
What is “personality”?
Mary Ziegler, author Identity: a new civil war over reproductiondiscussed the Trump administration's IVF policy recommendations and how our identity definitions influence science and medical policy in general.
Where is the cure for headaches?
Science fast host Rachel Feltman spoke with Undark editor-in-chief Tom Zeller Jr., who wrote Headache and deals with cluster headaches to learn about Why this common disease is not entirely clear and certainly not curable.
Mary Roach has a new book about body parts.
Book cover: W. W. Norton & Company; Alona Horkova/Getty Images; Illustration Scientific American
How to replace a body part?
Feltman also spoke with Mary Roach on her latest book You are replaceable– called one of Scientific Americanbest non-fiction books of the year. Feltman and Roach laughed about the strange inspiration for the book and the difficulty of replacing body parts.
How long can we live?
Health and Medicine Editor Lauren Young spoke with Eric Topol, a cardiologist and professor of genomics at Scripps Research in La Jolla, California, and author of the book Super Agersabout how people fascinated by the “biological clock” and whether science backs up claims that we are likely to live longer than we ever thought possible.
Mathematics and Technology
Leave therapy to the people
Mind and Brain Editor Allison Parshall spoke with licensed psychologist K. Vayle Wright about dangers of using chatbots as personal therapists. Wright, senior director of the American Psychological Association's Office of Health Innovation, explained that concerns about bots stem from the fear that they “may sound very convincing and appear legitimate, when of course they are not.”
Do you say “Internet”?
What do terms like “brain rot” really mean? And should you worry about Skibidi Toilet jokes told in schoolyards? TikTok sensation and linguist Adam Aleksic, author Algospeak: how social networks are changing the future of languagedissected how social media algorithms create such new trends around slang and our speech in general.
Epic AI
Karen Hao, author Artificial Intelligence Empire: Dreams and Nightmares at OpenAI by Sam Altmanone of Scientific Americanbest non-fiction books of the yearjoined Science fast discuss reality and potential future of AI development. Hao explained why she refers to AI companies as “empires” in the book and what AI future she is optimistic about.
Debunking a Math Conjecture Before High School Graduation
Hannah Cairo at 17 years old. disproved the Mizohata-Takeuchi hypothesisviolating a four-decade-old mathematical assumption, so naturally Scientific American reached out to her to talk about her incredible work. Cairo told us that she has loved mathematics all her life and believes that “mathematics is an art.” We couldn't agree more.
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