12 of the Best Interviews Scientific American Did In 2025

12 of the best interviews Scientific American Made in 2025: on AI, headaches and more

By Brianne Kane edited by Andrea Thompson

Scientific American spends a lot of time asking questions: to authors about their new science books, to scientists in the lab about their latest discoveries, and to experts who help us better understand these discoveries. Here are 12 of our favorite interviews we’ve done this year. They raise and answer the questions of “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 192 more moons than we thought. He said Scientific American about how he found all these hidden natural satellites and the technique known as “shift and stack” that is used to create a quasi-flip-book of images of potential moons.

The history of CO₂

Physical Sciences Editor Lee Billings spoke to science journalist Peter Brannen about his latest bookThe history of CO₂ It’s the story of everything, to discuss how the same chemical compound is both a harmful pollutant and “essentially the key element that makes Earth a special, habitable place.”

Life’s journey through space

Author Caleb Scharf discussed what he calls “dispersal,” or the study of how life will have “increasingly divergent trajectories” as a result of space travel. Scharf told us that he “sees our unfolding space age as another kind of evolutionary leap.”

See the auroras 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 Meghan Bartels spoke with Katie Herlingshaw, a space physicist at the Norwegian University Center in Svalbard, about how the Frame2 mission aimed to shed light on this shimmering phenomenon.

Health

What is “personality”?

Mary Ziegler, author of Personality: the new civil war for reproductiondiscussed the Trump administration’s policy recommendations regarding IVF and how our definitions of personhood affect science and medical policy in general.

Where is the cure for headaches?

Science quickly host Rachel Feltman spoke with Undark editor-in-chief Tom Zeller, Jr., who wrote The headache and treats cluster headaches, to find out why this common condition is not well understood and certainly not cured.

How to replace a body part?

Feltman also spoke with Mary Roach about her latest book, You replaceable– named one of Scientific Americanthe best non-fiction books of the year. Feltman and Roach laughed about the strange inspiration for this book and the complexity of actually 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, Calif., and author of Super Agersabout people’s fascination with “biological clocks” and whether science supports claims that we will likely live longer than we ever thought possible.

Mathematics and technology

Leave the therapy to humans

Allison Parshall, editor-in-chief of Mind and Brain, spoke with licensed psychologist C. Vaile Wright about the dangers of using chatbots as personal therapists. Wright, senior director of the American Psychological Association’s Office of Health Care Innovation, said concerns about robots come from the fear that they “can look very convincing and make it seem like they’re legitimate — when, of course, they’re not.”

Do you speak “Internet”?

What do terms like “brain rot” actually mean? And should you worry Skibidi toilets jokes told in schoolyards? TikTok sensation and linguist Adam Aleksic, author of Algospeak: how social media is transforming the future of languageanalyzed how social media algorithms create new trends around slang and our speech patterns in general.

An AI epic

Karen Hao, the author of Empire of AI: dreams and nightmares in OpenAI by Sam Altmanone of Scientific AmericanThe best non-fiction books of the year, joined Science quickly to discuss the reality – and potential future – of AI development. Hao explained why she considers AI companies “empires” in the book and what future of AI she is optimistic about.

Debunking a Math Conjecture Before High School Graduation

At 17, Hannah Cairo disproved the Mizohata-Takeuchi conjecture, naturally shattering a four-decade-old mathematical hypothesis. Scientific American reached out to him to tell him about his incredible work. Cairo told us that she has loved mathematics all her life and believes that “math is an art.” We couldn’t agree more.

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