Scientific American media bias and reliability
AllSides and Ad Fontes Media place Scientific American as leaning left. We have seen it on 24 published stories of ours.
The short answers
Is Scientific American biased?
AllSides and Ad Fontes Media place Scientific American as leaning left. An outlet rating describes a broad pattern in its output, not every article it publishes.
Is Scientific American left or right?
AllSides and Ad Fontes Media place Scientific American as leaning left. In the three-way grouping used on story pages, that puts it under Left.
Is Scientific American reliable?
The factual-reliability assessments we hold for Scientific American are Ad Fontes Media: Mixed factuality; Media Bias/Fact Check: High factuality. These are outlet-level assessments, not a guarantee that every report is correct.
What Scientific American has been covering
Our account of each story, written from every outlet that ran it, with Scientific American’s own report linked underneath.
Researchers have identified a new wild cat species, Leopardus tilcayo, in Bolivia's Yungas forest. The small feline, measuring about 45-46 cm and weighing 1.4 kg, is the first new wild cat species described in more than 100 years.
Scientific American reported it asSee the first new species of cat discovered in more than a century—it’s adorable (opens Scientific American in a new tab)
The US Space Force has confirmed the deployment of weapons in Earth orbit, marking the first public acknowledgement of such capabilities. Air Force Secretary Troy Meink stated the weapons are intended for defence against hostile actions, though specific details remain undisclosed.
Scientific American reported it asThe U.S. has weapons in space (opens Scientific American in a new tab)
The United States has confirmed for the first time that it has deployed weapons in orbit. Air Force Secretary Troy Meink said the Space Force placed "space control weapons" to deter adversaries, drawing accusations from China and Russia.
Scientific American reported it asThe U.S. has weapons in space (opens Scientific American in a new tab)
The Environmental Protection Agency is set to repeal rules limiting greenhouse gas emissions from coal and natural gas power plants. Administrator Lee Zeldin stated the move could save billions for the industry and boost American energy.
Scientific American reported it asTrump EPA to repeal emissions regulations of fossil-fuel power plants (opens Scientific American in a new tab)
Scientists estimate Mercury's diameter may have shrunk by up to 14 miles (23 kilometers), a figure 30% greater than earlier projections. The planet's hot iron core cooling and contracting is believed to be the cause, tightening its surface.
Scientific American reported it asThe planet Mercury is shrinking far faster than we thought (opens Scientific American in a new tab)
August 2026 was the hottest month on record globally, tying with July 2023, according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service. The record heat was attributed to human-caused climate change and a strong El Niño event, with sea surface temperatures also reaching new highs.
Scientific American reported it asAugust 2026 ties for hottest month ever recorded (opens Scientific American in a new tab)
OpenAI has announced that an internal AI model has produced a solution to the Navier-Stokes existence and smoothness problem, one of mathematics' seven Millennium Prize Problems. The company claims approximately 10,000 AI agents worked on the problem for 88 hours. However, mathematicians have expressed skepticism due to the lack of a publicly disclosed proof.
Scientific American reported it asAI may have just solved a million-dollar math problem. The field will never be the same (opens Scientific American in a new tab)
The 36th annual Ig Nobel Prizes awarded ten research teams for studies that are scientifically sound but unusual. This year's ceremony was held in Zurich, marking the first time the event took place outside the United States.
Scientific American reported it as2026 Ig Nobels honor cockroach milk, interspecies kissing, taunting venomous snakes and more (opens Scientific American in a new tab)
A United Nations report published on September 2, 2026, states that global temperatures are likely to exceed the 1.5°C warming threshold within a few years. The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) calls for rapid emissions cuts and carbon removal to limit damage.
Scientific American reported it asU.N. admits exceeding Paris Agreement’s 1.5-degree-C warming target is ‘unavoidable’ (opens Scientific American in a new tab)
The American Academy of Pediatrics, American Academy of Family Physicians, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and Infectious Diseases Society of America published updated vaccine guidance for fall 2026. The CDC has not issued new recommendations, and its advisory panel remains in legal dispute.
Scientific American reported it asTop medical leaders urge Americans to get their flu and COVID shots in lieu of CDC vaccine campaign (opens Scientific American in a new tab)
NASA's Roman Space Telescope has successfully launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. The observatory is designed to study dark matter, dark energy, and exoplanets, collecting vast amounts of data to deepen our understanding of the universe.
Scientific American reported it asNASA launches Roman Space Telescope to explore dark energy and distant worlds (opens Scientific American in a new tab)
Flash floods and landslides swept away villages along the Nepal-Tibet border, killing at least 165 people. Experts suggest a glacial collapse, not an earthquake, was the cause, with climate change and the region's topography exacerbating the risks.
Scientific American reported it asWhat Nepal's floods reveal about “cascading hazards” (opens Scientific American in a new tab)
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved daraxonrasib, branded as Rasonque, for metastatic pancreatic cancer. In trials, patients taking the drug lived a median of 13.2 months, compared to 6.7 months on chemotherapy.
Scientific American reported it asU.S. approves breakthrough pancreatic cancer drug, heralding a new era for an intractable disease (opens Scientific American in a new tab)
The average global sea surface temperature reached a record 21.1°C on August 22, 2026, according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service. This surpasses the previous record set in March 2024 and is attributed to global warming and the El Niño phenomenon.
Scientific American reported it asEarth's oceans just hit their hottest temperature ever recorded (opens Scientific American in a new tab)
Merck and Moderna announced positive phase three trial results for a personalised mRNA cancer vaccine combined with Keytruda, reducing melanoma recurrence and spread in high-risk patients. The treatment met its primary goal, with stock prices rising on the news. Further data will determine regulatory approval timelines.
Scientific American reported it asModerna and Merck announce ‘landmark’ trial showing mRNA therapy significantly cuts odds of recurrent skin cancer (opens Scientific American in a new tab)
Astronomers have identified a star, S301, orbiting the Milky Way’s central black hole at 25,000 kilometres per second, the fastest known in the galaxy. Its tight orbit may enable scientists to measure the black hole’s spin, testing Einstein’s general relativity.
Scientific American reported it asThe Milky Way's Fastest Star Could Expose Our Black Hole's Spin (opens Scientific American in a new tab)
The US Agriculture Department plans to rescind the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule, removing logging restrictions on over 40 million acres of national forest. The move, announced by Secretary Brooke Rollins, aims to reduce wildfire risks but is opposed by environmental groups who say it will increase them.
Scientific American reported it asTrump moves to end protections for 44 million acres of U.S. forests (opens Scientific American in a new tab)
President Donald Trump signed an executive order on 10 August 2026 to separate the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine into three individual shots and reduce the number of recommended childhood vaccines from 18 to 11. The order advises states with school vaccine mandates to consider updating their laws, though states retain authority over vaccination requirements.
Scientific American reported it asTrump issues executive order aimed at rewriting childhood vaccine schedule (opens Scientific American in a new tab)
A University of Vienna study used brain scans of twelve dogs to show that happy human faces activate the temporal cortex and caudate nucleus, while anger, fear and sadness produce distinct neural patterns. The findings, published in iScience, suggest dogs can differentiate between specific emotions.
Scientific American reported it asCan dogs read your facial expressions? It depends on your mood (opens Scientific American in a new tab)
The European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service confirmed July 2026 as the hottest July for global ocean temperatures, with Western Europe experiencing its warmest June-July period. Developing El Niño conditions contributed to the record, while wildfires and drought intensified across the region.
Scientific American reported it asWorld ocean temperatures hit extreme new record for July (opens Scientific American in a new tab)
Who says so
2 organisations have published a rating for this outlet, in their own words. Where they disagree, the disagreement is the useful part and it is left standing.
How reliably it reports fact
A rating of the newsroom in general, by others, and a different thing from the Trust score we publish on each story, which judges one piece of reporting.
High factuality
Who owns it
We hold no ownership record for Scientific American.
Where it publishes from
- Publishes from
- New York, New York, United States
- Official site
- scientificamerican.com
- Seen publishing on
- scientificamerican.com
- Access
- Free to read
- Wikipedia
- Entry
What we have seen ourselves
Counted across the stories this site has published, which is the only denominator a reader can check: every one of them has a page, and every page lists the reports it was written from.
- Stories
- 24
- Reports listed
- 24
- We could read
- 0
- First seen
- 4 August 2026
24 of those reports were paywalled or blocked to us. Our reading of this outlet is built on the 0 we could open, not on everything it published.
On 1 of those stories, outlets rated left were largely absent from the coverage and Scientific American ran the story anyway.
Across the 24 stories of ours where at least three of the reports we listed carried a time, another outlet was always ahead of Scientific American: its report arrived a median of 16 hours after the earliest one we logged.
Measured 19 September 2026. Last seen in a coverage list 19 September 2026. Ratings pulled 4 September 2026.
Other outlets rated the same way
Publishers carrying the same published leaning as Scientific American, also publishing from United States, ordered by how often we have seen them on a story. Sharing a rating is not the same as being alike.
Think this page is wrong?
The leanings above are published by AllSides, Ad Fontes Media and Media Bias/Fact Check, and we republish them rather than make them. If you think one is misapplied, the strongest place to say so is with the organisation that made it, and every verdict here links to their page.
What we are responsible for is everything else: the ownership chain, where Scientific American publishes from, which of our stories we have listed it on, and whether we have the right publisher at all. Tell us what is wrong and an editor reads it.
Report something wrong on this page
Anything we correct is written up in the public corrections log. We do not publish reader votes as a rating, because an unattributed rating is the thing this site exists to argue against.
Every rating on this page is a named third party’s published work, republished with its author and, where one exists, a link to it. Our own coverage record is the section we measure ourselves. Neither is a judgement of any individual report: those are scored story by story, and the reasoning is on our methodology page.