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May 2, 2025—What would happen if a solar superflare hit Earth? Plus, there are no climate havens; and Florida becomes the second U.S. state to ban fluoride in drinking water. —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor | | Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg via Getty Images | | A coronal mass ejection, or CME, erupting out into space from the sun on August 31, 2012. This composite image also includes a representation of Earth to show the CME's size compared to our planet. NASA/GSFC/SDO | | Some stars in the universe experience solar superflares, releasing a remarkable 1029 joules of energy in one surface explosion—that's the equivalent of what the sun emits over the course of just 20 minutes. In a recent study, astronomers examined 56,000 sunlike stars in the telescope Kepler's observations of half a million stars. They found 2,889 likely superflares on 2,527 sunlike stars, which means about one superflare per star over the course of a century. Does this mean our sun could superflare, too? How it works: Plasma in the sun's interior is brimming with charged particles, and hotter and cooler plasma churns between the surface and interior. This creates tangled magnetic fields that can repel plasma off the surface as explosions, releasing charged particles into space that careen toward Earth. High-speed subatomic particles raining down from solar storms slam into the nitrogen in our atmosphere to create an isotope called beryllium 10, or Be-10, which can get trapped in ice. By examining ice cores, scientists have discovered evidence of at least five Be-10 spikes in the last 10,000 years, indicating larger solar flares. What could happen: Life on Earth would be protected from a giant flare by Earth's magnetic field. But our technology would be another story. "A huge flare could fry the electronics on all but the most protected satellites and disrupt power grids to cause widespread and long-lasting blackouts," writes astronomer and columnist Phil Plait. "Engineers have devised safeguards to prevent damaging electrical surges from most instances of extreme space weather, but if a flare is powerful enough, there may not be much we could do to avoid severe damage." | | | There Are No Climate Havens | The mountain town of Asheville, N.C., was once called a climate haven, a place less prone to the tolls of climate change. But in September 2024 Hurricane Helene flooded the town, and in March 2025 wildfires burned in multiple sites within an hour's drive. Like other towns that have been pinpointed as refuges, Asheville demonstrates that no place is protected from climate change. There are no climate havens, write the editors of Scientific American in the May issue. Why this is happening: As the planet's atmospheric temperature rises, even so-called cooler regions will feel the impact. Places like Asheville will be subject to more floods and snowfall. Towns close to water will also face flooding and coastal erosion. Most of the country will endure destructive hurricanes and tornadoes, prolonged droughts, and intensifying heat waves. What can be done: "We must recognize that in addition to curbing our fossil-fuel use, adequately fortifying and restructuring the spaces we already have will give us and the next generations the best possible chance of survival," say the editors. But the idea that people should have to move to milder or more climate-change-resistant locales is folly. "The crisis knows no boundaries—Canadian wildfires blew smoke into New York City last summer and blanketed Buffalo the year before. Even adaptation won't completely solve the problem." | | | | |
- Did you keep up with science news this week? Test your knowledge with this week's science quiz. Also check out today's Spellements puzzle. This week, reader Louisa T. noticed the word silique missing from the puzzle, which is a type of seed pod. They are common to mustard plants and, "very helpful in identifying them," Louisa writes to us.
| | - AI systems (and the chatbots that result) behave like a "crowdsourced neocortex"—a system with intelligence that emerges from training on extraordinary amounts of human data, enabling it to effectively mimic the thought patterns of humans, writes Susan Schneider, the director of the Center for the Future Mind, a center that studies human and machine intelligence. But these emerging capabilities do not mean that AIs are conscious, she says. "We must develop a range of tests to apply to the different cases that will arise, and we must still strive for a better scientific and philosophical understanding of consciousness itself." | 6 min read
| | MOST POPULAR STORIES OF THE WEEK | | - Where Does Consciousness Come From? Two Neuroscience Theories Go Head-to-Head | 6 min read
- Latest Dark Energy Study Suggests the Universe Is Even Weirder Than We Imagined | 9 min read
- Bird Migration Is Peaking in the U.S.—Here's How to Watch | 2 min read
| | My favorite fact published in Scientific American this week: The Blackpoll Warbler, a songbird that weighs about as much as a AAA battery, flies as many as 5,000 miles to reach its breeding grounds during the spring migration. Bet you can't beat that for weekend plans! | | —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor | | | | |
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