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December 26, 2025<\/p>\n
3 min read<\/p>\n
Add Us On Google<\/span>Add SciAm<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 12 of the Best Interviews Scientific American Did in 2025\u2014on AI, Headaches, and More<\/p>\n From an interview with author Mary Roach to a chat with cardiologist Eric Topol, here are 12 of the most eye-opening conversations we had this year<\/p>\n By Brianne Kane edited by Andrea Thompson<\/span><\/p>\n Scientific American spends a lot of time asking questions\u2014to authors on their new science-related books, to scientists in the lab on their latest discoveries and to experts who help us develop deeper understandings of these discoveries. Here are 12 of our favorite interviews that we did this year. They raise and answer questions from \u201cShould ChatGPT be your therapist?\u201d to \u201cWhy haven\u2019t we cured headaches yet?\u201d<\/p>\n How Many Moons?<\/p>\n If you’re enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.<\/p>\n Astronomer Edward Ashton helped discover that Saturn has a whopping 192 more moons than we thought. He told Scientific American about the way he found all those hidden natural satellites and about the technique known as \u201cshifting and stacking\u201d that is used to make a quasi-flip-book of images of potential moons.<\/p>\n The Story of CO2<\/p>\n Senior desk editor for physical science Lee Billings spoke with science journalist Peter Brannen about his latest book, The Story of CO2 Is the Story of Everything, to discuss how the same chemical compound is both a harmful pollutant and is \u201cessentially the key thing that makes Earth a special, habitable place.\u201d<\/p>\n Life\u2019s Journey in Space<\/p>\n Author Caleb Scharf discussed what he calls the \u201cDispersal,\u201d or the study of how life will have \u201cincreasingly divergent trajectories\u201d as a result of space travel. Scharf told us he is \u201cthinking of our unfolding space age as another sort of evolutionary leap.\u201d<\/p>\n Seeing Auroras from Space<\/p>\n In April four passengers aboard a SpaceX rocket looped around the planet from pole to pole, giving them a potentially unprecedented view of Earth\u2019s auroras. Senior reporter Meghan Bartels spoke with Katie Herlingshaw, a space physicist at Norway\u2019s University Center in Svalbard, about how the Fram2 mission aimed to shed light on this shimmering phenomenon.<\/p>\n What Is \u2018Personhood\u2019?<\/p>\n Mary Ziegler, author of Personhood: The New Civil War over Reproduction, discussed the Trump administration\u2019s IVF policy recommendations and the way our definitions of personhood affect science and medical policies overall.<\/p>\n Where Is the Headache Cure?<\/p>\n Science Quickly host Rachel Feltman spoke with Undark editor in chief Tom Zeller, Jr., who wrote The Headache and deals with cluster headaches, to learn about why this common ailment isn\u2019t quite understood and is certainly not cured.<\/p>\n Mary Roach has a new book about body parts.<\/p>\n Book cover: W.W. Norton & Company; Alona Horkova\/Getty Images; Illustration by Scientific American<\/p>\n How Do You Replace a Body Part?<\/p>\n Feltman also spoke with Mary Roach about her latest book, Replaceable You\u2014named one of Scientific American\u2019s best nonfiction books of the year. Feltman and Roach laughed about the odd inspiration for this book and the complexity of actually replacing body parts.<\/p>\n How Long Can We Live?<\/p>\n Health and medicine editor Lauren Young spoke with Eric Topol, a cardiologist and genomics professor at Scripps Research in La Jolla, Calif., and author of Super Agers, about how people are fascinated with \u201cbiological clocks\u201d and whether the science backs up claims that we will likely live longer than we ever thought possible.<\/p>\n Leave Therapy to Humans<\/p>\n Mind and brain editor Allison Parshall spoke with licensed psychologist C. Vaile Wright about the dangers of using chatbots as personal therapists. Wright, senior director of the American Psychological Association\u2019s Office of Health Care Innovation, explained the concerns around bots come from the fear that they \u201ccan sound very convincing and like they are legitimate\u2014when of course, they\u2019re not.\u201d<\/p>\n Do You Speak \u201cInternet\u201d?<\/p>\n What do terms like \u201cbrain rot\u201d actually mean? And should you be concerned about Skibidi Toilet jokes told in schoolyards? TikTok sensation and linguist Adam Aleksic, author of Algospeak: How Social Media Is Transforming the Future of Language, dissected how social media algorithms are creating such new trends around slang and our speech patterns overall.<\/p>\n An AI Epic<\/p>\n Karen Hao, the author of Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman\u2019s OpenAI, one of Scientific American\u2019s best nonfiction books of the year, joined Science Quickly to discuss the reality\u2014and potential future\u2014of AI development. Hao explained why she frames AI companies as \u2018empires\u2019 in the book and what AI future she\u2019s optimistic about.<\/p>\n Debunking a Mathematical Conjecture before High School Graduation<\/p>\n At 17 years old, Hannah Cairo disproved the Mizohata-Takeuchi conjecture, breaking a four-decade-old mathematical assumption, so naturally Scientific American reached out to talk to her about her incredible work. Cairo told us that she\u2019s loved math her whole life and believes \u201cmathematics is an art.\u201d We couldn\u2019t agree more.<\/p>\n If you enjoyed this article, I\u2019d like to ask for your support. Scientific American<\/span> has served as an advocate for science and industry for 180 years, and right now may be the most critical moment in that two-century history.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve been a Scientific American<\/span> subscriber since I was 12 years old, and it helped shape the way I look at the world. SciAm <\/span>always educates and delights me, and inspires a sense of awe for our vast, beautiful universe. I hope it does that for you, too.<\/p>\n If you subscribe to Scientific American<\/span>, you help ensure that our coverage is centered on meaningful research and discovery; that we have the resources to report on the decisions that threaten labs across the U.S.; and that we support both budding and working scientists at a time when the value of science itself too often goes unrecognized.<\/p>\n In return, you get essential news, captivating podcasts, brilliant infographics, can’t-miss newsletters, must-watch videos, challenging games, and the science world’s best writing and reporting. You can even gift someone a subscription.<\/p>\n There has never been a more important time for us to stand up and show why science matters. I hope you\u2019ll support us in that mission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" December 26, 2025 3 min read Add Us On GoogleAdd SciAm 12 of the Best Interviews Scientific American Did in 2025\u2014on AI, Headaches, and More From an interview with author Mary Roach to a chat with cardiologist Eric Topol, here are 12 of the most eye-opening conversations we had this year By Brianne Kane edited<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39212,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[473,14120,2477],"class_list":{"0":"post-39211","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-american","9":"tag-interviews","10":"tag-scientific"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=39211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39211\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/39212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Space<\/h2>\n
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It\u2019s Time to Stand Up for Science<\/h2>\n