Featured Articles in this Issue
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Cover Story
How to be heat-safe when playing sports
Protecting young athletes from overheating is getting more important as climate change turns up the temperature.
Explainer
Technically Fiction
Oceans
How would a mermaid sound underwater?
Human ears don’t work well in the water. A mermaid would need marine creature features to talk to and understand her aquatic friends.
Profile
Humans
This archeologist reconstructs the past with animal bones
Tagging along with her mom paved the way for her career as an archeologist, Pamela Akuku says. She now studies how ancient humans modified animal bones.
Features
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How to be heat-safe when playing sports
Protecting young athletes from overheating is getting more important as climate change turns up the temperature.
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Neandertals were a lot like our human ancestors
From toolmaking to healthcare, new research finds that Neandertals shared many cultural and social similarities with our human ancestors.
More Stories from the August 1, 2023 issue
- Planets
Planets like Star Wars’ Tatooine could be fit for life
Like Luke Skywalker’s home, planets orbiting two stars may be plentiful. A new computer model suggests that many of those worlds could sustain life.
- Climate
Due to global warming, major league hitters are slugging more home runs
Major League Baseball has seen an average of 58 more home runs each season since 2010. The apparent reason: reduced friction on the balls in warmer air.
- Animals
These beetles ‘drink’ water using their butts
Red flour beetles can survive in very dry environments. New research shows how the beetles can suck water from the air using their rear ends.
- Physics
A powerful laser can control the paths that lightning takes
In a mountaintop experiment, a laser beamed at the sky created a virtual lightning rod that snagged several bolts.
- Chemistry
Experiment: Test the effect of temperature on reaction time
Alka-Seltzer tablets fizzle furiously when dropped into water. Can you make Alka-Seltzer fizz faster or more loudly by changing the water’s temperature?
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These lemurs take nose-picking to a new level
A nose-picking aye-aye’s spindly middle digit probably pokes all the way into the back of the throat, CT scans show.
- Tech
A new solar-powered gel purifies water in a flash
The unusual, fruit-inspired structure of this material provides quick filtration that could satisfy people's daily water needs.
