Plants
Explainer: How photosynthesis works
Plants can take in light, water and carbon dioxide, and send out sugar and oxygen. Here’s how it works.
Featured Articles in this Issue
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Cover Story
Greening your digital life
The less electricity you use while playing video games or using your devices, the less impact you’ll have on climate change.
Explainer
Technically Fiction
Animals
Monstrous mammals would break the body rules
Giant mammals and people thunder through our movies and books. But real mammals can only get so large before they can’t take the heat.
Profile
Climate
This scientist wants to motivate you to fight climate change
Getting lost in science fiction helps Shahzeen Attari reimagine what our future could look like.
Features
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Greening your digital life
The less electricity you use while playing video games or using your devices, the less impact you’ll have on climate change.
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Lying won’t stretch your nose, but it will steal some brainpower
The science of lying shows that most people don’t lie often. But when they do, it takes a surprising toll on their brains.
More Stories from the September 1, 2022 issue
- Space
A star called ‘Earendel’ could be the most distant ever seen
A thin red arc found in an image from the Hubble Space Telescope shows starlight from nearly 13 billion years ago.
- Microbes
Kitchen sponges are bacteria’s dream home
Sponges are favorite spots for bacteria, partly because of the mixed-housing environment that the cleaner-uppers offer microbes.
- Animals
Honeybees fend off deadly hornets by decorating hives with poop
Bees usually collect pollen and nectar. Scientists were surprised to find that Asian honeybees also gather animal dung to defend their hives.
- Space
The first plants ever grown in moon dirt have sprouted
This tiny garden shows farming on the moon may be difficult, although not impossible.
- Chemistry
Study acid-base chemistry with at-home volcanoes
Baking soda volcanoes are a fun demonstration, and with a few tweaks they can be an experiment, too
- Tech
This sun-powered system delivers energy as it pulls water from the air
The device not only produces electricity but also harvests water for drinking or crops. It could be especially useful in remote and dry parts of the world.
