Science
Archive
For the first time, a new study from the Ocean Cleanup quantifies how much plastic the world’s rivers are pumping into the sea
Yelling at the right moment has been linked to boosts in power and pain tolerance
The best performers in the world share a few key habits, and a new book helps you implement them
Exercise is as good for your brain as it is for your body, and researchers are just beginning to discover why
There's a flipside to dehydration that kills athletes and otherwise healthy people every year. And it's on the rise.
Every world-class performer—from athletes to chess players to musicians—follows these rules to keep improving at their disciplines
Sitting can be lethal, right? We asked the experts how to stay healthy while doing the one thing that, for the most of us, takes up the majority of the day.
After most MCL and ACL surgeries, doctors focus on treating and rehabbing the soft-tissue, while almost completely ignoring motor patterns and biomechanics
An entire industry is trying to curb our boredom while running. But if you can harness that feeling of restlessness, you may find yourself stronger and faster than ever.
Some athletes and trainers claim the structural protein helps stave off injuries like ACL tears. Don't listen to them.
Americans spend $11 billion a year in pursuit of the blissful happy-ever-after. But what do we really accomplish? To find out, Peter Andrey Smith embedded with the utopia seekers for a weekend in Miami at the first-ever World Happiness Summit.
The good news? They're all pretty simple to reverse—or prevent entirely.
A new book by two philosophy scholars imagines conversations with skeptics and deniers. Here are four lessons we learned from it.
This salty snack has taken center stage as a healthy, protein-laden endurance fuel
Turns out extending your lifespan is pretty damn easy. Just follow these definitive, scientific, time-tested methods.
Self-talk—repeating a phrase in your head—is a practical, proven strategy to push your limits
Bill Nye The Science Guy has teamed up with the team over at Diamondback to bring you the Let's Ride series explaining the fundamentals of biking.
Wandering the Sonoran Desert in search of the chiltepin—the ancestor to domesticated chile peppers—with MacArthur genius Gary Paul Nabhan
Some days it's a paradise and others it's a jungle of hell. Yet for Dr. Scott Saleska and his students, that's just the reality of conducting science in the rainforest.
For almost 40 years, Don MacGorman has launched truck-sized data balloons into storms while enduring drenching rain and potentially lethal hail. For the National Severe Storms Laboratory physicist who literally wrote the book on lightning, it's all just another day's work.
A former EPA administrator breaks down what’s at stake with the president’s proposed 31-percent cut to the agency’s budget
How to put in the work now to ensure that you will go for it later
Over the past six years, there have been 20 shark attacks around Reunion Island. The deaths have inspired some surfers—most famously and recently Kelly Slater—to advocate for a cull. Susan Casey argues why that's a terrible, immoral, and totally ineffective way to deal with the problem.
This May, the world's first cannabis-infused gym will open in San Francisco, where members will be encouraged to integrate the plant into their pre- and post-workout regimen
In her new book, the writer explains why getting outside cures so many of our problems
When John Muir sauntered through the condensed grove of what is now known as Sequoia National Park, he would have never envisioned the devastation that has occurred since 2011.
For Wendy Baxter, being a field researcher of giant Sequoia trees is the ultimate balance between athletic ability and scientific exploration.
On Kauai, residents worry less about whether genetically-modified food is safe to eat and more about what the pesticides used to test them are doing to their bodies. In an excerpt from his new book, 'Food Fight,' the author hits the ground to find out just what's happening.
Think of MuscleSound as a fuel gauge for your body that helps optimize your diet and training plan
Heather Wilson monitors migratory bird populations for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service from the captain seat of her amphibious Cessna 206
Most of us hit the outdoors seeking calm and quiet, but Chuck Thompson prefers to blast a little 38 Special by his campfires. Still, even a rustic headbanger like him has to wonder if the coming age of total connectivity in otherwise wild places is good for bees, beasts, and man.
Give your liver a break and you may gain a performance advantage, too
The widely used drug was added to the WADA list of banned substances on January 1, 2016 because of “evidence of its use by athletes with the intention of enhancing performance.”
When a creature mysteriously turns up dead in Alaska—be it a sea otter, polar bear, or humpback whale—veterinary pathologist Kathy Burek gets the call. Her necropsies reveal cause of death and causes for concern as climate change frees up new pathogens and other dangers in a vast, thawing north.
Throughout winter, regional avalanche forecasters rank the danger level in the backcountry, but a new study found they can sometimes disagree dramatically on snowpack conditions
Trained collectors are trekking into remote parts of the Southwest in hopes of discovering hardy new hops that can withstand warming temperatures
The pioneering astronaut was the first American to orbit earth. He died Thursday.
Ten ancient tools that gave rise to the equipment we still use today
A growing body of research says that giving thanks is beneficial for health and performance
Tracking HRV has emerged as one of the best ways to quantify recovery. But it’s also one of the most misunderstood and misused fitness tools around.
Say you see an article about how chocolate can prevent aging. You want to figure out what's actually going on, so you pull up the original study. Here's how you properly read it.
In 'The Unnatural World,' journalist David Biello argues that while humans have gotten Earth into a mess, we also have the power to fix it
American tourist Noel Santillan became an unlikely folk hero in Iceland after he entered a typo into his GPS and drove hundreds of miles out of his way. How can anyone wander so far off the mark? A growing body of research suggests that our reliance on navigational technology might be altering our brains in ways we’re only beginning to understand.
Some athletes swear by a once-a-week indulgence. Are they right?
It seems like everything in the grocery store is labeled "super." We dove into which foods are actually proven, by science, to be good for you and which ones are all hype.
Studies have shown that being outside has positive psychological and physiological benefits. Can the nature cure compete with Xanax?
Deaths, injuries, and helicopter rescues are a regular occurrence on Longs Peak, but that doesn’t stop people from trying to climb it
Everything from airplanes to your cell phone leaves audible marks on plants and wildlife. So sound specialists in parks around the country are working on setting a baseline for how noisy we're allowed to be.
Last week, at the International Triathlon Union’s Grand Final, Jonny Brownlee nearly lost consciousness a quarter-mile from the finish line. This is the most recent example of a trend that seems to plague the sport.
LVL, from BSX Technologies, is a wearable for hydration tracking. It'll tell you how much to drink, and when.
New research shows that perceptions of fatigue and pain stop us from hitting our physical limits long before our bodies do. Can athletes train their brains to reach unheard-of levels of peak performance?
Don’t let the Theranos saga fool you: we’ve entered a new era of self-quantification, in which on-demand blood testing is sold as the easy way to fine-tune your training and nutrition. Can an algorithm really replace your coach?
Your mind is also key to recovery
Move the dial with the power of science
Meeting up with your friends for a post-run drink could do a lot more good than you realize
Deploying genetically modified mosquitoes to stop the spread of Zika is just the tip of the iceberg. Scientists are cooking up all kinds of DNA changes to insects and animals that could benefit humanity.
To get bit by one is to experience something like a gunshot wound. And they’re multiplying.
Environmental researchers are transforming big data into classical music and giving voice to not-always-accessible environmental issues. Call it the sound of science.
There’s no universal blueprint for treating a concussion. The protocol depends on the individual’s symptoms and medical history, and recovery times vary.
When the news broke in May that BMX legend Dave Mirra, who committed suicide in February, had the degenerative brain disease CTE, everything changed in the world of action sports. Cyclists, skiers, and other athletes began asking: are we subject to the same concussion and CTE risks that have been so widely reported in the NFL?
A stranger-than-fiction mystery in Norway has physicists scratching their heads
Our organ-by-organ breakdown of what happens inside your body when you push it in the heat
It's killed two people in the Carolinas this summer already
How did a North Carolina waterpark become ground zero for a mysterious water-borne amoeba that kills nearly every person it infects?
Magnetoreception could be a latent human sense, silent for millennia but accessible with training. Is it worth developing—or even possible?
Tracking the millions of tropical fish caught and sold in the global aquarium trade is our best chance for understanding the impact of Disney’s new movie on the world’s oceans
You worry about your vacation—we’ll handle the reading list. We'll even help you decide which book to take with you (just in case you're a little too busy on the trail to read all of our picks).
When it comes to managing coastlines, surfers could help fill a critical data gap for understanding the future of waves and beaches.
Ten or so percent of it, anyway
The United Arab Emirates wants to build an artificial peak to make it rain in the desert-bound cities. Let's just say the experts are skeptical.
Justin O. Schmidt has traveled the world studying—and getting stung by—some terrifying insects. In his new book, he explains the nuances of the sting, from the bulldog ant to tarantula hawk.
When a group of immigrants set out across the desert, the results helped researcher create the Death Index, a new model for dehydration.
Sorry, that wildly popular New York Times story is not for you
No, you’re not actually an expert on good coffee. But you can become one. We asked food scientists how we can use our brains when we talk about our taste buds.
Surfers, hikers, skiers, and just about everyone else in the West will continue to feel the effects of the Pacific weather event this year