Science
Archive
Take your gardening indoors with houseplants. Use these tips to place them in proper sunlight, water them correctly, and feed them so they survive and thrive.
A relationship with plants built on love, care, and respect is at the heart of bringing the outdoors inside
The best way to catch aurora borealis in all its lit-up beauty: go to the darkest places on earth, at just the right time, and hope for the best
You need more natural silence in your life. Find it in these parks.
Despite years of research, the athletic potential of Montmorency cherries isn’t as sweet as it sounds
Your unexplained fatigue may be due to calorie deficiency, with serious implications for your health and performance
It’s not easy being a progressive who works for a middle-of-the-road president. Mark Sundeen sizes up the interior secretary’s first year in office—which has been a disappointment to climate-change activists—and decides she’s most likely to make a mark through a historic reckoning over the U.S. government’s shameful running of Native American boarding schools.
An analysis of pro cycling data finds that altitude-born South American riders race better at high altitudes than their lowland-born rivals
The oral health risks associated with heavy sports-drink use seem clear, but the evidence remains murky
What motivates someone to run more than 3,000 miles around a block in Queens, New York? Transcendence.
The team behind the shipwreck’s discovery sought more than just a shipwreck
New findings suggest that results from large training studies can’t be generalized to individuals
Joey Santore is a tattooed ex-punk who is self-taught in the sciences. Which might explain why he’s getting so many people to care about plants.
Joey Santore’s YouTube channel, Crime Pays but Botany Doesn’t, crosses citizen science with vigilante environmentalism
A new study of identical twins shows that, despite their reputation as inert rubber bands, Achilles tendons adapt to exercise
Most studies on sports performance don’t include women. The team behind Stanford’s FASTR program is creating a new approach—and building a healthier culture for female athletes.
Science shows that spending time outdoors can help with all kinds of serious ailments. So why not a broken heart?
New research explores how physical and mental factors affect how athletes raise their game when it counts
Freezing to death. Heatstroke. The excruciatingly painful sting of a box jellyfish, which can kill a person in under a minute. After writing the classic 1997 story “Frozen Alive,” Peter Stark became an expert on what it feels like to die in the wild. We asked him why people are so interested in reading about it—and about his own close calls.
A popular training rule for endurance athletes faces scrutiny from skeptical scientists
An experienced physician and marathoner answers questions you’re embarrassed to ask about running and sex
In the past two years, Americans have become disenchanted with work, leading to major strikes and what is being called the Great Resignation. But what if there was a better way? This writer went looking for that ever elusive work-life balance, learning how to get outside more and stress less.
A new study grapples with a familiar question: How much of athletic success is physical, and how much is mental?
When Outside contributing editor Florence Williams’s husband of 25 years left her, she paddled the Green River to process her grief. Her new book recounts that story and dives into the science of the heart.
We tend to assume that a nice-looking stride is a fast one, but maybe looking good is its own reward
The Twitter famous saurologist and cofounder of Black AF in STEM is helping to build a more inclusive scientific community—and spotting some very sneaky lizards along the way
Scientists have figured out how to make simple exoskeletons that improve running efficiency. Should track and field authorities be worried?
Different workout styles can get you equally fit, but they affect your body differently—which suggests that you should mix it up
All over America’s ancient eastern mountains, there’s an organism that lives underground, tethered to tree roots, waiting to be hunted. It’s among the world’s rarest and most expensive foods, and it grows in a wide range of conditions. But there’s only one guy in the country who really knows how to find it. Rowan Jacobsen joins him in the search for the Appalachian truffle.
Three methods to cultivate pacing mastery and optimize your performance potential
A new way of classifying athletes aims to quantify the thresholds that distinguish recreational athletes from their trained, highly trained, and elite brethren
Our Sweat Science columnist spent two months measuring his blood sugar around the clock. Here’s what he found.
The latest “exercise in a bottle” study finds that plasma from exercising mice makes sedentary mice smarter. But don’t throw out your workout gear just yet.
Athletes like Mikaela Shiffrin have started adopting the training technique to increase endurance, muscle mass, and more
Over the past decade, research into compression sportswear has exploded. Here’s what the results reveal.
With increased coastal flooding and erosion, climate change is harshing California’s mellow vibes. Officials say it’s time to retreat from the shore altogether. Residents want to stay and fight. Paul Kvinta reports from the front lines of a pitched battle, where geologists and millionaires are squaring off, and friendly fire between surfers isn’t so friendly.
It’s time to break out the merino base layers and the heat-exchange breathing masks
When someone gets hurt in the wild, we know what to do. But what we’ve lacked for way too long are the tools to help people in severe mental distress.
The genes that make some people vulnerable to a fatal heart stoppage may be the same ones that give them an athletic edge, researchers suggest
Sports medicine physicians are rethinking the relationship between damage to your body and how it feels
As skimo prepares for its Olympic debut in 2026, sports scientists explore the sport’s demands
Actually, we can’t get everything we need from nature
The grandeur of the Great Salt Lake stopped Brigham Young in his tracks and inspired John Muir to jump in for a swim. Yet now it’s in danger of disappearing, sucked dry by agriculture, climate change, and suburban lawns. Many Utahns would just as soon pave it, but as Bill Gifford learned during a yearlong exploration, there’s beauty and natural splendor here that deserves to live on.
Activities such as lifting weights, hiking, or even woodworking teach us humility and keep us grounded in reality
A new study quantifies the effects of running on technical terrain
A new study uses machine learning to quantify the effects of temperature, humidity, heat, and sun
Patagonia recently updated the Willard Bascom classic ‘Waves and Beaches’
Scientists take their equations for the energy demand of hills and rough terrain out into the real world
The link between serious cycling and poor bone health is well established, but researchers are still debating what to do about it
The state of the steelhead in the Columbia and Snake River watersheds is dire. A Pacific Northwest steelhead angler grapples with how best to honor the people, places, and resources that she loves.
Over the past few years, McCastle has completed 5,804 pull-ups in a single day, pulled a 5,000-pound truck across the Mojave Desert, and climbed a rope the equivalent height of Mount Everest. How on earth has this Navy SEAL dropout accomplished some of the craziest physical feats in recent memory?
The physiological differences between men and women affect how much fluid they store, how they sweat, and how quickly they heat up. Does that matter?
On an expedition to track lemurs in Madagascar, wildlife ecologist Rae Wynn-Grant found her confidence and her voice
Through the moving story of a widowed astrobiologist and his unusual son, ‘Bewilderment’ addresses our apathy in the face of environmental disaster
Yes, people sometimes die while running. No, that doesn’t mean running is “dangerous.”
Intrepid author Mary Roach shares tales of thieving bears, murderous possums, and mugging monkeys from her new book, ‘Fuzz’
Build strength and alignment to help eliminate overpronation and protect your feet and ankles
When you confront your mortality on a regular basis, the shift in perspective can be profound
A new study investigates how different types of physical performance are affected by the time of day
The case of 24-year-old Daniel Granberg, who died of high-altitude pulmonary edema earlier this month, highlights the danger of altitudes well below the Himalayan “death zone”
A new study suggests that hydrogels enable you to down more carbs with less digestive distress, and race faster as a result.
A new app called NatureQuant harnesses the latest research to track and rate your time outside. Next up: determining how much you need.
A new study measures the physical and cognitive load of four different treading techniques. The key? Generate lift.
Regular exercisers drink more, a new study confirms, but are less likely to be problem drinkers
Picking daisies with the Craighead bros
Get these six items to improve your sleep and wake up ready for anything
It’s not exactly fun in the moment, but after, you’ll say it was the best time you ever had
A long-running gym debate about whether to train each limb separately comes to the cycling world
If it seems like you’ve been hearing about lakes and beaches closing down more often, you’re right. Various types of toxic algae are multiplying like crazy in bodies of water across the country, and stopping them won’t be easy.
Endurance-science experts explain the world record holder’s incredible marathon dominance
Lyme-carrying ticks are a bigger threat than ever. A promising new antibody treatment looks to stop infection—even after a tick bite.
A new study of Western States ultrarunners illustrates the power of looking beyond simple risk factors to predict injury
Scientists have been debating whether muscles contract more slowly as you age, but new data suggests the real problem is a loss of strength
A physical therapist explains why your wrists hurt, and how to rehabilitate and protect them
After years of debate on the dangers of “too much exercise,” researchers sum up the state of current knowledge
As a college student, writer Julia Rosen spent a summer on Alaska’s Taku Glacier, which kept growing for decades in spite of warming temperatures. Now, she reckons with its uncertain fate.
In her new book, ‘The Joy of Sweat,’ Sarah Everts answers all of our writer’s questions about perspiration