Brain
Explainer: What is a neuron?
From the moment you are born, cells called neurons sense information, process it and then pass it on. Neurons allow you to do everything that you do.
Featured Articles in this Issue
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Cover Story
The Okefenokee’s dark waters hold secrets about climate and more
This Georgia peat swamp’s vast stores of carbon and water are under threat from mining and pollution. Scientists and locals are fighting to protect it.
Explainer
Technically Fiction
Space
Do multiple universes exist?
Some branches of physics hint that our universe is just one of many in a vast “multiverse.”
Profile
Ecosystems
Hurricane Katrina shaped this coastal ecologist’s life and work
Surviving Hurricane Katrina inspired Elliott White Jr.’s scientific journey to studying how humans and climate change impact wetlands.
Features
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The Okefenokee’s dark waters hold secrets about climate and more
This Georgia peat swamp’s vast stores of carbon and water are under threat from mining and pollution. Scientists and locals are fighting to protect it.
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So many wondrous moons — just a spaceship ride away
Scientists are studying extraterrestrial moons for clues to how planets form, how life began — and whether there’s life out there right now.
More Stories from the June 1, 2026 issue
- Physics
Chopping an onion? Sharp knives can keep its juice out of your eyes
Slow and steady cuts with a sharp blade, video shows, can reduce the pain-inducing spray of tiny onion-juice droplets.
- Brain
Adolescence appears to last far longer than once thought
The brain undergoes “rewiring” throughout adolescence and doesn’t reach its adult architecture until our early 30s, suggests a new study.
- Plants
Yum! Flies swarm to a flower that smells like wounded ants
A type of Japanese dogbane emits the distress signal of injured ants — a particular scent — to draw in scavenging flies that end up pollinating its flowers.
- Animals
Mummies suggest a way to help reintroduce cheetahs to Arabia
DNA from Arabian cheetah remains reveals that these now-extinct populations might be replaced by rewilding close cheetah relatives from northwest Africa.
- Oceans
Experiment: Build your own beach!
Summer is a time for sun and sand. If you live inland, build your own mini beach in this science experiment.
- Materials Science
‘Stenciling’ tiny gold particles gives them new properties
Decorating nanoparticles with other chemicals could give them useful properties for medicines, textiles and more.
