Health & Medicine
Explainer: Anatomy of a heartbeat
Here’s how the heart pumps blood to each and every cell of the body. It beats roughly 60 times every minute, starting before we’re born.
Current Issue
Featured Articles in this Issue
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Cover Story
Zap, zap, zap! Our bodies are electric
Electricity powers key functions in the brain, heart and bone. Scientists are working to understand those currents to improve our health and moods.
Explainer
Technically Fiction
Animals
Nature shows how dragons might breathe fire
Fire-breathing dragons can’t live anywhere outside of a book or TV. But nature provides some guidance as to how they might get their flames. If they existed, anyway.
Profile
Materials Science
This engineer uses light to get hearts pumping
Pengju Li designed a new type of pacemaker to help doctors during open-heart surgery.
Features
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The moon has new tales to share, some from its secretive far side
Ongoing observations and new lunar rock samples, including the first from its far side, should point to how both the moon and our Earth evolved.
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Zap, zap, zap! Our bodies are electric
Electricity powers key functions in the brain, heart and bone. Scientists are working to understand those currents to improve our health and moods.
More Stories from the June 1, 2025 issue
- Climate
Trees may be even bigger climate heroes than we thought
These plants absorb methane, a potent greenhouse gas, in addition to carbon dioxide. Methane’s uptake is likely thanks to microbes living in tree bark.
- Physics
Wiggling robots reveal the physics of how Hula-Hoops stay up
Newbies should swing their Hula-Hoops fast and in line with their bodies, the new findings suggest.
- Animals
Among chimpanzees, peeing is contagious
One individual chimpanzee peeing prompts others to follow suit — but scientists don’t know why.
- Oceans
The world’s largest coral is longer than a blue whale
Scientists found the coral off the coast of the Solomon Islands.
- Tech
Experiment: Make the fastest rubber band paddleboat
With a rubber band and some cardboard, you can build your own paddleboat to speed across the surface of a pool.
- Tech
A lucky lab accident produces Spider-Man-like silk
Researchers found a way to mimic Spider-Man’s web shooters in real life. This is the first adhesive that can stick to and lift things from a distance.
