May-June 2026
Volume: 114 Number: 3
The commemorative footballs created for each new World Cup are more than eye-catching visual redesigns; their surfaces can comprise different numbers of panels, new textural elements, and seams that vary in depth, width, and length. In “Balls in the Air,” physicist John Eric Goff describes how these changes can significantly alter the flight of balls during Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) tournaments. Within a 20-year historical context of remodeled and recolored balls that includes the 2026 Trionda, Goff describes how such surface factors affect drag—and how that football-slowing force can suddenly change at certain speeds. When such changes happen at free-kick speeds, they can cause substantial headaches for goalkeepers. (Cover image by Ben Kirshner.)
In This Issue
- Art
- Biology
- Chemistry
- Communications
- Economics
- Engineering
- Environment
- Ethics
- Evolution
- Mathematics
- Physics
- Policy
- Psychology
- Sociology
- Technology
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March-April 2026
Volume: 114 Number: 2
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"The Discovery of Dark Comets" by Darryl Z. Seligman
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"Looking Through the Eye and into Alzheimer’s Disease" by Peter J. Snyder
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"Mantle Waves" by Thomas Gernon and Sascha Brune
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January-February 2026
Volume: 114 Number: 1
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"Messenger RNA Can Do More for Medicine" by Wei Tao and Xiangang Huang
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"Weathering Space" by James Welsh, Robert Peter Gale, and Andrew Karam
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"The Art and Wonder of Little Beasts" by Brian W. Ogilvie
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November-December 2025
Volume: 113 Number: 6
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"The Unlikely Primeval Sky" by Craig Hogan
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"Rethinking Adult ADHD" by Margaret Sibley
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"Growing the Great Green Wall" by Maxim Samson
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September-October 2025
Volume: 113 Number: 5
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A Revolutionary Drug to Treat and Prevent HIV Infection by John Raul Somoza
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Trial by Fire by William G. Fahrenholtz and Greg E. Hilmas
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Space Tourism by Mark McCaughrean
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July-August 2025
Volume: 113 Number: 4
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"The Ecoacoustics of Forests" by Becky E. Heath
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"Herders from the Green Sahara" by Cesar A. Fortes-Lima, Viktor Cˇerný, and Carina M. Schlebusch
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"When the Body Turns on Itself" by Jane Buckner
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May-June 2025
Volume: 113 Number: 3
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"Bioinspired Materials" by Hortense Le Ferrand, Rohit Pratyush Behera, and Slocha Sapasakulvanit
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"Psychedelics Move Toward Mainstream Medicine" by Gregory A. Fonzo and Charles B. Nemeroff
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"Rare but Deadly" by Durland Fish
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March-April 2025
Volume: 113 Number: 2
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"Consciousness: The Road to Reductionism" by Alan J. McComas
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"The Manipulative Side of Chatbots and AI" by Federico Fede and Viviana Masia
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"The Birth of Stars" by Caroline Harper
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January-February 2025
Volume: 113 Number: 1
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"The Science of Hi-Fi Audio" by John G. Beerends and Richard Van Everdingen
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"The Discovery of Nothing" by Mark Miodownik
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"Kicking Cocaine" by Douglas Small
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November-December 2024
Volume: 112 Number: 6
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"The Myxomycetes: Nature’s Quick-Change Artists" by Harold W. Keller, Sydney E. Everhart, and Courtney M. Kilgore
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"Gliflozins for Diabetes: From Bark to Bench to Bedside" by Philip A. Rea
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"Baby Talk" by Darshana Narayanan
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September-October 2024
Volume: 112 Number: 5
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"The Enduring Forest Gardens of the Ancient Maya" by Anabel Ford
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"Mud Acoustics" by Charles W. Holland, Stan E. Dosso, and Jason D. Chaytor
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"Estuaries Face a Stormy" by Michael J. Kennish, Hans W. Paerl, Joseph R. Crosswell, and Kenneth A. Moore
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