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 2016
Volume: 104 Number: 2
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"The Visual World of Infants," by Russell D. Hamer
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"Spring Budburst in a Changing Climate," by Richard B. Primack and Amanda S. Gallinat
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"Meat-Eating Among the Earliest Humans," by Briana Pobiner
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January-February 2016
Volume: 104 Number: 1
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"Archaeology from the Air," by William E. Carter, Ramesh L. Shrestha, and Juan Carlos Fernandez-Diaz
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"The Penguin's Palette—More Than Black and White," by Daniel T. Ksepka
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"Fire in Microgravity," by Indrek S. Wichman, Sarah L. Olsen, Fletcher J. Miller, and Ashwin Hariharan
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November-December 2015
Volume: 103 Number: 6
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"Where the Xingu Bends and Will Soon Break," by Mark Sabaj Pérez
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"Restoring Depth to Leonardo's Mona Lisa," by Claus-Christian Carbon and Vera M. Hesslinger
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"The Rising Cost of Resources and Global Indicators of Change," by Carey W. King
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"In Defense of Pure Mathematics," by Daniel S. Silver
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September-October 2015
Volume: 103 Number: 5
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"The Most Powerful Movements in Biology," by S.N. Patek
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"The Past and Future Space Suit," by David P. Cadogan
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"Do Humans Possess a Second Sense of Hearing?" by Neil Todd
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"A Protective Cloak Against Earthquakes and Storms," by Gregory J. Gbur
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July-August 2015
Volume: 103 Number: 4
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"African Names for American Plants," by Tinde R. van Andel
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"Shark Trails of the Eastern Pacific," by A. Peter Klimley
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"The Voyagers’ Odyssey," by Stamatios M. Krimigis and Robert B. Decker
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May-June 2015
Volume: 103 Number: 3
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"Modern Lessons from Ancient Food Webs," by Justin D. Yeakel and Jennifer A. Dunne
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"The Next Great Exoplanet Hunt,"by Kevin Heng and Joshua Winn
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"Taste, Sickness, and Learning," by Terry L. Davidson and Anthony L. Riley
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"Fabrication at the Nano Scale with Molds and Imprinting," by Jaslyn B. K. Law
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"The Fatigue Conundrum," by Ashley Nunes and Philippe Cabon
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March-April 2015
Volume: 103 Number: 2
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"How Animals Communicate Via Pheromones," by Tristram D. Wyatt
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"Carbon Nanotubes Deliver in Medicine," by Khuloud T. Al-Jamal
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"The Origins of Lying and Deception in Everyday Life," by Michael Lewis
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"Phytoliths: The Storytelling Stones Inside Plants," by Thomas C. Hart
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"What Next for Particle Physics?" by Jon Butterworth
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January-February 2015
Volume: 103 Number: 1
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"Arsenic, the 'King of Poisons,' in Food and Water," by Andrew Yosim, Kathryn Bailey, and Rebecca C. Fry
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"Journey to the Solar System's Third Zone," by S. Alan Stern
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"The Acoustic World of Harbor Porpoises," by Magnus Wahlberg, Meike Linnenschmidt, Peter T. Madsen, Danuta M. Wisniewska, and Lee A. Miller
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"When the Cause of Stroke is Cryptic," by David M. Kent and David E. Thaler
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"Like Holding a Piece of Sky," by Mark Miodownik
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November-December 2014
Volume: 102 Number: 6
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"Candy Crush’s Puzzling Mathematics," by Toby Walsh
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"The Evolutionary Truth About Living Fossils," by Alexander J. Werth and William A. Shear
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"Curious Chemistry Guides Hydrangea Colors," by Henry D. Schreiber
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"Estrogen in Men," by Erik Wibowo and Richard Wassersug
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"The Statistical Crisis in Science," by Andrew Gelman and Eric Loken
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September-October 2014
Volume: 102 Number: 5
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"A Threat to New Zealand’s Tuatara Heats Up," by Kristine L. Grayson, Nicola J. Mitchell, and Nicola J. Nelson
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"Master of Missing Elements," by Eric R. Scerri
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"What’s in a Grasp?" by David A. Rosenbaum, Oliver Herbort, Robrecht van der Wel, and Daniel J. Weiss
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"New Twists in Earth’s Radiation Belts," by Daniel N. Baker
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"Quietest Places in the World," by Trevor Cox
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