Sports

FIFA is building temporary natural-grass fields meant to play consistently across 16 stadiums in three countries

As millions of soccer fans pack FIFA World Cup venues, public health scientists created a wastewater monitoring network to forecast potential disease threats—from measles to Ebola

How scientists are engineering the perfect World Cup pitch—one so flawless that players never notice it

Wemby’s height gives him an advantage in blocking and rebounding, but how does the tallest player in the NBA keep hitting all those threes?

Denver’s hockey team is studded with stars, but training and playing the game some 5,000 feet above sea level may give their athletic performance a boost over that of their rivals

Several teams appeared to spend the second half of the U.S. professional basketball season losing games on purpose for a better chance at a high draft pick. New ideas propose to fix this incentive problem

A premapped course, a crew of handlers and a world-beating time: here’s what this Beijing half marathon reveals about how far humanoid robots have come—and how far they haven’t

Damage to the blood-brain barrier is linked to immune changes and cognitive decline

When can mathematicians reverse engineer basketball tournament results from your friends’ brackets?

A new study explains why basketball shoes make a high-pitched squeaking noise when they rub against the hardwood. The ridges on their sole hold the key

A small design flaw in the medals for the Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina turned a durability promise into a very public stress test

VO₂ max is an important measure of aerobic conditioning, whether you’re an Olympian or just a person hoping to stay healthy