
The 2026 World Cup’s grass is an engineering problem
FIFA is building temporary natural-grass fields meant to play consistently across 16 stadiums in three countries

The 2026 World Cup’s grass is an engineering problem
FIFA is building temporary natural-grass fields meant to play consistently across 16 stadiums in three countries

The World Cup could be a petri dish for disease. Wastewater could sound the alarm
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


Inside the high-stakes effort to bring natural grass to World Cup stadiums
How scientists are engineering the perfect World Cup pitch—one so flawless that players never notice it

San Antonio Spurs star ‘Wemby’ is rocking the NBA playoffs. Science can help explain why
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?

The Colorado Avalanche is dominating the NHL. The reason could lie in a quirk of geography
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

Tanking is ruining NBA basketball. Can math save it?
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 robot ran a half marathon faster than a human. Here’s why folding laundry is still harder
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

Brain’s protective barrier stays leaky for years after playing contact sports
Damage to the blood-brain barrier is linked to immune changes and cognitive decline

The math of March Madness brackets
When can mathematicians reverse engineer basketball tournament results from your friends’ brackets?

Squeak! The surprising new physics of why basketball games are so noisy
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

Italy promised durable Olympic medals. Science had other plans
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

This key fitness metric is crucial for Olympic ski mountaineering—and regular health, too
VO₂ max is an important measure of aerobic conditioning, whether you’re an Olympian or just a person hoping to stay healthy