Q: Why do certain colors look good together, but others clash? —Mary Lynn W. A: First, imagine a rainbow. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet, all laid out in a line. Now pull that rainbow into a circle, so that violet touches red. That

Helping other people is super nice—but also sometimes selfish. Today at lunch I may give you a handful of my pretzels, secretly hoping that tomorrow you’ll give me a bite of your chocolate bar. Or maybe I volunteer to play tuba for the school band kn

A hungry fly zips through a steamy jungle on the island of Borneo. The fly is on the trail of a fruity smell, the smell of dinner. The fly lands on the leaf of a pitcher plant. The vase-shaped leaf is filled with fluid and topped with a lid that is p

MARKUS REHM can leap much farther than the length of your family car. He’s a world champion long jumper. But he only has one leg. He wears a device called a prosthesis in place of his missing leg. You’d think that a missing leg would cause problems—e

People throw out a lot of garbage, but there are some places where waste is worth its weight in gold. Houweling’s Tomatoes is a business that grows and sells greenhouse vegetables. Company chairman Casey Houweling runs the business. He has always bee

GRAB SOME FRIENDS AND SEE if you can solve this cooperative challenge! Before you start, make sure you have at least four people and an open, flat space outdoors. The story begins . . . Whoo whoo! A train whistle blares, louder and louder. You and

Sam Oliner was 12 years old when German soldiers, Nazis, swept through his Polish village. The Nazis ordered all Jews to quickly pack a few belongings and then moved them into a crowded, sealed-off neighborhood 10 miles (16 km) away. Two miserable mo

Jai Ranganathan is a biologist who has studied rainforest conservation. But now he devotes his time to a different project. You may have heard about how crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter and GoFundMe are helping people raise money for medical care,

I could hear the protests from the end of the hallway at Children’s Hospital Colorado. “No! NO!” Nico’s* leg had been amputated after an injury. Now he had an artificial leg. His therapists wanted him to try to walk. “No!” he shouted again. “It hurts

Simple, two-player games can be fun. They also let you try out strategies that may later help solve difficult problems. Try this game: Place an even number of coins in a line. Use coins of various values. You and another player take turns removing a

Making friends when you move to a new home can be tough. One beluga whale found a good way to do it: learn a new language. The female beluga moved to a new aquarium a few years ago. In her old tank, she swam with other belugas. But in her new tank, t

I am writing mostly to say how much I love Muse! And to tell every single one of the Muse staff thank you for creating a special magazine. And the Muse community of respectful, caring, and truly bright Muse fans, thank you. Whether you’re simply just

You may have heard about citizen science. But what is it, and why are some people, including scientists, so obsessed about it? Citizen science refers to any project where members of the public—everyday people—volunteer to help scientists. You may thi

Q: Is it possible to die of boredom? —Jerry A., 14, Virginia A : " To figure out if we can die of boredom, we first have to understand what boredom is. For help, we called James Danckert, a psychologist who studies boredom at the University of Waterl

Thirteen-year-old Sia needs a break. It seems he’s just been in a food fight—not the fun, silly school cafeteria kind but a serious one that resulted in a painful cut on his foot. He and his mom, Suzee, decide to rest, while his energetic toddler sis

On April 3, Jane Goodall has a big birthday: She turns 90 years old. Goodall is the world’s foremost expert on chimpanzees. Her impressive career began more than 60 years ago! Today, she continues to keep a busy schedule, speaking often. As the Jane

What do you have in common with the aye-aye, sifaka, siamang, and potto? If you said your collarbone, you’re probably a primatologist—a person who studies primates. If you’re not, read on. Just like those animals with the weird names, you belong to t

In a steamy rainforest, an orangutan scales a tree, gripping and grabbing with fingers and toes. Palm fronds rustle. At the top, it uses its teeth and hairy hands to rip away the bark, revealing the ivory-colored center, the “heart of the palm.” High

A group of test-takers are all focused on a math exam. It consists of one problem, which most people cannot solve. Yet some of the test-takers get the right answer quickly and easily every time. Now here’s the surprise. The test-takers who can’t get

EVERYONE HAS AN INFINITE NUMBER of relatives, some of which are very far away, most of which are very old, and only a few of which are kids your age. Of the few relatives your age who live close, most are boys, and are not interesting. The boys claim

Feel the grass under you as you start rolling down the hill. You’re turning over and over, the world swirling into a kaleidoscope of green, blue, and sunlight. With every roll you can’t help but giggle. Finally, you come to a stop at the bottom, the

In August 2021 off the coast of Alaska, researchers had what may have been the first ever “conversation” with a humpback whale. The team included scientists who study whales, as well as one astronomer who works at the SETI Institute in Northern Calif

When you’re feeling sick, it probably doesn’t occur to you to try eating tree bark. But that’s precisely what some chimpanzees may do. You might already know that chimpanzees share plenty of similarities with humans: They play, they fight, they form

“Hello, Muse Crew!!!!” “This is your nightmare...” “Beckett! I told you not to say anything weird like that!! This is a professional letter!” “Um, hello? Weird is my signature trait! I had to say something after the way you started the letter! All ch

A CHIMPANZEE STICKS ITS FINGER THROUGH A HOLE IN ITS ENCLOSURE. Next, a researcher attaches a heart rate monitor to the finger. As the chimp sips on a juice reward for cooperating, a camera records its face. The images feed into an artificial intelli