Muse: The magazine of science, culture, and smart laughs for kids and children

When bad weather hits, many animals don’t have a place to hide. Certain island lizards can survive a wind storm by holding on with their front toes and letting their bodies fly. Researchers had just finished studying a common lizard species on Carib

I am interested in the hot pink bunny (HBP) case. I have read all the accounts of the story, but I want to know the full story. Unfortunately, I don’t have any of the old Muses (2002–2004)—they were written before I was born!—and neither does my libr

Team members list concerns in their community. They spend weeks reflecting. With time, they narrow it to one. Homelessness is a major problem, and it’s on the rise. “We see homeless people in our community—at church, on the streets, and in our family

Q: If everything the human brain does is basically sets of electrical impulses, how exactly does that translate into a state of mind? —Alejandro M., age 15, Washington A: You’re not the only one asking this question. Every neuroscientist in the wor

Inventors come up with ideas that other people might think are wild. They want to make something new, get something to work better, or fix something. They are dreamers. InBae Yoon was like this, even as a child. He grew up in Korea during very diffic

Growing up near Los Angeles, California, Aracely Chavez often saw homeless people. So when she and a group of her high-school classmates set out to invent something that would help others, they thought of a tent. As participants in DIY Girls, an afte

Mark Agostinelli and several of his classmates descend into the dolphin cave. It’s a dark and dusty school basement in Hyannis, Massachusetts, a coastal community located on Cape Cod. Amidst the clutter of old school desks and construction equipment

WILL YOU develop a vaccine to cure a deadly illness or innovate the next social media fad? Or maybe you’ll improve the way we travel or create a must-have app. Sure, you’re capable of inventing something wonderful. But what will it be? Here’s a fun,

When a newborn baby struggles to stay warm, she may depend on an incubator—a warming device—to keep her healthy. But incubators are specialized machines that can cost thousands of dollars to build. That cost makes them inaccessible for many people ar

You’re done with your ear buds, so you carefully coil the headphone cord around your phone and stuff it in your pocket. The next time you take it out, however, you find that you have to unravel the cord and undo a knot before you can go back to liste

The arm on display dazzles viewers. It consists of 3D-printed plastic pieces with windshield-wiper motors to power its joints and knuckles. Brainwaves from an EEG (electroencephalography) headset control its movement. The user imagines giving a thumb

For the SOAR Early College High School InvenTeam, the path to the 2018 EurekaFest at MIT began very close to home. It was on a walk through the school’s California campus. Watching their fellow students, they realized that many kids travel solo. And

Do you dream up inventions? Ever thought about entering one of your inventions in a contest? In 2018, Kavi, 9, and Hamsini, 11, entered Spark!Lab Dr. InBae Yoon Invent It Challenge. Each won an award for their age division. They shared their experien

INVENTIONS IMPROVE our lives. But not all of them. Every once in a while, a bizarre, outlandish, or downright silly idea appears on Kickstarter, Indiegogo, or another crowdfunding platform. Of the four real inventions below, which do you think most d