The US is making its biggest investment in broadband internet ever

The infrastructure bill, expected to be signed into law on Monday, includes very big news for broadband internet access in the United States. | Continue reading


@popsci.com | 2 years ago

Juno finally got close enough to Jupiter's Great Red Spot to measure its depth

Juno, which launched into orbit in 2011, is giving researchers a glimpse of what lies beneath the surface of the planet’s great storm. | Continue reading


@popsci.com | 2 years ago

Clostridium, a nasty pathogen, makes an infectiously delicious confection

How Clostridium, a nasty pathogen, makes an infectiously delicious confection | Continue reading


@popsci.com | 2 years ago

The Evercade VS console plays vintage video games on modern cartridges

With up to four players and dozens of officially licensed classic games, the Evercade VS looks like lots of fun. | Continue reading


@popsci.com | 2 years ago

How to identify bad science in news articles

Science reporting is complex, which means it can be easily faked. Know what to look for and you won't get fooled. | Continue reading


@popsci.com | 2 years ago

A key part of the Big Bang remains troublingly elusive

Physicists still don't understand what happened in the instant after the Big Bang and a leading theory continues to be called into question. | Continue reading


@popsci.com | 2 years ago

Lighting tricks that will make small rooms feel gigantic

Lighting can change how a person feels about a space, so use these lighting tricks to make small rooms look bigger than they actually are. | Continue reading


@popsci.com | 2 years ago

The 123,000 MPH Plasma Engine That Could Finally Take Astronauts to Mars

You might expect to find our brightest hope for sending astronauts to other planets in Houston, at NASA's Johnson Space Center, inside a high-security multibillion-dollar facility. But it's actually a few miles down the street, in a large warehouse behind a strip mall. This bland … | Continue reading


@popsci.com | 2 years ago

Why a record number of container ships are backed up off the coast of California

So many container ships are trying to make it to port, some of them are just drifting due to a dearth of anchorages. Here's why. | Continue reading


@popsci.com | 2 years ago

The View from the Highest Ever Orbital Mission

When Pete Conrad couldn't take Gemini 11 to the Moon, he did the next best thing and took it into an 850-mile high Earth orbit. | Continue reading


@popsci.com | 2 years ago

How to fact check suspicious science stories for yourself (2019)

Science headlines sound too good to be true? Here’s how to evaluate those studies. | Continue reading


@popsci.com | 2 years ago

Solar power got cheap. So why aren’t we using it more?

The cost of renewable energy, and solar in particular, has plummeted in the last decade. So why has there not been a green revolution? | Continue reading


@popsci.com | 2 years ago

Humans just generated nuclear energy akin to a star

The latest nuclear fusion experiment from the US National Ignition Lab is a promising development in the quest for cleaner energy. | Continue reading


@popsci.com | 2 years ago

Moderna is about to begin human trials for an HIV vaccine based on the same technology used in its COVID-19 vaccine. | Continue reading


@popsci.com | 2 years ago

Audi's in-car system help drivers avoid red lights

The car’s cellular radio downloads real-time updates on the status of nearby traffic lights, supplied by participating local traffic control centers. | Continue reading


@popsci.com | 2 years ago

Doctors altered a person’s genes with CRISPR for the first time in the U.S.

Last week, a young woman with sickle cell anemia became the first person in the United States to have her cells altered with CRISPR gene editing technology. Here's what that means for the future treatment of genetic diseases. | Continue reading


@popsci.com | 2 years ago

Can this fruit be saved? (2005)

Ed Note: In 2005 Dan Koeppel traveled to Central America to begin his research on the banana—a fruit whose ubiquity, he discovered, may very well prove to be its downfall. His book, 'Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World,' was recently published to much acclaim. He … | Continue reading


@popsci.com | 2 years ago

The world’s worst conductor could be a game changer in the climate crisis

By combining two materials, researchers have made a solid that conducts heat like a gas. A new material that’s among the world's worst heat conductors could make a superb insulator | Continue reading


@popsci.com | 2 years ago

Why don’t we put power lines underground?

“Put power lines underground!” is a common hurricane season rallying cry. So why don’t we do it? | Continue reading


@popsci.com | 2 years ago

The new NASA missions to Venus

For decades, planetary science has focused mainly on Mars. A dedicated contingent of Venusophiles, however, never lost sight our Earth's other neighbor. | Continue reading


@popsci.com | 2 years ago

What is ‘degrowth’ and how can it fight climate change?

A slowed-down economy could help the planet—and the people living on it. | Continue reading


@popsci.com | 2 years ago

Canada's Destructive Firestorms, Explained

It’s at least as terrifying as it sounds. How wildfires can help create thunder and lightning. | Continue reading


@popsci.com | 2 years ago

Super Glass Material Is Almost as Strong as Steel

A team of Japanese researchers has found a way to add a version of aluminum to the glass using a new production method, according to a study published last month in Scientific Reports. | Continue reading


@popsci.com | 2 years ago

People may have arrived in North America much earlier than we thought

Humans may have arrived in the Americas as early as 30,000 years ago, pushing back the date we thought the first inhabitants arrived. | Continue reading


@popsci.com | 2 years ago

Autonomous weapons could make grave errors in war

Popular Science received an exclusive first look at a UN Institute Report exploring the ways that machines could make mistakes in combat. | Continue reading


@popsci.com | 2 years ago

Dam reservoirs may be much bigger sources of carbon emissions than we thought

The reservoirs created by dams were thought to store carbon—it turns out they may actually release twice as much as they stash away. | Continue reading


@popsci.com | 2 years ago

The explosion of pasta shapes was fueled by modern technology

While most people think of Italy as the pasta capital of the world, the Western staple has a long history in Asia. Here's how the global dominance of noodles unfolded. | Continue reading


@popsci.com | 2 years ago

Alternatives to Cat Declawing

The harms outweigh the benefits of declawing a cat. Instead, try a little cat training to save your furniture from scratches. | Continue reading


@popsci.com | 2 years ago

It's likely not lens distortion that caused the curious appearance. Instead, it's something called perspective distortion. | Continue reading


@popsci.com | 3 years ago

Humans are natural runners–and this ancient gene mutation might have helped

Your cells are ready to run a marathon, even if you’re not. Every cell in the human body is carrying a mutation that might help optimize our muscles for running long distances, according to some recent research. | Continue reading


@popsci.com | 3 years ago

How the most distant object ever made by humans is spending its dying days

Some 40 years after it left Earth, Voyager 1 is still surprising scientists with the data it transmits home. But its days are numbered. | Continue reading


@popsci.com | 3 years ago

Signs your laptop is in trouble

How can you tell when your laptop is fighting a virus or dealing with hard drive failure? Look out for these bright red flags. | Continue reading


@popsci.com | 3 years ago

In Perfect Conditions, Rainbows Can Come Alive at Night

A lunar rainbow is a hard-to-see phenomenon in which sunlight reflecting off the moon is filtered through water droplets in the air. | Continue reading


@popsci.com | 3 years ago

The first swarm of genetically modified mosquitos is about to hit the US

A biotech company has added female-killing gene to Aedes aegypti, but it may or may not work for disease control in the wild. | Continue reading


@popsci.com | 3 years ago

Get a Burner Phone Number

If you care about privacy, you should get a burner phone number for certain situations. You don't need a second device—there are apps that will do the job. | Continue reading


@popsci.com | 3 years ago

These fossilized lamprey hatchlings disprove an age-old evolutionary theory

Lampreys have long been thought to be the earliest vertebrates. But new fossils of hatchling lampreys suggest that theory is completely wrong. | Continue reading


@popsci.com | 3 years ago

A real-life carbon coin could save the planet

The idea of a carbon coin, from Kim Stanley Robinson's book Ministry for the Future, is based on real research that suggests a carbon-based currency could actually help save the planet. | Continue reading


@popsci.com | 3 years ago

Johnson and Johnson's Covid-19 vaccine, explained

The latest COVID vaccine to show high effectiveness rates works a little differently from either of the currently approved vaccines in the US. | Continue reading


@popsci.com | 3 years ago

Two fighter pilots passed out over Nevada last year. Software saved them both

If a fighter pilot doesn't correctly manage the G-forces they experience, they can pass out. Ground-collision avoidance software has now saved 11 lives. | Continue reading


@popsci.com | 3 years ago

Explaining the Texas storm and other bizarrely cold weather this week

The recent cold snap in Texas and other southern states has sparked interest in what exactly is causing all this extreme weather. | Continue reading


@popsci.com | 3 years ago

Check out the double-rotor helicopter that could be the US Armys next Black Hawk

Two aircraft are competing to be the Army’s next Black-Hawk-type helicopter. Here’s what we know about one of them. | Continue reading


@popsci.com | 3 years ago

How to knit your own Bernie mittens

What’s great about these mittens is that no matter what kind of yarn you have or the size of your hands, you can adapt them to fit your needs and supplies. | Continue reading


@popsci.com | 3 years ago

People with extreme views have trouble thinking about their own thinking

Radical political views of all sorts seem to shape our lives to an almost unprecedented extent. But what attracts people to the fringes? | Continue reading


@popsci.com | 3 years ago

Snakes wiggle up smooth poles by turning their bodies into ‘lassoes’

Scientists identified a previously unknown form of movement that the brown tree snakes used to shape their bodies into “lassoes" and pull themselves up the wide metal barriers. | Continue reading


@popsci.com | 3 years ago

Razer’s concept gaming chair wraps players in a curved screen

Razer's super-fancy Project Brooklyn gaming chair may never hit the market, but we can dream. | Continue reading


@popsci.com | 3 years ago

A CIA spyplane crashed outside Area 51 a half-century ago. ()

In January 1967, an A-12, then a secret CIA spyplane, crashed in the Nevada desert outside Area 51. Decades later, one amateur explorer made it his mission to find it. | Continue reading


@popsci.com | 3 years ago

What are frankincense and myrrh, anyway?

Frankincense and myrrh are both tree resins. In their time, they were worth as much as gold, and fought over like oil today. Despite thousands of years of use, the family of plants still holds many mysteries. | Continue reading


@popsci.com | 3 years ago

NASA broadcast the Moon landing in 1969

NASA’s live broadcast of Apollo 11’s landing was nearly a decade in the making, and required some stunning feats of engineering. | Continue reading


@popsci.com | 3 years ago