• The Environment

    Getting Climate Science Right

    By Sean Captain Posted on 2.18.2009 18 Comments

    Katherine Richardson is atypical. This American oceanographer is thriving at the University of Copenhagen, where she serves as Vice Dean of Science. In the genteel worlds of academia and northern Europe, she’s a straight-talker who doesn’t mince her words--uttered with a hearty Massachusetts accent.

  • Cars

    Compressed-Air Cars Planned for Airport Test, US Launch

    By Michael Spinelli Posted on 11.4.2008 17 Comments

    The idea of using compressed air to propel a passenger car has been kicking around tech circles for years. Now, Luxembourg's Motor Development International SA (MDI) may have the first viable angle to launching a first wave of air cars: airport transportation. Behold the AirPod, a four-wheel, multipassenger minicar set to be built in Nice, France. It's one of the brainchildren of Guy Nègre, a former aeronautics and Formula One engineer who's been messing around with compressed-air technology in passenger cars for nearly two decades.

  • Gadgets

    The Mouse That Runs Anywhere

    By Paul Adams Posted on 10.13.2008 12 Comments

    THE TECH To calculate their position, most mice use a red LED or a laser to light up a surface, take thousands of pictures per second of the shadows cast by the surface’s microscopic bumps, and then analyze the differences between shots. But that doesn’t work if there are no bumps, as on glossy tables, or if a jagged surface, like carpet, traps narrow light beams between fibers. So Microsoft’s Explorer moves the camera sensor forward to capture the light reflected by any surface.

  • Science

    The Commercials Commerce

    By Abby Seiff Posted on 5.15.2008 15 Comments

    Im going to be straight with you—if you dont click one of the ads on this page, were all doomed. Maybe not today or tomorrow or next week; but if all those banners and pop-ups and pop-unders and interstitials and nagging floating ads continue to be ignored, or worse, blocked outright, were every one of us in a mess of trouble. Im talking the entire high-flying media world dropping from the sky like flaming meteors. Like it or not, were all in an economic cold war. However, in this one, were fighting against ourselves.

  • Gadgets

    Free Flash on Phones

    By Matt Ransford Posted on 5.5.2008 3 Comments

    Adobe has announced that it will be lifting licensing fees for Flash to developers working on mobile applications as part of its new Open Screen Project. The goal is to bring more rich content to phones across a standardized platform. Flash is already ubiquitous in Web browsers, so the available content on the net is mature and widespread. Currently, phones use a disparate variety of software to power video and games; rarely has the feedback been overwhelmingly positive about a mobile experience with either kind of media.

  • Science

    If a Train Leaves New York at 5pm . . . Will it Teach a Kid Math?

    By Matt Ransford Posted on 5.5.2008 10 Comments

    We have all at one point or another learned some variation of a mathematical formula involving trains and their timetables. For example: if a train leaves Boston for New York at 7am and travels at 60mph, will it beat a train leaving Providence at 6am traveling 45mph? The idea behind this kind of "story" problem is to engage a student with a real-world example to which they can relate. The thinking follows that that engagement will solidify the mathematical concept. It's one of those conceits that has hung around for seemingly as long as math has been taught. And it may very well be completely wrong.

  • Science

    Your Sewer on Drugs

    By Abby Seiff Posted on 2.21.2008 16 Comments

    Jörg Rieckermann snaps on a pair of purple rubber gloves, picks up a crowbar, and levers a manhole cover out of the way. “Here’s my access to the underworld,” Rieckermann, who speaks with a faint German accent, says as he hoists up a barrel-shaped robot suspended above a stream of raw sewage.

  • Gadgets

    The Ties That Bind

    By Megan Miller Posted on 4.15.2008 2 Comments

    Since long before the dawn of this century (always wanted to say that), tech pundits and proselytizers have been consulting their trusty prediction machines and proclaiming The Year of Wireless. It happened when IR ports showed up on laptops, then again when wireless mice began gracing desktops. Nearly everyone got on the bandwagon when Wi-Fi appeared, followed again with GPRS, EDGE, EVDO, etc—and of course with that most overpromised and underdelivered of technologies, Bluetooth.

  • Science

    It May be Preposterous but it’s Still Science

    By Abby Seiff Posted on 3.18.2008 4 Comments

    Is all this work on string theory and multiple dimensions and extra universes still science? Thats the question physicist Sean Carroll and writer John Horgan recently debated. Carroll, of the California Institute of Technology, also blogs regularly for Cosmic Variance, and he wrote out a detailed post explaining his position. Obviously, as a cosmologist who works full-time on these seemingly preposterous ideas, he is a bit biased. Hes not the guy youd expect to stop and say it isnt real science. But his piece on the subject does effectively explain why he and, one assumes, other theoretical physicists working on these problems think this way.

  • Science

    The Year’s Most Stunning Medical Images

    By Abby Seiff Posted on 3.13.2008 0 Comments

    While these images were captured by scientists, you might as well classify them as art. Theyre just as stunning, strange and thought-provoking as a masterpiece on canvas. The Wellcome Trust has just announced the 22 winners of its Image Awards, one of which is the fly [left] perched on some sugar crystals.

Page 1 of 3 123next ›last »


138 years of Popular Science at your fingertips.

Innovation Challenges

Make your ideas part of the revolution
Learn morePowered by Innocentive



Popular Science+ For iPad

Each issue has been completely reimagined for your iPad. See our amazing new vision for magazines that goes far beyond the printed page



Download Our App

Stay up to date on the latest news of the future of science and technology from your iPhone or Android phone with full articles, images and offline viewing



Follow Us On Twitter

Featuring every article from the magazine and website, plus links from around the Web. Also see our PopSci DIY feed


February 2012: The Future of Fun

Science is reinventing play, from extreme sports to gamification to ridiculous roller coasters to the playgrounds of tomorrow, and this issue is chock full of fun. Also, on a less fun note: Did global warming destroy my hometown?


circ-top-header.gif
circ-cover.gif
bmxmag-ps