• Science

    Today's Flu News

    By Stuart Fox Posted on 4.28.2009 5 Comments

    It's been three days since swine flu made it to the front page of most newspapers, and I'd like to thank all the readers who have chosen to follow PopSci's coverage, instead of retreating to their basements with ammo and clean water. Here are some highlights from the ongoing media frenzy.

  • Technology

    What's Happening to the Sun?

    By Paul Adams Posted on 1.27.2009 26 Comments

    For about 50 years from roughly 1650 to 1700, the Sun took a break from its typical sunspot activity. That phase of solar rest coincided with what we now refer to as "The Little Ice Age" -- a period of cooling on the Earth that resulted in bitterly cold winters, particularly in Europe and North America. Scientists attribute the Little Ice Age to two main causes: increased volcanic activity and reduced solar activity. Could it happen again? And are we headed there now?

  • Science

    This Machine Might* Save the World

    By Paul Adams Posted on 12.23.2008 46 Comments

    The source of endless energy for all humankind resides just off Government Street in Burnaby, British Columbia, up the little spit of blacktop on Bonneville Place and across the parking lot from Shade-O-Matic blind manufacturers and wholesalers. The future is there, in that mostly empty office with the vomit-green walls -- and inside the brain of Michel Laberge, 47, bearded and French-Canadian.

  • Science

    Science Dweebs Often Virgins

    By Abby Seiff Posted on 12.11.2008 14 Comments

    Think back to your college years. Did you spend more time at the lab bench than at the bar? Was getting a date harder than organic chem? If you carried protection was it for your pocket? We thought so.

  • Entertainment & Gaming

    Rise of the Game-Playing Machines

    By Paul Adams Posted on 8.8.2008 8 Comments

    The game of Go has long been a bastion of human brilliance. While computers have gotten steadily better at playing chess and poker, they've had a harder time wrapping their silicon minds around the elegant Japanese strategy game. That's why it's a big deal that a computer Go player known as MoGo beat a top-ranked human, Myungwan Kim, yesterday.

  • DIY

    Pectin: Not Just For Jelly

    By Paul Adams Posted on 7.7.2008 1 Comments

    Pectin is probably most recognizable to home cooks as the ingredient that thickens jellies and jams and gives them that smooth, sticky texture. Pectin is an indigestible soluble fiber which, when combined with water, forms a colloidal system and gels. It has a wide range of uses. It can be found as a gelling, thickening or stabilizing additive in food, an ingredient in laxatives, a demulcent in throat lozenges, and vegetable glue for cigars.

  • The Environment

    Endangered Animals 100 Times Worse Off than Previously Believed

    By Abby Seiff Posted on 7.3.2008 11 Comments

    Adding insult to injury, many species that are already solidly facing extinction might actually be 100 times more endangered than previously thought, scientists say. A new mathematical model, developed by ecologists at the University of Colorado at Boulder and the University of California, produces extinction risks that are orders of magnitude higher than conservation biologists estimated in compilations like the IUCN red-list.

  • Technology

    Martian Soil Is Alkaline

    By Matt Ransford Posted on 6.30.2008 9 Comments

    Now that the glitches caused by the Martian soil's clumpy consistency have been shaken out, the Phoenix Lander has been able to cook up a few samples to test the soil composition. The preliminary results are surprising even to the chemists at work on the project: the soil is alkaline, and much more so than anyone expected. The analysis has found trace amounts of magnesium, sodium, potassium, and other elements similar to those in the soil on Earth. On first pass, Martian dirt appears to be non-toxic and laden with the basic nutrients necessary to support life.

  • Cars

    Why Can't Our Cars Get Better Mileage?

    By Dawn Stover Posted on 7.3.2008 28 Comments

    In April, the U.S. Secretary of Transportation proposed new CAFE (corporate average fuel economy) standards that would increase the average efficiency of passenger cars and light trucks by 4.5 percent per year from 2011 to 2015. A lot of people wondered why the federal government wasn't aiming higher.

  • Cars

    GM Vice Chairman Calls Global Warming A "Total Crock of S**t"

    By John Mahoney Posted on 2.13.2008 47 Comments

    Heres an odd PR move making the blog rounds today: Bob Lutz, the General Motors Vice Chairman whos driving the charge to build the Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid, was recently quoted in D Magazine calling global warming a crock of s**t.


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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?


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