Popular Science Team

Writers, Editors, and Contributors

More from Popular Science Team

A little boy in a striped shirt holding a sparkler in front of a lakeshore.
Ask Us Anything

Why summer flies by as an adult—but lasted forever when you were 10

By Popular Science Team

two young eagles in a nest
Birds

Jackie and Shadow’s chicks’ genders revealed: It’s a boy…and a girl!

By Popular Science Team

a whale underwater
Wildlife

11 captivating images from the Exposure One Photography Awards

By Popular Science Team

Queen Marie Antoinette of France and two of her Children Walking in The Park of Trianon, 1785.
The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week

Marie Antoinette probably got braces to straighten her teeth

By Popular Science Team

three birds in a nest
Birds

Bald eagle Jackie shoos away Fiona the squirrel

By Popular Science Team

two adult eagles and two babies in nest
Birds

Jackie and Shadow’s chicks no longer sleep with mom in the nest bowl

By Popular Science Team

a sunset over a glacier
Climate Change

10 images of Iceland’s changing landscape

By Popular Science Team

a swimming hippo
The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week

There’s more than one way to sterilize a cocaine hippo. Unfortunately, both ways suck. 

By Popular Science Team

baby eagles with parent in nest
Birds

Jackie and Shadow’s eaglets practice stomping and flapping

By Popular Science Team

Close up of an airplane toilet with the lid open.
Ask Us Anything

Why airplane toilets are tiny engineering marvels

By Popular Science Team

woman with flame
Health

The explosive history of spontaneous combustion

By Popular Science Team

two bald eagle chicks
Birds

Jackie and Shadow’s eaglets can now see like their parents

By Popular Science Team

This scene was captured at the Very Large Telescope (VLT) on Cerro Paranal, in Chile’s Atacama Desert, under exceptionally pure observing conditions where the boundary between Earth and sky feels almost seamless. The Milky Way stretches across the sky, with its dense central bulge rising prominently overhead. To the left, the Magellanic Clouds, two neighboring satellite galaxies, are visible to the naked eye from the Southern Hemisphere. Subtle airglow adds another layer to the scene, a natural emission produced by chemical reactions in the upper atmosphere at altitudes of 80 to 100 kilometers. In this image, it reveals a range of colors, with green tones on the left and warmer reddish hues toward the right. In the foreground stands the VLT, operated by the European Southern Observatory. Situated at 2,635 meters above sea level, the site benefits from extremely dry conditions, stable atmospheric layers, and minimal light pollution, resulting in more than 300 clear nights each year. The observatory consists of four primary telescopes, each equipped with 8.2-meter mirrors. One of them, UT4 (Yepun), projects four sodium laser beams into the sky, creating artificial guide stars at an altitude of approximately 90 kilometers. These reference points enable adaptive optics systems to correct for atmospheric distortion in real time, significantly enhancing the clarity and precision of astronomical observations.
Space

19 breathtaking images from the Milky Way Photographer of the Year 2026 awards

By Popular Science Team

Woman crying while watching TV
The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week

Movies use this one musical trick to make you feel miserable 

By Popular Science Team

clock and woman's face
Popular Science Videos

The real reasons permanent Daylight Saving Time never stuck

By Popular Science Team

A green parrot stands outside of its cage looking at a young boy with brown hair wearing a pink shirt.
Birds

Why parrots talk like humans

By Popular Science Team

bird with grass on its face
Wildlife

18 silly finalists from the Comedy Wildlife People’s Choice Awards

By Popular Science Team

Male and female Svalbard reindeer (Rangifer tarandus platyrhynchus) at Gosbergkilen, Spitsbergen, Svalbard, Norway, Scandinavia, Europe
The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week

Why do female reindeer have antlers? Cannibalism, probably. 

By Popular Science Team

tiger amongst mangroves
Wildlife

8 cool images from the Mangrove Photography Awards

By Popular Science Team

woman wiht '21 grams'
Health

One man’s obsessive quest to weigh the human soul

By Popular Science Team