Popular Science Team

Writers, Editors, and Contributors

More from 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

Hand holds vintage photograph of young boy riding a plastic toy horse with pile of old photos in background.
Ask Us Anything

Why don’t we remember being babies?

By Popular Science Team

Title: Burned Land Credit: © Brais Lorenzo, EFE, Revista 5W, El País Caption: A man fights a wildfire with a branch in Cualedro. When resources are stretched, residents use whatever is available to extinguish flames, including branches, farming tools, and water hoses. Ourense, Galicia, Spain, 15 August 2025. Story: 2025 was a record year for wildfires in Europe. More than 200,000 hectares burned across Galicia during Spain’s worst fire season in about three decades. The increasingly severe fires in this region are attributed to drought and heat intensified by climate change, rural depopulation, and shortsighted forest management policies, including the widespread planting of highly flammable non-native species. Born in Ourense, the photographer grew up with the smell of smoke every summer and has documented Galician wildfires since 2011.
Environment

17 poignant images from the 2026 World Press Photo Contest

By Popular Science Team

This image provided by NASA, astronaut and Artemis II mission specialist Christina Koch peers out of one of the Orion spacecraft's main cabin windows, looking back at Earth, as the crew travels towards the Moon on Thursday, April 2, 2026.
Moons

Artemis II astronaut Christina Koch: ‘Looking back at Earth…it truly emphasized how alike we are’

By Popular Science Team

sliver of earth in background, moon in foreground
Moons

16 inspiring Artemis II photos that’ll make you feel like a tiny Earthling

By Popular Science Team

Two male frigate birds opposing with their gonflated red neck pouches
Birds

Flirty birds inflate throat pouch to attract a mate

By Popular Science Team

three blue-green eggs in a nest sitting in a tree
Birds

10 wild photos of bird eggs

By Popular Science Team

Close up of braces on Hispanic boy's teeth. He's wearing a blue collared shirt and there's light streaming in behind him. All we see is the bottom of his nose and chin.
Evolution

Ancient humans didn’t need braces. So why do we?

By Popular Science Team