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Ask Us Anything

PopSci editors answer your most-outlandish, mind-burning questions, from the ordinary to the off-the-wall.

Latest Ask Us Anything Stories

FYI: Can Staying Positive Extend Your Life?

By Daniel Engber

/ Aug 12, 2013

FYI: Can Humans Trigger Earthquakes?

By Nick Statt

/ Nov 15, 2011

FYI: What Is The Evolutionary Purpose Of Tickling?

By Natalie Wolchover

/ Aug 12, 2013

Is Hair In Food A Health Risk?

By Victor Zapana

/ Aug 13, 2013

FYI: Why Do Old Married Couples Look Alike?

By Madhumita Venkataramanan

/ Nov 11, 2011

FYI: If I Fell Through Earth, What Would Happen In The Center?

By Susannah F. Locke

/ Aug 14, 2013

What’s The Worst Possible Password?

By Daniel Engber

/ Mar 11, 2015

Could Robot Aliens Exist?

By Steven Dick (as told to Ker Than)

/ Aug 15, 2013

FYI: Can A Paper Cut Be Deadly?

By Carina Storrs

/ Aug 16, 2013

Ask Us Anything: Are Aphrodisiacs For Real? [Video]

By Daniel Engber

/ Mar 7, 2015

FYI: When Will We Evolve Out Of Our Useless Appendages?

By Natalie Wolchover

/ Aug 19, 2013

What Would Happen If I Ate A Teaspoonful Of White Dwarf Star?

By Bjorn Carey

/ Aug 20, 2013

FYI: What Would Happen If I Ate Nothing But Meat?

By Caitlin Kearney

/ Aug 21, 2013

FYI: Why Do We Get Goosebumps and Chills When We’re Scared?

By Sarah Fecht

/ Oct 28, 2011

FYI: Did Cavemen Get Athlete’s Foot?

By Bjorn Carey

/ Aug 22, 2013

Could A Spacecraft Fly Straight Through Jupiter?

By Sally Younger

/ Aug 23, 2013

FYI: What’s The Point Of Sex?

By Benjamin Ewen-Campen

/ Aug 26, 2013

How Big Would A Meteorite Have To Be To Wipe Out All Human Life?

By Daniel Engber

/ Feb 26, 2015

FYI: Could My Cat Be Allergic To Me?

By Lizzie Schiffman

/ Aug 27, 2013

What Does A Star Sound Like?

By Sally Younger

/ Aug 28, 2013

Which Organs Can I Live Without, And How Much Cash Can I Get For Them?

By Bjorn Carey

/ Aug 29, 2013

FYI: Why Don’t Loud Snorers Wake Themselves Up?

By Sandeep Ravindran

/ Dec 9, 2009

FYI: What Are Cruise Missiles, And How Do They Work?

By Kelsey D. Atherton

/ Aug 29, 2013

FYI: Would a Helium-Filled Balloon Float on the Moon?

By Carina Storrs

/ Dec 11, 2009

How Long Would It Take To Walk A Light-Year?

By Jessica Cheng

/ Aug 30, 2013

FYI: Can I Buy The Moon?

By Rebecca Boyle

/ Sep 2, 2013

FYI: What Would Happen If Every Element On The Periodic Table Came Into Contact Simultaneously?

By Bjorn Carey

/ Sep 3, 2013

FYI: Can Anything Move Faster Than Light?

By Sarah Fecht

/ Sep 10, 2013

FYI: Can Snakes Really Be Charmed By Music?

By Ryan Bradley

/ Sep 11, 2013

FYI: How Do You Dispose Of Chemical Weapons?

By Kelsey D. Atherton

/ Sep 11, 2013

Ask Us Anything: Can Body Fat Protect You Like A Built-In Cushion?

By Daniel Engber

/ Feb 6, 2015

Fact: You Carry Around Enough Bacteria To Fill A Large Soup Can

By Nick Statt

/ Sep 12, 2013

FYI: What Happens If I Put Rocket Fuel In My Gas Tank?

By Sean Kane

/ Sep 13, 2013

Can Microwave Technology be Used to Make Food Cold?

By Sandeep Ravindran

/ Jan 4, 2010

FYI: Why Do Libraries Have That Smell?

By Shaunacy Ferro

/ Sep 16, 2013

FYI: How Forceful Is A Sneeze?

By Daniel Engber

/ Sep 17, 2013

FYI: Why Are Escalators So Dangerous?

By Ryan Bradley

/ Sep 17, 2013

FYI: Can Humans Survive In A Completely Self-Sufficient Closed Environment?

By Ryan Bradley

/ Sep 19, 2013

Have Modern Scientists Made Any Advancements In Alchemy?

By Lana Birbrair

/ Sep 20, 2013

Can a Whale Get Rabies?

By Bjorn Carey

/ Jan 12, 2010

Are Acid Flashbacks A Myth?

By Shaunacy Ferro

/ Sep 23, 2013

FYI: Why Do I Poop More When I Have My Period?

By Francie Diep

/ Sep 23, 2013

FYI: Do Insects Have Personalities?

By Daniel Engber

/ Sep 24, 2013

FYI: Is It Possible To Control Our Dreams?

By Kaitlin Miller

/ Sep 25, 2013

FYI: Can Wireless Electricity Kill People?

By Lizzie Schiffman

/ Sep 26, 2013

FYI: Do Cloned Wild Animals Have Instincts?

By Bjorn Carey

/ Sep 27, 2013

FYI: What Would Happen If You Got Zapped By The Large Hadron Collider?

By Daniel Engber

/ Oct 3, 2013

Five Reasons Henrietta Lacks is the Most Important Woman in Medical History

/ Feb 5, 2010

FYI: Does Stress Make You Hungry?

By Daniel Engber

/ Oct 8, 2013

FYI: Can a Woman Really Lift a Car Off Her Pinned Child?

By Julie Beck

/ Aug 11, 2011

Ask Anything: Can Plants Get STDs?

By Daniel Engber

/ Jan 2, 2015

Can We Dispose of Radioactive Waste in Volcanoes?

By Bjorn Carey

/ Feb 18, 2010

FYI: What Is The Most Dangerous Piece Of Laboratory Equipment?

By Joseph A. Bernstein

/ Jul 28, 2011

Who Blows A Lighthouse’s Foghorn?

By Melissa Klein

/ Oct 18, 2016

Why Is It So Hard To Get Rid Of Garlic Breath?

By Melissa Klein

/ Oct 17, 2016

Can Being Cold Really Make You Sick?

By Melissa Klein

/ Oct 18, 2016

FYI: Why Do Ducks Have Orange Feet?

By Bjorn Carey

/ Mar 4, 2010

FYI: Why Do Leaves Turn Different Colors?

By Daniel Engber

/ Oct 28, 2013

FYI: Life Gems

By Elizabeth Svoboda

/ Feb 23, 2006

How Long Could You Survive In A Coffin If You Were Buried Alive?

By Christina Cala

/ Oct 31, 2013

FYI: Can You Overdose On Halloween Candy?

By Shaunacy Ferro

/ Oct 31, 2013

FYI Gallery: Your Burning Science Questions, Answered

By PopSci Staff

/ Mar 15, 2010

FYI: What is the Hottest Pepper in the World?

By Paul Adams

/ Jul 7, 2011

FYI: How Did English Get To Be The International Language Of Science?

By Daniel Engber

/ Nov 6, 2013

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