Engineering (Page 6)

A guide to the structures, machines, and systems that power and connect our world.

Latest in Engineering

George Lucas, Doug Chiang, and John Knoll in a scene from Lucasfilm's LIGHT & MAGIC, Season 2, exclusively on Disney+.

Q&A: The legendary VFX artist who brought Captain Davy Jones, ‘The Abyss,’ and more to life

By Laura Baisas

Huajiang Canyon Bridge seen from above

World’s tallest bridge nears completion in China

Lunar rover prototype in parking lot

All-terrain space truck hopes to drive astronauts on the moon

Four urinals mounted on tiled wall

New urinal designs use physics to prevent pee splashback

Concept art showing augmented reality smart glass window in airplane cabin

Smart glass windows would beam in-flight info over scenic views

University of Kentucky basketball arena filled with people

Would you play basketball on a glass floor? This German startup thinks you should.

a gloved hand hold circular hydrogel

3D-printed ‘skin’ could make testing cosmetics on animals obsolete

By Mack DeGeurin

close up of finger balancing a grain of rice next to tiny pacemaker for size comparison

World’s smallest pacemaker is the size of a grain of rice

Concept art depicting a portion of the Future Circular Collider particle accelerator

The atom-smashing Large Hadron Collider’s successor will be 56 miles wide

Bridge over water in Rio Vista, California

Billionaire utopian city launches new shipyard plan

Transparent wood sample overlaying 'Transparent wood (TW)' on computer screen

Eggs, sticky rice, and transparent wood create new kind of window

a sports car in motion

The symphonic sounds of the McLaren 750S are a feat of engineering

By Kristin Shaw

Atlas robot doing a somersault

Humanoid robots are breakdancing, with mixed results

Close up of hand wearing SpellRing device on thumb

Wearable ring translates sign language into text

Hand holding titanium heart implant against black background

In world first, man leaves hospital with titanium heart

Compilation of Guthman Music Competition participants

Electromagnetic fields and dinosaur choir win international instrument contest

a man in a diving tube on text

100 years of deep-sea filmmaking and ocean exploration

By Bill Gourgey

a woman and a patent

The forgotten story of the woman who invented the dishwasher

This artist concept depicts NASA Voyager 1 spacecraft entering interstellar space. Interstellar space is dominated by the plasma, or ionized gas, that was ejected by the death of nearby giant stars millions of years ago.

NASA squeezes more life from 47-year-old Voyager probes

a colorful illustration of an open mouth

New device lets you taste food in virtual reality

By Mack DeGeurin

CR450AF high speed train on track in China with two people looking at it

At 281 mph, China tests its fastest high-speed train

Philippines ocean coast with mountains

Southeast Asian sailors possibly mastered seafaring before Polynesians

Microscopic Lego bricks on pinhead next to human hair

The world’s smallest handmade sculpture is a blood cell-sized Lego brick

Aerial view of Great Wall of China surrounded by forests

The Great Wall of China is 300 years older than we thought

Majorana 1 quantum computing chip

New state of matter powers Microsoft quantum computing chip

View of fog at the Atacama desert in Iquique, some 2000 km north of Santiago, on April 19, 2016. Catholic University of Chile researchers' challenge is to implement a fog collection system -which uses large pieces of vertical canvas to make the fog condense into droplets- in small communities which don't have drinkable water in Atacama desert. / AFP / MARTIN BERNETTI (Photo credit should read MARTIN BERNETTI/AFP via Getty Images)

In the driest place on Earth, water hides in plain sight

By Lauren Leffer

a map of the world with a line representing where the cable would connect

Meta spending billions on world’s longest subsea internet cable

By Mack DeGeurin

Model Muriel Maxwell in white sunglasses putting on lipstick, wearing red-white-and-blue turban, andv holding a red-and-white striped bag *** Local Caption ***

The evolution of sunglasses from science to style (and back again)

Inventor demonstrating modified trumpet invention

The 10 coolest musical instruments you’ll see in 2025

Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson/Captain America in Marvel Studios’ CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD.

Could we really make Captain America’s shield? A materials scientist weighs in.

By Laura Baisas

a seal with grey coloring wearing an orange heart rate monitor around its abdomen

Baby seals are wearing heart monitors–for science

By Laura Baisas

XB-1 plane taking off in desert

Experimental jet achieves supersonic flight, minus the boom

a car with "NASCAR" on hood parked inside a facility with man standing outside of car

How 3D-printed parts changed the NASCAR Cup Series

By Kristin Shaw

Experimental results of the miniaturized DN2s integrated at the distal facet of a MMF using the 3D GS-TPN fabrication method, showing SEM and white-light microscopy images.

This AI chip is the size of a grain of salt

Crane installing wind turbine wings

New wind turbines will test out the world’s longest wooden blades

Sierra Space Dream Chaser spaceplane landing on runway

Curvy spaceplane is one step closer to its ISS rendezvous

Thermogalvanic fridge prototype device held in blue gloved hand

The electrochemical cells that could power fridges of the future

XB-1 during test flight

Boom Supersonic breaks sound barrier for the first time

Bee with QR sticker held in researcher's hand

Researchers glued teeny-tiny QR codes to 30,000 bees

3D printed gun parts seized by law enforcement

New York considers background check for 3D printers

a beefed-up truck drives across desert dunes

How Ford crafted a Raptor T1+ to race across 5,000 miles of desert

By Kristin Shaw

Mars rover prototype in simulated Martian environment with alloy wheels

NASA teases bendable titanium wheels on future Mars rovers

Woman using old cell phone in Nokia ad

12 Nokia Design Archive photos celebrating peak Y2K tech

By Popular Science Staff

Interior of plane cabin with sunlight coming in from window

The FAA is finally looking into sweltering airplane cabins

Toyota's Woven City at dusk with Mount Fuji in background

Welcome to Woven City: Toyota offers first glimpse at futuristic town

Roboticists at the Tallinn University of Technology have developed a new class of bio-inspired feet that significantly enhance robot mobility on challenging terrains like mud and wet snow.

Dog robots can trek through mud using moose-inspired hooves

five different engineering products

5 coolest engineering innovations of 2024

By Andrew Rosenblum

Martian landscape photo taken by Mars rover

Researchers propose building homes on Mars with human blood

a turtle swims in a tank wearing a black weighted harness on its side

Sea turtle with ‘bubble butt syndrome’ gets a 3D-printed custom harness

By Laura Baisas

This image of NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter was taken by the Mastcam-Z instrument of the Perseverance rover on June 15, 2021, the 114th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. The location, "Airfield D" (the fourth airfield), is just east of the "Séítah" geologic unit.

NASA is finishing its first off-world accident report

A close-up view of a green traffic light with an image of two walking lesbian girls at the center of Vienna, Austria.

Some of the world’s smartest traffic lights are getting smarter

NASA needs your help designing a gurney for the moon

Close up of tweezers holding small diamond

Diamond optical discs could store data for millions of years

Image of aircraft wing over Greenland ice sheet with radar image of Camp Century underneath it

NASA radar picks up frozen, buried Cold War base Camp Century

Notre Dame de Paris cathedral on November 2, 2016 in Paris, France. It's the finest example of French Gothic architecture and the largest and most well-known church buildings in the world.

Notre Dame rises from the ashes in behind-the-scenes photos

By Laura Baisas

Each individual strand is too narrow to be clearly captured by any form of visible light camera or microscope.

Behold the world’s thinnest spaghetti

By Laura Baisas

Aurora MK-II rocket plane above Earth

Watch the first commercial supersonic test flight in over 20 years

a large lump of fat, oil, grease, and other refuse dug up from a sewer on display in a musuem

The battle against fatbergs has a new weapon

By Laura Baisas

Gloved hand pointing to LignoSat wooden satellite prototype

World’s first wooden satellite shares material with samurai sword sheaths

Close up of C-17 cargo plane

Boeing allegedly overcharged the military 8,000% for airplane soap dispensers

Male Eastern Bluebird (Sialia sialis) in flight

Feather-inspired wing flaps may prevent planes from stalling

A tiny home made using the nacelle casing from a wind turbine

Recycled wind turbines may one day become tiny homes and floating playgrounds

FastRig wing-sail deployed on cargo ship at dock

A nuclear waste tanker ship is testing a 65-foot-tall wing-sail

A technician inspects a prototype LISA telescope.

NASA unveils model of LISA, a satellite array for studying ripples in space-time