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Latest in Science

How video game tech, AI, and computer vision help decode animal pain and behavior
Science

How video game tech, AI, and computer vision help decode animal pain and behavior

By Peter Hess

Fruit bats hanging on tree branches in daylight in Bangladesh on November 6, 2023.
Science

Why fruit bats can eat tons of sugar without getting diabetes

By Laura Baisas

Microscopic view of Oikopleura dioica
Science

This tiny sea creature builds a ‘snot palace’ to capture food

By Andrew Paul

A white toilet bowl in a bathroom with yellow brick walls is surrounded by multiple shelves holding plants and towels.
Science

Scientists finally discover the enzyme that makes pee yellow

By Laura Baisas

Smoke billows out of two engines as United Launch Alliance's Vulcan Centaur, lifts off from Space Launch Complex 41d at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on January 8, 2024. The new rocket is carrying Astrobotic's Peregrine Lunar Lander.
Science

Peregrine lunar lander experiences ‘critical loss of propellant’ following successful launch

By Laura Baisas

Illustration of what the Europa Clipper spacecraft will look like flying by Europa, a moon of Jupiter.
Science

These are the exciting space missions slated for launch in 2024

By Ali M. Bramson / The Conversation

The 3,763-meter-high Fuego volcano is located 35 kilometers southwest of Guatemala City. On June 3, 2018, a major eruption triggered an avalanche that swept through the community of San Miguel Los Lotes and part of a highway in the neighboring town of Alotenango, leaving many dead and missing.
Science

Central American volcanoes offer clues to Earth’s geological evolution

By Pablo Fonseca Q. / Knowable Magazine

Voyager 2/ISS images of Uranus and Neptune released shortly after the Voyager 2 flybys in 1986 and 1989, respectively, compared with a reprocessing of the individual filter images in this study to determine the best estimate of the true colors of these planets.
Science

This is what Uranus and Neptune may really look like

By Laura Baisas

Robert Lodder sends Lexington tourism data ad into space at evening launch event with horses in background
Technology

Lexington, Kentucky sent a tourism ad to ‘extraterrestrials’ with a DIY laser rig

By Andrew Paul

The best binoculars for astronomy
Gear

The best binoculars for astronomy in 2024

By Abby Ferguson

Rendering of Astrobotic Peregrin lunar lander on moon's surface
Science

NASA is headed for the moon next week, and it’s bringing lots of weird stuff

By Andrew Paul

Mendenhall Glacier
Environment

In Juneau, Alaska, a carbon offset project that’s actually working

By Taylor Kate Brown / Grist

An illustration of the pelagic ecosystem and the organisms fossilized in Sirius Passet, revealing how Timorebestia was one of the largest predators in the water column more than 518 million years ago.
Environment

Extinct ‘terror beasts’ were some pretty formidable worms

By Laura Baisas

A Matabele ant tends to the wound of a fellow ant whose legs were bitten off in a fight with termites.
Environment

Matabele ants might be able to diagnose and treat infected wounds

By Laura Baisas

Halley’s comet is on its way back towards Earth
Science

Halley’s comet is on its way back towards Earth

By Briley Lewis

A reddish moon on a black background, dotted with several gray marks that are volcanoes. Jupiter's moon Io is one of Jupiter’s several moons. This image was taken on December 30, 2023 during the Juno spacecraft’s flyby of this volcanic Jupiterian moon.
Science

See the most volcanic world in our solar system in new NASA images

By Laura Baisas

A full moon rises n a purple sky over snowy mountain peaks.
Science

The Full Wolf Moon and Quadrantids meteor shower ring in 2024

By Laura Baisas

Check out some of National Geographic’s 2023 Pictures of the Year
Science

Check out some of National Geographic’s 2023 Pictures of the Year

By Laura Baisas

A hand reaches for a present wrapped in red and gold wrapping paper underneath a Christmas tree.
Health

Shaking presents for science

By Laura Baisas

A jellyfish Cladonema pacificum with multiple branched tentacles.
Environment

These fingernail-sized jellyfish can regenerate tentacles—but how?

By Laura Baisas

Black and white aerial shot of Mars Ingenuity helicopter in flight
Science

NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter set a new flight distance record on Mars

By Andrew Paul

The best budget telescopes arranged in a row on a white background
Gear

The best budget telescopes for 2024

By Abby Ferguson

The Running Chicken Nebula comprises several clouds, all of which we can see in this vast image from the VLT Survey Telescope. The clouds shown in wispy pink plumes are full of gas and dust, illuminated by the young and hot stars within them.
Science

The Running Chicken Nebula shimmers in new ESO image

By Laura Baisas

Five new species of soft-furred hedgehogs have been identified
Environment

Five new species of soft-furred hedgehogs have been identified

By Laura Baisas

A small brown frog standing on leaves at the water’s edge.
Environment

This tiny ‘leaf-nester’ is the smallest known fanged frog

By Laura Baisas

Gray and fuzzy mold growing on red strawberries.
Science

Plants may fight mold with molecules and bubbles

By Laura Baisas

Screenshot of cat video sent from Psyche spacecraft to NASA
Technology

Taters the cat stars in first ‘ultra-HD’ video sent from deep space

By Andrew Paul

The vast lava flows on Elysium Planitia as seen by the European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter.
Science

Lava may have flowed over parts of Mars

By Laura Baisas

A volcano spews lava and smoke as it erupts near the town of Grindavik, Iceland.
Science

Volcano erupts in Iceland near an airport, a power plant, and an evacuated town

By Laura Baisas

Newborn baby participating in listening experiment
Science

Babies appear to be born with the ability to discern a beat in music

By Henkjan Honing / MIT Press

An aardvark with a long nose sits in grass.
Environment

Why scientists are studying aardvarks’ poop

By Laura Baisas

How do you make cosmic sausage?
Science

How do you make cosmic sausage?

By Briley Lewis

Amazon’s Project Kuiper successfully tests satellite space lasers
Technology

Amazon’s Project Kuiper successfully tests satellite space lasers

By Mack DeGeurin

A reindeer stands on snowy ground with hills in the distance.
Environment

Reindeer can see UV light—and we may know why

By Laura Baisas

A 2010 image captured by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft shows water from the subsurface ocean of Saturn’s moon Enceladus spraying from huge fissures out into space. The spacecraft sampled icy particles and scientists are continuing to make new discoveries from the data.
Science

More evidence for key ingredients to life detected on Saturn’s moon Enceladus

By Laura Baisas

Tomato plant grown on ISS
Science

The ISS missing tomato scandal has come to a close

By Andrew Paul

The Wakayama Soryu was about the size of a great white shark and lived more than 72 million years ago.
Environment

This ‘blue dragon’ sliced through the ancient Pacific with paddle-like fins

By Laura Baisas

This image from the Near-Infrared Camera instrument on the James Webb Space Telescope shows the central portion of the star cluster IC 348. The wispy curtains filling the image are interstellar material reflecting the light from the cluster’s stars. The bright star closest to the center of the frame is actually a pair of type B stars in a binary system, which are the most massive stars in the cluster. Winds from these stars may help sculpt the large loop seen on the right side of the field of view.
Science

Record-breaking ‘failed star’ spotted by JWST

By Laura Baisas

Artist art of Voyager space probe against purple cosmic background
Science

Voyager 1 is sending back bad data, but NASA is on it

By Andrew Paul

A bearded seal swimming in Arctic waters in Svalbard, Norway. Their name comes from the long and sensitive facial whiskers that they use to find food.
Science

Arctic seals have special noses

By Laura Baisas

Two people hold coffee cups while looking at a a sunrise.
Science

Neanderthals may have been early risers

By Laura Baisas

The skull of a Swedish Viking dating back to the 10th through 12th Century CE undergoes a dental examination.
Health

Vikings filed their teeth to cope with pain

By Laura Baisas

A bird called a green honeycreeper stands on a tree branch. It has blue male plumage on its left side and green female plumage on its right.
Environment

Rare bird with half male and half female plumage photographed in Colombia

By Laura Baisas

Brainoware biocomputing study illustration
Technology

A ‘brain organoid’ biochip displayed serious voice recognition and math skills

By Andrew Paul

A new high-definition image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam unveils intricate details of supernova remnant Cassiopeia A and shows the expanding shell of material slamming into the gas shed by the star before it exploded.
Science

JWST releases new image of famous supernova remnant—with a twist

By Laura Baisas

An illustration of a tall two-legged dinosaur called Gorgosaurus libratus eating a small bird-like dinosaur called Citipes elegans. The smaller dinosaur's legs are still visible as the Gorgosaurus swallows the Citipes.
Science

This teenage tyrannosaur had a stomach full of dino drumsticks

By Laura Baisas

International Liquid Mirror Telescope
Science

Looking at the stars through a puddle of mercury

By Briley Lewis

Thick smoke from a wildfire in the tundra in Alaska.
Environment

Wildfires are thawing the tundra

By Kylie Mohr / High Country News

Paleontologist Martin Lockley sits in front of a rock with dinosaur claw marks and shows how dinosaurs must have clawed into the rock during a mating ceremony where they made pseudo nests for potential mates.
Science

Why dinosaur footprints inspired paleontologist Martin Lockley

By Laura Baisas

Illustration of biofiber within cracked concrete
Technology

Bacterial ‘blood’ could heal cracks in concrete

By Andrew Paul

Apollo 16 lunar landing mission commander John W. Young leaps from the lunar surface as he salutes the United States flag. The flag is located at the Descartes landing site during the first Apollo 16 extravehicular activity.
Science

Why scientists think it’s time to declare a new lunar epoch

By Laura Baisas

‘Forever chemicals’ found in freshwater fish, yet most states don’t warn residents
Environment

‘Forever chemicals’ found in freshwater fish, yet most states don’t warn residents

By Hannah Norman / KFF Health News

Finely ground bits of coffee come out of a red coffee grinder.
Health

Chemists and volcanologists want you to make a better espresso

By Laura Baisas

A circular grey fossil with long linear grooves on it.
Environment

Fossil first identified as plant is actually a baby turtle

By Laura Baisas

When time slows down while you're looking at a clock
Science

Why do clock hands seem to slow down?

By Tom Hawking

LHS 3154b, a newly discovered massive planet that should be too big to exist.
Science

The planet that should not exist

By Suvrath Mahadevan et al./The Conversation

Waves on the ocean.
Environment

Warming oceans could thaw trapped ‘fire-ice’

By Laura Baisas

A sample of baboon skulls dating back 2,500 to 2,800 years in southern Egypt.
Environment

Ancient Egyptians likely kept baboons in captivity—and mummified them

By Laura Baisas

NeRmo mouse robot standing against blue background
Technology

Meet NeRmo, the mouse robot with backbone

By Andrew Paul

In the 1600s, one town in the Netherlands literally ate the rich
Science

In the 1600s, one town in the Netherlands literally ate the rich

By Popular Science Team

A lineup of the best telescopes for astrophotography on a plain background
Gear

The best telescopes for astrophotography in 2024

By Stacey L. Nash

A dark-furred mouse looks into a mirror.
Science

Mice may be able to recognize their own reflections

By Laura Baisas

Glowing blue lights of the tiny ostracods move in sync with one another.
Environment

Watch the mucus-filled, synchronized mating dance of bioluminescent ‘sea fireflies’

By Laura Baisas

These 10 scientists are on the cusp of changing the world
Science

These 10 scientists are on the cusp of changing the world

By Molly Glick, Hannah Seo

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