Science

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Latest in Science

Close up of Screaming Woman mummy's face
Archaeology

‘Screaming woman’ may solve a 3,500-year-old mummy mystery

By Andrew Paul

An artist’s reconstruction of Shishania aculeata as it would have appeared in life as viewed from the top, side and bottom (left to right). This early mollusk lived about 514 million years ago.
Animals

A ‘rotting little plastic bag’ was actually a 514 million-year-old fossil

By Laura Baisas

This is an artist’s impression of a young star surrounded by a protoplanetary disk in which planets are forming.
Science

What happens when you don’t have enough ingredients to make a planet?

By Briley Lewis

a fruit fly intestine. it is a long and narrow coiled tube with green coloration from dye
Animals

Swapping genes can help fruit flies regenerate cells

By Laura Baisas

A pair of tigers rescued from Joe Exotic’s G.W. Exotic Animal Park, popularized by Netflix’s “Tiger King,” relax at the Wild Animal Sanctuary in Keenesburg, Colorado.
Environment

After ‘Tiger King’: Are 20,000 big cats caged in the U.S.? Highly unlikely.

By Peter Andrew Smith / Undark

A rare visitor, a Mandarin Duck, showed up in Central Park, New York City in 2018.
Environment

Why are there so many birds?

By Lauren Leffer

Close up of woman in runner's stance on track
Fitness & Exercise

Olympians in super-spike shoes could shatter records

By Andrew Paul

a lobster with blue, pink, and purple coloring on a white tray
Animals

One in 100 million cotton candy lobster caught in New Hampshire

By Laura Baisas

Wound care and amputation in a Camponotus maculatus ant.
Science

Ants perform teeny tiny operations to save their injured comrades

By Popular Science Team

a meteor shower over tall evergreen trees
Science

August skygazing: First supermoon of 2024 and the Perseids meteor shower

By Laura Baisas

an orange, black, and white monarch butterfly on a pink milkweed flower
Animals

How everyone can help monarch butterflies

By Laura Baisas

Toxoplasma gondii oocyst under the microscope, isolated
Biology

Bioengineered parasites may one day deliver meds into your brain

By Andrew Paul

Artist’s impression of the lobate macrofossils living 2.1 billion years ago in a shallow marine inland sea created by the collision of two continents.
Animals

Study claims life tried to evolve 1.5 billion years earlier than we thought

By Andrew Paul

a pair of brown frogs mating, with the male on the female's back
Animals

The upside-down sex lives of Charles Darwin’s frogs

By Laura Baisas

a firefly with its bottom half illuminated
Environment

A new theory on why fireflies glow—and why they need help

By Laura Baisas

offshore windfarm
Environment

Environmentally, offshore wind is… fine

By Ashley Braun / Hakai Magazine

Asiatyrannus xui skull close up
Dinosaurs

‘Deep-snouted’ tyrannosaur fossils uncovered at construction site

By Andrew Paul

Nine-banded Armadillo, Dasypus novemcinctus, in water, Santa Clara Ranch, southern Texas, United States.
Environment

‘Chaos is the norm now:’ The blurry line between invasive and range-expanding species

By Lauren Leffer

aerial drone view of an industrial installation that produces per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, PFAS
Climate Change

LED lights may be key to breaking down forever chemicals

By Andrew Paul

a scientists with a gloved hand prepares a blood sample in a test tube
Cancer

FDA approves new blood test to detect colon cancer

By Laura Baisas

pile of coffee beans and a steaming cup of coffee
Science

The chemistry behind decaf coffee

By Michael W. Crowder / The Conversation

chewing gum pieces on red background
Health

Can chewing gum reshape your jawline? We asked experts.

By Hannah Seo

Soap bubble machine on top of car blowing a large bubble
Engineering

Watch 50-foot long soap bubbles fly with the ‘Endless Bubble Machine’

By Andrew Paul

a walrus calf with a cut on its right eye is cared for by two technicians
Animals

Abandoned Pacific walrus calf rescued in Alaska

By Laura Baisas

dead bird specimens with blue and green plumage in museum storage
Animals

All living birds share an ‘iridescent’ ancestor

By Laura Baisas

TOP: A relay participant dives off the blocks in the Women’s 4 x 100m final during the Paris 1924 Olympic Games. BOTTOM: American Alex Walsh swims in Arena’s Powerskin Primo.
Science

The evolution of Olympic swimwear: From wool ‘costumes’ to tensoelastic race suits

By Laura Baisas

Are you a workaholic? Here’s how to spot the signs
Health

Are you a workaholic? Here’s how to spot the signs

By Chris Woolston / Knowable Magazine

Elderly woman listening to music happily
Science

Our memory of music persists in old age

By Mack DeGeurin

a purple race track, with whit lane lines
Environment

Paris Olympics’ purple track is made with crushed mussel and clam shells

By Laura Baisas

an illustration of an long cylindrical arthropod. it has big blue eyes, a body that looks like a taco shell, several short red legs, and a tail
Animals

This taco-shaped critter is a big (evolutionary) deal

By Laura Baisas

GLP1 mockup
Health

Why millions are trying FDA-authorized alternatives to Big Pharma’s weight loss drugs

By Arthur Allen/KFF Health News

four red hens in a line. two are looking straight ahead, one is looking right, and the other is looking left. they have an expression that reads as suprise
Agriculture

Not to ruffle feathers, but chickens blush

By Laura Baisas

an illustration of two mouse-like animals in a forest, with a stegosaurus walking by and a mosquito flying over them
Animals

Baby teeth reveal surprisingly long lifespans of small Jurassic mammals

By Laura Baisas

In the foreground to the left is a sphere half illuminated on the right side, almost filling the image vertically. The surface consists of several parallel, pale-coloured bands aligned horizontally. To the top right is a much smaller orange, circular light source, illuminating the large sphere in the foreground. The background is black with numerous tiny white dots.
Science

JWST detects a new exoplanet six times larger than Jupiter

By Tom Hawking

Mercury colorful
Science

What ‘Mercury in retrograde’ actually means

By Briley Lewis

various bird bones out on a table
Archaeology

Neanderthals ate birds. But how?

By Laura Baisas

a peacock butterfly on a pink plant. its wings are primarily red, with black, yellow, and blue circles
Animals

Butterflies and moths suck up pollen with static electricity

By Laura Baisas

25 images of space
Science

NASA drops 25 dazzling images to celebrate Chandra X-ray space telescope

By Popular Science Team

Close up of pills in blister packs
Deep Space

How will astronauts handle expired drugs on Mars?

By Andrew Paul

a circle and pi = 3.14 written on a chalkboard
Science

Math teacher argues Pi Day should be July 22

By Ben Orlin

Plane cabin lighting simulating sunset
Aviation

Simulated sunrises and sunsets in planes may reduce jet lag

By Andrew Paul

Polymetallic nodules scattered across bottom of the ocean floor
Biology

‘Dark oxygen’ on ocean floor may rewrite Earth’s origins of life

By Andrew Paul

five chimpanzeess sitting in tall, green grass
Animals

Chimp conversations can take on human-like chaos

By Laura Baisas

a brown dog looks up with a longing expression
Animals

Your dog can probably smell your stress

By Laura Baisas

Thick clouds of fine particulate matter blow off China in this 2016 satellite photo (oriented with north to the left).
Environment

How the Blob was born

By Michael Allen / Hakai Magazine

a person in a gas mask with 'death sand' on the screen
Technology

The sand that (almost) killed millions

By Popular Science Team

An old female rhesus macaque eats alone on the island of Cayo Santiago. As female macaques age, the size of their social network shrinks.
Science

It’s not just us: Other animals change their social habits in old age

By Tim Vernimmen / Knowable Magazine

Astronomy: a 40-foot telescope constructed by William Herschel, in use outdoors. Coloured etching, 18--. Wellcome Collection. Public Domain Mark.
Science

400 years of telescopes: A window into our study of the cosmos

By Bill Gourgey

a flat map of the planet jupiter, showing reddish-orange lines and the planet's great red spot
Deep Space

Jupiter’s Great Red Spot keeps shrinking

By Laura Baisas

This rotifer has just survived a life-threatening infection. When a fungal disease attacked, she switched on hundreds of genes that her ancestors copied from microbes, including antibiotic recipes stolen from bacteria.
Environment

No sex? No problem. These tiny, asexual animals steal genes to make their own medicine 

By Lauren Leffer

a bee kicks away an ant
Animals

Ant gets bee-slapped, and other strange bug moments

By Laura Baisas

NASA VIPER Rover
Science

NASA’s VIPER rover won’t be going to the moon after all

By Tom Hawking

Martian landscape simulation room in CHAPEA Mars Dune Alpha
Science

What it was like to spend a year in NASA’s Mars base simulation

By Andrew Paul

a baby crocodile hatches from an egg, surrounded by other eggs.
Animals

106 critically endangered Siamese crocodile eggs spotted in Cambodia

By Laura Baisas

Close up of stegosaurus skeleton
Science

Stegosaurus ‘Apex’ sold for nearly $45 million to a billionaire

By Andrew Paul

Particles rush through a long tunnel in the Large Hadron Collider.
Science

How the Large Hadron Collider gets reset and refreshed each year

By Riccardo Maria Bianchi / The Conversation

plaster cast of human remains in Pompeii
Archaeology

Two Pompeii skeletons reveal a new story of death at mega disaster

By Laura Baisas

starry night sky above telescopes on hill
Science

Want to catch the 2024 Perseid meteor shower? Here’s your best shot.

By Mary Beth Griggs

a 3D rendering of three early humans butchering a giant armadillo
Animals

Early humans butchered enormous armadillos

By Laura Baisas

Nubian spitting cobra (
Animals

Breakthrough cobra venom antidote discovered

By Andrew Paul

A team of astronomers led by Penn State scientists have discovered a planet that has the most oblong orbit ever found among transiting planets. The exoplanet’s extreme circuit — which looks closer to a cucumber than a circle — follows one of the most drastically stretched-out orbits of all known exoplanets, planets that orbit stars outside our solar system. The planet, , named TIC 241249530, is also orbiting its star backwards, lending insight into the mystery of how close-in massive gas planets, known as hot Jupiters, form, stabilize and evolve over time.
Science

Newly discovered exoplanet’s orbit is like a ‘cucumber’

By Tom Hawking

a long, dark brown millipede crawling on brown and green leaves
Animals

Expedition finds a 10-inch long millipede lost to science for 126 years

By Laura Baisas

The English women's athletics team, the appearance of the first UK female athletes at international Olympics, Sweden, Stockholm 1912.
Science

The Olympics has been obsessed with sex for centuries

By Popular Science Team

Cat Falling
Science

How animals use physics

By Tom Siegfried / Knowable Magazine

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