Science

Science spans our understanding of how Earth and the cosmos work. Get the biggest news on biology, physics, space, dinosaurs, and more—along with the latest episodes of the Ask Us Anything and Weirdest Thing podcasts.

Latest in Science

a lone wolf walking around the forest
Environment

Wolves use ambush tactics to hunt unsuspecting beavers

By Kate Baggaley

The Jezero Crater as captured from orbit.
Science

Your ancestors might have been Martians

By Charlie Wood

A close-up shot of Mars taken in black-and-white by the Chinese Tianwen-1 probe.
Science

Check out the first images of Mars from China’s Tianwen-1 probe

By Erin Fennessy

Naked woman statue in garden.
Science

What archaeologists got wrong about female statues, goddesses, and fertility

By Annalee Newitz

Chinese parents and kid have a meal in their dining room
Science

Learning a second language early might have ripple effects throughout your life

By Rahul Rao

Ana Galvañ illustration
Science

Why you never forget how to ride a bike

By Hannah Seo

A student in a red graduation gown dabbing
Health

4 big ideas on fixing American schools

By Sabrina Imbler

Masha Krasnova-Shavaeva illustration
Science

Can we brew our own beer on Mars?

By Sandra Gutierrez G.

An overhead view of Mars featuring peculiar dark streaks.
Science

Mars’s mascara-like streaks may be caused by slush and landslides

By Charlie Wood

Tiktaalik
Science

This ancient fish-crocodile mashup snared its prey using a key adaptation

By Kate Baggaley

Masha Krasnova-Shavaeva illustration
Science

How NASA kept its Mars rovers alive long past their expiration dates

By Charlie Wood

The Pigskin Experiment: 3-D Football
Science

The Pigskin Experiment: 3-D Football

By Tom Conlon

An orange truck spreading salt on a snowy airport runway
Technology

Fish blood could hold the answer to safer de-icing solutions during snowstorms

By Monika Bleszynski/The Conversation

A white Pomeranian on a snowy ledge with its tongue stuck out
Science

Is it safe to eat snow?

By Lydia Ramsey

Masha Krasnova-Shavaeva illustration
Science

How humans have adapted to the harshest environments

By Marion Renault

An artist's impression of the Ingenuity helicopter on the surface of Mars.
Science

NASA’s Mars helicopter may soon be the first to fly on another planet

By Paola Rosa-Aquino

Nerf's Rival blaster can shoot curved shots with small yellow balls.
Science

Nerf’s newest blaster shoots spinning balls for dramatic curves

By Stan Horaczek

TOI-178 features six planets circling their host star in a tightly choreographed dance, which makes their disorderly arrangement all the more mysterious.
Science

These 6 exoplanets somehow orbit their star in perfect rhythm

By Charlie Wood

This enormous spike of lightning was spotted from the International Space Station.
Science

Rare ‘blue jet’ lightning spotted and photographed from space

By Erin Fennessy

A shooting star in a night scene over the Arabian Desert
Science

It’s a cosmic miracle that life on Earth’s lasted this long

By ToTyrrell/The Conversation

older woman facing a happy lamp
Health

Can a happy lamp help cure your winter blues?

By Erin Fennessy

An open dictionary with a red cover on a table
Science

Local languages are dying out and taking invaluable knowledge with them

By Hannah Seo

two people looking bored
Health

There’s a right and wrong way to be bored

By Sara Chodosh

A gold-colored mylar emergency blanket.
Science

The life-saving space blanket has humble origins

By Keith McCafferty/Field & Stream

Blue Origin’s New Shephard rocket lifts off.
Science

SpaceX won’t be the only company launching commercial rockets in 2021

By Charlie Wood

Dire wolves attacking prey and fighting off gray wolves.
Science

Dire wolves are actually ice age mega-foxes

By Sara Kiley Watson

Psittacosaurus reconstruction
Science

This fossilized butthole gives us a rare window into dinosaur sex

By Ellie Shechet

WASP-107b orbiting in front of its star
Science

Spacey ‘super puffs’ are changing our understanding of how planets form

By Neel Dhanesha

A lunar rainbow or moonbow stretching over the mountains at night in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park
Environment

In perfect conditions, rainbows can come alive at night

By Purbita Saha

deb haaland and xavier becerra
Science

Meet the Biden cabinet’s science and tech leaders

By Erin Fennessy

He’s Just Not That Into You?
Science

He’s Just Not That Into You?

By By Lorene Di Leo

corpse flower from above
Environment

Corpse flowers across the country are swapping pollen to stay stinky

By Doug Johnson/Undark

graphic novel in hands
Gear

Sci-fi graphic novels that will keep you up late and make you miss your train stop

By PopSci Commerce Team

Interacting galaxies seen among stars through a telescope
Science

Behold six galactic collisions, masterfully captured by Hubble

By Jessica Boddy

This image was taken by Voyager 2, and features its Great Dark Spot and a bright moving spot colloquially called Scooter.
Science

Neptune’s bumpy childhood could reveal our solar system’s missing planets

By Charlie Wood

An artist's impression of the James Webb Space Telescope, finally set to launch this year.
Science

Mars missions, a super-powered telescope, and more exciting 2021 space events

By Paola Rosa-Aquino

A close-up view of Tithonium Chasma, which is feature of Valles Marineris, the solar system's largest canyon.
Science

Peer inside the solar system’s largest canyon

By Jessica Boddy

Tim Enthoven illustration
Science

The world’s most diverse group of bacteria lives inside your mouth

By Claire Maldarelli

An illustrated diagram of the solar system, sun, eight planets, Pluto, and various asteroid belts
Science

A guide to the solar system’s biggest secrets

By Charlie Wood

Lucy Engleman illustration
Science

The famous Nazca lines aren’t mysterious—but they are ingenious

By Sara Kiley Watson

A Camelot scene in miniature.
Science

Why 2020 was the year of miniatures

By Eleanor Cummins

Fireworks scare us—that’s why we love them
Science

Fireworks scare us—that’s why we love them

By Anna Brooks

Tomi Um illustration
Science

Why some people hear colors and taste words

By Marion Renault

A reconstruction of the sunspot captured by the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope on January 28th, 2020. The original image was taken in the wavelength of 530 nanometers - in the greenish-yellow part of the visible spectrum–. Researchers modified it to show up red and orange to the naked eye
Science

The best space stories of 2020

By Charlie Wood

The moon’s surface is a chaotic mess of craters of all sizes. Now algorithms are smart enough and kind enough to sort through that mess for us.
Technology

Astronomers made a poor bot count 100,000 moon craters

By Charlie Wood

NASA space shuttle Challenger blasts off.
Science

Ralphie from ‘A Christmas Story’ could have been the first child in space. Then disaster struck.

By Erik Olsen

The best books about the moon
Science

The best books about the moon

By Eleanor Cummins

Fossilized lizard
Science

How fossil preservation and public health are intertwined

By Colella & McLean/The Conversation

A model T-rex is great gift idea.
Science

Dinosaur gifts for dinosaur people

By Billy Cadden

An exoplanet orbits two stars in this artist's interpretation
Science

This alien world could help us find Planet Nine in our own solar system

By Paola Rosa-Aquino

The Kepler supernova was spotted in 1604. Four centuries later, material from the explosion is still expanding outward at more than 20 million miles per hour.
Science

Stars are dying all across the galaxy—why don’t we see them?

By Charlie Wood

This image of Caldwell 45, captured by Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3, provides a larger view, showing more of the galaxy. The bluish color swirling around the galaxy’s center indicates the presence of young, hot stars in Caldwell 45’s spiral arms.
Science

Celestial objects you can spot from your backyard

By Jessica Boddy

Pin hole beer can photo
Science

Creating this photo of sun trails took eight years and a beer can

By Stan Horaczek

Red crab on water.
Science

Why everything eventually becomes a crab

By Sara Kiley Watson

A reconstruction of the sunspot captured by the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope on January 28th, 2020. The original image was taken in the wavelength of 530 nanometers - in the greenish-yellow part of the visible spectrum–. Researchers modified it to show up red and orange to the naked eye
Science

Images like this one could help reveal the Sun’s inner workings

By María Paula Rubiano A.

Artist's impression of flare from our neighboring star Proxima Centauri ejecting material onto a nearby planet.
Science

Violent space weather could limit life on nearby exoplanets

By Paola Rosa-Aquino

SpaceX’s Starship flies, belly flops, and bursts into flames
Science

SpaceX’s Starship flies, belly flops, and bursts into flames

By Charlie Wood

a jellyfish
Science

There’s no stopping this immortal jellyfish

By Popular Science Team

Masha Krasnova-Shavaeva illustration
Science

Learn your sourdough starter’s funky secrets

By Eleanor Cummins

Tim Enthoven illustration
Science

Why do cats purr?

By Marion Renault

Three people watching the night sky while sitting on a hay bale in a field
Science

These ghostly circles in the sky came out of nowhere

By Ray Norris/The Conversation

Arecibo’s disk suffered damage in November, before the suspended receiver collapsed completely in December.
Science

The Arecibo Observatory collapsed this week. What now?

By Charlie Wood

Big Agnes Torchlight Sleeping Bags
Technology

The 8 most exciting sports and outdoor products of 2020

By Stan Horaczek and Rob Verger

Unspun Body scan jeans
Technology

The 10 most exceptional personal care products from 2020

By Rachel Feltman and Jordan Blok

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