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

Common cuttlefish
Technology

Cuttlefish tentacles and origami inspired a new robotic claw

By Andrew Paul

a close up of a cicada with blue eyes
Environment

A ‘one-in-a-million’ blue-eyed cicada spotted by 4-year-old child

By Laura Baisas

While scientists have seen colossal squid before—like this specimen examined by New Zealander researchers in 2014—their interactions have always been with animals that were either pulled from the depths, washed up on shore, or otherwise removed from their natural habitat.
Environment

Visiting the kraken at home

By Evert Lindquist / Hakai Magazine

Visualisation of the central grave/main burial of the Grafenbühl mound
Science

DNA suggests ancient Celtic royalty was matrilineal

By Andrew Paul

An artistic life reconstruction of Genyornis newtoni, the last of the dromornithids, at the water’s edge
Environment

Giant 500-pound geese once honked around the Australian outback

By Laura Baisas

elderly person
Health

There is new help for dealing with aggression in people with dementia

By Judith Graham / KFF Health News

'nope' on space background
Science

In 1967, Walter Cronkite tried to predict the year 2000. Here’s what he got right (and very wrong).

By Popular Science Team

How do animals get their spots and stripes? A Turing mechanism holds clues to patterns
Environment

How do animals get their spots and stripes? A Turing mechanism holds clues to patterns

By Amber Dance/Knowable Magazine

JWST discovers earliest galaxy ever observed
Science

JWST discovers earliest galaxy ever observed

By Tom Hawking

steam rising over blue water in a pool built by ancient romans
Health

What Britain’s famed Roman Baths could teach us about microbes

By Laura Baisas

Illustration of atomic Fresnel lens
Science

This lens is just three atoms thick and works like a quantum lighthouse

By Andrew Paul

a black and white photograph of swimmer gertrude ederle. she is standing on a beach in a one piece swimsuit holding an oar.
Fitness & Exercise

Gertrude Ederle and the grueling science of marathon swimming

By Laura Baisas

a full moon rises with blurred red flowers
Space

June skygazing: Nevermind the viral ‘planet parade,’ check out the Strawberry/Solstice moon

By Laura Baisas

fossilized leg bones in reddish-brown sediment
Dinosaurs

New horse-sized dinosaur species discovered in Zimbabwe

By Laura Baisas

a brown snail sits on a green lettuce leaf
Animals

Slimy slugs and snails surprisingly thriving in LA

By Laura Baisas

Panels A, B, and C each show stereographic image pairs of the asteroid Dinkinesh taken by the L’LORRI Instrument aboard NASA’s Lucy Spacecraft. The images were taken in the minutes around closest approach on November 1, 2023. The yellow and rose dots indicate the trough and ridge features, respectively. These images have been sharpened and processed to enhance contrast. Panel D shows a side view of Dinkinesh and its satellite Selam taken a few minutes after closest approach.
NASA

The odd moon orbiting a ‘Dinky’ asteroid is actually two moons fused together

By Laura Baisas

Farmer finds hunk of charred space debris, potentially from a SpaceX rocket
Science

Farmer finds hunk of charred space debris, potentially from a SpaceX rocket

By Harri Weber

a human skull on a dark background with E270 printed on it
Health

4,000 year-old Egyptian skulls show attempts at brain surgery to treat cancer

By Laura Baisas

coral polyps before spawning
Animals

Scientists are studying the mysterious sex lives of coral

By Laura Baisas

a woman listens to music with headphones on over hear ear
Biology

How our brains differentiate music and speech

By Laura Baisas

Concept art of EarthCARE satellite scanning clouds above Earth
Climate Change

The ‘White Dragon’ satellite will keep watch over our clouds

By Andrew Paul

The quest to craft the perfect artificial eye, through the ages
Health

The quest to craft the perfect artificial eye, through the ages

By Bill Gourgey

Clues from bird flu’s ground zero on dairy farms in the Texas panhandle
Science

Clues from bird flu’s ground zero on dairy farms in the Texas panhandle

By Amy Maxmen / KFF Health News

red lava rushes into the Pacific Ocean, with smoke and steam rising
Science

Buildup of gas caused Kīlauea to erupt like a stomp-rocket

By Laura Baisas

A spherical collection of stars which fills the whole view. The cluster is dominated by a concentrated group of bright white stars at the center, with several large yellow stars scattered throughout the image. Many of the stars have visible diffraction spikes. The background is black
Science

The 8 most extraordinary JWST images of 2024, so far

By Popular Science Team

This noble necklace worm, laden with eggs, will eventually release her developed larvae into the water column as plankton.
Environment

Stunning images offer a peek into the ocean’s microscopic baby boom

Text by Kelly Fretwell and Adrienne Mason / Hakai Magazine, Photos by Hakai Institute

Universe’s oldest known stars found in Milky Way’s ‘halo’
Science

Universe’s oldest known stars found in Milky Way’s ‘halo’

By Laura Baisas

a green stick insect blending into a green plant
Environment

Chance or pattern? Stick insects show repeatable evolution in action

By Laura Baisas

CBD for dogs
Science

Fit for a dog? The latest science on CBD for pets

By Ula Chrobak / Knowable Magazine

Carrion crow (Corvus corone) perched on wooden fence post and calling. (Photo by: Sven-Erik Arndt/Arterra/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
Science

Crows can ‘count’ similarly to toddlers, according to new study

By Lauren Leffer

an exoplanet orbiting a red dwarf star
Deep Space

Newly discovered exoplanet may be habitable (or a Venus-like hellscape)

By Laura Baisas

a pink and red galaxy (left). an illustration of the cylindrical euclid space telescope (right)
Science

See 5 dazzling new images from Euclid, the ‘dark universe detective’

By Laura Baisas

A proboscis monkey in a mangrove conservation forest in Tarakan, North Borneo, Indonesia. It is light brown in color with a very large, round, droopy, and prominent nose.
Animals

These monkeys have giant noses for exactly the reason you think

By Laura Baisas

mri scan of the brain
AI

A new neural implant can translate brain activity in two languages

By Andrew Paul

Fluorescent image of a human body louse with Yersinia pestis infection (seen in orange/red) in the Pawlowsky glands.
Science

Body lice may be pretty good spreading bubonic plague

By Laura Baisas

This artist's concept illustrates a supermassive black hole with millions to billions times the mass of our sun. Supermassive black holes are enormously dense objects buried at the hearts of galaxies.
Black Holes

Astronomers use wobbly star stuff to measure a supermassive black hole’s spin

By Laura Baisas

An artist’s impression of ESA’s ExoMars rover, Rosalind Franklin.
Energy

Europe’s first Mars rover will use nuclear-powered heaters

By Andrew Paul

NASA and Boeing’s Starliner delays expose the challenges of space travel
Science

NASA and Boeing’s Starliner delays expose the challenges of space travel

By Briley Lewis

closeup of bumblebee
Science

How scientists accidentally found out that some bees can hibernate underwater

By Popular Science Team

‘Lungless’ frog species actually had little lungs all along
Environment

‘Lungless’ frog species actually had little lungs all along

By Harri Weber

DNA test tube and cotton swab wipe test
Biology

Law enforcement collected over 1.5 million people’s DNA since 2020

By Andrew Paul

A fossilized dinosaur skin specimen under natural light (upper half) and ultraviolet light (lower half) showing the orange-yellow fluorescence of the fossil skin.
Biology

Rare skin fossil sheds new light on dinosaur feathers

By Laura Baisas

An aerial view of the rust-colored Kutuk River in Gates of the Arctic National Park in Alaska. Thawing permafrost is exposing minerals to weathering, increasing the acidity of the water, which releases metals like iron, zinc, and copper.
Environment

Why are Alaska’s rivers turning orange?

By Laura Baisas

milk glass
Health

Why you shouldn’t drink raw milk

By Kerry E. Kaylegian / The Conversation

Popular Science article about Mount Everest
Science

May 1924: George Mallory’s tragic quest to conquer Everest

Bill Gourgey, Archive Story by Raymond J. Brown Bill Gourgey

Small Plastic pellets on blue cloth
Animals

Every human testicle contained microplastics in a new study

By Andrew Paul

Comet above Spain
Science

Watch a meteor’s incredible light show above Spain and Portugal

By Andrew Paul

Riding atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test, or DART, spacecraft sets off to collide with an asteroid in the world’s first full-scale planetary defense test mission in November 2021.
Science

A rare risk of asteroid fastballs turns scientists into sluggers

By Theo Nicitopoulos / Undark

The so-called 'severe-convective storms' are large and powerful thunderstorms that form and disappear within a few hours or days, often spinning off hail storms and tornadoes as they shoot across the flat expanses of the central United States.
Environment

How ‘kitty cats’ are wrecking the home insurance industry

By Jake Bittle/Grist

To find out the age of dolphins, ask their poop
Science

To find out the age of dolphins, ask their poop

By Jason Bittel / Hakai Magazine

#NoMowMay may just be a hashtag.
Science

There’s little science behind ‘No Mow May’

By Peter Andrey Smith/Undark

cover of popular science magazine with video phone story on background of old phones
Science

Move over, Facetime: We’re calling on a 1987 Mitsubishi VisiTel videophone

By Popular Science Team, Video by Kevin Lieber

Eros in Stereo
Science

Mars might have an asteroid problem

By Briley Lewis

The Red Pyramid at the Dahshur necropolis, constructed during the Fourth Dynasty.
Environment

Long-lost Nile branch may explain landlocked pyramids

By Andrew Paul

canola field
Science

Farmer finds hunk of charred space debris, potentially from a SpaceX rocket

By Harri Weber

Concept art of lunar base with floating train path alongside astronauts
Engineering

Wild NASA proposal envisions magnetic hover trains on the moon

By Andrew Paul

little baby
Science

Making babies may take 10 times more energy than we thought

By Lauren Leffer

Nature can’t run without parasites. What happens when they start to disappear?
Environment

Nature can’t run without parasites. What happens when they start to disappear?

By Jesse Nichols / Grist

The untold story of the first U.S.-based nuclear spy, and how he got away with it
Technology

The untold story of the first U.S.-based nuclear spy, and how he got away with it

By

An illustration of what exoplanet WASP-39 b could look like. It is also a hot and puffy gas giant like exoplanet WASP 193b.
Science

A massive cotton candy-like exoplanet stumps astronomers

By Laura Baisas

an orangutan sits in the forest with its mouth open wide, showing its teeth
Environment

Orangutans’ distinct yells decoded with help from AI

By Laura Baisas

wasp uses viruses
Environment

The wasps that turned viruses into tiny biological weapons

By Nala Rogers / Knowable Magazine

two mantis shrimp punching one another
Environment

Bullet-fast mantis shrimp punches caught by super-speed cameras

By Laura Baisas

rock art depicting a human hunting various animals
Science

How sweat and stamina helped make humans exceptional runners–and hunters

By Laura Baisas

Explore Science