Read the latest articles from Popular Science (Page 171)

a red hovercraft vehicle sits on the mud with two occupants in the cabin
Projects

Teacher spends 1800 hours building the hovercraft of his childhood dreams

A floating mishmash of rubber, fiberglass, paper mache, and a 1997 Jeep Grand Cherokee.

a red aurora along with the stars of the milky way over mountains
Moons

19 magnificent images from the Astronomy Photographer of the Year shortlist

It's not 'House of the Dragon,' but it is a dancing aurora that resembles the mythical beast's head.

a TV with actor ryan gosling on it. the setting is a living room with back to the future posters on the wall
Tech Hacks

How to calibrate a TV: Fix color, brightness, sharpness, and more

New TVs look great out of the box, but they look even better when you calibrate them correctly.

‘Twisters’ is a climate movie, but not a very good one
Weather

‘Twisters’ is a climate movie, but not a very good one

The summer blockbuster raises big questions about climate adaptation. It just doesn’t have good answers.

Two black morels in spring are well camouflaged on the forest floor
Life Skills

How to start forest farming: Grow delicious food in the woods

You don't need garden beds to plant your own berries, nuts, mushrooms, or medicinals.

a brick pathway through a lawn with clover
Projects

Should you plant a clover lawn? The pros and cons. 

Clover is more drought and heat tolerant than grass, but that's not all to consider.

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have developed a compound that is effective against common bacteria that can lead to rare, dangerous illnesses. This image shows untreated Streptococcus pyogenes bacterial culture full of healthy microbes, labeled green (left). After treatment by GmPcide, the dish is full of dead bacteria (red; right).
Science

A breakthrough in fighting bacteria that causes ‘flesh-eating’ illness

A 'happy accident' holds clues to combatting increasingly resistant strains.

moon in the 90s
Moons

Yes, the moon has an atmosphere—and it’s metal as hell

The lunar exosphere contains alkali metals and is constantly replenished by micrometeorite impact.

Elon Musk
Internet

Don’t register to vote on Elon Musk’s AmericaPAC website. Do this instead.

Avoid the portal to nowhere.

Concept art of Neom Stadium in Saudi Arabia
Engineering

Saudi Arabia wants to top its linear city with a sci-fi soccer stadium

The nation's FIFA 2034 World Cup bid book features some extremely wild architecture.

an illustration of a small penguin with light black, yellow, and white feathers on a new zealand beach
Animals

Tiny fossil reveals when penguins evolved their surprisingly useful wings

Pakudyptes hakataramea lived about 24 million years ago in present day New Zealand.

young person standing on scale
Health

Schools launched anti-obesity policies. Experts say they failed.

For years, evidence has grown that school BMI screenings aren’t helpful and can even be harmful. Why do they persist?

Close up of Screaming Woman mummy's face
Archaeology

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

New scans may alter the definition of a 'good' mummification.

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

This spiny slug may have been one of the first mollusks to crawl around Earth.

Close up view of a Taco Bell fast food bag inside of a car.
AI

AI is coming to a Taco Bell drive-thru near you

The announcement arrives barely a month after McDonald’s scrapped a similar, disastrous attempt.

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

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

NASA scientists observe evidence of a 'metallicity cliff' for the first time.

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

They won't become Wolverine just yet.

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.
Animals

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

Statistics on captive lions, tigers, and more helped fundraise and pass new laws. The implications are under dispute.

a hand holding a remote in front of a TV playing a soccer match
Televisions

What is TV Refresh Rate? From 60Hz to 120Hz and beyond.

When it comes to TVs, smoothness is dictated by refresh rate, which can make a huge difference in the image quality of sports, video games, and movies. We’ll make sure that your screen’s image Hertz so good.

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

Why are there so many birds?

New research finds traces of the dinosaur extinction in avian genomes.