Read the latest articles from Popular Science (Page 258)

Sound level visualization of audio clip
AI

The FTC wants your help fighting AI vocal cloning scams

Judges will award $25,000 to the best idea on how to combat malicious audio deepfakes.

Incidents can be reported from your car dashboard or your phone.
Tech Hacks

How to report incidents on your trip in Google Maps or Apple Maps

Help out your fellow drivers on the road.

Dragonflies mating - Azure damselflies
Insects

The bizarre sex lives of insects

An excerpt from Emmanuelle Pouydebat’s “Sexus Animalis,” a guide to the amazingly multifarious sex lives of animals.

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

These are the exciting space missions slated for launch in 2024

From the Moon’s south pole to an ice-covered ocean world.

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

Along 1,100 kilometers, from Mexico to Costa Rica, lies the Central American volcanic arc, where the variety of magma types make for a geological paradise.

A lineup of NA beverages on a white background
Gear

The 18 best non-alcoholic drinks, tested and reviewed

Skip the booze for bright, bouncy, botanical NA beverages that will help you reevaluate your relationship with alcohol and relish adventures with friends sans hangover.

The best electronic drum pads
Audio

The best electronic drum pads

These e-drum pads pack a world of percussion sounds into a small unit drummers can play either on their own or as part of a larger hybrid drum kit.

Screenshot of emulator running 86-DOS version 0.1
Technology

This long-lost, earliest MS-DOS precursor was discovered in a floppy disk collection

Before Microsoft released MS-DOS, there was 86-DOS. Now version 0.1 is online thanks to a hobbyist’s archival work.

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.
Solar System

This is what Uranus and Neptune may really look like

New study shows that our solar system’s most distant planets' true colors are actually similar.

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

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

The city hopes any potential aliens in the TRAPPIST-1 system will learn bourbon, horses, and bluegrass are worth the 40 light-year journey, although the message might not survive the trip.

Recycled graphite attached to air bubbles at a graphite recycling laboratory in Freiberg, Germany.
Electric Vehicles

The next frontier in EV battery recycling: Graphite

In the race to build a circular battery industry, one mineral has been overlooked—until now.

The best binoculars for astronomy
Outdoor Gear

The best binoculars for astronomy

An excellent alternative to bulky telescopes, these binoculars are easy to store and transport while giving you access to all wonders in the night sky.

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

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

United Launch Alliance's unmanned spacecraft takes off on January 8, 2024, carrying new tools, tiny robots, and... Gene Roddenberry’s ashes.

writing in a notebook
Tech Hacks

How to turn handwritten notes into digital text

Copy and paste your notebook scribbles with these tools and tips.

Browsing internet with tracking cookies
Internet

Cookies are finally dying. But what comes next?

What you need to know about Google's plan to replace the internet's most pervasive tracker.

Mendenhall Glacier
Environment

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

Visiting Alaska is an emissions-heavy prospect. An innovative program has tourists ease that by helping buy heat pumps for locals.

Data visualization of all maritime activity in the North Sea
AI

AI and satellite data helped uncover the ocean’s ‘dark vessels’

An unprecedented study details that over 75 percent of all industrial fishing ships don’t publicly report their whereabouts.

GE Profile Smoker Open Door
Appliances

GE Profile Smart Indoor Smoker review: Low and slow cooking on the kitchen counter

Crave wood-smoked meat year-round but live in a colder climate (or an apartment)? GE's new indoor smoker will have your taste buds, but not smoke alarms, going off.

Why we should pay attention to the ethics of brain-computer interfaces
Technology

Why we should pay attention to the ethics of brain-computer interfaces

Devices that connect brains to computers are increasingly sophisticated. Can the nascent neurorights movement catch up?

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.
Wildlife

Extinct ‘terror beasts’ were some pretty formidable worms

Scientists are studying new fossils of the predators that could grow to almost 12 inches long and may have dominated the seas over 500 million years ago.