Read the latest articles from Popular Science (Page 347)

College of television screen images
AI

Deepfake videos may be convincing enough to create false memories

In a new study, deepfaked movie clips altered around half of participants' recollection of the film.

Get up close to eagles, owls, hawks, and more with the best bird watching binoculars.
Outdoor Gear

The best bird-watching binoculars

Get to know your local avian neighbors.

podcast logo
The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week

Check out our live show!

Join our podcast hosts as they make a triumphant return to the Caveat stage for their first in-person live show since 2019.

A kākāpō chick. The birds are are large flightless parrots from New Zealand who are masters of camouflage and known for a booming call.
Land

A flightless parrot is returning to mainland New Zealand after a 40-year absence

The adorable Kākāpō birds were hunted to the brink of extinction.

Illustration of metal nanomaterial healing cracks
Engineering

Scientists accidentally capture metals ‘healing’ themselves

Researchers unintentionally documented the remarkable feat at a nanoscale level.

Streets of New York City.
Global Warming

How ‘underground climate change’ affects life on the Earth’s surface

Urban heat islands can be felt deep under the surface—creating a sneaky threat to civil infrastructure.

A group of colorful spices on a wooden table with a mortar and pestle.
Archaeology

Leftovers of a 2,000-year-old curry discovered on stone cooking tools

Humans have found ways to spice up their dishes for millennia.

A middle-aged man wearing a green plaid collared shirt with a silver Macbook on his lap. He is grinning as he adjusts some hidden settings to speed up his macOS laptop.
Tech Hacks

4 tips and hidden settings that will speed up macOS

Get your Mac laptop or desktop running at a new level.

wood cross sections
Engineering

DARPA would like to make scrap wood stronger with WUD

The program aims to recycle waste from DoD that would head to the landfill otherwise.

Amazon package at fulfillment center.
Pollution

Amazon might finally be cutting down on plastic waste

The company says it used 86,000 metric tons of plastic last year—12 percent less than in 2021.

Making slime is quick and fun.
Projects

The easiest way to make slime

People of the world: Slime up your life.

deep sea bubbles
Ocean

The key to bringing deep sea samples up to the coast? An underwater freezer.

Japanese scientists designed a freezer that works in the deep sea—a potential boon for studying the region’s fragile life.

A person holding a phone in landscape view, with a YouTube thumbnail on the screen, showing the exaggerated expression known as YouTube face.
Tech Hacks

The extension that will banish ‘YouTube face’ from your browser

DeArrow will demolish many of the clickbait strategies used on YouTube.

American actor Richard Dreyfuss (left) (as marine biologist Hooper) and British author and actor Robert Shaw (as shark fisherman Quint) look off the stern of Quint's fishing boat the 'Orca' at the terrifying approach of the mechanical giant shark dubbed 'Bruce' in a scene from the film 'Jaws' directed by Steven Spielberg, 1975.
Ocean

Why the creators of ‘Jaws’ regretted making sharks the monsters

Despite becoming a cultural phenomenon, two of the men behind Jaws worried about the impact of their fictional predator on real-life sharks.

first road constructed with plastic waste in Agartala
Pollution

Turning plastic waste into streets faces roadblocks

A National Academies of Sciences report identifies roadblocks to using plastic waste in infrastructure, including lack of data, disjointed policies and environmental concerns.

parasitic horsehair worm
Evolution

‘Brainwashing’ parasites inherit a strange genetic gap

Horsehair worms are even weirder than scientists thought.

Mother with short pink hair kissing newborn in hospital after induced labor at 39 weeks
Health

Inducing labor at 39 weeks reduces the need for some C-sections

It's just one of the reasons why some doctors are encouraging slightly shorter pregnancies.

A lineup of the best hydration packs on a white background.
Fitness Gear

The best hydration packs

We found water backpacks to stave off dehydration during your favorite outdoor activities, including cycling, biking, and running.

This Hubble Space Telescope image of the asteroid Dimorphos was taken on December 19, 2022, about four months after the asteroid was impacted by NASA's DART mission (Double Asteroid Redirection Test). Hubble’s sensitivity reveals a few dozen boulders knocked off the asteroid by the force of the collision. These are among the faintest objects Hubble has ever photographed inside the solar system.
Space Telescope

Smashed asteroid surrounded by a ‘cloud’ of boulders

Several months after the DART impact, Dimorphos has a posse of 37 space rocks around it.

A MacBook opens in the dark probably after restarting and installing the beta version of macOS 14 Sonoma.
Tech Hacks

6 new features in macOS 14 Sonoma’s public beta you have to try

You can try the beta version of the next major macOS upgrade.