Read the latest articles from Popular Science (Page 496)

Amateur Honorable Mention: Common Raven in Algonquin Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada.
Animals

The year’s best bird photos highlight the humor, beauty, and fragility of avian life

The winners of the 13th annual Audubon Photography Awards have been unveiled.

A man on a bicycle wearing a face mask as he passes flowering bushes.
COVID-19

Omicron variants keep getting better at dodging our immune systems

But reinfections from BA.5 don't necessarily mean severe disease.

MIT 3D knits
Engineering

Pressure-sensing mats and shoes could enhance healthcare and video games

MIT researchers created a smart textile linked up with a machine learning system.

White cylinder with wires, part of the LZ dark matter detector run the US Department of Energy
Particle Physics

The world’s best dark matter detector whiffed on its first try

The LUX-ZEPLIN is now on the hunt for WIMPs and other hints of dark matter across the universe.

fin-whales-drake-passage
Whales

An Antarctic feeding frenzy means good news for vulnerable fin whales

Scientists spied as many as 150 of the animals hungrily munching on krill.

website encryption sign
Security

Quantum computers could break encryption. The US government is trying to prevent that.

Modern problems require modern solutions.

A woman standing at the back of a partially completed van conversion project, holding her arms out wide with a measuring tape held between them.
Life Skills

Vehicle conversion tips to fit any van-life budget

Sometimes you need to know how to get more from less.

Bennu asteroid image from OSIRIS-REx mission
NASA

NASA sampled a ‘fluffy’ asteroid that could hold clues to our existence

Bennu delivers a few surprises in NASA's first mission to retrieve pieces of a near-Earth asteroid.

Bombarding period trackers with fake data won’t solve post-Roe privacy problems
Technology

Bombarding period trackers with fake data won’t solve post-Roe privacy problems

Researchers show that submitting junk data into period tracking apps won't confuse the algorithm or help protect reproductive privacy.

Volkswagen is launching a ‘global battery offensive’ with a giant new cell factory
Electric Vehicles

Volkswagen is launching a ‘global battery offensive’ with a giant new cell factory

The Volkswagen Group just broke ground on a major new facility in Germany.

Two aerospace engineers holding a slim white Mars Sailplane in a lab at Arizona State University
Mars

This sailplane could cruise Mars for months on only wind

No motor, no problem, even in the Martian atmosphere.

Emergency contraceptives prevent pregnancy.
Medicine

What’s the difference between morning-after pills and abortion medications?

Demand for emergency contraception has increased since the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade.

Apple’s new Lockdown Mode will offer ‘extreme’ security measures. You probably won’t use it.
Security

Apple’s new Lockdown Mode will offer ‘extreme’ security measures. You probably won’t use it.

The forthcoming feature holds important lessons about the balance between security and convenience.

Woman listening to phone outdoors under tree
Sustainability

The surprising link between lively music and sustainable shopping

The catch is the same music could be used for greenwashing.

Fossil frog skeleton in rock from German swamp
Wildlife

A swamp orgy went terribly wrong for these prehistoric frogs

A few moments of bliss quickly turned into their last minutes on Earth.

person enjoying a hot beverage by a campsite
Life Skills

A camper’s guide to outdoor cocktails

It's always 5 o'clock somewhere.

Fish raining from sky on local news
Fish

We may know why fish rained from the sky over Texas

Last December shad rained down from the sky in Texarkana. Now researchers have come up with an explanation.

TITAN will help the military make sense of all the data its sensors ingest
Military

TITAN will help the military make sense of all the data its sensors ingest

The node can fit on the back of a truck, and is intended to be a hub for information analysis.

Amazon Prime Website
Technology

Canceling Prime just got easier for Amazon customers in the EU

Amazon has previously been accused of making their cancellation process "unreasonably cumbersome."

CERN's LHC resumed work on Tuesday.
Particle Physics

What we learned from the Large Hadron Collider on its first day back in business

Three new exotic particles expand the roster of subatomic characters.