Read the latest articles from Popular Science (Page 505)

Bearded dad holding a newborn baby in a blue onesie and reading a picture book
Life Skills

The best way to choose a parenting book

Babies don't come with instruction manuals, but a good self-help book can be just as helpful.

The US’s latest assist to Ukraine: Rocket launchers with a 43-mile range
Weapons

The US’s latest assist to Ukraine: Rocket launchers with a 43-mile range

A total of eight High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS, will help Ukraine. Here's what they do.

A Honda Element parked off-road in an open area by a large rock
Life Skills

A beginner’s guide to choosing the perfect van-life vehicle

Gas mileage and reliability are factors, but so is pure, simple fun.

Hot dogs in buns with ketchup, mustard, and other toppings
Nutrition

How many hot dogs would it take to kill you?

Frankly, we’d be surprised if you made it past a dozen.

Soil with small green plants.
Wildlife

Diverse microbes are key to healthy soil. Climate change is threatening that.

Protecting biodiversity must extend to even the tiniest living things.

Fat baby seal looking at the camera
Ocean

Facial recognition works on seals. No, really.

A neural network, trained using thousands of photos of harbor seals, offers a noninvasive way of telling seals apart.

Yellow citrus home-brewed iced tea with lemon slices and metal straws in front of a black background
Life Skills

3 quick ways to brew refreshing iced tea at home

Tips from a converted hot-tea devotee.

highway in LA
Technology

The DOT is investing $1 billion to address historic transportation inequities

Here’s how communities might benefit from the new federal grant program.

Hand holding firework and american flag against dark night
Life Skills

Fireworks can trigger PTSD. Here’s how you can help yourself and others find ease.

There's a darker side to fireworks.

A silver machine containing boiling grains.
Nutrition

How have non-alcoholic beers gotten so good?

Ninety-nine percent of a beer is alcohol or water. Maintaining that one percent of flavorful compounds is the challenge.

NASA astronaut with long brown hair and brown skin exercising on an erg machine in space to improve bone density
Fitness & Exercise

After a few months in space, astronaut bones don’t look so pretty

Living in zero gravity takes a toll, even on the most conditioned bodies.

fireworks over the water
Engineering

The explosive science of fireworks, explained

Light 'em up.

Tour de France bicyclists on a French Road in 2017
Fitness & Exercise

It takes about 120,000 calories to finish the Tour de France

That's a whopping amount of Big Macs.

Banana butterfly on person's brown ponytail at butterfly house in Frankfurt, Germany
Insects

If you have a serious fear of bugs, a butterfly house might change your tune

For decades, butterfly houses have been a sort of therapy for insectophobes. But can they go any further?

Stacks of white calcite on a black background in a mineral catalog
Physics

Earth has more than 10,000 kinds of minerals. This massive new catalog describes them all.

If you consider how and where a diamond was formed, you end up with nine different kinds instead of one.

New mother nursing newborn baby while wearing a COVID mask
COVID-19

COVID deaths in pregnant people in the US are flying under the radar

Maternal mortalities in the early months of the pandemic could have come directly from the virus or the burdens it placed on the healthcare system.

Next generation Air Force pilot helmet on a gray background
Air Force

Check out the Air Force’s breezy, flashy new helmets

After 40 years, Air Force pilots will finally get to test out some new brain buckets.

stormy weather
Technology

NOAA’s powerful new weather forecasting supercomputers are now online

These supercomputers are three times faster than NOAA’s previous systems. Here’s what the agency plans to do with them.

Astronauts still can't get a good look at fireworks, even though the explosions are bigger than ever.
International Space Station

What do fireworks look like from space?

Astronauts can glimpse pyrotechnics—but only if they get lucky.

Amazon Echo Show 10
Smart Home

The best Alexa smart home starter kit

Choose the best Alexa smart home gear to kickstart your crib’s automation.