Read the latest articles from Popular Science (Page 600)

Expecting parents holding an ultrasound
Mental Health

If climate change is impacting your desire to have kids, you’re not alone

'It’s a human right to decide whether or not you want a child. It’s not a human right to drive an SUV or fly in planes.'

The technology behind Shrinky Dinks can make better robots
Robots

The technology behind Shrinky Dinks can make better robots

Shape-memory polymers can expand and shrink and reshape themselves back to their true form.

That new car smell? It’s got a gassy explanation.
Vehicles

That new car smell? It’s got a gassy explanation.

Plus, watch a video of a Nissan engineer smelling things.

A woman sitting at the edge of an ornate park fountain, looking at a phone.
Tech Hacks

Everything you need to cure your smartphone addiction

Step away from the phone.

An aerial view of the SpaceX Dragon capsule over Earth.
Space X

SpaceX’s Inspiration4 safely returns to Earth after a historic 3-day orbit

The historic mission marks the first private, commercial space flight with an amateur crew.

North american porcupine sitting on the ground among wild flower
Life Skills

How to not get pricked by a North American porcupine

Don’t panic—this spiky friend is largely harmless.

Bentley luxury car testing at Comiso Air Base in Sicily
Military

How Bentley took over and transformed a World War II air base

A site steeped in history is now a rough-and-tumble test track for luxury cars.

Queer couple with cropped hair thinking of the Kinsey Scale Test
Psychology

The Kinsey Scale Test and 3 other ways to find where you fall on the sexuality spectrum

Human sexuality spans too wide a scope to possibly be covered by a single test.

Hand holding a phone with Twitter open
Tech Hacks

Transform your Twitter timeline with these 11 features and add-ons

Tweet like a pro.

An extremely wide-angle photo of a red, dusty surface, with a grey rock with two holes drilled into it.
Mars

First Martian rock samples from Perseverance edge closer to settling water question

Returned Martian rock cores will aid the search for habitable environments and could finally nail down the ages of Martian features.

This high-tech gunsight could allow soldiers to shoot around corners, Matrix-style
Weapons

This high-tech gunsight could allow soldiers to shoot around corners, Matrix-style

The system includes an AR display, and it's designed to attach to a traditional rifle, like an M4 carbine.

This 120-million-year-old bird may have been one of the first to shake its tail feathers
Birds

This 120-million-year-old bird may have been one of the first to shake its tail feathers

The magpie-sized Yuanchuavis probably wasn’t a strong flyer, but it did dress to impress.

A bright rocket launches against a dark night sky.
Space X

SpaceX’s Inspiration4 mission and launch in 9 photos

It's not easy training to be an astronaut in a few months; it's a lot of hard work and fun.

Taara's internet towers in Kenya.
Internet

Beams of light—not cables—are carrying the internet across a river in the Congo

Project Taara’s cable-free tech can give users internet at “fiber-like speeds.”

An illustration of a quasar in space, blinding light that shoots out top and bottom, with matter swirling around perpendicularly.
Black Holes

Blindingly bright black holes could help cosmologists see deeper into the universe’s past

Most humongous black holes, astronomers suggest, have acted the same way throughout the eons.

Former college basketball player and current doctor Aaron Bolds
Medicine

America needs more Black male doctors. College sports can help.

To boost Black men in medicine, advocates are turning to athletes.

A person using a neck gaiter as a face mask.
Life Skills

All the ways a neck gaiter is a multifunctional wonder

It’ll protect your head, your neck, and your butt.

An illustration of an extinct species of giant penguins. Two penguins stand upright and one huddles down on a rocky island.
Birds

Schoolkids in New Zealand discovered a new species of giant penguin

The new fossil is one of the most intact specimens of giant penguins we have.

A person pouring a bunch of salt into a metal cooking pot on a gas stove.
Life Skills

Quick fixes for common cooking mistakes

Culinary creation can be a delicate balancing act.

Why a record number of container ships are backed up off the coast of California
Ocean

Why a record number of container ships are backed up off the coast of California

With a dearth of places to anchor, some of the giant vessels are just drifting.