Read the latest articles from Popular Science (Page 782)

two people doing fondue with a bunch of food and using forks to dip potatoes in a pot of melted cheese
Projects

The scientific way to make perfectly creamy fondue

A food scientist explains the do’s and don’ts of the ultimate melted cheese sauce.

firefighters standing in a field full of small plumes of smoke
Climate Change

How we can burn our way to a better future

We desperately need wildfires to restore many of the forests in the Western US.

vaccines
Vaccines

Keeping older folks out of COVID-19 vaccine trials hurts everyone

Failing to include older people in later-stage trials could make the treatment seem less safe.

woman lifting weights
Fitness & Exercise

BCAA supplements can enhance your fitness routine, but should you take them?

Here’s what the science says about what branched-chain amino acids actually do.

a gym full of exercise equipment
Life Skills

You should definitely rotate your workouts

No, we’re not telling you to spin in circles.

a man stretching out and warming up before exercise
Life Skills

There’s a better way to warm up than stretching

Movement is key.

Lava flows extend for hundreds of kilometers across the fractured plains shown in the foreground, to the base of Maat Mons on Venus.
Solar System

Three ways scientists could search for life on Venus

The truth is out there. We just have to go get it.

A conceptual botox procedure on a red-haired model
Health

Can you get too much Botox?

Procedures are trending among millennials, and men, too.

This rocket launched from Pad-0A at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility (Virginia) on Jan. 9, 2014, and also performed a resupply to the ISS—though it did not carry new toilet hardware.
International Space Station

Watch live as NASA launches a $23 million toilet into space

It’ll be the first new loo since the 1990s.

A green frog from Madascagar sits on a leaf.
Evolution

What hundreds of pickled frog carcasses can tell us about their enormous eyes

Frogs have the biggest eyes of any vertebrate in relation to their body size. Researchers are just starting to understand why.

I voted sticker
DIY

COVID has created a shortage of poll workers. Here’s how to step in.

Democracy is a beautiful, collective effort.

old photographs
Health

You can’t completely trust your memories

But that doesn’t make them any less important.

A large asteroid (~12 km in diameter) hit Earth 66 million years ago, likely causing the end-Cretaceous mass extinction.
Dinosaurs

An asteroid didn’t kill the dinosaurs by itself. Earth helped.

Soot ejected during the blast likely circled the globe within hours.

roadless rule
Conservation

Loggers could soon slice through one of the most important forests in the US

The decision to retract the Roadless Rule in Alaska is expected to be finalized by end of October.

a black pig is smiling
The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week

Pig sex and celery have a surprising connection

And it comes down to the smell of ‘boar taint.’

Astrocytes in the brain expressing a fluorescent calcium indicator captured with a two-photon microscope.
Health

Why do brains need sleep? These ‘twinkling’ star-shaped cells may help us find out

The cells, called astrocytes, act differently when we snooze.

blue whale
Ocean

Whale ‘roadkill’ is on the rise off California. A new detection system could help.

If an AI-powered project can get giant cargo ships to slow down, fewer whales may perish.

a person walking in the woods
Life Skills

The 10-step guide to survival in an emergency

Should you build a fire or shelter first?

a person with their hands in the water
Health

Brain-eating amoebae are very rare, but warming waters may change that

Naegleria fowleri is a rare microbe that thrives in warm surface waters.

child getting bandage after a vaccine
Health

One-third of US parents say they won’t get their kids the flu vaccine

Here’s everything you need to know this week.