Read the latest articles from Popular Science (Page 850)

What makes popcorn pop?
Nutrition

What makes popcorn pop?

Hint: It’s a powerful combo of steam and heat.

group spinning on exercise bikes
Life Skills

How to make exercise a regular part of your life

Learn to stop worrying and love working out.

a pixelated raw image on the left, and a sharpened image of a fuzzy oval on the right
NASA

It’s official: NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft has made history

Visiting the most distant object ever.

a two-lobed rock floating in space
NASA

Watch live as NASA spends New Year’s Eve exploring the mysterious outer regions of our solar system

It's time to meet 2014 MU69.

blood splatter
Health

Why the sight of blood knocks us out

Do you pass out when you get your blood drawn? You're not the only one.

an illustration of a blue and red planet next to a large sun
Exoplanets

Scientists think they’ve found a super-Earth exoplanet dripping with sapphires and rubies

The right kind of chemistry can lead to some strange sorts of worlds.

What happens in the minds of free climbers
Science

What happens in the minds of free climbers

Studying the brains of daredevils like Alex Honnold.

the international space station floats over earth
International Space Station

The mystery of the ISS hole just got even weirder

The hole came from the inside.

broken ice over the ocean
Ocean

In 2018, Alaska’s Bering Sea was all out of whack.

It was an extreme year.

Tesla in space
Technology

Last Year in Tech 2018: Smartphone notches, data breaches, and sad CEOs

A look back at 2018's big tech stories.

You say you hate Instagram’s changes, but your eyeballs say otherwise
Social Media

You say you hate Instagram’s changes, but your eyeballs say otherwise

It's 2018 and UX designers know us better than we know ourselves.

How to make customer service actually respond to you
Life Skills

How to make customer service actually respond to you

Force them to pay attention.

a two-lobed rock floating in space
Solar System

NASA’s New Horizons will spend New Year’s Eve staring at a very mysterious space ball

MU69 is far from your run-of-the-mill solar system object.

How scientists collect lava from an active volcano
Environment

How scientists collect lava from an active volcano

It takes the right gear.

A week of holiday junk food could derail your gut microbiome—but there’s hope
Diabetes

A week of holiday junk food could derail your gut microbiome—but there’s hope

Treat your gut to some roughage.

Closing laptop
Tech Hacks

You just unwrapped a new device. Here’s what to do first.

Seven steps to protect your new tech and load it with apps you actually want.

Fitness tracking
Tech Hacks

Switching to a new fitness app? Here’s how to bring your data with you.

Change up your platform.

Oxygen might not lead us to aliens after all
Exoplanets

Oxygen might not lead us to aliens after all

A new study shows us why we may want to rethink how we search for extraterrestrial life.

The best science jokes to make you laugh, groan, and Google
Science

The best science jokes to make you laugh, groan, and Google

Why did the bored internet user click on the link? You're about to find out.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg just had cancer surgery—here’s why she should be okay
Cancer

Ruth Bader Ginsburg just had cancer surgery—here’s why she should be okay

The Supreme Court Justice had malignant pulmonary nodes removed.