Read the latest articles from Popular Science (Page 852)

These elite chemical weapons detectives can prove who’s behind deadly attacks
Weapons

These elite chemical weapons detectives can prove who’s behind deadly attacks

Dictators and assassins are using banned nerve agents again.

The link between baby powder and cancer is easier to prove in a courtroom than in a lab
Cancer

The link between baby powder and cancer is easier to prove in a courtroom than in a lab

Johnson and Johnson concealed for decades that some tests found their signature product contained traces of asbestos.

child in hospital bed
Diseases

Can we predict flu outbreaks?

Influenza viruses kill up to 646,000 people worldwide every year.

Wildfire from above
Weather

We need to talk about extreme weather

Talking it out could make us less vulnerable.

Sex, starvation, and saltwater moats: snail farms are wilder than you could ever imagine
Agriculture

Sex, starvation, and saltwater moats: snail farms are wilder than you could ever imagine

This is what it takes to put escargot on your plate.

woman working from home
Life Skills

How to work from home without losing productivity

Hack your unmotivated brain.

asteroid hitting earth
Space

Yes, a killer asteroid could hit Earth

Though the odds do seem to be in our favor.

earth is visible from the window of a rocket in space
Private Space Flight

Virgin Galactic finally made it to space. Here’s what that means.

It's not just a big deal for future space tourists, either.

New data shows that Fentanyl kills more people than heroin
Health

New data shows that Fentanyl kills more people than heroin

These four charts show how the opioid epidemic is evolving.

rover robot
Self Driving

Self-driving, burrito-carrying rovers are going to talk to us with their eyes

This cute new robot is a bundle of sensors and smarts. Here’s how it works.

Library books collective memory
Psychology

How long can an event hold humanity’s attention? There’s an equation for that.

Societies forget, and this physicist wants to know why.

Why do people need to sleep?
Health

Why do people need to sleep?

To keep your mind and body healthy, get some shut eye.

Agave parryi huachucensis plant scan
Environment

These beautiful images preserve plant species that might otherwise disappear forever

Plant scans are beautiful images—and important scientific documents.

A person looks up at the Milky Way
Space

Why is the night sky dark?

Looking at the stars takes you back through time. All the way to the beginning.

Storm damaged house
Environment

After a natural disaster, houses get bigger not better

A new analysis of five coastal communities made this troublesome pattern visible.

Laptop desk
Tech Hacks

How to disguise your personal web-surfing at work

Take a break but keep your job.

Closeup of blow-fly or carrion fly Calliphoridae
Insects

Blow flies helped exonerate a woman of murder 17 years after the fact

Or rather, a lack thereof.

the moon crossing in front of the earth
Moons

Chinese robots are on a mission to beat NASA to the far side of the moon

It could be the first of many firsts.

a girl reads a textbook with a magnifying glass, and butterflies come out of the pages
Insects

Insects are disappearing from science textbooks—and that should bug you

They make up the biggest bunch of the animal kingdom by far.

dracula ant
Insects

The Dracula ant snaps its jaw shut 5,000 times faster than you can blink

It’s a snap, quite literally.