Forget lab coats and beakers: in this gallery of breathtaking images, we celebrate the visually pleasing side of scientific enquiry
We'll get a vaccine for addiction, debate the future of nuclear power, use new tech to take on water shortages, and-just maybe-find an extra dimension or two. Happy New Year
High-speed movie cameras can shoot up to 20 million frames in the blink of an eye. The world is a mighty interesting place in ultimate slo-mo.
Players love the tech, but pro and amateur organizations can hardly keep up with the new materials and radical designs that have rewired and sometimes hot-wired sports.
Producer Larry Klein takes us behind the scenes of the NOVA documentary "Why the Towers Fell", a scientific look at the American Society of Civil Engineers' report of why the World Trade Center collapsed.
Last May, a massive tornado leveled Joplin, Missouri. Was it chance, or a warning of things to come?
How California is predicting and preparing for the inevitable.
A new ice age, exploding stars, the hypothetical Doomsday Machine, and more scenarios that are almost certain to eradicate life on Earth
The 2004 Popsci Design Competition
Launch the gallery below, and enjoy our favorite pictures of the year, all in one place
The big and bad crises that could wipe out humanity
We're heading in the wrong direction.
Our reporters deliver the latest on autonomous vehicles.
The best way to prepare for catastrophe? Head to the place where they engineer it.
Our editors scrounged up some truly bizarre facts.
A deadly outbreak of cholera followed the 7.0 earthquake that struck Haiti three years ago this week. Jonathan Katz, the only American fulltime staff reporter stationed in Haiti at the time, explains what caused the outbreak--and why it was anything but inevitable.
"When Columbia disintegrated, killing all seven astronauts, it was shades of Challenger. Will NASA be undone by its obsessive focus on the shuttle?
Columbia disaster: When Columbia disintegrated, killing all seven astronauts, it was shades of Challenger. Will NASA be undone by its obsessive focus on the shuttle?
How the world got pummeled this past year
NASA's three worst tragedies all happened this week--46, 27 and 10 years ago.
An estimated 50,000 gallons of crude oil are "missing."