books

Latest in books

a close up of evergreen branches

How the evergreen shaped America

By Trent Preszler

a close up of an opal

What do you see? 12 extreme close-ups bring ‘hidden science’ to life

By Felice Frankel

The first six women in newly issued, incompletely adorned astronaut jumpsuits, 1978: (front, left to right) Sally Ride, Rhea Seddon; (rear) Kathy Sullivan, Shannon Lucid, Anna Fisher, Judy Resnik.

NASA’s trailblazing generation

By Valerie Neal

person holding kindle

How to get free e-books for your Kindle

Book scanning robot

This robot scans rare library books at 2,500 pages per hour

Illustration scroll for The Tale of Genji from Medieval Japan

College students digitized 795 poems from the world’s oldest novel

Medieval book opened to pages

A 600-year-old Chaucer mystery may finally be solved

A harbor seal (Phoca vitulina) on the beach during the summer premoult stage.

When wily sea lions and determined wildlife officials sparred in Seattle

Portrait of Galileo Galilei

Ultra-rare first edition book from Galileo heading to auction

Medieval copy of Canterbury Tales

A surprising number of medieval scribes were women

This image, made with Multispectral Imaging and processed using the Minimal Noise Fraction method, brings out annotations on the left-hand side which were invisible to the naked eye, including the stamp ‘Huntingfield’ believed to have been added in the 16th century when the manuscript was repurposed as a binding.

Rare Merlin and King Arthur text found hidden in binding of medieval book

a hand touching grass

What happens to our bodies when we touch grass

By Kathy Willis

Jeff VanderMeer next to book cover for Absolution

Science Fiction

Jeff VanderMeer talks about his new novel and ‘deranged court jester’ Elon Musk

The Winchcombe meteorite sits on display at the Natural History Museum on May 13, 2021 in London, England. The meteorite is a rare type, the first to fall in 30 years.

When a meteor smashes into your driveway

By Robin Andrews

a cartoon of a young boy named oliver reading Popular Science on a tablet. he said "oh i can be popular by doing science."

Curiosity and fart jokes help explain why ‘Volcanoes are Hot’

By Laura Baisas

3D illustration showing layers of the Earth in space.

Digging to the center of the Earth–or at least enough to bury poop

This map shows the oldest light in our universe, as detected with the greatest precision yet by the Planck mission.

What was the first color in the universe?

By Tyler Thrasher and Terry Mudge

a reddish moon in the sky

How the blood moon gets its ghoulish hue

By Tyler Thrasher and Terry Mudge

surprised Jack Russell terrier portrait on yellow background.

Animals only see in black and white and 5 other color myths

By Tyler Thrasher and Terry Mudge

a circle and pi = 3.14 written on a chalkboard

Math teacher argues Pi Day should be July 22