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Screenshot of emulator running 86-DOS version 0.1

This long-lost, earliest MS-DOS precursor was discovered in a floppy disk collection

No one bought Apple’s iconic HQ logo sign

Close-up of Roman follis coins found off Italian coast

Divers recovered a treasure trove of more than 30,000 ancient, bronze coins off the Italian coast

Charred scroll from Herculaneum undergoing laser scan

AI revealed the colorful first word of an ancient scroll torched by Mount Vesuvius

T. rex model, T. rex skull, and Triceratops skull at dinosaur display in the Museum of Natural History in Vienna

4 reasons dinosaurs never really ruled the Earth

large dinosaur skull sits in storage area

Museums are filled with fake dinosaur fossils. See what it takes to make those replicas.

By Riley Black, Theo Stroomer

NASA astronaut Buzz Aldrin walking across Tranquility Base with equipment after the Apollo 11 moon landing. Black and white photo.

Space junk is a precious treasure trove to some archaeologists

Barbie and Ken in all-pink outfits driving in a pink convertible in the new movie "Barbie"

‘Barbie’ reminds us that pink is a power color for everyone

By Jocelyn Solis-Moreira

Hand holding first generation iPhone

A first generation iPhone just sold for 317 times its original sticker price

Pile of retro video game controllers

Only 1 in 10 classic video games are publicly accessible today

Uranus captured by Voyager 2 in true color and false color. Uranus got its name from Greek mythology.

Uranus got its name from a very serious authority

By Briley Lewis

A fresco painted on a wall in the ancient city of Pompeii that depicts a focaccia with fruit and possibly pesto sauce on it. It is served on a silver tray and has a wine chalice next to it.

A fresco discovered in Pompeii looks like ancient pizza—but it’s likely focaccia

By Laura Baisas

Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada, aka Area 51, at sunset.

What we know about Area 51

By Kelsey D. Atherton

Notre Dame de Paris cathedral on sunny day

Workers rely on medieval era tech to reconstruct the Notre Dame

A digital rendering of the Green Mosque in Balkh, Afghanistan

‘Extended reality’ will help preserve some of Afghanistan’s most endangered historical sites

A bartender pours a light beer into a large glass.

Inventing lager was a huge mistake

By Laura Baisas

Ancient Maya idol in Copán, Guatemala

Ancient Maya masons had a smart way to make plaster stronger

Two Swahili women in traditional headwear and dresses. Black and white portrait.

Ancient DNA confirms Swahilis’ blended African and Asian ancestry

By Jocelyn Solis-Moreira

Two University of Colorado Boulder scientists in jackets carrying a log with a tumpstrap and their heads

Scientists may have solved an old Puebloan mystery by strapping giant logs to their foreheads

Vigil attendees at a California skatepark remember Tyre Nichols with prayer candles forming a heart. Nichols died from police violence in his home city of Memphis after EMTs also failed to react quickly to his injuries.

Police brutality is an unaddressed public health crisis in America

By Jocelyn Solis-Moreira

a colorful illustration of ancient egyptians wearing robes embalming a dead body with wrappings and chemicals

This is the best look yet into ancient Egyptians’ mummy-making chemicals

By Jocelyn Solis-Moreira

Black and white photo of Albert Einstein

‘Historical’ AI chatbots aren’t just inaccurate—they are dangerous

British navy boarding a ship where many sailors are sickened by scurvy from vitamin deficiency. Black and white illustration.

It took centuries (and vitamins) for doctors to finally stop scurvy

Apple MacBook turning on on a wooden desk with a white desk chair

The real reason that familiar Apple Mac chime is off key

By Richard Mainwaring

Apollo 15 astronaut on lunar rover in black and white NASA image

10 incredible lunar missions that paved the way for Artemis

By Ben Guarino, Purbita Saha

a black and white picture cut out of two men in lab coats looking at vials on a lab bench that has a microscope. in purple behind them is text of an old news article, with the headline "science closes in on the common cold"

Why we still don’t have a vaccine for the common cold

By Bill Gourgey

a high speed rail train in black and white over a map of US rail lines in purple in the background

High-speed rail trains are stalled in the US—and that might not change for a while

By Bill Gourgey

Orange and white pottery shards sit scattered on top of a dark blue background.

Cacao was probably loved by all, even 1,000 years ago in Maya culture

By Helen Bradshaw

the three pyramids of giza under a sunny day

A dried-up arm of the Nile provides another clue to how Egyptians built the pyramids

By Jocelyn Solis-Moreira

a black, white and purple designed image of a man driving a levitating car

The century-old dream of traveling by hovercraft is still alive

By Bill Gourgey

Poliovirus particles in blue and green in a digital rendering

What to know about the new rare polio case in New York

By Jocelyn Solis-Moreira

Great Smoky Mountains seen from Townsend, Tennessee

A humble seismograph beneath the Great Smoky Mountains could be one of the best in the world

By Alisha McDarris

a purple and black and white stylized image of a historic foldable flying car with newspaper clippings in the background

What it would take for cars to actually fly

By Bill Gourgey

a beaver in a stream

Martian beavers, intentional explosions, and other weird facts from 150 years of PopSci

By Popular Science Team

Faafafine individual at Auckland, New Zealand pride parade

Sex and gender binaries don’t tell the entire story of life

By Rachel Feltman

an image of an unlaced light brown torso on a human body shown from the back

Shapewear has changed a lot over the centuries. How much has it changed us?

By Eleanor Cummins

an aerial view of an atomic garden

The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week

Nuclear war inspired peacetime ‘gamma gardens’ for growing mutant plants

By Popular Science Team

1970s era living room with orange wallpaper, two chairs and a TV with a deepfake of Nixon playing.

Deepfakes may use new technology, but they’re based on an old idea

By Maggie Galloway

three tall rockets in front of a museum park

Ukraine was about to revive its space program. Then Russia invaded.

By Tatyana Woodall

six raw oysters in a circle around a lemon next to a glass of champagne to be used as aphrodisiacs for sex

Research on aphrodisiacs is kind of unsatisfying

By Philip Kiefer

Why young orphans were once used as human refrigerators

The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week

Why young orphans were once used as human refrigerators

By Popular Science Team

People wear COVID masks in on public transportation

The 5 phases of COVID’s endgame

Glowing red sphere of light around a black hole in a NASA simulation

We’re still in the dark about a key black hole paradox

By Leto Sapunar

A bronze helmet shown from the front and the side. It has curving horns coming out of the sides of the head, and a birdlike face.

Horned helmets came from Bronze Age artists, not Vikings

By Philip Kiefer

Rembrandt's oil painting "The Night Watch" restored and broken down into six high-res squares

AI turned a Rembrandt masterpiece into 5.6 terabytes of data

By Purbita Saha

viper illustration

The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week

This noxious island is so full of snakes, people can’t even visit

By Popular Science Team

a spotted lanternfly with green illustrated background

The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week

Spotted lanternfly goo is surprisingly tasty

By Popular Science Team

E. coli bacteria on a green background to show germ theory vs. terrain theory

This pseudoscience movement wants to wipe germs from existence

By Isobel Whitcomb

Slats of an old shipwreck in Lake Michigan seen from the air

Dead ships find solace under the treacherous surface of the Great Lakes

By Margo Milanowski

Young cities from around the world in floating bubbles on a light green and mint background

These young cities are solving age-old problems

planets lined up over an art illustration

The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week

Death ‘by planet’ was surprisingly common in the 1600s

By Popular Science Team

a thick green lake

Ancient cities had toxic pollution, too

By Philip Kiefer

Three women in helmets leaning down on turf with a foam heart-shaped football in black and white

These ‘experts’ once said women couldn’t play football. Boy were they wrong.

By Britni de la Cretaz and Lyndsey D’Arcangelo

Melting ice cap in the ocean aerial

The oil and gas industry knew about climate change in the 1950s

By Benjamin Franta/The Conversation

art illustration with a pile of slime and the weirdest thing eyeball

The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week

How sexy Victorian mediums tricked scientists into believing in ectoplasm

By Popular Science Team

Light beer in a pint and 12-ounce glass on a table outside

Why beer serving sizes are so weird

By Mike Rampton/Mel Magazine

Gen Z and millennial kid and parent with curly hair and leather jackets sticking their tongues out in the mirror of a red motorcycle

The myth of generations, debunked

By Yasmin Tayag

a baby chimp and baby human

The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week

What scientists learned when they tried to raise a chimp with a human baby

By Popular Science Team

Queer couple with cropped hair thinking of the Kinsey Scale Test

The Kinsey Scale Test and 3 other ways to find where you fall on the sexuality spectrum

By Sara Chodosh

Panis quadratus on a marble plate on a wooden table

Eat like an ancient Roman by recreating bread from Pompeii

By Alisha McDarris

a colorful illustration of long-tailed gray rodents carrying assorted objects such as buttons, bones, bugs, and flowers

What’s in a packrat’s petrified pee? Just a few thousand years of secrets.

By Jason Bittel

Hubble space telescope deep field view of ancient galaxies that helps answer the question: How old is the universe?

Space Telescope

How old is the universe? Our answer keeps getting more precise.

By Charlie Wood

an old-fashioned medical tool covered in a serrated blade

The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week

Why were chainsaws invented? To help with childbirth.

By Popular Science Team

a skyscraper against a green background with rays of light beaming off of it onto the ground

Some skyscrapers are so shiny they turn into death rays

By Popular Science Team