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Meet the hero who saved everything you love about modern cities

By Eleanor Cummins

Humans started transforming Earth a lot earlier than we thought

Humans started transforming Earth a lot earlier than we thought

Menstrual cups were invented in 1867. What took them so long to gain popularity?

Menstrual cups were invented in 1867. What took them so long to gain popularity?

By Marion Renault

How predicting the future shifted from fiction to fact—and what we lost along the way

Science Fiction

How predicting the future shifted from fiction to fact—and what we lost along the way

By Max Saunders/The Conversation

How humans created color for thousands of years

How humans created color for thousands of years

By Eleanor Cummins

We’re barreling towards another Dust Bowl

We’re barreling towards another Dust Bowl

By Erin Blakemore

Rising high in 19th-century Chicago required nerves of steel

By Eleanor Cummins

The weirdest things we learned this week: Feminist butter sculptures and America’s first favorite pastime

The weirdest things we learned this week: Feminist butter sculptures and America’s first favorite pastime

By Popular Science Team

The weirdest things we learned this week: College students swallowed guppies for sport and chickens wore glasses

The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week

The weirdest things we learned this week: College students swallowed guppies for sport and chickens wore glasses

By Popular Science Team

Money, shoes, poop, and other highlights from the 796 items we’ve left on the moon

By Sara Chodosh

Buzz Aldrin sloshed around in pee on the moon (and 11 other Apollo facts)

Buzz Aldrin sloshed around in pee on the moon (and 11 other Apollo facts)

By Rachel Feltman

The Apollo moon rocks continue to reveal secrets of the cosmos

The Apollo moon rocks continue to reveal secrets of the cosmos

By Marion Renault

The Apollo 11 mission as told through the astronauts’ heart rates

The Apollo 11 mission as told through the astronauts’ heart rates

The history of science is for sale

The history of science is for sale

By Eleanor Cummins

The weirdest things we learned this week: Victorian sex drugs and deadly milk injections

The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week

The weirdest things we learned this week: Victorian sex drugs and deadly milk injections

By Popular Science Team

Britain makes Alan Turing, the father of AI, the face of its 50-pound note

Britain makes Alan Turing, the father of AI, the face of its 50-pound note

By Eleanor Cummins

Arctic lead pollution can tell us a lot about medieval economies

Arctic lead pollution can tell us a lot about medieval economies

The weirdest things we learned this week: Nazis ate camel poop and pregnancy tests spread a fungal plague

The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week

The weirdest things we learned this week: Nazis ate camel poop and pregnancy tests spread a fungal plague

By Popular Science Team

The real-world Mount Doom just erupted (again)

The real-world Mount Doom just erupted (again)

By Eleanor Cummins

Vandals, angry artists, and mustachioed tinkerers: The story of New York City’s weather forecasting castle

Vandals, angry artists, and mustachioed tinkerers: The story of New York City’s weather forecasting castle

By Eleanor Cummins

Feral pigs are ruining ecosystems across 35 states and hunting is making it worse

Feral pigs are ruining ecosystems across 35 states and hunting is making it worse

Driverless car proponents love this stat. Too bad it’s a wreck.

Driverless car proponents love this stat. Too bad it’s a wreck.

The weirdest things we learned this week: Two sleeps are better than one

The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week

The weirdest things we learned this week: Two sleeps are better than one

By Popular Science Team

The secret to moving this ancient sphinx? Hoverboards

The secret to moving this ancient sphinx? Hoverboards

By Eleanor Cummins

The weirdest things we learned this week: doctors drinking pee and telephones made of cats

The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week

The weirdest things we learned this week: doctors drinking pee and telephones made of cats

By Popular Science Team

The weirdest thing we learned this week: werewolf tomatoes and overdosing on placebos with Wendy Zukerman

The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week

The weirdest thing we learned this week: werewolf tomatoes and overdosing on placebos with Wendy Zukerman

By Rachel Feltman, Eleanor Cummins, Wendy Zukerman

The king behind Machu Picchu built his legacy in stone

By Eleanor Cummins

The increase in Everest deaths may have nothing to do with crowds or waiting

The increase in Everest deaths may have nothing to do with crowds or waiting

By Eleanor Cummins

By destroying this female pharaoh’s legacy, her successor preserved it forever

By Eleanor Cummins

Before there was a periodic table, there was chaos

Before there was a periodic table, there was chaos

By Paul Strathern

Before there was a periodic table, there was chemical chaos

Before there was a periodic table, there was chemical chaos

By Paul Strathern

hummingbird in a purple flower

Thomas Midgley, Jr. may have been the most environmentally disastrous person of all time

By Tom Phillips

blood transfusion

Searching in vein: a history of artificial blood

By Marion Renault

The weirdest things we learned this week: Rats with fetishes and America’s first banana

The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week

The weirdest things we learned this week: Rats with fetishes and America’s first banana

By Claire Maldarelli, Eleanor Cummins, and Rachel Feltman

You know nothing. Meet the real John Snow.

By Sara Chodosh

The weirdest things we learned this week: Blood-thirsty Bambi and 12-foot-tall birds

The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week

The weirdest things we learned this week: Blood-thirsty Bambi and 12-foot-tall birds

By Rachel Feltman

The weirdest things we learned this week: Falcon sex hats and buying human skulls on Instagram

The weirdest things we learned this week: Falcon sex hats and buying human skulls on Instagram

By Rachel Feltman

The weirdest things we learned this week: you can mummify yourself to death and Disney is full of military tech

The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week

The weirdest things we learned this week: you can mummify yourself to death and Disney is full of military tech

By Rachel Feltman

The weirdest things we learned this week: animals used to stand trial and apples kept doctors from killing you

The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week

The weirdest things we learned this week: animals used to stand trial and apples kept doctors from killing you

By Eleanor Cummins

Royal Society of London England Isaac Newton Charles II king science

There’s a reason England was able to harness geniuses like Isaac Newton

By Safi Bahcall

stone walls covered in moss

Old stone walls hold secrets to Earth’s wandering magnetic north

By John Delano/The Conversation

a poodle running through a field with a silly haircut

The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week

The weirdest things we learned this week: 40,000 vanishing pigeons and the science of poodle haircuts

By Rachel Feltman

a painting of people dancing

The weirdest things we learned this week: starting fires with astronaut farts and dancing yourself to death

By Rachel Feltman

a man crouches naked in the woods in an old black and white photo

The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week

The weirdest things we learned this week: counting vampires and nudist founding fathers

By Rachel Feltman

a tigress licking her paws

The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week

The weirdest things we learned this week: hot air balloon riots and the man-eatingest tiger

By Rachel Feltman

a man looks at several babies in an incubator

The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week

The weirdest things we learned this week: strange sneezes and how sideshows saved 6,500 babies

By Rachel Feltman

Charles Darwin wrote enough one-liners to fill a burn book

Charles Darwin wrote enough one-liners to fill a burn book

By Eleanor Cummins

a woman wrangling a cow

The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week

The weirdest things we learned this week: deadly molasses and the best way to battle cattle

By Rachel Feltman

Cremation research tombs

Your ashes might say more about you than you’d think

By Eleanor Cummins

Rodeo dirt Fort Worth Austin

Dirt can make or break a rodeo

By Eleanor Cummins

birth control pill calendar

The way we take the pill has more to do with religion than science

By Susan Walker/The Conversation

a vintage coca-cola ad

The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week

The weirdest things we learned this week: the sweetest-smelling butts, flaming birds, and 40 barrels of coke

By Rachel Feltman

an old drawing of a surgery

The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week

The weirdest things we learned this week: killer surgeons and mysterious floating feet

By Rachel Feltman

a close-up of a combination lock, with the numbers 90 and 0 visible

Zero is just 1,500 years old. Before it, there was nothing.

By Eleanor Cummins

Examination by ophthalmoscope

Victorians worried about books like we worry about iPhones

By Gemma Almond/The Conversation

Early humans hooked up with other species a whole bunch

Early humans hooked up with other species a whole bunch

By Neel V. Patel

Charles Minard is known for the ‘best graphic ever,’ but he may have topped it with these maps

Charles Minard is known for the ‘best graphic ever,’ but he may have topped it with these maps

By Sara Chodosh

The swamp science that lured travelers to their doom—and inspired the jack-o’-lantern

The swamp science that lured travelers to their doom—and inspired the jack-o’-lantern

an illustration of a man pretending to read someone's mind in front of a crowd

The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week

The spookiest things we learned this week

By Rachel Feltman

The oldest weapons in North America offer a new view of prehistoric tech

The oldest weapons in North America offer a new view of prehistoric tech

By Neel V. Patel

a tiny house wrapped in bubble wrap

The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week

The weirdest things we learned this week: glowing Civil War soldiers and historic font battles

By Eleanor Cummins

Behind the supersonic rise and fall of the Concorde, 15 years after its final flight

Behind the supersonic rise and fall of the Concorde, 15 years after its final flight

By Stefanie Waldek

The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week

The weirdest things we learned this week: birthing rabbits, gruesome taxidermy, and the Parthenon’s best-kept secret

By Eleanor Cummins

Mount Vesuvius murdered its victims in more brutal ways than we thought

Mount Vesuvius murdered its victims in more brutal ways than we thought

By Neel V. Patel