In Head Trip, PopSci explores the relationship between our brains, our senses, and the strange things that happen in between. SURE, TIME FLIES flies when you’re having fun. Time also seems to stretch out like an old rubber band when you’re stuck in endless back-to-back Zoom work meetings. The latter is an example of chronostasis, a […]
You are more than a data point. The Opt Out is here to help you take your privacy back. IN THE LAST DECADE, direct-to-consumer genetic tests like those from Ancestry.com and 23andMe have become ubiquitous in the US. These services cater to Americans looking for distant relatives, a missing piece of their history, or insight into their […]
THE GEORGE EASTMAN MUSEUM in Rochester, New York, is, like most museums, full of historically significant and wonderfully nerdy objects. The museum’s namesake, George Eastman, founded the Eastman Kodak company at the turn of the 20th century and revolutionized photographic film in 1888 in a way that made photography accessible to the general public, so […]
Before you recycle that peanut butter jar, consider using it to make a cloud chamber
EYES MIGHT NOT be able to speak, but they have plenty to say. Many animals use complex visual systems to help them survive in particular habitats. Sight is often a first line of defense against predators—or a crucial sense for catching prey. To dwell in Earth’s darkest locations or travel high through the sky, creatures […]
OUR EYES, unlike other organs hidden deep within our bodies, sit in plain sight. They have been inspirations for artists, symbols for the superstitious, and objects of scientific fascination for centuries. In ancient Greece, medical pioneers cut them open in public dissections, revealing delicate layers of retina, cornea, and iris. In the early 10th century, […]
Dinosaurs like sauropods and theropods kept growing bigger. We sort of know how thanks to fossils, but why?
WHEN THE HOLOGRAM of Princess Leia, projected by the little droid R2-D2, appeared in the first Star Wars movie in 1977, the hopes and dreams of 3D-viewing enthusiasts likely soared. Even though the hologram was fictional, it was a glimpse of 3D’s supposed glasses-free future—never mind that the hologram itself was viewable only in 2D […]
An intelligence organization called IARPA wants to get better at the art of cyber attribution. Here’s what they have planned.
A Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist found a mistake in a famous model that designers and programmers use to translate color to pixels.
