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two turkey chicks in a box with a feather duster as a stand-in for its mother
Birds

Orphaned baby turkeys think a feather duster is their mom

‘It’s safety, it’s warmth. And that really does help with these animals in rehabilitation.’

Aerial photo of Waymo self-driving taxi on street in San Francisco
Self Driving

Police can’t find shoplifter who fled in self-driving Waymo

San Francisco cops remain stumped 6 months after the crime.

A caucasian young woman with a blue backpack looking for her seat in the airplain. Waiting in the row
Aviation

The fastest way to board an airplane, according to science

Better, faster boarding methods exist, so why don’t we use them? 

Bicentennial Parade, 1976. (Photo by © Wally McNamee/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)
Photography

13 incredible photos of America’s 1976 bicentennial celebration

From massive firework displays to grocery store banners.

James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) image of the highly distorted red galaxy MRG-M0138 seen through a foreground cluster of galaxies (white sources). Via the phenomenon of gravitational lensing, the same background galaxy is multiply imaged four times and the white square shows the most magnified image which was studied by Newman and colleagues using the NIRSpec Integral Field Spectrograph onboard JWST. The data measures the velocity for each portion of the image within the white square. The top bar shows an angular scale of 5 arcsec. Credit: NASA/JWST
Space Telescope

JWST spots dormant black hole 10 billion light-years from Earth

It’s the farthest object of its kind ever seen by astronomers.

a moon, poop emoji, plant emoji
Moons

NASA wastewater system will turn human poop into plant food

University of North Dakota grad students will test the system that’s destined for the moon.

Bowhead whale family swimming together in calm blue ocean water, Mother cares calf. Aerial view pod of bowhead whale spouting hug play. Whale watching of migrate Baleen whales South Africa. Shark
Whales

The Cold War’s accidental whale observatory

Built to track enemy submarines, the Navy’s underwater listening network inadvertently revealed that whales may be singing across entire oceans.

Blanket fort inside basketball gym
Engineering

World’s largest blanket fort built at Las Vegas community center

The 14,103-square-foot engineering marvel and Guinness world record holder filled a basketball court.

The new microraptor dinosaur Jian changmaensis (left) attacks the early bird Gansus yumenensis (right) in what is now the Changma Basin of northwestern China approximately 120 million years ago. Credits: illustration by Lewis LaRosa, colorized by Jão Canola.
Evolution

Velociraptor’s cousin flew like a flying squirrel

Four ‘wings’ helped the crow-sized avian dinosaur glide.

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Popular Science has been demystifying the worlds of science and technology since 1872. We explain the inner workings of the phone in your pocket, explore world-changing innovations, and examine everything from the marvels of deep space to the secret lives of staples like bread. We deliver an engaging, approachable, and inclusive look at emerging technologies and scientific advances.
Daily, Popular Science unpacks the science behind the top current new stories, dissects the latest technology and digital trends, and helps readers live smarter, safer, and happier through clever DIY projects.

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