Popular Science

Science and technology news from the future with intrigue, insight, and entertainment (via PopSci.com)

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The Brain
Traumatic memories pit two neuron groups against each other
Popular Science - By Kat Eschner
The research “opens the floodgates” on a new way of looking at the brain. New research from the University of Texas at Austin provides an unprecedented view into how our brains cope with traumatic memories,
Environment
Young farmers are challenging convention to improve sustainability
Popular Science - By Marlene Cimons
“When the paradigm shifts past a certain point, they will all follow.” Sometimes, it’s easy to get lost in the soil. It’s a relationship that people passionate about farming have with the earth, especially
Technology
What to know about the software issue that delayed major airlines today
Popular Science - By Rob Verger
Plus, why “slack” matters in the airline industry. Earlier today, a problem with a company you likely haven’t heard of, AeroData, sparked delays for major airlines in the US, including United, JetBlue,
Everything you need to know about male hormonal birth control
Popular Science - By Sara Chodosh
There are several promising options in the works. The invention of hormonal birth control revolutionized women’s healthcare, but for the past 70-odd years it’s also meant most of the contraceptive burden
Gear & Gadgets
22 percent off an air purifier and other fresh deals happening today
Popular Science - By Billy Cadden
A quick guide to getting the goods for cheaper. For more deals and product chatter, check out our exclusive Facebook group. 43-inch smart TV with built-in Roku Amazon has a 43-inch TCL television on sale
Science
Puffy unicorn stickers could save millions of migrating birds each year
Popular Science - By Jessica Boddy
Windows pose a lethal threat to migrating birds. But human can help. If you live in a locale with soul-crushing winters, the first breath of spring is truly revitalizing. There’s nothing quite like that
Technology
Techathlon podcast: The worst passwords, corporate takeovers, and the week’s biggest tech news
Popular Science - By Stan Horaczek
Play along and learn a thing or two. It sure was easy to get distracted last week. First, March Madness was in full effect, which means employees of all types spent lots of time trying to keep up with
Megapixels: Mini frog, two frog, pumpkin frog, new frog
Popular Science - By Eleanor Cummins
The week's amphibian photos have been truly ...ribbeting. Last week was chock-full of frog news, both heart-warming and heart-breaking. Here are the top four photo-worthy events: See Sehuencas water frogs
Yoga
Build a yoga room to save you from your smartphone
Popular Science - By Claire Maldarelli
Everything you need to stretch and take an hour off from the notification onslaught. Yoga’s original south asian practitioners realized what the regimen can do for the mind millennia ago. In modern life,
Apps
How to enable 'dark mode' everywhere
Popular Science - By Whitson Gordon
The guide to a more soothing visual experience on Android, iPhone, Windows, Youtube, Reddit, Slack, and more. Black text on a white background isn’t just boring, it’s blinding. When you’re using your or
Gear & Gadgets
Apple killed AirPower because a dead product is better than a bad one
Popular Science - By Stan Horaczek
Apple has "high standards" and couldn't get this wireless charging pad to meet them. Apple’s AirPower wireless charging mat will go down in history as a punchline more than a product. Today, the company
Technology
Quantum teleportation is real, but it's not what you think
Popular Science - By Matthew R. Francis
A commute so quick you could just die. In 2017, physicists beamed photons from Tibet to a satellite passing more than 300 miles overhead. These particles jumping through space evoked wide-eyed sci-fi back
Dual rotors could make the Defiant one of the world's fastest helicopters
Popular Science - By Rob Verger
This machine will challenge the way you think about chopper design. Picture a helicopter, and you’ll imagine a craft with two rotors: a big horizontal one that provides lift and thrust, and a smaller rotor
Pigs
See what happens when tapeworms infest your brain
Popular Science - By Sara Chodosh
A tragic case report shows the horrifying result when tapeworms don't stay confined to your intestines. Tapeworms are revolting no matter where you find them. But when they are in your gut, at least the
Technology
58 percent off a quadcopter drone and other great deals happening today
Popular Science - By Billy Cadden
The low-down on the day's best discounts. For more deals and product chatter, check out our exclusive Facebook group. Quadcopter drones If you’ve never flown a drone, you can get a decent one for $50 Smaller
Technology
How to pick the right wireless charger for your smartphone
Popular Science - By Stan Horaczek
It's surprisingly tricky to get the best performance. Wireless charging is a wonderfully simple idea. You plop down your smartphone on top of a pad on your nightstand and electricity flows from the grid
Pigs
See what happens when tapeworms infest your brain
Popular Science - By Sara Chodosh
A tragic case report shows the horrifying result when tapeworms don't stay confined to your intestines. Tapeworms are revolting no matter where you find them. But when they are in your gut, at least the
Environment
A mysterious disease is ravaging Florida's coral, and now it might be spreading elsewhere
Popular Science - By Kat Eschner
Even if it's not stony coral tissue loss disease, the reefs are in trouble. Recent reports suggest that stony coral tissue loss disease, which has ravaged Florida reefs over the last half-decade, has into
Technology
Last week in tech: New Apple services, a super-strong robotic ostrich, and more
Popular Science - By Stan Horaczek
This isn't just content—it's content plus. You may have noticed that these weekly tech news wrap-up posts—which used to post on Mondays—have been on pause for a bit while we welcomed our new podcast, Now
Can I Have A Pet Fox?
Popular Science - By Dan Nosowitz
How a furry-convention-attending, Midwestern-accented fox owner teamed up with a bizarre Floridian exotic animal importer and a Soviet geneticist to bring pet foxes to your living room. Do a YouTube search
Science
Four food pranks for office life on April 1
Popular Science - By Dan Seitz
Be amusing, not irritating. Psst. Hey. We see you planning for April Fools’ Day. We know you’re looking to slip a whoopee cushion under the CEO’s butt before that big business meeting. Hilarious. Truly.
Breast Cancer
The FDA is finally updating its decades-old mammogram standards
Popular Science - By Nicole Wetsman
Radiologists must now report a patient's breast density, which can complicate diagnosis. Sometime between the ages of 45 and 50, people with breasts start routinely squishing them into a machine. This
Environment
Earth's most invasive species is a frog-killing fungus
Popular Science - By Ula Chrobak
The international pet trade has helped a fungal infection spread to 501 species of amphibians. Lionfish hunting native fish off the East Coast, kudzu vines blanketing large areas of the South, cane toads
NASA
The president wants NASA back on the moon by 2024—a risky and unrealistic request
Popular Science - By Neel V. Patel
We'll need more money, more time, or both. In December 2017, Donald Trump signed Space Policy Directive 1, giving NASA instructions to return humans to the moon using projects already underway as well
Environment
Rising temperatures will help mosquitos infect a billion more people
Popular Science - By Marlene Cimons
"Plain and simple, climate change is going to kill a lot of people." Mosquitoes are unrelenting killers. In fact, they are among the most lethal animals in the world. When they carry dangerous viruses
Technology
How to pick the perfect seat in a movie theater for sound and picture
Popular Science - By Eric Alt
You paid a lot to get into the theater, make sure it's worth the price of the ticket. Nearly everyone at one time or another has had to endure seeing a blockbuster movie from the POV of a milk mustache
The ultimate guide to hitting a home run
Popular Science - By Sara Chodosh
Let's nerd out about the physics of hitting a baseball as hard as you possibly can. If ever there were a sport to completely nerd out about, it’s baseball. Geeks across America have been crunching data
Long-form Journalism
No one told Babe Ruth he had cancer, but his death changed the way we fight it
Popular Science - By Eleanor Cummins 2018-02-06T11:22:10-05:00
Wikimedia The Great Bambino’s treatment came at a major turning point in medicine. George Herman Ruth was sick. It had all started with a deep, searing pain behind his left eye. Now, he could hardly swallow.
Short-Term Memory
This woman's genetic mutation shields her from pain and anxiety
Popular Science - By Sara Chodosh
Her case could help researchers find new ways to alleviate depression. Arthritis is usually painful. So is the surgery to fix it, at least in the immediate aftermath. So when a 66-year old woman at Raigmore
Autonomous Cars
What will it take for humans to trust self-driving cars?
Popular Science - By Rob Verger
They're coming—but are we ready to let a computer take the wheel? On March 18, 2018, Elaine Herzberg, 49, was crossing a road in Tempe, Arizona, when a Volvo SUV traveling at 39 miles per hour hit and