(Editor’s Note: This is a section from Popular Science’s 38th annual Best of What’s New awards. Be sure to read the full list of the 50 greatest innovations of 2025.)

Grand Award Winner, Entertainment

Micro RGB TV by Samsung: A TV that creates color in a totally different way

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Pictures of Samsung’s Micro RGB TV don’t do it justice. When I saw it in person earlier this year, I was shocked by the vibrant colors and brightness it offers. Even compared to typical OLEDs (which are renowned for their color reproduction), it created a tangibly more vivid viewing experience. Each sub-100-micron RGB emitter sits directly behind the panel and is driven on its own, which lets the set hit unusually wide color gamuts while maintaining extremely high brightness and contrast at a 115-inch, 4K size. True Micro LED tech remains exclusive to commercial installations, but Micro RGB provides an extremely similar experience without the need for complex professional installation. A screen this large that can still show deep blacks and highly saturated color in a bright room reshapes what home theater looks like—if you can afford it—and sets expectations for what premium displays should do over the next decade.

Magnetic Fluid Driver by Technics: Earbuds that tune the driver with liquid, not just magnets

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Technics’ EAH-AZ100 earbuds use a dynamic driver with magnetic fluid—an oil-like liquid loaded with magnetic particles—between the voice coil and the diaphragm. Instead of just cooling the driver, the fluid damps and centers its motion, cutting distortion and stabilizing the stroke, especially at low frequencies. That’s important because most earbud upgrades lately have come from digital signal processing and software tricks. Here the transducer itself gets an upgrade. Extending clean bass response down to a claimed 3 Hz while maintaining detail in the mids and highs shows there’s still headroom in single-driver designs, and it hints that more weird physics materials may show up inside everyday audio gear.

Atmos FlexConnect by Dolby: Room-aware surround sound that starts from the TV

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Even the fanciest home audio system won’t sound good if it’s not set up correctly. Dolby Atmos FlexConnect uses the TV as a hub that listens for wireless speakers, figures out where they are in the room, and then assigns channels and levels automatically instead of forcing you to figure out symmetrical layouts and manual calibration. The system identifies each speaker’s capabilities and position, then divides Atmos height, surround, and dialogue information between the TV’s own drivers and any paired satellites. TCL’s 2025 QD-Mini LED TV sets and matching Z100 speakers are the first to ship with it, which makes Atmos-style setups closer to “plug it in and listen” than “learn to be your own installer.” It’s still a closed ecosystem for now, but it points toward surround systems that adapt to cluttered apartments and real furniture instead of demanding a perfect demo room.

MV7i two-channel mic by Shure: A podcast mic with an audio interface built in

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If you watch podcast content, streamers, or pretty much any kind of interview content online, you’ve seen the Shure MV7 microphone. It’s the industry standard, and now it works as its own stand-alone podcast studio. Plug it into a computer via USB-C and you get the mic plus a combo XLR/ ¼-inch input on the back for a second microphone or instrument, with both channels appearing separately in Shure’s MOTIV Mix software or your digital audio workstation. That lets a solo creator record a host and guest, or voice and guitar, without hauling around an extra interface box, power supply, and cabling. Dual-channel recording directly from a single desktop mic lowers the barrier to making more polished shows and music from small spaces, and it shows how much traditional studio hardware can collapse into a single device.

G5 Evo by LG: An OLED TV that belongs in bright rooms

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LG’s G5 Evo OLED overcomes one of the biggest limitations of this particular type of digital display: overall brightness. A new tandem RGB OLED stack, revised light-emitting structure, and brightness booster drive peak HDR highlights above 2,000 nits while still keeping the near-perfect black levels that made OLED appealing in the first place. Paired with the α11 AI Gen2 processor and support for 4K at up to 165 Hz, the panel can handle both bright daytime viewing and high-frame-rate gaming without falling back to washed-out LCD tricks. It’s a reminder that OLED is still evolving as a technology—and that the next few years of

The post The 5 coolest entertainment innovations of 2025 appeared first on Popular Science.

• Best overall: Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S3
• Best ANC: Sony WH-1000XM6
• Best for audiophiles: Sennheiser HDB 630
• Best splurge: Focal Bathys MG
• Best for airplanes: JBL Tour One M3 
• Best for iPhone users: AirPods Max 
• Best value: Soundcore Space One
• Best budget: JLab JBuds Lux ANC
• Best true wireless earbuds: Bose QuietComfort Ultra (2nd Gen.)
• Best IEM: Sennheiser IE600
• Best accessory: Twelve South AirFly Pro 2

How we selected the best headphones for travel

Finding the best headphones for travel involved a significant selection process. Thankfully, I’ve been an audio enthusiast for many years and have tested everything from budget cans to audiophile headphones costing multiple thousands of dollars. I’ve written a number of different audio guides for Popular Science, all based on testing and experience. So, when tasked with this challenge, I knew that, working together with our talented team of fellow audio enthusiasts, I could find the best picks for every kind of listener. 

To compose this list, I put my head(phones) together with our editor, Tony Ware, who spends time in the air multiple times a month. Together, we looked at the different pairs we’ve both tested in order to create our shortlist, taking into consideration active noise cancellation to audio signatures. Following that, I conducted in-depth research on pairs that are popular both critically and among users, and categorized them into different use cases and needs. Ultimately, I was left with a Top 10 list of the best headphones for travelers (and soundtracks) of all genres. 

The best headphones for travel: Reviews & Recommendations

Now that you know how we selected the best travel headphones, let’s dive into our picks so you can find the ones that work best for you and your budget, whether you’re traveling for work, for family holidaze, or on a much-needed vacation. 

Best overall: Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S3

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Pros

• Excellent sound across multiple genres
• Powerful noise cancellation
• Low-profile, stylish design

Cons

• Snug fit, which is great for passive noise cancellation, may be too snug for some

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Specs

• Price: $449.99
• Wearing Style: Over-ear
• Frequency Response: 10 Hz – 20 kHz
• Noise Cancellation: Active
• Battery Life: 30 hours (ANC on)
• Weight: 298 grams

The Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S3 is the latest iteration in the company’s flagship headphone lineup, and its balance of expressive audio and more effective active noise cancellation makes it the perfect pair of travel headphones for most listeners. These are headphones that are stylish both visually and audibly—one of the best-sounding and best-looking pairs of wireless headphones you can buy today.

This pair of premium cans is available in three finishes (Anthracite Black, Indigo Blue, Canvas White) to match your unique sense of style. The chassis blends multiple upscale materials—including metal, leatherette, and fabric—from the textured buttons to the acoustic chamber. This creates a pair of headphones that look as luxurious as they sound. And they’re surprisingly low profile despite generous padding. It’s a set you certainly won’t be embarrassed to wear in public. 

Of course, B&W didn’t make its name on style alone, no matter how good these may look. No, they are a company known for their outstanding sound quality, from recording studios to car cabins, and the Px7 S3 definitely delivers in this department. Inside the architecture sit 40mm bio-cellulose drivers with all-new voice coil and magnet assemblies to deliver their richest sound signature yet. These things breathe with clarity, sparkle without sibilance, but they aren’t afraid to give a little grunt when called for. Still, low-end underlines rather than overwhelms. They’re proof that dimensional grace doesn’t have to mean tame and timid.

If the out-of-the-box sound isn’t exactly to your taste, you can also customize it using the Bowers & Wilkins smartphone app, which includes a five-band equalizer to fine-tune its sound. Since you’ll be listening wirelessly, audio compression is a real concern, but you don’t need to worry about that here, thanks to its support for aptX Lossless and aptX Adaptive Bluetooth codecs, broadcast protocols that dramatically reduce the amount of compression and improve sound quality when broadcast from a compatible device—typically an Android smartphone. But if you have an iPhone, you can always pick up a USB-C transmitter, such as the Sennheiser BTD 700, which we’ve used to get full fidelity. 

If there’s one thing I have to pick on these headphones about, it would be their snug fit. They sound great and have noise cancellation that can effectively cut out the sound of engines and HVAC units alike, but achieving that requires a tight seal around the ear. It’s a fairly common trade-off with the best noise-canceling headphones, but definitely something to keep in mind. That said, clamping force isn’t so severe that those with glasses should be concerned. 

The Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S3 is an exceptional, articulate set that rewards attention with adrenaline.

Willing to spend a few hundred more? The $799 Px8 S2 crowns Bowers & Wilkins’ 2025 lineup by fusing the company’s loudspeaker credibility into a travel-friendly chassis. The Nappa leather-clad ear cups hide 40mm Carbon Cone drivers, angled atop a redesigned engine with bespoke 24-bit DSP for cleaner timing and lower distortion. Bluetooth 5.3 with AAC and aptX Adaptive/Lossless brings 24/96 wireless polish, while USB-C preserves full fidelity. Upgraded ANC redirects distraction without blanching tone. Less warm than its predecessor, the PX8 S2’s bass is taut, mids inviting, microdetail resolving. Thirty hours of stamina, tactile controls, and a couture build elevate routine commutes into fatigue-free performances. We were already in love with the fun-focused tuning of the Px7 S3, but this even more plush, precise edition quickly landed on our 2025 Audio Awards after some time as our suave, cabin-ready companion.

Best ANC: Sony WH-1000XM6

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Pros

• Class-leading active noise cancellation
• Lightweight and comfortable for long flights/listening sessions
• Sculptable high-resolution playback
• Folds into a compact carrying case

Cons

• ANC microphone array protrudes in places

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Specs

• Price: $449.99
• Wearing Style: Over-ear
• Frequency Response: 4 Hz – 40,000 Hz
• Noise Cancellation: Active
• Battery Life: 30 hours (ANC on), 40 hours (ANC off)
• Weight: 254 grams

When it comes to noise cancellation, there are few headphones as well-known and highly regarded as the Sony WH-1000XM lineup. They have been industry leaders for years, and the WH-1000XM6 continues that trend. Another one of our 2025 Audio Awards winners, these are the headphones to buy if you want the best active noise cancellation (ANC), period.

The XM6 offers dedicated cutting-edge processors and an inside-out system for its noise cancellation, featuring 12 total microphones. That means it’s able to monitor the sound outside the headphones as well as what’s making its way inside the ear cup to deliver the most effective cancellation possible. The QN3 processor is an improvement over the last generation, as it cuts out more of the lower-end and middle frequencies, resulting in more overall silence. And all those mics allow the XM6 to excel at a natural-sounding transparency mode if you need to engage in conversation without removing your headphones.

That’s not all these headphones offer, however. While most reviewers agree that the XM6 is an iteration instead of a reinvention compared to the WH-1000XM5, they offer a wider headband and a reinforced hinge system for improved comfort, durability, and transportability.

Sony has also made advancements in headphone sound. This line was already tuned to a consumer-friendly curve, but this latest release offers a wider soundstage and a more balanced sound profile, delivering greater detail across genres. Bass is more of a velvet glove than an iron fist, offering more groove without grain. Mids are a touch recessed, but that leaves room for the punch of pop and hip-hop. The goal, physically and sonically, is marathon comfort, so treble is polished of any edginess. It still offers app support, however, and now includes a 10-band rather than a 5-band equalizer to fully dial in more vocal intimacy and less low end if it matches your taste in tonality. Of course, to get the fullest extension, you’ll need to be able to connect your device via Sony’s LDAC codec, but you can add that with a dongle such as the FiiO BT11.

While the competition has been continually improving over the years—the Bose QuietComfort Ultra (2nd Gen.), in particular, trades blows with each update—Sony currently holds the ANC throne with the WH-1000XM6. So if you’re looking to cut out as much of the outside world as possible, this pair is an immersive hug—cozy, confident, in control.

Best for audiophiles: Sennheiser HDB 630

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Pros

• A neutral, details-oriented tuning that’s musical and doesn’t fall apart when EQed
• Parametric EQ! And crossfeed! An app full of customization that’s not just a slider!
• BTD 700 USB-C transmitter included for aptX Adaptive connection on any modern smartphone
• Up to 60 hours of battery life (ANC on)

Cons

• ANC is excellent but not absolute like Sony or Bose
• Touch controls are finicky (but thankfully can be turned off)
• Plasticky build for the price
• A better wireless transmission is great, but a wireless transmitter is one more thing to fall under your seat

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Specs

• Price: $499.99
• Wearing Style: Over-ear
• Frequency Response: Up to 6 Hz – 40 kHz
• Noise Cancellation: Adaptive
• Battery Life: Up to 60 hours
• Weight: 311g

Released in August 2022, the Sennheiser Momentum 4 Bluetooth headset is a crowd-pleaser tuned slightly warm to make the sound fuller and, yeah, more fun. And there’s nothing wrong with that … unless you’re a diehard devotee of the Sennheiser 600 Series of headphones, known for transparency you can trust and midrange that actually moves you. The HDB 630 shares a chassis with the Momentum, but it’s chasing the target of those much more refined cousins. The stock tuning is tidy. Images lock in, the center doesn’t wander, and the stage stays wide without leaning on hype. Built around a custom 42mm dynamic driver manufactured in Sennheiser’s Tullamore, Ireland, facility—the same hometown as the 600 Series, 800 Series, and legendary HE 1 headphones—the HDB 630’s acoustic system shows that wireless can be serious for those who take keeping the mix intact seriously.

The HDB 630 stands out first because of its baseline, not an abundance of crowd-pleasing, detail-bullying bass. The stock tuning is articulate, not exaggerated. It’s telling truth, not throwing confetti. It didn’t make our 2025 Audio Awards by accident. Put it through the stress test of 2000s-era Radiohead to immediately grasp the HDB 630’s ability to maintain shimmer and separation even as the groove thickens and skronk confronts. The ANC, effective though not a vacuum-seal noise cancellation champ, lets you drop the noise floor enough without losing the tiny transient cues that make a recording feel alive. This is the headphone for those who want neutral sound … not because it’s bland, but because it lets you add your own seasoning based on mood.

The second standout feature of the HDB 630 is the Sennheiser Smart Control+ app, which introduces a 5-band parametric EQ for surgical, bandwidth-aware adjustments. Open up the slightly stuffy mid-treble transition, or pull down a shouty region without dulling everything else. Add weight without dragging mud into the mix. Whereas the out-of-the-box signature is tight and textured, it’s a two-minute PEQ tweak to feel more like you’re in the club. And an A/B feature lets you adjust until you get it just right. Crossfeed is there, too, for turning hard-panned classics into more speaker-like presentations. Previously, these weren’t typical headphone features unless you packed dedicated outboard gear, and they show that Sennheiser has truly considered a target audience rarely catered to in the wireless world.

To keep the signal chain playing nice across devices, Sennheiser packs in the BTD 700 (a $60 value). This postage-stamp-sized USB-C Bluetooth 5.4 transmitter helps ensure aptX Adaptive/Lossless + Auracast is on the table, no matter how picky your source is, so the headphones always get a premium feed. And if this compatibility cheat code is acting up, wired USB-C is a true lossless 24-bit/96 kHz option. Your body may be squeezed when in transit, but your fidelity doesn’t have to be. Your legs may feel trapped, but your ability to sculpt the perfect frequency curve to your tastes is wide open. Your favorite recordings aren’t at the mercy of some opaque DSP just because you want some reference-sound relief at 35,000 feet (though dongle quirks and seal issues can always come into play).

Plush earpads and up to 60 hours of battery life ensure any aisle or window or, shudder, middle seat is a listening station where you actually want to spend time to make travel feel shorter. And unlike many travel headphones, you’ll be just as likely to reach for these at home thanks to their composure. It’s a premium over the Momentum 4, but it’s the top pick for listeners who love to tune with intent.

Best splurge: Focal Bathys MG

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Pros

• True audiophile-grade sound quality on the go
• Elegant design, luxurious build
• Can be used wirelessly, wired, or over USB

Cons

• ANC lags behind industry leaders

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Specs

• Price: $1,499
• Wearing Style: Over-ear
• Frequency Response: 10 Hz – 22 kHz
• Noise Cancellation: Active
• Battery Life: 30 hours (ANC on), 42 hours (USB)
• Weight: 350 grams

For those with a discerning taste, the Focal Bathys MG is the ideal choice. Focal is known for its audiophile headphones, studio monitors, and loudspeakers, and the original Bathys, at around $699, already impressed. In the realm of Bluetooth headphones, the Bathys was already at the top of its field when it came to sculpted serenity meets sonic swagger. But the Bathys MG—at over twice the price but living up to even more portable ambition—takes that a full step further (and into 2025 Audio Awards territory). 

The Bathys MG goes full-on “audiophile” in every aspect of its design. Many of us thought that was true of the original Bathys, but Focal needed to show us just how far they could go. So, rather than featuring aluminum-magnesium drivers like the original, the Bathys MG’s 40-millimeter M-shaped domes use pure magnesium, a dense, light membrane delivering performance not posturing.

The sound signature has been refined to fall more resolutely within the audiophile camp. The original Bathys had a warm, but still agile sound signature, yet the Bathys MG is at once more balanced and deeply detailed, delivering a higher quality, faster bass response that feels more taut, transparent, and purposefully punchy. The lifelike, layered midrange is precise without being polite, making it perfect for biting guitars and swelling synths. Treble is crisp, shimmering, but never glassy, offering up nuanced microdetails. The sinewy soundstage also feels wider without running wild, akin to a great pair of wired audiophile headphones.

The fit and finish have also been improved. The Bathys MG has been modeled after the Focal Clear MG headphones, featuring a chestnut finish and an intricate ear cup design. The enhancement is more than skin deep, however, as this set also comes with improved, softer, more plush ear cushions that aid in longer-term wear.

With a price point of around $1,500, you should rightly expect great things from this pair of headphones. In addition to offering outstanding sound and luxurious looks, you’ll also be pleased to know that it can connect to just about anything thanks to its tri-mode support for Bluetooth 5.2 (SBC, AAC, aptX Adaptive), wired using its 3.5mm cable, or USB, where its integrated 24-bit/192kHz DAC can take over all of the sound processing for your computer or smartphone. The end result speaks the language of reference with an emotional accent.

Looking for something with similar audio prowess but a different textural approach? A stellar option is the $1,250 DALI IO-8, which takes on the appearance of a more traditional pair of ANC headphones while still packing in neutrality with a dash of drive. The DALI house sound is natural, composed, never sacrificing soul for algorithmic sparkle. It’s an honest ethos. For the best of the best and the most 1:1 alternative, however, the DALI IO-12 comes in at $1,750 to offer that eminently premium pick … though it might be a bit excessive for economy. With larger, luxurious cushions and more dynamic headroom, the IO-12 and its Soft Magnetic Compound (SMC) magnet system are truly like strapping loudspeakers to your ears. Every element gets its own lane, exhibits its full spatial weight—clean and forward, yet fatigue-free. However, the top codec supported is aptX Adaptive, so you’ll want to consider USB for lossless reproduction.

Just don’t expect any of these headphones to reach the levels of ANC offered by the best-in-class—they’re adequate for travel, but when it comes to mid-frequency noise, such as voices or clacky keyboards, they’re just not as effective. With the concert hall-like presentation, however, you’ll pay more attention to each kick drum’s decay than any runway delays.

Best for airplanes: JBL Tour One M3 

ON SALE NOW

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Pros

• Smart Tx audio transmitter connects to many sources, including airplane in-flight entertainment
• Wireless audio anywhere
• Copious customization in the JBL app
• Five minutes quick-charging gets you five hours playback

Cons

• Touch controls can be overly sensitive

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Specs

• Price: $399.99
• Wearing Style: Over-ear
• Frequency Response: 10 Hz – 22 kHz
• Noise Cancellation: Active
• Battery Life: 40 hours (ANC on), 70 hours (ANC off)
• Weight: 278 grams

Let’s be real here: When you’re spending $400 on a pair of headphones, you want those headphones to work with pretty much anything. And that’s exactly what the JBL Tour One M3 delivers. These headphones check all the boxes you would hope for in a great pair of travel cans and offer extra functionality that makes them a standout pick for airplane travelers in particular. 

The headphones’ biggest trick is that they come with a universal audio transmitter that can connect to wired sources (analog and digital) and retransmit the audio back to the Tour One M3 and other Auracast-enabled devices, while also controlling every function … and there are many … of the JBL headset. That means you can easily connect them to an airplane sound system without being tethered directly to the seat with a wire, and you can access the Tour One M3’s settings without needing to fish out your phone. Plus, you can customize the splash screen with your favorite image, as shown in our personalized Smart Tx transmitter above. (And if you don’t care about the in-flight entertainment, you can also connect the headphones to, say, an iPhone via USB-C.)

The sound tuning on these headphones is also perfect for travelers who might want to mix up music with a movie mid-flight. The default sound signature from the 40mm mica domes is somewhat V-shaped, meaning it features powerful bass and soaring treble, which gives the streaming experience a forward, front row lift—something you should expect from a company with a history deeply steeped in stage monitors and loudspeakers. This isn’t just playing your music, it’s energizing it. Sometimes you want to savor crowd-pleasing sound that’s fun, not forensic. 

The 8-mic adaptive array on these headphones is also very good, generating inverse phase ANC in real-time so you won’t have to worry about the droning jet engines intruding as your personal soundtrack or soundstage stretches out. And both noise cancellation and EQ, as well as Spatial 360 Sound with head-tracking, are customizable within JBL’s companion app, in case the high-octane audio needs to be carved to match your mood.

At 278 grams, they’re lightweight enough to crown users with short or no hair comfortably. Some users report that the touch controls are a bit finicky and overly sensitive; however, like most touch controls, it’s something you can learn to adapt to. For wireless-anywhere sound that’s as kinetic as a tight connection, they’re a fine choice.

Best for iPhone users: AirPods Max

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Pros

• Support native AAC wireless or lossless over USB-C cable
• Seamless Apple ecosystem integration, with device swap
• Proprietary processing for iPhones
• Adaptive ANC and audio

Cons

• Battery life lags behind competitioon
• Metal is heavy and susceptible to dings
• That “case”

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Specs

• Price: $529.99
• Wearing Style: Over-ear
• Frequency Response: Not disclosed
• Noise Cancellation: Active
• Battery Life: 20 hours (ANC on)
• Weight: 385 grams

If you use an Apple iPhone or MacBook, the best choice is probably obvious: the Apple AirPods Max have been and continue to be the go-to choice for travel headphones for Apple users. They’re stylish, comfortable, have great sound quality and ANC, and most importantly, seamlessly integrate with the Apple ecosystem.

All of these things were already true, but the AirPods Max are an even better fit today than they were at their release in 2020. That’s because Apple has released several updates that enhance its features and capabilities. Since ditching the Lightning port. and getting an OTA firmware update, they finally support audio over USB-C, widening the potential audience with a wider array of compatible devices. And also widening the soundstage, as this allows lossless audio to reach your ears (as opposed to AAC compressed streams). That said, if you’re picking these up and you don’t have an Apple device to use them with, you’ll be missing out on their full features and capabilities, so this recommendation remains limited to the Apple faithful for now. 

Apple’s headphones support personalized spatial audio, which delivers an immersive listening experience with a realistic sense of space and atmosphere. The biggest benefit of tracks encoded in Dolby Atmos is the extra headroom given to each stem, allowing for more dynamic expression, more contrast without congestion. There’s even support within Apple TV+ for immersive soundtracks that seem to surround you outside the realm of marquee songs or interstitial music. It’s ambiance turned tangible.

These headphones also have the esteemed claim of being supported by mainstream listeners and audiophiles alike for their dynamics and balanced adaptive tuning. Whether you’re looking for deep, punchy bass hits or spacing and detail through the mids and treble, the AirPods Max are ready to deliver. 

But that doesn’t mean they don’t have room for improvement. One of their biggest drawbacks is battery life, which comes in at about 20 hours when using ANC. That’s not terrible and could certainly get you through multiple flights (or one very long one), but when others that are a fraction of the price double that, it leaves something to be desired. They’re also on the heavy side, so you may find yourself needing to take a break to avoid soreness on the crown of your head. And the “case,” well, isn’t what we’d call the best for shoving in a bag in a hurry. 

Even so, for listeners within the Apple ecosystem, the AirPods Max continue to reign supreme as the standout pick for travelers and everyday listeners alike—now available in five finishes (orange shown above).

If surround sound while surrounded by people is a top consideration, the $449 Sonos Ace is also worth considering. While not as native as the AirPods Max, it still plays nicely with the Apple ecosystem and supports Dolby Atmos music with dynamic head tracking through the Sonos app (as well as lossless via USB-C). Recently updated firmware has brought the ANC nearer to the flagship echelon, and at 312g with possibly the most plush padding of all our selections, they’re undeniably comfortable. And if you have a complete Sonos surround sound system at home and often return late at night or early in the morning, the Ace can pair with an Arc Ultra soundbar to give you a private viewing party where you can decompress. Sure, that’s not in-travel use, but it is transportive.

Best value: Soundcore Space One

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Pros

• Extended battery life
• Powerful ANC for the price (and works well on voices)
• Impressive sound with customizable EQ and LDAC support

Cons

• ANC impacts sound quality

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Specs

• Price: $99.99
• Wearing Style: Over-ear
• Frequency Response: Not disclosed
• Noise Cancellation: Active
• Battery Life: 40 hours (ANC on), 55 hours (ANC off)
• Weight: 265 grams

The Soundcore Space One occupies an interesting place in this list. Coming in at just about $100, they’re affordable enough that most frequent travelers should find them accessible. They also offer a surprising range of features for their modest cost, including active noise cancellation, app support, high-res LDAC codec support, and an exceptionally lightweight design. But even though they have a lot to offer, there’s a caveat here you’ll want to bear in mind, even while we still consider this the best pick for listeners on a budget. 

For their price, many listeners have found themselves impressed at the quality of the active noise cancellation—and for good reason. While they still do a great job of blocking out low, droning sounds, the Soundcore Space One extends further into the mid-range to cut out a wider range of noisemakers, like the voices of other travelers on a bus or train. These sounds are more difficult to cut out entirely (a human voice modulates much more than a growly engine), but the Space One does a good job of lowering the volume on the world—so you might want to take these into the office when you return from your trip!

They’re also impressively lightweight, which makes them just as comfy as the more expensive options on this list. When it comes to sound quality, these headphones punch above their class. You shouldn’t expect any budget pair of headphones to compete with much more expensive options when it comes to detail and soundstage, but these headphones have an impressive amount of rumble that injects energy into rock, pop, and hip-hop songs. If you’re a fan of classical or jazz, their warm sound may not be the best fit, but it’s also customizable within its app. 

So, what’s the catch? Using ANC has an immediately noticeable impact on sound quality. Turning it on lowers the bass and thins out the mids, unlike the best sets, where the change is more transparent or the tuning is actually optimized for ANC. Thankfully, you can restore these with a custom EQ (mostly) and get the headphones sounding good again, but they have the dubious honor of being the only pick that requires a separate EQ, depending on whether you’re using ANC or not.

For a more adaptive algorithm, with lower harmonic distortion, you can step up to the Space One Pro, but you’ll also step up to $199.

Best budget: JLab JBuds Lux ANC

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Pros

• Impressive array of features for the price
• Very lightweight, providing long-term comfort
• Rich app support

Cons

• Default sound profile can be too bassy
• Microphone quality isn’t top tier

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Specs

• Price: $79.99
• Wearing Style: Over-ear
• Frequency Response: Not disclosed
• Noise Cancellation: Active
• Battery Life: 40 hours (ANC on), 70 hours (ANC off)
• Weight: 236 grams

If you’re out for the best bang for your buck, look no further than the JLab JBuds Lux. Coming in well under a C-note, these over-ear hybrid active noise cancellation headphones offer great battery life, customizable sound, and a lightweight, comfortable fit that punches above its class for their modest investment.

JLab has been in the headphone game for quite some time, and it has proven that it knows how to deliver a solid pair of headphones at a reasonable price. This set is highly regarded for the quality of its ANC. While it’s not going to topple Bose or Sony anytime soon, it does a good job of filtering out low-frequency hum and rumble, like that of a bus or jet engines. And with egg-shaped earcups and only 236g, plus 40 hours of battery life with ANC engaged, you’ll be able to wear these for the duration of a flight without worrying about waking up with a sore crown or dead battery.

Well, sound preferences are subjective. The JBuds Lux fall into the camp of overemphasizing bass for some listeners. If their low-end heavy default tuning isn’t for you, you can customize their sound using JLab’s smartphone app. One thing you might not get tired of getting more of is spatialization. These headphones support Dolby Atmos content, just like far more expensive sets.

Taken as a whole, for only $80, you’re definitely getting more than you would expect here. The JLab JBuds Lux ANC simply deliver when it comes to value. And if you prefer—or at least don’t mind—on-ear headphones, the JLab Go Lux is even more of a budget buy at $49.

Best true wireless earbuds: Bose QuietComfort Ultra (2nd Gen.)

ON SALE NOW

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Pros

• Powerful, ultra-portable ANC
• Comfortable and secure for extended wear
• Spatial Audio support, w/ Cinema Mode
• IPX4 rating
• Personalized CustomTune EQ
• Snapdragon Sound (with aptX Adaptive codec)
• SpeechClarity voice isolation for calls

Cons

• Battery life could be longer for long-haul flights

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Specs

• Price: $299.99
• Wearing Style: In-ear
• Frequency Response: Not disclosed
• Noise Cancellation: Active
• Battery Life: 6 hours (ANC on), 4 hours (Immersive Audio)
• Weight: 7.7 grams (per earbud)

If you’re looking for noise cancellation that’s miniturized but not diminished, a pair of ANC true wireless earbuds may be a better fit. In this case, we recommend the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen.) for their premium and powerful active noise cancellation, as well as their enjoyable sound signature. 

When it comes to ANC, Sony and Bose sit at the top of their field. The highest achiever will change depending on who you ask, with Sony currently taking the headphones crown (as featured above). But there can be no mistake that the Bose QuietComfort Ultra (Gen. 2) earbuds get top marks for silencing the outside world without forcing you into a pair of bulky headphones. A pair of these and “The Disintegration Loops” by William Basinski made sleeping on international trips achievable.

The QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds use a shorter, wider version of the bud-and-stem design popularized by the Apple AirPods. Though their appearance is quite different, they maintain a secure and comfortable fit suited for all-day wear. 

Compared to the previous QuietComfort Earbuds, this new set offers several improvements. Through firmware updates, it now supports multipoint audio as well as single-earbud use. The Ultras also feature immersive spatial audio, though at the cost of a couple of hours of total battery life. And though these earbuds offer a lot when it comes to noise cancellation and auditory allure (the sound is warm and inviting to please most non-audiophiles), battery life is the one area where they still lag behind the competition. With ANC on, you should only expect around six hours of listening with these at best, and less if you listen above 70 percent or so. 

Still, for ANC on the go, the QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen.) are a prime contender for their portion of your travel budget. And, if that budget is particularly tight, consider the Skullcandy Method 360, a set of $99 earbuds Tuned by Bose with a design reminiscent of the QuietComfort II given Skullcandy styling. If you can look past the inscrutable charging case, they use some of the company’s algorithms to provide quite effective ANC at entry-level pricing.

If you’re searching for something emphasizing reducing internal feedback as much as, if not more than, external, consider the $289 Technics EAH-AZ100. While the ANC is nearly on par with the Bose, and the battery life is nearly twice as long, what really stands out is the distortion-free sound, which uses free-edge diaphragms and a magnetic fluid in the assembly to dampen vibrations that disrupt hi-rez fidelity. It’s a stable, LDAC-equipped system that has wowed several of us since its unveiling in January 2025.

Have an iPhone and want earbuds as (at)tuned to spatial audio as they are attenuating noisy environments? The ergonomically refreshed, ANC updated, undeniably expressive AirPods Pro 3 are undeniably the best option for the Apple ecosystem. While the tuning is more aggressively V-shaped than the AirPods Pro 2, it’s vibrant in a way that really benefits Atmos content and helps you immerse yourself in isolation.

Best IEM: Sennheiser IE600

ON SALE NOW

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Pros

• Ultra low-profile, secure fit (with the right eartip)
• Excellent passive isolation
• Detailed sound that’s full-bodied and fun
• Robustly made, perfect for travel if you don’t mind a cord

Cons

• Included cable tangles easily and has memory

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Specs

• Price: $799.99
• Wearing Style: In-ear
• Frequency Response: 4 Hz – 46.5 kHz
• Noise Cancellation: Passive
• Battery Life: Not applicable
• Weight: 6 grams (per earbud)

Sennheiser is a legendary name in the audio industry. It has produced some of the best and highest-regarded over-ear headphones of all time (and currently offers the most expensive and amazing headphone available for purchase). The IE600 is one of its most recent attempts at designing a low-profile pair of in-ear monitors, and it’s a wholesale success for travelers—and anyone who relishes high-quality audio, really.

The IE600 sits squarely in the middle of the company’s most recent IEM line-up (which extends from the $159 IE200 to the $1,499 IE900). At the time of this writing, it could be had for around $650, but it can go up or down depending on the sale. For that investment, you’re getting one of the most well-rounded, best-sounding, and durable pairs of in-ear monitors a traveler could ask for. 

The housings are made from a zirconium alloy, 3D printed. They’re designed to withstand the rigors of daily use and are corrosion-resistant. Hold them in your hand, and you’ll see just how much higher the level of build quality is here than your average pair of plastic IEMs. 

Inside, each earpiece features a 7mm True Response Dynamic Driver that has been measured and matched in Sennheiser’s factory, then tuned via custom resonator chambers in the housings. The focus here is on delivering a cohesive sound, so while there are certainly other IEMs with more drivers, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a set with a more fluid and unified sound than these offer. 

There are plenty of IEMs that would work well for travel, but the IE600 earns our best pick because of its small size and secure fit. One of the benefits of using a single driver in each earpiece is that the housings can be significantly smaller than those of many competing sets. While they don’t extend too far into the inner ear, they do nestle flatly into the outer ear and sit securely even as you move and navigate through challenging scenarios like dashing through an airport or wedging yourself into a crowded subway car. Unlike full-sized headphones and even some TWS earbuds, they won’t cause issues with a neck pillow or sleep mask or become uncomfortable when you try to nap with your head leaning against the airplane wall (proven IRL on a flight to Ireland).

If you’re an audiophile, you’ll find a lot to love here, but what struck me was how approachable their sound signature is. There’s plenty of bass for a fun and engaging listen, but also ample energy in the mids and highs. For a pair of in-ear monitors, which are typically not known for their wide soundstage, I was also impressed by the sense of space they offer. 

The biggest downsides to this set are that its cables (standard 3.5mm and 4.4mm balanced for connecting to dedicated listening gear) don’t live up to the quality of the earphones themselves. They work perfectly well, but can be a bit stiff and prone to tangling. And even though they’re detachable, they use a semi-proprietary connection, so replacing them isn’t as easy as it is with most other IEMs around this price.

Cable matters aside, this is an excellent pair of IEMs that will reliably stick in your ears and help you get lost in blissful sound until you’re found at your destination.

Best accessory: Twelve South AirFly Pro 2

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Pros

• Great battery life
• Can both receive and send audio
• Able to connect to two pairs of headphones

Cons

• Possible audio latency for video can be distracting
• Can’t be used while charging

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Specs

• Price: $59.99
• Compatibility: All Bluetooth headphones
• Battery Life: 25 hours
• Dimensions: 56.6mm x 29mm x 11.2mm
• Weight: 16.5 grams

What if you already have a pair of wireless headphones you like and just need a way to connect them to the seatback screen, etc.? The Twelve South AirFly Pro 2 is the accessory for you. Similar to the transmitter that comes with the JBL Tour One M3 discussed above, the AirFly Pro 2 can connect to analog sources and wirelessly transmit them via Bluetooth 5.3 to any pair of wireless portable audio devices. It’s tiny, portable, and game-changing if all you need is a way to listen in.

But if you do opt for this little game-changer, you can count on even more versatility. The AirFly Pro 2 has a trick up its sleeve: This little superstar can also act as a receiver. If you have a speaker or sound system you’d like to stream to, it’s as simple as plugging the AirFly Pro 2 into a 3.5mm aux port, connecting it to your phone, and pressing play (a Deluxe version includes a two-prong airplane adapter and carrying pouch).

With 25 hours of battery life, it has enough juice to last through most trips and, outside of marathon flights, should see you through multiple listening sessions. It can’t be used while charging, so be sure to plug it in so it’s ready for action before you leave. 

The one thing to bear in mind is that this device is best suited for music. There’s a bit of audio delay for video content. The biggest streaming services, like YouTube and Netflix, automatically compensate for this, but the most quickly moving in-flight movies may not.

Overall, this is a great pick-up for anyone who spends a lot of time on flights and already has a pair of wireless headphones they’re not interested in upgrading.

Things to consider when choosing the best headphones for travel 

Active vs. passive noise cancellation

While most of our picks use an array of microphones and algorithms to actively monitor and cancel environmental noise, it never hurts to pick a pair that fits your ears/eyewear/hairstyle/headshape, etc., in order to avoid gaps that can impact ANC and auditory performance. Don’t underestimate the role of passive noise cancellation—aka, how well insulated and isolating the headphones are even when turned off.

Battery life

Are you taking commuter jets or long-haul aircraft? Our recommendations can run for six to 40 hours, and you should take into account the trade-offs for pocketability and your need for quick-charge capabilities, etc.

Packability

Consider your carry-on. Some headphones merely fold flat and may require more space in your bag to be allocated for them to fit, while others have hinges to allow for even more compact cases. You know how you pack, so pick accordingly.

Transparency mode

If you dislike taking your headphones on and off when there’s an announcement or when you’re asked what type of beverage you’d like, consider headphones with a good transparency mode, allowing you to interact with your surroundings with the push of a button. 

IP rating

Although we didn’t specifically address it, as we’re focusing on the experience in airports and during transit, you may want to consider the water resistance of your headphones if you frequently travel to rainy cities. An IP Rating is a number provided by a manufacturer that tells you how much water electronics can withstand.

FAQs

Final thoughts on the best headphones for travel

• Best overall: Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S3
• Also worth considering: Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2
• Best ANC: Sony WH-1000XM6
• Best for audiophiles who love to EQ: Sennheiser HDB 630
• Best splurge: Focal Bathys MG
• Also worth considering: DALI IO-8 | DALI IO-12
• Best for airplanes: JBL Tour One M3 
• Best for iPhone users: AirPods Max 
• Also worth considering for spatial audio: Sonos Ace
• Best value: Soundcore Space One
• Best budget: JLab JBuds Lux ANC
• Best true wireless earbuds for sleeping in silence: Bose QuietComfort Ultra (2nd Gen.)
• Also worth considering: Technics EAH-AZ100 | AirPods Pro 3
• Best IEM: Sennheiser IE600
• Best accessory: Twelve South AirFly Pro 2

A great pair of headphones can enhance multiple aspects of your life. Whether you’re a music lover, a tech enthusiast, or simply want to filter out the noise of an engine or HVAC unit, it’s worth investing in. For listeners on the go, they can be even more important and improve a traveler’s quality of life. Enjoying the journey is one of life’s great lessons. Hopefully, these picks help you along that path.

The post The best travel headphones for 2026, tested and reviewed appeared first on Popular Science.

Founded by the charity Alcohol Change UK, the month-long challenge started in 2013 with 4,000 registrants. By 2025, that number had swelled to 200,000. And those are just the official registrants. Many people worldwide participate unofficially. In 13 years, Dry January has become a recognizable shorthand for avoiding booze at the turn of the year. And while there are numerous reasons to take a hiatus from alcohol, none seem to be more pressing than health.

A recent review paper published in the journal Alcohol and Alcoholism describes the positive health effects of participating in Dry January and the benefits of taking short-term breaks from drinking. 

“Even with a one month pause on drinking, there were noticeable changes in several biomarkers that are associated with alcohol use,” Megan Strowger, Postdoctoral Research Associate and lead author of the paper, tells Popular Science. 

Strowger and her team at Brown University analyzed 16 studies, comprising more than 150,000 participants. They found that participants who sobered up for one month reported better sleep, elevated mood, and weight loss. Positive biological changes included lower blood pressure, less liver fat, better blood glucose, improved insulin resistance, and decreases in concentrations of cancer-related growth factors.

“Alcohol affects all aspects of the body,” Strowger says. 

We’ve all heard about what booze does to the liver, but according to the paper, a drinking habit leaves a mark on nearly everything.

Strowger says the data initially surprised her. “I didn’t think that that much could change in the body after just one month.”

The positive changes also last. People’s improved well-being appears to linger for some time, as does a changed relationship with alcohol in general. 

“Even six months after the challenge, participants reported sustained decreases in their overall consumption,” Strowger says. “They also had a reduced risk for developing issues with alcohol use disorder or becoming addicted to alcohol.”

Dry January’s mass uptake is a small push against alcohol’s omnipresence in daily life. In 2024, 66.5 percent of American adults reported drinking in the past year, according to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Alcohol plays a causal role in 200 known health conditions, and remains a leading cause of illness and death worldwide. The public’s burgeoning awareness of these dangers has fed into a rapidly ballooning sober-curious movement. Now well-known, Dry January comes with a sense of community. The “everyone’s doing it” effect can be motivating for people trying to stay on the wagon. The paper says many people’s Dry January success was made easier with the help of social connection, the use of abstinence apps such as the Try Dry app, and supportive emails and texts sent by the Dry January campaign.

And for anyone whose Dry January might’ve been a little less dry than they planned, there’s still good news. According to the data, people who didn’t do a perfect Dry January reported benefits as well, making a good case for “Damp January” for those who aren’t ready to go cold turkey. 

Strowger says the science behind Dry January made it all very clear for her. She even did a Dry January of her own, achieving better sleep quality and a lasting reduction on her own consumption.

“My anecdotal experiences do map onto what we found in the paper,” she says. 

While it’s a good idea for most, abstinence challenges aren’t for everyone. Anyone suffering from a true alcohol use disorder should speak with a medical professional before embarking on something like Dry January, as withdrawal is a very real danger. 

Strowger says that anyone without a chronic condition who is questioning their relationship with alcohol should feel good about giving the one month challenge a try.

“From my own experiences, those of my team, and then from doing this review, it shows that there are far more positives than negatives to participating.”

The post The health benefits of Dry January appeared first on Popular Science.

The family of late Star Wars producer Gary Kurtz recently put a rare and valuable piece of artwork up for auction: Tom Jung’s original halfsheet painting depicting the heroes of the Rebellion, soaring X-Wing starfighters, and the looming head of Vader himself. Heritage Auctions ended up selling the piece for a staggering $3.875 million–setting a new record.

Experts credit two things for the incredible value of this piece of artwork. One is its scarcity. The term “halfsheet” refers to an old movie poster format that was typically oriented horizontally rather than vertically and was printed on heavier stock meant for theater lobby displays. The original Star Wars movie poster (also painted by Jung) was in the more traditional vertical orientation and was more widely sold and collected–although you can see the iconic Luke and Leia pose from that poster used again in a slightly different variation in the bottom left corner of the halfsheet art.

[Related: Lifelong Star Wars fan builds the droids of his childhood dreams]

The other reason is that for many people this was the first visual introduction to the world of Star Wars for a large portion of the audience in 1977. Jung’s art was used in print newspaper ads beginning in early May of that year, several weeks before the film was released in theaters. It’s credited with laying the foundation for the movie experience–the artwork is dramatic, with competing shades of darkness and light. It establishes the look of Vader, R2-D2, C-3PO, Chewbacca (if you look closely), and the X-Wings. You see the grave face of the elder Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi juxtaposed with the eager young face of Luke Skywalker looking skyward. It even has a spoiler (not that people in 1977 would know that’s a triumphant medal ceremony Luke, Chewie, and Han Solo are marching towards). As the Heritage Auctions press release says, this is “the painting that introduced the world to Star Wars,” because it was “the first widely published image to ever promote Star Wars,” adding that it “quickly became the definitive visual identity of Star Wars, later gracing the film’s official program cover, massive 24-sheet billboards, and countless magazine and newspaper ads during its original release.”

Now that a new champion has earned the top spot on the leaderboard, here are a few of the other extremely valuable “Holy Grails” for collectors of all things Star Wars: 

DARTH VADER’S LIGHTSABER

As mentioned, the item that held the top spot for a few months was a verified screen-used lightsaber hilt, sold at auction at the Los Angeles Entertainment Memorabilia Live Auction. It was the only lightsaber prop to ever come to public auction that was proven to be used on camera. Price: $3.64 million

X-WING MODEL

Discovered in the garage of late Star Wars modelmaker Greg Jein, this extremely rare 20-inch X-Wing model was used for the final battle sequence in the original Star Wars and was believed to have been lost forever. In 2023, Heritage Auctions put it up for sale. Price: $3.1 million

VLIX ACTION FIGURE

Not one of the most iconic Star Wars action figures, but definitely the rarest and most valuable. Don’t worry if you have no idea who Vlix is, you’re probably not alone. He only appeared in four episodes of the 1986 animated kids show Star Wars: Droids. What makes him rare is that he was originally set to be produced by toy manufacturer Kenner (who produced all of the other figures in the Droids line as well as the movies) but the show was cancelled before they could use the expensive molds they had already made for Vlix. So Kenner sold the molds to a Brazilian toy company called Glasslite, who then made the figures. They are extremely hard to find and coveted by collectors. Price: Anywhere from $5,000 to $50,000. 

MARVEL COMICS STAR WARS #1

Long before Disney owned them both, Luke Skywalker and Spider-Man shared a common home. In July 1977, Marvel Comics kicked off their Star Wars comic book line with issue #1, a retelling of the movie adapted by Roy Thomas and illustrated by Howard Chaykin. Depending on condition, it remains one of the most valuable Star Wars comics. Price: Anywhere from $2,500 to $11,500.

KRAYT DRAGON BONES

In the beginning of Star Wars, C-3PO wanders through the desert of Tatooine and passes the remains of a dinosaur-like creature. Actually, it was a dinosaur–the bones were repurposed props from an old Disney movie called One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing. Later identified through lore as the bones of a “Krayt Dragon,” the prop bones were actually left behind by the crew in the desert of Tunisia where they filmed, and pieces of the bones were discovered by an actual archeologist in 1995. Fans and rabid collectors have even trekked to Tunisia to find (and sell) pieces they’re able to find in the sand. Price: Anywhere from $150 to $1,800.  

The post This is now the most valuable piece of Star Wars memorabilia  appeared first on Popular Science.

Editor’s picks

BLUETTI Elite 200 V2 Portable Power Station — $799 (53% off)

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For the person who wants one power station that can handle real-life outage chaos. This is the kind of capacity and inverter muscle that can keep essentials humming—think router, lights, device charging, and even some higher-draw appliances in short bursts—without turning your living room into a gas-generator parking lot. At 53% off, it’s the rare deal that makes the math feel less painful.

BLUETTI Apex 300 Portable Power Station — $1,699 (29% off)

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For the person building a more serious backup plan (or an RV/off-grid setup that doesn’t feel like camping). The Apex 300 is a high-capacity unit with enough output headroom to run more demanding gear—then scale up later with expansion batteries if you want longer runtimes. If you’ve ever had a power blip ruin your day, this is the kind of box you buy once and then feel smug about.

BLUETTI AC2A Portable Power Station — $139 (37% off)

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For the person who wants the cheap, easy win: a lightweight power cube for camping, road trips, or desk-side backup. It’s ideal for keeping phones, tablets, lights, and small electronics alive when outlets are scarce (or when you just don’t feel like fighting for one). It won’t run your whole kitchen, but it will absolutely save a weekend.

Big-capacity backup power (home, RV, and heavy loads)

• BLUETTI Elite 200 V2 Portable Power Station $799.00 (53% off)
• BLUETTI Apex 300 Portable Power Station $1,699.00 (29% off)
• BLUETTI Apex 300 Solar Generator Bundle (PV Cable) $1,499.00 (17% off)
• BLUETTI Apex 300 + B300K Expansion Battery Bundle $2,799.00 (20% off)
• BLUETTI AC200L Portable Power Station (listing mentions Charger 1) $1,299.00 (35% off)

Solar generator kits (power station + panels)

• BLUETTI Elite 200 V2 Solar Generator (with 350W Panel) $1,499.00 (32% off)
• BLUETTI Elite 100 V2 Solar Generator (with 2×200W Panels) $1,199.00 (29% off)
• BLUETTI AC180 Solar Generator (with 100W Panel) $719.00 (28% off)
• BLUETTI AC180 Solar Generator (with 200W Panel) $749.00 (25% off)
• BLUETTI AC70 Solar Generator (with 100W Solar Panel) $579.00
• BLUETTI AC70 Solar Generator (with 200W Solar Panel) $749.00

Mid-size and compact power stations (camping, desk backup, and grab-and-go)

• BLUETTI Elite 100 V2 (2025 New) Solar Generator $419.00 (48% off)
• BLUETTI Portable Power Station AC180 $499.00
• BLUETTI AC180 Portable Power Station $519.00 (35% off)
• BLUETTI AC50B Portable Power Station $279.00 (30% off)
• BLUETTI Elite 30 V2 Portable Power Station $239.00 (20% off)
• BLUETTI AC2A Portable Power Station $139.00 (37% off)
• BLUETTI Elite 10 Mini Portable Power Station $118.99 (40% off)

Expansion batteries and add-ons

• BLUETTI B300K 2764.8Wh LiFePO4 Battery Pack $999.00 (41% off)

CPAP and medical-device backup

• BLUETTI CPAP Battery Backup X30 (297Wh) $299.00 (25% off)

The post Amazon just dropped Bluetti portable power stations and solar generators below Black Friday prices appeared first on Popular Science.

In some ways, robots falling down isn’t entirely new. Videos of robotics engineers punching, tripping, and otherwise tormenting early upright robots with muted exuberance have gone viral for years. But now, the shinier successors to those machines are making their way out of labs and into the real world, surrounded by actual people. The resulting face-plants and crashes are irresistible fodder for a public that is both skeptical of—and somewhat terrified by—the future these awkward robots seem to foretell. Meanwhile, engineers remain steadfast in their belief that all these tumbles are simply part of the process of collecting useful, real-world data.

In the meantime, that living science experiment is creating some undeniably funny moments. Here are a few of the times humanoid fell in public this year. 

Russia’ s premier robot meets its match: gravity

Most people are familiar with the sensation of stage fright, but this humanoid robot from Russia tech firm AIDOL manifested some of those worst fears into reality. In November, the robot (also called AIDOL) walked, well really staggered, its way across a runway stage in Moscow. Almost immediately, its face clenched and it was clear something was wrong. AIDOL managed to get out a brief wave to the crowd of around 50 reporters before its knees buckled and it crumbled to the floor. A pair of human minders that were standing behind AIDOL quickly leapt onstage and dragged the disgraced machine out.

In a statement following, an AIDOL spokesperson told The New York Times the company was, “puzzled by the surprise around this situation in the media.” Organizers claimed the tingle was due to problems with the robot’s calibrations and unexpected “lighting issues.” 

“Despite our size, we believe our work is currently among the most advanced in Russia in this area and is quite comparable to leading international efforts,” the company said in a statement sent to The New York Times. 

Tesla’s Optimus takes a shady tumble

Tesla has had its fair share of failed or questionable public demos (we’re looking at you, busted Cybertruck window), but this one might take the cake. Earlier this month, the company showed off its Optimus bipedal robots at a pop-up event tied to Art Basel Miami in Florida. Just four years ago, Optimus was literally a man in a suit.It has since been upgraded to fondle eggs, but has a clumsy moment at the December pop-up. Optimus was caught on video knocking over several plastic water bottles before raising its arms above its head and falling backward. People near the person recording can be heard letting out a somber “oooh” before Optimus’s back slapped against the ground.

But there may be more to the story than an unfortunate misstep. Journalists and commenters analyzing the video noted that the movement, aside from being hilarious, also seemed to match that of a person removing a VR headset. That’s notable, because some humanoid robot makers use humans wearing VR headsets to remotely control robots, making them appear capable of feats they cannot yet perform autonomously. Tesla has admitted to teleoperating Optimus during past events.

Tesla did not respond to Popular Science’s request for comment. 

China’s Humanoid Robotic Games was a shaky mess 

Chinese government officials have not been shy about their desire to boost the country’s robotics program. As part of that initiative, the nation’s top companies and universities organized a number of high-profile public events this year intended to showcase their humanoid capabilities. None generated more hype than the so-called Humanoid Robotic Games, in August. In this Olympics-style competition in which 500 robots competed in events ranging from kickboxing and soccer to racing.

What actually happened was a whole lot of stumbling, falling, and failing to even get moving . One of the racing robots reportedly had to retire after his head flopped off. Not long after, another robot walking across a runway-style stage in a fashionable hat waved to a crowd then immediately face planted into a glowing orb. During the competition, human children also danced alongside the robots showing far superior balance and tact. 

Boastful robot face plants during first humanoid boxing match

The Humanoid Games were, for all intents and purposes, a failure. But they were not even the first high-profile case of Chinese-made humanoid robots flopping in public. Months earlier in May, robot maker Unitree streamed what it dubbed the world’s first boxing match between humanoid robots. The event pitted four 4.3-foot-tall Unitree humanoids, outfitted with boxing gloves, against one another in tournament-style fights. Unlike some of the robots featured in the Humanoid Games, these bots were all remotely controlled by engineers.

One thing engineers couldn’t control, however, was the robots’ unsteady footing. In one of the event’s more memorable moments, a pink-helmeted robot known as Silk Artisan fell to the floor, splits-style, after failing to land a side kick against its opponent, AI Strategist. As the cameras rolled, AI Strategist shuffled forward, stepped over Silk Artisan’s collapsed body, and tauntingly waved its arms—only to suddenly trip over its fallen opponent.

‘WTF was that?’

The next example doesn’t quite meet the definition of falling down, but it certainly shows a humanoid not performing as intended. Unless that is if the intended action was to recreate something out of The Exorcist. 

A robot  made by US-based humanoid robot boxing company REK can be seen violently flailing around. Observers on social media interpreted these movements as  a fervid effort to break free of its harness. The video immediately got picked up by wider media, including Real Time With Bill Maher, as an example of some of the sci-fi’s worst warning coming true. It seemed that the  robot was trying to break free. But was it? Probably not.

In a follow up post Cix Liv, a VR developer and member of REK’s team blamed the incident on “human error” caused by some

Agro robot lunges towards old lady at a lantern festival

In  February, Chinese company Unitree was showcasing its H1 robot during a lantern festival in Taishan, Guangdong Province. The robot approached a large outdoor crowd and then appeared to aggressively lunge toward an older person standing directly behind a barricade. The abrupt movement almost resembled an angry man puffing out his chest at someone in a bar, if that same aggressive guy then clumsily tripped over their own feet.

Security guards quickly restrained the robot, seemingly before it could cause any physical damage. Clips of the incident went viral and immediately sparked speculation online, with some insinuating that the robot had intentionally singled out a person in the crowd as a threat. However, a far more likely explanation is that the robot  failed to recognize part of the barrier, tripped over it, and then flailed forward while trying to regain its balance.

Butterfingers: Flashy robot heading for car factories struggles to pick up dropped laundry

Maybe the most hyped of all the humanoid robots making headlines is the one being designed by Figure AI, a startup backed by tech heavyweights like Jeff Bezos, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Intel. The company claims its machines will eventually perform home and industrial tasks with human-level precision. Unlike other humanoids, its robot doesn’t quite look like it’s rushing to find a toilet when it walks. One thing it still really seems to struggle with: basic laundry.

As Time reported in a recent profile, a Figure robot ( performing in a highly controlled demo) twice dropped a piece of clothing and failed to pick it back up. Less than a month after that report, a whistleblower sued Figure, alleging he was terminated after warning that these same robots were, “powerful enough to fracture a human skull: It is worth noting that Figure denies these claims, telling CNBC the worker was fired for “poor performance.”

But don’t count the robots out just yet 

Often, a simple push or one miscalculated response to an obstacle is enough to send a bipedal robot crashing down. Such a fall can result in costly damage to sensitive components like LIDAR sensors or high-resolution cameras. Worse still, it could potentially endanger any humans or animals that happen to be in its path. 

Part of the problem lies in the fact that robots are primarily trained in labs and virtual simulation, and simply lack the real-world data needed to adjust for unpredictable environments. In this respect, boring old meat-based humans still have a leg-up. Meta chief AI scientist Yann LeCun estimates that a four-year-old child stumbling around today has likely seen “50 times more data than the biggest LLMs.”

Despite these mishaps, roboticists are already working on solutionsUsing a reinforcement learning model, researchers at Disney Research in Zurich developed a new system that trained a test robot to fall in ways that minimize damage. This involved placing the robot in a virtual simulation where it fell thousands of times in every conceivable position. The AI was rewarded every time it landed in a way that minimized the resulting crash impact. Eventually, the robot internalized a new, safer protocol for hitting the ground. They put that to the test in the real world by intentionally tripping the robot with a stick to force falls from multiple angles. After a long day of tumbles, the robot showed no signs of noticeable damage and kept functioning as intended. The study’s results were published in an arXiv preprint server. 

Solutions like these will almost certainly become more common in the coming years. If humanoid robots are ever to succeed in the physical world, they must know not only how to avoid falling, but also how to do so safely when a face-plant becomes inevitable. For that to happen, these machines, much like human toddlers learning to walk, will need ample space to fail, fall, and collect essential real-world data.

To put it another way: expect to see many more instances of robots falling down in public in the near future. Whether this clumsiness will ultimately lead to more capable machines remains to be seen. One thing is certain: it will almost certainly provide plenty of viral clips for the rest of us to chuckle at.

The post 2025 proved humanoid robots are here to stay. And fall down. appeared first on Popular Science.

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What is on sale and how the plans differ

On the deal page, Rosetta Stone is highlighting three main options for individual learners. Here is the plain-English breakdown.

How Rosetta Stone actually teaches

Rosetta Stone is at its best when you want strong fundamentals: recognizing what you are hearing, building vocabulary that sticks, and getting your mouth used to producing unfamiliar sounds. The platform’s Dynamic Immersion lessons are designed to keep you thinking in the language instead of constantly translating back to English.

It also leans hard into pronunciation. TruAccent, Rosetta Stone’s speech-recognition tool, listens to how you say words and phrases and gives immediate feedback so you can correct your accent early—before you accidentally train yourself into saying everything wrong with confidence.

What is included inside the app

• Dynamic Immersion lessons that build comprehension through context and repetition, not translation-first memorization.
• TruAccent pronunciation feedback that scores your speech and nudges you toward clearer, more native-sounding delivery.
• Stories read by native speakers, so you can practice listening comprehension in a more real-world format.
• Phrasebook for practical travel and everyday situations (ordering food, asking directions, basic small talk).
• Cross-device access on web and mobile so you can do a quick lesson on your phone and pick up later on a laptop.

If you want live instruction, Rosetta Stone also offers Live Lessons taught by native speakers, but availability varies by language and it is not the core of every plan—think of it as conversation practice you can add when you are ready to use what you have learned out loud.

All 25 languages included with Unlimited Languages

• Arabic
• Chinese (Mandarin)
• Dutch
• English (American)
• English (British)
• Farsi (Persian)
• French
• German
• Greek
• Hebrew
• Hindi
• Irish
• Italian
• Japanese
• Korean
• Latin
• Polish
• Portuguese (Brazil)
• Russian
• Spanish (Latin America)
• Spanish (Spain)
• Swedish
• Tagalog (Filipino)
• Turkish
• Vietnamese

Which plan should you choose

Pick 12 months if you are testing whether Rosetta Stone fits your routine, or you have a deadline (a trip, a relocation, an exam, a new set of in-laws). It is the lowest-commitment way to get full access and see if you will actually keep showing up.

Pick lifetime for one language if you know exactly what you want to learn and you hate subscriptions. This is the set-it-and-forget-it option for Spanish, French, German, and the other big ones you will realistically practice for years.

Pick lifetime Unlimited Languages if you want maximum flexibility. It is the best fit for households (multiple people, multiple goals), travelers who bounce between destinations, or anyone who wants to stack skills over time—learn the basics of one language now, start another later, then circle back when you are ready to level up.

If you want the deal, you can find the discounted plans here: Rosetta Stone language learning deals.

The post Start your 2026 Resolutions with a lifetime membership to Rosetta Stone’s language learning program for just $149 appeared first on Popular Science.

Editor’s picks

Greenworks 80V 20-inch cordless snow blower $402 (was $499)

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If you want to clear a driveway without yanking a starter cord and smelling like gas for the rest of the day, an 80V battery snow blower is the move. A 20-inch clearing width is plenty for most sidewalks and single-car driveways, and sticking with the 80V ecosystem means you can reuse batteries across other big-yard tools later.

Greenworks 60V 25-inch self-propelled lawn mower $599 (was $749)

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Self-propelled is the difference between finishing the lawn and feeling like you just did leg day. The wide 25-inch deck helps you knock out big yards faster, and the 60V system sits in the sweet spot for people who want real cutting power without stepping up to the heavier, pricier 80V lineup.

Greenworks 3000 PSI electric pressure washer $399 (was $499)

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This is the comment-section-friendly way to make a patio, driveway, or grimy siding look like you actually maintain your home. A high-PSI electric washer gives you a lot of cleaning force without the noise and tune-ups of gas models, and the included foam cannon setup is great for cars, outdoor furniture, and anything else that’s better with suds first.

Snow removal

Battery-powered snow tools that skip the fumes and the cold-start drama.

• Greenworks 40V 12-inch brushless snow shovel with LED — 4.0Ah battery + charger $199 (was $279)
• Greenworks 40V 16-inch snow blower — 5.0Ah battery + charger $309 (was $349)
• Greenworks 80V 12-inch snow shovel — 2.0Ah battery + charger $209 (was $349)
• Greenworks 80V 20-inch snow blower — 2.0Ah battery + charger

Lawn mowers

From compact push mowers to wide, self-propelled machines for big yards.

• Greenworks 40V 16-inch push lawn mower — 4.0Ah battery + charger $206 (was $299)
• Greenworks 40V 20-inch push lawn mower — 4.0Ah battery + charger $265 (was $295)
• Greenworks 48V 17-inch push lawn mower — 2x 4.0Ah batteries + charger $254 (was $299)
• Greenworks 48V 21-inch self-propelled mower + trimmer + blower kit — 2x 5.0Ah batteries + charger $562 (was $609)
• Greenworks 60V 17-inch push lawn mower — 4.0Ah battery + charger $279 (was $399)
• Greenworks 60V 25-inch self-propelled lawn mower — 2x 4.0Ah batteries + charger $599 (was $749)
• Greenworks 80V 21-inch push lawn mower — 2x 2.0Ah batteries + charger $461 (was $499)
• Greenworks 80V 21-inch brushless push mower — 4.0Ah battery + 60-minute rapid charger $397 (was $499)
• Greenworks 80V 21-inch brushless push mower with LED lights — 4.0Ah battery + charger $394 (was $499)

Leaf blowers and yard cleanup

Quick cleanups, heavy leaf season, and a couple of hybrid tools for dust and debris.

• Greenworks 24V leaf blower (90 MPH / 320 CFM) — 2.0Ah battery + charger $71 (was $99)
• Greenworks 24V leaf blower (110 MPH / 450 CFM) — 4.0Ah battery + charger $104 (was $130)
• Greenworks 24V sweeper — 2.0Ah battery + charger $70 (was $85)
• Greenworks 40V axial leaf blower (110 MPH / 390 CFM) — 2.5Ah battery + charger $112 (was $149)
• Greenworks 40V leaf blower (120 MPH / 450 CFM) — 4.0Ah battery + charger $143 (was $159)
• Greenworks 40V leaf blower (120 MPH / 450 CFM) — Tool only $68 (was $90)
• Greenworks 40V leaf blower/sweeper (150 MPH / 135 CFM) — 2.0Ah battery + charger $109 (was $129)
• Greenworks 40V string trimmer + leaf blower combo kit (390 CFM) — 2.0Ah battery + charger $125 (was $189)
• Greenworks 40V backpack leaf blower (165 MPH / 660 CFM) — 8.0Ah battery + charger $267 (was $349)
• Greenworks 40V backpack leaf blower (175 MPH / 710 CFM) — 2x 8.0Ah batteries + charger $399 (was $499)
• Greenworks 40V leaf blower/vac (230 MPH / 505 CFM) — 5.0Ah battery + charger $215 (was $249)
• Greenworks 60V leaf blower (450 CFM) — 2.0Ah battery + charger $106 (was $135)
• Greenworks 80V leaf blower (145 MPH / 580 CFM) — Tool only $129 (was $169)
• Greenworks 80V leaf blower (170 MPH / 730 CFM) — Tool only $119 (was $169)
• Greenworks 80V backpack leaf blower (180 MPH / 610 CFM) — Tool only $175 (was $199)
• Greenworks 80V backpack leaf blower (180 MPH / 750 CFM) — 4.0Ah battery + charger $349 (was $399)

Trimmers, edgers, and hedge trimmers

Tidy up borders, tame weeds, and keep hedges from going feral.

• Greenworks 40V 8-inch edger — 4.0Ah battery + charger $201 (was $279)
• Greenworks 60V 16-inch string trimmer — 2.5Ah battery + charger $159 (was $199)
• Greenworks 80V 16-inch string trimmer — Tool only $109 (was $149)
• Greenworks 80V 16-inch string trimmer — 2.0Ah battery + charger $248 (was $299)
• Greenworks 80V 8-inch edger — Tool only $159 (was $199)

Chainsaws and saws

For branches, storm cleanup, and general yard woodworking emergencies.

• Greenworks 24V 8-inch polesaw — Tool only $71 (was $99)
• Greenworks 24V 10-inch chainsaw — 2.0Ah battery + charger $99 (was $139)
• Greenworks 40V 14-inch chainsaw — Tool only $103 (was $179)
• Greenworks 40V 14-inch chainsaw — 2.5Ah battery + charger $159 (was $199)
• Greenworks 40V 18-inch chainsaw — Tool only $179 (was $249)
• Greenworks 48V 14-inch chainsaw — 2x 4.0Ah batteries + charger $186 (was $259)
• Greenworks 48V 16-inch chainsaw — 2x 4.0Ah batteries + charger $182 (was $299)
• Greenworks 60V 16-inch brushless chainsaw — 2.5Ah battery + charger $198 (was $299)
• Greenworks 80V 16-inch chainsaw — Tool only $139 (was $179)
• Greenworks 80V 18-inch chainsaw — 2.0Ah battery + charger $228 (was $349)
• Greenworks 80V 20-inch chainsaw — Tool only $319 (was $399)

Pressure washers

When a hose isn’t even close to enough.

• Greenworks pressure washer (3000 PSI / 2.0 GPM) $399 (was $499)
• Greenworks pressure washer (2300 PSI / 2.3 GPM) $297 (was $349)
• Greenworks pressure washer (2000 PSI / 1.2 GPM) $142 (was $169)
• Greenworks pressure washer (1800 PSI / 1.1 GPM) $111 (was $139)

Power tools and combo kits

24V shop tools and bundles for DIY projects and around-the-house fixes.

• Greenworks drill/driver bit set $24 (was $30)
• Greenworks 24V drill (800 in-lbs) — 4.0Ah battery + charger $99 (was $159)
• Greenworks 24V drill (400 in-lbs) — 2x 2.0Ah batteries + charger $84 (was $139)
• Greenworks 24V impact driver (1950 in-lbs) — 2.0Ah battery + charger $84 (was $139)
• Greenworks 24V MAX drill + impact driver combo kit — 2x 2.0Ah batteries + charger $139 (was $149)
• Greenworks 24V high-torque drill + impact driver combo kit — 2x 2.0Ah USB-C power bank batteries + charger $119 (was $199)
• Greenworks 24V 4-tool combo kit — 4.0Ah + 2.0Ah batteries + charger $179 (was $299)
• Greenworks 24V 5-tool combo kit — 4.0Ah + 2.0Ah batteries + charger $239 (was $399)
• Greenworks 24V 6-tool combo kit — 4.0Ah + 2.0Ah batteries + charger $329 (was $599)
• Greenworks 24V 8-tool combo kit — 2x 2.0Ah batteries + charger $449 (was $749)
• Greenworks 24V 10-tool combo kit — 2x 4.0Ah batteries + charger $599 (was $699)

Batteries and accessories

If you already own the tool, sometimes the best deal is more runtime.

• Greenworks 24V battery — 4.0Ah battery + charger $71 (was $90)
• Greenworks 60V battery — 4.0Ah battery + charger $139 (was $179)

Garage and auto

One useful tool for road trips and driveway maintenance.

• Greenworks 40V cordless tire inflator (160 PSI) — Tool only $88 (was $110)

The post Amazon is blowing out Greenworks battery-powered yard tools and snow blowers during its winter clearance sale appeared first on Popular Science.

(Editor’s Note: This is a section from Popular Science’s 38th annual Best of What’s New awards. Be sure to read the full list of the 50 greatest innovations of 2025.)

Grand Award Winner, Home

Spin&Load rack by Whirlpool: A dishwasher lower rack that actually comes to you

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Whirlpool’s Spin&Load rack replaces the typical fixed lower dishwasher rack with a platform that rotates a full 360 degrees, so every plate and pot remains reachable from any side. The accessory drops into standard 24-inch built-in dishwashers across Whirlpool’s brands and spins on a central hub, which means users no longer have to lean deep into the machine or shuffle around the open door just to grab the pan in the back. The rack was developed with the United Spinal Association as well as Whirlpool’s internal advocacy group. The final product was tested with wheelchair users, aiming to make loading and unloading realistic for people with limited reach or balance, not just idealized demo kitchens. It’s also compatible with most of the brand’s standard dishwasher models manufactured after 2018, which makes a much more affordable and environmentally friendly alternative to replacing an entire appliance.

RMA 448 V lawn mower by Stihl: A one-sided handle that simplifies bagging and storage

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Stihl’s RMA 448 V battery mower uses a unique-looking handle: instead of the usual two bars, it has a single offset post that leaves the back of the deck completely open. That small change makes it easier to lift out the 13.7-gallon grass bag, flip the integrated mulch flap, or adjust the cutting height without threading your arms around metal tubing. More importantly, the handle folds flat for storing the mower against a wall in tight storage spaces. Despite its foldable stature, It’s still a full-size, self-propelled 19-inch mower with weather-resistant construction and ECO mode to stretch runtime. But the real advantage comes in its streamlined ease of use, because accessories and features aren’t worth having if they’re too annoying to use.

Dyson HushJet Purifier Compact: Jet-style airflow without the jet-engine noise

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The HushJet Purifier Compact shrinks Dyson’s bladeless air-multiplier idea into a purifier small enough for a bedroom or home office, then reworks the nozzle to keep things extremely quiet. The uniquely shaped port pulls in room air and pushes it through an electrostatic HEPA filter plus activated carbon, capturing 99.97% of particles down to 0.3 microns and common gases. It’s strong suction, but, in night mode, noise drops to around 24 dBA. That’s about as loud as a typical whisper. It’s sized for roughly 200 square feet, runs off about 7 pounds of hardware, and uses a sealed filter rated for up to five years, which cuts down on replacement waste and recurring cost. It’s quiet enough and requires so little maintenance that you don’t have to think about it and that’s the way we like it.

Solar Roof Tiles by Jackery: Curved crystalline panels that behave like actual roofing

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Jackery’s Solar Roof replaces bolt-on panels with curved tiles that function as both roofing and photovoltaics. Each XBC tile uses a 0.13 mm-thick crystalline silicon cell bent into a 150-degree “smile” shape, delivering over 25% efficiency and around 38 watts per tile—about 170 watts per square meter—while matching the profile of clay or concrete tiles in black or terracotta. The system is rated for hail, high winds, and temperatures from –40°F to 185°F, with a 30-year warranty and integration into Jackery’s home storage gear for whole-house backup. By treating solar as part of the building envelope instead of a separate rack, it aims to make the system acceptable to homeowners’ associations and aesthetics-conscious owners who would otherwise skip rooftop solar—an important barrier if residential rooftops are going to contribute meaningfully to decarbonizing the grid.

Refillable Air Filter Kit by Filtrete: A reusable HVAC frame with collapsible refills

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Filtrete’s Refillable Air Filter Kit replaces the usual one-piece furnace filter with a rigid frame designed to live in your HVAC system for up to 20 years and thin “refill” elements that slide in and out. Each MPR 1550 refill lasts up to 12 months, comes folded to take up 75 percent less space, and captures substantially more fine particles than basic filters while generating about 20% less waste over the frame’s life. The kit ships in curbside-recyclable packaging, and Filtrete’s app can nudge you when it’s time to swap the media, which addresses the very human tendency to forget about filters until airflow drops. Given how many homes now rely on forced-air systems for both heating and cooling, a design that cuts bulk trash and encourages longer, more consistent filtration is a small but concrete improvement in how we manage indoor air and HVAC waste.

The post 5 home innovations that improved our lives in 2025 appeared first on Popular Science.

According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the male and female spider monkeys were inside of a pet carrier and were roughly two to three months old. Wildlife inspectors brought the monkeys about two and a half hours north to San Antonio, Texas, where they were transferred to a rehabilitation facility. USFWS is working with law enforcement to identify the driver who was involved in human and wildlife smuggling. 

According to the International Fund for Animal Welfare, there are seven recognized species of spider monkeys in the Ateles genus. They are known for very long arms and hook-like hands and weigh about 13 pounds on average. Spider monkeys generally live in groups called “troops,” in tropical rainforests of Central and South America, stretching from Bolivia north to Mexico.

Spider monkeys are protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora and some species are also listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act. Wildlife trafficking is also so stressful on the animals that it can lead to death. The animals may also carry diseases that pose serious risks to human health. If you are caught smuggling wildlife, you could face up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. So again, please don’t smuggle illegal animals.

To report wildlife crime, visit www.fws.gov/wildlife-crime-tips.

The post Baby spider monkeys rescued in Texas appeared first on Popular Science.

The problem with sidewalk salt

When salt is applied to roads and sidewalks as a deicing agent, as snow melts, salt gets washed into streams, lakes, and wetlands. Once there, there’s no practical way to remove it at scale. Fortunately, some municipalities, including the Lake George area in upstate New York, are advocating for more responsible salt usage.

The location offers an excellent case study for how road salt can affect regional waterways and what can be done about it. Since 1980, the Lake George Association (LGA), along with partners like the Waterkeeper Alliance and Jefferson Project, have meticulously studied regional water quality via millions of data points. The Lake George Road Salt Reduction Initiative was created in 2014 after scientists discovered that chloride levels in Lake George tripled over the last 40 years—and road salt was primarily to blame.

LGA tested water quality in not just lakes and creeks, but also in private wells across the watershed. That’s how researchers discovered that over 60 percent of private wells located downslope of state roads exceeded New York State’s drinking water guidance values for sodium thanks to salt-based groundwater contamination. In Mirror Lake and Lake Placid specifically, those concentrations were due in large part to sidewalk and parking lot over-salting.

Over 60 percent of affected wells had salty enough water to be corrosive, making it not only undrinkable but useless for watering plants, unpleasant for bathing, and detrimental to the lifespan of appliances like water heaters, dishwashers and washing machines, explains Brendan Wiltse, president of the Lake George Association.

Homes with older lead pipes fared even worse: Corrosive water can cause the metal pipes to leech lead. In fact, that’s part of what contributed to the drinking water crisis in Flint, Michigan, in 2014, explains Wiltse. These risks are often exacerbated because many homes with wells aren’t regulated or tested like city water systems are, so residents “may not know they’re drinking contaminated water,” he continues.

A spring 2025 report from the New York City Department of Environmental Protection even found that if salt contamination continues increasing as it has for the last 40 years, some watersheds will be above safe maximums by 2108. That means many New York residents won’t have access to potable water.

The environment suffers, too, namely zooplankton that aren’t evolutionarily equipped to handle high salinity in waterways. These creatures act as the basis of the food web—they eat algae, keeping blooms in check, and fish eat them, and so on—so when they suffer, it can cause harmful reverberations up and down the ecosystem, Wiltse says.

The solution to over-salting

The Lake George Association, in partnership with a slew of other environmental organizations, is tackling the problem head on, as are other municipalities around the country. The city is investing in more effective plow blades, high-tech digital data collection, and studies that show using less salt is just as effective, but with less environmental risk.

Brining was adopted, a process of pre-treating roads before a storm with a solution of just 23 percent salt that prevents ice build-up. The organization is also advocating for more cities to adopt their Sustainable Winter Management system (SWiM) to measure salt levels, analyze data, and optimize salt usage for maximum effectiveness without excess.

In upstate New York, it seems to be working. Many municipalities around Adirondack Park are using less salt. Wiltse says Mirror Lake’s salt concentrations are plummeting, thanks to participation of residents and business owners, all while effectively keeping people safe on roads and sidewalks.

Fortunately, reducing salt when it comes to deicing your own sidewalk isn’t complicated. It mostly comes down to quantity.

When, where, and how much salt to apply

How much salt you should use to make any given area safe for pedestrians varies slightly. But the general rule of thumb, according to Wiltse: “One 12-ounce coffee cup of salt is sufficient for a 20-foot driveway or 10 sidewalk squares.”

Avoid what he refers to as the “more-on approach,” which he describes as the practice of continuously sprinkling more on, and on, and on. After all, it only takes a teaspoon of salt to contaminate five gallons of water and make it harmful to aquatic life and undrinkable for humans.

Apply salt to sidewalks, driveways, or parking areas that see regular use, scattering it evenly over the surface. It’s equally important to stay on top of snow removal by shoveling small amounts more frequently, instead of after it’s piled up. Don’t make up for laziness with salt, Wiltse advises. It’s not there to melt six inches of snow away: Cleanup comes first, then salt.

As for when to apply, while most people think of salt as a post-weather treatment, pre-treating walkways is often beneficial. “What salt is best at is preventing the bond of snow and ice onto the surface you’re trying to treat,” Wiltse states. Think of it like oil in a frying pan: You put the oil in your pan before adding your ingredients to prevent them from sticking.

Sprinkle salt before the weather blows in so it forms a liquid brine over the surface. This will prevent snow from bonding to the cement or asphalt, especially when it’s compacted via footsteps or car tires. Doing so will make snow easier to shovel, too.

Salt alternatives: What to use (and not use)

In most cases, regular rock salt (sodium chloride) is more than sufficient. But you may see formulations of calcium chloride and magnesium chloride, too. The latter works more effectively in extra-cold temperatures, but you need less, so use sparsely.

Cat litter or sand is a popular additive, but it’s easier to track indoors, so isn’t a perfect fix for everyone.

Some articles reference more innovative solutions a few municipalities have tried, like beet juice, pickle brine, cheese brine, or beer waste. “The problem with those is they have a lot of sugar in them,” Wiltse says. When they run off into natural bodies of water, bacteria eats the sugar too quickly; the process sucks up excess oxygen in the process, which can kill fish.

So stick with salt, don’t use too much, and sprinkle smart this winter for your own health—and the health of the environment.

The post Stop using so much sidewalk salt appeared first on Popular Science.

In January, authorities found the half-eaten body of a 34-year-old Romanian woman who passed away alone in her apartment. The culprit: her two pet pugs, who had started consuming their owner’s corpse after five days in isolation. 

Experts say even the friendliest kitty or the most aimable pup could resort to eating their owner’s body, though the phenomenon has more to do with human behavior and animal survival instincts than a sudden, bloodthirsty urge from our furry friends. 

So, if you died, would your dog or cat really eat you?

The short answer is yes, they can and they have. Most of the literature on the subject relies on individual case studies rather than long-term pattern analysis, but the behavior is common enough that forensic investigators regularly encounter pet scavenging wounds during autopsies—and often expect it when visiting homes with cats and dogs where bodies have been left alone for days or weeks. 

There’s even forensic literature on how to pin down the cause of death—and rule out foul play—while accounting for post-mortem pet bites, scratches, and consumption. But why would pets eat their owners? 

Cats and dogs are hardwired for survival

Most commonly, pets will eat our bodies as a survival behavior when there’s no food left, said Lena DeTar, an associate clinical professor at Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine.

“The drive is not that all of a sudden your pet doesn’t like you anymore,” she tells Popular Science. “The drive is you’re smelling like meat, you’re no longer moving, and I’m really hungry and I need to eat.”

Dogs and cats who prey on their pet parents after death are often trapped in their homes for days or weeks before their owners are discovered, DeTar says. The humans typically live alone and are socially isolated, often with their pets as their only companions.

In a study examining almost 40 cases of indoor dog scavenging over 60 years, a significant number of incidents involved elderly people who lived alone and were left undiscovered for long periods.

Sometimes pets don’t wait to start nibbling

In some instances, your pet could start eating you right away. Carolyn Rando, a forensic anthropologist and bioarcheologist at the University College London Institute of Archaeology, cites a case where a dog licking at their dead owner’s face for comfort was potentially triggered by the presence of blood there before it started gnawing. 

“There’s a couple of other similar cases where somebody’s taken a fall or had a heart attack in their house and the animal will go to them again looking for reassurance,” Rando says. “And so, we see small dogs or small cats sometimes chewing at the face trying to get some sort of reaction.”

Are dogs or cats more likely to eat your dead body?

The age-old question of whether dogs or cats are better pets takes on a fresh perspective here. Rando says that most people assume cats would be quicker to take a nibble on us than dogs. However, man’s best friend is more likely to eat your corpse, and their methods are usually more violent than how cats scavenge. 

“Cats are going to maybe chew at the soft tissue of your nose, chew at your face, chew at your fingertips, but dogs will consume the whole corpse if given a chance and enough time,” Rando said. 

It’s not personal. It’s all about biology: dogs are more domesticated and they’re natural scavengers, while cats retain more of their wild instincts and are natural hunters. Cats, especially outdoor cats, have other ways of finding food, like hunting down small rodents and bugs. On the other hand, dogs are often completely reliant on their owners to feed them. They’ll sniff out dog food before resorting to eating their owners, but they’ll scavenge to survive like they do in the wild, says DeTar. 

A small house cat is also less likely to target large prey like humans, but dogs, especially larger dogs, are more able to tear at tissue and bone, adds DeTar. 

If you have lots of pets, that could be an issue

One human behavior, known as pet hoarding, increases the risk for post-mortem pet scavenging while endangering animals. Pet hoarders collect dozens of cats or dogs and are likely to neglect them, according to experts. In some cases, humans and hoarded animals live alone in poor, unsanitary conditions where pets are often starving—a high-risk situation for pets to consume their owners if they die at home.

In one case, a 69-year-old man died at home with almost 30 cats trapped in rooms filled with trash. The cats ultimately ate much of the man’s soft tissue, along with his heart and lungs, before he was found. 

DeTar works at the intersection of veterinary medicine and social work. She often works with socially isolated and vulnerable populations, including with the elderly and pet hoarders, to help prevent pet scavenging situations through spaying and neutering, counseling, and potential rehoming animals.

“We call it disaster management when we have a hoarding situation,” DeTar said. “We try to get social workers involved; we try to get human healthcare involved. Often the homes get condemned.”

DeTar says the complicated relationships between pet hoarders and their pets are the highest hurdle. Pet hoarders tend to believe they’re rescuing these animals, or they don’t understand their pets are living in unsafe conditions: Like many people, hoarders are emotional about their pets. 

Ultimately, it’s all about doing what’s best for the pet, and that usually means preventing the situations that lead to pet scavenging. But in an unavoidable situation, DeTar, who lives with a yodeling Husky, a 14-year-old Heeler, and a Calico cat, says she wouldn’t mind her pets eating her, given there was no other food available.

Rando, who has a black cat named Momo, agrees.

“Pets are our family,” she said. “Who wouldn’t want them to be taken care of—even if it’s just briefly, by my own flesh, after my death.”

In Ask Us Anything, Popular Science answers your most outlandish, mind-burning questions, from the everyday things you’ve always wondered to the bizarre things you never thought to ask. Have something you’ve always wanted to know? Ask us.

The post Would my dog or cat really eat me if I died alone? appeared first on Popular Science.

In 2025, the aurora provided some most intense displays of the current solar cycle. While solar maximum has now peaked, geomagnetic activity has remained exceptionally strong.

The eighth edition of The Northern Lights Photographer of the Year brings together 25 most extraordinary aurora images captured around the world over the past year. Twelve of this year’s stunning winners are sampled below. (Click to expand images to full screen.)

The post 12 ethereal images from the 2025 Northern Lights Photographer of the Year awards appeared first on Popular Science.

Earlier this month, NASA released a high-definition video showcase of the ISS, its facilities, and its crew recorded during the Crew-4 and Crew-5 missions in October 2022. The guided tour begins in the Columbus Laboratory Module—the European Space Agency’s (ESA) contribution to the station that includes equipment for studying fluid physics, materials sciences, and the effects of microgravity. From there, Commander Nicole Mann moves into Kibo, Japan’s experiment module focused on tasks like satellite deployments and features an external robotic arm.

Along the way, viewers get fascinating looks at life in space, including what it’s like to eat in zero gravity and how difficult it is to navigate through all the controlled chaos. Orbiting around 250 miles above Earth puts supply runs at a premium, so nearly every inch of the ISS is relegated for storage, research station, wiring, or many other vital components.

Humans have lived continuously aboard the ISS for over 25 years, but the historic endeavor is fast approaching its retirement. According to the current schedule, NASA will initiate its deorbital procedures in 2031. After that, the station will fall back towards Earth and burn up safely during atmospheric re-entry.

The post Tour the International Space Station in new NASA walkthrough appeared first on Popular Science.

That wide-ranging impact is why Popular Science chose the drops as the 2025 Health category winner. This year’s list also includes ground-breaking improvements to pediatric heart transplants, a potential cure for a deadly blood cancer, and a minimally invasive way to treat prostate cancer.

(Editor’s Note: This is a section from Popular Science’s 38th annual Best of What’s New awards. Be sure to read the full list of the 50 greatest innovations of 2025.)

Grand Award Winner, Health

VIZZ by LENZ Therapeutics: Eye drops correct age-related farsightedness for up to 10 hours at a time

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Presbyopia, age-related farsightedness that makes people need reading glasses, affects 128 million people in the US, and close to 2 billion people worldwide. It’s one of the few conditions that is basically guaranteed if you live long enough. Now, an eye drop called VIZZ, developed by LENZ Therapeutics, offers presbyopic patients vision correction for 10 hours at a time.

The aceclidine eye solution got FDA approval for treatment of presbyopia in July. Aceclidine, previously known in Europe as an unremarkable treatment for glaucoma, works on the iris by making the pupil smaller. The smaller the pupil, the greater the depth of focus. In trials that included 1,059 participants, aged 45 to 75, VIZZ improved people’s near vision by three or more lines on eye charts within 30 minutes. Investigators reported that participants could read phones and tablets without reading glasses, and had no loss to their distance vision. Results lasted up to 10 hours. 

Previously, other presbyopia drops that worked on a different part of the eye—the ciliary muscle, which is behind the iris—caused brow pain for some users. For users of VIZZ, the most commonly reported adverse reactions are eye irritation, dimming of vision, redness, and headache. The company also recommends consulting an eye care professional before starting these, as miotics like VIZZ could heighten the risk of retinal tears.

On-Table Reanimation of a Pediatric Heart from Donation after Circulatory Death by Duke University Medical Center: Widening the donor pool for children in need of a heart

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Babies are far more likely than adults to die waiting for a heart transplant. In 2022, a study from the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients found that more than 1,100 children were on the waitlist, with hundreds more being added every year. Due to a small donor pool and lack of devices usable in pediatric transplants, up to 20% of those children will die while waiting. The most common type of heart donation is donation after brain death (DBD). However, a way to widen the donor pool would be to include heart donations following circulatory death (DCD), or after the donor’s heart stops beating. A known technique called normothermic regional perfusion (NRP) reanimates a DCD heart in order for it to be donated. However, NRP has raised ethical concerns surrounding the definition of death and restoring blood flow to a dead body. As a result, the technique faces bans at many institutions, and viable donor hearts—including pediatric hearts—frequently go unused. 

In an attempt to bypass the fierce NRP debate and increase the donor pool for infants in need, a team at Duke University Medical Center developed the on-table reanimation technique, a system with a special circuit that reanimates the DCD heart outside of the body right on the surgical table. Because all of this happens outside the body, the new technique sidesteps many of NRP’s restrictions. Using the new technique, the team successfully transplanted a heart from a 1-month-old donor to a 3-month-old recipient. According to Dr. Joe Turek, a pediatric cardiac surgeon at Duke University, the recipient baby has been healthy and well ever since.

The Duke team is now presenting the technique to colleagues around the country. A wide adoption of it could increase the donor pool for pediatric heart transplants by up to 20% and save countless children’s lives. According to the Duke team, this method could be applied to adult heart transplants as well, offering a less expensive way of getting donor hearts to patients in need.

Carvykti by Legend Biotech and Johnson & Johnson: Possible cure for deadly blood cancer

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Multiple myeloma has long been considered incurable. The deadly blood cancer, a disease that 36,000 Americans develop each year, eats away at bones, creating holes that weaken the skeleton. In a milestone study published this year, Carvykti, a CAR-T immunotherapy, has yielded long-term remission and survival for multiple myeloma patients. Out of 97 treated patients, one-third had their cancer disappear. This is a striking outcome for people who were facing death after trying everything prior to the treatment. With some patients as of today going on five, or even seven, years post-treatment completely disease-free, researchers are encouraging colleagues to consider using cancer medicine’s forbidden four letter word: cure. 

Developed in China by Legend Biotech, which then teamed up with Johnson & Johnson, Carvykti works by extracting a patient’s own white blood cells, retraining them to fight against the cancer, then reinfusing them back into the body. Unsurprisingly, it can be a physically grueling process. 

The FDA approved the therapy in 2022, and it’s now causing a stir as follow-up research uncovers its astounding long-term effects. Researchers say the results would likely be even better if Carvykti was used as an earlier line of treatment, and not only as a last resort.

Remote Patient Monitoring program for blood pressure by UC Davis Health: A personalized, widely accessible program to resolve hypertension

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Hypertension is a chronic disease that affects nearly half of Americans over age 20, according to the American Heart Association. High blood pressure can put someone at risk of heart disease, heart attack, and stroke. Getting high blood pressure under control can not only lengthen a person’s life, but also improve their ease and enjoyment of everyday activities. UC Davis Health recently pioneered an at-home patient monitoring program using take-home technology to help hypertension patients lower their blood pressure. 

The Remote Patient Monitoring program for blood pressure is six months long, but patients can extend their participation in the program for up to a year. The program includes education, medication, and blood pressure cuffs for at-home monitoring. Each patient is given an orientation, group classes, and individual coaching about best practices for their health, all while working remotely with a full medical team. Combined, over 150 patients are either currently in or have gone through the program. 

Now, over a year in, UC Davis Health is declaring triumph, citing an average drop in people’s blood pressure from 150/80 mmHg to 125/74 mmHg in only a matter of months, significantly reducing patients’ risk of heart disease. And participants are maintaining their progress even after graduating from the program.

UC Davis Health currently has several remote patient monitoring programs in place and wants to use new technology to make care more accessible. For many reasons—such as distance, age, mobility, or pregnancy—a patient may not be able to easily come in to see the doctor as often as they need to. UC Davis’ model could be useful for rural and urban medical centers alike. According to the program leaders, they are working to not only continue the program, but expand it in years to come. 

NanoKnife by AngioDynamics: A minimally invasive intervention for prostate cancer

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One in eight men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetimes, according to the American Cancer Society. Treatment can include surgery or radiation, but these interventions can damage the nerves surrounding the tumor, leading to complications like erectile dysfunction and urinary incontinence. 

Developed by AngioDynamics and cleared by the FDA in December 2024, NanoKnife sends localized electrical pulses directly to the cancerous tissue with a precision that avoids damage to neighboring tissues. Just like some breast cancer patients are given the option of a more targeted lumpectomy instead of treating the entire breast, eligible prostate cancer patients now have a more focused, radiation-free alternative that doesn’t require treating the entire gland. 

The NanoKnife System offers men with prostate cancer that hasn’t yet spread a minimally invasive solution with limited quality-of-life side effects before doctors turn to other, more aggressive treatments. It is now being used in hospitals around the country. 

The post 5 breakthrough health innovations in 2025 appeared first on Popular Science.

The age of smartphones means most of us carry thousands of photos with us at all times, usually storing many more than that somewhere in the cloud. And that’s great in many ways, but digital hoarding is also kind of a drag. 

There are so many photos it can be hard to find the ones you’re looking for, and it can also be annoying to show off particular collections during an in-person conversation. This is why it’s a good idea to curate a physical collection of photos after something like a trip or important event. This could mean ordering a book or just printing a few highlights—just get some kind of physical collection. Here are a few reasons. 

You don’t have to hand anyone your phone

We’ve all done it: handed our phone to someone to show them a photo. It works, but there are downsides. 

For one thing, there’s probably all sorts of things on your phone you don’t want to share with everyone in your life. Maybe they’ll scroll through your photos, looking for similar pictures but instead finding something you’d rather keep private. Maybe a notification pops up that you’d rather your family not see. Or, in the worst-case scenario, maybe someone goes snooping on your device on purpose.

All of these situations can be avoided if you hand them a photo album instead of your phone. And yes, you could also avoid this by using something like AirPlay or Google Cast to show the photos on your TV, but that only works consistently if you’re at home—otherwise, you’re fighting to connect to someone else’s television. It’s a lot easier to just hand someone a photo album. 

Curation is its own reward

It is so easy, in this day of cheap cloud storage, to take dozens of photos every day and never think about them. You can always search or scroll when you need something specific, right?

But all of that assumes the art of going through your photos and choosing the best ones is a burden, and not a delight. And I’m here to tell you that there is real joy to be found in going through old photos, choosing the best ones, and deciding to get those—and only those—printed. 

It’s also fun arranging these physical photos so that they flow from one to the other. (There’s a reason people used to scrapbook as a hobby!) There’s an art to it, which is satisfying. Yes, you could create digital albums in something like Google or Apple Photos, which is a very worthwhile activity. But that feels like work. Carefully arranging your photos in a way that recreates a fond memory or juxtaposing them artistically is a creative exercise in and of itself. Making things with your own hands is satisfying and good for your brain. 

The cloud won’t last forever

Sprawling tech conglomerates like Google and Apple seem like they’ll be around forever, but that just isn’t the case. The history of technology is one where impossibly large companies all eventually disappear, often taking their data with them.

I am not predicting the imminent collapse of any software giants, only pointing out that if something like that happened, there’s a good chance the services where your photos live right now will stop existing. It would be up to you—or the people who come after you—to move the photos off the dying cloud service and onto one that’s still running. Yes, there’s generally a warning, but sometimes life gets in the way and you miss a deadline. 

That’s just one scenario. There could be a computer glitch that randomly deletes photos, or you could forget to pay a cloud subscription bill at some future point in your life. Your photos could disappear forever. Physical photos aren’t like that. They’re in your home. Sure, they could be destroyed in an accident or a fire, which is a good reason to keep the digital photos around and backed up. But physical photos are yours in a way anything stored on the cloud is not. That alone makes having some old-fashioned, paper photos around worthwhile. 

They’re a tangible reminder of something great

Whether it’s a special event, an epic trip, or a new addition to your family, some things deserve to be commemorated. Printing photos and compiling them is a great way to do that. You are going to value an actual physical object more in 20 years than any Instagram post (assuming Instagram even exists in 20 years). 

You can pull the book out during conversations. You can page through it yourself, anytime. 

There’s another side to this: your own mortality. I hate to break it to you, but you are going to die someday (sorry). When you do, it will be up to someone you love to sort through your belongings and decide what to keep. A well-curated collection of physical photos is far more likely to be valued than an endless scroll of digital photos. Plus, who wants to end up a ghostbot?

The post ​​Why you should still print photos appeared first on Popular Science.

Ask Us Anything answers your most outlandish, mind-burning questions—from the everyday things you’ve always wondered to the bizarre things you never thought to ask. So, yes, there’s a reason we have two nostrils instead of one big nose hole and no, snakes don’t just slither. If you have a question for us, send us a note. Nothing is too silly or simple.

This episode is based on the Popular Science article “How squirrels actually find all their buried nuts.” You can also read about Tommy Tucker, a dress-wearing squirrel that sold war bonds during World War II.

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Full Episode Transcript

Sarah Durn: Well, we’re fully in December, so we all know what that means. It’s Nutcracker time.

[“Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” plays]

No, I’m not talking about that kind of nutcracker. I’m talking about our delightful, furry neighbors: squirrels.

[Squirrel chattering]

That’s right, every year as the weather starts to turn, squirrels get busy collecting and stealing as many nuts as they can for winter. But how are these adorable creatures able to find all their buried loot?

Welcome to Ask Us Anything from the editors of Popular Science, where we answer your questions about our weird world. From “are cats really afraid of cucumbers?” to “why are most people right-handed?” No question is too outlandish or mundane. I’m Sarah Durn, an editor at Popular Science.

Annie Colbert: And I’m Annie Colbert, editor-in-chief at Popular Science.

SD: Here at Popular Science, we’re always pondering oddball questions. Curiosity is basically our office air supply. 

AC: And this week our curiosity has led us to how squirrels find all their buried nuts in winter, something Sarah just edited a piece on. So, Sarah, how are squirrels able to find all these nuts?

SD: Yeah, well, the short answer is that they rely on a long list of special squirrel skills. Squirrels use a whole toolkit: smell, sight, memory, and they’ll even steal from one another to recover food stores. Spatial memory does a lot of the heavy lifting here, and field studies find they recover a surprisingly high fraction of what they cache.

In other words, despite the jokes, these bushy tailed hoarders are really good at finding their buried loot. 

AC: I love that. So right away we are correcting that very famous Sarah Silverman joke.

SD: Oh yeah. The one about how squirrels forget where they put their nuts and how that’s how trees are planted. 

AC: Yes, exactly. I’ve seen it on TikTok many times. 

SD: Yeah. No shade to Silverman, but squirrels aren’t planting trees.

AC: I mean, I never really thought comedians were a good source for squirrel facts. And of course, I never doubted our squirrel friends and their abilities to hide nuts.

SD: I know they’re too adorable not to be very good at their jobs.

AC: Exactly. Now, before we dive deep into the nut hoard, we wanna know what questions are keeping you curious. If there’s something you’ve always wanted to know, submit your questions through popsci.com/ask. Again, that’s popsci.com/ask. 

SD: We can’t wait to hear your questions.

AC: We’ll be back with all of the nutty details of how squirrels are able to find their winter food stores after this short break.

Welcome back. So let’s get into it. 

SD: Let’s do it.

AC: Okay. For starters, I had wrongly assumed that all squirrels stashed their nuts in the same way.

SD: Tell me more.

AC: So Eastern gray squirrels, which are common across the Northeast and Midwest, are what scientists call scatter hoarders. They stash hundreds of nuts across a wide area rather than keeping them all in one place.

Other species, like red squirrels, which are common in Europe and across Russia, basically stockpile their food in a single defended pantry of sorts. Scientists call this technique larder hoarding.

SD: Oh, now I’m imagining them in like little kitchens.

AC: Oh, Food Network, but it’s all squirrels. Oh, okay, sorry, I got distracted. But an important note is that they won’t stockpile their food near their nests.

SD: Oh, really?

AC: Yeah. I’m not sure if scientists know exactly why. Maybe it’s safer to keep the food out of the nest so other squirrels aren’t lurking around or other animals.

SD: But all squirrels do have nest, right?

AC: Yes. So tree squirrels build their nests out of twigs and leaves and moss and whatever else they might find while scrounging around. These nests are called dreys, and I actually had a squirrel build a nest right outside the window of my apartment and I will say it didn’t end well on a very windy day, but we’ll save that story for another day. 

SD: Oh no! 

AC: But ground squirrels, so ground squirrels like the California ground squirrel they live in, burrows in the ground.

SD: Uh huh, I really wish I could visit a squirrel home.

AC: Ooh, squirrel HGTV! 

SD: A whole squirrel network.

AC: Yeah, the whole cable network, just squirrels! All right, Sarah, so when the weather gets cooler, what exactly are these squirrels storing? Is it all nuts? 

SD: Nuts are probably one of the most common things that they’re storing because you know, they can last a while. But squirrels eat all sorts of things: leaf buds, wild fruits, bird eggs, tree bark. So they store whatever, you know, they can get their little paws on. They’ll even dry out things like mushrooms to store.

AC: Oh, that’s so cool, little variety. 

SD: I know.

AC: I mean, the squirrels in Brooklyn are super bold. I once helplessly watched a squirrel steal an entire baguette out of the bottom of my stroller a few years ago. He just grabbed it and scampered off for like a little bread feast with his friends.

SD: Yeah. I mean, New York squirrels are so intense.

AC: All right, Sarah, so it’s time for the all important question. How exactly are squirrels able to find all this food they’re storing? 

SD: I mean, honestly, they’re geniuses. Most squirrels have a home range that spans six to eight acres, roughly the size of four football fields. And that area can include several nests. And across those four football fields of dense forest or whatever habitat a squirrel lives in, a single squirrel can hide up to 3000 nuts.

AC: What?

SD: I know, so if they’re burying nuts primarily between mid-August and the end of November, which is when most tree nuts mature, they’re basically burying 30 nuts a day.

AC: I mean, that’s a lot. So where are they actually burying all these nuts?

SD: Well, in cold places, squirrels don’t always actually bury their nuts in the ground. They’ll stash food in tree hollows or branches so they don’t have to dig through ice and snow.

AC: Oh, very smart. What about in warmer places?

SD: Yeah, so I live in New Orleans where it’s pretty warm year round and it’s probably easier for squirrels to actually bury their nuts and other food in the ground here.

AC: Okay, so another potentially silly question. They still need to bury the nuts in warmer places, right? Like there aren’t nuts or food year-round. 

SD: Yeah, I was actually wondering that too. But basically, yes, trees will still lose their nuts and fall even in New Orleans. So squirrels still need to stockpile food for winter. But I would think southern squirrels maybe have an easier time than squirrels in say Canada.

AC: Totally. So squirrels, regardless of climate, all get busy hiding thousands of nuts every fall.

SD: Yeah.

AC: Hmm. So how do they actually find these nuts months later?

SD: Okay, so that’s an excellent question. So let’s start with the basics. Squirrels really don’t rely on a single trick. They use smell, sight, and memory, plus social cues from other squirrels. One of the sources from this story, Dr. Noah Perlut, a professor at the University of New England, who leads gray squirrel research on campus, says they “use the whole toolkit.” Spatial memory, remembering places and how those places relate to landmarks, is especially important for when they dig their food back up. 

AC: Okay, but when you say spatial memory, do you mean they remember the exact spot or more like kind of general areas? 

SD: Typically they’re returning to the exact spot, even months later. In one experiment, scientists tried to fool squirrels with fake stashes that looked identical to the real ones. And they even swapped the grass patches, so the imposter stashes carried the real scent of the original places, but the squirrels didn’t fall for it. They ignored the imposters and dug up their actual caches. That tells us that their memory for where they buried things is accurate enough to beat a scent trick.

AC: That’s wild. So smell isn’t enough to trick them. They’re actually remembering where things are buried?

SD: Right. Smell helps, especially under snow, but it’s not the whole story. Field work also shows squirrels use visual landmarks. Another layer to this is that many squirrels actually steal nuts from other squirrels.

AC: Nice drama.

SD: Yeah, so they’ll watch each other hide their winter food stores and often steal from one another.

So squirrels aren’t only keeping track of “where did I put my food?” But also “where did that other squirrel put theirs?” Scientists call this pilfering. 

AC: Hmm. That’s nice. I guess it’s a little less mean sounding.

SD: Yeah, right. Perlut thinks that squirrels actually try to pilfer AKA steal another squirrel stash first, and then if that fails, they go for their own stashes

AC: Wow. It’s a real squirrel-eat-squirrel world out there. 

SD: Yeah. At least when it comes to their nuts. To avoid getting pilfered, squirrels will even pretend to bury nuts in one place and then actually bury them in another place ultimately. And it’s all a way to confuse the other squirrels who may be spying on them.

AC: So there’s a whole social game going on. Do we know how well they do overall? Like how many hidden nuts do squirrels actually recover? 

SD: Yeah, so one urban study estimated gray squirrels retrieve about 85 percent of their cached nuts, or, you know, whatever else they’re burying. A more recent 2023 study reported that red squirrels in an urban park quickly found the majority of the nuts they cached, even with competition.

AC: Wow. They’re much better than I am when I lose my wallet or keys or everything else I lose.

SD: I know. I mean, we should all have like little squirrels help us find things we lose around the house.

AC: Honestly, that would be a dream. Welcome the squirrels to my home.

SD: I know, that would be amazing. Perlut also notes that squirrels can remember things for up to two months.

AC: Wow.

SD: And they’re really, really smart about the timing of how they eat things too. They’ll eat certain nuts sooner, for example. So acorns from a white oak sprout quickly, so squirrels often eat those first, while red oak acorns germinate more slowly, and they can be stored for longer.

AC: So wise, our little friends.

SD: I know. One thing Perlut said really struck me. He noted that gray squirrels, for instance, spend a lot of time not foraging. They rest, watch, socialize. So that’s in a way, evidence of how effective their stashing system is. They’re not busy all day hiding nuts. I love that.

AC: They work smart, but not nonstop. I feel like those are icons for all of us.

SD: So to recap, squirrels use a combination of spatial memory, smell, visual landmarks, social observation, and even watching what other squirrels are up to, plus all that fake bearing drama to throw off furry thieves to protect and recover their caches. All in all squirrels are really good at finding what they hide.

Different species go about it in different ways, whether that’s scatter hoarding all over the place or keeping one big pantry stash, AKA larder hoarding. 

AC: And they’re really pros.

SD: They really are.

AC: I’ve learned so much today. With that, we’ll be right back to wrap up this episode with the story of Tommy Tucker, a squirrel who was adopted by the Bullis family in 1944.

SD: A squirrel who wore little outfits to help raise money for war bonds and other philanthropic causes.

AC: A squirrel who even did radio spots with FDR!

SD: Clearly we’re excited.

AC: Yes, that’s coming up next after this short break.

Okay, Sarah, as promised, let’s talk Tommy Tucker, someone we’re very excited about when we discovered this story and America’s most glamorous wartime squirrel. And I really, when we found this out, I couldn’t believe that this guy actually existed.

SD: I know he is iconic, so yes, Tommy Tucker was an Eastern gray squirrel, who became a full blown home front celebrity during World War II.

AC: So how did he go from random baby squirrel to icon? 

SD: It’s an excellent question. He literally fell out of a hickory tree in Washington, DC. A little girl found him on her walk to school, fed him warm milk, and made him a tiny bed in a red wool hat. Then her family had to move and she gave Tommy Tucker to her neighbor, Zadie Bullis, and that’s when his life really took off.

AC: I am so obsessed with this.

SD: So Zadie basically turned Tommy into a tiny, furry fashion icon. He had more than a hundred handmade outfits. Everything from a silk pleated dress for company to a Red Cross nurse dress for visiting the hospital.

AC: Uh, and famously all dresses because pants don’t really work with a squirrel tail.

SD: Exactly. Life Magazine even joked about it at the time.

AC: Okay, so. How does a squirrel and a dress become a war hero?

SD: Yeah, so Bullis started taking him around DC to the bakery, the grocery store, the children’s hospital, and people really started to fall in love with him.

AC: Of course.

SD: Eventually the US Treasury built him a custom booth so he could sell war bonds. He’d show up in red, white, and blue satin, and he even had a fan club with something like. 30,000 members.

AC: Okay. That is more than a lot of influencers.

SD: And Air Force bomber crews literally carried his picture with them on missions. Soldiers wrote to him from the front lines saying he gave them confidence. During the war he traveled the country by train, making a radio appearances with President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

AC: Ugh, what a furry hero.

SD: And then after the war ended, he road tripped with the Bullis’s until he died on a sightseeing trip to the Grand Canyon in 1949.

AC: Oh no, Tommy.

SD: I know!

AC: But you can still see him today, right?

SD: You can. He and all his wardrobes are preserved at the Smithsonian Archives. You just have to make an appointment.

AC: Oh, a national treasure and a style icon.

SD: Truly, may we all leave behind such an impeccable wardrobe.

AC: Absolutely a hero for all time.

And that’s it for this episode, but don’t worry, we have more awesome Ask Us Anythings live in our feed right now. Follow or subscribe to Ask Us Anything by Popular Science, wherever you enjoy your podcasts. And if you like our show, please leave a rating and review.

SD: We really care what you think. Our theme music is from Kenneth Michael Reagan, and our producer is Alan Haburchak. This week’s episode was based on our article written for Popular Science by Jennifer Byrne.

AC: Thank you team, and thanks to everyone listening.

SD: And one more time, if you wanna have something you’ve always wondered about explained on a future episode, go to popsci.com/ask. Until next time. Keep the questions coming.

AC: Yeah, don’t hold your questions. Like our furry friends for their food.

SD: Obviously.

AC: I’ve been waiting this whole episode to make a squirrel noise too, so

[Annie makes squirrel noises]

SD: I know they have really cute little hands.

The post Squirrels can find 85% of the nuts they hide appeared first on Popular Science.

Since 1978, the Cape May County Park & Zoo in Middle Township, New Jersey, has solicited donations of undecorated Christmas trees from the community and unsold trees from nearby businesses. The trees are then given to the more than 550 animals that call the South Jersey zoo home. 

“Not everyone can donate money to the zoo, and that’s totally fair. We’re a free zoo so that everybody can come here. But if you want to donate a Christmas tree, I think that makes people feel really good that they were able to help somehow,” senior animal keeper and enrichment coordinator Kim Simpkins tells Popular Science.

Why Christmas trees?

Fir, spruce, and pine trees provide the animals with enrichment and an important extra shelter from the cold winter air. While the Jersey Shore is mostly associated with the warm summer days, average low temperatures at the zoo can reach the low 20s in January. The donated Christmas tree can act as wind blocks to protect the animal enclosures.

“To block the doors that go into their huts, we use freezer flaps. But it’s nice to have an extra layer of protection, so we’ll use Christmas trees,” says Simpkins. “We’ll do this for the wallabies.”

The nearby kangaroos will often make little enclosures out of stacked Christmas trees so that they have another warm place to go. 

The Christmas trees also provide the animals with enrichment. For any animal in human care, whether it is the family dog or a lion at a zoo, enrichment gives them a creative outlet for physical activity, mental stimulation, and a way to choose how they spend their time. 

“Enrichment is when we provide to the animal novel that is going to bring out some kind of natural behavior for the animal,” says Simpkins. “We have an enrichment plan for each of the animals at the zoo with their natural history, and then what kind of behaviors we feel like they need to exhibit here at the zoo that they might not need to because they’re not in the wild.”

Since animals in the zoo do not have to work very hard for food, the team will work in enrichment activities as a way to encourage them to use their natural foraging behaviors. For the primates, the keepers will sometimes hide bits of food within the donated Christmas trees for them to find. 

“Many might think of enrichment as simply providing food puzzle toys, but enrichment is much more than that,” Cornell University veterinarian Dr. Kate Anderson, tells Popular Science. “Enrichment is ensuring that all of an animal’s needs are met and providing appropriate outlets for emotional, physical, and mental stimulation. Their needs should include safety, predictability, hygiene, nutrition, and much more.”

Simpkins adds that the zoo designs their enrichment, “ based on their natural history, the individual’s [animal’s] needs, and on our habitats.”

For the zoo, the Christmas trees also provide a free way of getting their animals these important enrichment items. According to Simpkins, durable plastic balls for lions and other enrichment items can cost $300 to $500 and do not always last that long thanks to sharp teeth and claws, so the donated items allow keepers to keep the animals entertained on a budget. 

“There are infinite ways to provide enrichment, limited only by time, funding, and imagination,” says Dr. Anderson. “I think more than providing something ‘unique,’ it’s better to be holistic in approaching enrichment.”

Play with your trees

The zoo is home to over 550 animals representing 250 species. Each animal has their own way of racing to a new Christmas tree in and around their habitat.

“The lions really like to just carry around the Christmas trees,” laughs Simpkins. “They like the smell of them.” The lions will also pee on the trees and mark their territory as they would in the wild. When they mark the tree with their urine, it is a way to make it smell like them.

According to Dr. Anderson, enrichment also helps their welfare by giving the animals agency and choice. “Enrichment for animals is akin to “self-care” for humans,” she says. “Animals that are underenriched might be more excitable, hyperactive, vocalize more, play excessively or roughly, be aggressive or not sleep well. They also might display unwanted behaviors such as scratching, destructive chewing, digging, or raiding the garbage.”

The zoo’s bison also love to smell the Christmas trees, but their reaction to a new plant in their habitat can be considered a form of play. For biologists, play is considered something that an animal does just for fun, and not to look for food, shelter, or something else for survival. The zoo’s bison will head butt the trees around their yard, and also use them as wind blocks.

The monkeys and other primates will also climb on the trees and treat them a bit like a new piece of furniture. However, it is mostly all about food since the keepers are putting food in the trees for them to find. 

“It depends on the species, but most of ours are frugivores, so we’ll put fruit in the tree and they’ll have to dig through the Christmas tree to find it,” explains Simpkins. “This is more similar to how they get fruit in the wild compared to a bowl. It’s great when the keepers are really creative, combining different toys to make foraging more complex or more interesting, or different.”

According to Dr. Anderson, enrichment can even be as simple as giving animals a choice and space to rest. “It’s extremely important to be mindful of an animal’s sensory experience (all animals hear, smell, and see the world differently than people),” she says. 

Interested donors can contact the zoo directly with any questions and are encouraged read all of the instructions before donating. The zoo can’t take every tree, so donors are encouraged to call soon. You can also look for local mulching events, where your tree will be turned into wood chips that nourish trees and plants. Goats also love Christmas trees, so reach out to local farms and see if they are taking donations as well. If you live along the coast, check with your town about donating your tree, since they can help reinforce protective sand dunes.

The post Donated Christmas trees get a second life at the zoo appeared first on Popular Science.

Editor’s pick

Patagonia Jackson Glacier Down Parka – Men's — $298.83 (50% off)

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For the person who refuses to let winter win: this parka is built to handle real cold without turning you into a waddling marshmallow. It’s windproof and waterproof, and it uses 700-fill-power recycled down to keep heat where it belongs. At 50% off, it’s the kind of “buy it once, wear it for years” layer that pays you back every time the forecast looks hostile.

All Patagonia deals at REI

Jackets & outerwear

• Patagonia Houdini Stash Half-Zip Jacket – Women’s $40.83 (71% off)
• Patagonia R1 Air Full-Zip Jacket – Kids’ $82.93 (28% off)
• Patagonia R1 Jacket – Women’s $117.93 (30% off)
• Patagonia Re-Tool Hybrid Jacket – Women’s $149.49 (50% off)
• Patagonia Re-Tool Hybrid Insulated Hoody – Men’s $179.73 (45% off)
• Patagonia Upstride Jacket – Men’s $174.49 (50% off)
• Patagonia Jackson Glacier Down Parka – Men’s $298.83 (50% off)
• Patagonia 3-in-1 Powder Town Insulated Jacket – Women’s $374.73 (25% off)

Fleece & pullovers

• Patagonia Microdini Half-Zip Pullover – Women’s $64.49 (50% off)
• Patagonia Retro Pile Half-Snap Pullover – Men’s $94.49 (50% off)
• Patagonia Synchilla Fleece Shirt Jacket – Men’s $99.49 (50% off)
• Patagonia Lightweight Synchilla Snap-T Fleece Pullover – Men’s $104.73 (25% off)
• Patagonia Re-Tool Hybrid Pullover – Women’s $161.73 (40% off)

Sweaters & vests

• Patagonia Droptail Down Sweater – Kids’ $69.49 (50% off)
• Patagonia Better Sweater Vest – Men’s $69.49 (50% off)
• Patagonia Better Sweater Vest – Women’s $69.49 (50% off)
• Patagonia Recycled Wool-Blend Sweater – Men’s $74.49 (50% off)
• Patagonia Lightweight Insulated Fjord Flannel Shirt – Men’s $94.49 (50% off)
• Patagonia Lost Canyon Insulated Vest – Women’s $132.73 (30% off)

Shirts & tops

• Patagonia Capilene Cool Daily Shirt – Men’s $35.93 (20% off)
• Patagonia Back Step Shirt – Men’s $38.83 (51% off)
• Patagonia Capilene Cool Daily Graphic T-Shirt – Men’s $43.93 (20% off)
• Patagonia Capilene Cool Daily Graphic Long-Sleeve Shirt – Men’s $51.93 (20% off)
• Patagonia Capilene Cool Daily Graphic Hoody – Women’s $51.93 (31% off)

Pants & shorts

• Patagonia Endless Run 6″ Shorts – Women’s $25.83 (71% off)
• Patagonia Multi Trails 4″ Shorts – Kids’ $28.83 (51% off)
• Patagonia Barely Baggies Shorts – Women’s 2.5″ $32.49 (50% off)
• Patagonia Baggies Shorts – Men’s 5″ $32.49 (50% off)
• Patagonia Maipo Tights – Kids’ $33.83 (51% off)
• Patagonia Baggies Longs 7″ Shorts – Men’s $33.83 (51% off)
• Patagonia Maipo Skort – Women’s $39.49 (50% off)
• Patagonia Quandary Shorts – Women’s 7″ $39.49 (50% off)
• Patagonia Tyrolean Bike Shorts – Women’s $43.83 (51% off)
• Patagonia Outdoor Everyday Skort – Women’s $44.49 (50% off)
• Patagonia Nomader Volley Shorts – Men’s $44.49 (50% off)
• Patagonia Multi Trails Shorts – Women’s $47.93 (31% off)
• Patagonia R1 Thermal Bottoms – Men’s $89.49 (50% off)
• Patagonia R1 Thermal Bottoms – Women’s $89.49 (50% off)
• Patagonia Storm Shift Snow Pants – Kids’ $122.49 (50% off)
• Patagonia Insulated Powder Town Pants – Women’s $134.49 (50% off)
• Patagonia Insulated Powder Town Snow Pants – Men’s $134.49 (50% off)
• Patagonia Powder Town Pants – Men’s $186.73 (25% off)
• Patagonia Stormstride Pants – Men’s $224.49 (50% off)
• Patagonia Mountain Utility Pants – Men’s $299.73 (25% off)

Swimwear & board shorts

• Patagonia Sunamee Swimsuit Bottoms – Women’s (Outlet) $32.49 (50% off)
• Patagonia Hydropeak Board Shorts – Men’s 18″ $36.83 (51% off)
• Patagonia Hydropeak Volley Shorts – Men’s 16″ $36.83 (51% off)
• Patagonia Wavefarer Board Shorts – Men’s 19″ $36.83 (51% off)
• Patagonia Wavefarer Board Shorts – Men’s 19″ (Alt) $37.49 (50% off)
• Patagonia Reversible Cross Shore Swimsuit Bottoms – Women’s $41.83 (51% off)
• Patagonia Hydropeak Side Shore Board Shorts – Men’s 18″ $41.83 (51% off)
• Patagonia Sunamee Swimsuit Bottoms – Women’s $44.93 (31% off)
• Patagonia Wave For It Swimsuit Top – Women’s $51.93 (31% off)
• Patagonia Sunamee Shortie Surf Bottoms – Women’s $58.93 (31% off)
• Patagonia Sunny Tide One-Piece Swimsuit – Women’s $68.83 (51% off)
• Patagonia Swell Seeker Crop Rashguard – Women’s $68.93 (30% off)
• Patagonia Cross Shore One-Piece Swimsuit – Women’s $96.93 (30% off)

Bags & packs

• Patagonia Terravia Mini Hip Pack $27.93 (28% off)
• Patagonia Terravia Tote Pack $69.93 (29% off)
• Patagonia Fieldsmith Lid Pack $89.73 (35% off)
• Patagonia Sunrise Roll-Top Pack $96.73 (25% off)

The post REI is blowing out tons of Patagonia gear during this year-end clearance sale appeared first on Popular Science.

However, the open-source project isn’t about bragging rights. With over 2.75 billion buildings detailed in the map, the endeavor will help create accurate analyses of urban structures, volume calculations, and infrastructure planning around the planet.

“3D building information provides a much more accurate picture of urbanization and poverty than traditional 2D maps,” research lead Xiaoxiang Zhu said in a statement. “With 3D models, we see not only the footprint but also the volume of each building, enabling far more precise insights into living conditions.”

Zhu’s team also created a new measurement tool to accompany the atlas: building volume per capita. This translates to an area’s total building mass relative to its population, and helps measure social and economic disparities as they relate to housing and infrastructure.

“This indicator supports sustainable urban development and helps cities become more inclusive and resilient,” added Zhu.

GlobalBuildingAtlas is also unprecedented in its level of detail. An estimated 97 percent of the map’s 3D structures are classified Level of Detail 1, or LoD 1. Although high LoDs do exist, the rating still means the rough shape and height of these buildings are accurate enough to incorporate into various computer modeling projects. With a resolution of 9.8 by 9.8 feet, the atlas is also 30 times more detailed than comparable projects.

GlobalBuildingAtlas was compiled using data available as of 2019. However, given its open-access format, it’s only a matter of time before it becomes even more up-to-date and helpful. Apart from anything else, it’s also just a very cool tool to explore.

The post Browse a 3D map of the world’s 2.75 billion buildings appeared first on Popular Science.

He also had some thoughts on farting. 

In 1781, Franklin wrote a satirical letter to the Royal Academy of Brussels on the subject of flatulence, and what, perhaps, science could do about it. Because, as he wrote, “It is universally well known, that in digesting our common food, there is created or produced in the bowels of human creatures, a great quantity of wind. That the permitting this air to escape and mix with the atmosphere, is usually offensive to the company, from the fetid smell that accompanies it.”

Franklin was concerned with how to make farts more pleasant smelling so that they wouldn’t disrupt civilized company. But a far simpler and healthier solution eluded even this legendary thinker: The Fart Walk. 

Not only does this practice allow you to release gas in less confined space, but it has also proven health benefits like improved digestion and even weight loss. Although the smirk-worthy term “Fart Walk” only started gaining viral popularity in the past year or so (it’s generally credited to cookbook author Mairlyn Smith), the concept is far from new–in fact, there is an old Chinese proverb that goes, “if you take 100 steps after eating, you’ll live to 99.” 

Here are some ways that working Fart Walks into your daily routine can change the way you approach the expulsion of gas. 

It gets your digestive system moving

Getting up and moving around right after you’ve eaten starts a process called peristalsis, which is a rippled effect that helps force gas and food through your gastrointestinal tract. It essentially stirs up your bowels and alerts them that they have work to do. 

It might help weight loss

In 2011, researchers from the Toyodo Hijikata Clinic in Osaka, Japan, published a study that showed walking immediately after a meal–as opposed to, say, waiting an hour–actually promoted positive weight loss benefits. As the study stated, “For people who do not experience abdominal pain, fatigue, or other discomfort when walking just after a meal, walking at a brisk speed for 30 minutes as soon as possible just after lunch and dinner leads to more weight loss than does walking for 30 minutes beginning one hour after a meal has been consumed.”

[Related: Which animals can and can’t fart?]

It makes it easier to fart and burp

Gas can develop from certain types of foods, such as fiber-rich cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, and Brussel sprouts, or from the intake of air as you eat. Either way, getting up and kickstarting peristalsis not only gets your digestion going but it also frees up this trapped gas and makes it easier to escape from the north or the south. Allowing the gas to be expelled reduces bloating and generally improves gastrointestinal health. 

It has far-reaching benefits

Working a “Fart Walk” into your daily routine won’t just have your gut feeling tip-top, it may guard against dementia and generally improve your mental as well as your physical health. A 2025 study published in Age and Ageing by Audrey Collins, PhD and Dr. Maddison Mellow found that people who engaged in just five minutes of daily exercise like walking had better brain health. Another study by the American Psychological Association found that daily walks lowered the risk of depression among adults by 25 percent. 

So get out there and let it rip! 

The post You should start taking “Fart Walks” appeared first on Popular Science.

While the confection has come a long way in the centuries since, the candy canes made by Hammond’s Candies in Denver, Colorado, still share one thing with that 17th century German candy maker. Their current roster of 26 different flavors of candy cane are handmade.

“Everything is done by hand,” Hammond’s head cook Victor Ortiz tells Popular Science. “Each batch takes about five to six people one hour and 30 minutes. That gives us 600 candy canes.”

Ortiz (whose favorite flavor is strawberry) first began working part time in Hammond’s packaging department 24 years ago, working his way up to head cook. The 105-year-old company makes everything from traditional ribbon candy and lollipops to gourmet chocolates to their colorful candy canes. To keep up with the candy cane demand, they must work about a year ahead. 

Here’s how that sweet treat takes shape.

Liquid candy and gooey centers

Hammond’s uses four main ingredients in their candy canes—sugar, corn syrup, water, and a little cooking oil to keep it from over boiling. The ingredients are mixed together in a copper pot until they reach a balmy 300 to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. 

The mixture is then placed onto a stainless steel cooling table that has hot and cold water running through it. That hot water keeps it from cooling down too quickly, while the cold water helps the liquid solidify, so that the cooks can cut and separate the colors that make up the candy cane.

“The candy is all liquidy on the table,” explains Ortiz. “That table is going to be where we add the color and the jacket, or the outside of the candy cane.”

It is also where they add the flavored and softer center of each candy cane. To do this, the candymakers use broken pieces from the previous batch of the same flavor. The broken candy is then heated up to 325 degrees where it can become a slightly gooey center of the candy cane. 

Cut and color

Once the candy hits the right temperature, it is transferred to the building table where it’s time for the candymakers to make some cuts. If they’re making a traditional peppermint candy cane, they’ll divide the candy jacket into two different pieces—red and white. For something a bit more unique like root beer, it’s shades of brown.

The color and flavor are added to the candy with the help from a good old-fashioned candy pull. The globs of pliable sugar are placed on an early 20th century puller, just like the cooks would have done in 1920. The puller adds air to the mix and distributes the color and flavor to the candy cane’s outer jacket and softer center. The candymakers then continue to pull the candy by hand to stretch it out even further. 

“When we have the center and the jacket together, we actually bring it to the center, and then put it in the middle of the jacket, and wrap the jacket around the center,” says Ortiz.

All of the extra smaller stripes on the candy cane are added to the jacket here by pulling them to various thicknesses. If the stripes are not exactly right, they will be broken up and be used for the center of the next batch. And not all candy cane flavors are the same.

“There’s a candy cane that we make called birthday cake, and it has five different colors, six with the white,” says Ortiz. “Putting all those colors together takes a long time. It may take about 15 minutes to put together the jacket for the peppermint candy cane, but when you’re making the birthday cake one, it takes about 25 minutes to 30 minutes because there’s a lot of pieces.”

Getting hooked

After that colorful striped jacket is wrapped around the softer candy cane center, it is placed on a batch roller. On the roller, more heat is added so that the candy can be more pliable again. After about 10 minutes, a huge striped cylinder of candy is ready to be cut down into sticks about a half inch in diameter 

“They kind of eyeball the hook and shape it by hand. We don’t have any molds or anything like that,” Ortiz explains. “We train cooks to just put their hand on the piece of candy and make the hook by grabbing one end and turning it.”

If the cooks are making a lollipop, the candy making process is almost exactly the same. However, instead of shaping the hook one cook will mold the lollipop into its circular shape, while another is ready with the stick. They can also make 1,000 lollipops per batch, compared to 600 candy canes. 

After they get their signature hook, the candy canes are packaged, shipped, sold, and perhaps placed in a lucky person’s stocking. 

“A lot of companies are trying to move on with automation,” says Ortiz. “We’re still making the candy canes the old-fashioned way, which I think separates us. We put a lot of effort into whatever we are making.”

The post The magic of making candy canes by hand appeared first on Popular Science.

The happy news was confirmed by a survey from Thailand’s Department of National Parks, Wildlife, and Plant Conservation, and Panthera Thailand, a global wild cat conservation organization, according to a statement emailed to Popular Science. 

“Even species thought to be lost can be rebuilt if we invest in protecting the habitats they depend on,” said Wai Ming Wong, Panthera Small Cat Conservation Science Director. “Flat-headed cats’ persistence in Thailand suggests that these ecosystems still hold remarkable biodiversity but also underscores how urgently we must conserve and restore them before they vanish entirely.” 

Flat-headed cats are named for their particular flat forehead and extended skull. They are Southeast Asia’s smallest wild cat, and have short bodies, slim legs, webbed toes, and stubby tails. They’re also difficult to study. Besides their limited population numbers, they’re small, nocturnal, and favor hard-to-access environments—tropical rainforests, swampy and peat-swamp forests, marshes, lakes, streams, and riverine forests. 

Researchers believe them to be close relatives of leopard cats and fishing cats, and estimate a total population size of 2,500 adults. Flat-headed cats are one of the most threatened wild cats—the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) classifies them as Endangered, and “possibly extinct” within Thailand. 

Nevertheless, remote camera trap images confirmed the wild cat’s reappearance.The traps picked up 13 detections in 2024 and 16 in southern Thailand’s Princess Sirindhorn Wildlife Sanctuary in 2025, within the context of the species’ largest survey. Notably, a mother and her cub were also spotted, verifying the species’ active reproduction in the area. It’s an important find, since flat-headed cat mothers usually have just one kitten  at a time. 

The flat-headed cat is currently threatened by human-driven habitat loss from land conversion, fishing, agricultural encroachment, hunting, waterway pollution, and domestic animals transmitting diseases. Competition for space further decreases its range, limiting the wild cat to mostly far-flung, untouched environments whose protection is thus crucial. 

“With this new finding, which we plan to submit to the IUCN Red List Committee, we hope the species’ status can be updated to something other than ‘Possibly Extinct,’” Rattapan Pattanarangsan, Conservation Program Manager for Panthera Thailand, tells Popular Science, while adding that the Committee might need more data they don’t possess yet. “Generating this level of evidence will likely require several years of further study before the species’ status can be fully reassessed.”

The announcement comes in time for National Wildlife Protection Day on December 26. The  flat-headed cat detection will lay the groundwork for DNP and Panthera Thailand’s conservation planning regarding the species. 

The post Tiny wild cat spotted in Thailand for first time in 30 years appeared first on Popular Science.

Editor’s picks

For the person who’s tired of living on a crumb-and-dust planet

Shark Robot Vacuum & Mop PowerDetect NeverTouch Pro $699.99 (42% off)

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A vacuum-and-mop robot is the closest thing to hiring a tiny, tireless housekeeper. Set a schedule, let it do laps while you’re doing literally anything else, and enjoy the weird luxury of clean floors without the whole “I should really vacuum” guilt spiral.

For the person who wants café drinks without the daily $8 expenditure

Philips 3200 Series Fully Automatic Espresso Machine LatteGo $397.99 (39% off)

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Fully automatic machines are built for people who want espresso-based drinks with minimal fuss. If you make lattes, cappuccinos, or other typically expensive drinks at home even a few times a week, this is the kind of upgrade that pays you back in saved time (and fewer cardboard cups).

For the person who’s ready to graduate from hand-mixing like it’s 1897

KitchenAid Artisan Series 5 Quart Tilt-Head Stand Mixer Pistachio $349.95 (30% off)

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A stand mixer is a kitchen multiplier: bread dough, cookie dough, whipped cream, weeknight shredding chicken. It opens up entire genres of cooking you can’t do easily without one. The 5-quart size is big enough to feel serious without taking over the counter forever.

Kitchen upgrades

If your home runs on snacks, coffee, and “I guess we’re cooking,” this is where your gift card should go first.

Stand mixer & baking

• KitchenAid Artisan Series 5 Quart Tilt-Head Stand Mixer Pistachio $349.95 (30% off)
• KitchenAid Artisan Series 5 Quart Tilt-Head Stand Mixer Contour Silver $349.95 (30% off)
• KitchenAid Artisan Series 5 Quart Tilt-Head Stand Mixer Empire Red $349.95 (22% off)

Countertop cooking

• Instant Pot Duo Crisp 11-in-1 6-Qt $129.99 (41% off)
• Chefman TurboFry Touch Air Fryer XL 8-Qt $69.99 (42% off)
• Nuwave Bravo XL Pro Air Fryer Toaster Oven $169.99 (35% off)
• Nuwave Bravo Air Fryer Toaster Oven 12-in-1 $119.99 (32% off)
• Chefman Dual Basket Air Fryer 6-Qt $89.99 (30% off)
• Chefman TurboBlaze 6-Qt Air Fryer $89.99 (25% off)

Coffee & espresso

• Philips 3200 Series Fully Automatic Espresso Machine LatteGo $397.99 (39% off)
• Nespresso Vertuo Coffee & Espresso Machine with Aeroccino $129.95 (35% off)
• De’Longhi Classic Espresso Machine 15-Bar $119.99 (22% off)

Cookware

• Lodge 6 Quart Enameled Cast Iron Dutch Oven Island Spice Red $79.92 (20% off)
• Lodge 7.5 Quart Enameled Cast Iron Dutch Oven Indigo $95.99 (20% off)

Kitchen tools & prep

• CHEF iQ Sense Wireless Meat Thermometer $89.99 (52% off)
• Cutluxe 15-Piece Knife Set with Wood Block $69.99 (50% off)
• ThermoPro TP16 Digital Meat Thermometer $14.99 (40% off)
• Home Kitchen Magnetic Knife Block Holder $39.99 (31% off)
• MEATER Pro Wireless Meat Thermometer $79.95 (34% off)
• KitchenAid Variable Speed Corded Hand Blender KHBV53 $59.99 (36% off)
• KitchenAid 7-Cup Food Processor KFP0718 $99.99 (28% off)
• KitchenAid KFE5T Tilt-Head Flex Edge Beater $29.99 (39% off)
• ThermoMaven Wireless Meat Thermometer 2-Probe $69.99 (22% off)

Cleaning upgrades

Upgrading how you clean is the most boring purchase that delivers the most immediate happiness. You’ll notice it the next day.

Robot vacuums & mops

• roborock Saros Z70 Robot Vacuum and Mop $1299.99 (50% off)
• Shark Robot Vacuum & Mop PowerDetect NeverTouch Pro $699.99 (42% off)
• roborock QV 35S Robot Vacuum and Mop $459.99 (34% off)

Vacuums & floor care

• Shark Vertex Pro Cordless Vacuum $299.99 (40% off)
• Bissell CrossWave OmniForce Edge Cordless $169.99 (42% off)
• Eureka RapidClean Pro NEC280TL Cordless Vacuum $109.99 (27% off)
• Trucozie Cordless Stick Vacuum 8-in-1 $89.99 (30% off)
• Eureka PowerSpeed Lightweight Upright Vacuum $79.99 (24% off)

Bedroom refresh

A few bedding swaps can make your bed feel brand new—without committing to a whole mattress situation.

• CGK Unlimited King Sheet Set 6-Piece $29.99 (51% off)
• UGG Adalee Faux Fur Throw Blanket $69.99 (43% off)
• Bedsure Queen Comforter Set 3-Piece $32.99 (34% off)
• OhGeni Waterproof Mattress Protector Queen $19.99 (33% off)
• MR&HM Satin Sheet Set Full $25.99 (19% off)

Home office & furniture

If you work, game, craft, or doomscroll at home, your furniture is either helping you—or quietly sabotaging you.

• Huuger 55 x 24 Desk with Power Outlets and USB-C $89.98 (25% off)
• Huuger Nightstand with Charging Station $59.99 (33% off)
• T4TREAM Fluted Makeup Vanity Desk with Lighted Mirror $169.99 (26% off)
• SINCRUMI Power Swivel Rocker Recliner with Massage & Heat $475.15 (15% off)
• Novilla Modular Sectional Sofa 106-inch $535.48 (24% off)
• Amada Sectional Sofa Bed with Storage Chaise $389.99 (23% off)

Home vibe

Sometimes the best home upgrade is simply making the place smell like you have your life together.

• Yankee Candle Lemon Lavender Large Jar 22oz $17.99 (42% off)
• Yankee Candle Midsummer’s Night Large Jar 22oz $17.99 (42% off)

Personal care

Not strictly “home improvement,” but definitely “life at home improvement.”

• Dyson Airstrait Wet to Dry Hair Straightener $379.00 (31% off)
• L’ANGE HAIR Glass Hair Thermal Blowout Primer $13.98 (53% off)
• L’ANGE HAIR Le Volume 2-in-1 Titanium Blow Dryer Brush $47.98 (30% off)
• L’ANGE HAIR Rival Heat Shield Spray $16.98 (30% off)
• COSRX Snail Mucin Holiday Gift Set $23.14 (32% off)
• MONDAY Haircare Original Dry Shampoo Dual Pack $11.99 (20% off)

Bonus: gear & tech

These aren’t all home products, but they make home life better—music, workouts, comfy layers, and a couple of practical add-ons.

• Peloton Indoor Exercise Bike $2095.00 (22% off)
• Beats Solo 4 Wireless On-Ear Bluetooth Headphones $129.95 (35% off)
• Nike Brasilia 9.5 Training Backpack $32.23 (43% off)
• OtterBox iPhone 17 Pro Commuter Series Case Sagebrush Green $29.99 (40% off)
• Nike Women’s Air Max Nuaxis Shoes $54.73 (36% off)
• Nike Men’s Club Full-Zip Fleece Hoodie $52.50 (25% off)
• Nike Men’s Revolution 8 Road Running Shoes $56.25 (20% off)

The post These 59 post-holiday Amazon deals drop kitchen and home upgrades for clearance prices appeared first on Popular Science.

(Editor’s Note: This is a section from Popular Science’s 38th annual Best of What’s New awards. Be sure to read the full list of the 50 greatest innovations of 2025.)

Grand Award Winner, Personal Care

Willow Wave Manual Breast Pump by Willow: Modern mobility meets manual pumping

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The wearable breast pump market has exploded in recent years, allowing parents to pump without tethering to a plugged-in device or getting tangled in tubing. Some options now fit the whole pumping mechanism into a form that can slip into your bra, promising a level of discretion that would have been unthinkable just a decade ago. But most come with a significant caveat: They’re loud. Motor noise can make pumping that might be otherwise undetected during a video call or in a quiet office practically impossible. The Willow Wave solves this problem by replacing a humming motor with an old-school, manual pump mechanism—but without sacrificing the mobility that makes wearable pumps so appealing in the first place. Building on the company’s experience creating the first fully in-bra wearable electric pump, Willow has reimagined what a manual pump can be. The Wave fits completely inside a standard nursing bra. Its ergonomic handle prevents hand fatigue while pumping and connects via 34 inches of adjustable tubing, giving users genuine freedom of movement and total control over their device’s hospital-strength suction. The result is a wearable pump that’s finally quiet enough to use anywhere—even during that morning video meeting.

Hyperboot by Nike × Hyperice: Recovery that keeps up with you

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Compression boots have rightfully become a trendy recovery tool, but most require you to sit still for treatment. The Hyperboot offers an on-the-go alternative in the form of a battery-powered shoe. It combines Hyperice’s Normatec dynamic air compression with targeted heat therapy, all in a wearable form that lets you recover while standing, walking, sitting, or traveling. The air compression pushes heat deeper into the tissue of the ankle and Achilles tendon for more effective treatment. Whether you’re getting a walk in between meetings or traveling from one marathon to the next, the Hyperboot delivers professional-grade recovery without making you stop and sit. It’s the kind of multitasking recovery tool that busy athletes and weekend warriors alike have been waiting for.

Rare Eau de Parfum by Rare Beauty: Fragrance designed for everyone

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Most perfume bottles prioritize aesthetics over accessibility, leaving people with limited hand mobility to overcome delicate caps and stiff spray mechanisms. Rare Beauty founder Selena Gomez, who lives with lupus-related arthritis, wanted her brand’s first foray into scent to do better. The bottle features an easy-grip shape and a low-force spray mechanism that makes application simple for people with limited mobility or strength. The oversized pump can be pressed down with any part of your hand or even your arm, eliminating the need for precise finger pressure. Beyond accessibility, the perfume itself offers unusual versatility: Wear it solo or combine it with the brand’s Fragrance Layering Balms to customize the scent to your mood or occasion. 

AirPods Pro 3 by Apple: The world’s most capable earbuds can also keep you feeling your best 

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Apple’s latest AirPods Pro would probably earn a spot somewhere on the BOWN list for their upgraded Active Noise Cancellation and improved acoustic seal alone. But the earbuds’ health and wellness features made it a shoo-in for personal care. Apple’s smallest-ever heart rate sensor pulses invisible light into the ear at a rate of 256 times per second to deliver accurate workout metrics without a chest strap. The Apple Intelligence-enabled Workout Buddy feature delivers personalized motivational messages mid-session, while sensor fusion from the built-in accelerometers, gyroscope, and custom photoplethysmography sensor tracks heart rate, calories burned, and progress across up to 50 types of workouts. The AirPods Pro 3 also offer an end-to-end hearing health experience. Users can take a scientifically validated hearing test, then use the Hearing Aid feature to adjust for mild to moderate hearing loss. Meanwhile, Hearing Protection uses machine learning to prevent further hearing damage, reducing environmental noise 48,000 times per second. These aren’t just exceptional earbuds; they’re a comprehensive health companion that also happens to deliver pristine audio.

Ozlo Sleepbuds by Ozlo: The sleep tracker that actually helps you sleep

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Sleep-tracking devices are everywhere, but most just give you data. Ozlo Sleepbuds take a different approach by combining comfort-first hardware with advanced noise-masking technology and genuinely useful insights. Designed to stay comfortable all night—even for side sleepers—the tiny buds let you stream calming content, audiobooks, meditations, or your favorite playlist as you drift off. Using built-in biometric sensors to detect when you’ve fallen asleep, they automatically switch to noise-masking audio that blocks out snoring, traffic, and other disruptions. The charging case also acts as an environmental senso

The post 5 personal care products that solved real problems in 2025 appeared first on Popular Science.

“This year’s competition drew thousands of submissions from photographers representing 109 countries, marking the most globally diverse edition to date,” a statement reads. “Selected by an international panel of industry leaders, the 2025 honorees were recognized for exceptional storytelling, technical mastery, and artistic innovation.”

The post 12 award-winning photos of our beautiful world appeared first on Popular Science.

Genebanks are biorepositories used to store genetic material, like seeds and cells. Their origins came from a wanderlusting Russian plant-lover named Nikolai Vavilov who dreamed of a one-stop shop for seeds from all over the world for researchers, scientists, and breeders to learn from and use to fight famine. Vavilov made 115 expeditions to 64 countries, collecting 380,000 samples for the seedbank in Leningrad, growing it into an agricultural bounty so diverse and valuable, even the Germans caught wind of it. After the Nazi siege and Vavilov’s death in the Gulag, his idea turned into something even more monumental: an answer to humanity’s questions as to how to maintain food’s genetic diversity and feed the global population amid disaster, war, and climate change.

Now, there are hundreds of genebanks around the world. “Almost every country has its own national genebank,” Stefan Schmitz, executive director of the Crop Trust, tells Popular Science. And there are countless beyond those. At the Crop Trust, Schmitz and his colleagues work to support genebanks and seedbanks (like genebanks, but focused on seeds) through funding, management, trainings, and technology.  

Coming up on a century in existence, genebanks have become vital to the future of humanity. In the event of a massive emergency, these would be our Noah’s Ark.

Genetic diversity and food security

Genebanks are troves of genetic diversity, an essential safeguard against famine. Think of the Irish Potato Famine: If all farmers plant the same variety of potato, a single threat in the form of a fungus, virus, or insect can wipe out an entire nation of crops.

The International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) oversees two genebanks in Morocco and Lebanon. Not only do these genebanks house incredibly diverse collections, but they are also windows into plant and human history. “We collect the crop wild relatives from this region, the first domesticated forms, the primitive forms, and we have our [locally adapted forms],” Athanasios Tsivelikas, ICARDA’s Morocco genebank manager, tells Popular Science. Some of ICARDA’s plant varieties date back to the dawn of agriculture in the Fertile Crescent. Other, wilder varieties go back even further.

ICARDA’s collection shows us how seeds adapt to challenging climates over centuries. Seeds evolve to better withstand their environments from generation to generation. Many of ICARDA’s seeds evolved in some of the most extreme conditions on Earth and may hold the answer to humanity’s survival on a warming globe. “We are talking about climate resilience. We are also talking about this kind of adaptation to this extreme heat, salinity, and drought conditions,” Tsivelikas says.

Research and safekeeping

Among their many purposes, genebanks continue to serve as the genetic libraries Vavilov dreamed of, facilitating agricultural research, plant breeding, and farming. Anyone who needs samples can request them from a genebank. 

Plant breeders and researchers may find valuable traits for nutrition or climate resilience in a collection faraway. For example, if someone is trying to create a more nutritious variety of wheat, they may find something that will help them in a roster of seeds from a genebank in a different country. They could then reach out to that genebank with their request and, if their request is approved, the genebank will send them samples of the variety they want to study. 

You can also think of genebanks as agricultural safety nets. In regions that experience natural disaster or war, “they provide emergency support for farmers,” Schmitz says. “Genebanks have been in a position to provide old, adapted seeds to farmers so they could then multiply them again.”

They can be important insurance policies for other genebanks as well. Genebanks send duplicates of their collections to fellow genebanks to ensure an even higher level of safety, should anything happen to their own collection. Among genebanks, there is something called the black box system, where you can send seed duplicates to another genebank for safekeeping only, not for research or anything else. Those duplicates remain yours and yours alone, housed faraway in the event of a disaster.

A backup for the backup

The vulnerability of genebanks makes this extra assurance essential. Power outages, war, and imperfect infrastructure can compromise a genebank overnight. Just one power outage can be a crisis for a facility that needs to keep temperatures at zero degrees Fahrenheit (-18 degrees Celsius). 

So, in 2008, experts came up with the ultimate backup plan.

They put a massive global facility in the North Pole, in a part of Norway called Svalbard. There, the farthest north you can go on a commercial airline, the frigid permafrost ensures that even if the power went out, the seeds inside the vault would still be safe. Now, the Svalbard Global Seed Vault houses 1,378,238 seed samples from almost every country globally, with room for millions more. 

“Svalbard is nothing else but a huge backup facility,” says Schmitz. “So that in case one of the 800+ genebanks loses their collection due to [a] thunderstorm, fire, earthquake, or war, you can make sure you have this security backup.” 

Shortly after Svalbard was established, Tsivelikas’ colleagues at an ICARDA genebank in Syria began sending the new facility copies of their seeds via the black box system. When civil war broke out in 2011, they ramped up their shipments, reaching over 100,000 duplicates under Svalbard’s roof. 

And it was lucky they did. In 2014, ICARDA’s genebank in Syria had to be evacuated. “It was the largest disaster we are aware of to genebanks,” says Schmitz.

Tsivelikas’ relief and gratitude at his colleagues’ forethought is palpable to this day. “I cannot express how wise my colleagues in Syria were,” he says. “They were thinking of every possible event that could happen.” While they couldn’t predict the specifics of this civil war, they were ready for it anyway. After the team evacuated, ICARDA established new genebanks in Morocco and Lebanon. 

When the new facilities opened, Tsivelikas was there. He went to Svalbard in 2015 to begin the process of getting the duplicated seeds back to ICARDA. “We managed, from Svalbard, to retrieve the [samples of seeds] to our new genebanks in Morocco and in Lebanon,” he says. 

ICARDA was the first genebank to retrieve its collection from Svalbard, but there have been others since. Now, Sudanese genebank workers are following in the footsteps of those in Syria, sending seeds to Svalbard amid their civil war. These seeds will be essential for rebuilding.

“There are lots of interesting examples where genebanks not only serve as a starting point for modern breeding and modern plant research, but sometimes simply to help farmers after a catastrophe or natural disaster,” Schmitz says.

In Ask Us Anything, Popular Science answers your most outlandish, mind-burning questions, from the everyday things you’ve always wondered to the bizarre things you never thought to ask. Have something you’ve always wanted to know? Ask us.

The post The seed vaults that could save humanity appeared first on Popular Science.

“This process requires eight people on average, so we must ensure we have proper staffing to perform these exams safely from both an animal and human safety aspect,” Dr. Kathy Tuxbury, the New England Aquarium’s Senior Veterinarian, tells Popular Science.

Leopard whiptail rays (also called leopard whip rays) have leopard-like spots and very long, thin tails that can be two to four times the length of their bodies. These tails help them balance, steer through the water, and defend themselves against predators. Including the tail, these rays can be 13-feet-long, and are found in southeast Asian and northern Australian waters.

The New England Aquarium is home to one male and one female leopard whiptail ray, one weighing in at 140 pounds and the other at a whopping 162 pounds. The smaller of the two has been there for 17 years and had his annual physical recently. 

During the ray’s check-up, the aquarists focus on collecting the fish from their exhibit and bringing it into the exam pool. Once the ray is anesthetized, an aquarist gets into the water with the ray to make sure that water is flowing over their gills and to keep the ray in position during his exam.

“The exam is then performed by one of the New England Aquarium veterinarians in a similar manner as most other animal species taking a head-to-tail approach with examining all aspects of the ray,” says Dr. Tuxbury. “The exam also includes performing an ultrasound and collecting a blood sample for review.”

The aquarium will perform at least one physical exam per year, and others if any additional checkups if needed. As for this male ray’s recent exam, his weight, eyes, skin, and oral health is all normal. His heart, liver and gastrointestinal tract are also working as expected. The ray went back to swimming around his exhibit—and eating—only 30 minutes later. The two leopard whiptail rays eat 2.5 pounds of food every day. 

You can say hello to the rays and wish them continued good health at the Shark and Ray Touch Tank.

The post Giving a 140 pound stingray a check-up requires 8 people appeared first on Popular Science.

The treasure is the Saddle Ridge Hoard, the largest ever stash of gold coins found in the United States. The couple, who go by John and Mary in the press, have been careful to obscure their identity and the exact place where they live to prevent would-be treasure hunters from showing up on their property. What we do know has mostly been told to the press by David McCarthy, the Senior Numismatist and Researcher at Kagin’s, who helped the couple assess and ultimately sell the hoard. 

“One day, when they were on that path, for whatever reason one of them looked down and there was this can,” McCarthy said in a 2014 interview. “They were used to finding cans and nails and bullets and other weird things from the 19th century on the property, and they were in the habit of digging stuff like that up because they love history.”

The couple tried to open the can with a stick, failed, and tried to carry it home. “They got back to the house and pried the top off and there, nested in the dirt, was a single gold coin…the edge of a single $20 gold piece poking out.” 

Excited, the couple went back to look for more cans—and found one. So they kept looking for more. 

“For about two weeks they kept going back to the site and finding more and more stuff,” said McCarthy. “They found eight cans after going over the area with a metal detector.” 

The total was 1,411 coins with a face value of around $28,000. The modern value was much higher, in part because of inflation but also because so many of the coins were pristine coins highly sought after by collectors. The couple, unsure what to do after finding a stash of coins this big, eventually got in touch with Kagin’s, a company that evaluates and helps sell rare coins that is also McCarthy’s employer.

Where are the coins from?

There is no definitive history of where the coins came from, but there are a few hints according to McCarthy. First, the cans are in varying states of decay, and the coins themselves were minted in years ranging from the 1860s all the way up to the 1890s. This suggests someone was burying coins in the same place at different points in time. The location, within 200 miles of the California Gold Rush, is another potential hint. 

Burying gold was common in Northern California in the 1800s, according to McCarthy, mostly because many people lived hundreds of miles from anything resembling a bank. “If you had 10, 20, 30 thousand dollars in gold that you’d acquired over time, you’re not going to leave it in your house,” he said. “If you don’t have a bank to put it in, the only logical choice is to bury it in the ground. It’s pretty typical human behavior.” 

The idea is that the person hiding the coins died before they could spend them, but also failed to tell their next of kin about the stash. The specifics, though, are odd. Many of the coins were in pristine condition, which implies they were never in circulation. And some were minted thousands of miles away in Georgia, implying their origin has little to do with the gold rush.

The truth is there’s never been a definitive explanation. We may never know who buried the coins, or why. 

Where did the coins end up?

John and Mary decided to sell the majority of the coins. Many of them were available on Amazon, the first time a major coin discovery was sold via the online retailer. The money was used to pay off debts and donated to charity. Two coins were donated to the Smithsonian. And the couple kept a few of the coins for themselves—they intend them to become family heirlooms. 

Has anyone found buried treasure since then?

McCarthy, in 2014, speculated there could be other hoards of coins out there. “There could be dozens of other finds like this,” he said. “Someone at the right time at the right place might find one. I hope so.” 

Just such a find happened in 2023, when 700 gold coins were found in a Kentucky cornfield. The collection was dubbed “The Great Kentucky Hoard”. The oldest coin in the hoard dates to 1863, the height of the American Civil War. This implies the collection may have been buried to keep the coins from being seized by the invading Confederate army. Again, though, we may never know the exact reason the coins were buried. 

What we can see is how the coins were found. There’s a YouTube video showing the exact moment, in case you want to experience the joy of discovering treasure second hand. Who knows? Maybe you’ll discover the next stash yourself. 

The post A couple walking their dog found $10 million worth of rare coins appeared first on Popular Science.

But aside from making stomachs rumble, astronomers say more research into the vampire disk could provide new insights into the early formation of other planetary systems, possibly even our own. Researchers go on to suggest this unusually volatile disk might, “represent a scaled-up version of our early solar system.” The astronomers’ new findings were published this week in The Astrophysical Journal. 

Vampire Disk offer glimpses into dramatic planetary past 

Planetary disks, sometimes called  planet nurseries, are the building blocks of solar systems. All planetary systems initially form disks of gas and dust around young stars. Eventually, planets form as material in the disk coalesces and accumulates. This particular disk, officially designated IRAS 23077+6707, has an estimated mass that’s 10 to 30 times greater than that of Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system. Astronomers note it’s both the largest and one of the most unusual disks observed, with filament-like features appearing on only one of its two sides, suggesting it is being shaped by dynamic processes such as recent infalls of dust and gas. This results in a composition that is “unexpectedly chaotic and turbulent.”

“These new Hubble images show that planet nurseries can be much more active and chaotic than we expected,” Kristina Monsch, a study co-author and a postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Astrophysics, a collaboration between Stanford University and the Smithsonian, said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the spooky nickname is a nod to the home regions of the astronomers involved. One is from Transylvania, (hence Dracula) and the other is from Uruguay, whose national dish is a sandwich called “chivito.” The researchers say the image of the flattened disk resembles a hamburger, though an argument could easily be made that it looks more like a hot dog. 

Related: [Hubble Space Telescope caught a second glimpse of comet 3I/ATLAS.]

Don’t count out the Hubble just yet 

The Hubble Telescope (launched back in 1990) might not have the most powerful onboard tech compared to the more recently launched James Webb Space Telescope, but it’s still regularly making major scientific contributions. Just this year, Hubble  has caught a rare glimpse of large space rocks colliding, showed a white dwarf eating an object that resembled Pluto, and created the largest photomosaic of the relatively nearby Andromeda galaxy to date. 

“Hubble has given us a front row seat to the chaotic processes that are shaping disks as they build new planets—processes that we don’t yet fully understand but can now study in a whole new way,” study co-investigator and Center for Astrophysics Joshua Bennett added. 

The post Hubble spots massive sandwich-shaped blob in deep space appeared first on Popular Science.

(Editor’s Note: This is a section from Popular Science’s 38th annual Best of What’s New awards. Be sure to read the full list of the 50 greatest innovations of 2025.)

Grand Award Winner, Gadgets

Meta Ray-Ban Display smart glasses and Neural Band by Meta: The first true face computer

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Meta’s Ray-Ban Display glasses and Neural Band represent the first successful attempt to make “face computing” feel like a feasible tool rather than a demo. A tiny display in the right lens overlays simple interfaces, captions, directions, and AI answers into your field of view, as the built-in microphones, speakers, and camera handle audio and capture in the background. The paired wristband reads small electrical signals from your forearm muscles so subtle finger movements act as clicks and scrolls, instead of relying on loud voice commands or big mid-air gestures. The near-eye display, on-body sensing, and assistant-like software fit into familiar-looking frames in a way that feels like it could exist in the real world. It makes routine tasks—translation, navigation, quick queries—possible without pulling out a phone, while forcing new conversations about what it means to have nearly invisible cameras and always-on AI in social spaces.

Cosmos by Nvidia: A “world model” stack for physical AI

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Cosmos is Nvidia’s toolkit for AI systems that have to deal with the physical world, like robots and autonomous vehicles. Video models can generate realistic scenes and short “futures” so machines can practice in simulation, while data tools clean and search huge logs of real sensor recordings for specific situations. Instead of each developer building their own patchwork of simulators and datasets, Cosmos offers a shared set of models and utilities tuned to Nvidia’s robotics and computing platforms.

More infrastructure and logistics are being handed off to automated systems, which need reliable ways to learn about rare or dangerous edge cases without causing real harm. If platforms like Cosmos work as intended, they make it easier to prototype and test those systems in synthetic worlds before they interact with actual streets, warehouses, and people.

Antigravity A1 by Insta360: A 360-degree drone for photo-first flying

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Antigravity’s first drone, developed with action camera maker Insta360, is built around a 360-degree camera instead of a forward-facing one. Rather than aiming a single lens during flight, the drone records everything around it; you decide on the framing later when you edit, turning the same flight into wide landscape shots, vertical clips, or immersive views. By separating “flying” from “camera work,” it lowers the skill barrier for getting usable aerial footage and gives experienced pilots more flexibility in tight or unpredictable environments. It’s a rare case in which a product drastically lowers the learning curve for beginners while substantially expanding creative options for experienced users.

Pioneer Na by BLUETTI: A sodium-ion power station that works in real cold

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BLUETTI’s Pioneer Na portable power station swaps common lithium-based cells for sodium-ion batteries. Sodium-ion packs generally store a bit less energy per kilogram but offer several important upgrades. For users, the sodium cells can charge and discharge in cold weather conditions where many lithium units either lock out charging or lose much of their effective capacity. Cold tolerance matters for cabins, unheated garages, winter storms, and field work in colder regions, where backup power often fails right when it’s needed most. As a consumer product, Pioneer Na demonstrates how sodium-ion chemistry is moving from lab prototypes into real devices, suggesting a future mix of storage technologies instead of a single, lithium-only path. The sodium-based cells are built from much more abundant raw materials than their traditional competition. 

UV Printer E1 by Eufy: A desktop UV printer that adds texture to objects

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The eufyMake UV Printer E1 is a compact UV printer meant for objects, not paper. It uses UV-curable inks and repeated passes to build up millimeters of raised texture on plastics, metals, glass, and other materials, which are handled by fixtures that can hold flat panels, bottles, and long flexible pieces in the same machine. Alignment lasers, an onboard camera, and automatic printhead cleaning are there to keep that process predictable instead of fussy. Bringing this kind of textured, multi-material printing down to a desktop footprint lets small shops and serious hobbyists produce innumerable artistic and practical projects. 

The post The 5 coolest gadget innovations of 2025 appeared first on Popular Science.

(Editor’s Note: This is a section from Popular Science’s 38th annual Best of What’s New awards. Be sure to read the full list of the 50 greatest innovations of 2025.)

Innovation of the Year

Vera C. Rubin Observatory by U.S. National Science Foundation & Department of Energy: World’s largest digital camera to conduct 10-year survey of the night sky 

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Prepare to see space like never before. The Vera C. Rubin Observatory is a groundbreaking US-funded project that will capture the most detailed, dynamic map of the night sky ever made. Using the world’s largest digital camera, it will capture a time-lapse of the entire sky every few nights to reveal billions of objects and catch fast-changing events like supernovae and near-Earth asteroids. Its massive dataset will help scientists better understand dark matter, dark energy, and the structure of the universe while also improving planetary defense. 

The 3,200-megapixel Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) camera is the size of a small car and twice as heavy, tipping the scales at 6,000 pounds. The sensor’s huge number of megapixels is equivalent to 260 modern cell phone sensors. The camera is so powerful, it could snap a clear image of a golf ball from 15 miles away. 

By making its data widely available, the observatory will also open new doors for discovery for researchers, students, and citizen scientists around the world.

Riblet-shaped coating on 787 by Japan Airlines: Stabilizing airflow, reducing turbulence, and increasing fuel efficiency

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Deployed on Boeing 787-9 aircraft starting in January, the coating uses tiny, sharkskin-like grooves called riblets to guide airflow smoothly along the aircraft’s surface. By keeping the air more organized and reducing small pockets of turbulence, the riblets cut aerodynamic drag, which normally wastes energy. That reduction in drag translates directly into better fuel efficiency, lowering operating costs and reducing the plane’s carbon emissions. Overall, this smart surface technology gives the 787 a quieter, cleaner, and more efficient ride without changing the aircraft’s shape or engines.

Blue Ghost lunar lander by Firefly Aerospace: First commercial company to soft land on the moon

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The Blue Ghost lander was the first commercial vehicle to soft-land on the Moon, marking a major milestone in the shift from government-only lunar missions to public–private exploration with its March 2 touchdown. Over the summer, Firefly Aerospace was awarded a NASA contract to deliver science and technology instruments to the Moon’s south polar region, an area crucial for studying water ice and future human exploration. Successful delivery will help NASA gather data needed for future Artemis missions while proving that commercial companies can reliably operate on the lunar surface, demonstrating the Blue Ghost lander to be a major step toward a more sustainable, commercially driven lunar economy.

Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine by Venus Aerospace: Powering future flight from Los Angeles to Tokyo in under two hours

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Venus Aerospace’s Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine (RDRE) is a new type of rocket propulsion that creates continuous spinning shockwaves to burn fuel far more efficiently than traditional rocket engines. This technology is targeted to enable aircraft to travel at speeds of Mach 4 to Mach 6 (3,069 to 4,603 mph), making routes like Los Angeles to Tokyo possible in under two hours. Because the engine produces more thrust with less fuel, it opens the door to faster, lighter, and potentially more affordable high-speed travel. In short, the RDRE is a key step toward turning ultra-fast, global point-to-point flight from science fiction into realistic transportation.

BepiColombo by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) & European Space Agency (ESA): Exploring Mercury closer than ever

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BepiColombo is the most ambitious mission ever sent to study Mercury, a planet that’s hard to reach because of the sun’s intense gravity. The spacecraft carries two orbiters—one built by the European Space Agency (ESA) and one by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)—that will map Mercury’s surface, study its thin atmosphere, investigate its magnetic field, and analyze its interior structure. These measurements will help scientists understand how rocky planets form and evolve, including Earth-like worlds in other star systems. By working together, JAXA and ESA are tackling one of the toughest destinations in the solar system and filling in major gaps in our understanding of the innermost planet.

The post 5 incredible aerospace breakthroughs in 2025 appeared first on Popular Science.

The 12th annual International Landscape Photographer of the Year award honor professional and amateur photographers who venture far and wide to capture nature’s beauty. (Click to expand images to fullscreen.)

The post 22 breathtaking images from the 2025 Landscape Photographer of the Year awards appeared first on Popular Science.

On December 22, the commission illustrated how some gifts are far more flammable than others with its 30-minute Escooter Lithium-Ion Battery Yule Log video. These rechargeable power sources are increasingly common, but their underlying internal chemical reactions also produce flammable gases that can easily burn for hours. They also require much more water to extinguish. A single EV car fire may need over 30,000 gallons to quench, but even smaller vehicles like e-scooters and hoverboards can be dangerous.

“If you’re shopping for an e-bike, e-scooter, or hoverboard this holiday season, make sure you buy it from a retailer you know and trust. Also, make sure you charge your battery safely,” the CPSC explained in its post. “Always follow the manufacturer instructions for charging your battery. Never charge your batteries overnight, [and] only use approved replacement batteries.”

Fire risks don’t only apply to the gifts under a tree, however. In some instances, the tree itself is a hazard. The difference between how flames spread in a dry holiday centerpiece versus a well-watered one is clear in the CPSC’s side-by-side comparison video posted on December 20th. A Christmas tree becomes a literal tinderbox when dry, igniting in a matter of seconds. While still a danger, a watered tree takes much longer to smolder before going up in flames.

Alright, maybe it’s not exactly a “simple” metaphor. But like the 4th of July PSA, it’s one that certainly sticks with you.

The post Cozy up (safely) to an e-scooter’s lithium battery yule log appeared first on Popular Science.

Editor’s picks

Craftsman V20 4Ah Starter Kit + Wet/Dry Vac — $99.00 (was $299.00)

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A big discount on a genuinely useful combo: a 4Ah battery + charger plus a shop vac for the price of a battery kit. This is the kind of thing you end up using every weekend once it’s in the garage.

Craftsman V20 4 Ah Lithium-Ion Battery — $59.00 (with Ace Rewards) (was $119.00)

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If you’re already in the V20 ecosystem, extra batteries are the least exciting upgrade—and the one you’ll appreciate most when you’re not waiting on a charger mid-project. This price requires Ace Rewards.

Craftsman V20 1/2 in. Impact Wrench Kit — $199.00 (was $269.99)

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Great for lug nuts, stubborn bolts, and anything else that laughs at a regular ratchet. If you do your own tire rotations or basic car work, an impact wrench pays for itself in saved frustration pretty quickly.

No Ace Rewards required

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Power tools

• Craftsman V20 1/2 in. Impact Wrench Kit $199.00 (was $269.99)
• Craftsman V20 Brushless Screwdriver $109.00 (was $119.99)
• Craftsman V20 Finishing Sander $59.00 (was $79.99)
• Craftsman V20 Right Angle Drill $99.00 (was $129.99)
• Craftsman V20 3/8 in. Cordless Ratchet $119.99 (was $119.99)
• Craftsman V20 Cordless Fixed Base Router $119.99 (was $119.99)
• Craftsman V20 Cordless Detail Sander $59.99 (was $59.99)
• Craftsman V20 Cordless Polisher $49.00 (was $59.00)
• Craftsman V20 Cordless Rotary Tool $59.99 (was $59.99)
• Craftsman 11-1/2 in. Corded Planer $99.00 (was $104.99)
• Craftsman Corded Drill Driver $69.00 (was $79.99)

Batteries & power

• Craftsman V20 4Ah Starter Kit + Reciprocating Saw $99.00 (was $249.00)
• Craftsman V20 4Ah Starter Kit + Circular Saw $99.00 (was $249.00)
• Craftsman V20 4Ah Starter Kit + Oscillating Tool $99.00 (was $249.00)
• Craftsman V20 4Ah Starter Kit + Misting Fan $99.00 (was $229.00)
• Craftsman V20 4Ah Starter Kit + Wet/Dry Vac $99.00 (was $299.00)

Shop, cleanup & lighting

• Craftsman V20 15 in. 3-Speed Misting Fan $99.00 (was $129.00)

Tool sets, sockets & bits

• Craftsman 105 pc Metric & SAE Mechanic’s Tool Set $69.99 (was $129.00)
• Craftsman 159 pc Metric & SAE Mechanic’s Tool Set $129.00 (with Ace Rewards) (was $179.00)
• Craftsman 12 Point Metric and SAE Ratcheting Box Wrench Set 20 pc $69.99 (was $104.99)
• Craftsman OVERDRIVE 49 pc Mechanic’s Tool Set $59.98 (was $114.99)
• Craftsman Metric Socket Set 10 pc $14.99 (was $28.99)
• Craftsman 1/4 in. Drive Socket & Ratchet Set $14.99 (was $27.99)
• Craftsman Versastack 71 pc Tool Set $55.98 (was $69.98)

Hand tools & accessories

• Craftsman Ratcheting Screwdriver Set 15 pc $14.99 (was $27.99)
• Craftsman 1/2 in. Digital Torque Wrench $229.97 (was $229.99)
• Craftsman 16 oz Smooth Face Claw Hammer $5.99 (was $18.99)
• Craftsman 20 oz Claw Hammer $14.99 (was $22.99)
• Craftsman Groove Joint Pliers $9.98 (was $16.99)
• Craftsman Heavy Duty Stapler $14.99 (was $19.99)
• Craftsman Pry Bar Set 3 pc $21.98 (was $28.99)

Storage & organization

• Craftsman 13 in. W X 9.75 in. H Wide Mouth Tool Bag 6 pocket Black/Red $5.99 (was $16.99)
• Craftsman 13 in. W X 18 in. H Ballistic Nylon Tool Bag Set 2 pc $14.99 (was $28.99)
• Craftsman S2000 52 in. Rolling Tool Cabinet $474.32 (was $539.00)
• Craftsman Plastic Storage Organizer $5.99 (was $12.99)
• Craftsman 72 in. Resin Shelving Unit $109.99 (was $119.99)
• Craftsman 30 in. Rolling Utility Tool Cart $299.00 (was $399.00)
• Craftsman 16 in. Classic Tool Box $12.98 (was $13.99)

Outdoor & yard

• Craftsman Gas Pole Saw $199.00 (was $259.00)

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These prices show up when you’re logged in with an Ace Rewards account.

Power tools

• Craftsman V20 Bagless Cordless Multi-Level Filter Hand Vacuum $59.00 (with Ace Rewards) (was $99.00)
• Craftsman V20 1/2 in. Cordless Hammer Drill Kit $99.00 (with Ace Rewards) (was $139.00)
• Craftsman V20 Bagless Cordless Stick Vacuum Kit $149.00 (with Ace Rewards) (was $199.00)
• Craftsman 20V 4-Tool Combo Kit $189.00 (with Ace Rewards) (was $219.00)
• Craftsman 3 amp Corded Oscillating Multi-Tool $89.00 (with Ace Rewards) (was $109.00)
• Craftsman Corded Impact Wrench $99.00 (with Ace Rewards) (was $149.00)
• Craftsman V20 18 Ga. Brad Nailer Kit $219.00 (with Ace Rewards) (was $259.00)
• Craftsman V20 16 Ga. Finish Nailer Kit $329.00 (with Ace Rewards) (was $379.00)
• Craftsman V20 7-Tool Combo Kit $329.00 (with Ace Rewards) (was $429.99)

Batteries & power

• Craftsman V20 2 Ah Lithium-Ion Battery Pack 2 pc $79.00 (with Ace Rewards) (was $109.00)
• Craftsman V20 4 Ah Lithium-Ion Battery $59.00 (with Ace Rewards) (was $119.00)
• Craftsman V20 4 Ah Battery 2 pc $99.00 (with Ace Rewards) (was $149.00)
• Craftsman V20 150W Power Inverter $49.00 (with Ace Rewards) (was $59.00)

Shop, cleanup & lighting

• Craftsman V20 Personal Fan $18.99 (with Ace Rewards) (was $21.99)
• Craftsman V20 Brushless Handheld Blower Kit $139.00 (with Ace Rewards) (was $159.00)
• Craftsman V20 700 lm Work Light $39.00 (with Ace Rewards) (was $79.99)

Tool sets, sockets & bits

• Craftsman 159 pc Metric & SAE Mechanic’s Tool Set $129.00 (with Ace Rewards) (was $179.00)
• Craftsman 61 pc 12-Point Tool Set $45.98 (with Ace Rewards) (was $59.98)
• Craftsman OVERDRIVE SAE Wrench Set 11 pc $57.99 (with Ace Rewards) (was $74.99)
• Craftsman OVERDRIVE Metric Wrench Set 11 pc $57.99 (with Ace Rewards) (was $74.99)
• Craftsman 63 pc Mechanic’s Tool Set $49.99 (with Ace Rewards) (was $79.99)
• Craftsman 13 in. W X 18 in. H Ballistic Nylon Tool Bag Set 2 pc $14.99 (was $28.99)
• Craftsman Drill & Driver Bit Set 140 pc $43.99 (with Ace Rewards) (was $44.99)
• Craftsman Driver Bit Set 47 pc $18.99 (with Ace Rewards) (was $21.99)
• Craftsman Gold Oxide Drill Bit Set 14 pc $9.99 (with Ace Rewards) (was $16.99)

Hand tools & accessories

• Craftsman 1/2 in. 50-250 ft. lbs. Click Torque Wrench $82.99 (with Ace Rewards) (was $109.99)
• Craftsman 3/8 in. Micrometer Torque Wrench $74.99 (with Ace Rewards) (was $99.99)
• Craftsman 24 in. Aluminum Level $13.99 (with Ace Rewards) (was $17.99)
• Craftsman 10 in. Carbide Circular Saw Blade $32.99 (with Ace Rewards) (was $34.99)

Storage & organization

• Craftsman Versastack 30 in. Rolling Tool Chest $77.99 (with Ace Rewards) (was $94.99)
• Craftsman Metal Rack System $69.99 (with Ace Rewards) (was $79.99)
• Craftsman Metal Shelving Unit $169.99 (with Ace Rewards) (was $199.99)

The post Ace Hardware has Craftsman power tools for clearance prices right now appeared first on Popular Science.

While hand washing is vitally important to curb the spread of disease, soap advertised as antibacterial not only doesn’t protect you better from disease, it has far-reaching and possibly harmful effects on your health and the environment. Here’s why to ditch it and use plain soap instead.

How does soap even work?

Regular soap can come in many forms: foaming liquid, bars, and gels. It is little more than a combination of fat or oil, alkaline substances (lye), and water. When you wash your hands with it, it loosens the bond microbes (of which viruses and bacteria are a subset) have made with your skin, which allows water to easily wash them away down the drain.

Antibacterial soap has a similar formula, but with the addition of one or more of three biocide chemicals: benzalkonium chloride, benzethonium chloride, and chloroxylenol. These were not part of the list of 19 antiseptics the FDA banned in consumer wash products in 2016, but they have been flagged as potentially dangerous. The FDA cited the importance of further study to “fill safety and efficacy data gaps,” but rule-making has been deferred for the last nine years.

These antimicrobial chemicals kill microbes instead of simply scrubbing them away. But they don’t differentiate between good and bad bacteria; they kill whatever is most susceptible.

However, “you don’t need to kill the bacteria, you just need to remove the bacteria,” says Rebecca Fuoco, director of science communications at the Green Science Policy Institute.

Antibacterial soap can also disrupt helpful bacteria on your skin that support healthy pH, barrier function, and pathogen defense, she explains. Chemical residues can also linger on skin, extending the disruptive biocide effect beyond the act of washing.

With plain soap, the surviving microbes and new arrivals from the environment can quickly recolonize, which helps keep the skin microbiome healthy, Fuoco states.

Bacteria aren’t always the enemy

Some of those good bacteria also prevent colonization of bad. Only a small fraction cause disease; most are biologically important for digestion, immunity and healthy ecosystems. Many help keep gut and skin microbiomes functioning properly, which helps prevent infections naturally.

“When that balance is repeatedly disrupted by killing off large portions of these microbial communities, their protective functions can break down and leave us more vulnerable to infection,” Fuoco says.

That’s a problem for internal biological systems, but also industrial ones. Many bacteria are used in wastewater treatment systems nationwide to help convert ammonia into nitrogen. When overuse of antibacterial soap runs down drains in large quantities, it has the potential to shut down entire plants.

In San Luis Obispo, California, this likely happened in September of 2020 when the vital process of nitrification—which occurs when bacteria convert toxic ammonia into nitrate, a form of nitrogen readily usable by plants—came to a screeching halt. It only recovered after treatment with expensive anti-antibacterial agents.

After plenty of tests, the most likely culprit became clear: college students returning to school and overloading the wastewater system with quaternary ammonium compounds (QACs), a class of chemicals used in disinfectants, soaps, wipes and sprays.

The harmful health impacts of antibacterial products

Scientists are just starting to understand the extent to which these products are linked to human disease, but the downsides are pervasive, and not just when people are first exposed. When soaps, wipes and sprays get washed down the drain, the QACs enter waste treatment systems. 

“Because QACs are not fully removed by wastewater treatment and tend to concentrate in sludge that is applied to land, they can enter rivers and other waters that recharge groundwater or supply drinking water and recycled water systems,” Fuoco describes. QACs were recently detected in New York state drinking water.

“We’re using it so much that it’s coming back to us,” Fuoco says. In fact, researchers measured QACs in people’s blood before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, and in a paper published in 2021, levels increased by 77 percent, indicating bioaccumulation is significant.

People also absorb QACs through skin contact, inhaling aerosol from sprays or inadvertently ingesting contaminated house dust. Children may be especially susceptible thanks to their close contact with floors and treated surfaces and hand-to-mouth behaviors, Fuoco notes. The American Academy of Pediatrics warns against using antimicrobial products around children.

Studies show correlations between antibacterial products and asthma and COPD in healthcare workers who are frequently exposed to these products in their workplace. Many types of contact can lead to ulcerative skin lesions and contact dermatitis in humans, and rodent studies have linked it to reduced fertility and neurodevelopment, even colitis-associated colon cancer in mice.

Overuse of antibacterial products can also accelerate antimicrobial resistance, leading to superbugs that are immune to the biocides and critical lifesaving antibiotics, Fuoco warns. Antimicrobial resistance is already a global crisis, with resistant infections spreading faster than the development of new antibiotics. 

“We don’t know how much of this crisis is driven by antibiotic versus biocide overuse. The contribution of biocides like QACs has largely been overlooked by global authorities, but we [scientists who study these chemicals] are hoping that will change soon,” Fuoco says. The World Health Organization believes antibiotic-resistant disease could cause 10 million deaths each year by 2050 if nothing is done to curb use; currently, there are about 700,000 per year.

Overuse of antibiotics in animal agriculture has long been identified as a driver of the global antimicrobial resistance crisis, Fuoco says, but there is growing evidence that antibacterial product use is contributing, too.

Bad for the environment

When products containing QACs are washed down the drain, the chemicals are often released into aquatic environments. Since they are toxic to some fish and many invertebrates, the backbone of the aquatic food web, ecosystem balances can be thrown out of whack.

QACs also accumulate in the soil and on sludge from wastewater treatment plants that is often spread on agricultural products as fertilizer. These chemicals, like PFAS, are persistent, meaning they can be found in soil and other environments years after they are no longer in use.

Antibacterial soaps are not more effective

Independent studies show (and the FDA agrees) that there’s no meaningful health benefit to choosing antibacterial hand soap over plain soap and water when it comes to eliminating microbes on hands and preventing illness. That includes E.coli, viruses, and the “bad” bacteria.There is little evidence that disinfecting wipes, sprays, and laundry sanitizer in homes provides added health benefits beyond regular cleaning and proper laundering, either, Fuoco says.

Additionally, most antibacterial products have to be left wet on surfaces—including hands—for several minutes in order to be as effective as they claim. Most consumers don’t follow those instructions, so products aren’t nearly as effective as they may think.

What to look out for

According to Fuoco and many other scientists, the best and safest choice is to avoid antibacterial and antimicrobial products altogether, particularly those containing QACs or chloroxylenol. Hand washes marketed as antibacterial must list their active antiseptic ingredients. So on labels, look for terms like “antibacterial” or “antiseptic” and check ingredient labels for the ingredients benzalkonium chloride, benzethonium chloride, and chloroxylenol.

When wiping down surfaces in your home or office, opt for plain soap and water instead of disinfectant wipes and sprays. “It’s usually unnecessary to disinfect surfaces in your household,” Fuoco states. The exception is when there’s been blood, fecal matter, or vomit from a sick person on surfaces. Other options like diluted bleach, hydrogen peroxide, alcohol-based products, or citric-acid-based disinfectants can do the job while generally posing fewer health and environmental concerns, she continues.

So, ditch the antibacterial products altogether and fight cold and flu season the old-fashioned way: with plain soap and water. You’ll fare just as well and leave your long-term health and that of the environment better for it.

The post Ditch the antibacterial soap this cold and flu season appeared first on Popular Science.

The simple answer is it’s just how we evolved, but determining where these fingers came from and how is a different story. “When you’re talking about why we have five—not six or not four—fingers and toes, I think that’s quite a difficult question,” says Tetsuya Nakamura, an associate professor at Rutgers University’s department of genetics. To find the answer, we need to go back millions of years. 

It all starts with a common ancestor 

All tetrapods, a group that include amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals, derive from a common fish ancestor. “If you ask, ‘where did we come from?’ Our common ancestor was fish,” says Nakamura.

Fish initially developed limbs to walk on land during Earth’s Devonian Period, which occurred approximately 360 million years ago. A relatively short time later (evolutionarily speaking), the first four-limbed creatures—which had up to eight digits on each extremity—shed their extra digits. From then on out, five fingers and five toes became a standard feature for the world’s inaugural tetrapods. 

That five-digit plan soon became encoded in our early ancestors’ Hox genes, a set of master control genes that act as a genetic blueprint, assuring that body parts, organs, and limbs end up in their correct locations. Ever since, those Hox genes have determined that all our common ancestors have evolved from that five-digit blueprint. 

Of course, not every living vertebrate has five fingers and toes, but more than 99% of tetrapods (all land species with vertebrae) share the same five-fingered bone structure. This includes sea lions, whales, and seals, which have five finger-like protrusions hidden inside their flippers, and bats, born with webbed fingers that form the structure of their wings. Even horse and bird embryos briefly start off with five digits before redeveloping into hoofs or (in the case of avians) a lesser number of toes. 

Only one in 500 to 1,000 humans are born with extra fingers or toes. This birth difference is known as polydactyly, and is linked to an overexpressive gene known as sonic hedgehog (you read that correctly!). 

Tracing it back to fish 

Still, it wasn’t until 2016 that a group of scientists from the University of Chicago determined how a fish’s fin rays (which are the bony skeletal elements that provide structure, flexibility, and added support for fish fins) eventually evolved into fingers and toes. Nakamura was a member of the team. 

The scientists used tiny, ray-finned fishes like the zebrafish, medaka, and other tropical fish that you often find in home aquariums for their study. They then utilized CRISPR-Cas, a gene-editing technique that allowed them to alter fishes’ DNA, to delete Hox genes required for limb development. 

From there, the scientists compared embryonic cells in these mutant fish to mice as they grew and developed, eventually determining a genetic connection between the two. “We found that our fingers and fish fin rays use the same Hox genes and their functions to develop,” says Nakamura. In other words, fish fin rays and our fingers derive from the same genetic toolkit. 

What it all means

While their research pinned down a direct correlation between the fin rays of fish and the digits of tetrapods, there’s still a lot to learn about how humans developed fingers and toes. “We found that our fingers probably evolved from fin rays, despite the fact that they’re very different structures,” says Nakamura. 

“Many questions remain,” he says. “For example, how did they transform to fingers? And what kind of genes and molecules regulated this transformation?” With better gene-editing tools like CRISPR-Cas9, a more precise kind of CRISPR-Cas system, appearing on the scene over the last decade, Nakamura believes that answers may come sooner than later. 

Other commonalities 

According to Nakamura, tetrapods and fish are genetically similar in other ways as well. For example, the hind limbs of land vertebrates evolved from the pelvic fins of ancestral lobbed-fin fish, while shoulder girdles (the bony structure that forms the foundation of our shoulders) developed from fish gill arches, which are the skeletal loops that support a fish’s gills for breathing and feeding. 

“Although fish don’t have necks,” says Nakamura, “somehow during evolution, humans separated the skull bone from the shoulder girdle, creating the neck space.” This allowed us to move our heads independently from our bodies for things like hunting and scanning the horizon. 

It’s what’s known as an “evolutionary innovation,” a new trait or feature that allows organisms to further function and adapt, much like how we came to have fingers and toes. “We took the structures that existed in fish fins,” says Nakamura, “and our bodies changed their development over time to finger-like tissues that are more suitable for land.”

It’s just a number 

As to why we have five fingers and five toes? That remains inconclusive, but the number sure does make for a good nursery rhyme. 

In Ask Us Anything, Popular Science answers your most outlandish, mind-burning questions, from the everyday things you’ve always wondered to the bizarre things you never thought to ask. Have something you’ve always wanted to know? Ask us.

The post Why do we have five fingers and toes? appeared first on Popular Science.

Editor’s picks

• Bokksu (Snack Box Subscription) — Every month, this subscription box offers more than 20 snacks otherwise exclusive to Japan.
• CuriosityStream — A reliable gift for curious people: documentaries that feel smarter than scrolling.
• MasterClass (Gift) — Big-name instructors, slick production, and a fast way to spark a new hobby.
• Brilliant (Subscription) — Interactive learning that makes math and science feel like puzzles, not homework.
• Trade Coffee (Gift Subscription) — A monthly upgrade to their mornings, with beans matched to taste.
• DoorDash (Gift Card) — The most practical gift on the list: dinner without dishes.

Food subscriptions and delivery

• HelloFresh (Gift Cards) — Meal kits that remove planning while still letting them cook.
• Purple Carrot (Meal Kits) — Plant-based meal kits that make weeknights easier.
• Home Chef (Gift Cards) — Comfort-forward meal kits with lots of options.
• CookUnity (Gift Cards) — Chef-made meals delivered for busy people who still want real food.
• Daily Harvest (Digital Gift Card) — Freezer-friendly meals and smoothies for quick, decent eating.
• Sakara Life (Digital Gift Card) — A premium wellness-food pick for the health-focused friend.
• DoorDash (Gift Cards) — Dinner coverage when life gets hectic.
• Uber Eats / Uber (Gift Cards) — Useful for food delivery and rides in one place.
• Instacart (Gift Cards) — Groceries delivered, which is a real quality-of-life upgrade.
• ButcherBox (eGift Cards) — High-quality meat delivery for home cooks and grill people.

Coffee and snack subscriptions

• Trade Coffee (Gift Subscriptions) — A better coffee routine delivered on repeat.
• Goldbelly (Gift Cards) — Regional food shipped to their door, great for long-distance comfort cravings.
• Atlas Coffee Club (Gift Subscription) — Coffee that keeps things interesting month to month.
• Murray’s Cheese (Digital Gift Cards) — A direct line to excellent cheese and very good snacking.
• MistoBox (Coffee Gift Subscription) — Curated coffee for people who like variety but want quality control.
• Bean Box (Coffee of the Month Club) — A steady stream of better beans than most grocery aisles.
• Bokksu (Digital Gift Card) — Japanese snacks with enough variety to feel like a monthly surprise.

Science, documentaries, and cinephile streaming

• CuriosityStream (Gift) — Smart docs across science, history, tech, and nature.
• Nebula (Creator Streaming) — A streaming home for creator-led series and deep dives.
• The Great Courses Plus (Gift) — Lecture-series bliss for people who love going deep on a topic.
• The Criterion Channel (Gift) — For the film nerd: classics, restorations, and curated collections.

Audio and reading

• Audible (Gift Membership) — Audiobooks plus a monthly credit, ideal for commutes and errands.
• Libro.fm (Gift Membership) — Audiobooks with a support-local-bookstores angle.
• Blinkist (Subscription) — Nonfiction summaries for people who want the core ideas fast.
• Readwise (Gift) — Saves and resurfaces highlights so reading actually turns into retained knowledge.
• Instapaper Premium — A calmer way to save long reads and actually get to them later.
• Kindle Unlimited — A lot of books for people who burn through titles quickly.
• Pocket Premium — Offline-friendly reading and a better system for your saved links.
• Calm (Gift) — Sleep help, meditations, and soundscapes for anyone who needs to unwind.

Learning and skills

• MasterClass (Gift) — Polished instruction that can kickstart a new interest fast.
• Skillshare (Gift Membership) — Creative and practical classes that are easy to sample and stick with.
• Pluralsight (Gift) — Career-boosting training in IT, security, dev, data, and cloud.
• Coursera Plus — A huge course catalog for structured learning across topics.
• Codecademy Pro — Guided coding paths with practical projects.
• DataCamp (Subscription) — Data skills in Python, SQL, and analytics, taught in small, steady steps.
• O’Reilly Online Learning — A deep library of tech books and courses for builders and problem-solvers.
• Rosetta Stone (Language Learning) — A classic pick for anyone planning travel or learning for work.

Software and digital tools

• Setapp (App Bundle) — One subscription for a large library of useful Mac and iOS apps.
• Descript (Subscription) — A friendly way to edit audio and video, especially for podcast and creator projects.
• Notion (Subscription) — Notes, docs, and organization tools for people who love systems.
• Todoist (Pro) — A clean task manager that helps people stay on top of a busy life.
• Fantastical / Flexibits Premium — Better scheduling and calendar tools for power users.
• YNAB (You Need A Budget) Gift — A practical gift that helps people build better money habits.
• 1Password (Gift Cards) — A password manager that reduces account chaos and improves security.
• Proton (Privacy Tools) — Privacy-focused email and related services for people who care about data control.
• JetBrains (Developer Tools) — Professional IDEs for coding and building projects faster.

Privacy, backup, and account protection

• Bitwarden Premium — Password manager upgrades for people who want strong security without fuss.
• NordVPN (Retail Codes) — Extra privacy for travel, public Wi-Fi, and everyday browsing.
• Backblaze Personal Backup — Automatic backups that can save someone from a laptop disaster.

Outdoors, maps, and planning

• AllTrails+ (Gift) — Offline maps, better trail intel, and fewer navigation mistakes.

Fitness, recovery, and wellness

• ClassPass (Gift Cards) — Lets them try different workouts without committing to one studio.
• WHOOP (Gift) — A recovery-first wearable membership for data-minded athletes.
• Oura (Gift Cards) — A strong sleep and recovery gift for people trying to feel better day to day.
• Myprotein (Supplements and Nutrition) — Protein and workout fuel for gym regulars.
• Courier Socks (Gift Card) — A simple way to upgrade an everyday essential.

The post Ultimate procrastinator’s gift guide: 62 digital and subscription gifts you can buy instantly from your phone appeared first on Popular Science.

While FSAs are best known for covering copays and over-the-counter basics—like anti-inflammatories and cold & flu meds, first-aid and emergency kits, and vision and eye-care—you may also be able to put that balance toward high-tech health wearables, mobility and recovery gear, or even certain specialty mattresses and e-bike setups with a doctor’s note. You’ve already used the funds to lower this year’s tax liability; now let them enhance next year’s life.

When FSA funds expire, and how the deadline works

A health FSA is an employer-sponsored benefit that lets you set aside part of each paycheck—up to $3,300 for 2025—into an account for out-of-pocket medical costs. You decide whether to opt in when you start a job or during annual open enrollment or other qualifying life events, and then determine how much to contribute from each paycheck. Think of it as a single-year health nest egg you can use for deductibles, copayments, prescriptions, and a range of eligible medical expenses.

Traditionally, you submit a claim to your FSA administrator with proof of what you bought and confirmation that insurance didn’t cover it. Many plans now offer a debit card you can swipe like a checking account, but it’s still smart to save your receipts in case your plan—or the IRS—asks for documentation later.

An FSA can be a powerful budgeting tool for people with predictable, recurring medical costs, such as a payment plan for braces, monthly insulin refills, or a new annual supply of contact lenses. But if your FSA is more of a “just in case” cushion, it’s easy to reach the end of the year with a surprising amount of money sitting there—and a countdown to spend it. 

Unlike Health Savings Accounts (HSAs), FSAs require you to spend your balance by December 31 or you forfeit the funds. Some employers offer a small rollover—up to $660—or a grace period of an extra month or two to use the remaining funds. For your plan’s exact rules, check with your employer.

What you can buy with FSA money

What’s covered by FSA reimbursement is determined by the IRS and must be a “qualified medical expense.” In the IRS docs, that’s defined as “costs related to the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease, or expenses that affect the structure or function of the body.” First-aid supplies and over-the-counter meds may come to mind first, but it can also include things like:

• Broad-spectrum sunscreens (SPF 15+), including lip balms and mineral formulas
• Menstrual care products (tampons, pads, cups, liners)
• Contraceptives and condoms
• Acne treatments (benzoyl peroxide, salicylic acid, and some prescription-strength topicals)
• At-home diagnostic tests (COVID-19, flu, UTI, pregnancy, ovulation)
• Baby health gear like digital thermometers, nasal aspirators, and infant sunscreen
• Hot/cold therapy packs and reusable compresses
• Orthotic insoles and support braces for feet, knees, or wrists
• Medical-grade skincare (eczema creams, scar treatments)
• Smoking cessation products (nicotine gum, patches, lozenges)

Your FSA provider is ultimately the referee here. If you’re hoping to get reimbursed for something that isn’t clearly listed as an eligible expense, you may need a Letter of Medical Necessity (LMN)—essentially a note from your doctor explaining why you need it for a specific condition. With an LMN, some plans will cover things like vitamins, exercise equipment or fitness trackers, specialty pillows or mattresses, and even massage guns, as long as they’re prescribed to treat a documented medical issue and your plan signs off.

Where can I buy FSA-eligible items online? 

It’s easy to find FSA-eligible items online; many vendors clearly label FSA and HSA items, and large retailers like Amazon, Target, Walmart, and CVS have dedicated portals. 

Best FSA-eligible gear to stock up on right now

Skincare and sun protection

Supergoop! Unseen Sunscreen – SPF 40 – Clear & Invisible Face Sunscreen + Broad Spectrum + Makeup-Gripping Primer – 1.7 fl oz

See It

This staff favorite is one of the few sunscreens that some of us will put on our faces. It goes on invisible—no smeary white to rub in—and is virtually weightless. How does a liquid leave a powdery feel? We’re not sure about the chemistry, but we know it happens. And if you’re outdoorsy, it’s not just important during sunny summer, so it’s a perfect Add to Cart.

Banana Boat Sport Ultra SPF 50 Sunscreen Lotion, 12oz

See It

Need a bigger bottle to smear on the kids? This family size provides SPF 50 protection that resists sweat and water. But remember: You’re supposed to put a shot glass’s worth of sunscreen on each time you head out in the rays. 

At-home medical devices

OMRON Platinum Blood Pressure Monitor for Home Use & Upper Arm Blood Pressure Cuff

ON SALE NOW

See It

Blood pressure probably isn’t top of mind unless you know yours is too high or too low. Having a reliable monitor at home provides a convenient way to check your blood pressure more often than random clinical visits, which can help spot sudden changes or changing trends. Versions with arm cuffs, like this Omron Platinum model, tend to be more accurate than the wrist-worn kind. This model stores up to 100 readings for two users and syncs with the OMRON connect app to easily share reports with your doctor. 

Stelo Glucose Biosensor & App by Dexcom 

See It

Part of the promise of tech-infused health care is more personalized care. The cost of devices like at-home glucose monitors has come down enough that people can now see how different foods, workouts, and even sleep affect their blood sugar in real time. This particular device was created for people with Type 2 diabetes not using insulin, those with prediabetes, and health-conscious adults.

First-aid kits and supplies

BAND-AID Brand Travel Ready Portable Emergency First Aid Kit for Minor Wound Care

See It

This compact first-aid kit is small and inexpensive enough to stash anywhere you tend to do everyday damage and suddenly need a bandage. Inside are 80 pieces of essential care—hand-cleaning wipes, extra-strength Tylenol, gauze, Neosporin, and more—all in a package that fits easily in a glove box, desk drawer, or carry-on bag.

FriCARE Self-Adhesive Bandage Wrap, Medical Tape in First Aid Kit 

See It

We stash these self-adhesive rolls of tape in all sorts of places: first-aid kits, sports bags, most notably. They’re latex-free, great for sprains or just holding gauze or large bandages in place without using the kind of tape that feels like it’s going to rip your skin off when you remove it. It’s even useful for furry family members (animal or human). 

Vision and eye care

Biotrue Hydration Plus Contact Lens Solution with Lens Case (Pack of 2)

See It

Contact solutions do expire, but regular users often find they fly through these 10-ounce bottles faster than they expect. This two-pack of multipurpose cleaner also comes with a new contact case to replace your crusty one. 

ThinOptics Universal Pod Case + Rectangular Reading Glasses

See It

We know two things about readers: either you refuse to wear them, or you own a pair that’s never where you actually need it. ThinOptics solves that with ultra-slim specs that tuck into a case and attach to the back of your phone. They’re armless, resting on your nose like an old-timey pince-nez, and come in standard 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, and 2.5 magnifications.

At-home testing kits

iHealth COVID-19, Flu A&B 3-in-1 Antigen Rapid Test

See It

Is the coughing and sneezing some dust or something bigger? Stock up on these rapid 15-minute tests to get your first indications whether you have flu or COVID, and then plan out your next steps. 

Clearblue Early Detection Pregnancy Test, 5 Ct

See It

Preggers? Not preggers? Whichever outcome you want, this early-detection test finds even low concentrations of the pregnancy hormone and features a wide tip for, uh, easier collection. 

Unexpected FSA-eligible products most people don’t know about

Some of the more surprising gadgets and big-ticket buys aren’t “swipe your FSA card and walk away” purchases; they usually require you to pay in full and do a little extra after checkout. But if you’re not afraid of some paperwork, some cool splurges can help you improve your health. For many, brands partner with a program like Truemed, which has you fill out a health survey after purchase so a licensed provider can review your situation and, if you qualify, issue a Letter of Medical Necessity. Then you simply submit the letter plus your receipt (sometimes only for the amount above a “basic” version), and your FSA administrator processes repayment. Here are just a few examples of tech you might have thought was cool, but could also be FSA reimbursable (confirm with your insurance/doctor before any major purchase).

Ray-Ban Meta Wayfarers (Gen 2)

See It

Glasses are one of the most fun (or at least most functional) ways to burn through FSA funds—and if you wear prescription lenses, that can even include Ray-Ban Meta Wayfarers, aka AI glasses in disguise. They correct your vision and let you whisper questions to Meta AI (“What’s the currency conversion?” “Where’s the nearest coffee?”) while casually snapping photos and videos without doing the full phone-fumble. (This is a joy we’ve experienced first-hand on rocky ridges with the dog, where you need all your hands free but still want a picture of your furry friend against the horizon.)

They’re also a great way to escape the tyranny of noise-canceling headphones: tiny speakers and mics aim sound at your ears so you can play music, get reminders, and still hear the real world happening around you. Plus, upcoming software updates will likely expand the capabilities, including their use as hearables (though there are already dedicated Nuance Audio hearing frames you can purchase as an FSA-eligible prescription pair if you’re more concerned with what’s audible than what’s AI).

There are other Meta models that qualify. But no matter what frame shape you select, we also highly recommend getting Transitions lenses, so they pull seamless double duty as both your everyday specs with blue light filters and your stylish sunnies.

One caveat: super-strong prescriptions (the kind that usually require high-index lenses) may not work in Meta Ray-Bans due to the delicate electronics, which could be damaged by the pressure required to insert the optics.

Oura Ring 4

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A discreet, screenless health tracker, the Oura Ring 4 goes far beyond sleep. It automatically tracks activity, blood oxygen, heart and respiratory rate, and skin temperature changes, then turns those metrics into clear, behavior-focused guidance in the app. You can even log personal factors—like caffeine intake or alcohol consumption—to see what’s affecting your rest. It’s ideal for people who care more about health insights than hardcore fitness training stats, and who want something smaller and subtler than a smartwatch. To unlock the full features of the ring, a membership is also required.

Other wearables—Garmin smartwatches, for example—can qualify for reimbursement with a post-purchase Truemed assessment and approval. While select sleep and heart-rate monitors (and smart scales) don’t even require that.

Select Ride1Up e-bikes

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Exercise is a huge part of staying healthy—and yes, some e-bikes can qualify for FSA spending. We’re talking Class 1 e-bikes only: operable pedals, no throttle, and a max assist speed of 20 mph to make sure you get some sort of workout.

At Ride1Up, for example, you can choose from the road-ready CF Racer1 (pictured above), the off-road TrailRush, or the commuter-friendly Prodigy v2. After checkout, Ride1Up will send you a quick Truemed health survey, and if you’re approved, you’ll get the Letter of Medical Necessity you need to submit your purchase for FSA reimbursement. If there’s another ebike brand you’ve been eyeing, it’s worth checking their site.

Select Purple mattresses

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Much like e-bikes, mattresses usually require a Letter of Medical Necessity, and not every model qualifies. You need features that go beyond a basic bed—pressure relief, targeted support, cooling layers, or designs that help with pain or sleep issues—which means going beyond a basic bed’s price. For example, Purple’s RestorePlus Hybrid (pictured above) fits the bill with three inches of GelFlex Grid that contours to your body, supports your lower back, and sleeps cooler than traditional materials. Funds will come in handy when purchasing a multithousand-dollar mattress, but as owners of a Purple RejuvenatePremier (as well as a lumbar back cushion for long-haul flights), we can vouch for the namesake material’s relief return on investment.

Keep in mind that often only part of the mattress is eligible for reimbursement—usually the amount that exceeds the price of a basic mattress. After purchase, Purple partners with Truemed, which sends a quick medical survey plus simple instructions for submitting that eligible portion to your HSA/FSA administrator. Other mattress manufacturers may have similar setups.

Chirp Halo Wireless Muscle Stim

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Chronic pain sufferers might be interested in the Halo, a $199.99 device that combines TENS and EMS technologies to deliver electrical pulses that both block pain signals and increase blood flow to sore areas. The charging case holds two Halo pucks, a rechargeable remote, extension cables, and a set of reusable magnetic pads. Not sure where to place the pads? The companion app shows you exactly where to apply them based on your pain points. You can choose from six preset programs and still adjust the intensity and duration to your comfort level. Purchases through the Chirp website can be made with FSA/HSA cards, though the company notes you may need additional documentation for reimbursement.

Theragun PRO Plus percussion massager

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There are massage guns and then there are Theraguns. The $649.99 PRO Plus doesn’t just hammer whatever hurts; the app gives you smart, guided routines so you’re treating the right muscles (often the ones around the sore spot). When you connect a Garmin, Apple Watch, Strava, or Google Fit, it pulls in your activity to build personalized recovery plans based on your goals, actual workouts, and current science.

Hardware-wise, it’s fully loaded: hot attachments for soothing warmth, built-in LED light therapy (a miniaturized panel like those skin tone/texture therapy Glo masks, which are also FSA eligible), plus all the classic heads—standard ball, dampener, thumb, wedge, and micro-point. If you want to go full hot-and-cold recovery geek, you can even add a separate cold attachment. It’s basically a high-end recovery studio.

KT Tape recovery tools and sports medicine solutions

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KT Tape offers a range of products for bodies that keep writing checks their muscles almost can’t cash. When building your kit of recovery tools, start with the classics to promote blood flow and lymphatic drainage: pre-cut kinesiology strips with rounded corners, featuring cotton for everyday use or Pro Extreme synthetic when you need extra-strength, extra-adhesive support to survive sweat and showers for days. After that, flesh out the ecosystem with Activate warming magnesium cream (with arnica) to loosen up pre-activity, Pro Ice Tape for some menthol-cooling support, and Ice Sleeves to wrap joints that need a real time out for swelling relief.

FSA spending checklist

Before your deadline hits, run through this quick list to make sure you’re getting the most out of your FSA balance:

• Check your balance: Log into your FSA portal or app and see exactly how much money you have left.
• Confirm your deadline: Look up whether your plan ends on December 31, offers a grace period, or has a different cutoff.
• Verify rollover eligibility: See if your employer allows you to roll over a portion of unused funds into next year—and how much.
• Catch up on care: If you postponed any care (like fillings or other treatments), try to book appointments now before the end of the year, keeping in mind December slots go fast.
• Stock up on essentials: Focus on FSA-eligible basics you know you’ll use—OTC meds, first-aid supplies, vision care, etc. Avoid overstocking items that expire quickly (like sunscreen) if you’re not sure you’ll use them.
• Buy long-lasting health gear: If you still have room, look at eligible health tech, support gear, or other durable items that fit your needs.
• Check for Letters of Medical Necessity: Some items require a clinician’s note for reimbursement. Request this early—providers are busiest at year’s end, and they may say no. 
• Submit any reimbursement claims: Gather receipts, upload documentation, and file all eligible expenses before your plan’s deadline.

The post How to spend your remaining FSA balance before it expires appeared first on Popular Science.

And when did restaurants get so loud? Can you still follow the jokes from the far end of the table, or do you quietly converse with the person next to you because that’s all you can hear?

These aren’t quirks. They’re brutal little reminders of your own mortality before the appetizers arrive—and I’m noticing them more when I go out with friends, some of whom have their phone fonts so big a single word takes up a line. Middle age doesn’t announce itself all at once—it’s sneakier than that. And that oh-so-helpful smartphone? It’s part of the reason eye strain is showing up earlier and more often.

This is the first generation to live such intensely digital, hyper-visual lives—and human vision simply wasn’t built for it. EssilorLuxottica, the powerhouse of modern vision care, acknowledges this and invited international journalists to the company’s facilities in Paris to learn about presbyopia, how this very normal age-related loss of near vision is changing, and how the company is evolving lens technology while pushing eyewear beyond simple correction.

A universal eyesight problem in a digital world

Even if people aren’t familiar with the term “presbyopia,” most know vision gets worse with age. And it’s surprisingly universal. Everyone will eventually be affected because eye lenses become less flexible over time, but when exactly is individual. Presbyopia affects about 85% of people over 40 years old, which is about 826 million people worldwide, according to the World Health Organization. 

Traditionally, people notice symptoms starting between 40 and 45—things like eyestrain after staring at a computer screen, difficulty reading in dim light, or suddenly holding things at arm’s length to read. But as daily screen time rises, presbyopia is emerging as early as 35 years old in some populations, particularly among women and urban residents, according to EssilorLuxottica experts who accompanied us on our tour of the labs.

And screen time continues to rise, with global daily use averaging six hours, though it’s more like 10 for office workers. Devices are also getting closer. The experts explained that we hold books about 16 inches from our faces, but smartphones hover at about 8 to 12 inches, and smartwatches tend to be even closer. It’s often called multitasking, but really, it’s rapid task-switching that creates focus challenges, particularly for older eyes. Digital eyestrain is now one of the first symptoms for most presbyopes, but it’s easy to brush it off as just being tired.

For the individual, the world up close gets blurrier and blurrier, while you end up quietly engineering your life around what you can still see. But zoom out, and it’s not a quirky inconvenience; it’s a global productivity problem. WHO estimates that vision impairment costs about $411 billion annually in lost productivity, even though addressing unmet vision correction would be about $25 billion.

The fix is simple: glasses. A pair of readers, bifocals, or progressive lenses corrects the problem. Don’t love glasses? Contact lenses are an option, as are eye drops that constrict pupils for a few hours. Access and affordability matter, of course, but denial might be the biggest hurdle of all—especially for younger wearers.

Think back to the restaurant where nearly each of those acts—turning on a light to see a menu or leaning in to hear your tablemate—could be brushed off as the restaurant’s problem. You don’t need glasses; the restaurant is too dark. It’s not your hearing; the restaurant is too loud. Sound familiar?

From grandpa’s glasses to AI-customized vision

EssilorLuxottica is one of those companies most people have used without ever connecting the product to the name. If you wear glasses, there’s a good chance you’ve interacted with something they made, sold, or helped design.

They come from two giants. Essilor, founded in France in 1849, built its reputation on lenses and introduced the first Varilux progressive lens in 1959. Luxottica, an Italian company founded in 1961, became a powerhouse for frames, including brands you see everywhere (such as Ray-Ban, Oakley, Persol) and luxury labels (think Chanel and Prada). When they merged in 2018, they formed a single company that can handle the entire pipeline: designing, measuring, making, and selling both lenses and frames. They also build diagnostic tools and manufacturing equipment, and they own major retailers like LensCrafters.

That scale matters. When the company makes a breakthrough, it can change how opticians measure vision, how lenses are designed and manufactured, how frames are built around them, and how millions of people experience their glasses.

For instance, progressive lenses are supposed to be a simple solution for people with mixed vision needs: one pair of glasses that works for distance, computer range, and reading. But for many people, the first pair is frustrating. Part of that is the unwelcome red flag that you’re aging. Part of it is practical. If a progressive lens doesn’t match how you specifically move your eyes and head, you get edge distortion, a “swimming” sensation, headaches, and a long, uncomfortable adjustment period.

EssilorLuxottica leans hard into user-centric design, collecting mountains of data on how people see in real life. You feel that immediately at the company’s R&D center in Créteil (a southeastern suburb of Paris). The place isn’t about glamorous frames like the Luxottica Digital Factory and showroom in Milan. It’s about the unglamorous mechanics of vision: how people scan text, how they tilt their head toward a phone, how fast their eyes hop between distances, and how those habits change with age and fatigue.

Some researchers measure those behaviors directly, using sensor-equipped frames to track things like light exposure and screen use instead of relying on people to remember what they did. Others zoom out and study environments, looking at how small design choices can make public spaces easier to navigate for people with vision impairments, such as airports that add guidance and signage at floor level rather than assuming everyone can comfortably scan overhead boards.

Taken together, that work points to a broader shift: EssilorLuxottica is treating eyewear as one layer in a more medical approach to eye health. Working with Dassault Systèmes, the company is building digital twins of the eye and visual system, an advanced modeling approach that lets teams explore how disease and aging processes progress over time without the need for active participants and decades. And in the labs, they don’t stop with virtual models. They also build human-scale ones.

I’ve managed to dodge the need for near-vision correction so far, but spent decades wearing glasses for distance until I got LASIK a few years ago. In Créteil, a researcher strapped me into an optical simulator to try progressives: a virtual reality headset, a treadmill, the works. I’d never worn bifocals or progressives before, so I had no muscle memory to lean on. I kept turning my whole head instead of just shifting my eyes, and it became painfully obvious that I would need some time to figure out how to use progressives.

However, the simulator isn’t for patients. Engineers use it to test and refine lens ideas before they’re prototyped. What the experience highlighted was how little I’d thought about lenses when I picked out new glasses. I would obsess over how frames look and let insurance limits dictate the lenses, even though the lenses were the entire point.

EssilorLuxottica’s experts told me my thrown-into-the-deep-end experience is precisely what not to do. It’s easier to adapt to progressives when your prescription is still mild, but most people wait until their vision has significantly shifted, then leap into complex lenses. Your eyes were not built for this, so EssilorLuxottica is building responsive systems that are easier on your eyes.

The R&D work at Créteil complements the data EssilorLuxottica gathers at scale. In LensCrafters stores, opticians can fit would-be Varilux wearers with a small sensor clipped to the frames and run them through guided viewing tasks that capture how they naturally hold their head and move their gaze. Over time, those measurements have built a huge dataset with consistent patterns: how far people hold objects, how much their eyes drop when reading, whether they steer more with their eyes or their head, and even subtle left-right offsets.

That dataset trained the AI model behind Varilux XR—the company’s most advanced progressive lens technology. When a new prescription comes in, the system uses the model to predict how that person is likely to look and move, even if the store doesn’t have the full measurement setup. The precise positioning of focus zones is then calculated point by point using both the prescription and the predicted behavior, aligning with how the wearer views the world rather than forcing the wearer to adapt. From there, additional algorithms refine binocular vision, how the two eyes and head work together, so switching between distances feels steadier and less “swimmy.”

The result is bespoke optics at scale: faster adaptation, less distortion, and progressives that feel more intuitive. It also clarifies why progressives have such a mixed reputation. The label covers wildly different experiences. The cheapest options lean on averages and symmetry, even though most people’s eyes differ from left to right and don’t move in perfect unison. For first-time wearers, especially in midlife, that mismatch can feel like “progressives don’t work,” when it’s really a poor fit between lens design and a particular person.

Bringing innovation into focus

At EssilorLuxottica’s new Laboratoire d’Excellence (LABEX) facility outside Paris, the company is testing its ideas where they matter most: on a working factory floor with real throughput, real deadlines, and real operators. The site plugs fresh ideas into live production lines and sends the results back to collaborators for refinement. That feedback is an essential part of the company’s innovation.

LABEX produces prescription lenses for the French market, with a focus on premium products, including high-end Varilux lenses. For many orders, turnaround is about 24 hours. That speed sounds like logistics until you remember what’s being shipped: lenses made on demand, starting as clear plastic blanks [shown below] and becoming individualized optical devices through surfacing, polishing, coating, and inspection. The end product is individual. The scale, meanwhile, is industrial. The facility can handle around 4 million prescription lenses a year, plus additional volume in distribution, while still serving as a reference model for how the rest of EssilorLuxottica’s manufacturing network can evolve.

Sustainability is built in as infrastructure. LABEX runs on green electricity, uses solar panels for part of its energy, and recycles water used during surfacing, enough to process roughly a million lenses before the system needs refreshing. Heat from equipment is captured and reused. 

Inside, it feels closer to an advanced robotics lab than the old mental image of someone hand-polishing glass. Robots and autonomous vehicles move trays of lenses through different stages. The layout keeps production largely in line, minimizing handoffs and unnecessary handling. A lens gets its prescription cut, then coated for durability and clarity, then routed toward inspection.

Cosmetic inspection is one of the most challenging jobs for staff in modern lens-making. It’s specialized, repetitive, and unforgiving, and qualified inspectors are increasingly difficult to find and retain. At LABEX, AI-powered systems take on much of that load, scanning finished lenses for surface issues—think tiny scratches or microscopic chips—that can slip past even trained eyes after hours of repetition. The real value is catching those defects, shift after shift, without fatigue creeping into the process.

EssilorLuxottica sells many of the machines and technologies used along the production line, so the same tools can end up in other labs, including those run by competitors. But company representatives say their advantage in execution lies in line design, sequencing, tolerance discipline, and the day-to-day know-how that turns high tech into consistent output.

When eyewear becomes something else

In addition to the Rx factory, LABEX houses a showroom that asks a deceptively simple question: once you’re already wearing something on your face to correct your vision, what else could it do?

That idea starts modestly. Varilux progressive lenses reduce the need for multiple pairs of glasses by combining distance, intermediate, and near vision into a single lens. Transitions lenses, in various colors for different aesthetics and conditions, push that logic further. Embedded with trillions of reactive molecules that cluster in the presence of ultraviolet (UV) light, EssilorLuxottica’s photochromic lenses darken outdoors and reset to clear indoors, eliminating the constant swap between regular glasses and sunglasses. Layering these features does raise the price, but the comparison isn’t one lens versus another. It’s one pair versus many.

From there, the showroom takes a sharper turn. Ray-Ban and Oakley Meta smart glasses recast eyewear as a platform rather than a static prescription. Meta smart glasses function like an extension of a smartphone, minus the tyranny of a screen. Cameras built into the frames capture photos and short videos from your perspective. Open-ear speakers in the arms play music, podcasts, calls, or directions while keeping you aware of your surroundings. Microphones handle calls and voice commands, and Meta’s AI assistant can answer questions, translate phrases, or identify landmarks without pulling out a phone. If you’re already spending your FSA funds on a new prescription, there may be more you can get out of that investment.

Touring EssilorLuxottica’s GrandOptical store on the Champs-Élysées, staff told us that Ray-Ban Meta Wayfarers are especially popular with tech-savvy, middle-aged customers, even if the marketing skews younger. As premium frames, they’re not wildly out of band for shoppers already accustomed to spending on high-end eyewear—and unlike ordinary glasses, software updates can continue to expand what the frames can do.

Nuance Audio glasses explore the platform idea from a more intimate angle. Instead of cameras and AI assistants, they weave hearing support directly into eyeglass frames, prescription lenses or not. These Food and Drug Administration-cleared, over-the-counter glasses tuck directional microphones and open-ear speakers into classic frames, offering subtle, situational amplification for people who fall below the bar for traditional hearing aids. Through a companion app, users can choose presets based on common hearing-loss patterns, then fine-tune volume, background noise reduction, and microphone direction. I have a pair of these I specifically use at restaurants and bars, and it sounds like a joke: I turn down the music in the car to see signs better, and I put on glasses to hear. But they help.

Walking through the showroom, I realized the biggest shift is psychological, not technological. Many of these products feel like permission slips for people to accept a little help without making a big deal about aging. Lenses that adjust to light automatically. Smart features that borrow a few jobs from your phone. Hearing support that fades into the frame. None of it promises a cure-all. The argument is smaller and more persuasive than that: eyewear can remove more of the everyday friction, in specific moments, if you’re willing to let it. Then you can just lean back, laugh, and enjoy the appetizers.

The post Inside the labs where glasses are redesigned for a hyper-visual world appeared first on Popular Science.

While skeptics may have not believed a Lamborghini hybrid could match the excitement of its predecessors, the statistics prove them wrong. Just compare the Temerario to the car it’s replacing, the iconic Huracán. The power delta alone is impressive; the Temerario boasts a total of 907 horsepower generated by a brand-new twin-turbo 4.0-liter V8 that’s boosted by three electric motors, while the most powerful versions of the V10-toting Huracán tapped out at 631 hp. 

Can the Temerario match the popularity of the Huracán, Lamborghini’s best-selling supercar ever? Automobili Lamborghini Chief Technical Officer Rouven Mohr says yes.  

“To be honest, the Temerario is a much more mature car,” he says. “It has a performance level that was never possible before. It’s in a different league and it’s even more enjoyable.” 

As a cherry on the proverbial sundae, the Temerario is the first Lamborghini supercar equipped with Drift Mode. Push a button on the steering wheel to activate its tail-wagging prowess, and you’re ready to go. Riding on grippy Potenza Sport tires co-developed with Bridgestone, the Temerario is eager to slide sideways on the track as though it’s on ice. 

Revving it up to 10… thousand 

The Temerario’s hybrid setup is all new, carrying over nothing from the Huracán’s fierce powertrain, Mohr says. Using a “hot V” setup, which places the turbochargers inside the V-shape of the piston configuration, the turbos spool up faster than they do in a “cold V,” in which the turbos are further from the heat.  

A cold V can only rev up to 7,500 rpm, Mohr says, and Lamborghini was targeting a higher number. With a “hot V,” the turbochargers are nestled closer to the exhaust manifolds, so the gases have a shorter path to the turbine. As a result, there is better pressure consistency, temperature and speed, improving efficiency. And better efficiency means less turbo lag—honestly, nobody wants a supercar with turbo lag. 

Lamborghini says the Temerario is the first and only production super sports car engine able to reach 10,000 rpm, a feat typically only achieved in motorsports. That’s no lie; even the newest Ferrari in the stable, the non-hybrid 6.5-liter V12 powered 12Cilindri supercar, falls slightly behind the Temerario at a rate of up to 9,500 revolutions per minute. 

In order to achieve the Lamborghini model’s performance curve with a turbocharged engine, Mohr and team started from zero. They decided to go with huge turbochargers to enable a power explosion at high revs, but they also needed to balance that with good drivability without turbo lag, Mohr explains. 

The magic behind this supercar is a triple electric motor infusion, one at each front wheel and one between the engine and the eight-speed dual-clutch transmission. All three are axial flux motors built by YASA, a subsidiary of Mercedes-Benz. Axial flux electric motors are 50 percent lighter and 20 percent of the depth of a typical radial machine used in many EVs, YASA states. The difference visually evokes the difference in width between vintage television or computer and today’s flat screen TVs, and the performance is even more important than the looks. Using stacked construction, an axial flux motor packs a dense amount of power into a compact machine. 

Training the body for a new engine experience

The first time he drove the Temerario, Mohr says, he had to train himself for the new driving character. That required him to change the way he shifted gears. 

“You have in your brain two categories: the naturally aspirated [engine], which has no low torque at all, so you have to rev it up because otherwise you feel bored and slow,” Mohr says. “And you have the turbo category, which gives you high torque at low revs, but then nothing is really happening. If you rev it up it gets a bit louder but it’s missing this extra punch.”

The Temerario, he explains, combines both. There’s the linearity, the boost, the torque level and a seemingly never-ending power curve. At first Mohr automatically started shifting at about 6,000 rpm and he says he forced himself to learn to stay on the throttle. What he found was that what happens between 6,000 rpm and 10,000 is breathtaking.

“There are not even many naturally aspirated engines in the world that rev up to 10,000,” he says. “For a turbo engine there is only one other in my mind: the Formula 1 base engine.” 

The Temerario has a completely different character than the Revuelto, Mohr says. In contrast, the pricier Revuelto is powered by a naturally aspirated 6.5-liter V12 engine plus three electric motors. Starting at $600,000-plus, this is the flagship vehicle of the Lamborghini brand, representing what Mohr calls the “pinnacle” of the product range. 

On the other hand, the Temerario was designed more as a daily driver. Everything from the body design to the aerodynamics to the engine were calibrated for a fun, more casual experience than the elegantly engineered Revuelto. Kind of like an exuberant puppy in the same kennel as a mature show dog. 

For the first time in any of its cars, Lamborghini added a true drift mode to the Temerario. That’s not to say that some people haven’t drifted other models before this, of course. However, this factory-equipped drift mode enables and even encourages the slip and slide from a button on the steering wheel. The driver can choose between three levels of drift that get progressively looser. 

“You might say other manufacturers have done this before, and yes, that is partially right. But we do it in a different way,” Mohr explains. “We are not braking; we are using the front axle with torque vectoring to control the driving, which gives it a more natural feeling.” 

Level 1 allows oversteer while limiting the angle of yaw, the result of shifting the weight of the vehicle from its center of gravity to one side or another. Boosting it up to Level 2, the Temerario allows 30 degrees of drifting angle, doubling what it offers at Level 1. Level 3 takes it up another notch to 40 degrees, a thrilling option for experienced drifters. All three levels create experiences commensurate with the Lamborghini name. If this is the future of hybrid supercars, bring it on. 

The post Lamborghini’s new hybrid supercar includes a three-level drift mode and three axial flux motors appeared first on Popular Science.

Although the current climate crisis has undoubtedly exacerbated the issue, the African penguin’s battle against diminishing numbers stretches as far back as 22,000 years. Also known as black-footed, Cape, or jackass penguins, these birds once thrived across 15 large islands off the coast of South Africa during the Last Glacial Maximum period. At their peak, their populations reached an estimated 6.4 million and 18.8 million individuals at their peak. However, around 15,000 to 20,000 years ago, warming global temperatures began to cause ocean levels to rise, eventually sinking much of the African penguins’ original habitats. Combined with ecological collapse, only around 19,800 adults are believed to live outside zoological facilities today, most on small islands near South Africa. In 2024, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (ICUN) Red List reclassified African penguins from “Endangered” to “Critically Endangered.”

Although habitat preservation is a key component to the birds’ future, their chances are better thanks to breeding efforts at places like Adventure Aquarium. Duffy and Oscar are the 51st and 52nd African penguins born at the facility, and hatched a little over a year since the birth of the team’s last penguin siblings, Gabby and Shubert. Although consecutive years of additional penguins would be a welcome boon to their numbers, conservationists aren’t so lucky. Prior to Gabby and Shubert, Adventure Aquarium hadn’t hosted new hatchlings since 2020.

“Experts predict that African penguins could be functionally extinct by 2035 if conservation efforts are not prioritized, emphasizing the important work of the Adventure Aquarium biologists and husbandry team in protecting and conserving the species,” the organization explained in a statement.

As for how Duffy and Oscar got their names: Duffy is in honor of a longtime aquarium staff member, while her brother’s moniker has much more humble origins. Like his dad, Myer, Oscar is named after the humble hot dog.

The post Newborn African penguin named after a hot dog appeared first on Popular Science.

The billowing, vibrantly visualized formation located 20,000 light-years from Earth were imaged using the JWST’s Near-InfraRed Camera (NIRCam) and its Mid-InfraRed Instrument (MIRI). Westerlund 2 is estimated to stretch between 6 and 13 light-years across, and features some of the galaxy’s hottest, brightest, and most massive stars. To fully appreciate the difference between what HST and JWST can see of the cosmos, the ESA also uploaded a slider tool to allow viewers to shift between both images of Westerlund 2. While all of the brightest stars are apparent in 2015’s glimpse, the newer look reveals hundreds of additional, dimmer stars in the background.

Westerlund 2’s young stellar objects are ejecting powerful waves of radiation in all directions, twisting and entangling the large, surrounding gaseous clouds. Although the closer, bright stars immediately stand out from their companions, hundreds of tiny points of light reveal some of their younger siblings. Around them, the thicker plumes of red and orange gas also intermingle with the thinner blue and pink threads to depict a dynamic and highly active stellar nursery.

The JWST’s latest look at Westerlund 2 is more than simply a pretty picture. The data also includes the nebula’s total population of brown dwarf stars, some of which are as small as 10 times the mass of Jupiter. Astronomers can now begin studying how these stellar objects’ surrounding discs form over time, as well as how planets arrive in such huge star clusters.

The post James Webb and Hubble Space Telescopes snap images of same nebula, 10 years apart appeared first on Popular Science.

Despite that unique vantage, the celebrations often look quite similar to how they would here on Earth. NASA astronauts share special meals packed by the Space Food Systems Laboratory at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, where the crews will select their menus with help from nutritionists and food scientists before launch. The cargo launches arriving before special occasions often include Holiday Bulk Overwrapped Bags filled with foods including clams, oysters, green beans, and smoked salmon, and shelf-stable treats such as icing, candies, almond butter, and hummus. 

ISS crew members will also use the opportunity to connect with loved ones through video calls. According to NASA, these chats and the holiday greetings sent back to Earth are, “a reminder that even in space, home is never far away.”

Browse through a quarter century of ISS holiday celebrations below. (Click to expand images to full screen.)

To remind us here on Earth that we are all still connected so many mileas away, NASA astronauts Mike Fincke, Zena Cardman, and Chris Williams, and JAXA astronaut Kimiya Yui, send warm holiday wishes in this message recorded on December 17, 2025.

The post 9 festive ISS holiday celebrations through the years appeared first on Popular Science.

In March, an MRI found a tumor on his thalamus, deep in the center of his brain. Ethan was diagnosed with diffuse midline glioma (DMG), a cancer that is a death sentence for the vast majority of people who get it. DMG refers to cancerous tumors that grow on the thalamus, brainstem, or spinal cord. Surgery is out of the question, since these parts of the brain are dangerous to operate on, making it one of the most challenging cancers to treat. 

Primarily affecting children and young adults, DMG has an overall survival rate of only 1 percent. Patients are usually given nine to 12 months to live. While DMG’s prognosis has been grim for decades, patients like Ethan are finally starting to see that change.

Using a biological flashlight

A new FDA-approved treatment called Modeyso is giving patients with DMG more time—adding months, even years, and with quality of life intact. It’s “the first change in standard of care in 60-plus years,” Lisa Ward, co-founder of Tough2gether Foundation, tells Popular Science. Her son Jace passed in 2021 from diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG), a form of DMG. “It’s the first step and a whole new trajectory of hope.”

Modeyso’s journey into a treatment began a few decades ago. After losing his mother to cancer, Modeyso developer Dr. Joshua Allen became fascinated by cancer defenses that already exist in the human body. 

“Evolution has been working on the cancer problem for a long time, a lot longer than humans,” Allen tells Popular Science. “We all get cancer multiple times throughout our lives. Evolution has given the human immune system ways to recognize and get rid of tumor cells. There’s this really cool stuff in immune cells that can kill tumors but doesn’t cause side effects.” 

Allen wanted to find a way to bottle this. He began looking for a molecule that could trick tumors into self-destructing. In his research, he used bioluminescence, a tool scientists often use to track how well a cancer treatment is working. The illuminating luciferase gene is the same gene that makes fireflies light up. For Allen, having grown up in Georgia catching fireflies in bottles with his brother, this was full-circle. 

The lab inserted the firefly gene into a TRAIL gene. TRAIL genes are naturally produced by our bodies, and selectively trigger cell death in cancer cells. The fusion of TRAIL and luciferase became a biological flashlight, making cancer cells glow. Whenever a cancer cell turned on the TRAIL gene, it also made luciferase, allowing scientists to detect TRAIL-expressing cells by their bioluminescent signal.

The missing puzzle piece

At the same time, bereaved families were donating the bodies of their deceased children to medical research in hopes of finding new treatments, resulting in experts finding an important mutation they didn’t previously know of. Called H3 K27M, the mutation was present in 70 to 90 percent of the children who had died of DIPG. Scientists realized it was also present in other midline brain tumors. 

This was the missing puzzle piece for Allen and his colleagues. H3 K27M damages a key “off switch” for genes, causing widespread, uncontrolled gene activity that keeps cells in a multiplying state that causes tumor growth.

Now, Modeyso reverses that mechanism. The once weekly dose is in pill form, and can be taken by patients over age one. Allen is calling it “hope in a bottle.” And while it’s not a cure, the drug is helping to extend patients’ lives with very few side-effects. 

“It’s the first big win, to be able to have more time,” Tammi Carr, co-founder of ChadTough Defeat DIPG Foundation, tells Popular Science. Carr lost her five-year-old son Chad to DIPG a decade ago. 

“When you get a diagnosis like this, you’re told your child has nine to 12 months to live. Every minute matters, and so to be able to have more time is a huge win from a family’s perspective,” Carr says.

Twenty-year-old Jace Ward started taking Modeyso after his diagnosis in 2019. The young athlete got 17 months that he wouldn’t have had otherwise before he died in July 2021. 

“The drug worked very well for him,” says Jace’s mother Lisa. “For 17 months, he could play basketball, golf—he could have Christmas and meet his nephew for the first time. All of these memories got made because, instead of six months, he had 17 good months.”

And sometimes, the treatment works even longer. Thirty-nine-year-old Ben Stein-Lobovits has been taking Modeyso for seven years. Eight years ago, he was at a wedding in Chile when he chalked up the numbness on his tongue to a hangover. Soon after, an MRI showed he had a brainstem glioma. After radiation, he started taking Modeyso.

“I think I’m the longest running patient on it,” Stein-Lobovits tells Popular Science. The father of two has seen a 70 percent reduction in his tumor size, according to his most recent imaging. He now advocates for patients getting on Modeyso as early as they can. 

“The earlier the intervention, the better,” he says.

For people with cancer, more time means holidays, family bonding, and milestones. But it also means possibly being around for when there is a cure. The medicine’s minimal side-effects make it easy to combine with other treatments as well.

The gift of normal

In June 2024, four months after his eerie moment with the snare drum, Ethan started taking Modeyso. He had completed 30 sessions of radiation that helped to shrink his tumor, and his family and doctors saw an opportunity to layer the new drug with a few other medications to keep the tumor at bay.

“Having access to [Modeyso] was a major part of keeping him alive,” Ethan’s mother Michelle Sherman tells Popular Science. 

Ethan was able to live a relatively normal college life for over a year after that—rock climbing, going to class, living with friends. Sherman says it’s given him time and quality of life. Ethan graduated with honors from the University of Michigan on December 14, 2025. 

The post ‘Hope in a bottle’ for a deadly cancer and the firefly gene that lit the way appeared first on Popular Science.

“Thanks to the genetic revolution and the collaboration of researchers and museums in various countries led by London’s Natural History Museum, century-old butterflies are now speaking to us,” Christophe Faynel, an entomologist at the Société entomologique Antilles Guyane, said in a statement. “By comparing modern DNA with ancient DNA from historical specimens, we can resolve long confused and unnoticed species and uncover greater biodiversity than previously known.”

An international team of scientists in AMISTAD, a new research project led by London’s Natural History Museum, are sorting through the members of a group of blue South American butterflies. Using  more than 1,000 samples from collections around the globe, they discovered  nine previously unidentified butterfly species in the Thereus genus. This genus gossamer-winged butterfly is found in the neotropics.The teams gave priorities to the Thereus species at risk, since South America’s tropical forests undergo rapid deforestation. 

The team also retrieved genetic material from an over 100-year-old butterfly leg using a cutting-edge DNA sequencing technique. With this material, they could study the tiny physical distinctions between butterflies so visually alike, entomologists thought they  were the same species. The genetic examination confirmed the differences concealed right beneath their noses. 

The team specifically looked at a group of Neotropical butterflies called the genena species group within the subfamily Theclinae, which was thought to consist of just five species. Faynel and his colleague’s results, recently published in Zootaxa, bring to light new information about our fellow terrestrial creatures, helping us understand the various relationships between species and target conservation endeavors in the direction of potentially endangered ones. 

“Some newly identified species were collected a century ago in habitats that might no longer exist, putting at risk the existence of these species and highlighting the urgency of this work,” said Blanca Huertas, Principal Curator of Butterflies at the Natural History Museum and co-author of the study. 

The newly named species include Thereus cacao, T. ramirezi, and T. confusus, with researchers drawing inspiration from regions, local scientists, and the taxonomic knot they overcame, presumably among others. 

Ultimately, the study is also a testament to the enduring scientific value of collections. The Natural History Museum hosts “five million butterfly specimens which makes up about 6% of the entire collection,” Blanca concluded. “With some of these specimens dating back to the 1600s, the Museum’s collections are an irreplaceable archive of life of our planet, allowing scientists and researchers to study species that may no longer exist, or are known to be at risk.” 

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Brumation nation

To fend off winter’s chill, some reptiles and all amphibians brumate. Brumation is basically a less intense form of hibernation. Bears and other mammals who hibernate spend a lot of the time sleeping. Instead, brumating amphibians and reptiles go through a period of dormancy with small bursts of activity. 

“During the winter, brumation is like taking a long nap, getting up when it gets a little warmer, going to the bathroom, drinking some water, and then going back to sleep,” Karen McDonald, the STEM program coordinator at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Maryland tells Popular Science. “Hibernation is sleeping all winter and relying on your fat stores.”

Reptiles and amphibians need to wake up in order to drink water so that they don’t get dehydrated. They will typically get up for that refreshing sip on more mild winter days. If they’re lucky, they’ll get some extra sun in the process. 

Frozen frogs

When cold fronts swoop down to Florida, frozen iguanas will inevitably fall out of trees. But for the wood frogs that live across New England, the Mid-Atlantic, and Midwest that cold is much more frequent. However, their solution is not brumating. Instead, they freeze solid.

For months, wood frogs will burrow underneath leaf litter on forest floors with no breathing, heartbeat, or brain activity. Once the weather begins to warm, they will spring back to life. According to the National Park Service, this strategy allows wood frogs to become active very early in spring. The land thaws and warms more quickly than the ice-covered lakes where other frogs burrow in the mud. This means that the newly active wood frogs can mate and lay eggs in small ponds earlier than other frogs.

Take care of those feathers

Not all bird species survive the winter by flying south to warmer climates. Some, like cardinals, chickadees, and blue jays stay put. In order to survive the cold, they have to take very good care of their feathers. Some species will grow all new feathers for the winter. Other birds will fluff up their feathers to help trap pockets of air around their bodies to stay warm. Preening also helps some birds waterproof their feathers, by spreading oil from a gland near their tails to the rest of their body.

Birds will also find good places to hunker down or huddle up with other birds of the same species. Winterberries and some other plants will also still produce fruit that can help keep them fed until spring. A well-stocked bird feeder can also help, just be sure to keep it clean.

Blue (crab) Christmas

The blue crabs that call the Chesapeake Bay home spend their winters in deeper parts of the bay. There, they burrow into the mud underwater and enter a dormant state.

“This is not traditionally considered hibernation because unlike some mammals, crabs don’t undergo physiological changes that reduce their body temperature,” Smithsonian Environmental Research Center senior researcher Matt Ogburn tells Popular Science. “Nonetheless, they are still largely inactive and their metabolism slows down.”

The blue crabs will stay that way until water temperatures reach approximately 50 degrees Fahrenheit.

‘As solitary as an oyster’

We’re not saying that oysters are lonely misers like Ebenezer Scrooge. These filter-feeders are actually very good for the planet. Oyster beds are important storm barriers and the bivalves help keep the water clean. In a single day, an oyster can filter up to 50 gallons of water.

They get most of their food by filtering water through their bodies and grabbing nutrients like algae and plankton. However, those food sources dwindle up come winter. 

“Oysters feed frantically in summer, when there’s lots of algae around to filter out of the water, “ says Ogburn. “This helps them store up glycogen that they burn to survive the winter.”

In winter, they will go dormant and survive on those stores of sugar, similar to what reptiles and amphibians rely on during brumation. 

Yes, turtles do breathe through their butt

Turtles spend the winter underwater—where they breathe out of their butts. While it may seem a bit unusual to us mammals, breathing through their butt is an important survival strategy. 

“It allows turtles like snapping turtles and painted turtles to remain frozen under the ice and still breathe under water,” says McDonald.

This process is called cloacal respiration, where they exchange gasses through the tissues lining their cloaca—the end of their digestive tract. This allows them to stay submerged underwater for longer periods of time.

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Autonomous free-flying robots aboard the International Space Station (ISS) frequently lose their bearings. Without gravity to distinguish up from down, even precision sensors suffer from accumulating errors, causing the machines to drift. Until recently, astronauts sometimes had to intervene manually, interrupting their tightly scheduled work.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has found a solution to this persistent problem through a collaboration with Professor Pyojin Kim and his team at the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST). An expert in navigation technology, the science of enabling robots to determine their 3D position and orientation, Professor Kim has proposed an algorithm to significantly suppress these errors. By reducing the ’absolute rotation error’ to within about 1–2 degrees on average, the team has enabled robots to perform long-term missions without requiring human intervention.

We spoke with Professor Kim to discuss how he adapted technology for the cosmos and the breakthrough that keeps NASA’s robots on track.

Saving space robots with digital twin navigation 

The International Space Station is a colossal orbital laboratory, roughly the size of a soccer field. It was built by connecting modules that were developed by different nations. Inside the Japanese Experiment Module ’Kibo’, a free-flying NASA robot named Astrobee is hard at work. Its mission is to take over routine chores, freeing astronauts to concentrate on research. With days scheduled to the minute, any time spent on maintenance is a costly distraction for the crew.

In actual operation, however, Astrobee didn’t work as flawlessly as expected. It frequently lost its bearings, requiring astronauts to step in for recalibration. NASA engineers and Professor Kim’s team collaborated to find a way for the robot to operate reliably without supervision, so the astronauts could focus on their critical research.

The root of the disorientation is the absence of distinct gravity. Terrestrial robots rely on an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) to sense tilt and orientation relative to the gravity vector. Professor Kim points out that “Terrestrial navigation algorithms are designed based on gravity, making them difficult to apply directly in space where reference points are missing.“ As a result, tiny errors compound over time causing the robot to completely lose its sense of direction.

To counter this, the team turned to Visual-Based Navigation (VBN), enabling the robot to deduce its orientation by seeing its surroundings through cameras. At first, the team presumed that simply adopting established technology would be sufficient. They were wrong.

The station’s interior is a chaotic jumble of cables, experimental rigs, and floating personal items. A view available one minute might be blocked by a drifting tablet the next. This unpredictability confounded standard navigation systems. “We thought we could apply Earth-based technology,“ recalls Professor Kim. “It did not perform reliably in the ISS environments.“

The breakthrough came in the form of ’digital twins’, precise 3D replicas of the physical space. Using NASA’s blueprints, the team constructed a sanitized virtual model of the ISS, stripped of all transient clutter. The robot was programmed to cross-reference the messy real-time footage from its cameras with the pristine images generated from the digital twin.

Professor Kim explains, “The digital twin serves as a ground truth, enabling the robot to filter out visual noise and recalibrate its position.“

With this corrected data, the robot interprets its environment as a collection of lines and planes. These extracted geometric features serve as a ’visual compass,’ providing an absolute directional reference. The system leverages the ’Manhattan World Assumption’, a principle positing that man-made environments consist primarily of orthogonal surfaces such as walls and floors meeting at right angles. The boxy modules of the ISS are an ideal testbed for this approach. By locking onto these structural geometries, the robot can triangulate its position with minimal error.

The team achieved a ’drift-free’ navigation capability. Upon applying the new technology, the average rotational error was reduced to 1.43 degrees—a figure that does not increase over time. The robot no longer requires a human hand to guide it.

Professor Kim anticipates that this technology will be valuable on Earth, not just in space. It could serve as a guide for drones and robots in indoor environments where GPS signals cannot reach. The system relies on visual data to detect structural patterns, making it ideal for buildings filled with lines and planes. Professor Kim notes that “orientation techniques based on these structural features are applicable not only to space stations but also to typical urban settings.“

Insights from the NASA collaboration 

Ask Professor Kim why humanity should venture into orbit, and his answer is refreshingly blunt: “Because space now holds real economic and industrial value, showing commercial potential.“

With SpaceX proving that space can be a business rather than just a frontier, a wave of startups has emerged, targeting everything from lunar mining to satellite assembly. Yet, NASA remains the silent partner behind this private-sector explosion. Its decades of accumulated technology and talent form the bedrock upon which these new enterprises are built.

It was this ecosystem that drew Professor Kim, originally a drone specialist, into the fold. His journey began with an internship at the NASA Ames Research Center during his doctoral studies. The center was then in the thick of developing Astrobee. To mimic microgravity, researchers floated the robot on air-bearing tables using carbon dioxide jets, manipulating the lighting to rigorously test its ability to locate itself.

This research was a natural fit for Professor Kim’s expertise. His time at the agency revealed that terrestrial drones and space robots share the same theoretical foundation, despite their vastly different environments. The logic behind mapping an environment and determining location is universal, differing in its application.

The connections made then have lasted nearly a decade, evolving into the current joint research. Kim expressed his gratitude: “This research would have been impossible without the help of my mentor at the time, Dr. Brian Coltin, my NASA colleagues, my current co-researcher Dr. Ryan Soussan, and Dr. Terry Fong, who provided the opportunities for the internship and joint research.“

Professor Kim was particularly struck by the agency’s attitude toward failure. During his time there, he witnessed NASA pursuing bold experiments, backed by substantial budgets and exceptional talent. “Because only successful projects are publicized, it appears as though they never fail,“ Professor Kim said. “But behind every public triumph lie dozens of quiet failures.“ He notes the agency’s strength lies in its willingness to endure those setbacks to achieve a single breakthrough.

This focus on real impact shaped their assessment standards as well. Beyond conventional academic metrics, NASA placed particular emphasis on the real-world impact and practical significance of the research. While it is common practice to submit two papers upon completing a Ph.D, some researchers submitted only one, or opted to share their results on preprint servers like arXiv rather than in formal journals.

“Despite its conservative nature as a government agency, NASA is surprisingly open in its approach to research,“ Kim recalled. “I was impressed by the culture of valuing the intrinsic value and contribution of the research over mere outcomes.“

Sustained investment in science has paved the way for a vast industrial infrastructure and countless space startups led by NASA alumni. Professor Kim points to the robust U.S. ecosystem of manufacturers specializing in ’space-grade’ components capable of withstanding extreme conditions. It has created a virtuous cycle where government investment nurtures talent and technology, fueling a wave of startups that drive the private sector.

For those aspiring to join the agency, Professor Kim offers advice grounded in realism.

“I want to give you some realistic advice. The researchers I met at NASA were all from the world’s top universities. It may sound cliché, but you must excel at mathematics and your studies in general. While it is good to dream big, making that dream a reality requires overwhelming competence. The door to the global stage is always open. If you work hard to build your skills, the opportunity will surely follow.“

This article was produced as part of the NASA Impact Series by Popular Science Korea.

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