Popular Science

Home Depot is running a major LG appliance sale right now with more than 200 products marked down. The biggest cuts include $1,800 off a smart wall oven, $1,500 off a French door refrigerator, and $1,200 off a slide-in range. Percentage-wise, several models are 40 percent or more off their regular prices. If you’ve been waiting for the right moment to replace a major appliance, this the time to do it. The deals span washers, dryers, refrigerators, ranges, cooktops, dishwashers, and even LG

In 79 CE, one of the most infamous tragedies of antiquity rocked the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea. Mount Vesuvius erupted, burying Pompeii beneath ash and pumice, preserving the ancient Roman city’s final moments in astounding detail.  The plaster casts of the victims are arguably the most famous Pompeiian remains, but the volcanic debris also preserved another revealing element—ash residues from incense burners in domestic altars.  In a paper recently published in the journal Ant

Most of us know the best way to repurpose gently used clothing is to donate it. But what about undergarments or items that are a little too worn? Sadly, tons of clothing end up in landfills because they’re damaged, stained, or unsellable. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, discarded clothing makes up the largest share of textiles in municipal solid waste. Is there an easy way to dispose of clothing sustainably? There isn’t an easy answer, but there are better options. Even c

Colorful dyed eggs typically grab the spotlight on Easter, but the world of bird eggs is so much bigger than chickens. There are as many colors and sizes as there are bird species. According to conservation writer Paul Baicich, the co-author of Nests, Eggs and Nestlings of North American Birds, there is a reason some eggs are white and some are colored.  White eggs in the wild mostly belong to the birds that nest in deep holes in trees or terrain. These birds are called cavity nesters an

You’re busy. Somewhere along the way, the chair disappeared from meals. Breakfast over the sink, lunch at the counter. Sometimes, you can still hear your parents chiding you about how it’s “better” to sit down while eating. But is that really true? Is it bad to eat standing up? Digestion is about gravity When it comes to habits for good digestion, experts say the goal is to work with—not against— gravity. Whether you’re sitting down or standing up, a good guideline is to simply make sure y

Ask someone to chart the progression of artificial intelligence (AI) models over the past few decades and you’ll likely hear some reference to how good they are at playing games. IBM shocked the world in 1997 when its Deep Blue model vanquished chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov at his own domain. Nearly two decades later, Google’s AlphaGo model trounced a human champion of the game Go, a feat some thought impossible at the time.  Since then, increasingly data rich AI models have gra

Around this time of the year, your social media doom scrolling might be peppered with images of adorable children holding disgruntled yellow chicks. While the sight of puggy little hands wrapped a little too tightly around the Easter and spring icon might make you cringe, new research suggests that a different sort of human interaction is beneficial for the chicks.  To investigate, a team of researchers used a conditioned place preference test. This assessment is based on the principle t

 It’s that time again: soon our gardens will be full of flowers and our kitchens full of ants. Only one of these developments is welcome. Ants are, in some ways, the dominant creatures on the planet. There are, by one estimate, 20 quadrillion ants on planet earth. That’s 12 megatons of biomass, weighing more than every wild bird and mammal combined. So it probably shouldn’t be surprising when ants show up in our homes—but that doesn’t make it any more pleasant. And we hav

Today braces are something of a rite of passage. But for hundreds of thousands of years, our ancient ancestors didn’t need them. So what gives? Why do we need braces?  On a new episode of the Ask Us Anything podcast, we explore just that. So, buckle up: The answer has actually nothing to do with teeth—and everything to do with what we eat. Popular Science’s Ask Us Anything podcast answers your most outlandish, mind-burning questions—from the everyday things you’ve always wondered to th

The people have spoken. The Weather Channel has officially announced a new look rolling out across both its website and on its app—one with a distinctly nostalgic, Y2K-esque vibe to it. “This is not an April Fool’s joke. You’ve asked (a lot) and we’ve listened,” the meteorological source wrote in a social media post. View this post on Instagram RetroCast Now gives viewers the current local conditions and upcoming forecasts a throwback look nearly identical to what

If you’ve ever Googled “what’s actually in my tap water,” you’ve probably scared yourself into at least considering a filtration system. The Waterdrop G3P800 is a tankless reverse osmosis system that promises to strip out PFAS and other contaminants while delivering filtered water fast enough that you won’t notice a difference from your regular faucet. After spending a month with it installed under my kitchen sink, I can say it largely delivers on those promis

Humans have gambled and gamed for millennia. However, new evidence suggests the odds are good that our relationship with…well, odds probably dates back much further than many experts believed. Based on evidence recently detailed in the journal American Antiquity, Ice Age hunter-gatherers living on the western Great Plains toyed with dice and other probability tools over 12,000 years ago. For those keeping score, that’s more than 6,000 years earlier than similar artifacts found among the Bronze A

After a nearly flawless launch—and a brief lavatory issue—the four astronauts aboard Artemis II are cruising on the first crewed lunar flyby in over 50 years. As of April 3rd, the team is less than 170,000 miles from its pass around the moon. There is still a lot of work to do before the 10-day mission is complete, but that doesn’t mean the Orion spacecraft’s inhabitants can’t pause to take in the sights. Not long after leaving his home planet’s gravitational pull, Artemis II Commander Reid W

You might not think your underwear has a huge impact on the overall quality of your life. You’re wrong. I used to buy packages of cheap underwear from a big box store, but I recently tried out the Duluth Trading Armachillo boxer briefs and it has been a revelation. They stay up, have a cooling effect, and most importantly, they fend off chafing better than any pair of boxer briefs I’ve ever worn. I even wear them to hike. Right now, all of Duluth’s underwear are on sale. The st

Eggs are pretty incredible. They must be sturdy enough to keep the precious cargo inside safe, yet soft enough for a baby bird, crab, or snake to push through when the time is right.  Over millions of years, some egg laying species have evolved a wide variety of shapes, sizes, colors, and methods for laying them to ensure the survival of the next generation. Here, we break down three of nature’s most interesting egg laying strategies, from spongy blue crab eggs, gelatinous salamander egg

In 1872, New York City’s Broadway was a slow-moving snarl of horses, wagons, and pedestrians, all competing along the same well-worn corridor. Alfred Speer, a merchant known around town as “The Wine Man,” believed the congestion outside his Broadway wine shop, across the street from City Hall, was costing him customers. Speer’s solution was not modest: He proposed an elevated sidewalk, running the length of Broadway, moving constantly at 10 miles per hour, with settees for riders who wanted to s

There’s a “forbidden” oddball planet about 282 light-years away from Earth. The Jupiter-esque planet known as TOI-5205 b is the first exoplanet of its kind with an atmosphere containing far fewer heavy elements than similarly sized objects, as well as its own red dwarf star. According to an international team writing in The Astronomical Journal, this forbidden planet challenges common assumptions about cosmic evolution.  TOI-5205 b was discovered in 2023 using NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet

Archaeologists in the Netherlands recently discovered a sizable conversation starter tucked away in a forgotten storage box. Amid a long overdue archive cataloguing project at Valkhof Museum in Nijmegen southeast of Amsterdam, researchers identified a roughly 7.8-inch-long penis carved from bone dating back 1,800–2,000 years to ancient Rome. Romans typically weren’t too scandalized by nudity in artwork, including depictions of male genitalia. What’s more, they often saw penises as symbolicall

As millions around the world watched on smartphones, T.V.s, or in person, Artemis II and its four-person crew burst from the ground on April 1 and successfully began its 10-day journey to the moon. While all eyes were focused on the Orion spacecraft, it’s worth remembering that it takes a small army of humans—and computers—to make these kinds of awe-inspiring journeys possible. And just like everyday tech users, NASA also has to upgrade its systems from time to time, and the one powering Artemis

Lowe’s is running its EGO Days sale right now with discounts across the full lineup of EGO’s 56-volt battery-powered yard tools. There are 31 deals live at the moment, covering mowers, leaf blowers, string trimmers, chainsaws, pressure washers, and more — with savings up to $200 on individual tools. If you’ve been thinking about ditching gas-powered equipment, EGO’s 56-volt ARC Lithium platform is the most popular battery system in the category, and this is one of the bet