Goto

Collaborating Authors

 Popular Science


The CIA once trained cats to be Cold War spies

Popular Science

Project Acoustic Kitty went about as well as you'd expect. The CIA tried to train cat spies. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. Here's the scene: A man wearing a trench coat and a fedora sits on a park bench, looking up frequently from his newspaper to cast furtive glances at passersby. A stray cat wanders by.


11 wild photos show the Amazon River in its glory

Popular Science

New photography book takes readers on a journey down the world's longest river. Magnificent frigate birds (Fregata magnificens) make long foraging trips far over the Atlantic Ocean. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. The vital Amazon River is a lifeline for flora and fauna alike. The mighty river is celebrated in a new book, .


Alpine glacier holds history dating back to the Romans. And it's melting--fast.

Popular Science

Alpine glacier holds history dating back to the Romans. Scientists are racing to document 6,000 years of history stored inside the Weißseespitze ice cap. The dark surface shows significant melting. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. Deep inside the frozen Eastern Alps, the Weißseespitze ice cap (pronounced VICE-zay-shpitt-suh) sits at almost 11,482 feet (3,500 meters) above sea level.


NASA shows how Sahara desert dust spread all over Europe

Popular Science

The dust coated the Alps and caused'blood rain' in England. In the light of the setting sun, the sky forms a veil of Saharan dust over the Wurmberg in Lower Saxony, Germany. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. The wild winds of winter typically bring snow in the Northern Hemisphere. But sometimes, they carry dust .


Yellowstone's ravens may memorize wolf hunting hotspots--to feast

Popular Science

Yellowstone's ravens may memorize wolf hunting hotspots--to feast The birds will fly over 90 miles to dine where wolves have drawn blood. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. When wolves are on the hunt, a kill rarely goes unnoticed for long. In the elk-and deer-rich areas of northern Yellowstone National Park, ravens are often among the first scavengers to arrive on the scene, swooping down to feast on scraps left behind by the howling canines. Field biologists have long assumed that the birds simply follow wolves as they track and take down their prey.


Brothers build a robot to solve Rubik's cubes in record-setting time

Popular Science

Technology Robots Brothers build a robot to solve Rubik's cubes in record-setting time The robot completed the puzzle in just 45.3 seconds, breaking its own record of 55 seconds made just moments earlier. The Revenger set a world record. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. A pair of brothers in the U.K. have officially broken the Guinness World Record for the fastest time solving a four-by-four Rubik's Cube with a robot. Their DIY machine, which the brothers call The Revenger, completed the puzzle in only 45.3 seconds.

  Country:
  Industry:

'Unusually large' tyrannosaur leg bone points to 10,000-pound behemoth

Popular Science

Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. A newly uncovered tyrannosaur leg bone is shaking things up in the dinosaur world. The leg bone uncovered in New Mexico belongs to an unusually large tyrannosaur--the group of dinosaurs that includes the mighty . The shinbone is three feet long and about five inches in diameter, only slightly smaller than the largest known specimen. The giant leg bone is detailed in a study published today in the journal .

  Genre: Research Report > New Finding (0.72)
  Industry: Media > Photography (0.31)

4 surprising scientific benefits of music

Popular Science

From reducing dementia to speeding up recovery after surgery, music is more powerful than you knew. Listening to music can help your brain, research suggests. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. The oldest known musical instruments-- flutes carved from bones --are over 40,000 years old . And humans were likely making music before that, based on fossils showing our ancestors had the ability to sing over 530,000 years ago.


Do any bugs live in the ocean? Short answer: Not really.

Popular Science

Do any bugs live in the ocean? Crustaceans and insects share a common ancestor, but bugs are happier on land. Water striders are the only insect that live entirely on the ocean's surface. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. By some estimates, insects make up 80 percent of named animal species.

  Country:
  Genre: Research Report > New Finding (0.35)

An odd-nosed crocodile ate our prehistoric ancestors

Popular Science

'Lucy' probably needed to watch her back. Researchers led by the University of Iowa have described and named a new crocodile species that roamed a region in Africa more than 3 million years ago. The species is named Lucy's hunter, because it overlapped with the famed Lucy and her hominin kin and would have hunted them. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. Humans have contended with crocodiles for a long time.