‘Proof by Underpants’ offers a cheeky way to test soil
You don’t necessarily need advanced sensor technology or fancy tools to assess the health of the soil just beneath your feet. As ecologists and around 1,000 citizen scientists in Switzerland…
2026
Butterfly wing crystals inspire new eco-friendly glitter
In her 80 years on planet Earth, Dolly Parton objectively made the world a better place, and her legacy will only continue to improve lives. It’s difficult to summarize the…
NASA Sets Spacewalk for Station Maintenance, Live Coverage Planned
NASA astronaut Jessica Meir and ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Sophie Adenot work together inside the International Space Station’s Quest airlock during spacesuit fit and leak checks. Credit: NASA NASA…
NASA Begins Moon Mission Plume-Surface Interaction Tests
5 Min Read NASA Begins Moon Mission Plume-Surface Interaction Tests A run of the plume-surface interaction testing with the ethane nozzle firing into the simulated lunar dirt. Credits: NASA EDITOR’S…
Contractor to Civil Servant: NASA Welcomes Jeret Howard
Jeret Howard, logistics management specialist at NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, poses for a photograph on July 27, 2026. Howard is now a NASA civil servant…
Naked mole rats make their own perfume—and it’s excellent birth control
What’s the weirdest thing you learned this week? Well, whatever it is, we promise you’ll have an even weirder answer if you listen to PopSci’s hit podcast. The Weirdest Thing…
How do you find Eastern box turtle nests? You’ll need a spool of thread.
Earlier this year, a team of researchers in Virginia spent more than eight weeks tracking down Eastern box turtle (Terrapene carolina carolina) nests, employing a technique that seems straight out…
Astronauts Anil Menon and Sophie Adenot on Spacewalk
NASA From left, Expedition 75 flight engineers Anil Menon of NASA (partially obscured and wearing the spacesuit with a red stripe on the legs) and Sophie Adenot of ESA (European…
NASA Sets Coverage for Roman Space Telescope Launch from Florida
NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is encapsulated within the payload fairing at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, ahead of mating to a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket for…
‘Treasure Chest’ cosmic cloud glitters with dozens of young stars
Many cosmic images don’t quite look like the nicknames astronomers bestow upon them. Case in point: the Crab Nebula. The Hubble Space Telescope’s portrait of the star factory looks more…