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Popular Science

How Do We Know What Dinosaurs Looked Like?

YOU’VE SEEN ENOUGH MUSEUM models, illustrations, and CGI predators that you’d likely recognize a Tyrannosaurus rex if you saw one.

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2 mins  |
Spring 2020
the original illusions
Popular Science

the original illusions

ILLUSIONS HAVE FASCINATED HUMANS FOR centuries. Before we fully understood the science of sensation and perception, philosophers like Aristotle simply observed the world— and picked up on some weird stuff. According to Vincent Hayward, who studies such phenomena at the Institute for Intelligent Systems and Robotics in Paris, these tricks occur when experience and context make you expect one feeling but perceive another due to abnormal circumstances. Here are three of Aristotle’s earliest observed illusions, explained by modern science.

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1 min  |
Spring 2020
stairs that start nowhere
Popular Science

stairs that start nowhere

GLANCE AT THE STAIRS ABOVE.

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1 min  |
Spring 2020
BIGGEST.  DIG. EVER.
Popular Science

BIGGEST. DIG. EVER.

One massive rail project, 10 millennia of history, 60-plus excavations, 143 miles of track, and thousands of skeletons. How a crew of British archaeologists will make sense of their…

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10+ mins  |
Spring 2020
Could Doing Things The Old-Fashioned Way Make Us Better Modern Scientists?
Popular Science

Could Doing Things The Old-Fashioned Way Make Us Better Modern Scientists?

Today, we imagine lab experiments as part of a separate realm from fine arts like painting or trades like carpentry.

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3 mins  |
Spring 2020
WHY ARE WE NOSTALGIC?
Popular Science

WHY ARE WE NOSTALGIC?

WE’VE ALL FELT THAT JAB TO THE SOUL YOU get from driving by your old high school haunts or hearing a tune you once danced to. But why is that bittersweet sort of reminiscence so universal?

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4 mins  |
Spring 2020
STARTER KIT: Fire it up
Popular Science

STARTER KIT: Fire it up

HUMANITY'S FIRST COOKS DIDN'T NEED ELABORATE BARBECUE SETUPS, AND NEITHER DO YOU. THESE FIVE TOOLS WILL HELP YOU PERFECTLY CHAR YOUR GRUB.

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1 min  |
Spring 2020
Popular Science

In Search of the Missing Microbe

Most Mongolians are lactose intolerant, and yet their diet relies on dairy. A mysterious world of bacteria could be at play.

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10+ mins  |
Spring 2020
Popular Science

DOGS: A LOVE STORY

IT’S ONE OF THE LONGEST RELATIONSHIPS IN HISTORY. SCIENTISTS ARE RECONSIDERING WHO STARTED IT.

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10+ mins  |
Spring 2020
Popular Science

Back to the land

To curb their climate impact, farmers are turning to ancient techniques that catch more carbon than they spew.

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10+ mins  |
Spring 2020
Popular Science

A WORLD OF THEIR OWN

The birth of a new trend puts everyday people in control of the data that maps our planet.

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10+ mins  |
Spring 2020
Seven Sounds Science Has Yet To Solve!
Popular Science

Seven Sounds Science Has Yet To Solve!

Seven sounds science has yet to solve

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4 mins  |
Winter 2019
What It's Like To Sing On Another Planet
Popular Science

What It's Like To Sing On Another Planet

Acousticians sometimes speculate about how conversations might carry on alien worlds. Of course, you’d have no time to chat if you stood in the open air on Mars: Your blood would boil you to death in seconds. But what about those final screams?

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1 min  |
Winter 2019
I Wish Someone Would Invent...
Popular Science

I Wish Someone Would Invent...

Noise-selecting earbuds

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1 min  |
Winter 2019
How Birds Got Their Groove
Popular Science

How Birds Got Their Groove

NATURE PUTS EVERY CHIRP in its proper place. Avian sounds— flutish trills, alarmlike buzzes, and one-note squawks alike— are immediately absorbed, reflected, and scattered by everything in a bird’s habitat.

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2 mins  |
Winter 2019
Papa, Can You Hear Me?
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Papa, Can You Hear Me?

Most of us can’t ignore a baby’s cry.

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2 mins  |
Winter 2019
Static On The Line
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Static On The Line

When our farthest-out craft call home, space itself sends a message.

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10+ mins  |
Winter 2019
Comal, a bustling,
Popular Science

Comal, a bustling,

Oaxacan-inspired restaurant in Berkeley, California, has all the ingredients for the kind of ear-splitting ambience that’s become familiar in modern eateries: packed bar, open kitchen, high ceilings, and concrete walls. But when I join a dinner there one spring evening, it’s easy to jump into the margarita-fueled conversation and order up plates of grilled corn, carne asada tacos, and rotisserie chicken with mole.

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10+ mins  |
Winter 2019
The Song Of The Immortal Violin
Popular Science

The Song Of The Immortal Violin

The masterpieces that Antonio Stradivari created three centuries ago will not live forever. One museum hopes digitizing their melodious voice will save them for future generations.

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10 mins  |
Winter 2019
Making It On Mars
Popular Science

Making It On Mars

If humans want to create a lasting presence on the Red Planet, they’ll have to live off the dirt beneath their feet.

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9 mins  |
Fall 2019
Reading Astronauts' Secret Diaries
Popular Science

Reading Astronauts' Secret Diaries

What astronaut diaries tell us—and NASA—about the perils and potential of a mission to the red planet

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10+ mins  |
Fall 2019
A Mini Medieval Siege Weapon
Popular Science

A Mini Medieval Siege Weapon

AROUND THE TURN OF THE 14TH CENTURY, ENGLAND’S KING EDWARD I led his soldiers north to battle Scottish rebels.

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2 mins  |
September - October 2016
Toy Box Overfloweth
Popular Science

Toy Box Overfloweth

YOU BOGARTED YOUR NIECE’S ROBOT DINOSAUR for a solid three hours after her birthday party. Admit it. We won’t judge you. Today’s playthings are some tempting stuff. They’re bigger, stronger, and faster than the foot-powered plastic “cars,” immobile Lego fortresses, and dead-eyed Teddy Ruxpin dolls that came before. Building sets are so lifelike, go-karts so zippy, and robots so intelligent that even adults will find these outsize toys utterly irresistible. Now kindly hold my beer, kid; there’s a Nerf battle that needs my full attention.

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2 mins  |
May - June 2017
Heads In The Cloud
Popular Science

Heads In The Cloud

RIGHT NOW, IN A DATA CENTER far, far away, gargantuan cloud servers are providing brainpower to devices as minute as fitness trackers. A baseball-size camera, for example, might seem like little more than simple home surveillance; or an adorable green dinosaur might appear to be just a child’s plaything. In reality, armies of servers undergird these—and countless other— unassuming gadgets. Here are five of the smartest out there.

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1 min  |
May - June 2017
Parched
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Parched

A week exploring how we’ll have to live in post water America.

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10+ mins  |
March - April 2017
Get Ready to Rumble
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Get Ready to Rumble

Working the controls of an excavator is a little like flying a helicopter in that it requires the use of both hands independently, as well as your feet.

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10+ mins  |
May - June 2017
Downhill Dynamo
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Downhill Dynamo

Extreme Skiers Like Davo Karnicar Are Why Extreme Skis Exist

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2 mins  |
November - December 2017
Eyes On The Skies
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Eyes On The Skies

Jane Poynter Wants to Take You Higher in a Very Big Balloon —and Give Science a Lift Too

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2 mins  |
November - December 2017
Mod Squad
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Mod Squad

With drought parching the West, seeding clouds for snow is more important than ever. Could this team of scientists prove it really works?

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10+ mins  |
July - August 2017
Pillar Of Fire
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Pillar Of Fire

In 2011, a New Mexico wildfire went from normal to nuclear, kicking up a 45,000-foot column of tornadic winds and burning debris. Three local scientists set out to learn why.

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10+ mins  |
July - August 2017