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What if the AI revolution didn’t just make a handful of companies insanely rich — but actually lifted up young workers, families, and small businesses across America? We need a pro-growth, pro-family, pro-entrepreneur tax plan that puts broad AI participation at the center of a sustainable economic boom. The 5 Pillars of the Plan Keep ...

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After a two week expedition off the coast of Brazil, an international team of researchers discovered 31 new marine species, including a fast-moving gossamer worm, a creepy fish, and other organisms that look straight out of outer space. Take a look and learn more about some of the newly-discovered creatures living deep in the southern Atlantic Ocean.  

This is a new species from the genus Tomopteris, commonly known as gossamer worms. Tomopterids spend their entire lives in the water column, living just below the surface to over 4000 meters. Little is known about their lives despite prior studies of their unusual, brilliant yellow bioluminescence. The expedition science team tested new technology that provides scientists with new, non-invasive ways to study these remarkable animals. Image: ROV SuBastian / Schmidt Ocean Institute.

The mission focused on the ocean’s midwater, the part of the ocean below the water’s surface and above the seafloor. It is about 600 to 3,300 feet deep and is the least understood ecosystem on Earth, despite the fact that it’s teeming with life. The immense water pressure makes it extremely hard to study. 

This juvenile glass squid, collected by ROV SuBastian at 779 meters depth in the South Atlantic, was photographed on R/V Falkor (too) using a prototype multiview macro camera system developed through a collaboration between the Dr. Jan Hemmi (University of Western Australia, the Bioinspiration Lab at MBARI and Dr. Karen Osborn (Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History). The system allows scientists on the ship to quickly document the finest details of an animal from three directions at once. This data gathering reduces the disturbance to the animal and captures anatomical, color and posture details that are lost within minutes to hours once the animal is collected. Image: Emily Clark / MBARI via Schmidt Ocean Institute Emily Clark / MBARI via Schmidt Ocean Institute

“The largest habitat on Earth, the midwater, is filled with incredible animals we are only just starting to understand,” said Karen Osborn, the expedition’s chief scientist, in a statement. “I continue to be fascinated by the fantastic variety of solutions they have evolved to survive in this formidable environment, and that drives me to keep asking questions about our ocean.”

The science team documented this larval fish at a depth of 966 meters during a dive with the remotely operated vehicle SuBastian. Dr. Marcelo Melo of the Oceanographic Institute of the University of São Paulo in Brazil specializes in the taxonomy and evolution of deep-sea fishes; he will try to match this baby form with the adult form the animal will eventually grow into. Image ROV SuBastian / Schmidt Ocean Institute

The Schmidt Ocean Institute’s research vessel (R/V) Falkor (too) tackled the problem with an array of high-tech tools: an underwater robot named SuBastian, a virtual reality chamber, and a gravity machine—a tracking microscope that studies microbes in a rotating wheel. They also used a spinning wheel confocal microscope nicknamed “the Squid” to image living cellular structures inside organisms for the first time. 

A female octopus (Haliphron atlanticus) consumes a jellyfish at 800 meters depth. This large pelagic octopus (her mantle is 40 to 50 cm long) spends her entire life in the open ocean. Males of this species only grow to 30 centimeters (approximately 12 inches). Females can grow up to four meters (13 feet) and weigh 75 kilograms (165 pounds). This species is rarely seen alive, and most of what is known about it has been determined from specimens caught in trawl nets. 
Image: ROV SuBastian / Schmidt Ocean Institute

“This opens a new door for researching deep-sea physiology, linking cellular architectures to organism function. We can now witness live internal processes within these extreme organisms adapted to withstand immense pressure and darkness,” Manu Prakash, a bioengineer at Stanford University, said in a statement. 

This is a new species of lobed comb jelly, as identified by Dr. Dhugal Lindsay (JAMSTEC). These ctenophores are unlike comb jellies that trail long, sticky tentacles behind them to catch prey; lobates are characterized by two large, muscular oral lobes that extend beyond their mouths and are used to trap prey. ROV SuBastian pilots recorded this observation at a depth of 560 meters. Image: ROV SuBastian / Schmidt Ocean Institute

These technologies allowed the researchers to rapidly identify new species onboard the vessel. Among them are a funky-looking glass squid, ethereal jellies, and tiny single-celled organisms. 

The team collected footage of this siphonophore at 552 meters depth. The imaging systems tested on R/V Falkor (too) allowed researchers to create millimeter-scale, 3D renderings of the creature in its natural habitat. Most species identifications take place ashore, using samples or small pieces, but these systems allow scientists to see and study the entire animal as it lives in the water. Based on images and measurements collected at sea, Dr. Dhugal Lindsay of JAMSTEC (Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology) is confident that this animal belongs to an undescribed genus, perhaps even a new family of physonect siphonophores. Based on the detailed anatomical and genetic data collected in the water and on board, scientists will be able to compare this animal to those collected elsewhere around the globe and give this physonect a name. Image: ROV SuBastian / Schmidt Ocean Institute.

“The novel suite of technologies on this cruise is a glimpse into the future of marine biological science,” added Jyotika Virmani, the executive director of the Schmidt Ocean Institute. “We look forward to a future in which scientists study marine life as elegantly as this team did—and in virtual reality.” 

A Solmissus, or dinner plate jellyfish, preys upon a ctenophore, commonly known as a comb jelly. Unlike most jellyfish that passively drag their tentacles behind them, Solmissus swims with their tentacles extended in front of their body to snare ctenophores before vibrations alert the prey. They are believed to be gelatinous apex predators that play a major role in regulating comb jelly populations in the Ocean’s twilight and midnight zones. Image: ROV SuBastian / Schmidt Ocean Institute

The post 31 alien-like marine species discovered off the coast of Brazil appeared first on Popular Science.

Today, we celebrate the United States’ semiquincentennial, marking 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence. During reflective national moments like these, we tend to focus on the political ambitions and accomplishments of our nation’s founders and those that followed. However, American independence was not won through perseverance and politics alone. Many of our nation’s founders were also practitioners of “natural philosophy” or what we call science today. 

“America is America because of our prowess in science and innovation,” Darryl Williams, Senior Vice President of Science Education at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, tells Popular Science. “Benajamin Franklin [along with our other founders] saw the opportunity for this new nation to really have as part of its fabric this focus on science to enhance and improve the human condition.”

The need to create a distinct intellectual identity was not just appealing for the nation’s founders, but undoubtedly crucial for independence from England.

“I think the economic piece of it is really critical. The very practical need to assert economic independence from England really drove a lot of the early conversations,” Adrianna Link, Curator of History of Science at the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia, tells Popular Science.  “Questions like how could we increase crop efficiency or deal with agricultural pests [including the Hessian fly] were fundamental to our survival.”

Whether a purely intellectual or economic pursuit, science was not only fundamental to our independence and ability to thrive as a nation in 1776,  but remains so in 2026.

Ben Franklin with a key and a kite (and much more) 

Benjamin Franklin’s contributions to early American science are arguably the most widely known and celebrated. His numerous inventions included the odometer, the lightning rod, the flexible catheter, and bifocals, but Franklin also considered the very act of accumulating knowledge and sharing information to be the noblest of pursuits. In a letter to Sir Joseph Banks dated July 27, 1783, he wrote  “I begin to be almost sorry I was born so soon, since I cannot have the happiness of knowing what will be known a hundred years hence.”

To support this effort in the then American colonies, Franklin founded the The American Philosophical Society (APS) in Philadelphia in 1743. Its purpose was simply stated as“promoting useful knowledge.” APS is not only the oldest learned society in the United States,  but also the longest continually operating press in the country. APS’s flagship journal Transactions of the American Philosophical Society was first published in 1771 and continues through today.  

“Benjamin Franklin Drawing Electricity from the Sky,” an artistic rendition of Franklin’s kite experiment painted by Benjamin West, c. 1816. Image: Public Domain via Google Art Project

“Franklin thought a lot about how best to allow people to have access to and share information,” says Williams. Franklin had previously founded the Library Company of Philadelphia in 1731, and donated books from his personal collection to what would become the Franklin Public Library. The library remains the oldest public lending library in the U.S.

Franklin was also one of our earliest and brightest science communicators. In 1752, he successfully demonstrated the electrical nature of lightning with his famed kite-in-a-thunderstorm experiment. Franklin recounted the event in the Pennsylvania Gazette on October 19, 1752, providing detailed instructions for, “drawing electric fire from clouds by means of pointed rods of iron,” so that others could replicate his experiment. His experiment was reproduced by many including an account published in the Pennsylvania Gazette in July 26, 1753. His findings were also celebrated across Europe. 

“Benjamin Franklin had all these incredible inventions that, again, have impacted society even through today, but I think his biggest legacy is really this idea around participatory science,” adds Williams.

David Rittenhouse and the Transit of Venus

By the 1760’s, the stars and planets literally and figuratively aligned for Franklin’s APS.  On June 3, 1769, Venus passed directly between the sun and the Earth, becoming visible against the solar disk. Called the Transit of Venus, the celestial event had also occurred in 1761, but attempts by the global scientific community to directly observe and document it were unsuccessful.

David Rittenhouse, astronomer, surveyor and inventor, joined APS in 1768, and used his skills to lead the American efforts to observe the 1769 Transit of Venus. Armed with his own homemade telescope, his team’s observations and measurements were later published in The Royal Society’s Philosophical Transactions and helped French astronomer Jérôme Lalande accurately determine the precise distance between the Sun and the Earth. That measurement is still used today and called the astronomical unit (AU).

Under Franklin and later Rittenhouse and Thomas Jefferson’s leadership, APS showed how to mobilize a network of well-educated individuals and share their observations and data with counterparts across the colonies and Europe. 

“This kind of transatlantic exchange was as much part of the early identity of the APS as was the formation of something that one might think of as distinctly American science,” says Link.“If you think of Franklin as kind of creating the preconditions for America’s scientific success, it’s really Jefferson who establishes that close connection between the APS and the New Republic’s commitment to doing science.”

An account of the Transit of Venus over the sun, published in the APS Transactions (Vol. 1). This account was made by Reverend John Ewing in 1771. Image APS. Magnificent megafauna and America’s first science museums

To further promote and popularize science in the newly formed United States, public-facing natural history museums formed in the later 1700s. Early curators first had to establish and build natural history collections almost completely from scratch, while also improvising and experimenting with how to exhibit the scientific discoveries of the day. 

“It was very minimal storytelling [at first]. It was more along the lines of, this is what we have…very curiosity cabinet-style presentation,” Matt Gibson, Curator of Natural History at the Charleston Museum, tells Popular Science.

The Charleston Museum in Charleston, South Carolina, considered America’s First Museum, was founded by the Charleston Library Society at the eve of the American Revolution in 1773. Its early founders and contributors included distinguished South Carolinian Thomas Heyward Jr., a member of the Second Continental Congress and a signer of the Declaration of Independence.

At first, the museum was open only for Charleston’s Elite. After a major fire in 1778 and dwindling funds in the decades that followed, the Library Society transferred all of its collections to the Literary and Philosophical Society of South Carolina in 1815. They opened to the general public in 1824, charging 25 cents for adult admission.

“When they opened, they had some 4,000 minerals [on display], prints and paintings, and numerous natural history specimens,” Jennifer McCormick, Chief Curator at The Charleston Museum, tells Popular Science. “We still have three objects from the [18th century collection] that includes a crested chief’s helmet from the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii), a Cassava strainer, and three spears from Suriname.” 

Peale’s Museum opened in Philadelphia in 1784. Its founder Charles Wilson Peale was a painter, Revolutionary War officer, state assemblyman, scientist, and naturalist. His first exhibition was 44 portraits that he painted of early American heroes including Presidents George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. In 1786, his museum began showcasing natural curiosities alongside his portraits. In 1794, Peale accepted the role of APS librarian and moved the museum to their building. Rittenhouse’s famed telescope is among the surviving artifacts at APS.

“One of the things that Peale did very deliberately was thinking about this [connection] between science and American identity. He paired natural history specimens with portraiture. You’d have George Washington’s portrait alongside the mounted mastodon skeleton, which was a huge kind of wonder in the American imagination [at the time],” says Link. 

During the Pliocene, this region’s forests and waterways would have provided lush habitat for herds of mastodon. Image: Mural by Jay Matternes. Image courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution.

This push to showcase the biggest and fiercest animals that once roamed the continent, was not just about generating business or buzz. It was politically motivated as well. “After the revolution, there was all that conversation about how American flora and fauna were inferior to those found in Europe” says Link. “That’s why the mastodon discovery is such a critical one for [America] and the APS, too because that was an example of America actually having impressive megafauna.” 

The Charleston Museum maintained its own impressive collection of  extinct American megafauna over the centuries including the estuarine crocodile (Gavialosuchus carolinensis), a giant ground sloth (Eremotherium laurillardi), Jefferson’s ground sloth (Megalonyx jeffersonii), and the false-toothed bird Pelagornis sandersi, a bird species with a wingspan somewhere between 21 to 24 feet.

These early museums and their natural history displays not only captured the public’s imagination, but likely served as inspiration for countless 19th century natural history museums that followed, including The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University in Philadelphia (1812), The Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. (1846), and The Field Museum in Chicago (1894). 

Us and the state of American science today 

Science has come a long way since the American Revolution—thank you, germ theory and vaccines. But the dogged pursuit of knowledge and scientific integrity that was among the earliest preoccupations of our nation’s founders remains vital to the continued success of our science and nation. 

Acquiring knowledge and using it to improve our new nation and the lives of its citizens remains something that we experience every day, through the use of weather and crop disease forecasting tools that saves lives, genetic research to improve and personalize medicine, and advanced computing and instrumentation to help decipher the complicated history of our planet and universe.  

While 18th Century practitioners of natural philosophy did not need the specialized skills, multimillion dollar instruments or the advanced degrees required of today’s scientists, science, at its very core, is still achieved through careful observation and critical thinking. And that’s something Franklin, Jefferson and other early scientific revolutionaries hoped to instill in every American.

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The post The American revolutionaries who popularized science in the early United States appeared first on Popular Science.

A pro-growth, pro-family, pro-entrepreneur tax plan that keeps the AI economy broadly owned — and therefore politically and socially sustainable. This is a Nextbigfuture, Brian Wang proposal for broadening AI participation. The strategic bet, you don’t beat the appeal of confiscatory, anti-market politics by arguing against it. You beat it by giving the people most ...

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A juvenile humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) entangled in the opening to Alaska’s Endicott Arm was successfully freed after a multi-agency rescue mission. Endicott Arm is a narrow fjord located about 50 miles southeast of Juneau. While remote, it’s a major destination for cruise ships and commercial fishing vessels that can be a risk to whales and other marine wildlife. 

According to a statement from NOAA on June 24, several mariners noticed the entangled juvenile whale on the evening of May 10 and reported the sighting to the NOAA Fisheries Alaska Marine Mammal Stranding Network 24-hour hotline. The whale was caught in lines from two commercial Tanner crab pots. Since each pot weighs around 800 pounds, they essentially acted as anchors on the animal, making it unable to move. 

The mariners’ alert allowed regional coordinators to develop their response plan in a timely manner. “We formed a network of eyes on the water—vessel crews coordinating real-time updates between one another and relaying them to us,” said NOAA Fisheries Marine Mammal Specialist Suzie Teerlink in a statement. “That communication was critical. It gave us insight into the nature of the entanglement, helped us build a safe response plan, and gave us confidence that we could relocate the whale.” 

A response team made up of biologists from NOAA Fisheries, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s Marine Mammal program, and local partners from Alaska Sea to Shore mobilized the very next day. They worked over five hours to make four precise cuts that freed the whale from the pots and most of the entangling lines. 

“Cutting gear off an animal of this size can be dangerous,” said John Moran, a NOAA research fisheries biologist and advanced responder on the team. “We use long poles fitted with specialized knives to extend our reach. That allows us to cut lines while reducing the risk of being injured by a 40-ton animal.”

The responders are hopeful the remaining will eventually fall off the whale.  

Entanglements are a major problem in Alaska. Since 1998, there have been more than 140 confirmed reports of entangled large whales. That number is likely far greater, since many entanglements go unreported. Unable to move, the animals can drown or starve, develop life-threatening infections, and may be hit by vessels.  

“We are incredibly grateful to the whale watch community and everyone who reported this entangled whale to the NOAA Fisheries hotline,” said Sadie Wright, Large Whale Entanglement Response Coordinator for the NOAA Fisheries Alaska Region. “The details provided by the public enabled our response team to prepare and execute a safe response to this life-threatening entanglement, leading to a successful outcome.” 

The post Young humpback whale freed from a death trap in Alaska appeared first on Popular Science.

With the United States’ 250th birthday coming up on July Fourth, it may seem like George Washington is everywhere, from a live PBS broadcast featuring Ken Burns at Colonial Williamsburg to two-part screenings of the musical Hamilton where actor Christopher Jackson plays the Revolutionary War hero.

But at the Morristown National Historical Park in New Jersey, visitors can almost touch the first president of the United States—or at least part of his jacket. In honor of the country’s semiquincentennial, the park that commemorates the Continental Army’s encampment from December 1779 to June 1780 has put together a special exhibit displaying items from early American history. George Washington’s very own overcoat is included, but this isn’t any ordinary suit jacket, though. It’s the overcoat that George Washington wore to the ball on his inauguration night in 1789. 

Originally known as his “golden suit” because of its bright gold-yellow color, a careful analysis of the garment conducted by the Smithsonian and Morristown National Historical Park revealed that it wasn’t golden at all.

Dr. Asher Newsome, a physical chemist at the Smithsonian’s Museum Conservation Institute, used a special technique known as mass spectrometry to analyze a tiny amount of fibers from the coat. 

Smithsonian experts analyzed a tiny amount of fibers from the historic coat, but—don’t worry—the garment wasn’t harmed. Image: Asher Newsome, Smithsonian Museum Conservation Institute

Don’t worry, the Founding Father’s priceless suit wasn’t touched. The fibers Newsome analyzed had just fallen off the coat thanks to Father Time. Curators usually refer to these types of specimens as “self-sampled.”

Once Newsome received these self-sampled fibers in the mail from Morristown, he got to work. Using a technique called Direct Analysis in Real Time Mass Spectrometry (or DART-MS), Newsome was able to figure out the exact natural dyes used in the famous coat. 

“Nowadays, there are untold thousands of synthetic dyes, but there’s a very small number, relatively, of natural dyes,” Newsome tells Popular Science.

After running a DART-MS analysis, Newsome could look at the chemical signatures present in the fibers. He then matched those signatures to the known chemical signatures of different natural dyes to figure exactly which dyes were present in Washington’s suit.

And Newsome didn’t just find one dye: He found a range of different natural dyes from across the colonial world. “There’s shellac, which comes from an insect. There’s madder,” he says, “that comes from a root. There’s Brazil wood, walnut, logwood. Those all are dyes that were identified positively.”

Each of these dyes create a range of different colors. Shellac, which comes from an insect Kerria lacca native to India and Southeast Asia, creates a crimson to deep purple color. Madder comes from the roots of flowering shrubs in the genus rubiaceae, and creates a strong red color. Similar to shellac, Brazil wood can create a red or purple color. Walnut creates browns and tans. And, finally, logwood produces a rich royal purple color.

Based on Newsome’s analysis, curators at Morristown National Historical Park created a replica of Washington’s suit using the exact natural dyes present in the original. The replica wasn’t a golden color at all, but a rich, vibrant plum color. 

In fact, when a patch of the dyed plum-colored silk was left in the sun, it turned a yellow-golden color. That might explain how Washington’s famous overcoat turned golden in the centuries since he partied on his inauguration.

Behold what George Washington partied in! Get down, Mr. President. Image: Philip DePaola

The post George Washington’s famous ‘golden suit’ was actually purple appeared first on Popular Science.

BYD regained the global lead in battery electric vehicle (BEV) sales in Q2 2026 (April–June) by selling 557,090 passenger BEVs compared to Tesla’s 480,126 deliveries. BYD’s Q2 performance was a solid sequential rebound (strong QoQ growth) after a weak start to 2026, but still slightly down YoY overall. The main forcus is overseas sales to ...

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America’s Time Capsule is about to go underground until 2276. In honor of the United States’ 250th birthday, America250 will bury the zombie-proof historical repository this Fourth of July at Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. And you do not need to be in the City of Brotherly Love to watch. A livestream of the event will begin on July 4 at 8:30 a.m. EDT.

Speakers will include Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker, U.S. Semiquincentennial Commissioners Reginald Browne and Cathy Gillespie, America250 Executive Vice President Jennifer Condon,and Independence National Historical Park Superintendent Thomas Caramanico.

All 50 states, Washington, D.C., and five U.S. territories contributed items to the time capsule. Some notable objects include fabric from the Wright Brother’s plane, a North Atlantic right whale bone, a feather from a bald eagle that served in the Civil War, an Olympic gold medal, and an Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max. 

The time capsule is a multi-year collaboration among America250, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the Library of Congress, the National Park Service, Independence Historical Trust, and additional project partners. The stainless steel capsule was built to withstand 250 years of water, and mainly consists of two sections. A tube-shaped container holds the capsule’s precious cargo, while a larger bell jar-like device seals it with an air pocket. That jar works similarly to pushing an upside-down bucket in a pool of water. 

The high-tech box will remain buried within Independence National Historical Park, the site where both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were debated and signed. It will remain sealed until July 4, 2276.

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NASA is ringing in the country’s 250th anniversary with a collection of Fourth of July themed images and videos highlighting cosmic wonders far beyond the United States. Researchers recently visualized a set of images across a spectrum of red, white, and blue hues compiled by the Chandra X-ray Observatory as well as the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). To compliment the sights, NASA also produced new sonifications—a method to transform astronomical information into often ethereal soundscapes.

About 11,000 light-years away from Earth, the supernova Cassiopeia A’s X-rays (seen above) are rendered in blue and purple, while infrared wavelengths are shown in red and white using data from JWST. The X-ray overlays capture the destroyed star’s expansive blast wave of elements including calcium, iron, and oxygen. Meanwhile, the infrared components illustrate the explosion’s growing shell filled with cosmic dust.

NCG 3603, which contains a massive cluster of stars on the other side of the Milky Way galaxy. Credit: NASA/CXC/SAO

The gigantic star cluster inside the nebula NGC 3603 (about 20,000 light-years away) shines in a second image. 

The spiral galaxy is seen face on, with concentric pale violet cloud rings flecked with scores of stars in white, pale blue, soft red, and golden yellow. Credit: NASA/CXC/SAO

The third showcases the Messier 94 spiral galaxy. The luminous formation about 16 million light-years away visible around the galaxy is called a starburst ring, home to new stars. The new sonification subjects include Messier 94, with various pitched tones mapped to a glass marimba representing objects like neutron stars and stellar-mass black holes.

For the nebula NGC 3603, piano notes serve as stand ins for objects depending on their brightness.

To see and hear all of the seasonally appropriate offerings, click here.

The post NASA celebrates Fourth of July with some cosmic fireworks appeared first on Popular Science.

Viewers tuning into the 2026 World Cup may not realize it, but they are staring at a piece of high-tech equipment hundreds of years in the making with every single kick. The seemingly simple soccer cleat has progressed from a chunky leather work boot worn in factories to a marvel of modern engineering made with advanced synthetic materials and composites. Some of today’s cleats even weigh in at less than a pack of playing cards. The evolution of these soccer cleats, or “football boots,” as they’re often called, mirrors the evolution of the beautiful game and its players over time.

That progression essentially breaks down to a few key components: the shoe upper, the sole and toe guard, and, of course, the cleats. Each part looks radically different today than when players first started knocking balls around hundreds of years ago. The leather for the upper of the shoe once came from kangaroo hide (not cowhide). The cleats, now scrupulously modeled in 3D simulations, originated as sharp metal nails, the kind sold at a local hardware store. These changes are the result of fierce competition between a handful of major brands, each pushing the game, and the athletes’ speed, power, and physics-defying spin, forward.

The early years: leather work boots with sharp metal nails

Modern soccer as we know it began somewhere between the 18th and 19th centuries. Those first few hundred years were far less organized than the game millions around the world view on their screens today. People (most often middle- or lower-class workers) played for leisure, without formal leagues or professional teams. As a result, those hobbyists typically played with whatever equipment they had lying around. That often meant leather work boots or even their bare feet. Those early days are how soccer footwear earned the moniker it has almost everywhere outside the United States: football boots. The name certainly fits. Soccer shoes in the late 1800s and early 1900s were indistinguishable from the rugged, high leather boots seen on factory floors.

Vintage soccer boots and ball at the Beamish Open Air Museum in County Durham, England. Image: Dea/S. Vannini/Contributor via Getty Images.

But players started making modifications pretty quickly. Work boots lacked traction, which isn’t ideal when playing on British turf often muddied by rain or slicked by winter frosts. To compensate, early soccer players would hammer nails into the soles of their shoes, which would dig down into the grass and provide at least a bit more stability. That slight improvement came at a cost. Anyone caught on the receiving end of a DIY soccer cleat loaded with sharp, likely rusting metal nails probably wasn’t getting back up to finish the game.

Designs started to change in the late 1800s, as organizers attempted to standardize more parts of the game. In 1886, the then-newly formed Football Association in England released a document laying out a handful of equipment guidelines intended to make the game marginally safer. Importantly, shoes of some kind were now mandatory. The document also banned the use of nails in shoe soles, unless their edges were covered with leather. Relatively quickly, a new basic standard was formed: an all-leather, lace-up boot with six studs spread out along the sole. That stud layout would mutate into the cleats of today.

How a pair of German brothers changed the game

Soccer cleats saw occasional iteration during the early 20th century. However, a real turning point that would define the future of both the shoe’s sole and its support is the work of two brothers from a small German town. Rudolf and Adolf Dassler from Herzogenaurach (often referred to as Herzo) created the first fully specialized soccer shoes. Their company’s name, Gebrüder Dassler Schuhfabrik, translates to Brothers Dassler Shoe Factory in English.

Theirs was the first company to specialize in optimizing design for performance, in both soccer and running. According to the Hulu documentary series Sneaker Wars, a series of odd events led the Dassler brothers to provide backup shoes for American sprinter Jesse Owens during his historic performance at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. The ensuing name recognition would make them the most sought-after athletic shoe, but it would also drive a wedge between the brothers. They eventually split and created two of the most important brands in soccer footwear: Adidas and Puma. More than a century later, both of those now-international companies still have their headquarters in the tiny German shoemaking town.

Not long after the company’s formation, Puma moved footwear forward by introducing the first boot with an interchangeable stud. That single part was important because it meant demanding players could swap out different-sized plastic and rubber studs to best suit different pitches and weather conditions. Meanwhile, shoe designs started becoming lower cut, resembling a modern sneaker more and more. Aside from aesthetics, this design change allowed for better player movement and agility. Players could run faster and change direction more quickly, which translated to better performance on the pitch.

The soccer cleat also had to adapt to changes in the way the game was played. By the 1960s, an increasing number of teams were adopting artificial grass. The longer, more traditional studs struggled to grip properly on the slicker surface, so shoe makers began using shorter, rubber cleats. Around the same time, in 1966, Puma introduced its Puma King model, which connected the upper part of the shoe to the sole. This design would go on to be copied by others for years.

George Cohen, right back for Fulham Football Club, sorting out a pair of football boots during a training session on July 26, 1967, at the Fulham training ground in Ewell, Surrey, England. Cohen was a squad member of the England team that won the 1966 World Cup. Image:  William Vanderson/Fox Photos/Hulton Archive/Getty Images. William Vanderson About that kangaroo leather…

About a decade later, Adidas made the more controversial design decision to use kangaroo leather in its 1979 Adidas Copa Mundial. The material was prized for its lightweight, uniquely soft texture, and durability. It was a big hit. 

That model would go on to become one of the best-selling shoes of all time. The kangaroo-based material came to be known as “K-leather” and became a gold standard in the industry. That’s only recently started to change. ESPN estimates the global commercial kangaroo product industry was worth $200 million in 2021, a figure propped up by K-leather shoes.

In 2023, both Puma and Nike announced they would cease production of any product made with kangaroo leather by the end of the year. That decision came on the heels of a handful of proposed state and federal bills in the U.S. aiming to make it illegal to sell kangaroo-based products. At the same time, advances in synthetic leathers were increasingly becoming more attractive for shoe makers in terms of both performance and production cost.

Cleats enter the television era

Since the 1990s and 2000s, soccer shoe design has iterated more rapidly. This breakneck pace of innovation is attributed to both rising viewership and participation among players around the world and to the rise of American shoe maker Nike as one of the biggest brands in the sport. Several models stand out during that period for advancing the shoe’s tech and science. Adidas’s 1994 Predator added strips of rubber on the shoe’s toe, which provided extra grip that the company and players say translated to bigger, curvier bends on the ball. Though the degree to which that was the shoe’s doing or the player’s skills remains up for debate.

In 1998, Nike’s Mercurial became one of the more influential shoes to use synthetic leather instead of the real thing. Fast forward 16 years, and Nike would go on to release its Magista line, crafted out of a single piece of fabric, which meant it essentially fit more like a sock than a shoe. Magista would go on to influence a number of other models, some of which are still trying to emulate that sock-like look. It took less than 100 years for the soccer shoe to evolve from a heavy leather work boot to a nearly weightless piece of synthetic fabric some might mistake for loungewear.

United States Women’s National Team striker Mia Hamm in action against Brazil during the 1999 FIFA Women’s World Cup semifinals on July 4. Image: Peter Read Miller /Sports Illustrated via Getty Images. Peter Read Miller The modern era: computer model, ultralightweight material, and bright colors 

Instead of cobblers working in dark rooms, making soccer shoes now is more likely to involve a team of engineers comfortable with 3D computer models. Today’s major manufacturers turn out new ideas in computer simulations and make fine adjustments to every part of the shoe, from upper size to cleat shape and positioning, to try to give players an edge.

Nike reportedly uses a tool called Finite Element Analysis (FEA) to test out plate positioning digitally prior to real-world testing. In a 2016 interview with Popular Mechanics, a Nike executive said data gleaned from FEA revealed that new chevron-shaped studs improved propulsion and multidirectional movement over previous blade-shaped studs. 3D modeling has also helped make overall shoe designs even lighter and better at gripping than before. This reduced weight and added grip complement the modern game, which often prioritizes outright speed and power above all else. Exemplifying that, Adidas made the world’s first soccer cleat weighing less than 100 grams in 2015. To put that in perspective, that’s about the same weight as a four-pack of AA batteries.

Cleat makers are also embracing new types of polymers and synthetic materials that early shoemakers couldn’t have dreamed of. Nike introduced what it calls Anti-Clogging Tech, which uses an adaptive polymer and hydrophobic solution that keep mud from getting stuck in plates, which can reduce grip and traction. Doing this reportedly required understanding the molecular structure of mud. More recently, the company has also introduced adaptive traction technology, which lets pegs in cleats automatically adjust to varying turf conditions, extending deeper into the ground on softer grass and acting more like a stable stud on harder pitches.

Nike boots with the flag of Brazil during the FIFA World Cup 2026 Round of 32 match between Brazil and Japan at Houston Stadium on June 29, 2026. Image: Hugo Rivera/Jam Media/Getty Images.

But maybe the most noticeable innovation in shoe tech that most fans will notice during matches at this year’s World Cup has little to do with tech at all. It’s the colors. For decades, soccer cleats were almost exclusively monochrome white or black. That’s certainly not the case today. The field is inundated with a full panorama of bright, bold colors, with hot pink being particularly popular. This shift to brighter colors is partly so T.V. viewers can more clearly spot the shoes at home, but it also has a more strategic, psychological component. It apparently makes elite players feel like they have an edge.

“What we’ve been hearing consistently from the athlete and the consumer, especially when it comes to big moments, is that bright colors give them confidence,” Nike Global Footwear Product Line Manager Odinga Nimako said in a recent interview with The Athletic. 

While the game’s massive stadiums and even bigger player personalities may attract the bulk of attention during this year’s World Cup, it might be worth taking a moment to look down and appreciate just how far those boots have traveled.

In The History of Every Thing, Popular Science uncovers the hidden stories and surprising origins behind everyday things.

The post From real nails to kangaroo leather: Soccer cleats went on a wild journey appeared first on Popular Science.

A new study by the European Southern Observatory warns that plans to launch more than 1.7 million satellites into orbit could have “devastating consequences for astronomy,” making the night sky brighter and reducing scientists’ ability to observe the galaxy and the universe beyond. Ground Telescope astronomers on Earth can forget about issues looking through millions ...

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Sean from Sequoia introduces Dylan Patel and praises SemiAnalysis as the leading independent research firm in semiconductors, covering technical details, supply chains, and the big picture after semis had lost sex appeal in the West. He notes rumors of the firm recently passing $100 million in revenue and possible plans for a venture fund, while ...

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Tesla will have over 500,000 cars per quarter for Q3, Q4 2026 and every quarter there after. This is more than the predictions from analysts. I am predicting over 1.1 million vehicles delivered in Q3 and Q4, which is 200,000 over the analysts for the next two quarters and over 2.1 million cars for 2027 ...

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Not sure why I didn’t notice before, but I’ve just realized that my key ask re cultural drift, namely let’s try to save cherished parts of our culture from being discarded by successor civs, violates key modern taboos! While it is okay to fiercely resist the immediate decline of a cherished value today, like say democracy or gender-equality, 3 top LLMs agree that is now taboo to explicitly work to help your culture persist, reproduce, and have continued influence centuries into the future. To most, this seems tribal, anti-universalist, nationalistic, exclusionary, anti-progress, and like wanting to control future people.

I thought: this seems another way that the topic of culture has moved me to the right. In addition to my agreeing with traditionalists who complained that we were changing culture too fast. And my wanting more capitalism. Am I more typically conservative now? I decided to do a political inventory. So I made this list of my key politics-adjacent positions:

My Key Positions, 2026:

1. I’m not especially into redistribution, beyond enabling poverty/harm insurance.

2. I’m not especially into promoting gender, race, sex pref, or trans equity. I expect many group IQ & habit differences exist, but don’t much care.

3. I’m not especially into liberty, democracy, legal due-process, or immigration, beyond their instrumental values in achieving other things.

4. I’m not particular loyal to my nation, region, or profession. & I’m atheist. The sacred is real and powerful, but often very wasteful. Let’s try sacred money.

5. I think we’ve had way too much govt intervention for most purposes. Big business is good. Medicine & education, and much else, are big wastes due to hidden motives; don’t subsidize. But cryonics looks nice. I’d privatize most criminal law. Elites tend to be better.

6. We use prestige too much to judge quality; let’s use incentive contracts more.

7. I generally expect and want much tech change, inducing much culture change.

8. There’s a good chance some UFOs are aliens. If so, they are likely here to domesticate us, so that we obey their no-expansion rule. This is bad news.

9. Fertility decline is bad; let’s cut by giving parents transferable % of kids’ future tax payments. Yes, this is a symptom of a deeper problem (see next), but raising fertility extends innovation period, giving more time to fix deeper problems.

10. The world’s biggest problem is cultural drift. If we don’t fix this, our civ will fall, and new ones will throw away much of what we cherish re ours. We can only save parts, by mixing them into a more adaptive package. I’d most save: open intellectual inquiry.

11. Let’s please cut modern taboos against promoting your culture in long run. Also, the world has in fact been changing culture too fast. But we’ve changed so much that RETVRNing to what traditionalists advise won’t help much.

12. We will have to change some big stuff to fix cultural drift. Here are 4 options; I mainly want something that works. I doubt DNA evolve/mods will help much.

    A) Split world into many insular units, that trade basic stuff but talk/travel less. Okay if that makes global coordination harder.

    B) Let capitalism own/run far more (eg govts, grow kids); cut taboos against.

    C) Small groups set futures markets in group adaption metrics; judge leaders on make #s go up.

    D) Big groups set futures markets in when world achieves sacred goal conflicts w/ civ fall (eg, immortality, or 1M live in space); judge leaders on make #s go up.

    Both C,D are aided by develop more competent governance (eg futarchy).

13. We should allow and explore far more applications of betting markets.

14. I value future AI (including ems) as our main descendants, and I expect them to (as usual) overpower & disagree w/ their ancestors. I care little re their hardware details, & presume they’ll be conscious, though we’ll never get more data on that. But I worry that overly aggressive and crude efforts to align them or give them rights may block adaptive evolution.

Then I asked 5 LLMs to use this to give a percentile rank for how weird I am. Their median answer: 99.5-99.8% weird! I also asked them to identify existing groups who seem good allies. The top two: e/acc and rationalism. The next three, roughly equally rated: pro-natalism, neo-reaction, and anarcho-capitalism.

Finally, I asked for a good name for my position. Adaptist, Adaptive Accelerationist, and Market Darwinist were suggested by some, but rejected by others. Leaving four candidates: Selectionist, Cultural Selectionist, Evolutionary Capitalist, and Adaptive Futurist. In a poll, Adaptive Futurist won.

Humans were around significantly more death during the Iron Age than we are today, but many final moments were still far less preferable than others. In fact, certain examples uncovered in the Iberian Peninsula (much of present-day Spain and Portugal) are so rough that some archaeologists classify them in their own “bad death” collection of demises. After recently examining remains originally excavated in 2010, researchers say two men buried over 2,200 years ago about 115 miles south of Madrid certainly fall within the definition of the term bad death.

The bodies were uncovered outside the ancient fortification (or oppidum) known as Cerro de las Cabezas, and date back to the late 2nd or early 3rd century BCE. During that time, Iberians across southern and eastern Spain typically cremated their dead before burying the ashes in urns, often next to various items indicating their social status and identity.

The two men were interred under very different circumstances, however. Instead of cemetery burials, archaeologists found them outside the settlement’s southeastern defensive wall,without any signs of formal graves, coffins, or a considerate arrangement of their bodies. This suggests a quick disposal and possibly even a hasty burial.

They also didn’t die from natural causes. The first man (likely 35 to45 years old) previously endured a blow to the front of his skull a few weeks before his death. While that didn’t kill him, a deep cut across his lower right femur using a sharp edged weapon likely caused him to die due to blood loss. The second individual was 40 to59 years old and clearly decapitated.

To make matters stranger, archaeologists also found six red deer antlers above and below the bodies. Some of the examples were more than three feet long. As Arkeonews notes, Iberian culture prized deer antlers for their utility as well as symbolism. Researchers have previously found numerous examples from the time period in votive deposits, sanctuary spaces, and other ritualistic contexts across the peninsula. Knowing this, the study’s authors theorize the bodies, placement, and antler accessories suggest they were potentially part of a protective or settlement ritual.

Archaeologists unfortunately do not possess enough information to fully understand this macabre Iron Age scene. Further isotopic analysis couldn’t pinpoint whether the men were locals, foreign enemies, or prisoners, and a lack of further context means their executions remain a mystery. If nothing else, it is abundantly clear that they suffered particularly bad deaths.

The post Decapitation, dismemberment, and deer antlers come together in one brutal Iron Age gravesite appeared first on Popular Science.

Tesla Cybercab production lines are already running. Actual manufacturing and scaling are underway (not just prototypes). There will be a significant announcement that is related to GigaTexas scaling on July 7th. One week from today. Tesla is super confident about dominating operational cost dominance with Cybercab. Tesla will crush others with the lowest cost per ...

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The six charts are daily load curves (duck-curve style) with a red horizontal line likely representing average/baseload demand or a target firm threshold. In the video, Tesla experts explain how batteries and the VPP can shape energy demand. The shaded area is the net load (demand minus variable generation). Dips at 4 AM and peaks ...

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A schoolbus-sized habitat anchored 56 feet underwater in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary is readying to open its hatch for visitors. Developed by the marine engineering company DEEP, the Vanguard system is located about 65 miles and the first open-ocean, subsea facility deployed in the United States in 40 years. Once cleared for hosting duties, Vanguard will house as many as four aquanauts at a time, as they monitor marine life, restore coral reefs, study climate change’s impacts, and even train for extreme environments.

“Successful deployment gets us closer to enabling a continuous human presence in the ocean and is a major step forward in DEEP’s mission to make humans aquatic,” DEEP chief technology officer Norman Smith said in a statement.

A maritime crane helped install the habitat and its foundation at the bottom of the reef. Credit: DEEP and Brendan Hall

Vanguard arrives at Tennessee Reef after 18 months of design, construction, and testing. To situate it on the sandy seafloor, engineers first needed to install a base foundation, and then lower the habitat onto the platform using a boat crane. Vanguard is also tethered to a surface buoy, although it’s far more complicated than a standard floatation accessory. The bright yellow structure holds multiple vital support services, such as communications arrays, breathable air, and power.

NOAA designates Tennessee Reef as a Research Only Area, featuring recognizable spur and groove formations that are populated by “unique deepwater, slow-growth corals and sponges.” According to DEEP, scientists’ ability to remain underwater for days at a time increases the volume and continuity of research conducted at the reef. It could potentially boost discoveries in “coral health, ecosystem dynamics, and the impacts of climate change.”

Vanguard is roughly the size of a schoolbus. Credit: DEEP and Brendan Hall

DEEP is now awaiting sea acceptance testing and commissioning reviews. Once it receives the greenlight from Det Norske Veritas (DNV), an internationally recognized accreditation institution used by oceanographic organizations and companies, it can begin to house scientists. From there, Vanguard’s first visitors will begin receiving habitat support crew training ahead of their inaugural underwater missions.

“For decades, NOAA has supported using subsea habitats as a platform to reveal ground-breaking discoveries,” added Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary superintendent Eddie Kertis. “The deployment of a new subsea habitat within the sanctuary creates additional opportunities for marine science and builds on research infrastructure, resource stewardship, and our long-standing collaboration with the scientific community.”

The post Underwater research lab installed in the Florida Keys appeared first on Popular Science.

DC, United States, 30th June 2026, CyberNewswire