Popular Science

Renovations on government buildings in the coastal Belgian town of Nieuwpoort are currently on hold after surveyors discovered an impressive archaeological trove: dozens of carefully crafted stone cannonballs dating as far back as the 14th century. However, the medieval ammunition backstock wasn’t the only weaponry buried roughly 70 miles west of Brussels. According to city officials, experts also excavated an unexploded artillery shell from World War I.

“What has been exposed here in recent weeks proves that Nieuwpoort is a city where history is literally everywhere. Even a few meters under our feet,” Nieuwpoort Mayor Kris Vandecasteele said in a statement.

Investigations into the small plot of land began in February, after preliminary test digs indicated promising archaeological relics in the area. Since then, excavations have yielded numerous stone cannonballs near the site of what was once the city’s southern fortification wall. Researchers say that the carefully assembled stockpile and its location suggest it was an intentional store of ammunition dedicated to the town’s defense. This is further supported by the dig’s location near the city’s historic Stadshalle civic center and belfry, but this is not a definitive confirmation.

Stone cannonballs like those uncovered in Nieuwpoort represent an important transitional phase in medieval military technology. Popular across Europe between roughly 1350 and 1600, the ballistics could be fired from not only mechanical catapults and trebuchets, but explosive cannons. As Arkeonews highlights, the variations in cannonball size also suggest a mixed arsenal stocked for multiple types of weapons.

One additional discovery provides a poetic—if eerie—symbol of Nieuwpoort’s military and technological history. In a more recent soil layer, archaeologists also located an unexploded artillery shell that crashed into the ground during World War I. While Belgium’s explosive ordinance team safely removed the potentially volatile artifact, the shell serves as a reminder of the city’s longstanding strategic importance, due to its location on the English Channel. Nieuwpoort functioned as a front-line European city during WWI, and experienced widespread damage as a result of its location.

“What we find here exceeds our expectations: from medieval building structures and an exceptional depot of cannonballs to military relics that point to our past as a front city,” said Nieuwpoort Heritage Alderman Ann Gheeraert. “These excavations confirm that every construction phase in Nieuwpoort is also a journey of discovery into our own history, a past that has not yet revealed all its secrets.”

The post Medieval cannonballs and WWI bomb discovered under construction site appeared first on Popular Science.

An exclusive dance party is raging in the coastal marshes along southern Texas—and it’s coming to an end. However, to score an invite to this event, you have to be an Attwater’s prairie chicken (Tympanuchus cupido attwateri). From February through May, the males of this colorful bird species do a quick-stomping dance and make a low booming sound to attract a mate. 

Beginning in late January and into February, male prairie-chickens begin to gather in low grass to start this elaborate courtship display. These “booming grounds” will be the male’s stage for the next few months to show off for the females. Booming grounds are typically found in naturally occurring short grass flats or sometimes artificially maintained areas like dirt roads.

The real fun happens from February to May. Every morning, male prairie-chickens grab their spot on a booming ground and dance for hours. They drop their heads to inflate the two large orange sacks on the sides of their face to make a low booming sound. The chickens stomp with swift feet like an Irish step dancer, keeping their tails erect and wings drooped. They will even jump and charge at each other while dancing—pretty much whatever it takes to attract a mate. Unlike the club scene, this ritual is more of an older male’s game. Most of the females only choose two to three of the older and more experienced males, leaving most of the younger males out.

Once a female chooses a mate and breeds with him, she will leave the booming ground. Prairie-chickens build their nests in shallow depressions on the open prairie, typically about one mile away from the booming ground. Hens lay eight to 13 eggs that will hatch roughly 26 days later—if she’s lucky. Only about 30 percent of all nests evade their many predators, including skunks, opossums, raccoons, coyotes, snakes, and even domestic dogs and cats.

This mating dance is more than just an annual ritual for the birds. Attwater’s prairie chickens are among the rarest birds in the Lonestar State and are highly-endangered. According to Nature Conservancy working lands program director Kirk Feuerbacher, 98 percent of their habitat in coastal marshes has been redeveloped or altered. 

Roughly 200 exist in the wild, down from over 400 in 1993. They live in two isolated colonies in Texas—the Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge in Colorado County, and a parcel of privately owned ranch land. This important ranch land is part of the Nature Conservancy’s Refugio-Goliad Prairie Project, a protected 660,000 acres along the Gulf Coast between Houston and Corpus Christi. According to Feuerbacher, the population here has been increasing about 20 percent every year. In 2025, the Nature Conservancy counted 102 males on the booming grounds. This year, the team counted 138 males. 

The post A rare prairie chicken shakes his butt all day to attract ladies appeared first on Popular Science.

Scorpions are optimized hunters, whose skills have been honed through millions of years of evolution. An armored exoskeleton, strong pincers, a poisonous stinger—almost everything about their anatomy aids in either hunting insects, small mammals, and reptiles, or defending themselves from snakes and birds. But for years, entomologists were aware of a potential secret weapon in the arthropods’ biology: metallic reinforcements.

Researchers previously detected trace metals in the exoskeletons of at least some of the estimated 3,000 known scorpion species. At the same time, experts were unsure about the distribution and concentration of these metals.

“We knew that metals strengthen the weapons in some species’ arsenals, [but] we don’t know if all scorpions’ weapons contain metal,” Sam Campbell, an environmental scientist at Australia’s University of Queensland, explained in a statement.

Back-scatter electron (BSE) scanning electron micrograph (SEM) of the telson of The yellow-fat tailed scorpion (Androctonus australis). Similar contrast of enrichment is present in the telson (stinger), highlighting the presence of metal. Also present is a clear line, we are terming the enrichment transition zone, where metal enrichment abruptly ends. Stingers in both msueum and wild specimens have been shown to snap break at, or near, this region. Credit: Sam Campbell/Smithsonian Museum Conservation Institute JEOL

The answer might come in how they rely on their stingers and pincers. Some scorpion species wield their poisonous barbs more than their claws, while others deploy the opposite strategy. Campbell and colleagues theorized that the trace metal distributions might correspond to whether or not a species prefers its stingers or pincers.. 

While pursuing a Smithsonian fellowship at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C., the team used microanalytical methods like high-resolution electron microscopy and X-ray analysis to examine specimens from 18 separate scorpion species. Their results published in the Journal of The Royal Society Interface found pincers and stingers do contain concentrations of metal.

“The National Museum of Natural History’s large scorpion collection allowed us to analyze metal enrichment in a wide range of scorpion species, more than have ever been studied before using these techniques,” said Museum Conservation Institute research scientist and study co-author Edward Vincenzi.

The results revealed a pair of distinct metal layers in scorpions. Stingers reliably featured high amounts of zinc in their needle-like tips, followed by a layer of manganese. The distribution is similar in pincers, as well. In the movable portion known as the tarsus, Campbell’s team pinpointed either zinc or a combination of zinc and iron along the claw’s cutting edge.

An X-ray spectral image superimposed on a scanning electron microscope image of the denticles (claw “teeth”) on the pincers of a giant hairy scorpion (Hadrurus arizonensis). The spectral image shows selective enrichment of zinc (red) in the denticles, in addition to phosphorous (green), and carbon (blue). Credit: Smithsonian Museum Conservation Institute

However, each metal’s purpose isn’t quite what researchers hypothesized. Although they predicted stronger, crushing pincers to feature more zinc, they saw higher zinc levels in thinner, longer claws typically used in conjunction with stingers.

“This points to a role for zinc beyond hardness, perhaps playing a bigger role in durability,” said Campbell. “After all, long claws need to grasp prey and prevent it from escaping before being injected by venom. This is an interesting finding because it suggests an evolutionary relationship between how a weapon is used and the specific properties of the metal that reinforces it.”

The team’s findings have major ramifications for understanding the wider world of arthropods and insects. Scorpions are far from the only creatures to incorporate trace metals into their anatomy. By laying a clear foundation for future analysis, researchers can study how these evolutionary adaptations may appear across bees, wasps, spiders, and other animals.

“The microscopic-scale methods we used allowed us to identify individual transition metals in extremely high detail, showing us how nature skillfully engineered these metals in the scorpion’s weapons,” added Vincenzi.

The post Metal-reinforced scorpions evolved to kill appeared first on Popular Science.

Sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) go deep. They can dive 1,300 to 4,000 feet-deep and also travel as much as 15,000 miles per year. These depths and distances make sperm whales and other whale species particularly difficult for scientists to follow and study. 

A new autonomous underwater glider system aims to make that trek a little easier. The glider from Project CETI (Cetacean Translation Initiative), detailed in a study published in the journal Scientific Reports, follows sperm whale vocalizations without getting in their way. AI is embedded directly into the glider, which allows it to react in real-time to the whale’s sounds while underwater.

Why gliders?

In addition to their long journeys and impressive diving, collecting long-term acoustic data has been difficult because traditional tags typically remain attached to the whales for only one to three days.  

Autonomous underwater gliders are a more recent addition to whale tracking. They can detect the presence of  whales while disturbing them as little as possible. According to the team, the new glider can actively follow whales based on their sounds. It could potentially monitor sperm whale populations and collect data for months at a time.

“This technology opens an entirely new dimension to studying whales underwater in their natural environment,” said David Gruber, the Founder and President of Project CETI. “We can now collect long-term communication information never before dreamed possible—like how a baby whale learns its clan-specific dialects as we can now listen to individual whales for extended periods.”

An actually helpful ‘backseat driver’

All underwater gliders have a navigation computer that controls its movement. In CETI’s new system, the team developed a custom “backseat driver” and acoustic sensing system with French ocean robotics company Alseamar. A second onboard computer is also equipped with a back seat driver. This computer processes acoustic data and runs detection algorithms that can recognize sperm whale vocalizations.

“With the new glider, we significantly extend ‘backseat driver’ capabilities by enabling complete mission changes (such as different dive plans),” Roee Diamant, Project CETI’s Underwater Acoustics Lead, tells Popular Science. “This allows fully autonomous control by the glider for tracking whales—a first for underwater gliders, like the Waymo of the underwater world.”

The glider also has four custom hydrophones so that researchers can find the source of underwater calls. Project CETI developed whale-detection and angle-of-arrival estimation algorithms that analyze the sounds in real time. This way, the system can pinpoint the source of the vocalizing whales and adjust the glider’s path. The individual navigation commands can also be updated via satellite every two to four hours when the vehicle surfaces. When the glider emerges above water, the computer transmits data, recalibrates onboard sensors, and can then receive new mission instructions before diving again.

Do not disturb

According to Diamant, the glider also limits the impact on the whales, a critical part of CETI’s mission of conducting “minimally invasive marine biology.” The glider is programmed to ascend once whale vocalizations are detected and then reposition itself to stay close to the vocalizing whales. 

“On-whale biosensors are deployed by gentle tap-and-go methods via drones rather than approaching the whales with vessels,” he explains. “Here, we extend this minimally-invasive approach by using a self-guided underwater glider that operates quietly and with less disturbance.”

Currently, Project CETI conducts most of its fieldwork within a roughly 12-by-12-mile study area off the coast of Dominica in the Caribbean. There, they have witnessed a sperm whale birth, and also begun to decode the sperm whale alphabet and dialects. The new glider system may help the project expand monitoring beyond this one region, as the whales swim across broader ocean areas. 

The post The ‘Waymo of the sea’ tracks sperm whale conversations appeared first on Popular Science.

Sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) go deep. They can dive 1,300 to 4,000 feet-deep and also travel as much as 15,000 miles per year. These depths and distances make sperm whales and other whale species particularly difficult for scientists to follow and study. 

A new autonomous underwater glider system aims to make that trek a little easier. The glider from Project CETI (Cetacean Translation Initiative), detailed in a study published in the journal Scientific Reports, follows sperm whale vocalizations without getting in their way. AI is embedded directly into the glider, which allows it to react in real-time to the whale’s sounds while underwater.

Why gliders?

In addition to their long journeys and impressive diving, collecting long-term acoustic data has been difficult because traditional tags typically remain attached to the whales for only one to three days.  

Autonomous underwater gliders are a more recent addition to whale tracking. They can detect the presence of  whales while disturbing them as little as possible. According to the team, the new glider can actively follow whales based on their sounds. It could potentially monitor sperm whale populations and collect data for months at a time.

“This technology opens an entirely new dimension to studying whales underwater in their natural environment,” said David Gruber, the Founder and President of Project CETI. “We can now collect long-term communication information never before dreamed possible—like how a baby whale learns its clan-specific dialects as we can now listen to individual whales for extended periods.”

An actually helpful ‘backseat driver’

All underwater gliders have a navigation computer that controls its movement. In CETI’s new system, the team developed a custom “backseat driver” and acoustic sensing system with French ocean robotics company Alseamar. A second onboard computer is also equipped with a back seat driver. This computer processes acoustic data and runs detection algorithms that can recognize sperm whale vocalizations.

“With the new glider, we significantly extend ‘backseat driver’ capabilities by enabling complete mission changes (such as different dive plans),” Roee Diamant, Project CETI’s Underwater Acoustics Lead, tells Popular Science. “This allows fully autonomous control by the glider for tracking whales—a first for underwater gliders, like the Waymo of the underwater world.”

The glider also has four custom hydrophones so that researchers can find the source of underwater calls. Project CETI developed whale-detection and angle-of-arrival estimation algorithms that analyze the sounds in real time. This way, the system can pinpoint the source of the vocalizing whales and adjust the glider’s path. The individual navigation commands can also be updated via satellite every two to four hours when the vehicle surfaces. When the glider emerges above water, the computer transmits data, recalibrates onboard sensors, and can then receive new mission instructions before diving again.

Do not disturb

According to Diamant, the glider also limits the impact on the whales, a critical part of CETI’s mission of conducting “minimally invasive marine biology.” The glider is programmed to ascend once whale vocalizations are detected and then reposition itself to stay close to the vocalizing whales. 

“On-whale biosensors are deployed by gentle tap-and-go methods via drones rather than approaching the whales with vessels,” he explains. “Here, we extend this minimally-invasive approach by using a self-guided underwater glider that operates quietly and with less disturbance.”

Currently, Project CETI conducts most of its fieldwork within a roughly 12-by-12-mile study area off the coast of Dominica in the Caribbean. There, they have witnessed a sperm whale birth, and also begun to decode the sperm whale alphabet and dialects. The new glider system may help the project expand monitoring beyond this one region, as the whales swim across broader ocean areas. 

The post The ‘Waymo of the sea’ tracks sperm whale conversations appeared first on Popular Science.

It was understandably only a matter of time. Rise, the Artemis II crew’s ridiculously adorable zero-gravity indicator, is now available for purchase. On the NASA Exchange website, you can pre-order your own diminutive plushie for $24.99 plus shipping, along with other Artemis goodies including stickers, magnets, hoodies, and more. Patience is a virtue, however. Due to an “extended production time,” NASA is warning collectors that their own, personal Rise may take up to eight weeks to ship.

Zero-gravity indicators—usually a stuffed animal or something similar—have accompanied both U.S. astronauts and Russian cosmonauts into space since the 1960s. More symbolic than technical, the untethered objects mark a crew’s passage beyond Earth’s gravity into space. Rise is an original design, but sometimes more iconic figures serve as a mission’s mascot. In 2022, Snoopy was the only occupant aboard the uncrewed Artemis I mission.

Designed by Lucas Ye, a 2nd grader from Mountain View, California, Rise accompanied NASA’s four-person Artemis II crew during their historic, 10-day lunar flyby mission that launched on April 1. The plushie gained internet fame, along with a floating jar of Nutella and the now viral phrase “moon joy.” Commander Reid Wiseman made sure to safely carry Rise out of the capsule after splashdown on April 10. 

Rise was selected from a pool of over 2,500 design submissions from more than 50 countries during NASA’s Moon Mascot contest, and recalls Apollo 8’s iconic “Earthrise” photo from 1968. According to NASA Exchange, all proceeds from the plushie (and its many other products) help fund the “morale, welfare, and recreation of NASA employees.”

The post The adorable Artemis II ‘Rise’ plushies finally land in NASA’s online shop appeared first on Popular Science.

While an enormous sea lion named Chonkers makes a splash in San Francisco, you don’t have to live in the Golden City to sneak a peek. Viewers can watch the action from home with Pier 39’s livestream as this 2,000-pound Stellar sea lion (Eumetopias jubatus) cozies up with the smaller California sea lions (Zalophus californianus) that “haul-out” along the docks on Pier 39.

To watch the Pier 39 livestream, scroll down to the bottom of the page until you see “VIEW THE SEA LIONS LIVE.” Then, press the “GO LIVE” button. You can also press “Control” to choose a position, snap a screenshot, pause the stream, or enter a full-screen mode.

Pier 39 Sea Lion Webcam HDRelay.create({target: 'webcam_holder', id: 'CID_UROS0000008D'}); How to spot Chonkers

Chonkers was first spotted at Pier 39 in early April. He has been flopping up onto the marina’s floats and hanging out with the California sea lions. While they can be seen in California waters, Stellar sea lions more commonly call Alaska and Washington State home, so Chonkers sticks out among his much smaller float-mates.

His size is the first thing that will make him stand out for viewers. Stellar sea lions are about 10 times bigger than California sea lions. Male Stellar sea lions like Chonkers push 2,500 pounds and are 11 feet long, while male California sea lions weigh about 250 pounds and are seven feet long. The females are also bigger. Female Stellar sea lions weigh in at roughly 1,000 pounds and measure nine feet long, compared to 220 pounds and six feet for California sea lions.

A Stellar sea lion (left) wearing a NOAA satellite transmitter. A California sea lion (right) wearing a similar tracker. Images: NOAA.

Chonkers also has a light tan to reddish color compared to the California sea lions’s darker brown fur. Stellar sea lions have a more low-frequency vocalization that sounds like a roar, while California sea lions’ sound more like barks.

California sea lions have a more pointed snout like a long-nosed dog, while Stellar sea lions like Chonkers typically have a more blunt face and a boxy, bear-like head.

What is Chonkers doing on the dock?

While watching, you’ll see both species “hauling out.” This means the seals and sea lions temporarily leave the water and lay on a rock, the beach, or a human-made structure like a dock. They may haul out after foraging for food or get some rest between migrations. 

Chonkers is a Steller sea lion amidst a sea of California sea lions. Screenshot: Pier 39 Live Cam via Reddit

According to The Marine Mammal Center, hauling out also helps them regulate their body temperature, avoid hungry predators, molt or shed their fur, interact with other animals, mate, give birth, and nurse their pups.

Chonkers and other Stellar sea lions do not migrate in the traditional sense. Instead, they will move from the center of their foraging activity, to follow seasonal concentrations of their many types of prey. These predatory animals consume over 100 species of fish, including salmon, Pacific cod, arrowtooth flounder, and rock sole. They also eat cephalopods, including squid and octopus.

Steller sea lions have over 300 haul-out sites along the North Pacific rim from Japan and Russia to Alaska and the Channel Islands off California. The longest recorded distances traveled are 1,600 miles from Forrester Island to Cape Newenham, 1,400 miles from Kozlof Cape, Russia, to Round Island in Alaska, and 1,200 miles from Medny Island, Russia, to Round Island. 

World map with a rough representation of the Steller sea lion’s range. Image: NOAA. The history of Pier 39’s sea lions

California sea lions first began hauling out on Pier 39’s K-Dock in October 1989 after the 2.9-magnitude Loma Prieta earthquake struck the Bay Area. By January 1990, the loud pinnipeds began to arrive in huge numbers. 

The staff at the marina turned to The Marine Mammal Center, a local animal rescue and rehabilitation organization, for advice on how to handle their new residents. The experts from The Marine Mammal Center recommended that the sea lions stay in their newfound home. 

The number of sea lions at Pier 39 fluctuates depending on the time of year. The current record is over 2,100 sea lions in May–June 2024. 

The post How to watch Chonkers, the 2,000-pound sea lion live from San Francisco appeared first on Popular Science.

I am a clumsy guy. If there are sharp corners nearby, I’ll bash into them. If there’s a surface underfoot with even a light sheen of polish, I’ll take a tumble. You don’t need to take my word for it. A quick look at my knees, which have become knitted with a patchwork of small scars, tells the story.

I can trace some of these marks back years, and have accepted that they will be on my body for life. But what gives? Why don’t our bodies remove old scars? The answer goes to the heart of how our bodies have adapted to protect us.

Why do some injuries not cause scarring?

“The skin is our protection against the external environment,” says Dr. Corey Maas, an associate clinical professor at the University of California, San Francisco and founder of the Maas Clinic. “It’s a remarkable organ. It’s very important that its integrity be maintained.”

The skin consists of three layers. From outermost to innermost, these are the epidermis, dermis, and fat layer or hypodermis.  

Your skin is a complex organ with three main layers: the epidermis, dermis, and fat layer or hypodermis. Image: Cancer Research UK / CC BY-SA 4.0

After our skin is damaged, a cascade of biological processes fires up. If an injury only damages the epidermis, the wound will typically heal without scarring. 

But if the injury goes deeper, a scar will form. All scars, big or small, are “designed to repair the skin and restore to you all the continuity and the protective mechanisms that the skin exhibits for the entire body,” says Maas. In other words, our body’s priority is to get the skin strong enough to repel invading microbes—not make it look pristine. 

How do scars form?

There are several stages involved in scar formation. The body first forms a blood clot to prevent bleeding, which then dries into a scab. 

The immune system then sends specialized cells into the clot to beat back any microbes that may have snuck their way in through the wound. To do so, these cells release specific chemicals (called cytokines), which help prevent infection and send out a loudspeaker message to the body that it’s time for a cleanup in the skin aisle.  

In response, more specialized cells in the skin called fibroblasts kick into action. These cells start releasing a type of biological scaffolding, known as the extracellular matrix, made up of molecules like long, fibrous proteins such as collagen. These tough proteins increase the scar tissue’s strength.

While a wound might close quickly, the full process of restoring the skin’s layers can take months or even years. 

Related 'Ask Us Anything' Stories

Why do your joints hurt when it’s cold? We asked a doctor.

Why some people get motion sickness—and others don’t

What’s a brain freeze and why do they happen?

Is cracking your knuckles really bad for them?

Why do we even have baby teeth?

Why we have two nostrils instead of one big hole

Can you have too much scarring?

A fully formed scar is made of tough, dense bundles of collagen and other connective tissue, with no sweat glands or hair follicles. This messy mix of hardened tissue isn’t like other skin. There are fewer cells to be renewed and replaced. 

“Those collagen molecules are there forever,” says Maas, creating a tough, fibrous tissue that keeps scars on our bodies for years, decades, or even a lifetime. Sometimes our bodies overdo it on collagen production, resulting in large or raised scars.

In its urgency to seal the rip in its protective outer coating, the body piles on extra collagen. This can produce red, raised scars that stay where the original injury, called hypertrophic scars. In some cases, the resulting scar even extends far beyond the original injury. These are called keloid scars.

Keloid scars can become itchy or painful as they grow. If they form too close to a joint, they can even impede movement. Surgical removal of keloids can cause them to grow back even larger.

How to look after your scars

Scars can fade and become less prominent over time as initial deposits of disorganized collagen are replaced with flatter, more ordered layers. But even this overhauled tissue looks different from normal skin, which is why scars rarely disappear completely.

Maas says that doctors can alter factors, such as a scar’s discoloration and depth through cosmetic procedures, and that steroids can reduce redness. But the most important consideration is good wound management, says Maas.

Keep the wound clean. If it’s an open wound, keep it covered with fresh dressings. If the wound is closed up, Maas recommends keeping it covered with a thin layer of ointment. He says that some doctors prefer scars to dry up, but in his view, it’s important to protect against microbes while a wound heals.

But scars aren’t all bad. They’re a physical record of the experiences you’ve gone through. A scarred knee might fondly recall a tumble in the playground. A burn scar conjures memories of a busy dinner party. These marks wouldn’t have such power if they simply disappeared after a short time. 

In Ask Us Anything, Popular Science answers your most outlandish, mind-burning questions, from the everyday things you’ve always wondered to the bizarre things you never thought to ask. Have something you’ve always wanted to know? Ask us.

The post Why scars never disappear appeared first on Popular Science.

Establishing a long-term human presence on the moon is a daunting challenge. Daunting—but not impossible. One way to help prepare for our imminent arrival is to gain a better understanding of the frequency and effects of meteorite strikes on the lunar surface. NASA isn’t only relying on its brave squadron of astronauts like the recently returned Artemis II crew to do the work, however. They need help from anyone willing to spend some time gazing up at the moon from here on Earth. For those ready and willing citizen scientists, it’s time to contribute to the ongoing Impact Flash endeavor.

Earth is bombarded by tiny meteorites every day, but only a fraction of them actually survive their fiery passage through our home planet’s atmosphere. The moon isn’t so lucky.. Astronomers estimate around 100 meteoroids the size of ping-pong balls strike the lunar surface every day, each impact releasing the equivalent energy to seven pounds of dynamite. If that weren’t enough, a meteor with at least an eight-foot diameter plows into the moon with the force of about a kiloton’s worth of TNT roughly once every four years.

If humans want to have a long-term presence on this meteor-filled satellite, designing the best, most resilient lunar base possible requires a comprehensive analysis of the moon’s relationship with meteoroids. One way to assess the situation is by monitoring and measuring events called impact flashes. As the NASA-funded group called Geophysical Exploration of the Dynamics and Evolution of the Solar System (GEODES) at the University of Maryland explains, impact flashes are “split-second flares of light” caused when meteoroids strike the moon’s dark side.

The Artemis II astronauts scored front-row seats to a handful of these moments while completing their historic lunar flyby on April 6. Their subsequent visual and equipment data is now helping astronomers understand present-day impact rates, as well as how that may change over extended periods of time. But to truly learn about these occurrences, they need much more source material.

That’s where Impact Flash comes into play. Organizers are asking anyone with a powerful enough telescope to point it at the moon’s darkened hemisphere and wait for the drama to unfold. For the best chance, the team suggests equipment with at least a 4-inch mirror or lens, automatic tracking, and a video recording capability of 25-30 frames per second.

While volunteers are encouraged to try identifying any new impact flashes themselves using publicly available software, all clips still need to be uploaded to the official Lunar Impact Flash database. From there, astronomers will comb through submissions and extract as much info as possible from the meteoroid meetups.

The results also go beyond planning a future lunar base.According to Los Alamos National Laboratory planetary scientist and Impact Flash project lead Ben Fernando, the next step will be using the data to investigate moonquakes.

“We are planning to send seismometers to the Moon to measure how the ground shakes,” Fernando explained in a statement. “Your measurements of impact flashes will help us work out the sources of moonquakes we detect. This will help us work out what the Moon’s interior looks like.”

The post NASA needs your help spotting meteors hitting the moon appeared first on Popular Science.

There’s a gaping 2,000-pound hole in Earth’s food web. Saber-toothed cats with 7-inch-long fangs, sloths the size of elephants, wombats the size of cars, and many of the world’s largest mammals disappeared between 50,000 and 10,000 years ago. While 10,000 years may seem long ago to humans, that’s a blink of an eye in evolutionary time, and the disappearance of these megafauna still impacts us today.

According to a study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), disappearing megafauna fundamentally reshaped the food web for modern animals. These effects are also more pronounced in North and South Americas than in other continents.

The world’s food webs all have the same basic principle—animals that eat are then eaten by others. When an animal goes extinct, the complex web of relationships shifts among the surviving species. If a predator disappears, their prey’s population may go unchecked, with a series of cascading effects. Based on previous research into large-animal extinction and food webs, study co-author and Michigan State University ecologist Lydia Beaudrot thought that the extinction of mammals weighing over three pounds could still have an effect tens of thousand years later. 

Related Extinction Stories

Earth’s 5 catastrophic mass extinctions, explained

Are we in a sixth mass extinction?

A boiling hot supercontinent could kill all mammals in 250 million years

Dinosaurs survived one mass extinction, but then their luck ran out

To investigate this hunch, Beaudrot and her team analyzed the predator-prey relationships in 389 locations across tropical and subtropical regions of the Americas, Africa, and Asia. Their study included over 440 mammals including lions, wolves, bears, and elephants. 

While the basic animal-eats, animal-gets-eaten structure remains true in all food webs, the number and types of species vary greatly between locations. Overall, the study found that food webs today have fewer, smaller prey in North and South America than they do Africa and Asia.

When they studied prey characteristics such as body mass and activity patterns, the team found that predators in the Americas typically stick with prey with a narrower range of traits, with less overlap among them.

Tens of thousands of years ago, many of the world’s biggest mammals disappeared. New research reveals where the ripple effects are still being felt in terms of who eats whom today. Image: Chia Hsieh, Michigan State University.

According to the team, the differences between the continents does not just stem from varieties in weather or seasons. Instead, the severity of past extinctions played a significant role in food webs. While each region suffered their share of losses, the Americas were hit the hardest. These continents have lost more than three-quarters of all mammals over 100 pounds during the last 50,000 years.

One example is giant deer. South America was once home to giant deer, including Morenelaphus brachyceros. These roughly 440-pound deer went extinct 10,000 to 12,000 years ago. When they disappeared, there was less prey for predators like saber-toothed cats and dire wolves. The loss of the deer essentially thinned out the food web.

“A lot of the lower part of the food web was lost,” Chia Hsieh, a study co-author and MSU community ecologist, said in a statement. 

Why most of Earth’s massive mammals disappeared is still up for debate. Some scientists believe that climate and environmental stresses are to blame. Others say hungry humans spreading out from Africa into other parts of the world played lead to their demise. 

Understanding extinction events of the past helps scientists better understand the potential long-term impacts of species facing the same fate now. Nearly half of all animals weighing over 20 pounds are classified as vulnerable, endangered, or critically endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Additionally, the planet may be experiencing a sixth mass extinction event. 

The team plans to study whether historical extinctions make certain communities more vulnerable going forward.

“By studying the past, we can also try to understand what to expect in the future,” Hsieh concluded.

The post We’re still recovering from losing the woolly mammoth appeared first on Popular Science.

The newest residents of the internet’s favorite eagle nest are rapidly growing right before our eyes. Nearly one month after hatching, Jackie and Shadow’s two to-be-named chicks are beginning to put more on thermal fur. This extra warmth was certainly helpful, after a snowstorm covered their nest in snow over the weekend.

What a difference three weeks makes. Image: Friends of Big Bear Valley.

According to nonprofit Friends of Big Bear Valley (FOBBV), the chicks are also growing their first juvenile pin feathers. These spiky feathers on the wing’s tips are essential for flight. They will continue to grow until the chicks fledge about 10 to 14 weeks after birth.

The eaglets’ pin feathers are starting to appear. Image: FOBBV

In another important step towards their independence, FOBBV says they may have “tucked” for the first time. Tucking is a significant developmental shift and helps the birds stay warm by themselves, without relying on their parents for brooding.

As always, you can follow the little eaglets’ growth with FOBBV’s livestream 24/7.

Jackie and Shadow’s 2026 babies: Everything you need to know

It’s been another roller coaster nesting season for Jackie and Shadow, a pair of internet-famous bald eagle parents living in San Bernardino National Forest in Southern California. After two of their eggs were destroyed by ravens in January, Jackie and Shadow laid two new eggs that have successfully hatched.

Chick 1 hatched on April 4 at 9:33 p.m. PDT, while Chick 2 followed on April 5 at 8:30 a.m. Their large nest in Big Bear Valley east of Los Angeles is livestreamed 24 hours a day by nonprofit Friends of Big Bear Valley (FOBBV) and has captivated millions. 

How long will the chicks stay in the nest? 

Chicks usually stay in the nest until 10 to 14 weeks of age.

What challenges do the eaglets face?

Before leaving the nest, the chicks face threats from other birds of prey, including hawks, ravens, other eagles, and owls. Inclement weather can also present challenges for the chicks. In 2025, a March snowstorm resulted in the death of one of Jackie and Shadow’s three chicks.

During fledging, only 70 percent of eaglets survive. One of the greatest threats is from cars that can injure or kill the birds while they scavenge for food on roadkill.

Who are Jackie and Shadow? 

The pair first got together in 2018 and successfully raised chicks in 2019 and 2022. However, their eggs failed to hatch in 2023 and 2024. Only 50 percent of eagle eggs successfully hatch, so this pair has already beaten the odds.

What happened to Jackie and Shadow’s 2025 eaglets?

In 2025, Jackie laid three eggs that all hatched in early March. On March 13, a strong snowstorm dumped up to two feet of snow and battered the nest with strong winds. Only two of the chicks were visible on the live cam when the storm passed by the next morning. FOBBV later confirmed the passing of one of the chicks. The two surviving chicks were later named Sunny and Gizmo.

What happens after chicks fledge? 

Young eagles usually fledge–or leave the nest and fly–when they can flatten their wings and have feathers capable of flight. This typically occurs when the birds hit 10 to 14 weeks of age. Males also tend to take their first flight a little sooner than females. 

According to FOBBV, fledglings from Southern California have been spotted as far south as Baja California, as far north as British Columbia, and as far east as Yellowstone National Park.About 70 percent of bald eagles survive the fledgling stage. FOBBV does not tag their eagles, so it’s not possible to follow the chicks’ journeys after they flee the nest.

The post Jackie and Shadow’s chicks getting new feathers appeared first on Popular Science.

It’s a downright creepy feeling. You’re striding confidently down what seems to be a clear, open path, and then you feel it. Stretchy filaments dragging across your skin, your clothes—even worse, your face. The more you try to backtrack and flail your way out of it the more you feel like Frodo wrapped in Shelob the spider’s deadly web, your luckier friends snickering like orcs ready to take you back to Mordor. 

Long story short, walking through a spiderweb is awful. However, according to the National Park Service (NPS), there are ways to avoid the frustrating encounter. The first tip they list is sticking to the road most traveled. Since spiders are more likely to build their sticky and intricate homes near greenery, walking along the center of the trail can lessen your chances of becoming an arachnid home wrecker. 

Tip number two: “Sweep a hiking stick or trekking pole in front of you as you walk to catch any webs before you run into them,” the agency writes. “No need to go full Jedi on your first day with a new lightsaber—use it only when needed. And remember to say sorry. Manners matter, even to spiders.” 

Along the same lines, a brimmed hat can intercept webs and also protects your face from the sun’s harmful rays.The NPS also suggests—rather sensibly—walking slowly and carefully along a trail, and conducting your adventures during the middle of the day. Spiders are more active at dawn and dusk, so avoiding these times lessens your chances of an unhappy meeting. 

What’s more, a cheeky Facebook user had another clever tip that is bad news for tall friends, but a great strategy for all the short kings and queens adventuring into national parks. “Let the tallest member of your group lead the way. They will clear the path! Also, never be the tallest member of the group.”

But if, despite all this advice, you still walk into a spiderweb, rest assured that there’s another Lord of the Rings-themed silver lining from the NPS: “One does not simply become a master of karate. First, you must accidentally walk into a spider web.”

The post How to avoid the horror of walking through a spiderweb, according to the National Park Service appeared first on Popular Science.

Every day, you encounter sounds that you can’t technically hear. Some of these are produced at incredibly high pitches, but many others occur as infrasound. This range of ultra-low frequencies below 20 Hertz (Hz) are found everywhere—during thunderstorms, inside factories, and even amid rush hour traffic. But a growing body of evidence suggests that infrasound is regularly detectable in spookier situations. More specifically, the seemingly imperceptible tones may frequently show up in “haunted” hotspots.

This isn’t to say that ghosts generate ultra-low rumblings like crocodiles. Instead, researchers writing in the journal Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience suggest that infrasound may help explain why some places simply feel more creepy or foreboding than others.

“Consider visiting a supposedly haunted building. Your mood shifts, you feel agitated, but you can’t see or hear anything unusual,” Rodney Schmaltz, a psychologist at Canada’s MacEwan University and study co-author, said in a statement. “In an old building, there is a good chance that infrasound is present, particularly in basements where aging pipes and ventilation systems produce low-frequency vibrations.”

To better understand the potential relationship between unconscious auditory influences on human psychology, Schmaltz’s team asked 36 volunteers to sit by themselves in a room and listen to either unsettling or calming music clips. During half of the sessions, the study authors also exposed their volunteers to 18 Hz infrasound tones through hidden subwoofer speakers. Each person then filled out a survey to record their emotional responses to the music, as well as whether or not they suspected any exposure to infrasound. Finally, they provided a saliva sample to assess their cortisol levels.

Researchers discovered that participants’ salivary cortisol was higher when infrasound was present, whether or not the individual successfully flagged low-frequency audio. The volunteers also consistently reported higher levels of irritability and ranked the music as sadder overall. Interestingly, there was no statistical evidence suggesting people could reliably identify infrasound.

“Participants could not reliably identify whether infrasound was present, and their beliefs about whether it was on had no detectable effect on their cortisol or mood,” explained Schmaltz.

While cortisol levels are directly related to irritability and stress in humans, the experiment indicated the hormone may also be swayed by more subtle influences.

“This study suggests that the body can respond to infrasound even when we can’t consciously hear it,” Schmaltz added.

Past research supports their theory, including a famous incident from over 40 years ago. During the 1980s, a British engineer named Vic Tandy began noticing odd shapes at the corners of his vision while working in a factory for medical equipment. Coworkers had long alleged that the building itself was haunted. However, Tandy’s “visions” disappeared soon after discovering and disabling a nearby fan that was generating infrasound rumblings.

“As someone who studies pseudoscience and misinformation, what stands out to me is that infrasound produces real, measurable reactions without any visible or audible source,” said Schmaltz.

The study’s authors stress that they haven’t reached any definitive conclusions yet, citing the small sample pool and focus on a single frequency. That said, their work is one more indication that a ghost may not be what’s raising the hairs on the back of your neck—it may simply be some faulty plumbing.

The post That ghostly presence may just be bad plumbing appeared first on Popular Science.

It’s common knowledge that parrots can learn to speak like humans, sometimes a little too much. Lincolnshire Wildlife Park in England even has five foul-mouthing African grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus). But can they use names the way we do?

“Although we know that wild parrots and some other animals have vocal signatures and can even use them to direct communication to other individuals, it is difficult to state precisely that they use names in the same manner as humans,” Christine Dahlin, a professor of biology at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown, tells Popular Science. 

For example, a 2024 study found that wild African savannah elephants (Loxodonta africana) address each other with name-like calls. Wild bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) are also able to address each other with learned vocal labels. 

Dahlin is co-author of a study recently published in the journal PLOS One which aims to figure out if parrots learn and use names similarly to humans. To do so, the team worked with survey data on over 889 companion parrots because of their ability to copy human words. They discovered that a significant number of parrots can indeed apprehend and use names like us. 

A sample of parrots living with humans showed the ability to correlate names with individuals, but also to use proper names in ways humans typically don’t. Image: Lauryn Benedict.

“We found that many parrots can learn and apply names appropriately, with 88 different individuals using names appropriately, sometimes for single individuals (both humans and other animals),” Dahlin explains. “However, parrots also used names in contexts that are atypical for humans, often using their own name as a means to seek attention.”

Proper names help people manage complex social interactions. Since parrots are also extremely social creatures, Dahlin says that their work shows  how wild parrots might apply their vocal learning capabilities. 

“Parrots are very social animals with impressive mimicry abilities,” she points out. “If they can learn and use names appropriately in captivity, it would not surprise me to learn they are engaging in similar behavior in their wild flocks.”

The team is still collecting survey data, so if you have a chatty parrot pet, you can participate by sending in information through the Many Parrots Project, which they used in the study. Ultimately, this is just the latest research suggesting that humans aren’t all that much more special than other animals.

The post Parrots use names to talk to each other appeared first on Popular Science.

While space exploration is serious and sometimes dangerous scientific work, that does not mean that there is no room for fun. Something as mundane as a little ball of water can be supremely entertaining.

In a video shared by NASA, Artemis II astronauts Reid Wiseman, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen are seen watching a ball of water floating around in zero-gravity. The water itself is moving around and shaping the light around it in some surprisingly complex ways.

View this post on Instagram

Without any force pulling the water downward, surface tension molds the liquid into a floating sphere. The light then bends inside the bubble, distorting and inverting images. According to retired NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg, water like this offers a simple physics lesson and reminder that what see all depends on how we look it.

Wiseman is also no stranger to playing with water in space. During a mission in 2014, he and other crew members aboard the International Space Station (ISS) explored water’s surface tension in microgravity. They even went as far as putting a waterproof camera inside a bubble to get a water’s-eye view of zero-G. 

On April 10, the Artemis II crew—Commander Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, and mission specialists Koch and Hansen—splashed down after their historic 10-day mission. Along the way, they surpassed Apollo 13’s record for farthest crewed spaceflight and captured breathtaking photographs of the far side of the moon. They also ate a lot of hot sauce and troubleshooted relatable toilet troubles. Their scientific work also will help prepare future astronauts to live and work on the moon, as NASA builds a future Moon Base and looks towards further expeditions to Mars.

The post Watch the Artemis II astronauts have fun with bubbles appeared first on Popular Science.

Ramses II (1303–1213 BCE), aka Ramses the Great, is easily one of ancient Egyptian history’s most recognizable rulers. While he isn’t the pharaoh cited in the biblical story of Exodus (a common misconception), Ramses II remained a certifiably powerful and accomplished king who oversaw Egypt’s New Kingdom for roughly 66 years at the height of its influence and grandeur.

This pharaoh wanted everyone to know it, too. Ramses II was responsible for many massive architectural projects across the kingdom, including sprawling temple complexes and extensive gold mining operations. These endeavors also included towering monuments carved in his image. In the eastern Nile Delta, archaeologists recently discovered the top portion of yet another statue of his highness. 

The sculpture section is now stored in a secure facility for further examination. Credit: Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities

Located at the ancient site of Imet now known as Tel Faraoun, the sculpture’s proportions are in keeping with Ramses II’s sense of grandeur. According to the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, the upper half is 7.2-feet-tall and weighs between five and six tons. To guard against further damage, Egyptologists quickly relocated the statue fragment to a nearby storage facility, where they will analyze and restore the artifact for potential public display.

The over 3,000-year-old statement piece is in comparatively rough condition today, but archaeologists believe its surviving artistic details almost certainly tie it to Ramses II. Despite its size, experts also say the statue wasn’t crafted by nearby artisans. Instead, it was likely made in Pi-Ramsesse, the Egyptian capital established by the pharaoh himself, before workers transported it roughly 15 miles north to Imet.

The statue was likely crafted elsewhere before being transported to the site. Credit: Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities

But despite the statue’s enormity, researchers suspect it was once part of an even larger installation. Many similar archaeological sites have included immense sculpture projects called triads, which depict a ruler between a pair of deities to confer divine authority and safekeeping. 

Regardless of religious favor, life was apparently kind to Ramses II. Historical records indicate that by the time of his death in 1213 BCE, the pharaoh was 90 years old and father to somewhere between 88 and103 children.

The post Archaeologists discover 7-foot-tall statue of legendary Egyptian pharaoh appeared first on Popular Science.

The sun is an incomprehensibly gigantic, constantly roiling nuclear furnace—but some days are even busier than others. Based on data collected by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, our solar system’s central star recently fired off not one, but two impressive X-class flares within hours of each other. The sun emitted an initial X2.4 solar flare at 9:07 p.m. EDT on April 23, followed by an X2.5 sibling of extremely hot, charged energy at 4:13 a.m. EDT the next morning. But while the X-class designation signifies the most intense tier of events, the latest pair pale in comparison to some of the most powerful on record.

Solar flares are as inevitable as they are powerful. While the sun’s baseline may seem chaotic to us, astronomers know that the yellow star follows a relatively predictable, 11-year cycle of electromagnetic fluctuation. These timelines switch between apex and nadir phases known as the solar maximum and minimum. In October 2024, NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Space Weather Prediction Center confirmed that the sun had entered its most recent, roughly year-long solar maximum. Although it’s now firmly out of that phase, the sun still produces regular flares across its surface.

How solar activity affects Earth depends on a range of factors, including an emission’s strength and its direction. Direct encounters can affect the planet’s magnetosphere, generating colorful auroras, while also disrupting radio communication, GPS, satellite operations, and energy grids. Other times, we may barely even notice when a flare happens. 

Flare strength is classified in ascending tiers, with each subsequent level denoting at least a tenfold increase in power. A-class events are the weakest, followed by the B, C, M, and X-class.

Although the recent X2.4 and X2.5 flares were strong enough to cause temporary radio blackouts over portions of the Pacific Ocean, Australia, and East Asia, they don’t even rank in the top 50 strongest examples on record. The most powerful solar flare ever observed took place on November 4, 2003. The massive flare was rated at least X40, if not higher. The associated coronal mass ejection erupted into space at a speed of over 2.6 million miles per hour, causing massive energy grid and communications disruptions.

The post The sun just fired off two massive solar flares appeared first on Popular Science.

The brain of a honeybee (Apis mellifera) weighs less than one milligram and contains fewer than one million neurons, but that may be more than enough for surprisingly complex calculations. For decades, cognitive researchers and biologists have debated just how much the seemingly simple insects can comprehend. The answer may sound inconsequential, but it has major implications for how intelligence functions and evolves across species. Now, a team at Monash University in Australia says they have a definitive answer about bee smarts: Earth’s vital pollinators are pretty good at counting.

Previous work has indicated that bees understand addition, subtraction, and even the concept of zero. While skeptics countered with the theory that the insects are solely reacting to visual cues, some biological scientists including Scarlett Howard remained confident in their assessment.

“It can be challenging to put ourselves in the mind of a bee to imagine how they see the world, but trying to see the world through an animal’s eyes is an essential part of our work,” Howard said in a statement. “The bees always surprise us with how they move through the world, interpret our questions, and make decisions.”

To investigate the honeybee’s environmental comprehension, Howard’s team reviewed stimulus queues—in this case, increasing the varieties and quantities of black shapes on a surface—but with an added twist. They also included a blank surface to represent “zero” in their experiments.Using reward-based incentives, they then analyzed how well honeybees learned to comprehend and associate number frequency with shapes and numbers based on visual capabilities.

According to the team’s study recently published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, they eliminated the theory that honeybee choices are only influenced by low-level perceptual hints.

“This finding strongly suggests that bees were engaging in abstract numerical reasoning rather than relying on spatial frequency alone—something that a purely associative, frequency-based mechanism cannot explain,” the study’s authors wrote.

University of Trento neuroscientist and collaborator Mirko Zanon added, “Our results show that [previous] criticism doesn’t hold when you consider the biology of the animal.”

Outside of a laboratory setting, these cognitive skills may translate to a honeybee’s ability to count flower petals to determine and remember which plants are the most nourishing. The findings also may help improve artificial intelligence modelling, showing that in some cases, “less is more” when it comes to computational needs. Regardless, the team’s discoveries underscore the importance of appreciating nature’s wide, often surprising range of cognition.

“We see and experience the world quite differently from animals, so we must be careful of centering human perspectives and senses when studying animal intelligence,” said Howard.

The post Honeybees understand basic math appeared first on Popular Science.

Just a few weeks ago, I had a long-haul flight to Europe from the East Coast. As I packed and prepared, excited about what was planned, I also wondered and worried: How the heck was I going to sleep on this eight-hour flight, so I wasn’t sleepwalking through sightseeing the next day?

It’s a conundrum many of us have faced. There are TikTok videos, articles, products, and advice galore about how to meet the challenge. But what exactly does the science say? What’s the best way to sleep on a plane?  

Popular Science went to the experts. Here’s why it’s so difficult to get sleep on a plane, and how to set yourself up for the best chance of getting some shut eye up in the air.

Why it’s so hard to sleep on planes 

Nearly every environmental cue is working against us on planes, making it near impossible to get to sleep. The human body evolved to sleep in dark and quiet spaces, explains clinical psychologist and sleep scientist Dr. Joseph Dzierzewski, senior vice president of research and scientific affairs at the National Sleep Foundation.

A circadian rhythm—our body’s internal clock—guides us. It helps regulate our cycles of sleep and wakefulness and is largely set by our exposure to the sun, he says. 

Inside an airplane, we get the opposite. Not only are we sitting upright—or only slightly reclined in smaller and smaller airplane seats—but light and noise are unpredictable and largely outside our control on a flight. A seatmate may decide to turn on their reading light all night—or the guy in the row behind you keeps calling the flight attendants for one more cup of water. 

Cabin conditions and timing add to the challenge. The air on planes is dry, which can contribute to dehydration, and long-haul flight schedules often don’t line up with our normal sleep window. 

And, when we attempt to force sleep at the wrong time for our body clock, we can get frustrated and anxious, Dzierzewski says. That can lead to a kind of performance anxiety about sleep itself that only makes it harder to drift off as we start worrying about being too tired for the next day’s business meeting or sightseeing excursion. 

Airplane seats have been getting steadily smaller since the 1970s. Image: Jon Hicks / Getty Images Jon Hicks

Even that much-touted in-flight drink can backfire. Alcohol contributes to dehydration and can also mean more overnight bathroom trips, sleep and health experts say.

Beware of TikTok advice

It’s also important to be cautious of advice from TikTok or Instagram influencers without a background in sleep science and plane safety. 

“Just because we all sleep does not make everyone a sleep expert,” Dzierzewski says. “Sleep is a science. You should want to consume sleep information from people with advanced degrees who are credible, trustworthy, independent, and perhaps not mainstream influencers.” 

Viral TikTok travel hack is actually a really bad idea

For instance, a viral TikTok travel hack claims to help you get better shut-eye in the air with a sleep position best suited for a contortionist. In the videos, travelers put their knees up against their chest and strap the seatbelt around their ankles or legs to keep them in place, which they claim allows them to rest more easily.

Don’t do it, say doctors and experts. Strapping the seatbelt around your legs poses serious safety risks if you encounter turbulence or another emergency while in the air. The posture could also set you up for a potentially fatal blood clot.

Don’t do this. Video: Wrap the seatbelt around your legs, @ZoreTomek

The position impedes blood in the veins in your lower extremities from getting back to your heart, says Dr. Marc J. Kahn, chief of hematology at the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, who spoke with Popular Science.

That creates stasis, or sluggish, pooled blood, which increases your risk for a blood clot in an environment that’s already conducive to clotting, Kahn says. When you sit for long periods, blood flow in the legs slows down.

How to actually sleep on a plane

Unfortunately, there is no single miracle hack to ensure you get a few hours of sleep on a plane, especially for those of us confined to seats that don’t convert into beds—something I experienced firsthand on my own red-eye flight to Europe. But, experts say, there are some practical strategies to improve your odds of getting some sleep on a plane. 

Control light and noise 

You can’t control what your seatmate—or the guy behind you—does when the cabin lights dim, but you can take some control of your personal environment. Pack an eye mask to create darkness, and earplugs or noise-canceling headphones to blunt the roar of engines or the endless chatter of the person in front of you. Some travelers love a neck pillow, but it’s not for everyone. 

Related 'Ask Us Anything' Stories

The best sleep position, according to science

Why are airline seats so small? It all started in 1978.

White noise vs brown noise: What’s the best sound for sleeping?

How do airplane toilets work?

Is it better to be a morning person or a night owl? What the science says.

Is turbulence really like Jell-O? Pilots weigh in.

“You want to create a more welcoming environment for yourself when you’re on the plane as much as possible,” says Erin Clifford, a licensed professional counselor, who works with professionals about maintaining wellness routines while traveling, and author of Wellness Reimagined. 

“When we zone everyone around us out, it can help a little bit with our sleep.”

Prepare before you board 

Good in-flight sleep starts on the ground, Clifford says. Before a long flight, avoid heavy meals and caffeine and stay hydrated. Some travelers may benefit from carefully timed melatonin, a sleep-promoting hormone, under medical guidance, or apps that gradually shift sleep schedules toward the destination time zone. 

To wear yourself out—don’t skip your workout that day, Clifford says. “When we exert ourselves, it makes us want to sleep more.” 

Create a familiar, soothing routine

To work with your body clock, replicate home sleep cues in the air. Wear comfortable clothing and swap your screen for a book, podcast, or audiobook as “lights out” approaches, experts recommend. Tune into a white noise app through your headphones or slather on some favorite lotion if that’s something you do at home.

“If you’re a person who always does A, B, and C before bed, and you have a night flight and you want to try to sleep on this flight, if you can translate any of those behaviors or activities to the plane, go for it,” Dzierzewski says. “It’ll help serve as a cue that this is a safe place and it’s time for me to prepare for bed.” 

Maybe the secret to sleeping on a plane is just being exhausted. Image: SolStock / Getty Images SolStock Adjust your expectations

Even with perfect preparation, be realistic. Few people get a great night’s sleep on an airplane. Control what you can, and accept that some variables—from chatty seatmates to turbulence—will always be out of your control.

“Effort is the enemy of sleep,” Dzierzewski says. “The harder you try to do it, the more arousing you become, the more anxiety, the more frustrated, and all those emotions are incompatible with sleep.” 

Exhausted enough

During my overnight flight to Frankfurt, I did what the sleep and travel experts I’d interviewed recommended. The screen on the back of my seat froze—mid-movie—so I ended my screen time early for the evening. I donned an eye mask and earplugs and tried to get cozy with the airplane-provided blanket and pillow. Earlier in the day, I made sure to make time for my usual exercise routine and walked up and down the terminal for an hour before we boarded. 

Sleep came, but fitfully and sporadically. Later that morning, on my two-hour connecting flight, however, something different happened. Without all those extras, my eyes barely stayed open for takeoff. I slept for nearly the entire flight. Not even the noise of the drink and snack service jostled me awake. My eyes opened as we landed and, ultimately, the first day of my long-awaited vacation was everything I hoped it would be. 

So, perhaps, the moral of the story is this: Sometimes, to sleep on a plane, you just need to be exhausted enough. 

In Ask Us Anything, Popular Science answers your most outlandish, mind-burning questions, from the everyday things you’ve always wondered to the bizarre things you never thought to ask. Have something you’ve always wanted to know? Ask us.

The post The best way to sleep on a plane, according to science appeared first on Popular Science.

About 2,200 years ago, a Roman Republic ship sank off the coast of modern-day Croatia, with wood and amphorae (ancient storage containers) of wine on board. Scientists are not sure why it sank, but the Ilovik–Paržine 1 shipwreck was discovered in 2016. However, the archeologists and researchers behind a new study published today in the journal Frontiers in Materials weren’t interested in its precious cargo. The ship’s critical waterproofing layer was their treasure. 

This unique protective layer on a ship traps pollen in its stickiness just like tree sap. By studying the type and quantity of pollen, as well as the molecular composition of the coating itself, researchers can start forming theories about where the boat was when this essential coating was created and applied. 

“In archaeology little attention is paid to organic waterproofing materials. Yet they are essential for navigation at sea or on rivers and are true witnesses of past naval technologies,” Armelle Charrié-Duhaut, first author of the paper and an archaeometrist from the University of Strasbourg in France, said in a statement. 

As such, Charrié-Duhaut and her colleagues employed structural, molecular, and pollen analyses to investigate 10 coating samples from Ilovik–Paržine 1. The waterproofing layer’s “molecular fingerprint” thus came to light, revealing that either heated coniferous tree resin or heated coniferous tar (also called pitch) was the main ingredient in all their samples. However, according to one sample, some unknown quantity of the coating consisted of a mixture of beeswax and tar that Greek shipbuilders called zopissa. 

“The use of pitch and beeswax by the Greeks is mentioned in Pliny the Elder’s Natural History (XVI, 23),” Charrié-Duhaut tells Popular Science. “The identification of this mixture on the Ilovik-Paržine 1 shipwreck attests to the continued use of this type of composition in an Adriatic context.”

The use of zopissa on an ancient Roman ship also supports the hypothesis that the vessel was built in Brundisium. Now the present-day Italian city of Brindisi, the region was in contact with mainland Italy’s Greek colonies at the time. The pollen analysis aligns with this theory as well, indicating that part of the coatings were put on the ship in proximity to that area. The ship may have received others somewhere on the northeastern Adriatic coast—where it met its final doom.  

More broadly, the pollen came from a diverse group of environments, including forests of holly oak and pine,shrublands with olive and hazel trees, areas with alder and ash trees, and regions with fir and beech trees. Some of these plants are typical of Mediterranean and Adriatic coasts and valleys.

As for the protective layers themselves, the vessel probably received four to five different rounds of coatings. The same layer was applied on the stern and central part of the ship, but the bow had three separate batches of application, which may suggest consecutive patch-up jobs using materials from across the Mediterranean. 

“Our study highlights navigation routes based on clues related to the ship’s construction areas

and, especially, to the different phases of coating application on the ship. It suggests that this vessel traveled between the western Adriatic coast, where it was likely built and where the first layer of coating was applied, and the eastern Adriatic coast,” says Charrié-Duhaut. “Movements between the southern and northern sections of this eastern coastline are also possible, where repairs or recoating could have been carried out during the ship’s lifetime.”

The post 2,200-year-old Roman shipwreck unlocks mysteries of how ships were built and repaired appeared first on Popular Science.