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.

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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.

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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. 

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“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.

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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.”

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Around 100 million years ago, real kraken-like creatures stalked Earth’s prehistoric oceans. According to a study published today in the journal Science, some of the planet’s oldest known octopuses measured nearly 65-feet-long and ruled their underwater domains.

“Our findings suggest that the earliest octopuses were gigantic predators that occupied the top of the marine food chain in the Cretaceous,” Yasuhiro Iba, a study co-author and marine paleontologist at Hokkaido University in Japan, explained in a statement, adding that they “may have surpassed the size of large marine reptiles of the same age.”

Invertebrates like these are notorious for leaving little trace of their existence. Without bones, there simply isn’t much material to fossilize or preserve for millions of years. But as with today’s cephalopods, the huge octopuses of the Cretaceous Period featured powerful, beak-like jaws used to devour their prey. Unlike the rest of their bodies, these appendages frequently become excellent fossil specimens after coming to rest on the calm ocean seafloor.

Iba’s team examined prehistoric jaws from octopuses belonging to members from the still-living Ciratta subgroup found in rock samples in Japan and on Vancouver Island in Canada. They then used an imaging technique known as high-resolution grinding tomography to scan each sample before using a machine learning program to build a rough anatomical sketch of the creatures.

The results were startling. Dating estimates on the jaws push back the fossil record for giant, finned octopuses by around 15 million years, as well as the wider octopus timeline by 5 million years. This means the invertebrates first arrived around 100 million years ago during the Late Cretaceous.

The state of the jaws revealed another surprise. In both examined species, one side of the jaw was often more eroded than the other. This implies the octopuses displayed lateralization—a behavioral asymmetry tied to living animals with highly evolved neural processing abilities. If true, octopuses have been especially smart for a very long time.

Overall wear-and-tear on the jaws indicates that the invertebrates didn’t choose the easiest prey, either. Some adult specimens had even lost around 10 percent of their jaw tips relative to their total length.

“This indicates repeated, forceful interactions with their prey, revealing an unexpectedly aggressive feeding strategy,” said Iba.

Taken altogether, the discoveries contradict a longstanding evolutionary theory that vertebrates were designed to become the oceans’ apex predators. In actuality, these ancient kraken proved they didn’t need a backbone to be terrifying.

“Our findings show that powerful jaws and the loss of superficial skeletons, common characteristics of octopuses and marine vertebrates, were essential to becoming huge, intelligent marine predators” added Iba.

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Some pretty tough muscles lay beneath the macaroni penguin’s (Eudyptes chrysolophus) somewhat goofy exterior. These small penguins from the islands and waters of the South Atlantic Ocean are known for their distinctive bright-yellow plumes. They are also built for powerful and efficient movement for both walking and swimming, according to a study recently published in the journal The Anatomical Record.

Since penguins don’t fly through the air like most birds, they’ve evolved to fly through the water instead. For macaroni penguins, their key wing muscles look different than in flying birds. For example, a muscle responsible for lifting the wing called the supracoracoideus is much larger in penguins. A bigger supracoracoideus allows them to generate more power during the upstroke and downstroke of their flipper motion, which appears to be a crucial adaptation for swimming through dense water. This special configuration of shoulder muscles also gives penguins a stroke akin to underwater flying that has a stronger backwards component. This backwards motion improves their propulsion through water, which is over 700 times more dense than air and offers more resistance. 

The study also solved a penguin mystery that has puzzled scientists for over 100 years. A distinct muscle in the macaroni penguin’s hindlimb appears to help the penguin’s legs stay tucked close together. Just like with dolphins, whales, and even humans, that streamlined posture makes the penguins more efficient swimmers, while also helping them maintain balance while standing up on two legs when on land. The team proposes that this new hindlimb muscle be called the adductor tibialis.

The penguin’s signature waddle may also come from this combination of leg position and specialized muscles that keep their limbs close to their body. While it looks clumsy to us, that walk is an energy-efficient way to get around on land and in the water. 

According to the team, solving these anatomical puzzles could help penguins in zoos and wildlife rehabilitation settings. Understanding the penguin musculature could improve veterinary care, injury treatment, and rehabilitation strategies.

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Astronomers knew 3I/ATLAS wasn’t a local comet not long after first spotting it in July 2025. As only the third interstellar object ever detected in our solar system, it offered researchers a rare—and brief—opportunity. With the right timing and equipment, scientists around the world could examine a cosmic visitor who possibly formed under far different conditions than those experienced in our own region of the galaxy.

3I/ATLAS is now sailing away from Earth and our solar system itself, but astronomers have already learned a wealth of information. The fastest comet ever recorded is covered in ice volcanoes, and emits a dusty trail of methanol and cyanide in its wake. 

Earlier this month, the European Space Agency confirmed that 3I/ATLAS is also spewing the equivalent of 70 Olympic swimming pools’ worth of water every day. However, the exact type of water isn’t often seen here on Earth.According to astronomers at the University of Michigan (UM), the hydrogen in the comet’s H2O contains one extra neutron, which technically makes it an isotope called deuterium. The rarity isn’t simply a strange quirk—it indicates 3I/ATLAS originated somewhere much colder than the solar system.

“Our new observations show that the conditions that led to the formation of our solar system are much different from how planetary systems evolved in different parts of our galaxy,” Luis Salazar Manzano, a UM astronomer, said in a statement.

The co-author of a paper published today in the journal Nature Astronomy, Manzano explained that 3I/ATLAS contains 30 times the deuterium seen in other comets, as well as 40 times the amount that exists in Earth’s oceans.

“The amount of deuterium with respect to ordinary hydrogen in water is higher than anything we’ve seen before in other planetary systems and planetary comets,” he added.

Measuring subatomic particles in a comet millions of miles away required some of the most sensitive tools available. Manzano and colleagues utilized equipment at the MDM Observatory in Arizona, while also collaborating with astronomers at the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile. Thanks to ALMA, the team could separate standard and deuterated water in the comet, then get accurate ratio estimates between the two. It’s not only impressive—it’s the first time anyone successfully accomplished the analysis on an interstellar object.

So what does a lot of deuterium mean, exactly? For one thing, 3I/ATLAS’ birthplace was much colder than conditions that created our solar system—less than 30 degrees Kelvin, or -387.67 Fahrenheit. The region likely also experienced much lower levels of radiation.

“Gas-phase and ice-grain deuterium enrichments occur through chemical processes that operate at low temperatures (<30 K) pointing towards an origin in the prestellar molecular cloud or in the outer parts of the protoplanetary disk,” the study’s authors wrote.

Since the Milky Way galaxy is a vast place, it may not come as a huge surprise to learn other locations exhibit different formative environments. But as astronomer and study co-author Teresa Paneque-Carreño explained, you can’t base science on assumptions—even when they sound ironclad on their own.

“This is proof that whatever the conditions were that led to the creation of our solar system are not ubiquitous throughout space,” said Paneque-Carreño. “That may sound obvious, but it’s one of those things that you need to prove.”

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Some much-needed relief may be on the way for beloved “flat-faced” dog breeds. After over 15 years of research, a team of scientists from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Australia and biotechnology company Snoretox have created a new treatment they say can ease breathing in flat-faced dogs. Called Snoretox-1, the new injectable treatment uses a modified version of tetanus toxin. It is  placed directly into the dog’s geniohyoid muscle—in the inside of the mouth, on top of the throat area. Snoretox-1  works to improve muscle tone in the mouth, which helps keep the airway open, and could potentially be an alternative to invasive surgery. 

While pugs, bulldogs, and similar flat-faced dogs are adored by many for their snubbed-nose look, their undeniable cuteness comes at a steep cost. Generations of selective breeding have shortened the bones in the skull, blocking airflow and leading to a condition called BOAS (brachycephalic obstructive airway syndrome).This chronic upper airway obstruction condition is responsible for the breeds’ notoriously beleaguered breathing. A study published in the journal PLOS One in February, found that nearly 90 percent  of flat-faced dogs studied had at least some difficulty breathing. More than half (54 percent) fell into the more concerning category “clinically significant.” The issue, which limits the dogs’ ability to sleep and exercise, has even prompted some countries including Norway and The Netherlands to ban the breeds altogether.

As far as new breathing treatments, Snoretox-1seems to work so far. In clinical tests of six bulldogs, each saw improvement and could  complete a brief walk that had previously left them struggling to breathe. And while the researchers are focusing first on BOAS due to its widespread impact, the team believes a similar treatment could be adopted down the line to address other medical issues involving weak muscle tone in dogs, and possibly even other animals. Results of the study were recently published in The Veterinary Journal

“This project is focused on making a real difference to animals, with the potential for broader impact in the future,” Calum Drummond, RMIT Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research and professor said in a statement. 

Snoretox-1 drug being injected into a bulldog’s geniohyoid muscle. Image: RMIT University / Snoretox
The cost of cuteness 

While BOAS has been widely observed in pugs for years, more recent research suggests that the condition affects a wider range of dog breeds than once thought, including Shih Tzus, Boston terriers, King Charles spaniels, Pomeranians, boxers, and Chihuahuas. At its worst, airflow blockage impairs the dog’s breathing at all times, leading to difficulty sleeping and constant snoring even while they’re awake. Difficulty tolerating walks or exercise leads some dogs to put on excess weight, worsening  their health problems as they age. These breathing issues are also a major contributor to why short-nosed breeds tend to have a lifespan several years shorter than longer-nosed dogs.

Until now, owners of these dogs had two real options: Medical management like weight loss and applying sedative, or invasive surgery to widen nostrils and remove excess throat tissue. Surgery can provide a lifeline for dogs with severe BOAS cases, but it doesn’t always work and it exposes the dog to another danger. Past studies show dogs undergoing BOAS surgery have a mortality rate of just under three percent.

“BOAS Syndrome is a highly significant yet often inadequately treated condition,” the team wrote in the paper.

Bulldogs could walk without choking

This new injection works by combining an active tetanus toxin with inactivated, or “decoy,” tetanus toxin. The underside of the throat was chosen as the injection site both for its efficacy and relative ease of physical access. In testing, the six bulldogs received the treatment and assessments were taken 14 days after, 28 days after, and then every four weeks. To gauge whether it was working, the dogs’ owners were asked to provide daily observations about their pets’ alertness, appetite, drinking behavior, and any observable signs of distress. The most important finding was that all of the dogs appeared to handle their walk with noticeably less physical burden and effort.

It’s still not entirely clear how the treatment will hold up over longer periods of study or among more dogs and breeds. When or where it will be available is also unclear. Popular Science reached out to Snoretox about when the treatment is expected to reach the market but had not heard back by the time of publication. More testing will also be needed before we know if  a similar treatment could work for other medical issues.

If it becomes widely accessible, the drug could be a welcome development for flat-faced dogs and their owners. Scientists previously developed a special collar called the FitBark. Similar to how smartwatches and rings track sleep in humans FitBark provides more precise analysis of a dog’s sleep patterns before and after BOAS surgeries.. Prior to that, knowing whether surgeries actually improved a dog’s breathing relied largely on subjective observation from owners, which isn’t ideal.

While there are still some unknowns, the new findings suggest pugs and other flat nosed dogs may soon be able to breathe just a bit easier. 

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The entire field of archaeology hinges on what can withstand the test of time. This typically means that most excavations center on hard evidence including structural remains, pottery, weapons, or metalwork. Occasionally, researchers discover something softer that’s been preserved for thousands of years despite the odds. In Switzerland, archaeologists recently identified what may be an especially rare find. While clearing the grounds of an upcoming residential development about 20 miles northeast of Zurich, specialists at the Aargau Cantonal Archaeology service found what they believe is a chunk of charred, 2000-year-old Roman bread.

The “alleged pastry” described in an online post from the Aargau Cantonal Department of Education is approximately four inches wide and 1.2 inches thick and likely a type of flatbread. Researchers spotted the burnt morsel in August 2025 while combing through a 43,000-square-foot area near the Roman site of Vindonissa. Known for its strategic position along major river routes, Vindonissa began as an outpost for Roman legion soldiers in what was once the empire’s northern frontier.

Archaeologists needed to carefully excavate the bread within surrounding earth before transporting it to a lab. Credit: Canton of Aargau KAA 6

However, archaeologists have questioned the settlement’s origins for decades. Until the latest excavations, it was unclear when Vindonissa expanded from a temporary encampment into a full-fledged and permanent military fortification. Based on the latest findings, it seems Rome’s presence in the area solidified earlier than previously believed. An exact date remains unclear, but military legions certainly operated a well-stocked and furnished hub well before the first century CE.

Rarities like this preserved bread are exceptionally unique artifacts. Food and other organic materials generally decays extremely quickly, unless they are preserved under intense circumstances. The most common examples occur thanks to sudden carbonization—a process that only happens in disastrous situations like the volcanic destruction of Pompeii in 79 CE. Until they conduct a laboratory analysis, archaeologists won’t be able to provide a confident theory of how the Roman flatbread has survived for thousands of years. That said, its charred condition certainly suggests some kind of kitchen mishap.

Regardless, the new information gleaned from Vindonissa will help experts better understand more than simply when Rome extended its reach into present-day Switzerland. Rare finds like the ancient bread also contextualize and humanize history—while reminding us that humans have always loved our bread.

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For humans, humidity often makes us cranky, sweaty, and downright uncomfortable. For sweat bees, humidity changes their already vibrant colors. According to research recently published in the journal Biology Letters, moisture in the air makes the bees go from blue to green. 

“When people think of bees, they often picture drab, brown honey bees,” Dr. Madeleine Ostwald, a study co-author and behavioral ecologist at Queen Mary University of London, said in a statement. “In reality, bees are incredibly diverse and colourful—and we’re only just starting to understand how their appearance reflects the climate they live in.”

A sweat bee in the wild. Image: Photo ©Jeremiah Bender.

Insects use color to help control their body temperature, communicate, camouflage, and more. However, it’s still unknown how color shifts affect their behavior or ability to survive in the wild.  There are nearly 4,500 known sweat bee species. These largely harmless bees are native to North America, but can be found on every continent except Antarctica. The name “sweat bee” comes from their supposed attraction to human sweat. As far as appearances, sweat bees are known for their bright, metallic green and blue hues that anecdotal evidence suggests change color from time to time. This study provides the first experimental proof of their chameleon-esque capabilities. 

For this study, the team looked at the fine-striped sweat bee (Agapostemon subtilior), a species found in North America. They placed the bees in dry air, where they appeared a deep blue color. When the humidity increased, they changed into a more copper-green. Once the air dried out again, they returned to their original blue.

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In most animals, color comes from pigments. Instead of pigments, sweat bees get their color from microscopic structures on their bodies that scatter and reflect light at particular wavelengths. This same wavelength warping effect creates the iridescent feathers of hummingbirds and cuttlefish’s shifting scales.

These tiny structures also swell slightly when exposed to moisture in some animals. The swelling makes them reflect more red colors. A similar process may be happening in bees—even if they are not turning red—but more work is needed to fully understand what’s going on behind the scenes. 

The team also compared the color changes in the lab with those in the wild. They analyzed hundreds of photos posted to iNaturalist, comparing the sweat bee’s color with local humidity levels. The bees in drier areas tended to appear more blue, matching what they observed in the lab. 

A single museum specimen (about 1 centimeter long) from the experiment,changing color as it goes from blue in dry air (left) to green in humid air (right). Most of the change happened in the first 24 hours. Image: Photograph by Leslie Cervantes Rivera.

Surprisingly, the older museum specimens they also analyzed showed the strongest color changes. This could be because the bees’ outer shells slowly degrade over time, allowing moisture to get in more easily.

According to the team, these findings suggest that color changing may be common among bees. The insects already display a wide range of shimmering colours and live in environments ranging from dry deserts to moist rainforests.

“Most people associate colour‑change with animals like chameleons that actively control it. These bees aren’t choosing to change colour—it’s happening passively, simply in response to the humidity around them,” said Ostwald. “That adds a whole new layer of mystery to why these colours evolved in the first place.”

The post Humidity makes these bees go from blue to green appeared first on Popular Science.

Yellowstone National Park doesn’t just sit on a volcano—it is a volcano. Underneath the park, red-hot magma reservoirs flow, superheating hot springs and geysers like Old Faithful. This vast volcanic system is known as the Yellowstone Caldera, and with one blast it could plunge the world into chaos. 

About two million years ago, as sabertooth tigers and mastodons roamed the future United States, Yellowstone was a powder keg. Large amounts of hot magma accumulated beneath the Earth’s crust, building pressure and volcanic gases that triggered a major eruption. It was among the largest volcanic eruptions in our planet’s history, blanketing large parts of North America with ash. 

Since then, Yellowstone has seen two more major volcanic eruptions and many smaller ones—earning the name “supervolcano.” The three “super” explosions carved out giant craters (or calderas), which contain much of the park and give the Yellowstone Caldera its name. 

Though Yellowstone hasn’t had a supereruption in millennia, it’s impossible not to wonder: Will Yellowstone’s so-called supervolcano ever explode again? 

Yellowstone’s supervolcano isn’t erupting anytime soon—we think

Experts studying the Yellowstone volcano say it probably will erupt again—it’s just a matter of time, a lot of time. A major Yellowstone eruption likely won’t happen for thousands, and potentially millions, of years.  

Scientists say that the magma underneath Yellowstone is mostly solid and not eruptible. One study that identified magma hotspots underneath the Yellowstone Caldera suggests the magma is more concentrated underneath the northeast section, and that magma is shifting in that direction. 

It’s possible that Yellowstone’s magma, as it draws heat from Earth’s mantle and potentially concentrates in the northeast, may one day become liquid enough to erupt. But Poland says the shifting magma could also lose heat and stall as it hits thick, continental rock within the Earth’s crust. 

“We know there’s a magma chamber beneath Yellowstone,” Michael Poland, the scientist-in-charge of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory, tells Popular Science. “But we know that it’s mostly solid, so it’s not really capable of feeding a large eruption. It’s like the odds of being struck by lightning are one in a million, but if you’re standing in a field, not a cloud in the sky, the odds you’re going to be struck in the next five minutes are basically zero.”

Yellowstone might see other volcanic activity sooner

The next volcanic incident in the Yellowstone Caldera likely won’t be a volcanic explosion. A powerful hydrothermal eruption from a geyser, activity that can create impressive craters but has limited impact outside the park, is more likely. 

Named in 1870, Old Faithful is one of the most famous geysers in Yellowstone National Park due to its frequent and consistent hydrothermal explosions. Image: Photography by Deb Snelson / Getty Images Deb Snelson

Another possibility is a lava flow, which occurs when slow-moving, thick lava erupts and forms rock piles that creep across the landscape over months or years.  

The Caldera has already caused a massive bulge in the ground the size of 279 football fields, but Poland says that change isn’t surprising due to the magma flowing beneath the park. 

The term supervolcano can be misleading

Poland isn’t a big fan of the term “supervolcano,” which refers to volcanic systems that have experienced eruptions emitting more than 1,000 cubic kilometers of magma, ash, and other volcanic deposits. 

Poland says using the term “supervolcano” for Yellowstone can be misleading, because it implies the system experiences only supereruptions, when lava flow eruptions are far more common. Still, the last lava flow incident was about 70,000 years ago.

These days, Poland worries more about hazards from hydrothermal eruptions or earthquakes, many unrelated to volcanic activity, in the park. 

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At the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory, a consortium of scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey, the National Park Service, and several universities constantly monitor the Yellowstone volcanic system. They tap into a network of seismic stations, which measure earthquake activity, and steam gauging stations, which monitor volcanic heat release.

If Yellowstone’s volcano were to erupt, scientists at the observatory would likely know weeks to months beforehand. As of now, it looks like we’re safe—though experts like Poland are keeping a close watch. 

But what if Yellowstone’s supervolcano did erupt?

Poland says the chances of a major eruption in the Yellowstone Caldera within the human timeline are as close to zero as it gets. But what if Yellowstone did erupt while billions of humans still walked this planet?

Yellowstone National Park covers nearly 3,500 square miles, mostly in Wyoming. Every year, the national park welcomes roughly 5 million visitors. 

If the supervolcano erupted tomorrow, it would happen like this: hot magma would have already accumulated in the Earth’s mantle, building more and more pressure—until cracks formed in the Earth’s crust. Then, magma would finally burst forth in a massive explosion. 

Upon eruption, the immediate radius, including parts of Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho, would be swept clean—as huge eruption columns, pillars of superheated volcanic ash and gas, collapse under their own weight and incinerate the land. 

These avalanches of ash, gas, and rock, known as pyroclastic flows, would wipe out trees, homes, and infrastructure in their path. Any remaining ash would settle over the landscape. 

Using models, scientists at the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory predict that a supereruption would drop thousands of feet of ash within the park radius, and coat communities stretching from Missoula, Montana, to Albuquerque, New Mexico. 

In April 1815, Mount Tambora erupted on Sumbawa Island in present-day Indonesia. The event was the largest volcanic eruption in human history, and plunged the world into a prolonged period of frigid temperatures. Image: mikroman6 / Getty Images mikroman6 The explosion heard around the world

Poland says that a Yellowstone supereruption would drop at least a few millimeters of ash over much of the U.S. and parts of Canada, devastating agriculture, water supplies, and electrical grids. Huge amounts of ash and gas launched into the stratosphere would act as aerosols, blocking sunlight and plunging the Earth into a long period of cold and dark. 

A common example cited by volcanologists modeling the global impact of large volcanic eruptions is the 1815 Mount Tambora eruption in present-day Indonesia. Widely considered the largest eruption in recorded human history, this catastrophic explosion claimed tens of thousands of lives and plunged Earth into the “Year Without Summer”—a prolonged period of low temperatures that ravaged crops and caused widespread famine and disease epidemics around the world.

Based on evidence from past volcanic eruptions and climate models, Poland says scientists believe the effects of a supereruption like Yellowstone could last five to 10 years—though he is confident that Earth would recover. 

“A lot of people would die, but it would not wipe out humanity,” Poland says. “No explosive volcanic eruption has ever been associated with a mass extinction on Earth. We’d make it, but it definitely wouldn’t be fun.”

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 What would happen if Yellowstone’s ‘supervolcano’ erupted today? appeared first on Popular Science.

The fashion industry is ecologically tacky, to put it mildly. Textile manufacturers guzzle around 200 million liters of water every year, while animal leather generates its own immense environmental burdens. But out of everything we wear on any given day, shoes are some of the most unsustainable accessories. As much as 95 percent of all footwear ends up in landfills, where all that rubber, plastic, and foam takes generations to decompose.

While there is no easy recipe for crafting a greener shoe, researchers at Belgium’s Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) hope to find a solution in fungi. Together with La Monnaie/De Munt opera house’s head shoemaker, Marie De Ryck, the team unveiled a new experiment ahead of Milan Design Week: the world’s first boot crafted entirely from mycelium.

Fungi is most recognizable above ground in the form of spongy mushrooms, but they’re only a fraction of the organisms’ larger story. Below the soil, fungi are frequently connected by miles of fibrous webs of mycelium. These networks transport vital environmental information between fungi on precipitation, soil health, sunlight access, and more. The communications are so detailed that many mycologists consider these webs a form of intelligence.

Fungi and their mycelial networks are now being applied in some exciting spaces, including organic computing and even mushroom-powered toilets. But according to VUB microbiologists, those fungal roots can also be engineered to form every necessary component in a shoe. This goes beyond previous experiments that utilized mushrooms only for surface materials or leather substitutes.

There is a reason such a project hasn’t succeeded in the past—mycelium simply isn’t easy to utilize. It took over two years of trial-and-error to find a balance between natural growth and resilience. Ultimately, the biggest issue was figuring out a way to take mycelia grown as flat sheets and transform them into a three-dimensional, supportive sole of a shoe. In the end, designers settled on two types of fungi—one to supply the foamlike, malleable sole, and another for the shoe’s leathery upper section.

“This is a conceptual object intended to frame what is currently possible with the material,” VUB designer Lars Dittrich explained in a statement. “It reflects…addressing how we grow and craft this material, made from a microorganism, into a functional three-dimensional form.”

“While the initial material samples posed a real challenge and did not immediately meet the technical requirements of a complex shoe construction, the progress we have made is truly inspiring,” added De Ryck.

While the early prototype may not exactly be ready for a haute couture runway show, it’s a certainly promising step forward towards truly sustainable footwear.

The post This shoe is made entirely from mushroom ‘brains’ appeared first on Popular Science.

In the latest episode of old museum collections revealing new discoveries, two researchers in Australia have solved a paleontological mystery with an Ice Age fossil first discovered over  100 years ago.

The fossil was found in  the underground Foul Air Cave in Buchan, Victoria, Australia. It’s the partial skull of an Owen’s giant echidna (Megalibgwilia owenii), a now-extinct giant echidna that weighed 33.1 pounds and grew up to 3.3 feet-long. The genus name, Megalibgwilia, consists of “mega” (great or mighty in Ancient Greek) and “libgwil” (the Wemba Wemba word for echidna). 

“The apparent absence of the extinct large-bodied Owen’s Giant Echidna Megalibgwilia owenii from Victoria is unusual in light of its wide distribution across the continent’s southeast including Tasmania,” the researchers write in a paper recently published in the journal Alcheringa: An Australasian Journal of Palaeontology. “It is the first example of Megalibgwilia identified from Victoria, and reconciles the taxon’s otherwise disjunct southern distribution across mainland Australia.”

Though the fossil was retrieved from a cave in Buchan, researchers identified it in Museums Victoria’s Palaeontology Collection. Tim Ziegler—collection manager of vertebrate palaeontology at Museums Victoria Research Institute—initially spotted it in 2021, and found it came from a 1907 expedition by Frank Spry, a naturalist and museum officer. 

The Megalibgwilia owenii fossil. Image: Museums Victoria

“Museum collections preserve the link between science, heritage and people,” Ziegler, lead author of the study, said in a statement. “Over a century ago, Spry along with scientists and locals investigated Buchan’s caves with little more than ropes and kerosene lamps, and they inspired us to carry on their work.”

Ziegler and his co-author Jeremy Lockett, a Deakin University vertebrate palaeontology student, investigated modern and fossil echidnas in other Australian museum collections, presumably comparing them to the one from the Museums Victoria. Its characteristic straight-beaked snout, with which it would have crushed big insects and dug into Ice Age Australian soils, verified it to be an Owen’s giant echidna.

“Previous research by Museums Victoria has shown the Buchan Caves preserve an exceptional record of Australia’s unique megafauna,” Ziegler said. “The next amazing discovery could come from inside the museum, from continued fieldwork, or the keen eyes of a citizen scientist.”

Today, echidnas are egg-laying, spiky-looking, long-nosed mammals that live in places including Australia and Indonesia. They grow 14 to 30 inches long, weigh 5.5 to 22 pounds, and are endangered. And sometimes, these hedgehog-like creatures end up in shark vomit. 

The post New megafauna looked like spiky, 30-pound hamster appeared first on Popular Science.

Who doesn’t love a brownie? It’s the ultimate comfort food—beloved around the world and even beyond it. Astronauts aboard the International Space Station have brownies on their menu too.

But what makes a perfect brownie? That depends on who you ask. Some like a light, cake-like crumb. Others want a dense, fudgy center or a chewy bite. 

To tailor your brownies to your taste, you need to understand the science behind them. “Each ingredient has a specific role, and the ratios between them determine whether the brownie turns out fudgy, cakey, or chewy,” explains Dr. Lesa Tran, a chemistry professor at Rice University. 

What each ingredient really does Flour

Flour is the backbone of your brownie. When mixed with water, its proteins (gliadin and glutenin) link up to form gluten, a network that gives structure, explains Tran.

The more flour you add—and the more you mix it—the stronger that network becomes. The result? A lighter, more cake-like texture. Use less flour and mix minimally, and you’ll keep your brownies dense and fudgy.

Sugar

Sugar does far more than sweeten.

In the oven, it breaks down (or “caramelizes”) and reacts with proteins, a process known as the Maillard reaction. These processes create deep, complex flavors and aromas, says Tran. 

Sugar also locks in moisture by binding to water, keeping brownies soft.

And that shiny, crackly crust? That’s sugar too. In the oven, sugar dissolved in the brownie mixture rises to the surface and re-forms into crystals, which create that signature crust, explains Tran.

If you use less flour in your brownie batter, you’ll end up with fudgier brownies. Image: Getty Images / Mint Images

For chewier brownies, use more brown than white sugar, Tran suggests. This adds more chew because it has more molasses (thick, dark brown syrup obtained from sugar beet and sugar cane plants).

If you want to cut back on sugar without sacrificing taste and texture, try using a finer sugar like caster sugar instead of granulated sugar. Scientists studied the effect of different sugar particle sizes on chocolate brownies and found that brownies made with smaller sugar particles tasted sweeter, and were also softer and moister than those made with larger sugar crystals. So if you want a fudgy brownie with less sugar, go for caster sugar.

Fat

Should you use butter or oil? Science has the answer.

A study comparing butter to nut oils (like almond, pistachio, or walnut oil) found that, compared to butter-based brownies, oil-based versions are softer, more elastic, and moister—and often preferred in taste tests. They’re also higher in heart-healthy unsaturated fats, and lower in unhealthy, saturated fat.

Whether you use butter or oil, more fat means a richer, fudgier brownie, says Tran.

Eggs

Eggs pull double duty, adding structure and richness. Like flour, they contain proteins that set when heated, giving structure to the brownie, explains Tran. 

Egg yolks also contribute fat, making brownies richer and fudgier.

“Adding more egg whites provides more proteins to create a lighter, cakier texture,” says Tran, “while more egg yolks provide more fat to give a richer, denser result.”

Chocolate

What’s best: melted chocolate or cocoa powder? It depends on what texture you’re after. 

Melted chocolate contains cocoa butter, which solidifies as it cools—giving brownies a dense, fudgy bite. Cocoa powder, with less fat, produces a lighter, drier crumb.

If you use cocoa powder, choose wisely: natural cocoa is more acidic and sharp in flavor, while Dutch-processed cocoa, which is chemically treated to reduce its acidity, is smoother and mellower, says Tran.

Some people like to add chocolate chips to their brownies. The chips’ fat-crystal structure helps them hold their shape somewhat so you get little melty pockets inside the brownie, similar to what happens in chocolate chip cookies.

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Salt

A pinch of salt doesn’t make brownies salty—it actually makes them taste sweeter by helping your taste receptors detect sugar more effectively.

Leavening agent

Baking soda or powder introduces air into the brownie batter, creating lift and a cakier texture, says Tran. Skip them entirely if you want dense, fudgy brownies. 

Science-backed baking tips

The kind of baking pan you use matters. Metal pans heat quickly, resulting in faster bake times and firmer brownie edges, says Tran. Glass and ceramic conduct heat more slowly and retain heat longer, which can lead to uneven baking.

How long you leave the brownies in the oven also affects the end result. Brownies continue to cook when removed from the oven—a phenomenon known as carry-over cooking—because of the heat held within the food itself. 

“For a fudgy center, remove them when a toothpick inserted into the center of the brownie comes out with a few moist crumbs,” says Tran. “For a cakier center, remove them when a toothpick comes out clean.”

The bottom line

To create your perfect brownies, follow one of these formulas: 

• Fudgy: less flour, more fat, more egg yolks, use melted chocolate, no leavening agents. Mix lightly and slightly underbake.
• Cakey: more flour, less fat, more egg whites, use cocoa powder, plus a leavening agent. Bake until fully set.
• Chewy: don’t skimp on sugar (brown not white!) and fat.

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 brownie recipe, according to science appeared first on Popular Science.

Can you measure the weight of a human soul? No, but that didn’t stop Duncan MacDougall from trying.

In the early 20th century, MacDougall put dying patients on a scale to try and prove the existence of a soul. One of MacDougall’s first test subjects was a tuberculosis patient. He was placed on the bed as he neared death. With doctors watching over, the man died, and MacDougall noticed the scale’s counterweight dropped with surprising quickness. The scales displayed the weight that had been lost upon death: ¾ of an ounce, or 21 grams.

Had MacDougall solved a mystery that had plagued philosophers, theologians, and medical professionals for millennia? Not exactly.

The “21 Grams Experiment,” as it’s come to be known, is the fascinating topic for our latest Popular Science video. While MacDougall’s experiment was deeply flawed, the idea behind it remains so appealing, more than a century later. We keep coming back to the 21 grams experiment because we’re still looking for the answer to his original question: Does any part of us continue after death?

If you’d like to see more Popular Science videos, subscribe on YouTube. We’ll be bringing you explainers and explorations of our weird world.

The post One man’s obsessive quest to weigh the human soul appeared first on Popular Science.

Birds in Hawaii are stealing from each other, and this bird-on-bird crime even extends to members of the same species. It’s an example of kleptoparasitism, or when an animal steals things from another. Specifically, these colorful, winged kleptoparasites are pilferring nest-material, sometimes causing the demise of the depleted nest. 

Researchers documented this behavior while observing over 200 native canopy-nesting birds nests on the island of Hawaii—aka the Big Island. The birds included the apapane (Himatione sanguinea), the i‘iwi (Drepanis coccinea), and the Hawai‘i amakihi (Chlorodrepanis virens).

Though there has been anecdotal evidence of such theft, a study recently published in The American Naturalist represents the first instance of it being tracked and quantified in nature.

“People working in the field have seen this behavior for years, but it’s never been documented at this level,” Erin Wilson Rankin, lead-author of the study and an entomologist at University of California, Riverside (UCR), said in a statement. “Now we can say who’s doing it, who they’re stealing from, and what happens to the nests afterward.” Wilson Rankin’s husband, UCR biologist David Rankin, is also a co-author. 

The Hawai‘i amakihi. Image: Jessie Knowlton/UCR.

Most of these birdy crimes took place between nests sitting at similar heights from the ground, aligning with the so-called “height overlap hypothesis”—that birds might be stealing from nests they come upon as they forage. Both the thieves and the victims were most commonly the apapane, and this is probably because of its significant numbers in the forest. 

“What’s fascinating is that this behavior is happening within species as well,” Wilson Rankin said. “Apapane were stealing from other Apapane.” 

This kleptoparasitism is risky behavior. While snagging nesting material might make it faster and easier to construct a nest, the material could also bring disease or parasites along with it. Stealing could also lead to violent confrontations with the wronged bird, though Hawaiian birds are usually non aggressive. 

While most of the thievery was carried out on abandoned nests, around 10 percent of cases involved nests that were either being built, or already carrying eggs or chicks. Around five percent of the nests in the study“failed” in the wake of a theft because the bird parents left or damage was done to the nest structure. 

These outcomes are new warning bells for species already suffering from disease, habitat loss, and climate change. Sprinkle in risks like avian malaria, and understated threats of this kind could accelerate population decline. The birds in the study aren’t endangered, but they are members of a diminishing group of native birds retreating to higher elevations because of human-introduced mosquito-borne diseases. These kinds of forests might be becoming more and more packed and competitive for birds.  

“This kind of behavior could be more common if nesting materials or safe nesting sites become scarce,” Wilson Rankin explained. “It’s something we should measure.” 

Identifying the most at-risk birds and figuring out when kleptoparasitism is most likely might contribute to better conservation strategies as habitat continuously breaks up. 

“If we can predict when and where this behavior happens, we might not be able to stop it, but we can intervene in other ways to support at-risk species,” she added. “That’s a benefit of this work.”

The post Hawaiian forest birds are stealing each other’s twigs appeared first on Popular Science.

Quick: What’s your first memory?

Was it a birthday party? A family camping trip? Or choking on a hard candy (more on that later)? 

Even though little kids remember plenty, most of us lose access to key memories as we get older. It’s something scientists call childhood amnesia. 

But what gives? Why can’t we remember anything before age three and only hazy things before age six?

We explore just that in a recent episode of the Ask Us Anything podcast, delving into the science behind why our brains forget our earliest memories.

Popular Science’s Ask Us Anything podcast (as well as our written series of the same name) answers your most outlandish, mind-burning questions—from the everyday things you’ve always wondered to the bizarre things you never thought to ask. So, yes, there’s a reason dogs tilt their heads and you’re right, candy does taste different now. If you have a question for us, send us a note. Nothing is too silly or simple.

This episode is based on the Popular Science article “Why we forget our childhoods” by R.J. Mackenzie.

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Full Episode Transcript

Sarah Durn: What’s your first real memory? 

Edith: My earliest memory is waking up to see Big Elmo. The stuffed animal!

Dan: My earliest memory is sitting on my mom’s lap while she played Super Mario Brothers.

Katherine: Being in my grandma’s kitchen and I’m sitting on the counter and she’s combing my hair. And it’s just a very warm, happy memory of me and my grandma.

Dale: My earliest memory is of a grapevine in my parents’ backyard when I was probably three or four years old.

Alex: My earliest memory was petting my dog. She was a big fluffy akita and I was a tiny baby.

SD: Welcome to Ask Us Anything from the editors of Popular Science where we answer your questions about our weird world from “why do we need braces” to “were there any venomous dinosaurs?” No question is too bizarre or too basic. I’m Sarah Durn, an editor at Popular Science.

Annie Colbert: And I’m editor-in-chief Annie Colbert. I have a little bit of a head cold today.

SD: Here at PopSci, we can’t resist a quirky question,

AC: And this week’s question feels a little existential: Why can’t we remember being babies?

SD: You learned how to walk, talk, recognize faces—arguably some of the most important things your brain will ever do.

AC: Yes. So the big question is: If we’re forming all of these memories, where do they go? Are they just gone forever or are they hiding somewhere?

SD: That’s exactly what scientists are trying to figure out, and the answer might be less about losing memories and more about not being able to access them.

AC: Okay. So it’s not that baby-you had a bad memory. It’s just that adult-you can’t get the files open.

SD: Yeah. Some scientists even think that losing access to those early memories could help us reset and adapt as we grow up.

AC: Wow. So your brain is basically Marie Kondo-ing your memories.

SD: Yeah. That’s what early research is telling us.

AC: Fascinating. I love this question

SD: Right? Now before we dig into all the reasons you don’t remember learning to use a toilet, we want to know what questions are keeping you up at night. If there’s something you’ve always wanted to know, submit your question by clicking the “Ask Us” link at popsci.com/ask.

Again, that’s popsci.com/ask, and click the “Ask Us” link.

AC: We want the weird ones. The strangest questions you have brewing.

SD: Yes, especially the weird ones.

AC: All right. When we come back, we answer the question: Where did your childhood go?

SD: And is it possible it never really left?

Welcome back! Okay. Before we get into the science, Annie, I feel like we have to start at the beginning. What’s your earliest memory?

AC: Yes. Happy to share. I will give a pre-warning that it’s a little scary. My earliest memory was something traumatic, which probably explains why I remember it. I was, I think, three or four.

And I was sitting in a tent in Michigan on a family trip, and I choked on a piece of hard candy and one of my parents’ friends jumped into action. They dislodged it, I assume, with some kind of Heimlich maneuver, but how it was resolved, I don’t remember. I don’t remember that part. But what I do remember very vividly is the color of the tent. It was blue and that moment of fear. 

When I think of it, it’s almost like a live photo memory. You know, like when you take a live photo on your iPhone and it’s a short video instead of a photo. That’s what I see when I think about that moment.

SD: Man, that’s intense. I’m glad you’re okay.

AC: Yes, yes, I am okay now.

It was definitely maybe not the best childhood memory, but certainly I heard a lot about it as I was growing up and my mom was very paranoid about me eating hard candies for the rest of my childhood. Um, how about you?

SD: Yeah, I mean, mine isn’t as traumatic, which is good, I guess. 

AC: Good.

SD: But it is a little weird.

So the first thing I can really clearly remember isn’t like a birthday or learning to ride a bike or something. It was watching The Neverending Story when I was about six. And for years I thought I had made it up.

AC: Wait, what?

SD: Yeah, like I fully convinced my brain had just invented this whole fantasy world, which, you know, wasn’t totally out of the ordinary for me, but I remembered these super vivid images: a kid flying on this giant white dragon, this glowing, childlike empress, this terrifying force called the Nothing that’s basically swallowing the world. 

Yeah. It all felt so real, but also kind of, you know, slippery like a dream you can almost hold onto, but not quite.

AC: Yeah, that’s kind of amazing. But also probably was scary as a kid.

SD: A little bit. I even remember where I was. Like I was sitting on my grandmother’s leopard print carpet in her bedroom.

AC: Nice.

SD: In front of this big, clunky old school TV. Just locked in. I think it was like lunchtime and my grandma was calling me, but I remember I was like, I can’t leave.

Yeah, and it just kind of feels fuzzy around the edges. Like it exists somewhere between something that happens, something I imagine and something I maybe dreamed.

AC: Which feels very on theme for this episode.

SD: Exactly, because that weird dreamlike quality. That’s actually really typical of early memories.

Most of us don’t have crisp, detailed memories from when we were really young. Instead, we get these flashes, you know, like little fragments, a blue tent, a leopard print carpet, the live photo, you know, and anything before about age three is basically gone.

AC: Which brings us to the big idea here, which is it’s not just you. This is a universal human thing.

SD: Yeah. Scientists actually have a name for this phenomenon: childhood amnesia. It describes how most of us can’t recall much, if anything, from before age three and why even our early childhood memories feel really blurry and despite how strange it feels. It’s something almost everyone experiences.

AC: Okay, so let’s break that down. What exactly is childhood amnesia?

SD: So scientists actually make a small distinction here. There’s infantile amnesia, which is the total blackout from before age three, and then there’s childhood amnesia, which is that kind of blurry, incomplete period from about three to six.

AC: So like before three, nothing. Three to six vibes only

SD: Exactly. Six year olds are just vibing.

AC: Yes. From experience, yes. But here’s what I don’t get: Babies are learning so much. They’re learning faces, language, walking, how the world works. So how are they not forming memories?

SD: That’s the thing. They are. And this is where things get really interesting.

Studies show that babies and even very young children can absolutely form memories. Their brains are recording experiences. The problem isn’t that nothing is being saved. It’s that later on we can’t access those memories.

AC: So it’s not that the hard drive is empty. It’s that the password is just gone.

SD: Exactly. Or the file format changed and adult-you just can’t open it anymore.

AC: Okay. That’s both comforting, that it’s still there, but deeply frustrating that we can’t access it.

SD: Yeah. Yeah. Like your first birthday party might still be in there somewhere. You just, you can’t get to it.

AC: So. How are scientists even studying this? Like babies can’t sit down and describe their memories?

SD: Oh, my babies can. No, I’m kidding. Yeah, so that’s one of the biggest challenges here. So researchers have to get creative.

AC: Mm-hmm.

SD: Sarah Power, a scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, built a whole playroom lab and that room could be turned into either an underwater kingdom or a dense jungle through projections on the wall, which sounds so cool.

Power then hid a really cool toy in the room. Then she’d bring in toddlers between one and a half and two years old to find the toy. Later she’d bring the child back and see if they remembered where the toy was.

AC: That sounds like the world’s cutest memory test.

SD: I know all these toddlers trying to find a cool toy in a jungle playroom.

What researchers are trying to figure out is how long do those memories last? At what age do they start to stick?

AC: Okay, but there’s another wrinkle here, right? Because human memory is not exactly reliable.

SD: Oh, yes. Yeah. Enter false memories.

AC: Hmm.

SD: So sometimes people are convinced they remember something from when they were like two years old, but in reality that memory might come from photos or stories their parents told them or things they’ve just heard over and over again.

AC: So basically you’re remixing secondhand information into a memory.

SD: Exactly. And every time you think you remember this memory, it gets reinforced in your brain, whether it’s real or not. So your earliest memory might not actually be your memory.

AC: Cool. Love that nothing is real.

SD: Or at least you know, some things aren’t real.

But even when memories are real, they’re fragile in early childhood. There’s this fascinating study where researchers had kids talk about specific events with their parents at age three. Then the researchers check back years later.

AC: And?

SD: yeah, kids around five to seven remembered about 60 percent of those events.

AC: Okay.

SD: But by eight or nine, that dropped closer to 40 percent.

AC: Oh, so it gets worse with age.

SD: Yeah. Which suggests those early memories don’t just fade. They kind of fall apart over time. And interestingly, kids remembered more when their parents helped them build the story: asking questions, adding details, making it more of a narrative.

AC: So the storytelling actually helps lock in the memory.

SD: Exactly. Which as someone who thought she invented The Neverending Story feels very relevant.

AC: Okay. So we’ve got fragile memories, missing memories, possibly fake memories, but why is this happening? Why would our brains be designed to forget something that’s so important?

SD: Yeah. I mean, that is the million dollar question, and this is where the new research comes in.

AC: All right, hit me with the science.

SD: So a recent study that Sarah Power also worked on actually looked at something called microglia. These are basically tiny cells in your brain that act like a cleanup crew,

AC: A cleanup crew?

SD: Yeah. They help shape the brain as it develops. They trim connections between neurons, get rid of what’s not needed, and basically help organize all your neural circuits.

AC: So microglia are kind of like your brain’s pruning shears.

SD: Yeah, and what this study found is that microglia might actually play a role in why we forget early memories.

In experiments with mice, scientists actually turned down microglia activity, and those mice actually kept their early memories longer than they normally would.

AC: Wait. So the forgetting didn’t happen.

SD: Exactly. Which suggests that microglia aren’t just passive cleaners. They might actively be involved in making those early memories inaccessible.

AC: So your brain is basically editing itself and it’s moving memories into longterm storage. So basically the plot of Inside Out was right.

Joy: That’s what I’m talking about. Woo! Another perfect day. Nice job, everybody! Let’s get those memories down long term.

SD: Yeah. Yeah, go Pixar! So during early development, your brain is changing really, really fast, forming tons of connections, then pruning them back. And in the process, some of those early memory pathways might get disrupted or reorganized.

AC: So it’s not that your memories are being deleted.

SD: Yeah. It’s more like the wiring that lets you find them is getting rearranged.

AC: Okay. That is wild. But also, it kind of makes sense because babies are learning so much that maybe their brain just can’t keep everything?

SD: Right. Another idea is that this forgetting actually helps us. It might act like a kind of reset, you know, clearing out early messy information so we can build more stable memories later on.

AC: So your brain is like we’re starting fresh here.

SD: Right.

AC: So to bring it all together, we don’t remember being babies, not because nothing happened…

SD: But because our brains were too busy developing to preserve those memories in a way we can access later.

AC: Got it. And tiny brain cleanup crews might be part of the reason those memories fade out of reach?

SD: Basically. Yeah.

AC: Which means somewhere, deep in your brain, there might still be a memory of you learning to walk or saying your first word?

SD: Or watching a fantasy movie and thinking you invented it or choking on hard candy.

AC: Fascinating.

SD: Right? And with that, it’s time for a quick break.

AC: But when we come back, let’s talk about the flip side of forgetting.

SD: Yeah. Because while your brain is busy losing access to your early memories, there are some things that it basically refuses to let go of.

AC: Like riding a bike.

SD: Exactly. More on that when we come back.

Welcome back. So we now know that many of us don’t remember our third birthday, but if you learned how to ride a bike as a kid, odds are you could hop on one today and figure it out pretty fast.

AC: Which is very cool. But why is it though that we can remember how to do things like ride a bike or speak a language? Things that we learned when we were little, but can’t remember the actual memories. We can’t even remember related memories like the learning to ride a bike or starting to speak, but we’re still maintaining those skills.

SD: Yeah, it’s a very valid question and something a recent Ask us Anything story by Adam Kovac actually got into. It turns out memories of events and learning how to do something, they’re actually totally different.

AC: Okay. But why?

SD: So earlier we were talking about episodic memory, those personal lived experiences, like your earliest memory or that camping trip or choking on a hard candy.

AC: Yes. The ones that disappear.

SD: Exactly, but skills like riding a bike, playing guitar, or, you know, even typing those live in something called procedural memory.

AC: Procedural meaning your brain knows how to do something even if you can’t remember learning how.

SD: Yeah, it’s like your brain switches to autopilot and those memories are stored in totally different parts of the brain areas that are way easier to access.

AC: So that’s why you can forget what you had for dinner yesterday, but still know how to balance on two wheels.

SD: Exactly. Your brain treats those skills as essential. Things worth holding onto.

AC: I mean, I guess it’s comforting that we don’t forget everything.

SD: Right? And also explains why, you know, practice matters. The more you repeat a skill, the stronger those pathways get until it’s basically second nature.

AC: So even if your childhood memories are fuzzy at best…

SD: Or completely gone…

AC: Yes. The things you learned during that time might still be with you.

SD: Yeah. Your brain might not remember the moment you learned how to ride a bike,

AC: But it remembers how.

SD: And honestly, that’s way more useful.

AC: I like that your past self is looking out for you just in a different way.

SD: Exactly.

AC: And that’s it for this episode. But don’t worry, we’ve got plenty of episodes of Ask Us Anything live in our feed right now. Follow or subscribe to Ask Us Anything by Popular Science wherever you enjoy your podcasts. And if you like our show, please leave a rating and review.

SD: Our producer is Alan Haburchak, and this week’s episode was based on an article written for Popular Science by R.J. Mackenzie.

AC: Thank you team for all of the memories, and thanks everyone for listening.

SD: And one more time. If you want something you’ve always wondered about, explained on a future episode, go to popsci.com/ask, and click the “Ask Us” link. Until next time, keep the questions coming.

AC: Another thing: Why can’t I remember the plot to any movie? But I can remember every celebrity baby name?

The post Why don’t we remember being babies? appeared first on Popular Science.

The PVC pipe potato gun is a staple of many science-oriented (and frequently unsupervised) childhoods. There are plenty of variations to that starchy shooter, but the basic elements are invariably the same: load a potato inside the pipe barrel, fill the rear chamber with either combustible gas or compressed air, then fire away.

In theory, you can launch any similarly sized object using the contraption.Why not swap the potato for something that can save lives? That’s what YouTuber Emily the Engineer pondered during a recent video entry.

“The only thing that modern medicine has lacked in is a more efficient way to distribute this medicine. Do you see where we’re going with this now?” she asks her viewers.

Her final result is the EpiPen Launcher, a custom-built device that lives up to its name. Also known as an epinephrine autoinjector, the EpiPen is a relatively recent invention that’s saved countless lives. The simple but effective tool was approved by the FDA in 1987, and injects a fixed dose of epinephrine (aka adrenaline) to people suffering from allergen-induced anaphylaxis. Medication is delivered either through a spring-loaded or carbon dioxide-driven needle that activates when pushed against skin.

Emily the Engineer’s EpiPen Launcher aims to deliver the vital medicine from afar—but is it safe, practical, or even particularly effective? The answers vary, but it’s certainly fun to watch Emily and her pals figure out how to build a “pew pew that shoots,” as they call it.

This is no mere single-shot gun, either. Knowing accuracy may be an issue during a distant (admittedly ludicrous) allergic reaction scenario, the team constructed a 3D-printed bolt-action attachment that holds a magazine of up to four EpiPens. To ensure each unit receives the right amount of continuous pressurized air, Emily even rigged an air compressor inside a backpack that hooks into the launcher.

After numerous trial and error runs using tester EpiPens, the team finally delivered (at least some) epinephrine into a slab of ballistic gel from across a garage. Outside, the launcher also hurled a pen around 105 feet, although it looked pretty unlikely that it retained enough velocity to push the injector needle into someone’s skin. Sure, the EpiPen Launcher will never become a staple of emergency medicine—but you can never be too prepared, right?

The post Woman builds EpiPen cannon, because why not? appeared first on Popular Science.

The ancient Roman city of Perge—in present-day southern Turkey—was one of the region’s most prominent urban centers. By the 2nd century CE, the hub was so large that it even supported a sizable stadium for communal gatherings and athletic events. However, these events took a much darker turn only a couple hundred years later. Based on recent archaeological evidence examined at the site, Perge’s stadium received renovations during the Late Roman period (the 3rd through 6th centuries CE) to facilitate deadly gladiatorial fights. The sites were also used for Damnatio ad Bestias—public executions by wild animals. These structural additions even included five specially designed gateways researchers nicknamed the “Doors to Death.”

The findings are detailed in a recently published study in the Oxford Journal of Archaeology from a team led by Istanbul University archaeologist Sedef Çokay Kepçe. While the stadium was originally designed to seat thousands of attendees, their taste in entertainment shifted as the empire transitioned into the Late Roman period—an era known for the  rise of Christianity as well as the eventual collapse of Western Roman Empire in 417 CE.

The five doors were likely opened to release wild animals into battles. Credit: Arkeoloji Haber

The city’s architects knew that, like any sensible urban planning project, the more efficient and economical strategy wasn’t to tear down the existing arena and replace it with an entirely new facility. Instead, they simply needed to design upgrades to accommodate the public’s evolving (and bloodier) spectacles.

According to the archaeologists, the designers didn’t skimp on renovations. These features closely resemble those seen in other Roman amphitheaters specifically known for their public executions. Newer additions to the stadium included elevated stages, complex gate assemblies to help with crowd control, and enclosed spaces likely used to hold animals. Combined with the additional evidence of animal bones and relevant iconography, researchers believe it’s a near-certainty that Perge’s stadium became a venue for public executions.

Archaeologists plan to continue excavating at the stadium. Credit: Arkeoloji Haber

At the same time, these weren’t free-for-all battles. The most intriguing discovery at the site is an array of five entrances spaced near one another. Dubbed the “Doors to Death” by the study’s authors, these entryways were likely opened at specified times during an event to release wild animals like lions, leopards, and other predatory big cats. This arrangement isn’t widely documented at other Roman stadiums, making it especially striking.

Archaeologists plan to continue exploring the ruins at Perge, including the stadium. As Arkeonews noted, the city’s amphitheater today functions as a remarkable metaphor for ancient Rome’s complex cultural values and history—a society responsible for impressive technological innovation, as well as inhumane violence.

The post ‘Doors to Death’ reveal how Romans upgraded a stadium for bloodsport appeared first on Popular Science.

When the four-person Artemis II crew safely splashed down in the Pacific Ocean, they landed with a deeper understanding of what it will take to finally bring humans back to the moon. Those of us inspired by their mission back home on Earth also have  greater appreciation for some everyday skills that prove especially useful in space.

Decades of experimenting with humans in space have revealed a number of odd, sometimes unexpected skills that may come in handy while hurtling away from our home planet. Here are a few.

Napping in weird positions 

Even under the best conditions, sleeping in space is easier said than done. Long days can blend into nights, and the constant checklists of to-dos and sensitive experiments can make long stretches of sleep unrealistic. Then there’s also the impending dread of realizing any number of things could go wrong and result in your crew hurtling through the cold, empty void.

If that weren’t enough, sleeping (or more realistically, napping) has to be done strapped into a bed, Houdini-style, to prevent their bodies from floating around in microgravity. That leads to astronauts having to sleep like bats, often upside down or facing sideways. None of that’s exactly conducive to restful sleep.

“Every time I was dozing off last night, I had that image that I was tripping off a curb and I was waking myself up,” NASA Commander Reid Wiseman told CNN. 

Crying the right way

It might seem off to think there is a “right” or “wrong” way to shed a tear, but that’s apparently the case in space. The same lack of gravity that sends astronauts and their toothpaste floating also prevents teardrop from falling down their checks. Instead, tears pool across their eyes, forming blotching bubbles. 

So, unless they want giant blobs of liquid sadness (or moon joy) clouding their vision, astronauts have to be armed and ready to immediately recognize a tear and wipe it. Or, if they can, hold off from crying entirely. 

Tinkering with amateur dentistry

Dental problems are never fun and that’s especially the case for astronauts who are separated from the nearest professional dentists by tens of thousands of miles. Astronauts are actually required to maintain excellent dental hygiene, both prior to and during missions. That’s especially important for people on longer extended stays on the International Space Station. A sudden dental emergency caused by negative oral care could force them to end their missions early. 

But for the times when tooth issues are unavoidable, there’s usually someone in the crew who’s trained to extract a tooth. Astronauts will learn this by practicing extracting a tooth on a model. 

An astronaut practices tooth extraction on a model. Dental emergencies are considered one of the top five conditions having a negative impact on long-duration missions. Image: NASA.

It’s not exactly the most ideal solution, but when emergency strikes, it’s good to have someone with dental training on board, even if their tools amount to little more than a sharp instrument and elbow grease.

Learning the kinks of space plumbing

One of those crafts was immediately relevant during their 10-day journey: plumbing.Though astronauts are no strangers to relieving themselves in microgravity, this mission marked the first time a crew had a real toilet installed for a flight. That’s great in theory, but the fancy space toilet lavatory showed its limitations almost immediately.  While the Artemis II crew was still in Earth’s orbit on day one of the mission, the toilet (called the Universal Waste Management System) had a controller issue that temporarily prevented it from being used for solid waste.

That issue was resolved relatively quickly, but another plumbing problem arose days later when frozen urine clogged one of the toilet’s vent lines. NASA mission specialist Christina Koch reportedly had the idea to warm the frozen line by rotating the capsule so that the frozen urine faced the sun. It worked, though the astronauts were initially only able to restore toilet function  “for fecal use only.” Koch, meanwhile, earned the moniker “space plumber.” 

Being patient with tech support (also applies to Earth)

Around that same time as the crew’s toilet troubles, they grappled with a headache all too common back on Earth: glitchy tech. During the mission, several of the astronauts reported recurring issues with their Microsoft Surface Pros. It turned out the problem stemmed from Outlook. Commander Wiseman had to call the ground team and have them remotely connect to the device to solve the issue. It turns out that even in the dark remoteness of space, patience with IT support still goes a long way.

The Artemis II crew – (clockwise from left) Mission Specialist Christina Koch, Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen, Commander Reid Wiseman, and Pilot Victor Glover – take time out for a group hug inside the Orion spacecraft on their way home. Following a swing around the far side of the Moon on April 6, 2026, the crew exited the lunar sphere of influence (the point at which the Moon’s gravity has a stronger pull on Orion than the Earth’s) on April 7, and are headed back to Earth for a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean on April 10. The crew was selected in April 2023, and have been training together for their mission for the past three years. Image: NASA. Brushing off those wilderness skills 

While we may not always associate space with the great outdoors, the most prepared astronauts know their way around starting a fire. In addition to training to withstand G-forces during takeoff and stay sane in space, astronauts are also given a crash course in survival techniques in the event their landing back on Earth doesn’t go quite as planned. In the past, astronauts have practiced these survival skills in the deserts of Nevada, working together to gather food and water and even build shelters and clothing out of parachutes.

“I definitely see people learning skills they didn’t already have,” Veteran NASA astronaut Shannon Walker said of one astronaut class in an Army blog post. “This is a chance for the astronaut candidates to really get to know themselves, know how they operate under stressful environments, because space can be a very stressful environment.” 

The post From crying to dentistry: 6 odd skills astronauts need to go to space appeared first on Popular Science.