2+ day, 13+ hour ago   (210+ words) The summer of 2026 showed how warming temperatures and wildfires are a growing threat to humanity’s health and safety. And wildfires have mental as well as physical impacts. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reported in 2023 that just a few hours of…...

3+ day, 17+ hour ago   (242+ words) He bought the taxidermied head at an antique store for $70. It just sold for $85,000. “It was quite a shock to discover we were sitting on something so special,” Andrew Stowe, an auctioneer and valuer at Auctioneum who eventually sold the…...

1+ week, 3+ day ago   (705+ words) New experiments raise important questions about what it means to die. Editor’s Note: This is one of Popular Mechanics’ greatest stories. It was initially published in December 2022. In 2018, Jahi’s family’s attorney announced that she had died of complications from liver…...

1+ week, 3+ day ago   (227+ words) The fish’s extreme lifespan could reshape how conservationists protect it. “Scientists have long recognized that lake sturgeon are among North America’s longest-lived freshwater fish,” MSU’s Scott Colborne, a co-author of the study, said in a press statement. “But the new…...

1+ week, 3+ day ago   (323+ words) A magnetized mix of oil, water, and nickel particles created a never-before-seen state. As Homer Simpson once famously phrased, “in this house we obey the laws of thermodynamics,” but a completely unexpected discovery by a student at the University of…...

1+ week, 4+ day ago   (293+ words) The Midwest’s biggest seismic threat could displace 7.2 million people and cause $300 billion in damage. From December 1811 to February 1812, the region experienced tremors that rang bells in New England, temporarily reversed the flow of the Mississippi River, and claimed the lives…...

1+ week, 4+ day ago   (308+ words) Now, their 243-year-old secret is lifting off over San Francisco. For months, the Montgolfier brothers—Joseph and Étienne—had been testing hot air balloon designs. The brothers came from a large family in Annonay, France, that made its living manufacturing…...

1+ week, 5+ day ago   (247+ words) A hidden band between violet and blue keeps animals’ eyesight perfect—but lightbulbs don’t emit it. Because tree shrews are “near primates,” whose eyes have more in common with ours than those of mice, these results suggest that the same…...

1+ week, 5+ day ago   (279+ words) Buried in a Turkish cave for millennia, the figurines may point to a long-lost mountain cult. The 25 recently discovered, rudimentarily-carved stone turtle figurines surrounding a curved architectural feature in a cave under Turkey’s Gedikkaya Hill must have had some sort…...

2+ week, 1+ day ago   (572+ words) That’s because it’s a math and spatial-reasoning test, not a gauge of how good it will actually leave your lawn looking. By now, you might have seen (or your algorithm might have fed you) the part story, part lawn mowing…...