Fresh eyes can transform the world, and a world beset by pandemics, climate change, and unfairness is primed for change like none we’ve ever seen. That’s why, after a five-year hiatus, Popular Science is reintroducing the Brilliant 10: an annual list of early-career scientists and engineers who are coming up with novel solutions to issues…
Aaron Bolds didn’t think about becoming a doctor until he tore a ligament in his knee in a basketball competition when he was 15 years old. His orthopedic surgeon was Black, and the two got along swimmingly. “When he asked how my grades were, I told him, ‘I’m a straight-A student,’” she said. Bolds, who…
Expended rockets are falling to Earth as more frequent rocket launches make space more accessible. In May, a 23-ton Chinese rocket landed in the Maldives in the Indian Ocean, ending days of speculation over where it would land. In March, the four-ton top stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket broke apart above the Pacific…
Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg is working on an interdisciplinary project to recreate the scents of plant species that have been lost due to human colonial destruction of their habitat. Whereas others might try to reconstruct a woolly mammoth from centuries-old sequences, Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg is working on recreating the scents of plant species that have been…
Both cigarettes and opioids have a high potential for addiction and death. Profiteering companies sell both substances based on science that has been skewed by spin or outright lies. Both have been challenged for multibillion-dollar sums of money. Opioids, on the other hand, are not like cigarettes. And, as the opioid settlements near the conclusion,…
A gigantic crustacean with a peculiar look slid across the muddy seafloor of present-day British Columbia more than 500 million years ago. It was half a meter (1.6 feet) long and had a massive head with a helmet-like carapace, or shell, stalked eyes, and a pair of claws with hard tiny structures that looked like…
When terrorists hijacked two planes and brought down the World Trade Center buildings, John Feal, now 54, was a supervisor for a demolition business. 20 years ago, two additional planes slammed into the Pentagon and a field outside Shanksville, Pennsylvania, respectively. Feal, who is from Long Island, New York, arrived the day after the great…
Since 2002, biologist Jeff Sikich has been employed at the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. He’s dealt with a variety of strange situations, including a call to bring his dart gun to tranquilize what turned out to be a three-foot-tall statue of a mountain lion rather than a real mountain lion on one memorable…
With the finding of the first alien world around another sunlike star almost 25 years ago, astronomers began what would become known as the “exoplanet revolution.” As the rate of discovery increased and new data poured in, it became clear that the cosmos is awash in planets—big planets, small planets, planets broiled by their stars…
Bread is interwoven into many, if not most, meals around the world, from a basket of warm focaccia on the table at a restaurant to flat loaves of naan accompanying a curry. Carbs, particularly bread, are loved by all. Wouldn’t it be fantastic if we could survive entirely on this wonderful food group? The short…