Octopuses are a useful reminder that complex life can be organized in very different ways. With no backbone, their anatomy departs sharply from the body plans many people are familiar with. They are classified as cephalopods, a class of animals that includes squid, nautiluses and cuttlefish. Octopuses can rapidly change the color and texture of…
3D printing can feel wasteful. Every discarded bit of filament you throw away costs you money, and over time, these off-cuts can add up. Though necessary to ensure overhanging elements print correctly, supports can be a major source of 3D printing waste. If you’re throwing these bits into the trash, you might want to consider…
NASA is joining international partners to hunt for ice on the moon in support of future human exploration. The agency is providing a water-detecting instrument, the Neutron Spectrometer System (NSS), to the Lunar Polar Exploration (LUPEX) mission led by JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) and ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization). Source: Read Full Article
Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. It’s that time again: soon our gardens will be full of flowers and our kitchens full of ants. Only one of these developments is welcome. Ants are, in some ways, the dominant creatures on the planet. There are, by…
Freelance space writer Roger Guillemette has witnessed close to 100 rocket launches since 1975. On Wednesday (April 1), he was on the ground at NASA‘s Kennedy Space Center, reporting live on the Artemis II moon launch for Live Science. Here’s what he saw at the historic liftoff: There was palpable excitement at the Kennedy Space…
Linux has more than a dozen different desktop environments available, and a big part of what differentiates distros is how they choose to customize those desktop environments. POP!_OS used GNOME for most of its history, but in late 2025, they released an entirely new desktop environment called COSMIC. I used it for a few days…
Opening major new fields in the North Sea would make almost no difference to the UK’s reliance on gas imports, research has shown. The Jackdaw field, one of the largest unexploited gasfields in the North Sea, would displace only 2% of the UK’s current imports of gas, which would leave the UK still almost entirely…
Science is an infamously dry endeavour. The noble practice seeks to answer humanity’s most inscrutable questions. How did life begin? What is consciousness? Why does naming cows increase their milk yield? Within this austere framework, there is little room for levity. I think most scientists would agree there is nothing funny about bottom quarks, nor…
TSAKANE, South Africa (AP) — Gladys Khoza had missed being able to see her family. Not because they couldn’t visit, but because the 84-year-old had vision problems. Now that has changed. Khoza is one of 133 people whose sight was restored during a “marathon” of free cataract surgeries conducted by doctors in South Africa at…
An ophthalmologist performs cataract surgery while an assistant hands him surgical instruments during a marathon event, in Tsakane, South Africa, Saturday, March 28, 2026. Kayleen Morgan/AP Gladys Khoza adjusts an eye testing device during an eye surgery marathon, in Tsakane, South Africa, Saturday, March 28, 2026. Kayleen Morgan/AP Ophthalmologists operate on two patients during a…
