Popular Science has a new interview with President Obama about science and technology. And with it, he has effectively helped kill the word “nerd.” The word hasn’t been a pejorative in roughly 30 years. But when the President of the United States acknowledges that, we can officially call it a meaningless term.
When we want to leave our mark on Mars today, we simply send over a few Rovers to roll around in its red soil. But 150 years ago, scientists had very different plans for contacting the planet, including one French inventor who wanted to use the refracted light of the sun to sear a welcoming message into the Martian…
Mars One may have taken us by surprise when the non-profit organization boldly announced that it would put colonists on Mars in the 2020s. We were even more amazed when legions of amateur astronauts signed up for a one-way ticket to the red rock. However, MIT students believe the effort, in its current form, is doomed…
We often think of solar-powered devices as pretty new. But we’ve been harnessing the sun since long before the first practical solar cell was introduced back in 1954. For instance, in these solar-powered contraptions from a 1937 Popular Science film — including the amazing fridge that turned sunbeams into ice cubes in…
The latest issue of Popular Science features some counterintuitive commentary from one Bob "Words-Are-Hard" Quackenbush.
Citing research on the general awfulness of internet commenters, Popular Science has decided to do away with its comments. Over at Boundary Vision, University of Calgary science education researcher Marie-Claire Shanahan offers clear, compelling reasons why she disagrees with this decision.
Which drugs are actually killing Americans? Popular Science combed through overdose statistics from the CDC and turned the numbers into an infographic.
There's a really grumbly post over at The Guardian by Eliane Glaser in which she complains about all the flowery and hyperbolic language being used by so many high profile scientists today. But more than that, Glaser is claiming that these popularizers of science, many of whom are avowed atheists, are using the…
Over at Popular Science, there is a terrific collection of short articles about the future of materials science — sometimes called nanotechnology — that you absolutely must read if you want to understand where technology is heading. Often neglected in gee-whiz tales of the future, materials science is nevertheless…
Yesterday, we looked at Wernher von Braun's 1954 vision for a manned mission to Mars. But long before people imagined how we might plausibly put boots on Martian soil, we dreamed how one day we might be able to communicate with the planet.
Since time immemorial, humankind has tirelessly attempted to perfect that ominous barnyard manikin, the scarecrow. And if these news reports from the 1930s are any indicator, that decade was a particularly febrile time for anti-corvid homunculi. The following anecdotes come to us from British Pathe (above) and old…
Earlier this year, the publishers at Popular Science asked digital designer Jer Thorp to produce a visualization piece that explored the archives of their magazine. Here's what he came up with.
After the first successful powered flight by the Wright Brothers in 1903, it seemed like only a matter of time before everyone would be zipping around in their own personal aircraft. But if commuting to work via personal aeroplane was the future, how might the design of cities have to change to accommodate them? The…
For now at least, the moon is like the sea: everyone can use it, but no one can own it. In 1967 the U.S. and the Soviet Union negotiated the Outer Space Treaty, which states that no nation can own a piece of the moon or an asteroid.
PopSci's a forward thinking place, but their vintage stuff is worth a check too—harkening back to a simpler time when a magazine could teach you how to build a crossbow without fear of litigation. Also: homebrew tractors. [PopSci]
How has Popular Science changed since it was first published in the late 1800s? It got a whole lot more colorful, for one thing. Here's 125 years of the magazine's history captured in one massive 74 million square pixel image.
On the left, we have an issue of Popular Science from 1925. On the right we have an issue of the same magazine from 2010. So many years later and we're still focused on the future rather than the present.
Apple priced digital downloads lower than CDs. Amazon said a digital book should be cheaper than a paper one. But for the time being, virtual magazines will cost a pretty penny, says Fortune.
Back in the day, roboticists were less about constructing sleek robo-sapiens and more about building robots who could smoke, yodel, and shoot firearms. Popular Science has a gallery of vintage robot articles, and it's a hoot.
Popular Science produced short films in the 1940s and 50s that showcased technology of the near and distant future. This short was released theatrically on May 21, 1948 and featured “streamlined marvels on wheels.” The narrator cheerfully proclaims of the second car (pictured above), “If you’re looking for a 1960…
