Sci-Tech news

• Study Shows Selenium Protects Interneurons in the Brain

  29-12-2017 18:08 via SciTechDaily
  Exactly 200 years ago, the Swedish scientist Jöns Jacob Berzelius discovered the trace element selenium, which he named after the goddess of the moon, Selene....
  The post Study Shows Selenium Protects Interneurons in the Brain appeared first on SciTechDaily.
  
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• 2026 Gifts of the Year: Our editors have picked the best presents for anyone on your list

  01-11-2026 21:42 via Popular Science
  
  A gift cart isn’t a terrible present, but we believe you can do better. That’s why the editors here at Popular Science have put together this list of our favorite gifts of the year. We spend all year researching, testing, and covering products, so we know what we’re talking about. Even if you don’t end up grabbing one of these exact products, it’s a great place to start. Show them you know what they like and leave the gift cards for your nephew who you don’t really like that much.Pop
  
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• Amazon’s early Black Friday deals have started and these 21 products are at their 2026 lows

  01-11-2026 21:27 via Popular Science
  
  Halloween is over, which means it’s time to put away the giant skeletons and start thinking about holiday shopping. Amazon’s early Black Friday deals went live November 1, and most run through the end of the month, which leaves time to deal with the shelf that never got hung or the grill that won’t survive another season. We checked every price in this post on Amazon Sunday afternoon, November 1.Top early Black Friday deals on Amazon
  Weber Smoque 22-inch pellet smoker $599.00 (was $799.00)
  
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• How to build an air purifier in 6 steps

  01-11-2026 21:00 via Popular Science
  
  Though invisible itself, the air we breathe is a microcosm of identifiable pollen, fungal spores, viruses, dust particles, and fine particles of human pollution from everything from cars to asphalt sidewalks. It’s not something we should obsess over day to day, but as more people measure air quality on their own, many are getting readings they’d prefer to address. However, not everyone wants to buy an air purifier, which can cost several hundred dollars.One proposed solution for at-home a
  
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• Fierce turtles square off in a rare woodland turf battle

  01-11-2026 16:10 via Popular Science
  
  At first, it appears that two turtles with yellow spots are calmly sitting side by side. Suddenly, one of them turns, slowly—and lunges out with its head, its open beak clearly trying to take an aggressive chomp out of its neighbor. Moments later, the turtle tries again. Now, both reptiles are going head-to-head, though each is retracted into the protection of its shell. The two combatants are male eastern box turtles (Terrapene carolina carolina) competing for dominance. Eastern box turtles
  
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• Putrid blood shoots from these lizards’ eyes

  01-11-2026 14:03 via Popular Science
  
  Horned lizards are spiky cuties. Three to six inches long, these lizards are coated with sharp spines all across their hard, sand-colored backs. But in the dry deserts and prairies they call home, they are still vulnerable. As they scuttle through the protective brush in arid landscapes from Mexico to southern Canada, they have to reckon with hungry coyotes, snakes that will gobble them whole, and even peckish roadrunners. That’s why multiple species of horned lizards have developed a weird bu
  
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• What to do if you hit a deer

  31-10-2026 19:07 via Popular Science
  
  When you think of the fall season, chances are that gorgeous foliage, brisk sweater weather, and Halloween decorations come to mind. Deer, on the other hand, think of sex. Deer breeding behavior, known as the rut, aligns with the changing length of daylight. As daylight decreases, buck (male deer) and doe (female deer) hormones increase. While in southern states the rut can last several months, it only runs for a short period of time during the fall in the Northeast. During the rut, bucks seek
  
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• 3 things you might not know about daylight saving time

  31-10-2026 18:39 via Popular Science
  
  Heads up: The clocks are about to change. The evening of Halloween gets an extra hour as the clocks fall back an hour, meaning you can sleep in on Sunday, November 1. Complaints about daylight savings are as old as daylight savings itself, and pretty much everyone has an opinion about the practice. As with any such topic, there are all kinds of myths and misunderstandings out there. Farmers didn’t ask for daylight savingsThis one comes up a lot: the idea that farmers are the reason we have d
  
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• November skygazing: Planetary alignments, a supermoon, comet, and more

  31-10-2026 14:00 via Popular Science
  
  November 12Mercury, Venus, Mars and Jupiter in AlignmentNovember 16Mars and Jupiter ConjunctionNovember 18Leonids Meteor Shower Predicted peakNovember 24Full Beaver SupermoonNovember 27Comet 161P/Hartley–IRAS PerihelionAutumn is here! The air is crisp, the leaves are falling, and the sky is alive. November brings a whole gamut of celestial phenomena for stargazing enthusiasts from a  planetary prom to a meteor shower that can explode occasionally into the most spectacular of sky shows, and 
  
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• 9 spooky photos of dead man’s finger fungus

  31-10-2026 13:00 via Popular Science
  
  What’s Halloween without a little fun-gi. Arguably the most creepy of all fungi, Xylaria polymorpha can look like decaying zombie fingers creeping up from the forest floor. Commonly called dead man’s finger fungus, it and other similar sinister-looking fungi in the genus Xylaria grow throughout the United States. Take a look at at nine creepy pictures of this fungus—if you dare.Dead man’s fingers are usually spotted at the bottom of decaying or dead trees. They break down deceased wood
  
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• How Trump Is Dismantling America’s Scientific Research Machine

  31-10-2026 10:00 via NYT > Science and Technology
  The system that has driven life-altering discoveries and helped make the United States a superpower is now under intense strain.
  
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• Amazon has rare deals on Kiehl’s skincare right now, with most products 25% off

  30-10-2026 22:22 via Popular Science
  
  If you saw me, you wouldn’t think I’m into skincare. That’s exactly why I have gotten into skincare. I have really enjoyed the Kiehl’s products I bought over the summer, but they certainly aren’t cheap. That’s why I’m personally jumping on these 25-percent discounts currently happening on Amazon. This stuff doesn’t get discounts very often, so if you’re a regular user, it’s a great time to stock up. Winter is coming and your face will thank you during the dry season.Editor’
  
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• Psychedelic nasal spray treats depression with toad-inspired goo

  30-10-2026 20:45 via Popular Science
  
  A powerful psychedelic compound best associated with the Sonoran desert toad (Incilius alvarius) has been recreated in a lab and transformed into a fast-acting nasal spray. A recent clinical trial outlined this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) suggests this spray could help people with treatment resistant depression, without the often less pleasant element of psychedelics. In the study, a single squeeze of the spray eased patients’ depressive symptoms with benefit
  
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• Send your name to Saturn’s largest moon

  30-10-2026 19:34 via Popular Science
  
  NASA is still on track to send its Dragonfly rotocraft to Saturn’s moon Titan by the end of the decade, and you can come along for the ride. Well, you can at least add your initials to the flight roster.As part of its Journey to Titan campaign, NASA has opened an online registry that will be included on a microchip aboard the spacecraft when it launches. The launch is currently scheduled for no earlier than July 2028. Signees will receive a personalized digital “boarding pass,” as proof th
  
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• In 1841, flesh and blood rained down in Tennessee

  30-10-2026 18:53 via Popular Science
  
  One August day in 1841, near Lebanon, Tennessee, two enslaved people heard the sound of rain pattering on the tobacco leaves around them. But this was no ordinary rain: It was a deep red color. The sky, it seemed, was raining blood. Even more alarming, small pieces of flesh and fat seemed to be raining down, too. The two witnesses took the leaves inside to show their enslaver, Mr. E.M. Chandler, who quickly reported the event to his neighbors. In an attempt to clear things up, pieces of fallen
  
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• World’s tallest Day of the Dead sculpture erected in Mexico City

  30-10-2026 17:30 via Popular Science
  
  Mexico City has broken a Guinness World Record during its preparations for this year’s Day of the Dead (Día de los Muertos) celebrations. At nearly 110 feet tall, the colorful sculpture of a female skeleton currently standing in the capital city’s town square (the Zócalo) is officially the world’s tallest La Catrina monument. The roughly 11-story project made from steel and fiberglass required about 140 people to assemble, and overshadows the town of Puerto Vallarta’s 92.3-foot Catrina
  
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• Male black bear ‘Nugget’ wins Introvert Award for his adorable hiding technique

  30-10-2026 16:48 via Popular Science
  
  Like the patient Paul, a male black bear (Ursus americanus) named Nugget would rather hang back alone than jump right into the salmon fest. For his solo tendencies, the team at Tongass National Forest in southeastern Alaska have awarded Nugget the 2026 Introvert Award.“For much of the season, Nugget could be seen wedged between rocks by lower falls,” the U.S. Forest Service team writes. “If you saw a furry, black head with glassy eyes poking out of a crack—that’s Nugget! You could also
  
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• Seven young condors released in northern California

  30-10-2026 16:12 via Popular Science
  
  In 1986, there wasn’t a single California condor (Gymnogyps californianus) left in the wild. Thankfully, it wasn’t because the birds of prey had gone extinct, but they were getting close. In the 1980s, there were fewer than two dozen condors remaining in the wild. That’s why the United States Fish and Wildlife Service moved them into a captive breeding and release program. Now, the Northern California Condor Restoration Program has released seven young condors into the wild in Yurok Count
  
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• World War II’s baby gas masks are as unnerving as you’d imagine

  30-10-2026 14:54 via Popular Science
  
  Time forgets the vast majority of inventions—usually for good reason. As parents and children everywhere get ready for trick-or-treating, we’d like to turn your attention to one such invention: the baby gas mask. In the November 1938 issue of Popular Science, “a doll demonstrates the use of the baby gas mask” in an undeniably creepy image. The word mask is perhaps a misnomer here, because this contraption actually completely engulfs the baby as “filtered air is pumped in with an artif
  
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• Why your favorite candy tastes different now

  30-10-2026 14:03 via Popular Science
  
  It’s candy—I mean, Halloween—season. But, I mean, let’s be real: The two are kind of interchangeable at this point. But have you ever bitten into your favorite candy bar only to think, “This really doesn’t taste the way it used to?” Well, it turns out, you might be onto something. Candy companies really do sneakily change their recipes. Our taste buds also change as we get older. So what’s really going on here? Are candy companies changing their recipes or do we just taste thing
  
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• Are We in an A.I. Bubble? We’re About to Find Out.

  30-10-2026 11:00 via NYT > Science and Technology
  “This is the first pure-play L.L.M. company to go public, to open its books so we can actually look at the underlying business of this A.I. boom.”
  
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• Gamma-ray burst is one of the brightest in decades

  29-10-2026 21:15 via Popular Science
  
  A gamma-ray burst (GRB) that has confounded astronomers is one of the brightest cosmic light shows in the past 20 years. Although the cosmic explosion first appeared inexplicably weak, researchers now believe it actually shot about one billion years’ worth of solar energy into the cosmos through a beam no thicker than a pencil.“We see hundreds of GRBs every year, but the oddballs are the most informative ones,” said Roberto Ricci, a radioastronomer at Italy’s National Institute of Astrop
  
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• MIT develops robot that slithers through intestines like a snake

  29-10-2026 20:10 via Popular Science
  
  Worms are usually the last thing someone wants in their gut. Just ask this unfortunate Alaskan bear recently spotted with several multi-foot long tapeworms hanging out of its butt. However, a  new type of gut-crawling worm being designed by engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), may actually be here to help. Their soft robot, called BIOSENTER, is designed to autonomously inch through the crowded, cramped, and coiled small intestine, contracting and extending its body muc
  
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• Rare glob-eyed fish spotted in ocean’s twilight zone

  29-10-2026 19:01 via Popular Science
  
  Few deep-sea species will cause an entire research vessel’s crew to rush into the control room to catch a glimpse—but the barreleye fish (Macropinna microstoma) is one of them. During the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute’s (MBARI) recent eight-day Diving Deep for Delicate Drifters expedition, oceanographers aboard the David Packard were reunited with one of these rare, surreal creatures for the first time in nearly five years. This time, they successfully recorded the ethereal fish
  
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• Extremely chill bear named Paul wins a Dude-approved award

  29-10-2026 17:09 via Popular Science
  
  Like people (and snowflakes), no two bears are alike. Some have their own innovative fishing styles, or “walk on water,” while others will even adopt cubs who are not their own. And a bear named Paul is known for his patience. Paul lives in southeastern Alaska, where he spends his summers catching fish in Anan Creek. He is also the winner of the 2026 Dude abides Award from the United States Forest Service team in Tongass National Forest.According to the team, Paul exhibits the patience and n
  
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• Permanent Daylight Saving Time is dangerous for kids, new research says

  29-10-2026 16:00 via Popular Science
  
  Daylight Saving Time (DST) has always been contentious. In the United States, the debate resurfaces almost as regularly as everyone shifts their clocks backwards in the fall and forward in the spring. Earlier this year, the U.S. House of Representatives even passed a bill called the “Sunshine Protection Act” to make DST permanent. However, the legislation hasn’t progressed much further since July, and we are mere days away from falling back.That’s for the best, according to a team of bio
  
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• The puppy-sized bats of Madagascar are shrinking

  29-10-2026 15:00 via Popular Science
  
  It’s the stuff of nightmares. A bat the size of a large-breed puppy with five-foot-wide wingspans darting across the sky. But don’t worry. The giant flying foxes want fruit, not your blood. However, biologists do have something to worry about regarding these enormous winged mammals. Madagascar flying foxes (Pteropus rufus) are shrinking. They have been getting smaller over the past several decades, which biologists suspect may be related to an increase in large-scale commercial hunting. A s
  
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• The creepy science behind sleep paralysis ‘demons’

  29-10-2026 14:02 via Popular Science
  
  Have you ever woken up in the dead of night to find your limbs locked tight? Perhaps as you moved your eyes to the corner of your room, you spotted a demon lurking in the shadows, watching as you struggled against an invisible force. Sleep paralysis is creepy!If you can take any comfort from your experience, it’s to know that sleep paralysis has a long and storied history of tormenting humanity. Why is sleep paralysis such a shared, spooky experience? And who exactly is that shadowy figure sta
  
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• Microsoft’s Profit Jumps 32% Despite Big Increase in Spending

  28-10-2026 21:37 via NYT > Science and Technology
  The company’s free cash flow stayed positive in the last quarter even as it spent $45.2 billion on data centers and offered to pay workers to leave.
  
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• Spider named after Stephen Colbert has twice as many chromosomes as you

  28-10-2026 21:01 via Popular Science
  
  Stephen Colbert’s tenure as host of The Late Show sadly ended when CBS cancelled the historic series in May, but his 11-season run was only possible thanks to a prior gig. From 2005 to 2014, former The Daily Show alum played a larger-than-life, egotistical caricature of himself for Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report. In 2008, a team of entomologists even named newly discovered species of trapdoor spider after him: Aptostichus stephencolberti. And yes, the “t” in “stephencolberti” is
  
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