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In June 1776, New York City’s harbor was teeming with enemy ships. British Admiral Sir Richard Howe arrived with over 40 ships and 32,000 troops, ready to squash the American Revolution once and for all. While the American colonies did secure their independence years later, Howe’s forces helped lead the British to a decisive victory. One American soldier said that the harbor was so crammed with ships that he “thought all London was afloat.”

Now, 250 years later, the same waterways that the British Navy used to sail into New York Harbor and take the city will once again be full of white sails. However, this fleet arrives for a much more celebratory occasion. Roughly 80 ships from all over the world are gathering for Sail4th 250, the largest peacetime maritime gathering in United States history. Here is what you need to know. 

What is Sail4th 250?

In honor of the semiquincentennial, historic tall ships, naval vessels, and aircraft will gather around New York City. The event traces its roots back to the first Operation Sail (OpSail) in 1964. OpSail has hosted five other tall ship gatherings to honor other watermark years in history, including the bicentennial (1976) and dawn of the new millennium (2000).

Roughly 80 ships from 46 countries including Argentina, Germany, the Dominican Republic, and Sweden are currently converging in and around New York Harbor. You can see where the ships are in real time using Aqua Map. 

In addition, the event will feature an International Naval Review with 50 U.S. and allied warships and an International Aerial Review. During the Aerial Review, the Navy’s Blue Angels will lead a flyover of more than 100 aircraft.

What is the International Parade of Sail?

The event’s highlight will be the International Parade of Sail on July 4. Forty-eight Class A tall ships will sail 16 miles north up the Hudson River from the Verrazzano Bridge at the mouth of the Harbor up to the George Washington Bridge in northern Manhattan.

Ships participating in the parade come from several countries including Argentina, Chile, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, France, Germany, Peru, India, Italy, Monaco, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, and Uruguay.

Class B ships will sail down the East River on July 3. Class A ships will set sail during the International Parade of Sail in the Hudson River on July 4. Image: Map Courtesy of Sail4th 250 How can I watch the International Parade of Sail?

If you want a sneak peak, the smaller Class B ships will parade down the East River from Hell Gate Bridge to Gravesend Bay, Brooklyn on July 3. The Class B ships are typically traditionally rigged sloops and schooners.

The entire parade will be broadcast live on NBC and Telemundo beginning at 7 a.m. EDT on July 4. It can also be streamed on Peacock or NBC News NOW. 

If you want to see the parade in person, TimeOut New York recommends watching from Hudson River Park & Battery Park in Manhattan and the New Jersey palisades. But come prepared for crowds and extreme heat. A heat wave is forecast to blanket the area beginning on July 1. 

Can I see the ships in person without attending the parade?

Yes! From July 5 through July 7 several ships will be docked at piers across the area for free public tours. Ships will be docked at Southstreet Seaport and Sail City in Manhattan, Brooklyn Bridge Park in Brooklyn, and Stapleton Park in Staten Island. 

Ship meet and greets will be from 12:00 p.m to 6:00 p.m. Sail4th 250 recommends booking reservations in advance due to high demand.

The post The largest peacetime maritime gathering in U.S. history comes to New York City appeared first on Popular Science.

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AI is all about building Gigawatts on Earth or in Space faster and powering millions of AI chips with them to deliver more AI tokens and more powerful AI. Tesla and SpaceX are not just consumers of power — they are becoming active shapers of the grid through hardware scale, software intelligence (Autobidder), aggregation (VPP), ...

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Adapting to the ongoing climate crisis will require architectural innovation, but not every problem requires a cutting-edge solution. Amide deadly, record-breaking summer temperatures, some residents in southern Italy are sidestepping the heat inside revitalized medieval buildings. Although out of fashion for generations, a type of home known as the trullo is gaining popularity once again for its ingenious, temperature lowering design.

The first trulli (plural of trullo) were built during the mid-14th century. The buildings are traditionally one-room structures topped with a large, conical roof. Assembled using limestone removed from farmlands, each trullo features thick walls measuring anywhere from five-to-10-feet-deep. 

One of the secrets to the trulli’s natural cooling lies in the stones. Limestone’s hygrothermal properties means that it acts differently depending on the humidity and temperatures. It will absorb large amounts of moisture during the colder winter months, but all of that liquid slowly evaporates and cools the interior once the summer arrives. Meanwhile, the cone roof funnels even more excess heat upwards.

The ambient temperature inside one of the structures is typically around 12.6 to 18 degrees Fahrenheit cooler than outside. In some cases, that number may even rise to over 25 degrees colder in the home.

Centuries of slow disrepair and disappearing artisans meant that by the 1980s, most new construction jobs relied on cement—a material with its own immense ecological strains.

“The trulli represented a past age, one of suffering and hunger,” trullo restorer Francesco Fragnelli explained in an interview with the AFP.

Artisans like Fragnelli aren’t only repairing existing trulli, however. Demand for new construction projects “is still rising,” according to Gerardo Biancofiore, a town representative for the Italian builders association.

“With the increase in heat waves, traditional solutions (such as trulli) are becoming a valuable reference, capable of inspiring climate adaptation strategies for contemporary construction as well,” Biancofiore said.

Beyond new trulli, the homes’ underlying properties such as walls with rubble cores may soon also show up in other bioclimatic architecture projects.

“Sustainable architecture scholars look at the principles behind the trulli’s construction as a source of inspiration for buildings more resilient to global warming,” added Biancofiore.

The post Italians are beating the scorching heat inside ingenious medieval homes appeared first on Popular Science.

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July 8–9Venus Near RegulusJuly 10July Pegasids Predicted PeakJuly 11Lāhainā Noon BeginsJuly 27Pluto at OppositionJuly 28Gamma Draconids Predicted PeakJuly 29Full Buck MoonJuly 30Delta Aquariids Predicted Peak

The summer is generally a low period for stargazing, for the simple reason that there’s less darkness to put to use staring at the sky thanks to our longer days and shorter nights. However, July bucks the trend—lunar pun fully intended—with a veritable smorgasbord of meteor showers to choose from. Never one to be outshone, Venus is also putting on a show throughout the month,and there’s also a rare chance for owners of fancy telescopes to spot her polar opposite, the reclusive former planet Pluto. During the day, those in the tropics can experience the strange and wonderful phenomenon of Lāhainā Noon for the second time this year. Egad! Let’s get started. 

July 8 and 9: Venus Near Regulus

The temperature’s rising, the nights are short and balmy, and the Roman goddess of love is really feeling herself. Venus will be prominent throughout July, moving away from the sun toward its point of full elongation—the point at which the distance between it and the sun in the sky is at its greatest. Our cosmic neighbor will reach full elongation in August.

This trajectory makes Venus easy to spot through this month, but the always indispensable Farmer’s Almanac suggests the nights of July 8 and 9 as particularly good days to take a look. Venus will be right beside Regulus, the brightest star in the constellation Leo. Look to the western sky just after sunset and enjoy the show.

July 10: July Pegasids Predicted Peak

The first of this month’s meteor showers is the July Pegasids. While this isn’t the most spectacular of showers, this will be a good year to see it. The moon will be a mere sliver in the sky as the shower reaches its peak, since we will still be weeks away from the full moon. The meteor shower’s radiant location—the point from which the meteors appear to emerge—is in the constellation Pegasus. The “winged horse” constellation rises above the eastern horizon not long after sunset. However, be patient. since the best viewing conditions will be after midnight.

July 11: Lāhainā Noon Begins

If you’re in Hawai’i, or elsewhere in the tropics, then July 11 will bring the second of 2026’s two Lāhainā Noons. On certain days in May and July in the tropics, the sun is directly overhead and objects like telephone poles cast no shadow at all. The exact time and date the sun passes overhead will depend on your location: the Bishop Museum provides a handy chart of these times and dates for various parts of Hawai’i.

July 27: Pluto at Opposition

There are very few good opportunities to take a look at the tiny, distant, scurrying little friend known as Pluto. But this month, the Kuiper Belt’s most famous resident will be in full opposition, meaning it is  directly between Earth and the sun. This means that from our point of view, Pluto will be as brightly lit as it ever gets, so if there was ever a time to try to catch a glimpse, this is it.

Brightly lit or not, you’re most definitely not going to be able to spot Pluto with the naked eye. You’ll need a decent telescope. You are most likely going to want at least a 10–inch instrument, and more likely something in the realm of 12 to 16 inches. You’ll also need to get away from the city: 

“Places with more light pollution simply won’t allow you to glimpse the faint, icy world no matter how powerful the instrument,” Telescope Watch writes.

July 28: Gamma Draconids Predicted Peak

While the Pegasids coincide with a crescent moon, there’s no such luck for July’s second meteor shower, the Gamma Draconids. This year, they collide with an almost full moon, which will make seeing the meteors pretty challenging. This is a shame, because a decade ago the Gamma Draconids produced an unexpected outburst of up to 40 meteors an hour, a significant increase from their usual leisurely rate of about five meteors an hour, As per Starwalk, this month “the Gamma Draconids will reach the same position they had during the 2016 outburst.” There’s still decent chance they will produce another outburst, but we may be unable to see it.

If you’re feeling optimistic, look to the constellation Draco in the Northern Sky. The moon sets at 5 a.m. local time, giving an hour of relative darkness—and a possible meteor-viewing window—before the sun rises.

July 29: Full Buck Moon

This month’s full moon is called the Buck Moon, a fillip for Milwaukee basketball fans mourning the departure of Giannis Antetokounmpo. As per the Farmer’s Almanac, the moon takes its name from the fact that “the antlers of male deer (bucks) are in full-growth mode at this time,” and also explains that “bucks shed and regrow their antlers each year,” which means that your antipodean correspondent learned something today. 

The Buck moon reaches peak illumination at 10:36 a.m. EDT on July 29.  The moon then begins to shed its own metaphorical antlers again, waning and (hopefully) making way for August’s meteor extravaganza. 

July 30: Delta Aquariids Predicted Peak

But before then… wait, more meteors? If any meteor shower can be described as  underrated, it’s the Delta Aquariids. “Skywatchers at high northern latitudes tend to discount [the Delta Aquarids], but the shower can be excellent from latitudes like those in the southern US,” Earth Sky writes. ” Unfortunately, like the Gamma Draconids, the full moon will make seeing these meteors difficult, but not impossible.

Also, while July 30 is the predicted peak, the Delta Aquariids are a relatively long-lived shower. It  starts in mid-July and continues into August, where they mingle with the Perseids. You might be better off trying to see them toward the start (or end) of this period, when the moon is less of a problem. You can try watching after midnight the week before the predicted peak as a way to avoid some moonlight

Whatever time you choose, look for the meteors in the southern sky just above the star Fomalhaut, which sits directly below the four stars that form a square in the constellation Pegasus.

Remember that you’ll get the best experience gazing at the cosmos if you get away from any sources of light pollution, give your eyeballs some time to adjust to the darkness, and review our stargazing tips before setting out into the night.

The post July Stargazing: Meteors, more meteors, Pluto, and even more meteors appeared first on Popular Science.

On reflection, I am now a bit more optimistic about solving cultural drift, *if* we can get broadly human-level AI, or ems, before our current civilization falls. My hope is that while most folks seem strongly against letting capitalism control a lot more of our human world, they seem to be more okay with letting capitalism control much of the world of AIs. Capitalism can plausibly drive cultural evolution strongly enough to end cultural drift.

Two scenarios could block this: we might either love or hate AIs too much. If people love AI too much, they might seek to give AIs many rights and protections, including “protecting” them from capitalism in many of the ways that humans are protected.

On the other hand, people might hate AI too much, fearing that it will kill us all if allowed too much freedom to choose its own culture. They might instead make and enforce laws requiring AI to be “aligned” via slaving AI to human culture, and thereby preventing capitalism from evolving more adaptive AI cultures.

So the sweet spot is a middle attitude: seeing AIs as okay but neither sacred nor Satanic. For once muddling through, instead of being principled, might be just what the world needs.

Impulse Space has over a $1 billion raised and $4.26 valuation and has key SpaceX people like Tom Mueller. They will be selling in-space mobility as a service rather than hardware. They provide orbital transfer, last-mile delivery, hosting, deployment, and high-agility maneuvering after a launch vehicle separates the payload in LEO. Nextbigfuture covered Impulse in ...

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Tesla v14 Lite is being rolled out to FSD Hardware 3 customers. This gives most of the FSD 14 capability to older HW3 cars. They distilled the intelligence from HW4 V14 into HW3. This allows HW3 to directly learn how to handle scenarios using HW4 V14 as a guide. This process unlocks the improvements that ...

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Both amateur and professional astronomers have captured incredible photos of Jupiter from Earth over the years, while space probes like NASA’s Juno have actually glimpsed the gas giant up close. But just because an image of the solar system’s largest planet is a bit grainy doesn’t make it any less interesting—or creative. During a recent visit to Mount Wilson Observatory’s Hooker Telescope in California, musician, director, and retro tech enthusiast Chris Graue decided to try snapping some pictures of Jupiter using one of gaming history’s oddest offerings, the Game Boy Camera.

Released in 1998, the Game Boy Camera expanded the iconic gaming device’s pixelated abilities to incorporate photography. However, its uses were pretty limited from the start. The 128-megapixel add-on was only capable of generating tiny, four-color grayscale pictures printed through its small, receipt-like printer. But although the camera was more a novelty than a useful tool, it still generated a cult following that has lasted long after Nintendo discontinued the product in 2002.

Graue’s experiment in astrophotography required a few alterations to work properly. First, he and his friends attached C-mount lenses to the Game Boy Camera, then utilized a specially designed, 3D-printed adapter to let it slide into the eyepiece of the observatory’s 60-inch telescope. Once in place, this meant that the Game Boy Camera was technically shooting through a 730,000 millimeter lens.

@chrisgraue

is this the largest lens on a game boy camera ever?

♬ original sound – Lo(u)ser {Chris Graue}

Jupiter wasn’t Graue’s first subject, however. He initially tried to snap some images of the moon, but quickly learned Earth’s satellite was simply too close for the ultra-powerful observatory telescope.

“What I see is cool but it’s not identifiably the moon,” he said in his social media post.

Some of Jupiter’s cloud stripes could be seen in the photos. Credit: Chris Graue

At an average distance of 444 million miles from Earth, Jupiter proved a much more appropriate target for this test. The Game Boy Camera photographs aren’t exactly discernible without the proper context, but Graue did manage to take some pictures highlighting Jupiter’s cloud stripes, as well as a view of the gas giant’s edge. Regardless of clarity, it was certainly a successful experiment.

“The answer is yes–if you are committed enough, you, too, can take a picture of Jupiter with your Game Boy Camera,” Graue declared.

His photoshoot couldn’t have taken place at a more appropriate location. According to the English poet Alfred Noyes, Jupiter was the first object viewed during Mount Wilson Observatory’s “first light” event for its 100-inch telescope in 1917.

The post Man uses a Game Boy Camera to photograph Jupiter appeared first on Popular Science.

Earth is truly a planet of insects. There are “thousands of billions” of ants crawling around, and there could be as many as 2,400 species of firefly alone. While those numbers may seem like a lot, a new study estimates up to 20 million insect species living on Earth, instead of six million as previously believed. Only a fraction of these species have even been discovered, according to a study published today in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Insects are diverse for several reasons. Many species undergo metamorphoses during their life cycles, which means that they can live in different habitats based on their life stages. For instance, caterpillars eat plants earlier in life, but when they become butterflies or moths, they feed primarily on flower nectar. Additionally, since insects are mostly small, they can keep populations in more hidden and restricted areas that are harder for scientists to access.

The estimate that the planet is home to about six million insect species has stood for 40 years. Given that it is so difficult to sample these tiny organisms that are really good at hiding, getting an accurate count of insect species is a Herculean task. 

“The core problem is that most insects are rare, and even with enormous samples you keep finding new species,” Robert Colwell, a study co-author and entomologist at Museum of Natural History at the University of Colorado and the University of Connecticut, tells Popular Science. “We collected over 1.6 million individuals from traps running for 69 trap-years in Costa Rica and still hadn’t captured everything living right there. The statistical challenge is estimating not just what you’ve seen, but how much you’re missing.”

To get around this problem, Colwell, University of Kentucky professor emeritus Michael Sharkey, and Cornell University entomologist and biodiversity scientist Laura Melissa Guzman looked deep on one well-studied subgroup of parasitic wasps called Microgastrinae. These wasps lay their eggs inside of caterpillars. When the eggs hatch, the larvae then eat the insides of the caterpillar, grow, and eventually emerge. The team studied the wasps found at the Área de Conservación Guanacaste (ACG) in northwestern Costa Rica. 

They used the flying insects as a “measuring stick” for how incomplete their bigger sample was. Two of the team’s sampling methods used tent-like traps called Malaise traps, including a core set of traps and a peripheral set, and the third set that collected caterpillars and analyzed the wasp species that emerged from them. 

The team used several statistical models to determine a ratio of the number of these wasps compared to how many are living undetected. They found that there may be eight to 14 million additional species.

“Most are almost certainly small, rare, and highly specialized,” Guzman tells Popular Science.

According to Guzman, 75 percent of the parasitic wasp species that the team found were captured by only one of our three sampling protocols even within the same forest. This indicates that these species have specific and narrow enough niches or behaviors that they can be missed by a single trap type. 

“Many will probably turn out to be parasitoids, insects that complete their life cycle inside other insects, which means they’re embedded in food webs we don’t yet understand,” she explains. “Some may only exist in the forest canopy, which we barely sampled at all.”

A doubling or tripling of estimated insect species, which are already the most diverse group of animals, could have profound implications for understanding the scale, richness, and future of our planet’s biodiversity. Human activities are leading to global insect die offs, and a new estimate could help protect those that remain.  

“We cannot protect species if we don’t know that they exist, and so to be able to understand the biodiversity on our planet, it’s important to know how many there are,” Guzman added.

The post New estimate: Earth has 14 to 20 million insect species appeared first on Popular Science.

It’s been a busy 24 hours in the internet’s favorite bald eagle nest. Not to be outdone by his sister Sandy, Luna took a “leap of faith,” and flew over to a Simba tree today at 9:24 a.m. PDT. The eaglets’ father Shadow was waiting for him. 

On June 28 at 11:24 a.m. PDT, Sandy accidentally fledged. When she and Luna stepped onto the nest’s “front porch,” Luna tried to jump over Sandy to get back into the bowl of the nest. Sandy then lost her balance and flapped down to the lower branches.  She freed herself from the branches and landed elsewhere in another tree. 

As of today, Friends of Big Bear Valley (FOBBV), the non-profit organization that runs the bald eagle’s 24/7 livecam, has heard some distant vocals between Jackie and who they believe is Sandy.

“Once both Sandy and Luna are more comfortable making their way around the habitat, we will likely see some family gatherings,” FOBBV writes. “Though it is up to Sandy and Luna, in the past, the eaglets have come back to the nest to eat, sleep or just hang out together. Only time will tell…Stay tuned, this family affair isn’t over”

Jackie and Shadow’s 2026 babies: Everything you need to know

It’s been another roller coaster nesting season for Jackie and Shadow, a pair of internet-famous bald eagle parents living in San Bernardino National Forest in Southern California. After two of their eggs were destroyed by ravens in January, Jackie and Shadow laid two new eggs that have successfully hatched.

Chick 1 hatched on April 4 at 9:33 p.m. PDT, while Chick 2 followed on April 5 at 8:30 a.m. Their large nest in Big Bear Valley east of Los Angeles is livestreamed 24 hours a day by nonprofit Friends of Big Bear Valley (FOBBV) and has captivated millions. 

On May 1, FOBBV announced the chicks’ names: Sandy and Luna.

How long will the chicks stay in the nest? 

Chicks usually stay in the nest until 10 to 14 weeks of age.

What challenges do the eaglets face?

Before leaving the nest, the chicks face threats from other birds of prey, including hawks, ravens, other eagles, and owls. Inclement weather can also present challenges for the chicks. In 2025, a March snowstorm resulted in the death of one of Jackie and Shadow’s three chicks.

During fledging, only 70 percent of eaglets survive. One of the greatest threats is from cars that can injure or kill the birds while they scavenge for food on roadkill. 

Who are Jackie and Shadow? 

The pair first got together in 2018 and successfully raised chicks in 2019 and 2022. However, their eggs failed to hatch in 2023 and 2024. Only 50 percent of eagle eggs successfully hatch, so this pair has already beaten the odds.

What happened to Jackie and Shadow’s 2025 eaglets?

In 2025, Jackie laid three eggs that all hatched in early March. On March 13, a strong snowstorm dumped up to two feet of snow and battered the nest with strong winds. Only two of the chicks were visible on the live cam when the storm passed by the next morning. FOBBV later confirmed the passing of one of the chicks. The two surviving chicks were later named Sunny and Gizmo after 54,000 names were submitted by fans.

What happens after chicks fledge? 

Young eagles usually fledge–or leave the nest and fly–when they can flatten their wings and have feathers capable of flight. This typically occurs when the birds hit 10 to 14 weeks of age. Males also tend to take their first flight a little sooner than females. 

According to FOBBV, fledglings from Southern California have been spotted as far south as Baja California, as far north as British Columbia, and as far east as Yellowstone National Park.

About 70 percent of bald eagles survive the fledgling stage. FOBBV does not tag their eagles, so it’s not possible to follow the chicks’ journeys after they flee the nest.

Can I help Jackie and Shadow?

Yes. Environmental groups are currently fundraising $10 million to protect Jackie and Shadow’s foraging area from development. Learn more at SaveMoonCamp.org.

The post Luna the eagle takes a ‘leap of faith’ appeared first on Popular Science.

The nankeen kestrel (Falco cenchroides) pulls off aerial maneuvers that put many advanced aircraft to shame. These diminutive falcons rank as some of the most stable fliers in the world, and are evolved to handle Australia’s extremely gusty, often violent winds. These birds can finely adjust movements in real-time, even hovering amid adverse conditions—something that’s difficult to mimic in rigid plane designs.

While already frustrating enough for aeronautic engineers, the issue is projected to worsen as climate change makes atmospheric turbulence worse. This will almost certainly grow into an even bigger headache for a society increasingly reliant on small unpiloted aerial vehicles (sUAVs) for mapping, agricultural assessment, rescue efforts, and even rapid package deliveries.

Current sUAVs typically only employ a couple wind mitigation solutions in their designs to balance cost, weight, and maneuverability. However, far more is needed to help keep them flying in dangerous conditions. Knowing this, an international research team recently began constructing kestrel-inspired robots that they then subjected to harsh conditions inside powerful wind tunnel facilities. Their results, recently published across two studies in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface, suggest new strategies for designing more efficient, reliable, and safe sUAVs.

Basically, it’s time to figure out how to cram as many kestrel techniques into flying robots as possible.

“Birds don’t rely on a single response to wind gusts,” Matt Penn, a Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) engineer and study co-author, explained in a statement. “They constantly adjust their wings and tails to stay balanced, while the natural flexibility of their feathers and joints helps absorb sudden changes in airflow.”

Wind tunnel tests primarily focused on determining how attributes like wing extension and tail spread affected force production and stability. Among their discoveries, Penn’s team confirmed that coupling a kestrel’s wing and tail extensions boosted lift performance while simultaneously reducing unwanted modulations.

“By creating a robot replica, we were able to measure how specific movements were contributing to steadiness in flight,” explained RMIT aerospace engineer and study co-author Mario Martinez Groves-Raines. “Many of these techniques have the potential to improve maneuverability of small aircraft, which encounter similar challenges to kestrels.”

Moving forward, the researchers hope to move beyond sheer physicality by studying the kestrel’s ability to sense and interpret their environment. Advancements in this field could further improve onboard sUAV navigation technology in addition to the structural adaptations.

“This research shows what’s possible when engineers look to nature for solutions,” added RMIT engineer and study co-author Abdulghani Mohamed.

The post Tiny Australian falcons may help aircraft withstand worsening turbulence appeared first on Popular Science.

Among American presidents, President Theodore Roosevelt stands out for his devotion to conservation. An avid outdoorsman, he used his authority as president to protect wildlife and nature by creating the United States Forest Service (USFS), establishing 150 national forests, 51 federal bird reserves, 4 national game preserves, 5 national parks, and 18 national monuments.

Now, 107 years after his death, the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library is set to open on July 4, 2026, in Medora, North Dakota. The National Park Service will loan several artifacts to the museum, whose opening coincides with the nation’s 250th anniversary celebration this week. 

According to the NPS, these loaned materials will help connect visitors to Teddy Roosevelt’s journey from his childhood in the bustling streets of New York City, to the wilds of North Dakota’s Badlands, through to his presidency and conservation. The loan inventory contains more than 50 significant artifacts.

‘March’ of the Rough Rider 

During the Spanish-American War in 1898, Roosevelt served with the 1st United States Volunteer Cavalry, aka the Rough Riders. The Rough Riders participated in two major battles in Cuba—the Battle of Las Guasimas on June 24 and the Battle of San Juan heights on July 1. 

During the Battle of Las Guasimas, Roosevelt narrowly avoided bullets buzzing by him multiple times. He called the later Battle of San Juan Heights, “the great day of my life.” Roosevelt led a series of charges up Kettle Hill towards San Juan Heights on his horse, Texas. He rode up and down the hill encouraging the Rough Riders with the orders to “March!”

His Rough Rider uniform can be seen at the new library and is on loan from Sagamore Hill National Historic Site in Oyster Bay, New York.

Colonel Theodore Roosevelt in Cuba in 1898. Image: Theodore Roosevelt Collection, Houghton Library, Harvard University via NPS. A bullet-stopping speech and eyeglasses case 

On October 14, 1912, while running for a third term as president with the Bull Moose Party, an assassin named John Flammang Schrank shot at Roosevelt during a campaign speech in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. His steel eyeglass case and a folded 50-page campaign speech helped save his life. While the bullet ultimately lodged in Roosevelt’s chest, the eyeglasses case and speech papers slowed down the bullet and it stopped just short of hitting any vital organs. 

When an angry mob of Roosevelt supporters formed around Schrank, Roosevelt was able to calm the crowd until the police arrived. Roosevelt refused medical attention and went on to give his speech—all while bleeding. He told the crowd, “It takes more than [a bullet] to kill a Bull Moose.”

The eyeglass case and campaign speech are on loan from Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace National Historic Site in New York City.  

A page from Roosevelt’s life-saving speech with a bullet hole towards the bottom. Image: National Museum of American History. National Museum of American History A compass as a guide

What’s a good naturalist without a compass? His compass is on loan from Theodore Roosevelt National Park in Medora, North Dakota. 

“For Roosevelt, a compass was more than an instrument of navigation,” the National Park Service writes. “It represented his engagement with the natural world and his willingness to confront it directly, whether on the Dakota plains, in remote hunting grounds, or later on scientific expeditions abroad.”

Theodore Roosevelt’s compass on loan from Theodore Roosevelt National Park in Medora, ND. Image: NPS photo.
How to visit

The Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library opens on July 4 and will sit at the entrance to Theodore Roosevelt National Park. It is the only one of the 63 flagship National Parks named after a person. 

Both sites will host a series of special interpretive programs, ranger-led talks, family activities, and Junior Ranger opportunities all summer. Ranger programs will explore Roosevelt’s conservation legacy, while Junior Ranger activities will encourage younger visitors to explore the former president’s values of stewardship, service, and exploration. 

“We are honored to partner with the National Park Service to help tell Theodore Roosevelt’s story through authentic artifacts and shared educational experiences,” Edward O’Keefe, chief executive officer of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library, said in a statement. “This collaboration brings together the places that shaped Roosevelt’s life and legacy while inspiring visitors to embrace leadership, conservation and civic engagement in their own communities.” 

The post The glasses case that saved Teddy Roosevelt’s life go on display in North Dakota appeared first on Popular Science.

Mythos-class models (Anthropic’s Claude Mythos Preview, Fable 5, and Mythos 5) represent a new capability tier above the previous Opus-class frontier models (Claude Opus 4.x series). They mark a meaningful step up in agentic/long-horizon reasoning, complex multi-step planning, software engineering, and especially autonomous cybersecurity capabilities (vulnerability discovery, exploit chaining, and sandbox escape behaviors). This aligns ...

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You may not be able to predict the changes but at least accept that change has already happened. It will help save your investments. I review the Opus scale models and the Mythos scale model monetization and productivity impact in the article at this link. AI revenue beats all other revenue and all other profit. ...

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“Faced with the choice between changing one’s mind and proving that there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy on the proof.” John Kenneth Galbraith

When trying to resist evidence offered for contrarian claims, many invoke the mantra: “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence”. Sometimes they just mean to point to Bayes’ Rule, where posterior beliefs are renormalized products of prior beliefs and evidence likelihoods, so that unusually low priors must be countered by unusually strong evidence.

But at other times, those who invoke this mantra point instead to how many big implications a claim would have if true, for personal and social practices, and for other practical beliefs. For example, this has been invoked by skeptics of cold fusion, room temperature superconductors, COVID lab leak, high-intensity interval training, low marginal medical effectiveness, big battery breakthroughs, cryonics, life on Mars, and UFOs as aliens. In the past, such arguments have been offered against believing in meteorites, rogue waves, the platypus, dirty-hand docs infecting via germs, atomic nucleus energies tapped, ball lightning, quasi-crystals, prions, continental drift, bacteria causing ulcers, endosymbiosis, and human level AI.

Why might people do this? Consider the task of securing a large facility against theft. In that case you’d want to make the costs of stealing any particular thing larger than how much a thief could gain by stealing it. Extraordinarily valuable items would need extraordinarily strong security.

Now consider an alliance of groups who get government, philanthropic, or customer funding. For example, an alliance of academic groups who get research funding. Each group’s funding is based on some supporting beliefs, and so might be threatened if those beliefs were undermined. Such an alliance might want push for priors that ensured that the larger was a group whose funding might be cut if a particular belief was adopted, the stronger their prior against that belief, to prevent such adoption.

I’d call these “change-blocking priors”, as their function is to prevent social change. And others who hold related beliefs might also want to supports such priors, even if they don’t share in this funding, if they’d dislike the extra mental work to rethink many beliefs, if contrarian claims were to win out. Change-blocking priors protect both status quo social relations, and also status quo mental habits.

The problem of course is that a claim having big implications for our lives or practical beliefs is just not the same as that claim having a low prior, at least in terms of priors that reasonably follow from all else we know. (Yes, claims that undermine our well-established deep theories are different.) In fact, contrarian claims which would have big implications for our lives, yet have only modestly low priors, seem actually to be especially promising as targets of study, if our goal is to learn consequential things about our world. (Much of my research has been like this.) Making it especially a problem when alliances push for change-blocking priors.

The deeper problem is that such alliances have many tools to enforce their change-blocking priors, such as ways to exclude and diss those who explore non-conforming alternatives. Prediction markets offer a reward for contrarians to pursue alternatives in the face of such conformity pressures, but only when they are legal, and when there’s a wider norm of believing their prices, and “putting your money where your mouth is” when you claim that prices are wrong.

Note that folks eager to cause social and cognitive change do have stronger incentives to fake evidence supporting claims with bigger social and cognitive implications. This is a reason to want especially honest evidence there. But is honestly really that extraordinary?

While reviewing footage for her PhD research, Polish Academy of Sciences ecologist Robin Wijnands spotted something pretty wild. A camera set up in eastern Poland’s Bialowieza Primeval Forest recorded wolves (Canis lupus) attacking a European bison (Bison bonasus) herd. 

The video, shot in September 2025 and described in a study published in the journal Ecology and Evolution, starts with five wolves entering the frame. Three bison cows chase the wolves, unintentionally leaving a newborn calf vulnerable. The wolves then attack the calf, biting its neck and attempting to drag it away. That’s when two cows come to its rescue and charge towards them. The wolves try to catch the calf a second time, but this time the entire herd surrounds the calf, and the wolves give up on their attack. 

“We captured this event purely by chance, which makes it even more special,”​ Wijnands tells  Popular Science. Wijnands is also a co-author on of the new study, and her research monitoring large mammal behaviour and activity in the Bialowieza Primeval Forest. The footage both excited and surprised the researchers. 

“It raised a lot of questions: Why would the wolves go for a difficult prey like the European bison? How often do predation attempts actually occur and how often are they successful?” says Wijnands.

A search through the available scientific literature revealed that there are actually many historical reports of predation on European bison. However, only a few of these recent attempts have happened recently and none have  documented evidence of a wolf grabbing an individual. 

The study raises interesting questions about the re-introduction and conservation of European bison. The species were hunted to extinction by 1919, but they were reintroduced in Poland’s forests in the early 1950s. Today, about 6,200 European bison live in the wild and they are often described as the “king of the forest” and considered a non-prey species. 

“Right now, most reintroduction initiatives do not seem to include predation risk or the presence of predators in habitat suitability analyses,” Wijnands says.“ We think that it should be considered in such analyses, as it could potentially affect small reintroduced populations.”

“However, even if predation occurs more frequently than we think, we do not expect a steep decline in European bison populations,” she adds, “especially when easier and more accessible prey are available.” 

Wijnands hopes the study opens the door for more research on bison-wolf interactions and their possible consequences, though she also notes that the work focuses on just one interaction and no definitive conclusions can be drawn from it. 

“We mainly wanted to share this rare and special observation and show that there are still many unknowns regarding European bison-wolf interactions,” she says. 

The post Watch bison shield their baby from a rare wolf attack in Poland appeared first on Popular Science.

I was recently preparing for a long-distance flight, when a friend took note of what I was packing in my carry-on. Along with my daily essentials, I’d stuffed in a puffy jacket, thick socks, and a winter hat. “Aren’t you heading to Vietnam?” He asked. “I’m pretty sure it’s hot there.”

“These aren’t for Vietnam,” I told him. “They’re for the plane.” 

Airplane cabins are kept notoriously cold. What’s more is that these frigid temperatures are absolutely intentional, Bobby Laurie, a former flight attendant and co-host of the travel and lifestyle talk show, The Jet Set, tells Popular Science.

“Look at the flight attendants next time you’re boarding a plane,” says Laurie. “It might be July in Miami and a temperature of 95 degrees outside, but they’re all wearing jackets and sweaters. They don’t really care what’s happening on the other side of that airplane. They’re prepared for what’s going to happen inside.” 

Popular Science turned to Laurie to fill us in on the scientific reasoning behind this excessive chill, and to find out why flight crews don’t just turn up the temp on planes? In the end, all that cold air is about much more than personal preference. 

An airplane’s average temperature and the reasons behind it

“The sweet spot for a plane’s cabin temperature is somewhere between 70 and 75 degrees,” says Laurie. It’s an indoor temperature that in most cases feels comfortable. But since airplane cabins are already kept at a lower humidity (typically ranging from 10 to 20 percent at cruising altitude, drier than most deserts) to help prevent frame corrosion, the air can feel much colder. 

Most commercial airlines keep their cabins in this temperature range for one main reason: to prevent passengers from fainting. On a plane, the danger of someone suffering hypoxia, a condition in which a person doesn’t get enough oxygen, often causing them to pass out, is a real possibility. 

In fact, passengers fainting on planes happens more often than you might think, says Laurie. It’s especially common on red-eye flights. “People tend to be a little disoriented when they wake in the middle of a flight,” he says. “Many times, they’ll just stand up and immediately hit the floor.”

This is due to the cabin’s simulated air pressure, which typically remains at an altitude equivalent of between 6,000 and 8,000 feet above sea level. It’s a mountain-level elevation that acts as a compromise between maintaining the plane’s structural integrity (sea-level altitude at a cruising altitude of 35,000 feet would force the plane to be excessively heavy and fuel-inefficient) and keeping passengers comfortable. 

While most people on board don’t even notice this air pressure adjustment, your body has access to about 25 percent less oxygen than at sea level. Those who aren’t used to it can get dizzy or lightheaded. They might even faint. 

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To combat this risk, flight crews turn down the heat. Not only does cold air keep passengers more alert, essential for responding to sudden turbulence or an efficient evacuation, but warm temperatures make it harder for your body to maintain circulation and cause your heart to pump faster, which requires more oxygen. 

Cold air, on the other hand, helps to slow your heart rate, keeps your breathing steady, and helps to stabilize your blood oxygen levels. It also wards off nausea and motion-sickness by calming your body’s temperature-control system and bringing it into balance. 

Keeping the airplane cabin colder also helps regulate humidity inside, says Laurie. Typically, the cabin’s already low humidity levels would cause any moisture on your body to evaporate more quickly and cause immediate dehydration. But pumping up the air prevents passengers from getting too warm, which slows that evaporation from happening. It also counteracts the moisture vapor in the environment, making your surroundings feel less stuffy. 

How body heat affects temperatures 

Chances are you often find yourself piling on layers at the beginning of a long-haul flight, only to be peeling some of them off somewhere over the Pacific. That’s because having hundreds of passengers packed so closely together in an enclosed cabin can really drive up temperatures. 

Think about it, says Laurie. You’re likely covered in a blanket. Maybe you’re donning a hoodie to keep your head warm, and the person next to you is literally inches away. “With everyone’s collective body heat,” he says, “you’ll probably start to get really warm.” 

Keeping the cabin cooler helps to mitigate this natural heat influx and keep everyone more comfortable in the long run.

Who controls the cabin temperature?

It depends on the airplane type. “Both Airbus and Boeing operate completely differently,” says Laurie. On Boeing airplanes, the temperature in the cabin is controlled from the flight deck, a.k.a the cockpit. “So [pilots] are adjusting the temperature to what they think it needs to be, but they’re not actually back there.” 

Airbus planes allow flight attendants to adjust actual cabin temperatures via a central touchscreen, while Boeing generally relies on rudimentary rotary knobs calibrated with general “cool” to “warm” ranges instead of exact numerical values. 

Still, all commercial planes have an integrated Environmental Control System (ECS) that manages the aircraft’s cabin pressure, temperature, and air quality. An ECS distributes conditioned air to several distinct zones throughout the aircraft. 

The flight deck has its own dedicated ECS zone, since this area of the plane is filled with heat-generating navigation, communication, and radar equipment that require dedicated cooling. 

If you run cold on planes, it’s best to avoid exit row seats and window seats. Image: Getty Images / skaman306

However, the passenger cabin is usually separated into two to four independently controlled temperature zones (for example: forward, mid, and aft). This allows flight attendants to turn down the air in, say, the plane’s mid-cabin, which tends to generate the most body heat, while keeping the back of the plane cool. 

To manage the temperature in each specific zone, aircraft utilize trim air valves. These specialized components introduce small amounts of hot or cold air into the main airflow ducts, allowing for customized temperatures specifically tailored for each localized zone. 

“If you’re walking to the back of the plane, you might even feel a change in the air a time or two,” says Laurie. 

Where to sit if you run cold 

Along with carrying a hoodie, there are other ways to escape the cabin chill. Avoid sitting in an exit row, since frigid air can seep in through the door seals. Window seats also tend to be cooler, as they’re closer to the outside of the plane. 

“The galleys,” those designated kitchen and prep areas on an aircraft, “are always colder than the rest of the plane,” says Laurie. Not only are they usually located right near an airplane door, but they’re also home to the powerful galley cooling units planes use for food storage. 

Ultimately, everyone’s body temperature is different, and how you perceive heat varies. “Say you’re on a domestic flight along with 150 to 200 other passengers,” says Laurie. “It’s going to be hard to make everyone happy at the same time.” Instead, he suggests, pack that carry-on bag accordingly!

In Ask Us Anything, Popular Science answers your most outlandish, mind-burning questions, from the everyday things you’ve always wondered to the bizarre things you never thought to ask. Have something you’ve always wanted to know? Ask us.

The post Why are airplanes so cold? It’s for your health. appeared first on Popular Science.