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Just north of Kittery in Maine, the Center for Wildlife is currently caring for a very unique  North American porcupine (Erethizon dorsatum). This iconic hairy mammal features a strong tail, short legs, and quills everywhere besides on its belly and legs. They are two to three feet long and weigh in at around 25 pounds. 

North American porcupines typically have dark-colored bodies with lighter-colored quills, but not the one that arrived at the Center for Wildlife. This baby porcupine was completely snow white with pinkish paws, making it a rare albino North American Porcupine. These bright, spiky mammals are exceedingly rare. In approximately 10,000 porcupine births, just one pops out albino, according to the wildlife center. 

The baby porcupine is recovering at Main’s Center for Wildlife. It is a private 501(c)(3) non-profit wildlife medical clinic and nature-based education center that receives no state or federal funding. To learn more about the organization and our work, please visit www.thecenterforwildlife.org. Image: Center for Wildlife.

“This baby porcupine was discovered after some dogs were attempting to chase it. Thankfully, his rescuer was able to step in before any serious injuries occurred,” the center wrote. “Due to his unique coloring, his young age, and potential injury from the dog interaction, the baby porcupine’s rescuer decided it was best to bring him in for care.”

While this particular baby porcupine appeared fine upon arrival, the team noted that he had crusty eyes. Shortly after, they spotted crust build-up on the animal’s arm and thought it could be a case of mange, a skin condition caused by tiny mites. It was indeed mange, The crusty eyes got worse and even started to form on his front paws. His nose also started to leak, and his breath became raspy. Luckily, there are treatments for the condition. 

“Our clinic team is working hard and keeping a close eye on him as they administer medication to fight off the mange infection. Daily cleanings occur as well in order to keep the crust away as best as possible,” the Center for Wildlife added. “We hope to see some improvements soon and hopefully have this little guy on his way to recovery!”

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The airline industry is entering an era of aerial endurance. Just 10 years ago, only one commercial airline offered a one-way flight topping 17 hours. Now, passengers are filing onto hundreds of these “ultra-long-haul flights,” which transport travelers to distant corners of the globe without any dreaded layovers. Pretty soon, these grueling long-haul flights may be measured not in hours, but in days.

Just this week, Australian carrier Qantas reportedly broke the record for the longest-ever flight by a commercial-style aircraft. The 24-hour, 24-minute odyssey began on July 23 in Melbourne, and ended July 24 in Toulouse, France, where plane-maker Airbus is headquartered. It was the latest in a series of tests for Airbus’ new A350-1000ULR model, which is being designed specifically to serve Qantas’s new Project Sunrise routes connecting Sydney to London and New York as soon as next year. Prior to this test, the mantle for longest belonged to a one-off, special delivery flight between Hong Kong and London. That flight, flown in a Boeing 777-200LR Worldliner, took 22 hours and 42 minutes.

Qantas may have broken the record for longest commercial flight, but given current trends, it’s unlikely to hold that record for long. Innovation in more advanced twin-engine aircraft and fuel capacity over the past decade or so has led to a surge in ocean-crossing long flights. And while a handful come close to reaching the 20-hour mark, there’s an even larger cohort operating in the 15-to-17-hour range. Just this year, new long-haul routes were added connecting Atlanta to Riyadh, Sydney to Las Vegas, Jordan to Dallas, and Egypt to Chicago and Los Angeles.

But those can seem like a brief stroll in the park compared to the longest flights currently available. Unsurprisingly, given their unique remoteness, Australia and Singapore are frequent destinations for long-haul flights. A handful of some of the longest commercial flights currently available, which will test even the most battle-hardened frequent flier’s resolve are listed below.

Project Sunrise: 24 hours and 24 minutes  

July’s record-breaking flight landed with a sparse cabin made up primarily of pilots and test engineers. By this time next year, Qantas hopes to pack these planes with 238 paying customers. Those seats will be spread out across four cabins: six in first class, 52 in business class, 40 in premium economy, and 140 in coach. All of those passengers will also have access to a “wellbeing zone,” where people can walk about, access self-service food stations, and stretch their legs. That focus on health is  not an after-thought. Stretching is so critical for personal health on long journeys like this that this area may as well be called a survival zone.

As the name suggests, passengers on this globe-spanning haul will see several sunrises and sunsets.  A massive 5,300-gallon rear center fuel tank makes this whole endeavor possible. Airbus estimates this tank will extend the jet’s range by 1,000 nautical miles. That extended range alone is roughly the distance from Austin to Miami. 

The new A350-1000ULR will also reportedly come equipped with “highly sensitive sensors” to constantly monitor fuel flow and make sure nobody’s nightmare of running out of fuel mid-flight becomes reality.

Singapore (SIN) to New York (JFK): 18 hours and 10 minutes

The 9,542-mile journey from New York to Singapore takes nearly 19 hours. Passengers gazing out the window can see the Atlantic Ocean, parts of Europe, and India before finally reaching their destination. That is, of course, if the route decides to go east to west, which isn’t actually decided until close to the flight’s departure. This flight is made possible  by a massive Airbus A350-900 run by Singapore Airlines. The route began in 2021 and now runs every single day.

Singapore (SIN) to Newark, New Jersey (EWR): 18 hours and 30 minute 

It’s a testament to the economic and cultural gravitas of New York and Singapore that the next entry on this list is only about an hour’s drive away from one of the previous takeoff points. This flight, also operated by Singapore Airlines, runs from Newark, New Jersey, to Singapore. It  takes somewhere between 17 hours and 50 minutes and 18 hours and 30 minutes, depending on the end destination and winds. Like the JFK flight, this one also utilizes an Airbus A350-900.

Auckland, New Zealand (AKL) to New York (JFK): 17 hours and 30 minutes 

New Zealand has seen a staggering rise in American tourism in recent years, thanks in no small part to its depiction in fantasy films, and its growing reputation as a hideout for Silicon Valley elites. Getting to the remote Oceanic island remains tricky, though. Air New Zealand made that a bit easier in 2022, when it began offering nonstop trips between  JFK airport and Auckland. The 8,842-mile trip takes about 17 hours and 30 minutes if heading to New Zealand, and just over 16 hours if arriving in the U.S.. 

Despite its length, the flight seems quite popular. The U.S. Department of Transportation reported that Air New Zealand carried 53,573 round-trip passengers between the two cities between November 2024 and November 2025.

A Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner passenger aircraft of Air New Zealand arrives from Auckland at JFK International Airport in New York as the Manhattan skyline looms in the background on February 5, 2024. Image: Charly TRIBALLEAU / AFP via Getty Images. Perth, Australia (PER) to London (LHR): 17 hours and 15 minutes 

Aussies and Brits have a long history matched maybe only by the time it takes to travel between the two countries. Until relatively recently, this epic 9,010-mile journey took multiple days and refueling stops.It even had its own name: the Kangaroo Route. That started to change in 2018, when Qantas began offering a non stop flight from Perth to London’s Heathrow  airport. 

The flight takes just over 17 hours when flying to London, and just under 17 hours if heading toward Australia. A  Boeing 787 Dreamliner carrying around 236 passengers makes this flight possible.

Paris, France (CDG) to Perth (PER): 17 hours and 20 minutes 

Brits aren’t the only Europeans interested in getting closer to the outback. In 2024, Qantas kept up its run of expanding travel to Australia by introducing the first nonstop flight connecting Paris and Perth. The trip takes about 17 hours and 20 minutes on a Boeing 787-9 to get to Paris, and slightly less time going if landing in Perth. The 8,878-mile route was completed just in time for sports fans to make their way to the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in France.

Singapore Airlines Boeing 777 aircraft as seen on final approach flying over the houses of Myrtle Avenue in London, a famous location for plane spotting, for landing at London Heathrow Airport LHR. The long range wide-body airliner Boeing 777-300ER Extended Range passenger airplane has the registration 9V-SNB and is powered by 2x GE General Electric jet engines. Image: Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto via Getty Images. Doha, Qatar (DOH) to Auckland (AKL): 17 hours and 15 minutes 

Long-haul air travel has truly blossomed in just the past 10 years. In 2018, Qatar Airlines had just launched a route linking Dohja, Qatar to Auckland, New Zealand. At the time, this 17 hour and 15 minute ride was the longest flight in the world. Now it doesn’t even crack the top five. 

Like several others on this list, Qatar Airlines uses an Airbus A350-1000 (though initially a Boeing 777) for the trip. And while the route was initially popular, it was dropped several years later due to a steep decline in travel caused by Covid-era travel restrictions. Qatar Airlines did eventually end up resuming the route in 2024.

Dubai, United Arab Emirates (DXB) to Auckland (AKL): 17 hours and 10 minutes 

Emirates Airlines was one of the first carriers based in the Gulf states to start exploring ultra-long-haul air travel. Its longest route from Dubai to Auckland, takes just over 17 hours on a double-decker Airbus A380-800 (the route initially used a Boeing 777-200LR). 

When the route began in 2016, it was the longest commercial flight in the world. The 8,834-mile trip begins by crossing over Arabian Sea, before flying over the southernmost tip of India and crossing the Indian Ocean. The plane then flies over the entire continent of Australia before landing in New Zealand.

Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas (DFW) to Sydney, Australia (SYD): 17 hours 

Until relatively recently, Texans looking to make their way Down Under had to ready themselves for a multi-legged, often multi-day journey. That ended in 2011, when Qantas started operating a direct route from Dallas to Sydney. But it’s still not a walk in the park. The 8,578 mile journey takes around 17 hours aboard an Airbus A380. Thankfully for those travelers, the return flight is often quite a bit shorter, clocking in around 15 hours and 15 minutes.

Shenzhen, China (SZX) to Mexico City, Mexico (MEX): 16 hours 

The final entry into the list is a bit of an outlier. It is the only route that includes China and any country in Latin America. In 2024, state-run carrier China Southern introduced a new, 8,789 mile route connecting the southeastern city of Shenzhen to Mexico City. The flight takes about 16 hours and is only nonstop  when traveling from China to Mexico. The return flight makes a refueling stop in Tijuana, Mexico though passengers reportedly stay on board rather than changing planes. 

Chinese officials said the route was more relevant than ever due to the country’s increased economic interest and development both with Mexico and other countries in Latin America.

Bon voyage!

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Okunoshima Island in Japan’s Hiroshima Prefecture is famous for its huge population of free-range rabbits. Tourists travel to the island to meet and feed the giant bunnies, who were introduced to the island following World War II and its use as a poison weapons testing ground. While it’s only one of countless similar wildlife feeding spots around the world, a recent study published in the Journal of Ecotourism highlights how these seemingly casual human-animal interactions may restructure ecosystems more than scientists expected.

In the case of the Okunoshima Island rabbits, it’s even possibly developing into a matter of life and death. But it’s not the visitors who are threatening them—it’s the wild boars.

“When we first heard that a wild boar had preyed on a live rabbit, we were surprised,” Shingo Kaneko, a study co-author and Fukushima University ecologist, said in a statement. “Wild boars are known to scavenge animal carcasses, but they are not generally regarded as animals that actively hunt live prey.”

So how are the boars developing a taste for rabbits? The local population isn’t native to the island; they’re European domestic rabbits previously introduced onto Okunoshima. There are so many rabbits now mostly due to tourists feeding them, which has actually allowed the rabbits to exceed what the natural ecosystem would otherwise support. The animals are such an influence on the island that much of the area features a clear “rabbit line” where low-growing tree branches and vegetation is almost completely eaten away.

The illustration depicts an unusual event observed on Okunoshima Island, where wild boars have been seen capturing rabbits. Researchers suggest that tourist feeding, high rabbit densities, and the availability of leftover food and carcasses may be contributing to these novel interactions. Credit: Eri Kondo

After examining the environment, Kaneko’s team observed how all these rabbits are also affecting other animal species. For example, wild boars, crows, and black kites are increasingly snacking on leftover rabbit food—and leftover rabbit carcasses. According to the researchers, some of the hogs have even started occasionally hunting rabbits as prey.

“Food left by tourists may be attracting wild boars into the areas heavily populated by rabbits. High rabbit densities may increase the availability of rabbit carcasses and may also lead to frequent encounters between the two species,” explained Kaneko.

The study’s authors made clear that new predators are not the central concern. Instead, they hope to highlight how wildlife tourism has the potential to alter otherwise natural and stable ecosystems. To combat the worst-case outcomes, Kaneko’s team suggests stricter feeding regulations, rabbit population monitoring, and vegetation analysis. Meanwhile, educating public officials and the tourists on the issue could lead to greater safeguards.

“We were struck by how closely wild boars, rabbits, and humans were interacting on the island,” said Kaneko. “Within this isolated environment, events unlike those we usually observe elsewhere appeared to be occurring throughout the island.”

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An archaeological survey ahead of some planned roadwork in Gloucestershire, England, revealed numerous artifacts spanning thousands of years of history. But one item particularly stands out from the rest. Preservationists discovered a rare, phallic-decorated nail cleaner that dates back to the late Roman era around 300 to 400 CE near the town of Cheltenham about 85 miles west of London. But while only a handful of the personal hygiene tools have been documented, Rome’s penchant for penis motifs is evident throughout the ancient empire.

Similar to today’s bathroom accessories, the two-pronged copper-alloy tool was crafted to remove dirt from underneath the fingernails. Many were made small enough to carry alongside other useful items, such as tweezers and ear cleaners, including the Cheltenham examples. A tiny hole in the middle of the object allowed its owner to thread it onto a strap or thin rope for optimal on-the-go utility.

The buckle was crafted from a single piece of copper-alloy. Credit: Archaeological Research Services Ltd.

At first glance, an untrained eye may have difficulty discerning the tool’s purpose based on its design, but it’s hard to mistake the handle’s decorative flourish. The metal is clearly shaped to resemble a penis. Phallic imagery wasn’t rare in ancient Rome, and not stigmatized as it is in many cultures today. Instead, male genitals were considered symbols of good fortune, fertility, and protection. Men, women, and even children all regularly carried amulets and jewelry displaying phallic images. Military equipment and weapons frequently featured penis adornments, while houses often showcased similar decor.

The livery button’s animal decoration is likely associated with a local family from the 19th century. Credit: Archaeological Research Services Ltd.

Aside from the nail cleaner, archaeologists also excavated a nearby belt buckle and plate made from a single piece of copper-alloy decorated with geometric designs. Other finds from the era included household waste, agricultural evidence, and a well. These discoveries stretched far beyond ancient Rome, as well. Researchers documented more recent items like Royal Navy “dandy” buttons from the 18th century, as well as animal-decorated 19th century livery buttons possibly connected with prominent local families. 

Taken altogether, the recent archaeological objects showcase over 1,600 years of life, cultural shifts, and fashion choices—even if some of the more phallic examples may turn heads today.

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It may be a habitat more fit for alligators, mosquitoes, and a banjo-strumming frog, but Georgia’s Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge (aka the Okefenokee Swamp) is officially a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is the 27th World Heritage Site in the United States, the first in the Peach State, and the first new natural World Heritage Site in the U.S. added in over 30 years.

North America’s largest blackwater swamp, the Okefenokee is a biodiverse wonderland. Thirty-nine fish, 37 amphibians, 64 reptiles, 234 birds, and 50 mammal species call it home. 

The refuge’s 353,981 acres are also dotted with 620 species of plants. Some of those plants truly fit the definition of bizarre and beautiful. Here are five plants that you may stumble upon when visiting this newest World Heritage Site.

The pitcher plants are hungry Pitcher plants can be over two-feet-tall. Image: Larry Woodward/USFWS.

While most planes make their food from sunlight and water, some like pitcher plants are carnivores. Pitcher plants like the park’s famed Okefenokee giant hooded pitcher plant (Sarracenia minor var. okefenokeensis) look like something that would make Seymour and his Little Shop of Horrors proud. Most grow to about five- to 14-inches-tall and eat the swamp’s various insects. 

The sundews are sticky Sundews have digestive slime and they know how to use it. Image: Larry Woodward/USFWS.

Though smaller than the pitcher plant, sundews are just as deadly—and sticky. To lure bugs, they secrete a sticky goo into a little bowl-like structure that it uses to trap and suffocate flying insects. Once a bug is stuck in his digestive slime, the sundew snaps its leaves shut and kills and eats the insect.  The red sundew (Drosera capillaris) is the Okefenokee’s best known sundew species, and they are commonly called “sticky flypaper.”

The Spanish moss is not a moss  Spanish moss uses scales instead of roots to get all of its nutrients. Image: Larry Woodward/USFWS.

Names can be deceiving—jumbo shrimp, Greenland, and a moss that is not technically a moss at all. Spanish moss (Tillandsia usenoides) is a flowering epiphyte, a plant that grows on other plants for support and access to sunlight. This is why it is often seen in swamps and around trees. Instead of using roots, Spanish moss uses scales to collect moisture and nutrients to make food from air, rainwater, and the debris that lands on it.

In a June 1909 issue of Popular Science, Roland M. Harper, elegantly chronicled the swamp’s natural wonders, including Spanish moss. “There the long moss (Tillandsia usneoides) drapes every tree, though it never grows as luxuriantly as in calcareous or alluvial regions in the same latitude,” he wrote. 

The water has lilies  Water lilies open during the day and close at night. Image: Larry Woodward/USFWS.

The Okefenokee is home to two main species of flowery water lilies—the American white lily (Nymphaea odorata) and yellow bonnet lily (Nuphar advena). They thrive in more shallow bodies of water, so that their stems can grow under the green pad to root in the soil below. They are also the ultimate sun worshippers. Their flower petals open in the morning and close at night to protect their pollen.

The bladderworts are fast—really fast The fastest predator on earth is this delicate-looking yellow plant. Image: Larry Woodward/USFWS.

Don’t let the dainty yellow petals fool you, bladderworts (genus Utricularia) are among Earth’s fastest predators. They can grab and eat insects in mere milliseconds. By one estimate, the Okefenokee’s bladderwords capture and digest at least 400,000,000,000 small aquatic animals every single year. 

The name comes from the seed-like bladders it uses to trap invertebrates. When a small aquatic critter plants on it, it triggers trap doors on the bladders. The animal is then sucked inside and digested by the plant’s digestive enzymes. 

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August 1The Summer TriangleAugust 12Six Planets in AlignmentAugust 12Full Solar EclipseAugust 12–13Perseids Meteor Shower Predicted PeakAugust 27–28Partial Lunar EclipseAugust 28Full Sturgeon Moon

If you’re one of our European readers, then August is potentially a particularly big month. A full solar eclipse will sweep across parts of several countries including Spain and Iceland on August 12. But even if you’re not, there’s still plenty to see this month, from a new planetary parade to a Lovecraftian horror lurking in plain sight. Let’s get started. 

August 1: The Summer Triangle

If it’s summer—and boy, is it ever summer—then it must be time for the Summer Triangle. If you look skyward as another long day recedes into another hot, sleepless night, you’ll see the triangular formation. The stars Vega, Deneb, and Altair shining bright in the southern sky form this seasonal shape.

As the Farmer’s Almanac explains, although the stars appear close from our perspective, they’re actually a long way from one another. Altair is 17 light-years away, and Vega is another eight light-years out, putting it at 25 light-years away from Earth. While Deneb appears similar to its two companions, it’s actually orders of magnitude further away. Estimates of exactly how far vary from about 1,400 light-years to 2,600 light-years.

The reason it looks as bright to us as Vega and Altair is because it’s huge. It’s an extremely rare blue supergiant. Deneb is anywhere between 55,000 and 196,000 the mass of our sun. If it magically replaced the sun, Deneb would swallow the planets Mercury and Venus whole. If our upper estimates on the star’s size are correct, it would swallow Earth too—and if not, never fear, it’d simply cook our planet into blasted uninhabitability.

If you’re still up for looking at the relatively benign Altair and Vega, along with the cosmic horror that is Deneb, crane your neck upwards, look south, and be glad that the star at the apex of the triangle you see is a long, long way away.

August 12: Six Planets in Alignment

From a triangle to a … hexagon? Sort of. August 12 is a big day for those of a stargazing persuasion.  It begins with a chance to see six planets in alignment. But wait, who’s missing? Venus has thumbed her regal nose at this month’s gathering—the Goddess of Love prefers to shine on her own, thank you very much.

That leaves Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, and Uranus left at the planet party. They’ll stretch across the sky like a string of Christmas lights than the regular hexagon that you’ll find in a geometry textbook. But look, if its internal angles sum to 720°, we’re claiming it.

As per Starwalk, the best time to catch the planets on parade will be just about an hour before dawn on August 12, with the planets rising in the eastern sky and moving southwest. The two easiest planets to spot will be Mars and Saturn, both of which should be visible with the naked eye.  

August 12: Full Solar Eclipse

If you happen to be in Greenland, Iceland, northern Russia or northern Spain, then a genuinely profound experience is heading your way. Popular Science was lucky enough to catch the total solar eclipse visible from North America in April 2024, and it’s a remarkable feeling to watch the sun disappear, replaced by a black disc and a ghostly silver corona, while darkness sweeps across the landscape. Birds stop singing, the temperature drops, and for a moment it’s midnight. And then it’s over.

NASA has details on exactly when and where the path of totality falls this time around. 

August 12–13: Perseids Meteor Shower Predicted Peak

As if a planetary parade and a total solar eclipse weren’t enough for one day, the night of August 12 and early morning of August 13 will also be the best time to see this year’s Perseids meteor shower. 

This will be a particularly good year to spot this iconic meteor shower, given that the meteors will be streaking through a moonless sky. Look to the constellation Perseus, which will be high in the northeastern sky. EarthSky suggests looking just before dawn for the best chance of seeing the shower in all its glory.

August 27–28: Partial Lunar Eclipse

Look, it’s not a solar eclipse, but for those of us in North America who’ll miss out on the spectacle of the disappearing sun, there’s a pretty decent consolation prize in the form of an almost-full lunar eclipse.

A lunar eclipse happens when the moon falls into the Earth’s shadow. Instead of disappearing completely, the moon turns a deep shade of red, which is why these eclipses are often called “blood moons”. (Why? All the answers you seek are here.) 

This one will begin at around 10:30pm ET, with the maximum eclipse—where 96.2 percent of the moon’s surface will be covered in shadow—reached at 12:12 a.m. EDT on August 28. It will be visible across the entire contiguous United States and in Hawaii. Only the western part of Alaska that misses out.

August 28: Full Sturgeon Moon

One  day after its encounter with the Earth’s shadow, almost to the minute, the moon will reach peak illumination for this month. At 12:18 a.m. EDT, the full Sturgeon Moon will shine in all its glory. According to the Farmer’s Almanac, the name comes from the giant fish that once swam in abundance in the Great Lakes of North America. The arrival of European settlers led to a predictable and depressing decline in their numbers, and the once-common lake sturgeon is now considered Endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

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.

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We humans love our pets, but we aren’t the only great apes who buddy up with other species. Researchers have documented multiple instances of primates forming bonds with different animals, but a recent study indicates these relationships may be even more common than expected. In a first-of-its-kind comprehensive review published in the journal Primates, anthropologists at the University of Oxford explored various instances of monkeys and apes carrying, grooming, playing, and sometimes actually adopting other creatures.

The data pool sources 303 cases across available scientific literature, 66 primatologists surveys, and 58 media accounts describing cross-species interactions involving humans’ close relatives. Situations included tufted gray langurs (Semnopithecus priam) petting squirrels in Sri Lanka, snub-nosed monkeys (Rhinopithecus bieti) playing with domesticated pigs in China, and even one case of capuchin monkeys (Sapajus libidinosus) in Brazil raising an infant marmoset for months.

While anthropologist and study-coauthor Cyril Grueter cautioned against viewing these situations as identical to pet ownership in humans,they potentially hint at traits that developed millions of years ago, long before Homo sapiens arrived on the planet.

“They may represent some of the evolutionary building blocks from which human-animal companionship eventually emerged,” he said in a statement. “More broadly, these findings provide new insights into the evolution of empathy, social flexibility and the remarkable capacity of primates to engage with animals beyond their own species.”

These inter-species relationships are found throughout nature, but most of them develop out of purely practical reasons. For example, different types of fish may swim together in large, blended schools to increase their odds of survival, while ostriches and zebras hang around each to avoid predators thanks to their respective scent and sight capabilities. 

However, these examples of mutualism are markedly different from those reviewed by Grueter and colleagues. Primates napping next to another animal or playing with them offers no readily apparent rewards—suggesting that this innate curiosity and friendliness is more deeply ingrained in humanity’s evolutionary journey.

Beyond a better understanding of positive inter-species relationships among apes and monkeys, the researchers say further analysis could also benefit mixed animal facilities at wildlife sanctuaries and zoos.

“Humans have long been considered unique in forming close social relationships with other species,” said Grueter. “Our study shows that many primates also display remarkable curiosity, tolerance, and even caregiving towards animals that are not their own species.”

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Smallpox began decimating Indigenous populations shortly after European colonizers arrived in the Americas during the late 15th century. Along with other infectious diseases like diphtheria, influenza, typhus, and measles, historians estimate10 to100 million people died in these epidemics within only a few centuries. But although smallpox’s European origins are clear based on the timeline of its devastation, epidemiologists have yet to identify strong genetic evidence to support this arc.

However, researchers believe they finally located the missing link. According to a study published today in the journal Science, a team at Trinity College Dublin has identified the oldest viral smallpox DNA in the Americas from a pair of 500 to 600-year-old Chilean mummies.The team says the molecular analysis indicates that the strains existed in a now-extinct variola virus lineage that bridges Old World European strains with its later variants.

“This discovery provides the first molecular confirmation that smallpox was carried to the Americas during the colonial period,” said pathogen geneticist and study co-author Shigeki Nakagome.

By comparing the mummies’ viral traces with historical examples, Nakagome and colleagues saw that the virus experienced an extended period of genetic alterations until the 16th century. It then began stabilizing during the 17th and 18th centuries, amid the apex of colonial expansion and throughout smallpox’s multiple largescale epidemics.

“This suggests that the virus may have reached an evolutionary optimum, allowing it to spread successfully with little further adaptation—possibly aided by the lack of immunity newly exposed populations had,” explained microbiologist and study co-author Lara Cassidy.

With the first confirmed genetic proof that Old World smallpox strains existed among Indigenous communities during the Colonial era, researchers have some of the strongest evidence yet that Europe directly introduced the virus into the Americas. It also supports the existing theory that pathogens often stabilize while passing through large and vulnerable populations instead of continuing to morph. Viral evolution may also frequently kickstart once again following the deployment of vaccines.

While Edward Jenner discovered the first smallpox vaccine in 1796, the disease still killed 300 to 500 million people during the 20th century. Thanks to extensive public health campaigns, the last documented naturally transmitted case occurred in 1977. TheWorld Health Organization officially declared smallpox eradicated only three years later. It still remains the only human infectious disease to be globally eliminated.

While smallpox is no longer a daily concern, the latest DNA discoveries can help public health officials, biologists, and epidemiologists prepare for and fight future disease outbreaks. A better understanding of pathogen evolution allows experts to plan more effective vaccination rollouts, as well as trace the spread of a disease. 

“Taken together, the findings show how major historical events including colonization, population change, and vaccination likely shaped the evolution of one of humanity’s most devastating infectious diseases,” added study co-author and pathogen researcher Bruno Romero González.

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In 39 BCE, a Roman governor decided to drive a message home to revolters in present-day Spain in the bluntest way possible. Among the many recently discovered artifacts at an archaeological site near the eastern Pyrenees in Catalonia, researchers identified a pair of slingshot bullets inscribed with “CN D.” The name behind the abbreviation? Gnaeus Domitius Calvinus, a general and ally to the emperor Augustus who helped quash an uprising known as the Ceretani Revolt.

The ancient namesake ammunition detailed by researchers at Spain’s Autonomous University of Barcelona is only the latest example of Roman soldiers’ penchant for taunting their enemies from afar. At a 2,100-year-old siege site in the present-day Golan Heights, archaeologists recently excavated similar sling bullets inscribed with jeers like “Learn your lesson!” In this case, however, the message appears more of an announcement of who was in charge of stamping out the local rebellion.

Researchers found the lead bullets near the Catalonian town of Urús, about 70 miles north of Barcelona. They also found various coins, garment brooches, soldiers’ items, and Roman military sandal iron studs called clavi caligae. While most of the artifacts date to around the early first century BCE, the sling ammunition inscriptions offer a much more concrete time period. “CN D” stands for “CN(eus) D(omitius),” or Gnaeus Domitius Calvinus, a Roman military commander and the governor of the province Hispania Citerior during what’s known as the Ceretani Revolt around 39 BCE.

The Ceretani were an Indigenous community who farmed, herded, and mined within the Cerdanya region of Catalonia during the Iron Age. The area’s roadways, grazing fields, and natural resources made it a target of the Roman Empire during their lengthy conquest of the Iberian Peninsula. Although the nearly 200-year-long campaign was nearly finished by the time that Gnaeus Domitius Calvinus arrived, the Ceretani remained one of the last pockets of resistance.

In his account of the era, the Roman historian Cassius Dio described a Ceretani ambush on the general’s soldiers around 39 BCE. Upon learning of their retreat, Calvinus punished his troops by reportedly executing one-in-10 men from two units before setting his sights on the rebels. The quick, decisive defeat marked Rome’s final domination of the peninsula and solidified their influence over regional trade and military routes.

Prior to discovering the archaeological site near Urús, experts believed Calvinus’ campaign took place farther west into the Pyrenees. Evidence like the personalized sling bullets now indicate combat occurred closer to the Ceretani heartland.

However, life was far from peaceful in the aftermath. Following the campaign, Rome aggressively eradicated and restructured local settlements, while instituting repressive laws designed to assimilate the area into the greater empire. With artifacts like the bullets, archaeologists now have a better understanding of where the nearly two-century-long struggle finally ended—and who took responsibility for the conquest.

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A growing body of research is revealing surprisingly human characteristics in sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus)—they might have an alphabet and they even employ vowels like humans in their communication. Now, researchers have investigated another highly familiar behavior in this marine mammal: sleeping.

Researchers theorize that sperm whales nap for 10 to 15 minutes at a time underwater, in a vertical position with their heads pointing upwards. By sleeping this year, they are out of the reach of tumultuous surface waters, but sufficiently close to pop up when they need to take a breath. But their heads are huge and buoyant, so how do these cetaceans avoid floating up in their sleep? Researchers writing in a Journal of Experimental Biology paper suggest that the answer is blowing bubbles.

Lead author Noémie Freymond tells Popular Science that fellow co-author Patrick Miller, “provided the first detailed description of sperm whale resting behavior. He observed that sperm whales release bubbles while sleeping, but it had never been demonstrated why they do so.” Freymond conducted her master’s thesis research on sperm whale resting behavior. She is now a PhD student at the University of Neuchâtel, where she studies sleep in chimpanzees. Miller is a researcher at the University of St Andrews’s School of Biology.

The team monitored 42 sperm whales in Norway’s Lofoten Islands using devices that record whale bubble sounds. They noted each whale’s depth and the body orientation, which signaled when the whales were sleeping. The devices were suctioned to the whales, and the team collected them after they detached from the whales and floated up to the surface of the water. Then it was off to the lab.

Sperm whales at rest. Image: University of St Andrews

Sperm whales can rest in three various ways. They can slowly sink around 26 feet deep, tail-first. They can also dive, head first, not too far before their buoyant heads turn up again. Or they can dive deeply—more than 656 feet—and rest as they float back up.

In this context, the team discovered that whales resting closer to the surface of the water released more bubbles while sleeping. Specifically, they blew bubbles around 11 times in each nap. The sperm whales resting as they floated up from greater profundity blew bubbles just three or four times throughout their ascending nap.

Blowing bubbles allows the sperm whales to control their buoyancy, the researchers argue. The whales napping close to the surface of the water blow out some of the air in their lungs, which then prevents them from floating back up. Deep-diving naps require more oxygen, so you’d think they have to release more air to prevent buoyancy, but that’s actually not how it works. The water pressure at greater depths makes the whales less buoyant, even if they have more air in their lungs, so they don’t need to release as many bubbles to keep themselves underwater.

“We were lucky to have access to such a large dataset with many tag deployments, because the main challenge is that a deployment must last long enough to capture resting behaviour,” explains Freymond. “This allowed us to show that sperm whales release bubbles to regulate their buoyancy while resting.”

What the team still can’t definitively say is whether sperm whales blow bubbles in their sleep consciously or unconsciously. When a dolphin sleeps, half of its brain is still awake—is that how sperm whales are, too? Or are they completely asleep, like humans? Releasing air to control buoyancy necessitates an awareness of the environment, after all.

It remains to be seen what future research will burst this bubble. More importantly, scientists should not investigate whether whales blowing bubbles in their sleep counts as cetacean snoring.

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X-ray imaging is best left to the professionals for a good reason. While the tool is not dangerous when utilized properly, it’s whole purpose is to fire radiation at a target. Knowing this, it’s probably better to simply admire DIY YouTuber Mirko Pavleski’s recent quest to build his own at-home X-ray machine from scratch. The secret ingredient to making it all work? A repurposed DY86 vacuum tube taken from a vintage CRT television set.

X-ray imaging is not only a vital tool for both medicine and science—it’s one of the oldest methods of its kind. Discovered by German physics professor Wilhelm Röntgen in 1895, the breakthrough earned him the inaugural Nobel Prize in Physics later that year. The machine fires  X-ray beams at a subject, then uses a specialized camera to record how a bone absorbs the beams based on density. In the human body, thick bones absorb the most X-rays, and appear white on the resultant image. Softer tissues show up in varying shades of gray, while empty spaces like inside the lungs appear black.

In order to power the homebrew X-ray camera without blowing up the vacuum tube, Pavleski relied on a chain of power supplies. First, a low-voltage DC generator runs a high-voltage AC inverter, which then channels current through a transformer and finally a voltage multiplier. This last part is crucial in order to create a sufficiently high voltage to ensure the vacuum tube’s radiation emissions include X-rays. Unsurprisingly, this took a few attempts to get right—resulting in three vacuum tubes exploding.

To create the photo itself, Pavleski used standard dental X-ray film placed behind his image subject. Once zapped, he completed the usual development process of washing, setting, and rewashing over the course of around 30 minutes. The final results offer looks inside various items in Pavleski’s workshop, including a microSD card and tiny transistors. The important caveat there is “items,” and not body parts. Safety first, after all.

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Steps away from New York’s historic Coney Island boardwalk, an endangered Kemp’s ridley sea turtle (Lepidochelys kempii) named Pancake was released into the Atlantic Ocean today. An excited crowd cheered and waved homemade signs supporting Pancake. The turtle officially returned to the water at 1:13 p.m. EDT, while a crowd cheered the little reptile on, “Pancake, Pancake, Pancake!”

“It’s [the release] significant because they’re an endangered species,” Dr. Maia Austin, a a postdoctoral researcher with the Wildlife Conservation Society’s New York Bight program, tells Popular Science. “They have been a really big conservation success story, in that, they had a really big population crash in the ’70s, and through a lot of great international conservation efforts, it’s really rebounding. So I think every individual that we can help is a great success for all of us.”

Representatives from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), New York State Department of State (DOS), Atlantic Marine Conservation Society (AMSEAS), Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), environmental organizations, elected officials, and New York Aquarium campers and youth leaders, all gathered on the beach to watch Pancake make its way back home.

Ahead of the release, Austin saw Pancake looking very active and the reptile appeared ready to swim and go back home. Pancake will be wearing a satellite tag on its shell, so that the team can monitor its progress.

“I think success just looks like it going back into its habitat and, you know, feeding and then hopefully continuing its migration back to the Gulf later in the season,” says Austin.

Pancake was released off the coast of Brooklyn, New York to cheers from an adoring crowd Image: Alan Haburchak/Popular Science.

On November 22, 2025, the Massachusetts Audubon Society found Pancake suffering from cold stunning in Wellfleet, Massachusetts. Pancake was then brought to the New England Aquarium for triage and medical treatment. On December 3, Pancake and 24 other Kemp’s ridley sea turtles were transferred to the Atlantic Marine Conservation Society (AMSEAS) sea turtle triage facility in Westhampton Beach, New York, for treatment and rehabilitation. 

Pancake is wearing a satellite tag on its shell so scientists can monitor its progress. Image: Wildlife Conservation Society.

Pancake weighs 11 pounds and is likely two to five years old. Over the past seven months, Pancake has made a strong recovery, showing confident swimming behavior, particularly while pursuing shrimp and clams. The turtle’s sex is unknown because that requires a blood test, which is not needed for rehabilitation.

Kemp’s ridley sea turtles are the smallest sea turtle species. They are found throughout the East Coast, from the south up towards New England. When fully grown, they can weigh 70 to 100 pounds and grow to two feet long. 

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Like it or not, insects are everywhere, including places where you may not want them to be. Yet there is one environment that they don’t call home—the open ocean. An enduring explanation for this absence is that deep water pressure would fill their tiny respiratory systems with air and they would then cave in. But one particular insect larva is challenging this idea. 

Meet lake flies (Chaoborus edulis). In East Africa’s Lake Malawi, billions of their larvae spend their days over 656 feet (200 meters) below the surface of the water before coming back up to feed at night. 

“Uniquely, Chaoborus midge larvae have modified their respiratory system into two pairs of air-filled sacs which they use to control their buoyancy,” Philip Matthews, a co-author of the study and a researcher who studies insects’ respiratory adaptations at the University of British Columbia tells Popular Science. “By regulating the pH of the air sacs’ walls, they cause them to expand or contract via a distinct ‘chemo-mechanical’ system.”

Matthews and his team were intrigued by how this mechanism works, but realized that using air sacs to regulate buoyancy while diving presents a problem. 

“The gas inside an air sac is not pressurized (it is roughly the same as the atmospheric pressure at the water’s surface),” he explains. “This begged the question: how deep can these insects dive before their air sacs cannot expand against the pressure? And at what depth do they fail completely and implode?”

The team decided to investigate this in Lake Malawi’s Chaoborus edulis larva, to solve this puzzle. The findings, detailed in a study published today in the journal Science, trace the larva’s daily diving routine with a sonar system, and look at what is going on at the biological level. 

The walls of C. edulis’ air sacs have resilin, a substance that grows or shrinks in volume according to the wall’s pH. This dynamic gives the larvae the ability to change their buoyancy. 

A swarm of the lake fly larvae over Lake Malawi. Image: Philip Matthews.

But how long can their air sacs hold out? Pressure chambers provide the answer. The researchers put larvae in these small chambers to see how much pressure they could withstand before their air-sacs imploded. The larvae’s air sacs could endure pressure equivalent to over 1,213 feet (400 meters) below the surface of the water, which is way deeper than they routinely descend. 

The study ultimately suggests that pressure isn’t what’s keeping insects out of open oceans, and their findings regarding resilin could hold relevance for material science.

“Resilin was previously known as a passive and flexible part of insect exoskeleton, but through its ability to swell and shrink in response to changes in pH, it generates force of its own in Chaoborus, changing the shape and volume of the air sac,” says Evan McKenzie, a co-author of the study and a PhD student at The University of British Columbia’s Department of Zoology. “We think this could make Chaoborus resilin of great interest to material science where it could be developed as a dynamic material that morphs its shape in response to changes in its chemical environment.”

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A hiker’s recent berry-picking trip in the woods along the northern Polish-German border yielded more than a basket of fruit. After inspecting metal fragments found among the trees near the city of Świnoujście, historians say the area may hide further remains of an Allied airplane crash from World War II.

“The very first inspection indicated that this was no random piece of scrap metal,” Wiktor Czeszewski at Poland’s Coastal Defense Museum told TVP World, the nation’s public broadcast news outlet. “The nature of the sheet metal, riveting, traces of aircraft structure, and spent ammunition indicate these are fragments of an aircraft.” 

Officials are treating the area as a potential crash site. Credit: Fort Gerharda, Muzeum Obrony Wybrzeża

Czeszewski’s team quickly traveled to the site of the hiker’s find, where they discovered even more wreckage, as well as spent ammunition traced to a type used in British airplane machine guns. A small tube artifact also featured an identification number that possibly links to a Rolls-Royce Merlin engine. Developed by the British manufacturer in the early 1930s, the liquid-cooled, 27-liter, V12 piston aero engine became synonymous with Allied fighter planes like the Hawker Hurricane and Supermarine Spitfire, as well as the Avro Lancaster heavy bomber.

Known as Swinemünde during German occupation, Świnoujście became a focal point of combat during World War II’s final months. Allied forces targeted industrial hubs across the area during multiple aerial missions, leading to casualties on both sides. Based on the condition of the wreckage, historians believe the aircraft was likely shot down by coastal anti-aircraft batteries.

Little else can be gleaned from the artifacts at the moment, but museum officials are now urging local authorities to treat the area as a potential crash site. Since pilot and crew remains may also still be buried underground, careful excavation work is even more important.

“We still have many questions and likely more than one surprise ahead of us,” added museum official Milan Litwinowicz.

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Fashion isn’t always an attempt to stay stylish. Throughout history, clothing and personal appearance have reflected social status, political alignments, sexuality, and more. But because of this symbolism, these simple-but-effective means of expression can also generate resistance from people in power. As far back as 416 CE, the Roman emperors Honorius and Theodosius II tried reining in a rising trend they deemed unfit for their male citizens—long hair.

This maiores crines (long locks) law probably wasn’t enacted purely due to their aesthetic preferences. As historian Javier Arce recently argued in his study published in the journal Pyrenae, the Roman government linked lengthier hair on men with a growing “barbarian” problem. The issue wasn’t an influx of Germanic residents, Franks, and Goths, however. It was that their personal grooming styles were beginning to rub off on Romans. And it was humiliating to the Roman elite.

Ancient Rome often relied on lex vestiaria (laws controlling apparel options and personal grooming) as means to maintain social order. During the empire’s later years, rulers regulated dress according to societal rank, allowing for the quick identification of enslaved people. Other examples included banning senators from wearing military items, as well as the restriction of fashions typically associated with outside cultures.

According to Arce, the timing of Honorius’ and Theodosius II’s long locks law was anything but random. The order arrived not long after the Visigoth king Alaric captured and sacked Rome in 410 CE. Six years later, Germanic attire and hairstyles had become popular enough that the empire’s rulers worried about a “Germanization” of their subjects, which might weaken their grasp on power. In addition to mandating short hair, Rome also forbade clothing made with animal skins, even for enslaved people—another fashion associated with Germanic enemies.

So were these attempts to suppress non-Roman cultural influences ultimately successful? In the end, it wouldn’t matter one way or the other. By 476 CE, the Western Roman empire had effectively collapsed, ceding military and economic power to the very “barbarians” whose fashions the ruling class hoped to stifle.

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Gummy vitamins taste like candy and make you healthier, right? What’s not to like? 

The global market for vitamin gummies has exploded in recent years, valued at nearly $9 billion in 2025 and predicted to double by 2033. Nearly a quarter of that consumption is in the United States.

Driving this boom is the idea that these chewable vitamins are a convenient, tasty way of improving general health—helped, as often happens, by some savvy marketing campaigns.

But, is there a dark side to these squishy health boosters? America’s Poison Centers’s national helpline receives more than 60,000 calls about possible vitamin poisoning every year, mostly from parents alarmed after their children have accidentally gorged on the chewy sweets. Are they right to be worried?

Dr. Kait Brown, clinical managing director at America’s Poison Centers, is keen to reassure anyone scared they can overdose on gummy vitamins.

“It’s very rare that kids are having symptoms when the Poison Center is contacted about multivitamins,” she says. “There is a margin of safety with all of them.”

Iron in gummy vitamins can pose real risks

The main exception when it comes to acute poisoning risk from multivitamins, she explains, is iron. Although iron boosts haemoglobin that helps blood carry oxygen around the body, it can also be corrosive to the stomach tract in high doses, causing nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea.

If any parents see these symptoms in their children after consuming products containing iron, she urges them to call the Poison Center helpline immediately at 1-800-222-1222.

“We can often get these kids the treatment they need in a timely fashion so they don’t progress to the later stage of iron toxicity,” she says. This severe poisoning is known as metabolic acidosis. “It changes the way your organs function so you have potential multi-organ failure. It’s fatal if untreated.”

In the 1980s, she says, deaths from iron poisoning were much more common. Nowadays, however, they are extremely rare. This is partly thanks to stricter regulation requiring child-resistant packaging for products containing iron. Many multivitamins also now leave out iron altogether.

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But although the risk of immediate overdose from most vitamin supplements is very low, they can carry more insidious risks.

“Where we mostly run into concerns with vitamin toxicity from multivitamins is chronic overuse,” Dr. Brown says.

Why you need to pay attention to fat soluble versus water soluble vitamins

There are two main types of vitamins: fat-soluble vitamins such as A, D, E and K, and water-soluble vitamins such as B and C.

“Some vitamins are taken more into the tissues and bones in our bodies, those are the fat-soluble ones,” Dr. Brown explains. “Water-soluble ones aren’t really taken up in that way and are more likely to be just flushed out of the system.”

In other words, if you consume too many water-soluble vitamins, you’ll probably just pee them out.

More care, on the other hand, should be taken with fat-soluble vitamins. As these are stored in our tissues, there is a greater risk that excess consumption can build up in the body over time.

Vitamin D, for instance, is essential for absorbing calcium and phosphorus, giving us healthy teeth and bones. But if taken to excess, vitamin D can cause calcium to build up in the blood. Early symptoms of this include weakness and vomiting. In extreme cases, overconsumption of vitamin D can even affect heart and brain function.

Also be aware of vitamin A

Vitamin A is another leading culprit of chronic vitamin toxicity.

“It can cause some liver damage, and there’s also things like bone pain and hair loss associated with it over time,” Dr. Brown says. “But this is only if you’re consuming many, many [gummy vitamins] a day over many days.”

In general, she says, there is no reason to fear these squishy supplements, which can be a useful boost to a healthy diet. But it is important to familiarize yourself with the vitamin content of each product, be aware of recommended daily maximum doses for different age groups and keep the containers away from children.

“They’re in a lot of homes, and especially kids under five don’t necessarily understand the difference between candy and medication,” she says. “It’s something they know tastes good and if they’re left alone with the product, they might say, ‘Oh, I want a few more of these today.’”

What’s more important than vitamins? Eating a balanced diet. Image: Getty Images / Kseniya Ovchinnikova The importance of holistic health

While the dangers of multivitamins are generally low, dietician and gut health expert Dr. Emily Leeming warns against relying on them for a healthy diet.

“I think there is a place to have a multivitamin for certain people who are struggling to get that from food alone,” she says. “[But] we need to be a bit more cautious about thinking that taking supplements is an easy fail-safe. We don’t want to be doubling up where we don’t need to be.”

She points out that many gummy vitamins are loaded with sugar, or with sugar alcohols that can cause bloating in high doses.

Moreover, topping up on certain vitamins is no substitute for a healthy, balanced diet.

“Most of these multivitamins might contain a range from five to 30 different nutrients and micronutrients,” she says. But food contains 26,000 biochemicals that play many different roles in the body. “So, by eating the whole food source, there are so many other benefits that are coming with that besides that one nutrient we’re trying to get more of.”

The final concern is cost, with some high-end formulas costing as much as $30 per bottle. The FDA doesn’t regulate the supplement market in the same way it does for medicines, making it difficult to know whether the health claims of more niche products are based on real evidence.

“Don’t feel like you’ve got to get sucked into some powerful marketing and need to spend on expensive products,” Dr. Leeming says. “If you want to make changes for your health, first try and spend that money on making and eating healthy food.”

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.

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While mother eagle Jackie recovers at the Ojai Raptor Center, her partner Shadow and their pair of subadult eagles, Sandy and Luna, continue life in their nest in Big Bear Valley. Shadow is feeding and caring for the duo, and protecting the nest from some other subadult eagles spotted near Big Bear Lake. Luna even helped out a bit, chasing away an intruder before it could get into the nest. 

A representative from Friends of Big Bear Valley (FOBBV) spoke with an eagle expert about what Shadow may do while Jackie is away. It is important to remember that Shadow is a wild eagle who can do as he pleases. However, the unnamed expert did say that Jackie and Shadow’s years-long tight bond may keep him from moving on to another mate for now. He likely would not go and seek out another female eagle until his hormones kick in towards the end of December into early January. 

“We noticed that Jackie’s hormones seem to kick in earlier and she becomes frisky… and Shadow generally has a case of the December grumpies until his kick in,” FOBBV writes. “But again, Shadow will do what Shadow wants to, and we have no say so in the matter.”

Meanwhile, Jackie is about 170 miles east in Ojai. Despite being in critical condition, she is eating on her own, has more energy, and is even fighting off the staff taking care of her. And the staff is not the only group she has been fighting recently. Video shared with KTLA 5 shows Jackie in a fight with two other adult eagles near Dana Point that left her in critical condition. 

According to the Ojai Raptor Center, Jackie is anemic and has inflammation affecting her kidney function. The team is unsure of the underlying issues causing these symptoms, and they are working with specialist veterinarians to determine the best treatment. They are also still waiting for a toxicology report to see if she has any rodenticide, zinc, or lead in her system. Lead is particularly toxic for eagles. According to the American Eagle Foundation, a lead fragment the size of a grain of rice is lethal to a mature bald eagle. A standard 150 grain lead bullet can poison 10 eagles.

This is a developing story and we will continue to provide updates. In the meantime, viewers can monitor Shadow, Sandy, and Luna on the nest cam.

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.

You can also help the rescue organizations helping nurse the eagle that is likely Jackie back to health by donating to Ojai Raptor Center’s Bald Eagle Recovery Campaign.

The post Luna the eagle chases off nest intruder, as mom Jackie recovers appeared first on Popular Science.

Despite the bloody picture painted in the movie Jaws, the real king of the ocean is not the great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias). It’s the orca whale (Orcinus orca). These skilled hunters stalk their prey in a variety of ways, from hydroplaning onto the sand to grab seals to corralling fish into big bait balls for a snack. 

A group of orcas in the Gulf of California appear to have an additional tool in their hunting toolbox—and it was caught on camera. One whale holds down the dead body of a large sunfish, which can grow over 6 feet long and weigh over 4,000 pounds. The whale then lets go, before another orca rams into the sunfish carcass at a high speed. The collision breaks apart the fish’s tissue into hundreds of tiny pieces.

“At first, I was just excited because I could see what they were eating and document it,” Dr. Katy Ayres, a research scientist from Beneath The Waves and Orcas Mexico and guide with Latitude Adventures who captured the footage, tells Popular Science. “Sometimes it is hard to identify the prey. But then I wasn’t expecting the sunfish to fragment into so many pieces. As it happened, it became clear we were witnessing something special.”

The event is detailed in a study co-authored by Ayres and published today in the journal Frontiers in Ethology.

Pieces of sunfish everywhere

Sunfish are among the planet’s heaviest bony fish species. They move through several deeper parts of the oceans, but come to the surface to rest, regulate their body temperatures, or find organisms that will eat the parasites off their skin. While those surface waters can be great for exfoliation, it makes them more vulnerable to predators. In the Gulf of California, they are commonly hunted and eaten by orcas. 

“In general, the orcas here have an incredibly diverse diet. While some groups appear to specialize on certain prey, as a whole, they’ve been documented hunting everything from whales and dolphins to sharks, rays, sea turtles, and of course the largest bony fishes in the world, the sunfishes,” says Ayres. “They’re still a relatively understudied orca population, so every new observation helps fill in another piece of the puzzle.”

These new observations are based on two independent hunting events that occurred about one year apart. In July 2024, Ayres saw how a group of orcas, including one juvenile, interacted with a dead sharp-tail sunfish (Masturus lanceolatus) that the group had previously killed. A female orca held the sunfish by its tail fin while a male orca accelerated and swam toward both.The female released it shortly before the male rammed into it. The juvenile then ate the smaller bits of sunfish that had exploded due to the impact, while the adults fed on what remained of the body, but did not consume the smaller sunfish fragments. 

A similar event in September 2025 was filmed by Héctor Franz and had that same hold-to-ram technique and feeding behavior.

A family meal

Ramming like this has not been previously described as a predation method by orcas  Since the sunfish were already deceased in both events, the ramming may be a processing technique instead of a way to deliver a killing blow.

“The most surprising part was how coordinated they were. One orca held the sunfish in exactly the right position and let go at the perfect moment for the other to strike it with incredible force,” says Ayres. 

The gelatinous layer that covers sunfish is called a capsule, and their skin hosts all kinds of distinct microorganisms. If this tissue is shattered, all of the microbes inside of it spread into the water and change the nutrient composition. The team believes that the tissue fragmentation could facilitate contact between sunfish and orca microbiomes. These meeting of the microbiomes could give the orca nutritional or other benefits including immune regulation.

The ramming behavior may also be a form of parental investment. Dividing the carcass into more manageable pieces for the younger whales aligns with previously observed behaviors.

“It was also really lovely to see the young orca taking advantage of the smaller pieces, which raises interesting questions about whether the adults were making the prey easier for it to eat,” Ayres recalls. 

Playing with their food

While this could be a way to boost immunity and help feed their young, ramming simply may be a fun game for these highly social whales. 

For the sunfish, the interaction could provide new insights into their anatomy and other physical characteristics. So far, fragmentation of tissue has only been documented in sharp-tail sunfish. This suggests that tissue disintegration may be a species-specific structural response to high-energy impacts. The tissue in larger sunfish species may not necessarily disintegrate this way, but we will only know that from future study.   

It’s also unclear if the same orcas were involved in both events. More high-quality footage that captures the orca’s dorsal fins and signature eye patches can help identify individuals. 

“Seeing orcas here is a real privilege and a relatively rare experience. Although there are now regulations, we’re seeing an increase in boats searching for them in the hope of getting people in the water and sometimes forcing encounters,” Ayres concludes. “I think it’s important that visitors come with realistic expectations and appreciate these animals in their natural environment and not just as an opportunity for a photo or social media post.”

The post Orcas smash dead sunfish into bite-sized pieces appeared first on Popular Science.

It’s already been a brutal summer by pretty much any metric, with record-breaking temperatures affecting millions of people across the United States and parts of Europe. Although predicting the forecast for any given week is becoming increasingly difficult due to climate change, historical data can still point us in the right direction. Barring all the chaos, when can someone expect to endure the season’s most sweltering conditions?

The Old Farmer’s Almanac recently delved into nearly 30 years of meteorological data to determine the country’s hottest day of the year—and the answers may vary more than you might expect. July predictably contains peak temperatures for most of the U.S., but certainly not all of it.

“Many regions in the United States—from the Rockies to the East Coast—follow this pattern,” they explained. “However, this isn’t true for all regions.”

The hottest day of the year could occur anytime between June and October, depending on where you live in the United States. Credit: NOAA

Northern areas of the country typically hit their top temperatures between mid-July and mid-August. Much of the western states experience their hottest days during early August. Most of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Oklahoma are likely staring down even more intense heat in the weeks to come, possibly towards the end of August.

There are some notable exceptions to these temperature trends. While most of the U.S. begins feeling some relief from the summer heat come August, ocean waters typically continue warming well into September. The majority of the West Coast and southern Alaska also see cooler Pacific air roll over the warmer land, creating a thick fog that can lower summer month temperatures. Anyone living there shouldn’t expect peak heat until September or even October. The same is true for most of Hawaii and Puerto Rico, as well.

The bottomline? Keep hanging in there, and keep hydrated.

The post Is today the hottest day of the summer? The ‘Old Farmer’s Almanac’ has 30 years of data for an answer. appeared first on Popular Science.

Airplane seats can feel ridiculously small. It’s gotten to the point where I, a small woman of average height, have trouble even reaching under the seat in front of me. But have airplane seats always been so dang squished? The short answer, which we explore in a new episode of Popular Science’s Ask Us Anything podcast, is a resounding no.

Ask Us Anything answers your most outlandish, mind-burning questions—from the everyday things you’ve always wondered to the bizarre things you never thought to ask. So, yes, there’s a reason why most people are right handed and no, not all cats hate water and that’s okay. If you have a question for us, send us a note. Nothing is too silly or simple.

This episode is based on the Popular Science article “Why are airline seats so small? It all started in 1978.”

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Full Episode Transcript

Sarah Durn: You finally make it onto the plane. You shuffle down the aisle trying not to hit anyone with your roller bag and overflowing personal item. You find your row. You squeeze into your seat. Your knees are almost touching the seat in front of you. Your elbows are tucked in, and now you and the person next to you are silently battling over that one precious armrest.

You haven’t even taken off yet, and you’re already uncomfortable. You can’t help but wonder: Surely, planes haven’t always been so cramped? And you’re totally right. Airplane seats really have gotten smaller. So how did we get here? And why are we all squeezing ourselves into tinier and tinier spaces at 35,000 feet?

Welcome to Ask Us Anything from the editors of Popular Science, where we answer your questions about our weird world, from why are most people right-handed to why can’t we remember being babies? No question is too offbeat or mundane. I’m Sarah Durn, an editor at Popular Science.

Annie Colbert: Hello, I’m editor-in-chief, Annie Colbert.

SD: Here at PopSci, we’re always pondering quirky questions.

AC: And this week we’re wondering why are airplane seats so small. All right, Sarah, am I imagining things or were airplane seats actually bigger in the past?

SD: You are not imagining things. Experts say seats really have gotten smaller over the past several decades.

AC: I knew it.

SD: I know. Some major airlines have lost several inches of precious leg room compared to what passengers had in the late ’90s.

AC: All right. So what happened? Did airlines just wake up one day and decide, “You know what passengers would love? Less space.”

SD: Not exactly. The story actually starts with a huge change to the airline industry nearly 50 years ago.

AC: Ooh, historical twist.

SD: Exactly. Flying used to work very differently. Tickets were more expensive, airlines were regulated differently, and the entire experience looked nothing like it does today. Then everything changed.

AC: I’m guessing that change eventually led to my knees banging the seat in front of me.

SD: Yeah, it did. And here’s the other part, seats have been getting smaller at the same time passengers have also been getting larger.

AC: Hmm. That feels like a bad combination.

SD: Yeah, very bad. And some experts say this isn’t just about comfort. It could raise questions about passenger health and safety.

AC: All right. Now I’m intrigued.

But before we get to how flying went from spacious cabins to fighting over armrests, we wanna hear from you. What questions are taking off in your brain? If there’s something you’ve always wanted to know, submit your question by clicking the “Ask Us” link at popsci.com/ask.

SD: Send us your questions.

AC: Send them. All right. Coming up, we’ll look at how airplane seats started shrinking.

SD: And the nearly 50-year-old decision that changed the way we fly.

AC: That’s after this quick break.

SD: Welcome back. So Annie, before we get into the history here, I feel like we need to acknowledge that flying today can be a lot.

AC: Yes, it really can. And I will say from experience, flying with kids is a whole different level. I have a nine-year-old and a two-and-a-half-year-old, and traveling with them, it basically feels like packing up your entire house and trying to fit it into one tiny airplane row.

SD: Oh my gosh.

AC: You have snacks and toys and water bottles and jackets and stuffed animals, and whatever random object my toddler decided to pick up along the way that she had to bring. And then you get on the plane, and you’re like, “Wait, where is all this stuff actually gonna go?”

SD: Yeah. I can’t even imagine.

I don’t have kids, but I have flown a couple of times with my cat.

AC: Yeah. I mean, that feels like its own challenge.

SD: It is and was. Yeah, a lot of times your cat counts as your personal item, so then I have all these odds and ends I’ve tried to stick into my cat carrier’s very tiny little side pockets.

My cat is meowing at my feet. I’m trying to figure out where to put my jacket, and suddenly I’m just sitting there like, “Where do my feet go?” You know?

AC: I mean, who needs feet really?

SD: Apparently not airplane passengers. I had one particularly wild experience flying with my mom and sister in Europe. We were running late to a connection after our original flight was oversold.

We finally get to the plane and, of course, the overhead bins are full, and mind you, we all have carry-on suitcases with the, you know, rolling wheels and massive personal items.

AC: Oh no.

SD: And the flight attendants told us to just put our rolling suitcases under the seat in front of us.

AC: Wait, your actual rolling suitcases?

SD: Our actual rolling suitcases. So the whole flight we had our feet sitting on top of our luggage because there was literally nowhere else for anything to go. Sounds horrible, but also a safety hazard. I honestly don’t even know how they allowed it. It was one of the most uncomfortable flights I’ve ever been on.

But I think everyone has some version of that moment where they sit down and think, “Was flying always this cramped?”

AC: Okay, so that’s the big question. Were airplane seats actually bigger in the past?

SD: It’s not just in your head. According to experts interviewed by Popular Science, airplane seats and leg room really have shrunk over the past several decades.

AC: How much are we talking?

SD: So William McGee, a senior fellow for the American Economic Liberties Project, has tracked seat sizes for years, and McGee says major US carriers like American, Delta, Southwest, and United have lost somewhere between two and five inches of leg room since the 1980s. They’ve also lost around two inches of seat width.

AC: Okay, that’s a lot.

SD: It really is. Today, the average leg room on those airlines is about 31 inches. Back in the late ’90s, it was closer to 35 inches. That’s more than even some economy premium seats today. And on some budget airlines, seats can be even smaller, around 28 inches of leg room.

AC: So what happened? Because flying used to have this reputation of being glamorous. You see these old pictures of people dressed up on planes.

SD: Totally. Flying used to be a very, very different experience, and to understand how we got from there to fighting over armrests, we have to go back to 1978.

AC: The plot thickens.

SD: Indeed. So before 1978, the airline industry was heavily regulated. The government controlled things like which airlines could fly which routes and how much tickets cost. Flying was basically seen by the government as a utility.

On average, flying was more expensive, but passengers got a lot included in that price, things like checked bags, meals, and much more space.

AC: Mm. So what changed?

SD: So in 1978, Congress passed the Airline Deregulation Act. The idea was that if the government stepped back, more airlines could enter the market, there would be more competition, and ticket prices would go down. And at first, that did happen.

AC: So more people could afford to fly.

SD: Exactly, and this is, this is a really important part of the story.

Air travel became way more accessible to way more people. But over time, the industry changed again. There was a wave of consolidation, and today, the biggest airlines dominate most of the U.S. market.

AC: And somewhere along the way, the seats started shrinking.

SD: Exactly. Airlines realized that if they could fit more seats onto each plane, they could sell more tickets. More passengers per flight means more revenue.

AC: Which makes sense from a business perspective.

SD: Totally. And airlines would argue that these changes helped keep basic fares cheaper, but the trade-off is that passengers have way less space.

AC: And at the same time, humans have changed too, right?

SD: Exactly. Seats have gotten smaller at the same time that Americans, on average, have gotten larger.

According to the CDC, the average U.S. adult weighs about 15 pounds more than they did 30 years ago. People have also gotten slightly taller, though those increases have leveled off more recently.

AC: So people are getting bigger.

SD: And the seats are getting smaller.

AC: Not ideal.

SD: Not ideal. Paul Hudson, the president of the passenger rights organization Flyers Rights, told Popular Science that what’s unusual is that most other seating has adjusted over time.

Movie theater seats, car seats, other venues. Those seats have generally gotten bigger, but airplane seats have gone the opposite direction.

AC: Okay, but there are rules about this? Like, is there a minimum size an airplane seat has to be?

SD: Surprisingly, no. The FAA does not currently set minimum seat requirements.

AC: Really?

SD: I know. It’s kinda shocking. The FAA could set minimum seat dimensions if it determined that smaller seats created safety risks, but so far the agency has said no new rules are necessary for passenger safety.

AC: I’m guessing not everyone agrees with that.

SD: You guessed correctly. Some passenger advocates argue that smaller seats are not just uncomfortable, they could be dangerous.

AC: Like how?

SD: One major concern is health. On long flights, sitting still in cramped conditions can increase the risk of blood clots for some passengers. The CDC recommends getting up and moving around every couple hours on longer trips.

AC: Which is sometimes easier said than done.

SD: Right. If the seatbelt sign is on for turbulence or you’re stuck in the window seat and two people next to you are asleep.

AC: Ah, yes, the classic airplane dilemma.

SD: Exactly. The other big concern is emergency evacuations. FAA rules say a full airplane needs to be able to evacuate within 90 seconds.

AC: That sounds very fast.

SD: It is very fast, and some experts worry that smaller seats, fuller flights, more carry-on luggage, and changing passenger demographics could make that harder.

AC: But has the FAA tested this?

SD: They have. The FAA conducted evacuation testing and concluded that seat size and spacing did not negatively affect emergency evacuations.

AC: Hmm.

SD: Right. But critics have pushed back on those tests.

AC: Mm-hmm.

SD: For example, Paul Hudson from Flyers Rights, who actually observed one simulation, argued that the testing didn’t fully reflect real-world flying.

He pointed out that it didn’t include children, older passengers, or people with physical disabilities. The testing also didn’t happen on an actual plane, but in a parking lot with seats set up.

AC: Those feel like very large blind spots. I’m thinking of tiny toddler legs, and they do not move quickly. Plus, you think of the stress of an actual emergency, and, ugh, it’s very scary to think about.

SD: Yeah, very scary, and for now it doesn’t look like airplane seats are going to get suddenly bigger.

AC: So what can people actually do, besides magically getting upgraded to first class?

SD: Right, if only. Experts say if you can afford extra leg room on longer flights, it can be worth considering. And especially on long flights, try to move around when you can.

Hudson from Flyers Rights actually said he gets up whenever someone else in his row does, even if he doesn’t need to, because you don’t always know when you’ll get another chance.

AC: I mean, good advice.

SD: Right? And maybe my personal advice: Be very thankful whenever the overhead bins have room…

AC: because otherwise…

SD: you might end up using your suitcase as a footrest.

AC: The world’s least comfortable ottoman.

SD: Least comfortable.

If you wanna read more about why airplane seats have gotten smaller, check out our full story on Popular Science. We’ll link it in the show notes.

AC: And with that, we’ll be right back after this quick break.

SD: When we come back, we’ll answer another airplane mystery: Why do we still have to use airplane mode when we fly?

Welcome back. So, Annie, we all know how flying goes. You sit down, you buckle your seatbelt, you’re ready for takeoff, and then you hear, ding, “Please switch your devices to airplane mode.”

AC: Of course, very familiar. But do we really need to be switching our phones to airplane mode? Are we gonna bring down an entire jet if we accidentally get a call?

SD: Yeah, so the short answer is no. At least on modern airplanes, experts say the chance of your phone interfering with navigation equipment is extremely, extremely low.

AC: Mm.

SD: Like, basically non-existent.

AC: Got it.

SD: But the original concern actually goes back decades.

AC: Of course it does. Another airplane history lesson. Let’s hear it.

SD: I know. There is a lot of aviation lore in this episode. But back in the 1960s, before iPhones and Walkmans, the only way to actually listen to something on a plane was on a little portable FM radio, and there was a real concern with those radios interfering with airplane communication systems.

And that made more sense because those signals use very similar frequencies, but today’s cellphones use completely different frequencies.

AC: Then what is my phone actually doing when I put it into airplane mode?

SD: Basically, it stops your phone from constantly communicating with cell towers. Normally, your phone sends and receives signals using something called radio frequency energy, or RF energy.

RF energy isn’t as powerful as things like X-rays or UV rays from the sun, but this is what allows our phones to actually make calls. When it comes to flying, the rule is mostly a precaution. There’s very, very little chance that your phone could actually interfere with the plane’s communication system.

AC: Great. Well, that’s a relief because I feel like I’ve definitely forgotten to turn on airplane mode on a flight before.

SD: Same, all the time.

AC: Yes.

SD: Sorry, United. But even though the danger is basically next to zero, there’s another reason people have suggested keeping airplane mode around. Okay, imagine this. You’re stuck in one of those tiny airplane seats we just talked about, and now imagine everyone around you taking phone calls for six hours.

AC: Absolutely not.

SD: Right. The safety concern might be smaller today, but the do we really want an entire plane of people talking on the phone? That concern?

AC: Still very real.

SD: Very, very real.

AC: Honestly, airplane mode might be protecting all of us after all.

SD: Just maybe not in the way we originally thought.

AC: And that’s it for this episode. But don’t worry, we’ve got more episodes of Ask Us Anything live in our feed right now. Follow us or subscribe to Ask Us Anything by Popular Science wherever you enjoy your podcasts. And if you like our show, leave a rating and a review.

SD: Our producer is Alan Haburchak. This week’s episode was based on stories written for Popular Science by Mack DeGeurin and Tom Hawking.

AC: Thank you, team, and thank you everyone for listening.

SD: And one more time, if you want something you’ve always wondered about explained on a future episode, go to popsci.com/ask and click the “Ask Us” link.

AC: Keep the questions coming.

SD: Until next time, may your flight be smooth.

AC: Your middle seat stay empty.

SD: And your leg room be plentiful.

AC: Whoosh.

SD: Oh, that was good, Annie

AC: Thank you. These are airplane takeoff sounds, everyone.

SD: I know. I like that we, uh, both started using the hand to, like, help that.

AC: Oh, that really helps.

SD: Yeah, you can’t, you can’t make the noise without the visualization of the hand. It doesn’t work.

The post Airplane seats really are getting smaller appeared first on Popular Science.