Popular Science

Boaters and birders enjoying the early days of summer on Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay knew that a bird with colorful feet didn’t belong there. The red-footed booby (Sula sula) was spotted off Thomas Point Park in Anne Arundel County, hundreds of miles away from its usual haunt in the tropics.

“It was only the second red-footed booby officially recorded in the state,” Steve Sheffield, a field biologist at the University of Maryland and president of the Maryland Ornithological Society, tells Popular Science. “The range for the red-footeds is extensive. It goes all the way out into the Pacific Ocean, and in the east, it goes to the West Indies, Caribbean. It’s more of a Pacific bird, but extremely rare here.”

Red-footed boobies are the smallest of all boobies. Few seabirds display such a variety of color phases. Their legs and feet are red. Bill is pale blue. Juveniles are wholly brown or blackish gray with black bill and facial skin. Gray legs. Immature have patchy underwings without definite pattern, white back, mottled gray-brown head, and red or brownish legs. Image: Hagerty, Ryan/USFWS.

They typically spend long periods of time out at sea, and are prone to wandering far out of range. Combine this wanderlust with increasingly abnormal weather patterns and rapidly warming ocean waters, and sightings of these tropical birds can increase. Maryland saw its first red-footed booby back in 2024. 

“I think it was off course, so there was probably some kind of a tropical storm that knocked off course and up here,” says Sheffield. “That’s not that big of a deal because they can change their course easily.”

According to the boaters and birders on the bay, the bird appeared friendly, jumping from boat to boat, and landing at various points along the shoreline. 

While it has not been seen since late June, another rare tropical species has been spotted in Maryland. Birders caught its relative the brown booby (Sula leucogaster) visiting boats and stopping on buoys around the Chesapeake in July. They are slightly more common than their red-footed relatives, but still excited the region’s avian enthusiasts.

A brown booby on the Palmyra Atoll, about halfway between Hawaii and American Samoa. The circular string of about 26 islets is nestled among several lagoons and encircled by 15,000 acres of coral reefs. Image: Andrew S. Wright/USFWS, Pacific Islands. ANDREW S WRIGHT asw@ieee.org

“The birders in this area were trying to find any boat owner that would take them out,” Sheffield laughs. 

As temperatures have warmed due to climate change, a number of southern bird species have settled in Maryland. Usually spotted in Texas, Anhingas (Anhinga anhinga) are now breeding in the Bay State. Brown pelicans (Pelecanus occidentalis), and even some southern bat species are also moving up the coast and changing the ecosystems in ways that we don’t fully understand yet. 

Despite the summer heat, both the brown and red boobies are not putting down roots in Maryland and have gone on their way. Their quick visits highlight how fleeting and exciting nature can be. 

“One of the things that’s great about being a field biologist is you never know what you’re going to see. It’s like Christmas every day,” Sheffield says. “I can go out birding and see this weird bird flying by with red feet, that turns out to be a red-footed booby. It’s just a thrill to be outside when you never know what you’re going to see.”

The post Rare tropical red-footed booby spotted in Maryland appeared first on Popular Science.

Do you really need to reapply sunscreen every two hours? Is chemical sunscreen bad for you? If it’s cloudy out, do you still need to wear sunscreen? There is plenty of misinformation about sunscreen out there, and it can be really tricky to parse out what’s true from what’s a flatout lie. That’s why in our most recent episode of Popular Science’s Ask Us Anything podcast, we dive deep into the most common sunscreen myths. Turns out, I’ve been thinking about spf completely wrong. 

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 most of us are right handed and no, dinosaurs have never actually spit venom. If you have a question for us, send us a note. Nothing is too silly or simple.

This episode is based on several Popular Science articles, including: “Do I really need to wear sunscreen every day? We asked dermatologists.,” “Mineral vs. chemical sunscreen: What’s best for protecting your skin?,” and “What exactly is the UV Index? A dermatologist explains.” 

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Full Episode Transcript

Sarah Durn: Quick: True or false? 

You only need sunscreen if it’s sunny. Higher SPF means you can stay outside all day. Chemical sunscreen is dangerous. Mineral sunscreen works better. On cloudy days, you don’t need to wear any sunscreen. 

If you answered true to any of those, congratulations, you’ve fallen for one of the most common myths about sunscreen.

Welcome to Ask Us Anything from the editors of Popular Science, where we answer your questions about our weird world, from “Why do parrots talk?” to “Why are airplane seats so tiny?” No question is too offbeat or banal. 

I’m Sarah Durn, an editor at Popular Science. 

Laura Baisas: And hello, I’m Laura Baisis, PopSci‘s news editor.

SD: And this week, we’re wondering about sunscreen, specifically, what are the most common sunscreen myths—something, Laura, you’re kind of an expert on. 

LB: Guilty as charged. Big sunscreen enthusiast over here. Not a dermatologist, did not go to med school, but yes, sunscreen enthusiast. 

SD: Yes. Okay, so I feel like sunscreen has become weirdly controversial.

Laura Baisas: It really has, and it’s absolutely unfortunate. Somewhere along the way, protecting yourself from skin cancer turned into an internet debate. 

SD: Ugh. Yeah, people argue about mineral versus chemical sunscreen, whether sunscreen causes cancer, whether you need it indoors, whether SPF 100 means you can bake on the beach for eight hours.

LB: And spoiler alert, like a lot of things on the internet, the takes are not great. 

SD: Surprise, surprise. Today we’re separating sunscreen fact from sunscreen fiction. 

We’ll bust some of the biggest myths, explain how sunscreen actually works, and answer a question that before prepping for this episode I had never stopped to ask: Who even invented sunscreen?

LB: Turns out the answer involves ancient Egyptians…

SD: …Olive oil…

LB: …and World War II. 

SD: Buckle up, we’ll get there. 

Now, before we dig into it, we want to know what questions are you pondering? If there’s something you’ve always wondered, submit your question by clicking the “Ask Us” link at popsci.com/ask. Again, that’s popsci.com/ask, and click that “Ask Us” link.

LB: Please send us your questions. 

SD: Send them! And with that, we’ll be right back after a quick break to tell you everything you’ve ever wanted to know about sunscreen

Welcome back! Laura, now before we get into all of these sunscreen myths, I kind of wanted to know: Who invented sunscreen? 

LB: Hmm. Good question. 

SD: Yes, because it feels like one of those things that just kind of has always existed. 

LB: Right, always was in your medicine cabinet. 

SD: Yeah. 

LB: So like people didn’t just turn into red tomatoes in the sun without it, right?

SD: Well, not surprisingly, people have been trying to avoid sunburn for literally thousands of years, ’cause painful. Although sunscreen meant something very different in the past. 

For instance, in ancient Egypt, people mixed together pastes made from things like rice bran, jasmine, and other plant ingredients, and rubbed the paste into their skin to make it appear lighter since, problematically, lighter skin was associated with wealth and royalty.

LB: So did they know that they were actually blocking the sun’s harmful UV rays with those pastes, or no? 

SD: No, not at all. So sunscreen actually started more as a beauty product than a health product. 

LB: Kinda wild when you think about it. 

SD: I know. And the ancient Greeks, meanwhile, rubbed olive oil on their skin. 

LB: But wait, doesn’t oil make you burn more easily?

Like I’m thinking, you know, 1960s, poolside tanning oil, you know, vintage polka dot bikinis, those types of things, no? 

SD: Totally. But yeah, not olive oil. Modern testing suggests olive oil actually had an SPF of around eight, so not great by today’s standards. 

LB: Better than nothing. 

SD: Yes.

LB: Honestly I wasn’t expecting olive oil, as you can tell from my surprise, to be such a success story.

SD: Eh, success story. You know? Temper your expectations. 

Unfortunately, you know, things did go downhill after that. Pretty early on Europeans became obsessed with skin whitening creams—again, problematic—many of which contained really, really harmful ingredients, also problematic, like lead and mercury. 

LB: Not mercury. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. 

SD: Yeah, yeah, and lead is no picnic either. 

History has a fun habit of discovering something that’s shiny or mysterious and deciding, you know what? Let’s put it on our skin. 

LB: What’s the worst that could happen? It’s just our skin. 

SD: Right? 

LB: Just our body’s biggest organ. 

SD: No. Oh, yeah. 

LB: So wait, does that mean that sunscreen’s history briefly also kind of became poison’s history?

SD: Yeah, unfortunately. Modern sunscreen didn’t really show up until around World War II. Soldiers were using this thick, red petroleum jelly

LB: Mm-hmm.

SD: They must’ve looked great, to prevent sunburn. And then after the war a pharmacist named Benjamin Green mixed it with things like cocoa butter, you know, to make it a little less gross. And eventually that became Coppertone. 

LB: Truly one of my favorite smells in the whole world. So that, you know, petroleum jelly to Coppertone, kind of a big glow up. 

SD: Oh, yeah, right. From wartime to beach vacations. And now sunscreen is a multi-billion dollar industry. 

LB: Which is really great progress, but it has also created about a billion myths about when to use what kind of sunscreen, what UV rays even are, if it gives us cancer, things like that.

LB: Yeah, so let’s get into it, because there is a lot of misinformation out there. So sunscreen myth number one: If it’s cloudy, I can skip sunscreen, Laura? 

SD: This is, uh, probably the easiest one. Basically, no, you still need it when it’s cloudy. Clouds block visible UV light much better than they do ultraviolet light.

About 95 percent of the UV radiation reaching Earth comes in the form of UVA rays, and those rays can come through clouds and even windows. 

SD: Hold up, windows? 

LB: Yeah, windows don’t fully protect the skin from UV rays. So this is why dermatologists recommend a broad spectrum sunscreen that blocks both UVA rays, those are the ones that cause tanning and aging, and UVB rays, which are more responsible for sunburn and many skin cancers.

SD: Okay, so are most sunscreens broad spectrum, or is this something we have to look out for? 

LB: Most are, but to be absolutely sure, always check the labels to make sure it says broad spectrum, and ask a dermatologist. That’s personally my favorite route. 

SD: Oh, man, I’m gonna need to, like, check mine immediately.

Okay, so myth number two: What about mineral sunscreen versus chemical sunscreen? I feel like the internet loves to debate which one is better, so which one wins out? 

LB: Honestly, there is no winner. Both are great when used the right way. 

SD: Mm. 

LB: They just work a little bit differently. Mineral sunscreen uses zinc oxide or titanium dioxide to reflect UV rays.

So think about that classic goopy white sunscreen from every beach movie in the ’80s. 

SD: Ah, yes, the completely white nose. 

LB: Yeah, exactly. Luckily, modern zinc oxide and mineral, uh, sunscreens are much less ghostly, um, unless you’re me. Sometimes I admit I look like a ghost, but that’s a whole separate story.

SD: Me too. 

LB: Chemical sunscreens, they work a little bit differently. Instead of reflecting the UV rays, they will absorb the light and release it as these, like, little puffs of heat. Unfortunately, you can’t see the little puffs, but that’s kind of what’s happening. 

SD: Fascinating. So neither one is bad.

LB: Exactly. Sometimes people hear chemical and panic, but dermatologists are very clear on this. There is no evidence that sunscreen actually causes skin cancer, whether it’s mineral or chemical, and the evidence overwhelmingly says the opposite, that it can prevent cancer. 

SD: So this next one is definitely something I’ve wondered about/kind of maybe still believe.

Myth number three: If I wear a higher SPF, am I set all day? Please, maybe? 

LB: As someone who swims for long periods of time outside, I really, really wish this one was true, but it’s not. SPF is unfortunately not a timer. Whether it says SPF 30 or SPF 100, activities like sweating, swimming, touching your face all will slowly remove the sunscreen throughout the day.

One dermatologist I interviewed actually told me something I really love that kind of helps understand how that works. After about two hours, your sunscreen has basically just turned into a moisturizer. It’s not effective anymore. 

SD: Okay. Bummer. Definitely don’t do that enough. Um, okay, myth number four: It’s not hot, so I don’t need sunscreen.

LB: This is a really common misconception, and it’s even gotten me in trouble before. You know, we’re really marketed sunscreen way more in the summer, but yeah, that hunch is right. Temperature itself has absolutely nothing to do with UV exposure. You could have a really chilly fall day with a surprisingly high UV index. You can even get burned skiing because all of that, you know, pristine white snow will reflect sunlight back onto your exposed face. So the thing to check is not temperature, it’s UV index. 

SD: Not fun. Yeah, so this whole time my weather app and the UV index has been trying to help me. 

LB: Exactly. It’s usually right there near temperature. Check the UV index. It’s basically a little forecast of how intense the sun’s ultraviolet radiation is gonna be on any given day. 

SD: Okay. This is maybe silly, but what exactly is ultraviolet light? 

LB: No silly questions on this podcast. Come on. You can basically think of sunlight as this giant rainbow of different kinds of energy.

SD: Huh. 

LB: The light we can actually see is just, like, one tiny slice of that rainbow. 

SD: Sure. 

LB: Ultraviolet, or UV light, sits just beyond the violet end of that rainbow. It’s invisible to our eyes. 

SD: Invisible, but definitely not harmless. 

LB: Exactly. Definitely not harmless, and invisible to humans. Some animals can absolutely see in UV light, which is pretty cool

And yeah, they’re not harmless. UV rays can damage the DNA inside your skin cells, and that’s what leads to sunburn in the short term. 

SD: Yikes. 

LB: And over many years of exposure to UV rays and subsequent burning, your risk for skin cancer increases, along with signs of aging like wrinkles and dark spots.

Not as serious as cancer, but also something most of us want to prevent. 

SD: Okay, yikes. So the UV index is basically telling you how aggressive those invisible sun rays are going to be that day. 

LB: Exactly. The higher the number, the less time it takes for your skin to start getting damaged. 

SD: So is there ever a UV index where I can just, you know, skip the sunscreen?

LB: Well, according to the dermatologist I spoke with, if you’re, like, truly indoors and the UV index is, like, a two or lower, let’s say at some time in February if you’re in the Northern Hemisphere, you’re generally okay. But the thing is they still recommend making sunscreen use part of your daily routine, ’cause that way it just becomes a habit. 

It’s a lot easier to build on that habit than to remember which days are considered UV safe, which are pretty much none. 

SD: Bummer. So the advice is basically just put on your dang sunscreen. 

LB: Exactly. Your future skin will thank you. 

SD: Man. Oh, well. So, so much for an easy answer. And with that, it’s time for a quick break.

LB: But when we return, we’ll talk about how E. coli might just become the next big sunscreen ingredient. 

SD: Oh my God, E. coli? 

LB: Yeah, that E. coli. 

SD: Oh, no.

Okay, so Laura, E. coli. Tell me what the heck a gross bacterium that spreads disease has to do with sunscreen. 

LB: I know. This one is really, really weird, but kind of fascinating. Um, yeah, that same bacterium that is found in our poop and can shut down pools and beaches, not exactly the skin ingredient anyone was asking for.

SD: I, I definitely did not ask for it, just to clarify. 

LB: No, no, same, same. Sunscreen enthusiast and I didn’t say put the E. coli on my sunscreen, please. But a team of researchers aren’t just, you know, haphazardly putting this bacteria into sunscreen. They’re actually turning the bacteria into these tiny chemical factories.

Um, they basically engineered E. coli to produce a compound called gadusol. 

SD: Oh my gosh, gesundheit. 

LB: Yes. So gadusol is this natural compound that some fish make, especially in their eggs, to protect themselves from that same ultraviolet light that damages our skin. But the problem is there’s not a lot of gadusol in nature, and it’s very difficult to extract.

SD: Mm. 

LB: So instead of harvesting it from fish like fish oil, these scientists taught bacteria how to actually make gadusol. 

SD: Okay, wild. So future sunscreen inspired by fish, manufactured by bacteria, approved by science? 

LB: Approved potentially.

SD: Okay. 

LB: You know, we’ll, we’ll, we’ll get to that. It’s, it’s not ready for primetime just yet.

But what’s cool is the bacteria got really good at it. Um, after the team tweaked their genetics and growing conditions, they boosted the gadusol production by almost 93 times. 

SD: Whoa. 

LB: Yeah. Early tests suggest that the gadusol has antioxidant properties as well, kind of like vitamin C, so this could help neutralize some of those damaging free radicals that are, um, caused by sun exposure.

SD: Wait, wait, wait. So it might not just block UV rays, it could help clean up some of the damage that they cause? I mean, that’s pretty cool. 

LB: It is. I mean, it’s obviously still really early on, so again, don’t go out looking for E. coli sunscreen at the pharmacy. They haven’t compared it head-to-head with current sunscreens. They still have to prove it’s safe and effective on our skin. It would need that lengthy regulatory approval before it ends up on store shelves, but it’s just something kind of cool that scientists are working on. So yeah, don’t throw out your favorite SPF just yet for many reasons, including this.

SD: Wow, I would never think I would be into E. coli sunscreen, but maybe I’d try it. 

LB: I definitely would. I’m a little weird on that, on, on that front. 

SD: Whoa. 

LB: But yeah, science is, science is weird. 

SD: Science is weird. Fish sunscreen made by bacteria. Who knew? 

LB: But that’s why we love science, right? 

SD: We love it.

LB: 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 or subscribe to Ask Us Anything by Popular Science wherever you enjoy your podcasts. And if you like our show, leave us a rating and review. 

SD: Do you have a favorite sunscreen? Let us know in the comments.

Our producer is Alan Haburchak, and this week’s episode was based on a series written for Popular Science by our very own Laura Baisis. 

LB: Thank you, team. Thank you, sunscreen, and thanks 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.

Until next time, go reapply sunscreen and keep the questions coming

LB: Just put on the dang sunscreen, please. 

SD: I probably need to reapply, like, right now.

The post 4 sunscreen myths too many people still get wrong appeared first on Popular Science.

The 2026 Florida Python Challenge ended on July 19, and organizers have officially finished tallying the number of bagged snakes. Over 10 days, 907 participants hunted down a collective total of 280 invasive Burmese pythons (Python bivittatus) across the Everglades. While hunters did not catch quite as many snakes as last year (294), the winner shattered the record for most pythons caught. This achievement earned him a hefty first place prize.

Speaking with Tampa Bay News 10, Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission program coordinator Sarah Funck confirmed that professional python hunter Tom Rahill received $10,000 for personally nabbing 96 of the apex predators. That’s 36 more pythons than last year’s winner, Taylor Stanberry, although she did make history in 2025 as the first woman to take the top spot.

Burmese pythons began proliferating in the Florida Everglades after their accidental introduction into the region during the 1970s. With no major competition from native predators, the invasive snakes exploded in population while decimating local wildlife. Conservationists estimate between 100,000 and 300,000 pythons now live in the state, despite ongoing efforts to rein in those numbers. An average adult Burmese python reaches about 13-feet long, while pregnant females can lay up to 70 eggs at a time.

Rahill has professionally hunted pythons for over a decade and is the founder of Swamp Apes. The nonprofit offers conservation projects to veterans and first-responders. During this year’s competition, he also helped one veteran catch a 17-foot-long python. 

While the nine additional prize winners across the professional, novice, and military tiers have yet to be announced, it’s hard to envision a much bigger snake getting crowned the longest python. Then again, it’s certainly possible—the longest Burmese python on record was nearly 19-feet long.

The post Florida Python Challenge winner slayed 96 snakes appeared first on Popular Science.

Internet-famous bald eagle mother Jackie is showing signs of worsening anemia. According to her caretakers at the Ojai Raptor Center, her packed cell volume (PCV) has dropped to 13 percent, which means her anemia has worsened in the past two days. 

“Our veterinary team is responding quickly,” they write. “Additional advanced diagnostic testing is now underway, and expedited laboratory testing has been requested as we continue working to better understand her condition and guide the next steps in her treatment.”

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Jackie was admitted to the care center two weeks ago. She was found on the ground near Dana Point Park on July 17, following a short altercation with two other subadult eagles. Cell phone video confirmed that the adult was able to fend off the other eagles by turning over and using her talons, but could not fly far away. 

Back in Big Bear Valley, activity on the nest that she shares with partner Shadow has quieted down. Their chicks, Sandy and Luna, have likely left the area on their own journeys. This is a developing story and we will continue to provide updates. 

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. As of August 1, it appears the 2026 chicks have fully fledged.

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.

How can I help Jackie and Shadow?

FOBBV accepts donations to support its conservation efforts in the area. The organization recently reached a goal of raising $10 million to purchase land around Big Bear Lake in the San Bernardino Mountains. A $5.5 million donation from Anna and Greg Brockman pushed the fundraiser to its goal ahead of a deadline. Greg Brockman is the co-founder and President of OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT. Before the Brockmans’ donation, more than 25,000 donations had raised almost half of the necessary funds.

You can help the rescue organization nursing Jackie back to health by donating to Ojai Raptor Center’s Bald Eagle Recovery Campaign.

Disclosure: Ziff Davis, Popular Science’s parent company, filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in April 2025, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.

The post Jackie the bald eagle’s anemia worsens appeared first on Popular Science.

Earlier this summer, a group of wellwishers assembled inside Livermore, California’s fire station #6 to sing “Happy Birthday” to a light bulb. While not the most expected recipient of well wishes, anything that’s survived for 125 years deserves a celebration. Unfortunately, the Centennial Light’s impressiveness is often overshadowed by a decades’ old conspiracy theory based on half-truths and a misunderstanding of physics.

Although light bulbs are everyday items today, they were once only available as handmade luxury items. Artisans working for 19th century manufacturers like Ohio’s Shelby Electric Company optimized their products to ensure the longest lifespans. Despite the care required to make them, the early incandescent light bulbs relied on pretty basic principles—a thin tungsten wire sealed inside an airproof glass encasement glows white-hot after receiving an electric current.

There’s an issue to this setup, however. Heat dictates an object’s brightness and its peak emission wavelength, which is seen as visible color by the human eye. To achieve a peak visible emission, tungsten needs to reach a temperature of around 5,700 degrees Celsius (10,292 degrees Fahrenheit). For reference, that’s about the temperature as the surface of the sun. The hurdle is even more insurmountable given tungsten’s melting point of about 6,192 degrees Fahrenheit. This means any filament’s peak emission must fall within the infrared spectrum, whose wavelengths are longer than visible light but shorter than microwaves.

Shorter wavelengths make whiter, brighter visible light, so only small temperature increases improve a light bulb’s overall efficiency. But the hotter the filament gets, the more its atoms evaporate as the metal deteriorates. Knowing this, early light bulbs were all about balancing brightness and efficiency with lifespan.

So how has the Centennial Light lasted for 125 years, and how did it get wrapped up in a conspiracy theory? To answer that, it’s best to understand the allegedly nefarious plot concocted by a group known as the Phoebus Cartel. In all fairness, the Phoebus Cartel was a very real entity formed by international companies including Phillips and General Electric in 1925 who aimed to control the rapidly expanding incandescent light market. The cartel managed to accomplish this through a mixture of price-fixing and famously establishing a standardized 1,000-hour lifespan across its light bulbs. Although the Phoebus Cartel disbanded about 14 years later amid the outset of World War II, its standardized lifespan remained a benchmark for decades.

Critics often cite the Centennial Light and its over one million hours of near-continuous illumination as an example of how sturdy and well-made light bulbs once were prior to the rise of “planned obsolescence” manufacturing–but it’s not that simple. The fire station’s antique is ostensibly a 60W bulb, but it actually only draws four watts of power—and even then, it’s dimmer than a usual 4W light thanks to its inefficiency. According to electronics and software blogger Maurycy, the likely explanation is that someone at Shelby Electric Company accidentally crafted a handmade bulb with a ridiculously high filament resistance, and subsequently sold it as a night light.

Instead of proving conspiracy theorists correct, the Centennial Light actually offers a case study of why manufacturers adopted certain standards that still influence today’s products. Classic incandescent light bulbs hypothetically could burn for a very long time, but they’d offer such a dim output that no one would want to buy them. Promising a 1,000-hour lifespan ensured everyone benefited from uniformly bright, similarly long-lasting bulbs that didn’t cost a fortune in electricity bills. In reality, the only reason the Centennial Light made it this far is because its glow is barely visible.

Meanwhile, technological progress also pokes holes in the conspiracy theory. Companies eventually moved away from incandescent lights to fluorescent and LED options, largely because those are even cheaper, longer lasting, and more reliable.

Have big businesses engaged in shady tactics to line their pockets throughout history? Absolutely. However, light bulbs simply aren’t the clearest example of planned obsolescence.

The post The world’s oldest lightbulb has been shining for 125 years appeared first on Popular Science.

Antarctica is in the red. Well, at least the continent’s striking Blood Falls are. Situated on the eastern edge of the Taylor Glacier in the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica, this dramatic outpouring of crimson water plunges into Lake Bonney. Its signature hue comes from the iron-rich brine cascading down the rock face, but exactly where that water came from is not clear. However, one thing is now clear—that salty water is bustling with marine life, despite being miles away from the ocean.

According to a study published today in the journal Nature Geoscience, the water flowing through Blood Falls has a distinct community of marine organisms. The presence of these salt water-specific organisms indicates that the water system beneath the glacier has a marine origin.

“Finding what is effectively a thriving marine oasis in a polar desert—more than 20 miles from the ocean—was extraordinary,” Andrew E. Allen, a study co-author and microbial ecologist at the University of California, San Diego, tells Popular Science. “The diverse microbial community we found retains a biological connection to an ancient marine environment while demonstrating the remarkable resilience and adaptability of life.”

Previous geochemical studies of the area suggested that the water source that feeds Blood Falls likely originated when seawater flooded the Taylor Valley during past warm periods. The water source was then isolated beneath the advancing Taylor glacier when sea levels fell.

The team collecting samples at Blood Falls, a feature of the Taylor Glacier, Antarctica, where iron-rich subglacial brine emerges creating the striking red outflow that flows into proglacial west lobe of Lake Bonney. Image: Bryan Minnea.

To learn more about the origin of the microbes at Taylor Glacier and Blood Falls, the team analyzed 167 samples of water, sediment, and air. They used several genetic techniques to identify the microorganisms in each sample. They found that the microorganisms in the red ice, sediment, and mud at the lowest edge of the glacier (called a terminus) were almost entirely associated with marine environments. The surrounding sites were dominated by organisms found in freshwater and on land. 

“The biological activity that we observed from mRNA analyses suggests that this relic marine community isn’t just frozen in time but has somehow persisted despite a very dramatic change of environment,” Allen explains. “The distance these communities reached in the Dry Valleys could be really important for interpreting the extent of ancient flooding.”

In future studies, the team hopes to do more genomic sequences to get a better understanding of when these communities of tiny terrestrial and marine microbes split apart from one another. 

“Life never ceases to amaze,” says Allen. “If we look sensitively enough, we repeatedly find things that we didn’t expect to find.”

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Most people learn about deep sea discoveries in the days and weeks after marine biologists make them, but you don’t need to be aboard a research vessel to experience new finds in real-time. Since July 19, a crew on the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Okeanos ship has conducted regular surveys of the abyssal plains near the Cook Islands in the South Pacific Ocean. And if your schedule is free later today, you can join the exploration.

On August 3 at approximately 5:30 p.m EDT, the expedition’s remotely operated vehicle (ROV) is scheduled to arrive at the seafloor after a three-hour descent. At a depth of nearly 3.5 miles, the pitch-black abyssal waters (and its residents) will require illumination from onboard lights. Over roughly four hours, the remotely operated vehicle (ROV) will examine and map the deep sea environment and water column about 0.6 miles from the boundary with American Samoa, while using onboard sensors to collect marine data. These include CTD-mounted (conductivity, temperature, and depth) equipment, an acoustic Doppler profiler, and already deployed Argo floats. The new information will help inform future exploration plans while also gaining a better understanding of the region’s current environmental health, as well as increase public awareness on conservation efforts.

“The cruise is a scientific exploration and mapping activity that supports the Cook Islands’ understanding of its deep ocean. It will help build baseline knowledge of areas that remain difficult to access and not well understood,” reads the expedition’s website.

The Cook Islands lack many natural resources apart from deep ocean minerals, and NOAA’s surveys are intended to help local Cook Islands representatives develop better plans for economic growth. That said, NOAA confirmed the mission does not immediately authorize any commercial seabed harvesting.

Additional livestreams are planned nearly daily until the mission’s conclusion on August 13. All surveys are subject to local weather conditions.

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Earlier this month, Cape Wildlife Center in southeast Massachusetts posted a call for help on social media. The animal rescue service was asking for donations for their rescued animals. That request isn’t unusual, but what they needed that money for certainly was. 

“We have to admit, this is a strange request even for us. We’re asking you to help us buy… mice,” reads the post, featuring a photograph of two fluffy owls. 

The wildlife center went on to explain that for many years, a special partnership has provided them with lab mice that were no longer necessary in the laboratory. These donated mice were then eaten by both Cape Wildlife Center’s wildlife hospitals’ patients and a significant number of their ambassador animals. 

The dynamic “quietly helped save thousands of wild lives.” But “unfortunately, that donation has come to an end.” And it couldn’t have come at a worse time—during baby season and Cape Wildlife Center’s busiest year ever. 

Every year, their hospital patients and ambassador animals chow down on around 31,725 frozen mice. If the organization buys them on the open market, it will cost their yearly budget an extra estimated $30,000 to 45,000. And as they rightfully point out on their social media post, food for their animals isn’t an expense that can be put on hold.    

“Every hawk, owl, fox, snake, and weasel that comes through our doors depends on a species-appropriate diet to heal. We can’t substitute something else, and we can’t ask them to wait until the budget catches up,” they wrote. “Feeding them is simply part of the care they need.”

The social media post wrapped up with a request for donations, and a happy update about a donor who will match all dollar donations to the mouse fund up to 10,000 dollars. Receiving that news mouse-t have made their day.  

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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. 

The post 5 gnarly plants in the Okefenokee Swamp, from digestive slime to Earth’s fastest predator appeared first on Popular Science.

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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