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Quick: What’s your first memory?

Was it a birthday party? A family camping trip? Or choking on a hard candy (more on that later)? 

Even though little kids remember plenty, most of us lose access to key memories as we get older. It’s something scientists call childhood amnesia. 

But what gives? Why can’t we remember anything before age three and only hazy things before age six?

We explore just that in a recent episode of the Ask Us Anything podcast, delving into the science behind why our brains forget our earliest memories.

Popular Science’s Ask Us Anything podcast (as well as our written series of the same name) 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 dogs tilt their heads and you’re right, candy does taste different now. 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 we forget our childhoods” by R.J. Mackenzie.

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Full Episode Transcript

Sarah Durn: What’s your first real memory? 

Edith: My earliest memory is waking up to see Big Elmo. The stuffed animal!

Dan: My earliest memory is sitting on my mom’s lap while she played Super Mario Brothers.

Katherine: Being in my grandma’s kitchen and I’m sitting on the counter and she’s combing my hair. And it’s just a very warm, happy memory of me and my grandma.

Dale: My earliest memory is of a grapevine in my parents’ backyard when I was probably three or four years old.

Alex: My earliest memory was petting my dog. She was a big fluffy akita and I was a tiny baby.

SD: Welcome to Ask Us Anything from the editors of Popular Science where we answer your questions about our weird world from “why do we need braces” to “were there any venomous dinosaurs?” No question is too bizarre or too basic. I’m Sarah Durn, an editor at Popular Science.

Annie Colbert: And I’m editor-in-chief Annie Colbert. I have a little bit of a head cold today.

SD: Here at PopSci, we can’t resist a quirky question,

AC: And this week’s question feels a little existential: Why can’t we remember being babies?

SD: You learned how to walk, talk, recognize faces—arguably some of the most important things your brain will ever do.

AC: Yes. So the big question is: If we’re forming all of these memories, where do they go? Are they just gone forever or are they hiding somewhere?

SD: That’s exactly what scientists are trying to figure out, and the answer might be less about losing memories and more about not being able to access them.

AC: Okay. So it’s not that baby-you had a bad memory. It’s just that adult-you can’t get the files open.

SD: Yeah. Some scientists even think that losing access to those early memories could help us reset and adapt as we grow up.

AC: Wow. So your brain is basically Marie Kondo-ing your memories.

SD: Yeah. That’s what early research is telling us.

AC: Fascinating. I love this question

SD: Right? Now before we dig into all the reasons you don’t remember learning to use a toilet, we want to know what questions are keeping you up at night. If there’s something you’ve always wanted to know, submit your question by clicking the “Ask Us” link at popsci.com/ask.

Again, that’s popsci.com/ask, and click the “Ask Us” link.

AC: We want the weird ones. The strangest questions you have brewing.

SD: Yes, especially the weird ones.

AC: All right. When we come back, we answer the question: Where did your childhood go?

SD: And is it possible it never really left?

Welcome back! Okay. Before we get into the science, Annie, I feel like we have to start at the beginning. What’s your earliest memory?

AC: Yes. Happy to share. I will give a pre-warning that it’s a little scary. My earliest memory was something traumatic, which probably explains why I remember it. I was, I think, three or four.

And I was sitting in a tent in Michigan on a family trip, and I choked on a piece of hard candy and one of my parents’ friends jumped into action. They dislodged it, I assume, with some kind of Heimlich maneuver, but how it was resolved, I don’t remember. I don’t remember that part. But what I do remember very vividly is the color of the tent. It was blue and that moment of fear. 

When I think of it, it’s almost like a live photo memory. You know, like when you take a live photo on your iPhone and it’s a short video instead of a photo. That’s what I see when I think about that moment.

SD: Man, that’s intense. I’m glad you’re okay.

AC: Yes, yes, I am okay now.

It was definitely maybe not the best childhood memory, but certainly I heard a lot about it as I was growing up and my mom was very paranoid about me eating hard candies for the rest of my childhood. Um, how about you?

SD: Yeah, I mean, mine isn’t as traumatic, which is good, I guess. 

AC: Good.

SD: But it is a little weird.

So the first thing I can really clearly remember isn’t like a birthday or learning to ride a bike or something. It was watching The Neverending Story when I was about six. And for years I thought I had made it up.

AC: Wait, what?

SD: Yeah, like I fully convinced my brain had just invented this whole fantasy world, which, you know, wasn’t totally out of the ordinary for me, but I remembered these super vivid images: a kid flying on this giant white dragon, this glowing, childlike empress, this terrifying force called the Nothing that’s basically swallowing the world. 

Yeah. It all felt so real, but also kind of, you know, slippery like a dream you can almost hold onto, but not quite.

AC: Yeah, that’s kind of amazing. But also probably was scary as a kid.

SD: A little bit. I even remember where I was. Like I was sitting on my grandmother’s leopard print carpet in her bedroom.

AC: Nice.

SD: In front of this big, clunky old school TV. Just locked in. I think it was like lunchtime and my grandma was calling me, but I remember I was like, I can’t leave.

Yeah, and it just kind of feels fuzzy around the edges. Like it exists somewhere between something that happens, something I imagine and something I maybe dreamed.

AC: Which feels very on theme for this episode.

SD: Exactly, because that weird dreamlike quality. That’s actually really typical of early memories.

Most of us don’t have crisp, detailed memories from when we were really young. Instead, we get these flashes, you know, like little fragments, a blue tent, a leopard print carpet, the live photo, you know, and anything before about age three is basically gone.

AC: Which brings us to the big idea here, which is it’s not just you. This is a universal human thing.

SD: Yeah. Scientists actually have a name for this phenomenon: childhood amnesia. It describes how most of us can’t recall much, if anything, from before age three and why even our early childhood memories feel really blurry and despite how strange it feels. It’s something almost everyone experiences.

AC: Okay, so let’s break that down. What exactly is childhood amnesia?

SD: So scientists actually make a small distinction here. There’s infantile amnesia, which is the total blackout from before age three, and then there’s childhood amnesia, which is that kind of blurry, incomplete period from about three to six.

AC: So like before three, nothing. Three to six vibes only

SD: Exactly. Six year olds are just vibing.

AC: Yes. From experience, yes. But here’s what I don’t get: Babies are learning so much. They’re learning faces, language, walking, how the world works. So how are they not forming memories?

SD: That’s the thing. They are. And this is where things get really interesting.

Studies show that babies and even very young children can absolutely form memories. Their brains are recording experiences. The problem isn’t that nothing is being saved. It’s that later on we can’t access those memories.

AC: So it’s not that the hard drive is empty. It’s that the password is just gone.

SD: Exactly. Or the file format changed and adult-you just can’t open it anymore.

AC: Okay. That’s both comforting, that it’s still there, but deeply frustrating that we can’t access it.

SD: Yeah. Yeah. Like your first birthday party might still be in there somewhere. You just, you can’t get to it.

AC: So. How are scientists even studying this? Like babies can’t sit down and describe their memories?

SD: Oh, my babies can. No, I’m kidding. Yeah, so that’s one of the biggest challenges here. So researchers have to get creative.

AC: Mm-hmm.

SD: Sarah Power, a scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, built a whole playroom lab and that room could be turned into either an underwater kingdom or a dense jungle through projections on the wall, which sounds so cool.

Power then hid a really cool toy in the room. Then she’d bring in toddlers between one and a half and two years old to find the toy. Later she’d bring the child back and see if they remembered where the toy was.

AC: That sounds like the world’s cutest memory test.

SD: I know all these toddlers trying to find a cool toy in a jungle playroom.

What researchers are trying to figure out is how long do those memories last? At what age do they start to stick?

AC: Okay, but there’s another wrinkle here, right? Because human memory is not exactly reliable.

SD: Oh, yes. Yeah. Enter false memories.

AC: Hmm.

SD: So sometimes people are convinced they remember something from when they were like two years old, but in reality that memory might come from photos or stories their parents told them or things they’ve just heard over and over again.

AC: So basically you’re remixing secondhand information into a memory.

SD: Exactly. And every time you think you remember this memory, it gets reinforced in your brain, whether it’s real or not. So your earliest memory might not actually be your memory.

AC: Cool. Love that nothing is real.

SD: Or at least you know, some things aren’t real.

But even when memories are real, they’re fragile in early childhood. There’s this fascinating study where researchers had kids talk about specific events with their parents at age three. Then the researchers check back years later.

AC: And?

SD: yeah, kids around five to seven remembered about 60 percent of those events.

AC: Okay.

SD: But by eight or nine, that dropped closer to 40 percent.

AC: Oh, so it gets worse with age.

SD: Yeah. Which suggests those early memories don’t just fade. They kind of fall apart over time. And interestingly, kids remembered more when their parents helped them build the story: asking questions, adding details, making it more of a narrative.

AC: So the storytelling actually helps lock in the memory.

SD: Exactly. Which as someone who thought she invented The Neverending Story feels very relevant.

AC: Okay. So we’ve got fragile memories, missing memories, possibly fake memories, but why is this happening? Why would our brains be designed to forget something that’s so important?

SD: Yeah. I mean, that is the million dollar question, and this is where the new research comes in.

AC: All right, hit me with the science.

SD: So a recent study that Sarah Power also worked on actually looked at something called microglia. These are basically tiny cells in your brain that act like a cleanup crew,

AC: A cleanup crew?

SD: Yeah. They help shape the brain as it develops. They trim connections between neurons, get rid of what’s not needed, and basically help organize all your neural circuits.

AC: So microglia are kind of like your brain’s pruning shears.

SD: Yeah, and what this study found is that microglia might actually play a role in why we forget early memories.

In experiments with mice, scientists actually turned down microglia activity, and those mice actually kept their early memories longer than they normally would.

AC: Wait. So the forgetting didn’t happen.

SD: Exactly. Which suggests that microglia aren’t just passive cleaners. They might actively be involved in making those early memories inaccessible.

AC: So your brain is basically editing itself and it’s moving memories into longterm storage. So basically the plot of Inside Out was right.

Joy: That’s what I’m talking about. Woo! Another perfect day. Nice job, everybody! Let’s get those memories down long term.

SD: Yeah. Yeah, go Pixar! So during early development, your brain is changing really, really fast, forming tons of connections, then pruning them back. And in the process, some of those early memory pathways might get disrupted or reorganized.

AC: So it’s not that your memories are being deleted.

SD: Yeah. It’s more like the wiring that lets you find them is getting rearranged.

AC: Okay. That is wild. But also, it kind of makes sense because babies are learning so much that maybe their brain just can’t keep everything?

SD: Right. Another idea is that this forgetting actually helps us. It might act like a kind of reset, you know, clearing out early messy information so we can build more stable memories later on.

AC: So your brain is like we’re starting fresh here.

SD: Right.

AC: So to bring it all together, we don’t remember being babies, not because nothing happened…

SD: But because our brains were too busy developing to preserve those memories in a way we can access later.

AC: Got it. And tiny brain cleanup crews might be part of the reason those memories fade out of reach?

SD: Basically. Yeah.

AC: Which means somewhere, deep in your brain, there might still be a memory of you learning to walk or saying your first word?

SD: Or watching a fantasy movie and thinking you invented it or choking on hard candy.

AC: Fascinating.

SD: Right? And with that, it’s time for a quick break.

AC: But when we come back, let’s talk about the flip side of forgetting.

SD: Yeah. Because while your brain is busy losing access to your early memories, there are some things that it basically refuses to let go of.

AC: Like riding a bike.

SD: Exactly. More on that when we come back.

Welcome back. So we now know that many of us don’t remember our third birthday, but if you learned how to ride a bike as a kid, odds are you could hop on one today and figure it out pretty fast.

AC: Which is very cool. But why is it though that we can remember how to do things like ride a bike or speak a language? Things that we learned when we were little, but can’t remember the actual memories. We can’t even remember related memories like the learning to ride a bike or starting to speak, but we’re still maintaining those skills.

SD: Yeah, it’s a very valid question and something a recent Ask us Anything story by Adam Kovac actually got into. It turns out memories of events and learning how to do something, they’re actually totally different.

AC: Okay. But why?

SD: So earlier we were talking about episodic memory, those personal lived experiences, like your earliest memory or that camping trip or choking on a hard candy.

AC: Yes. The ones that disappear.

SD: Exactly, but skills like riding a bike, playing guitar, or, you know, even typing those live in something called procedural memory.

AC: Procedural meaning your brain knows how to do something even if you can’t remember learning how.

SD: Yeah, it’s like your brain switches to autopilot and those memories are stored in totally different parts of the brain areas that are way easier to access.

AC: So that’s why you can forget what you had for dinner yesterday, but still know how to balance on two wheels.

SD: Exactly. Your brain treats those skills as essential. Things worth holding onto.

AC: I mean, I guess it’s comforting that we don’t forget everything.

SD: Right? And also explains why, you know, practice matters. The more you repeat a skill, the stronger those pathways get until it’s basically second nature.

AC: So even if your childhood memories are fuzzy at best…

SD: Or completely gone…

AC: Yes. The things you learned during that time might still be with you.

SD: Yeah. Your brain might not remember the moment you learned how to ride a bike,

AC: But it remembers how.

SD: And honestly, that’s way more useful.

AC: I like that your past self is looking out for you just in a different way.

SD: Exactly.

AC: And that’s it for this episode. But don’t worry, we’ve got plenty of 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, please leave a rating and review.

SD: Our producer is Alan Haburchak, and this week’s episode was based on an article written for Popular Science by R.J. Mackenzie.

AC: Thank you team for all of the memories, 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, keep the questions coming.

AC: Another thing: Why can’t I remember the plot to any movie? But I can remember every celebrity baby name?

The post Why don’t we remember being babies? appeared first on Popular Science.

The PVC pipe potato gun is a staple of many science-oriented (and frequently unsupervised) childhoods. There are plenty of variations to that starchy shooter, but the basic elements are invariably the same: load a potato inside the pipe barrel, fill the rear chamber with either combustible gas or compressed air, then fire away.

In theory, you can launch any similarly sized object using the contraption.Why not swap the potato for something that can save lives? That’s what YouTuber Emily the Engineer pondered during a recent video entry.

“The only thing that modern medicine has lacked in is a more efficient way to distribute this medicine. Do you see where we’re going with this now?” she asks her viewers.

Her final result is the EpiPen Launcher, a custom-built device that lives up to its name. Also known as an epinephrine autoinjector, the EpiPen is a relatively recent invention that’s saved countless lives. The simple but effective tool was approved by the FDA in 1987, and injects a fixed dose of epinephrine (aka adrenaline) to people suffering from allergen-induced anaphylaxis. Medication is delivered either through a spring-loaded or carbon dioxide-driven needle that activates when pushed against skin.

Emily the Engineer’s EpiPen Launcher aims to deliver the vital medicine from afar—but is it safe, practical, or even particularly effective? The answers vary, but it’s certainly fun to watch Emily and her pals figure out how to build a “pew pew that shoots,” as they call it.

This is no mere single-shot gun, either. Knowing accuracy may be an issue during a distant (admittedly ludicrous) allergic reaction scenario, the team constructed a 3D-printed bolt-action attachment that holds a magazine of up to four EpiPens. To ensure each unit receives the right amount of continuous pressurized air, Emily even rigged an air compressor inside a backpack that hooks into the launcher.

After numerous trial and error runs using tester EpiPens, the team finally delivered (at least some) epinephrine into a slab of ballistic gel from across a garage. Outside, the launcher also hurled a pen around 105 feet, although it looked pretty unlikely that it retained enough velocity to push the injector needle into someone’s skin. Sure, the EpiPen Launcher will never become a staple of emergency medicine—but you can never be too prepared, right?

The post Woman builds EpiPen cannon, because why not? appeared first on Popular Science.

The ancient Roman city of Perge—in present-day southern Turkey—was one of the region’s most prominent urban centers. By the 2nd century CE, the hub was so large that it even supported a sizable stadium for communal gatherings and athletic events. However, these events took a much darker turn only a couple hundred years later. Based on recent archaeological evidence examined at the site, Perge’s stadium received renovations during the Late Roman period (the 3rd through 6th centuries CE) to facilitate deadly gladiatorial fights. The sites were also used for Damnatio ad Bestias—public executions by wild animals. These structural additions even included five specially designed gateways researchers nicknamed the “Doors to Death.”

The findings are detailed in a recently published study in the Oxford Journal of Archaeology from a team led by Istanbul University archaeologist Sedef Çokay Kepçe. While the stadium was originally designed to seat thousands of attendees, their taste in entertainment shifted as the empire transitioned into the Late Roman period—an era known for the  rise of Christianity as well as the eventual collapse of Western Roman Empire in 417 CE.

The five doors were likely opened to release wild animals into battles. Credit: Arkeoloji Haber

The city’s architects knew that, like any sensible urban planning project, the more efficient and economical strategy wasn’t to tear down the existing arena and replace it with an entirely new facility. Instead, they simply needed to design upgrades to accommodate the public’s evolving (and bloodier) spectacles.

According to the archaeologists, the designers didn’t skimp on renovations. These features closely resemble those seen in other Roman amphitheaters specifically known for their public executions. Newer additions to the stadium included elevated stages, complex gate assemblies to help with crowd control, and enclosed spaces likely used to hold animals. Combined with the additional evidence of animal bones and relevant iconography, researchers believe it’s a near-certainty that Perge’s stadium became a venue for public executions.

Archaeologists plan to continue excavating at the stadium. Credit: Arkeoloji Haber

At the same time, these weren’t free-for-all battles. The most intriguing discovery at the site is an array of five entrances spaced near one another. Dubbed the “Doors to Death” by the study’s authors, these entryways were likely opened at specified times during an event to release wild animals like lions, leopards, and other predatory big cats. This arrangement isn’t widely documented at other Roman stadiums, making it especially striking.

Archaeologists plan to continue exploring the ruins at Perge, including the stadium. As Arkeonews noted, the city’s amphitheater today functions as a remarkable metaphor for ancient Rome’s complex cultural values and history—a society responsible for impressive technological innovation, as well as inhumane violence.

The post ‘Doors to Death’ reveal how Romans upgraded a stadium for bloodsport appeared first on Popular Science.

When the four-person Artemis II crew safely splashed down in the Pacific Ocean, they landed with a deeper understanding of what it will take to finally bring humans back to the moon. Those of us inspired by their mission back home on Earth also have  greater appreciation for some everyday skills that prove especially useful in space.

Decades of experimenting with humans in space have revealed a number of odd, sometimes unexpected skills that may come in handy while hurtling away from our home planet. Here are a few.

Napping in weird positions 

Even under the best conditions, sleeping in space is easier said than done. Long days can blend into nights, and the constant checklists of to-dos and sensitive experiments can make long stretches of sleep unrealistic. Then there’s also the impending dread of realizing any number of things could go wrong and result in your crew hurtling through the cold, empty void.

If that weren’t enough, sleeping (or more realistically, napping) has to be done strapped into a bed, Houdini-style, to prevent their bodies from floating around in microgravity. That leads to astronauts having to sleep like bats, often upside down or facing sideways. None of that’s exactly conducive to restful sleep.

“Every time I was dozing off last night, I had that image that I was tripping off a curb and I was waking myself up,” NASA Commander Reid Wiseman told CNN. 

Crying the right way

It might seem off to think there is a “right” or “wrong” way to shed a tear, but that’s apparently the case in space. The same lack of gravity that sends astronauts and their toothpaste floating also prevents teardrop from falling down their checks. Instead, tears pool across their eyes, forming blotching bubbles. 

So, unless they want giant blobs of liquid sadness (or moon joy) clouding their vision, astronauts have to be armed and ready to immediately recognize a tear and wipe it. Or, if they can, hold off from crying entirely. 

Tinkering with amateur dentistry

Dental problems are never fun and that’s especially the case for astronauts who are separated from the nearest professional dentists by tens of thousands of miles. Astronauts are actually required to maintain excellent dental hygiene, both prior to and during missions. That’s especially important for people on longer extended stays on the International Space Station. A sudden dental emergency caused by negative oral care could force them to end their missions early. 

But for the times when tooth issues are unavoidable, there’s usually someone in the crew who’s trained to extract a tooth. Astronauts will learn this by practicing extracting a tooth on a model. 

An astronaut practices tooth extraction on a model. Dental emergencies are considered one of the top five conditions having a negative impact on long-duration missions. Image: NASA.

It’s not exactly the most ideal solution, but when emergency strikes, it’s good to have someone with dental training on board, even if their tools amount to little more than a sharp instrument and elbow grease.

Learning the kinks of space plumbing

One of those crafts was immediately relevant during their 10-day journey: plumbing.Though astronauts are no strangers to relieving themselves in microgravity, this mission marked the first time a crew had a real toilet installed for a flight. That’s great in theory, but the fancy space toilet lavatory showed its limitations almost immediately.  While the Artemis II crew was still in Earth’s orbit on day one of the mission, the toilet (called the Universal Waste Management System) had a controller issue that temporarily prevented it from being used for solid waste.

That issue was resolved relatively quickly, but another plumbing problem arose days later when frozen urine clogged one of the toilet’s vent lines. NASA mission specialist Christina Koch reportedly had the idea to warm the frozen line by rotating the capsule so that the frozen urine faced the sun. It worked, though the astronauts were initially only able to restore toilet function  “for fecal use only.” Koch, meanwhile, earned the moniker “space plumber.” 

Being patient with tech support (also applies to Earth)

Around that same time as the crew’s toilet troubles, they grappled with a headache all too common back on Earth: glitchy tech. During the mission, several of the astronauts reported recurring issues with their Microsoft Surface Pros. It turned out the problem stemmed from Outlook. Commander Wiseman had to call the ground team and have them remotely connect to the device to solve the issue. It turns out that even in the dark remoteness of space, patience with IT support still goes a long way.

The Artemis II crew – (clockwise from left) Mission Specialist Christina Koch, Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen, Commander Reid Wiseman, and Pilot Victor Glover – take time out for a group hug inside the Orion spacecraft on their way home. Following a swing around the far side of the Moon on April 6, 2026, the crew exited the lunar sphere of influence (the point at which the Moon’s gravity has a stronger pull on Orion than the Earth’s) on April 7, and are headed back to Earth for a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean on April 10. The crew was selected in April 2023, and have been training together for their mission for the past three years. Image: NASA. Brushing off those wilderness skills 

While we may not always associate space with the great outdoors, the most prepared astronauts know their way around starting a fire. In addition to training to withstand G-forces during takeoff and stay sane in space, astronauts are also given a crash course in survival techniques in the event their landing back on Earth doesn’t go quite as planned. In the past, astronauts have practiced these survival skills in the deserts of Nevada, working together to gather food and water and even build shelters and clothing out of parachutes.

“I definitely see people learning skills they didn’t already have,” Veteran NASA astronaut Shannon Walker said of one astronaut class in an Army blog post. “This is a chance for the astronaut candidates to really get to know themselves, know how they operate under stressful environments, because space can be a very stressful environment.” 

The post From crying to dentistry: 6 odd skills astronauts need to go to space appeared first on Popular Science.

What’s big, rare, and smells like literal death? If you guessed a corpse, you’re not wrong. The pungent flower in question is a tropical plant called titan arum (Amorphophallus titanum), a species of corpse flower. Appropriately, people say it smells like rotting flesh. 

The stinky plants are rare and native to the Indonesian island of Sumatra. Nevertheless, a corpse flower named “Pangy” calls Massachusetts’ Mount Holyoke College home, where it has just bloomed, according to the Associated Press.

“Terrible,” “horrible,” “putrid,” and “rotten” are just some of the one-worded descriptions the blooming has inspired, per a Mount Holyoke College social media video. One person has a more inspired take: “Impressive. I don’t think I’ve smelled a flower that smells like that anywhere, so very impressive.” 

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The chances to be impressed by a titan arum are few, however, because its blooming cycle is brief and occurs every five to seven years. Researchers reportedly discovered the chemistry behind its pungent odor in 2024. 

“A few people who have come in since have described the smell as being unbearable, tangy, like a trash can — it’s overwhelming,” Tom Clark, director and curator of the Mount Holyoake College Botanic Garden, told the Associated Press. “But that odor is there for a purpose. It’s there to attract pollinators, flies in particular.”

Here’s everything you wanted to know about corpse flowers but were afraid to ask.

What makes corpse flowers so smelly?

Several chemical compounds contribute to this smell. Sufides are the key odorant. Dimethyl trisulfide gives the flower its rotting animal-like sulfury odor. Dimethyl disulfide is a lesser, but still present smell like garlic. Additionally, a chemical found in sweaty feet called isovaleric acid and compound that smells like a mix of garlic and cheese called methyl thiolacetate are also present. The last scent to hit your nose before the flowering structure collapses after a few days is trimethylamine. This compound smells like dead fish.

What else makes corpse flowers stick out?

That signature smell isn’t the only striking feature of this plant. The titan arum creates the biggest unbranched cluster of flowers on earth. If you’re thinking to yourself, I only see one flower, that’s because the structure you’re looking at is not a flower. It’s a spadix (the tall pole-looking thing) and a spathe (a kind of leaf). There are many small flowers at the bottom of the spadix. Speaking of the spathe, regardless of what inspired the species’ genus name (Amorphophallus) its resemblance to the male genitalia is self-evident. 

How big are corpse flowers?

Amorphophallus titanum has the largest known unbranched inflorescence in the plant kingdom. The bloom can grow up to eight feet tall, according to the United States Botanical Garden with some individual plants reaching heights of 12 feet. 

Why do their flowers disappear so quickly?

Generally, corpse flowers can take about seven to nine years to bloom. Some will only bloom once every few decades. They also do not have an annual blooming cycle like many other plants, and will only bloom when it has enough energy to do so.

The corpse flower stores its energy in a swollen base at the stem–called a corm–that weighs about 100 pounds. Corpse flowers have the largest known corm in the plant kingdom. If it is a non-flowering year, one leaf about the size of a small tree will shoot from the corm. The leaf will then branch out into three sections, with each part growing more leaflets. After several years, the plant will finally gather enough energy needed to bloom. The bloom can then only be held for about 24 to 36 hours before collapsing. 

Are corpse flowers endangered?

Like in botanical gardens, corpse flowers are rare in nature as well. The species Amorphophallus titanum is listed as Endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Some botanists estimate that there are fewer than 1,000 individual plants in the wild. The IUCN also estimates that the population has decreased by more than half over the past 150 years. Logging and turning the plant’s habitat into land for palm oil plantations are believed to be the reasons behind the decline.  

Are they dangerous to more than just our noses?

According to the Chicago Botanic Garden, each corpse flower can produce over 400 fruits with two seeds. The fruits will go from a gold color to a rich crimson. They are fully ripe about six months after pollination. 

However, don’t eat them. Their fruit is poisonous to humans. Large, orange-beaked birds called the rhinoceros hornbill typically eat the fruit and disperse the seeds. 

The post Rare rotting-flesh smelling flower blooming at a Massachusetts college appeared first on Popular Science.

Randi Minetor has written nine books about people dying in national parks. Needless to say, she has a lot of thoughts about it.

“A lot of people go to national parks to challenge themselves, to try things they have never tried before,” she tells Popular Science. “They’ll take a course in canyoneering or hire a guide to go up a mountain; they’ll push themselves in ways they haven’t before. Not everyone can do those things,” she warns. “Just because you want to do it doesn’t mean you can.”

It’s excellent advice that doesn’t always get followed. Yet the number of people who die in national parks each year is smaller than you might expect. Across all national parks, the National Park Service reports an average of 358 deaths per year. 

“The parks work very, very hard to prevent people from getting killed,” she says, with robust search and rescue teams.

When a visitor does die, the work for rangers is far from over. 

The hasty search

The moment a visitor goes missing or needs help, rangers move fast, says Minetor.

“When somebody reports that someone’s in trouble, that immediately puts a process into action in the park,” she says. “You’ve got to tell people where you’re going, so that if anything happens, they know where to look.” Although rules vary by park, visitors are strongly encouraged to share their itineraries before heading into remote or backcountry trails. 

Some people resist even that basic step, Minetor says. “Some people are ‘too cool’ to talk to a ranger or to sign a registry,” she says. “They’re the people who are never going to be found.”

One of the first steps the park will take when someone is reported missing is to conduct what is called a “hasty search,” although Minetor emphasizes that this step is neither rushed nor perfunctory. 

In a “hasty search,” two or three rangers will go out and walk the trail and see if they find anything on the ground that tells them where a missing person might be. Video: Hasty Searching in Search and Rescue – Search Techniques, Emhance International Responder Development®

“It’s called this because they do it right away. Two or three rangers will go out and walk the trail and see if they find anything on the ground that tells them where this person is—a footprint, candy wrapper, anything that will give them an idea,” she says. “Very often, that person is then found through the hasty search.”

The search continues

If a more extensive search is needed, the park will enlist community volunteers to conduct a grid search, spreading out across the terrain in a coordinated pattern, covering every inch until they find something—or accept that they’re not going to. 

Many of the same features that draw adventurous visitors to national parks in the first place—mountains, glaciers, canyon gorges, swift rivers—are the very ones that make recovery operations extraordinarily difficult.

For people in truly remote or inaccessible locations, the park deploys rangers trained specifically in climbing rescue, who make the harrowing ascent themselves to assess what it will take to get the person—or body—out.

In terrain too steep or rugged for a helicopter to land, they may use a technique called short hauling, in which the person is suspended beneath the aircraft on a rope and harness and flown to the nearest point where the chopper can touch down.

In terrain too steep or rugged for a helicopter to land, rescuers might use a technique called short hauling, in which the person is suspended beneath the aircraft on a rope and harness and flown to the nearest point where the chopper can touch down. Image: MichaelSvoboda / Getty Images True Photography

Many of the same techniques are used whether rangers are hoping to find someone alive or recover remains. Regardless, rangers “use aerial reconnaissance and on-the-ground search teams,” says Minetor. “Once the search is deemed a recovery rather than a rescue, fewer teams will be involved in ongoing searches, and the frequency may subside.”

It’s work that demands extraordinary commitment from the rangers involved. 

“These are people who dedicate their lives to saving other lives,” Minetor says. “It’s amazing.”

Sometimes, however, even these rescuers reach their limits. In severe winter conditions, a recovery may have to wait—the body is secured in place on the mountain until weather improves enough for rangers to safely return.

“For people who think climbing a mountain in the dead of winter is a great idea,” notes Minetor, “Let me just say: It isn’t.”

The aftermath

Once remains are recovered, a medical examiner determines the cause of death before they are released to the family.

However, it’s important to note that not every park death requires a wilderness search. When someone dies in a more straightforward way, like a heart attack on a trail or a fatal crash on a park road, the response typically looks more like a conventional emergency, with local first responders arriving on scene rather than deploying a search and rescue team. 

The issue of jurisdiction is more complicated than one might expect for deaths in national parks, with up to three agencies potentially claiming a person’s remains.

“Response to a fatality in a national park may involve up to three jurisdiction types—federal, state, or county,” says NPS spokesperson Elizabeth Peace. “Oftentimes, it is the local or state law enforcement that is the primary or lead [agency], with the National Park Service having concurrent jurisdiction.”

In practice, this means that families seeking information after a death in the park should know which agency is leading the response, since it might be the local sheriff’s office or state police, not the park itself, who will be their primary point of contact. 

It is the lead law enforcement agency that generally handles notifying next of kin, says Peace. However, other law enforcement entities may also take action to share information as quickly as possible. The inter-agency coordination helps ensure the family is informed before they hear of a loved one’s death on the news.

“Time is of the essence with next-of-kin notifications. The National Park Service works as quickly as possible to make contact before personally identifiable information is shared in the media,” says Peace.

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For the family left behind, there is, at least, no bill. Minetor says in all her research, she has never come across a family that has had to pay for the cost of a rescue. Only a few parties who got into trouble because of their own “extreme negligence” have received a bill, she says. 

“The park just wants to bring people out alive,” Minetor says. 

National parks have even become the setting for what some are calling “alpine divorce”—a term you may have seen lately for when one romantic partner abandons the other in dangerous terrain, sometimes with fatal consequences. 

For anyone thinking a national park is a great place to end your marriage and collect on life insurance, Minetor has a warning. “Nobody ever collects a cent; the insurance companies know what this is,” she says. “Almost every park that has cliffs has one of these stories, and all of the homicidal spouses are in prison.”

After years documenting almost every conceivable way a person can die in a national park, with titles including Death in Glacier National Park and Death in Rocky Mountain National Park, Minetor has one final surprise in store. 

The leading cause of death isn’t mountain falls or flash floods. “Auto accidents and drowning are the two biggest causes of death in national parks,” she says. “Most of them, honestly, are car crashes.”

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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The NASA planned 2028 nuclear powered ion drive spacecraft, SR-1 Freedom will have a 20 kilowatt nuclear reactor. SR-1 Freedom will use 20-plus kilowatt fission reactor fueled by High-Assay Low-Enriched Uranium and Uranium Dioxide, encased in a Boron Carbide Radiation Shield. This will power a xenon ion drive. Previous nuclear spacecraft designs involved more powerful ...

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The state of Connecticut is probably not the first place that comes to mind when you think of bears. However, the Nutmeg State is home to about 1,000 to 1,200 black bears (Ursus americanus) bears. The bears can be found throughout the state, with most concentrated in its mountainous northwestern corner.

For the first time, a mother bear in Connecticut has been spotted with five cubs. NBC4 Connecticut shared a video of the family, and Connecticut’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) confirmed that it is the largest litter ever observed in the state. 

By the mid-1800s, humans pushed out black bears from the state by clearing  forest land for farms. After farmers abandoned a number of farms in the late 1800s, forestland began to regrow and bears returned. The DEEP Wildlife Division had evidence of a resident black bear population in the 1980s, and the population has steadily increased ever since.

Bear cubs like these typically emerge in the spring. According to DEEP, mother bears will sometimes leave their cubs alone while they climb up trees to find food and are not abandoning them. It is important to leave the cubs alone—even if they are vocacalizing—and contact a local wildlife management office. Mother bears may travel over a mile while foraging, leaving the cubs unattended  for up to 12 or more hours. 

“Removing cubs from the wild can unintentionally orphan them if the adult bear cannot locate and reunite with the cubs,” DEEP writes. 

This behavior can also happen during bad weather, and it’s important that a cub’s fur protects them from the elements and even spring’s rollercoaster temperatures. 

More than 1,000 bear sightings have been reported since January in Connecticut, and that number will only increase as temperatures warm. There were over 12,000 reports of bear sightings in Connecticut last year. By comparison there were only 22 sightings in 1996. Nearby Massachusetts is home to about 4,500 bears, but Maine wears New England’s bear crown at up to 35,000 bears. 

The post Litter of 5 bear cubs spotted in Connecticut for the first time appeared first on Popular Science.

There are now 13 unsupervised Tesla robotaxi in Austin. There was a 2 months at the 8-10 unsupervised level. Three were added over the last 10 days. This would suggest about 20 by mid next week. NHTSA has reported no accidents in the Feb-Mid March timeframe. There are hundreds of Cybercabs ready roll into Austin ...

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Starship V3 booster & ship will be ready for their first test flight in a few weeks (aka Early to mid May) . Both Starship and the Super Heavy Booster have successfully completed the static fire tests and are ready to take to the skies. Starship V3 booster & ship will be ready for their ...

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Titan is the largest of Saturn’s 292 known moons, by far. It’s also the only other cosmic body apart from Earth confirmed to host standing liquid similar to our oceans in our solar system. But don’t necessarily expect calm conditions. According to a new modeling system detailed in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, the smallest gust of wind on Titan could generate huge, roiling waves across seas of hydrocarbons.

While there are an endless amount of fascinating places across our solar system, Titan remains one of the most intriguing. It’s nearly 50 percent larger and 80 percent more massive than Earth’s moon, making it even bigger than the planet Mercury. Titan is also teeming with prebiotic compounds, meaning it’s one of the best contenders for hosting life in oceans beneath its icy shell. 

While its average surface temperature of -296.59 degrees Fahrenheit ensures a total lack of flowing water, there are still rivers and seas full of light hydrocarbons such as ethane and methane. Astronomers have long suspected these large bodies of liquid generate waves that regularly carve out coastlines and shape landscapes, but Titan’s thick atmosphere and distance from Earth makes it difficult to confirm.

Scientists may still lack visual confirmation of the moon’s waves, but they can now gain a better sense of their fluid dynamics with a new modeling system from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). Appropriately named PlanetWaves, the free-to-use simulator indicates that unlike Earth, the smallest breeze would easily birth 10-foot-waves thanks to Titan’s unique surface.

“On Earth, we get accustomed to certain wave dynamics,” study co-author and geophysicist at WHOI Andrew Ashton said in a statement. “But with this model, we can see how waves behave on planets with different liquids, atmospheres, and gravity, which can kind of challenge our intuition.”

Previous research has largely focused on predicting how a planet’s gravity may affect waves. As MIT planetary scientist Una Schneck explained, their team’s model is the first to include additional important compositional factors like a liquid’s surface tension, viscosity, and density. And when it comes to Titan’s liquid, the results would be hard to comprehend if seen firsthand.

“It kind of looks like tall waves moving in slow motion,” said Schneck. “If you were standing on the shore of this lake, you might feel only a soft breeze but you would see these enormous waves flowing toward you, which is not what we would expect on Earth.”

Gravity also plays an important part in allowing—or preventing—waves. In addition to Titan, the study’s authors tested PlanetWaves on conditions once seen on ancient Mars, as well as three exoplanets far beyond our solar system. In each case, the location’s unique factors create very different situations. 

The “cool super-Earth” LHS1140b may have water, but its strong gravity would hinder large waves without significant wind gusts. Meanwhile, Venus-like exoplanet Kepler 1649b’s sulfuric acid lakes require even stronger wind speeds. However, exoplanet 55-Cancri e is the most stubborn of all the simulated planets. Its powerful gravity and oceans of molten lava would need hurricane-like conditions to create even the smallest waves.

PlanetWaves is far more than a novel simulator. Calculating fluid behaviors on distant planets and moons could help inform engineers building new spacecraft and probes. If all goes as planned, the Artemis program is expected to build the first long-term human presence on the moon sometime in 2028. What comes next is anyone’s guess, but researchers are preparing to go with the flow.

“Imagine a completely still lake,” Ashton said. “We’re trying to figure out the first puff that will make those first little tiny ripples, on up to a full ocean wave.”

The post Saturn’s largest moon could see 10-foot waves from a tiny breeze appeared first on Popular Science.

It is being reported that xAI will rent tens of thousands of GPUS to AI coding company Cursor. It is about $2.5-18 per hour for GPU rentals. For 10,000 GPUs it would be $15-40 million of rent. For 50,000 GPUs it would be $75 million to $200 million per month. If XAI was renting half ...

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Blue Origin New Glenn 3 has a good static fire. They are trying to go for a Saturday or Sunday launch. They will launch the second commercial version of the AST Spacemobile direct to cellphone (DTC) communication satellite. AST Space Mobile needs 40-60 commercial operational and in position satellites to begin intermittent commercial service. ASTS ...

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US has total oil products production equal to Saudi Arabia and Russia combined. The US exported over 5 million barrels of oil per day last week, a record high, amid the Iran War. In aggregate, the US exported a record 12.7 million barrels of crude oil and refined products per day last week. Total extra ...

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Elon Musk is ordering equipment for the Terafab with the capacity to process 3,000 wafers per month. 36,000 wafers per year. 3-4 million chips per year. There could be similar numbers from Intel fabs in 2027 and perhaps double from each of Samsung and TSMC. This could be 10+ million chips per year in 2027 ...

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Successful static fires of SpaceX V3 booster follows yesterdays successful V3 starship static fire. Hopefully go for a launch in 2 weeks. First 33-engine static fire for Super Heavy V3 pic.twitter.com/m3swZHF7iQ — SpaceX (@SpaceX) April 16, 2026

Most stories are small, about short periods in the lives of a few people or small groups. But some stories are big, about bigger people (e.g., Gods), groups, or timescales. The types of our typical big stories have changed greatly across history.

Power Fights - Most stories are about conflict, and so most big stories are about fights. And long ago, most big stories (e.g., Illiad) focused on powers and alliances fighting within worlds that were relatively stable, especially re tech, and within a context of stable morals. As those didn’t change much, stories didn’t care much about them.

The simplest stories of this type focused on one particular fight, with a start, middle and end. More complex stories, on longer timescales, might depict a sequence of fights with relative peace in between. Even more complex versions might have old powers leave, new powers enter, and changing alliances between powers.

Moral Fights - Starting with religious stories, but then spreading to most centuries ago, the sides in fights acquired stronger moral colors. These fights were not just about power (i.e., dominance) but also moral persuasion (i.e, prestige). The simplest versions had good heroes fight bad villains (e.g., Lord of the Rings). More complex versions had many fighting sides, or all sides seeing themselves as good.

Some moral fight stories have a small group of activists trying to spread their new moral view to a wider world. A common feature here is that the world at story end likely has more or less good morality, depending on who wins the fights.

Unstable Tech - Our modern world often has tech and business changing fast on the timescales of big fights. Tech changes often favor particular sides of fights, and can call into question common assumptions in prior moral positions. Many science fiction stories highlight how tech changes can influence who wins, and how they can force one to reconsider basic moral commitments.

The simplest such stories present a world with quite different tech to ours, but where that tech doesn’t change much during the story (e.g., Dune). This helps readers see how tech differences might translate to fight and moral differences. More complex stories focus on one particular big tech change (e.g., Frankenstein), and show that one change affects who wins in fights, and key moral categories. The most complex stories show long fights in the context of a long history of many big tech changes.

Unstable Morals - I’ve lately become unhappy with science fiction, as I came to understand the basics of cultural evolution. Science fiction’s big or fast changing tech, even with shifting powers and alliances over centuries, are usually set in the context of quite stable morals. Yet in fact over the last century or so key values, norms, and morals have changed about as fast as tech, and due to pretty random and plausibly out-of-control cultural evolution. A similar failure happens when historical fiction sets characters with modern values as heroes against villains with old-style values.

So I’d like to see authors try to write big stories, of whole civilizations over long timescales, that more realistically depict cultural instability. Yes it can be comforting to see key characters long continuing to fight for the same shared moral causes, even as their powers, alliances, and tech change greatly. And it can be disturbing to see key morals changing as fast as tech, and nearly as arbitrarily. But the switch to Unstable Tech type stories similarly resulted from the disturbing realization that fast changing tech often upended our conflicts. And we seem to have managed that switch okay.

Sports betting is in the news today, with the rise of Kalshi and Polymarket. Critics point to many issues, but I think most are excuses; what really bothers most is just typical sports bets. On reflection, I’m a bit puzzled by this. Let me explain.

Traditional societies have discouraged, regulated, and banned many kinds of pleasures. Such as sleep, idleness, fancy or plentiful food, fancy clothes, travel, humor, music and dancing, gossip and small talk, drugs and intoxication, fiction, gaming, gambling, bragging, gossip, fighting, spanking, and many forms of sex including prostitution. They feared such pleasures distracting from work and piety.

Our world still bans many things, but pleasure isn’t usually a central consideration; we are far more indulgent and approving of pleasure. Yet we still do ban a few pleasures, including recreational drugs, dogfighting, corporal punishment, loan sharks, dwarf-tossing, gambling, and sex that is paid or with minors. Drugs, dogfighting, dwarf-tossing, corporal punishment, and loan sharks seem to be about physical harms, and also shame and empathy. Sex has long evoked deep complex opaque feelings.

But sports bets don’t involve shame, physical harm, or deep opaque feelings. We mostly approve of sports, and of people putting lots of time and energy into playing and watching sports. And sports bets complements those activities, making them more interesting, engaging, and better informed.

Yes, we dislike money all else equal, but we let money touch many adjacent areas. Yes, sports bets can waste time and money, but so do a great many allowed pleasures. Yes, they involve risk, but we let people take big risks in deciding who to date, and in longshot careers like acting, music, or athletics. Yes, sports bets resolve faster, but you can bet just as fast and big in ordinary financial markets. Yes, bookies once charged high fees, but new markets have far lower fees.

I guess I lean toward explaining banned sports bets as just a random exception to our usual historical trend, which seems a weak but good sign re how long we’ll let these new sports betting markets continue to be legal. Not my thing, but I usually don’t mind others having fun via their things.

Added 14Apr: Many point to the possibility of commitment problems, where people are tempted in the moment to do stuff they would want to commit ahead of time not to do. But it isn’t that hard to set up commitment mechanisms, and when we do few actually avail themselves of such options.

Archaeologists in Poland are finally solving an over 2,000-year-old mummy mystery. After modern warfare erased vital information about the ancient Egyptian child, researchers were unsure about the boy’s origins and life. Now, they’ve discovered a striking detail while examining the delicate remains—a once-hidden ritual object resting on the boy’s chest. Their findings published in the journal Digital Applications in Archaeology and Cultural Heritage are now helping fill in the gaps of our understanding of ancient burial practices, while also underscoring how much is left to learn about the complex art of Egyptian mummification.

The child’s precise origins are an unfortunate casualty of war. Although the mummy has remained a part of the Archdiocesan Museum in the city of Wrocław since 1914, its records were lost during World War II. The well-preserved body remained in the museum’s archives for decades, but archaeologists only began a first comprehensive analysis in 2023. Led by historian Agata Kubala at the University of Wrocław, the team utilized techniques including CT scanning and X-ray imaging to create highly detailed, 3D images of the mummy and its decorated casing known as the cartonnage. This allowed them to gain unprecedented looks at the specimen without damaging it.

The boy likely came from a middle-class family during the Ptolemaic Period. Credit: Marzena Ożarek-Szilke / University of Wrocław

Kubala and her team determined the boy was around eight years old when he died based on his teeth development. However, without any obvious signs of disease or physical trauma, his exact cause of death remains unclear. Despite these gaps, they still could confidently assess other details about the mummy. Preparers extracted his brain through the nasal cavity using traditional methods, but also removed most of his vital organs via some unconventional routes. Mummification frequently relied on organ removal via abdominal incision, but in this case, they appear to have done so through the rectum. The body itself was then partially filled with textile materials, but lacked a large amount of resin. Taken altogether, researchers say these details point to a middle-class family’s burial during the Ptolemaic Period (about 332–30 BCE).

Although the historical records are gone, the mummy’s cartonnage offered numerous clues about its origins. It included iconography and thematic images of rosettes, a winged scarab, and lotuses all point to Upper Egypt—more specifically the area near Kom Ombo or Aswan. There is even the depiction of a hybridized deity carrying a mummy. The study’s authors theorize this may be the primordial snake god, Nehebkau.

But according to the archaeologists, the most intriguing find isn’t the mummy’s preservation techniques or cartonnage design. During 3D imaging, experts noticed an unknown object placed on the child’s chest. Attempting to physically examine the item is far too risky given the overall state of the remains. While a definitive answer isn’t possible just yet, the archaeologists think the item is possibly a papyrus scroll containing personal information on the boy—maybe even his name. The researchers are undeterred, and plan on exploring alternative methods to reveal the object’s secrets.

“This is not the end of the research,” Kubala said in a university statement. “We are still working on the mummy.”

The post Mystery item spotted in 2,000-year-old Egyptian child mummy appeared first on Popular Science.