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This time of year, new flowers and animals are everywhere. Baby birds and squirrels pop up in nests, while opossums and bunnies roam as the weather warms up. Not exactly known for their speed, turtles are also waking up from brumation—aka reptile hibernation. 

Busy roads can be particularly dangerous for turtles, even with the protection from their hard shells. Every squished turtle is another that won’t help create the next generation, which is not welcome news for many already endangered turtle species. Out of 356 known turtle species, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) lists 161 of them as threatened. 

If you spot a turtle trying to cross a road, it is important to follow some simple rules.

Make sure that you are in a safe place to stop. You won’t be able to help a turtle if you get hurt. If driving, put on your hazard lights and slowly pull over onto the shoulder.

Assess the situation. It might be best to just stand guard as the turtle crosses on its own. If the turtle is not moving away from danger, pick it up and move it across the street in the direction that it was already going. Turtles know where they want to go to nest, feed, and reproduce, so putting them in the direction they are heading will help them get there faster.

A Blanding’s turtle crossing the road. Image: Courtney Celley/USFWS.

Never pick up a turtle by its tail! Instead, gently place your hands on both sides of the shell as if you are holding a hamburger to carry it. If you do not want to carry the turtle, you can put it on a car mat and carry it across the road that way. 

If you encounter a snapping turtle, be particularly careful. The United States Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) describes them as having “very long necks and a very short temper.” Keep your hands as close to their backside as possible. Snapping turtles are generally more aggressive in how they defend themselves compared to other turtle species. For example, box turtles are more likely to pull themselves into their shells during a rescue. And remember, an aggressive turtle is simply trying to stay alive or to protect their eggs.

An eastern box turtle on a road. Image: Danielle Brigida/USFWS.

Place the turtle on a low spot in the ground, since high impact falls from a tall rock or building can injure them. 

After safely moving the turtle, it can also help to take a picture of the turtle and report it to your local fish and wildlife department. This can help scientists assess local populations.

If you find an injured turtle, safely contain it in a box, log where you found it, and call your local wildlife rehabilitation center for instructions. Importantly, do not try to fix the injuries yourself! Keep it contained and away from danger until rehabilitators can assess the situation. And please don’t keep injured turtles or the healthy ones as pets. Uninjured turtles are best left alone and in the wild. 

The FWS also encourages people to learn more about turtles in your area and get involved in road planning decisions that could impact their welfare. 

The post How to help a turtle cross the road appeared first on Popular Science.

There are some among us who can’t remember which pants they wore yesterday or whether they have plans tonight. Take that person and put them on a bicycle, however, and if they had any kind of comfort level riding in the past, odds are, they’ll have no trouble balancing and steering, even if it’s been years—or decades—since their last ride.

The axiom “like riding a bike” exists for a reason, and it’s supported by ample amounts of evidence that casts light on the weird neuroscience of memory. So why is it, exactly, that we seemingly never forget how to push the pedals and ride? 

The many types of memory

On the surface, remembering a skill like cycling and also being able to call to mind your spouse’s birthday seem similar. After all, these are two things you learned in the past, so it stands to reason your brain would process them the same way. That, however, is not the case, explains Dr. Andrew Budson, a professor of neurology at Boston University and co-author of the book Why We Forget and How to Remember Better. 

Humans have three distinct kinds of long-term memories, he explains, each of which are processed, stored, and accessed via different pathways in the brain. 

1. Semantic memory is how we store information and facts that allows us to navigate the world: how to use objects and tools like toasters and screwdrivers or knowing the differences between cats and dogs. 
2. Episodic memory pertains to long-term memories specific to the person who lived through the experience, like a first kiss. 
3. Finally, procedural memory allows us to retain knowledge of tasks that become second nature and automatic, like playing guitar and, yes, riding a bike. (What we call muscle memory is a type of procedural memory, though the latter is a broader term. All muscle memory is procedural, but not all procedural memory is muscle memory). 

The truth is there’s nothing particularly special about bike riding—the axiom could have used many other skills, such as ice skating or swimming (in fact, swimming was the favored example of something people don’t forget how to do up until the 1940s, when cycling’s popularity exploded). 

Up until the 1940s, people referred to swimming, not cycling, as a skill you’ll never forget. Image: Contributor / Getty Images / Harold M. Lambert

“Riding a bicycle would certainly be a sort of a motor activity, and it depends upon some structures deep inside the brain called the basal ganglia,” says Budson, along with other regions of the brain, including the cerebellum. “Those are the key regions, and that’s very different than memory for episodes of our life, such as remembering last night’s dinner.”

Procedural memories get hardwired in, while still leaving some room for malleability. One bike isn’t the same as another—riding a mountain bike is slightly different than taking a leisurely trip across town on a fixed gear—so once a skill is stored, the basic motions are easy to access, but you can still adapt. 

“What is quite different about procedural memories is that they rely on these different brain structures that are, in general, much more resistant to change over time,” says Budson. “That’s why once you’ve learned how to touch type, you know you can still touch type, although you can certainly adapt it. When you get a new computer and they’ve moved the Escape key or something like that, you’re able to adapt to that.”

Why scientists can’t study cycling and memory directly

Given the popularity of the phrase, it may come as a surprise that there’s not a ton of research out there that specifically examines why we retain the memory of how to ride a bicycle. 

That’s not to say there’s nothing out there on cycling and memory: Some studies have concluded that cycling desks help improve cognitive performance. Others have found a linkage between cycling and improved long-term memory. But few scientists have directly studied biking as an example of procedural memory. 

There’s a few reasons why: first, it can be hard to scan a person’s brain while they’re riding around on a 12 speed. Second, as Dr. Elizabeth Kensinger, a psychology professor at Boston College and Budson’s co-author, explains, a subject self-reporting how good they are on a bike can be faulty and could skew results. 

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Instead, neurologists and psychologists have designed experiments to test procedural memory on entirely new skills, including having subjects draw shapes by looking at their hands in a mirror. It’s tricky at first, but over repetition, they start to get better and better.

“My best guess is that it just feels very uncontrolled versus all of the types of motor skills that scientists have been able to train people how to do,” says Kensinger. 

There are far easier, more convenient ways to examine procedural memory. In science, control over variables is essential to reliable results, and bringing a few folks who have gotten rusty on a bicycle out for a few spins around a velodrome leaves too much to chance to gain any solid data. 

Practice makes perfect

Doing something once isn’t enough to generate the kind of recall associated with procedural memory. The neural pathways involved in the activity need to be beefed up. 

“It’s so much faster for you to learn something the second or the third time than it was for you to learn it the first time,” says Kensinger. “There is something that is priming those pathways to be able to become established more much more quickly.”

In other words, hopping on a bike once won’t be enough for you to be able to do it again perfectly after decades away from bicycles. Repetition is key to forming procedural memories that can be easily jogged even after extended periods of inactivity. 

“Our procedural memories do degrade, but they degrade more slowly than your episodic memories,” explains Budson. “So there’s no doubt that practice helps it to stay very active and that it comes back more quickly.”

While procedural memory activities may need repetition to get wired into our brains, the good news is we’re capable of forming these kinds of memories throughout our lives. 

“If you think about many older adults, they need to learn pretty complicated motor skills,” says  Kensinger. “They might need to learn how to use a wheelchair that might have fairly complicated mechanisms to lock and unlock the brakes. Older adults are quite capable at learning those types of procedural skills as well.”

While adapting to new limitations can be frustrating, our ability to develop new skills near-automatic is helpful as we age. Whether that’s learning how to use a walker, or even using a computer or iPad, grandma and grandpa just need some time and patience to develop new procedural memories. 

It’s easy to see why humans evolved to retain and execute skills without conscious thought. Running away from predators or searching for food shouldn’t be something that requires a ton of focus. So the next time you’re zooming along on your bike, take a second to thank your procedural memory, even if you can’t remember where exactly you’re going. 

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

The post Why you never forget how to ride a bike appeared first on Popular Science.

30 Jan 2026 blog post from Dr Mike McCulloch, he compared the IVO Quantum drive based on Quantized inertia theory, satellite’s orbit to a nearly identical twin control satellite. From late September to late December 2025 (90 days), the IVO sat fell ~600 meters less than the control (IVO: 4,880 m decay; control: 5,480 m ...

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Starlink V3 launches with Starship will carry 25 to 50 times more bandwidth than a Falcon flight with V2, depending on how you count it. Starship will also launch 100+ times more per year than Falcon (mostly AI sats). Probably ~20k comms satellites per year at ~2 tons/sat. High mass flux to orbiy. Elon Musk ...

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There are huge breakthroughs coming in 2026 for space, Tesla technology and AI. SPACE BREAKTHROUGHS Early May SpaceX Starship V3 Flight 12 June SpaceX Flight 13 Orbital Second Half V3 Satellites 10-20 Flights, 400-1000 Satellites $100-200 Per Kg with 10+ booster reuses April 30 FCC Internet Broadband Power will be approved that will enable 1 ...

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Dutch regulators (RDW), which just approved Tesla FSD (Supervised) in the Netherlands. They have just issued an official statement. Due to the continuous strict monitoring of the driver in the vehicle, the system is safer than other driver assistance systems. We have thoroughly researched and checked this system, more than a year and a half. ...

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Few cultures exist in a vacuum, even those separated from others by hundreds of miles of open sea like the island nation of Japan. Nearly 70 years ago, archaeologists discovered an ancient suit of armor beneath one of the island nation’s most prominent historical sites. Now, researchers can finally trace the 1,400-year-old armor’s telltale artisanry back to Korea. Specifically, to the Baejke Kingdom—one of Korea’s three major empires dating back to the 18th century BCE.

Buddhism truly began to flourish in Japan beginning in the sixth century CE after monks arrived from mainland China and Korea. Few places represent this monumental cultural shift more than the Asuka-dera Temple complex, located about 23 miles southeast of Osaka. 

Asuka-Dera’s establishment near the start of the seventh century marked the first full-scale Buddhist temple on the island archipelago.

According to ancient documents including the second-oldest history of Japan, Nihon Shoki, craftsmen and monks from the Baekje Kingdom helped build the temple complex. Baekje was one of the “Three Kingdoms of Korea” that flourished between the 18th century BCE and 660 CE.

Archaeologists from the Nara National Research Institute for Cultural Properties originally located the armor fragments beneath a pagoda’s foundation during 1957 excavation work. While its construction resembled armor previously linked to Baekje royal sites in Korea, technology at the time wasn’t advanced enough to supply a definitive answer.

In 2015, however, equipment like X-ray and 3D imaging finally allowed researchers to further examine the Asuka-dera armor. They discovered that, like Baekje armor, the Japanese monastery finds were crafted by interlacing small iron plates with cords into what’s known as a lamellar structure. This approach provided wearers with solid protection without sacrificing flexibility, especially because the torso, upper arm, and shoulder segments were all connected into a single shirt-like piece of armor.

Similar armor excavated between 2011 and 2014 at Gongsanseong Fortress, a historic Baekje compound located about 50 miles southeast of Seoul, also supports this. At the fortress, researchers identified inscriptions on the plating that date to 645 CE—around the exact same era as Asuka-Dera’s construction. In 2024, archaeologist Takehiro Hasumura confirmed the overlaps after examining the Gongsanseong specimens firsthand.

By the 7th century, elite Japanese warriors began to adopt keiko-style armor. Like the Baejke design, keiko armor consists of interwoven and flexible lamellar iron scales. Keiko’s adoption—along with its design—now makes it clearer than ever that Baekje artisans, specifically armorers, traveled alongside mainland Buddhist monks and emissaries. 

With additional excavation projects, archaeologists hope to further contextualize other pivotal cultural exchanges between these and other East Asian kingdoms.

The post Armor buried under Japanese temple linked to ancient Korean kingdom appeared first on Popular Science.

\Demis Hassabis (DeepMind CEO) and other AI leaders sees the next big AI gains—and the path to AGI—will come from targeted algorithmic breakthroughs in areas like continual learning, memory architectures, world models, reasoning/planning, and hybrid systems. Demis talked in a 20VC podcast with Harry Stebbings. Here’s a structured summary drawn from that interview, his other ...

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Spring is here, and that can only mean one thing: the return of robot birds. In Wyoming’s Grand Teton National Park, rangers and conservationists are once again deploying specially designed robotic decoys of the greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) in a bid to encourage breeding. Although they may not exactly look like the real thing to human park visitors, ecologists hope the robo-birds can convince the region’s dwindling grouse population to start reproducing. .

The greater sage-grouse is a prime example of the consequences of habitat loss. Around 16 million of the chicken-sized birds lived across North America at the beginning of the 20th century. Ecological surveys now indicate that by the late 1960s, grouse populations in the West began to decline an average of 2.3 percent every year. While the species as a whole isn’t endangered, populations in areas like Grand Teton National Park are at serious risk of completely disappearing. At one of the park’s breeding sites—known as leks—conservationists only tallied three male grouses last year.

A major reason for Grand Teton’s declining population is owed to years of grazing cows destroying their typical food supplies and hiding spots. Although it’s been decades since the last cattle herds trampled over the region, grouse numbers have yet to improve. Part of this is also due to the nearby Jackson Hole Airport. As the only airport inside the national park, plane traffic has further disrupted the birds’ lives. In some cases, aircraft have even struck and killed unlucky grouse.

Over the last eight years, Grand Teton staff have partnered with various community organizations and local schools to restore around 100 acres of pasture near the airport. They have particularly focused on reintroducing native plants and maintaining leks for grouse breeding. But building up the space is only one part of the battle.

“One of the challenges with restoration is that even when you create great habitat, wildlife doesn’t always show up right away,” Grand Teton Park spokesperson Emily Davis explained in a recent SFGATE profile.

Like a similar project last year, rangers tasked local high schoolers to help bring back the grouse. For 2026, they enlisted the RoboBroncs—Jackson Hole High School’s robotics team—to design and build mechanical grouse decoys. While the bodies are largely composed of repurposed materials like blankets and packing foam, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department supplied actual pointy tail feathers.

There are two types of robo-grouse installed at Grand Teton Park—stationary mounts, as well as automated models built to move and dance like the actual birds during mating rituals. Some of them are even capable of puffing their chests like a male grouse. To boost the realism, recorded breeding calls are also played every day beginning at 5 a.m. on nearby concealed speakers.

“The idea is to encourage birds to begin displaying and mating at the restored site,” Davis explained. “Because brood-rearing happens near the lek, this can help draw more sage-grouse to the area over time.”

With any luck, the robotic assistants will help steer sage-grouse away from the airport towards restored habitats, where they will meet mates and breed. The standard courtship season lasts through mid-May, and rangers will be monitoring each step of the way using a trail camera.

The post Robot birds deployed in Grand Teton National Park for sexy time appeared first on Popular Science.

Many of the animals we know and love today have tails, from the littlest kitten to the largest whale. These tails vary widely by anatomy and purpose—from the grippy tails of opossums to the balancing tails of kangaroos to the swimming tails of fish. Others tell us how an animal is feeling, like a happy puppy with a wiggly butt. 

Having a tail that extends beyond the anal opening is a requirement of membership in the phylum Chordata, where humans and all other vertebrates reside. But us humans don’t really have a “tail” in the same way most creatures do, at least past eight weeks in the womb. Neither do our closest primate relatives. 

For humans, the story of losing our tails goes way back in the evolutionary timeline. “The reason that humans don’t have tails is that our ancestors didn’t have tails,” says Carol Ward, a distinguished professor in the integrative anatomy program at the University of Missouri. But how we lost tails is a story that goes back at least 20 million years into human—and ape—geneological history. 

One tail of a mystery

In the heart of the Miocene, land-dwelling animals were starting to look more and more like the fauna of today. During this era, which lasted from around 23 million years ago to five million years ago, the first dog-bears appeared, primitive giraffes frolicked through Eurasia, and dog-sized three-toed horse ancestors lived in Florida. 

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Humans, on the other hand, weren’t exactly humans yet. Human evolution is a story of divergence that goes back to the Miocene when African apes split off from orangutans. Recent research estimates that the last common ancestor between humans, chimps, and bonobos split off around five to six million years ago, and evidence for early members of the Homo genus didn’t appear in the fossil record until around 2.8 million years ago. 

The trouble here is that these evolutionary cousins of ours are also tailless. So to find a tailed relative, we have to go back even further. Around 25 to 30 million years ago, our ape ancestors branched off from tailed monkeys. Once that split happened, many species of tailless apes started popping up in the millions of years that followed. This makes it pretty much impossible to determine which exact tailless species would go on to evolve into us, says Ward. 

The fossil record only offers us limited glimpses of what was happening, but even those snippets are enlightening. One such glimpse is the Ekembo, a genus with specimens dating back 17 to 20 million years ago that have been found in Kenya. Fossils of one species in this genus, the Ekembo heseloni, offer up a pretty good look at the relationship between apes and tails at the time, says Ward. These guys probably looked like chimps with legs and arms of the same length, adds Ward, and fossil evidence suggests that these creatures climbed on tree branches on all fours and kept the long, bendy lower backs that modern apes eventually lost. But what they were missing was the key components necessary for a tail. 

When it comes to pinpointing when ape tails disappeared, we have to look to the sacrum fossil, the bony structure at the base of our lumbar vertebrae. Sacrum fossils for say, cats and other tailed mammals, lead into a bunch of tail vertebrae. For apes and humans, the sacrum ends with just a small tip. 

“We have that small tippy point for Ekembo heseloni,” Ward says, “We know that sacrum could not have supported a tail, and that animal didn’t have one.”

The above skeleton belongs to an ancient ape, Ekembo nyanzae, dating back 17 to 20 million years ago that have been found in Kenya. Image: Ghedoghedo / CC BY-SA 3.0

But Ekembo isn’t the only example of a tailless primate from around this time. Another Miocene-era ape dubbed Nacholapithecus appears in Kenya’s fossil record about 15 million years ago. Fossils of these creatures’ sacrums demonstrate that they too wouldn’t have been able to support a tail, adds Ward.

While it’s not clear which exact ape goes on to become a hominid millions of years down the line, the evidence shows that apes had evolved to be tailless in this time period. And if our ancient ape ancestors didn’t have tails, homidis—and, in turn, humans—won’t either. 

Why hominid (and ape) tails disappeared

So we know pretty certainly that the “human” tail went the way of the dinosaurs long before humans were a twinkle in evolution’s eye. But why? There are a bunch of theories, but it may have to do with movement and motion, Ward suggests. 

Even though we, and our tailless brethren like gorillas, chimps, and gibbons, are related to these 20-million-year-old apes in some capacity, they likely looked very different from their modern counterparts. 

“Modern chimps and gorillas have really long forelimbs, really long hands and fingers, short hind limbs, and a bunch of other features for hanging below branches,” says Ward. “But millions of years ago, that wasn’t the case. [Early apes] had arms and legs that are about the same length, so we’re pretty sure they walked on all fours.” 

These strategies are intertwined with taillessness. While many animals use their tails to help maintain balance while in motion, they are especially useful if that movement is swift—think a running cheetah or a swinging monkey. 

Miocene apes were eating fruit out of trees, explains Ward. Getting to the good stuff on the edge of a fruit tree branch requires supporting their weight on multiple branches, moving slowly and carefully so as to not lose balance. 

For our slow-moving ape ancestors, a tail may have been a waste of energy to grow, or a potential liability waiting to be yanked by a predator. “They were climbing, but they were doing it deliberately,” Ward says. “The tail just didn’t offer an advantage.”

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

The post Why humans don’t have tails appeared first on Popular Science.

Many of the animals we know and love today have tails, from the littlest kitten to the largest whale. These tails vary widely by anatomy and purpose—from the grippy tails of opossums to the balancing tails of kangaroos to the swimming tails of fish. Others tell us how an animal is feeling, like a happy puppy with a wiggly butt. 

Having a tail that extends beyond the anal opening is a requirement of membership in the phylum Chordata, where humans and all other vertebrates reside. But us humans don’t really have a “tail” in the same way most creatures do, at least past eight weeks in the womb. Neither do our closest primate relatives. 

For humans, the story of losing our tails goes way back in the evolutionary timeline. “The reason that humans don’t have tails is that our ancestors didn’t have tails,” says Carol Ward, a distinguished professor in the integrative anatomy program at the University of Missouri. But how we lost tails is a story that goes back at least 20 million years into human—and ape—geneological history. 

One tail of a mystery

In the heart of the Miocene, land-dwelling animals were starting to look more and more like the fauna of today. During this era, which lasted from around 23 million years ago to five million years ago, the first dog-bears appeared, primitive giraffes frolicked through Eurasia, and dog-sized three-toed horse ancestors lived in Florida. 

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Do any bugs live in the ocean? Short answer: Not really.

How marine mammals stay hydrated in a salty sea

Why do we even have baby teeth?

Why our ancestors had straight teeth without braces

Why do we have five fingers and toes?

Why we have two nostrils instead of one big hole

Humans, on the other hand, weren’t exactly humans yet. Human evolution is a story of divergence that goes back to the Miocene when African apes split off from orangutans. Recent research estimates that the last common ancestor between humans, chimps, and bonobos split off around five to six million years ago, and evidence for early members of the Homo genus didn’t appear in the fossil record until around 2.8 million years ago. 

The trouble here is that these evolutionary cousins of ours are also tailless. So to find a tailed relative, we have to go back even further. Around 25 to 30 million years ago, our ape ancestors branched off from tailed monkeys. Once that split happened, many species of tailless apes started popping up in the millions of years that followed. This makes it pretty much impossible to determine which exact tailless species would go on to evolve into us, says Ward. 

The fossil record only offers us limited glimpses of what was happening, but even those snippets are enlightening. One such glimpse is the Ekembo, a genus with specimens dating back 17 to 20 million years ago that have been found in Kenya. Fossils of one species in this genus, the Ekembo heseloni, offer up a pretty good look at the relationship between apes and tails at the time, says Ward. These guys probably looked like chimps with legs and arms of the same length, adds Ward, and fossil evidence suggests that these creatures climbed on tree branches on all fours and kept the long, bendy lower backs that modern apes eventually lost. But what they were missing was the key components necessary for a tail. 

When it comes to pinpointing when ape tails disappeared, we have to look to the sacrum fossil, the bony structure at the base of our lumbar vertebrae. Sacrum fossils for say, cats and other tailed mammals, lead into a bunch of tail vertebrae. For apes and humans, the sacrum ends with just a small tip. 

“We have that small tippy point for Ekembo heseloni,” Ward says, “We know that sacrum could not have supported a tail, and that animal didn’t have one.”

The above skeleton belongs to an ancient ape, Ekembo nyanzae, dating back 17 to 20 million years ago that have been found in Kenya. Image: Ghedoghedo / CC BY-SA 3.0

But Ekembo isn’t the only example of a tailless primate from around this time. Another Miocene-era ape dubbed Nacholapithecus appears in Kenya’s fossil record about 15 million years ago. Fossils of these creatures’ sacrums demonstrate that they too wouldn’t have been able to support a tail, adds Ward.

While it’s not clear which exact ape goes on to become a hominid millions of years down the line, the evidence shows that apes had evolved to be tailless in this time period. And if our ancient ape ancestors didn’t have tails, homidis—and, in turn, humans—won’t either. 

Why hominid (and ape) tails disappeared

So we know pretty certainly that the “human” tail went the way of the dinosaurs long before humans were a twinkle in evolution’s eye. But why? There are a bunch of theories, but it may have to do with movement and motion, Ward suggests. 

Even though we, and our tailless brethren like gorillas, chimps, and gibbons, are related to these 20-million-year-old apes in some capacity, they likely looked very different from their modern counterparts. 

“Modern chimps and gorillas have really long forelimbs, really long hands and fingers, short hind limbs, and a bunch of other features for hanging below branches,” says Ward. “But millions of years ago, that wasn’t the case. [Early apes] had arms and legs that are about the same length, so we’re pretty sure they walked on all fours.” 

These strategies are intertwined with taillessness. While many animals use their tails to help maintain balance while in motion, they are especially useful if that movement is swift—think a running cheetah or a swinging monkey. 

Miocene apes were eating fruit out of trees, explains Ward. Getting to the good stuff on the edge of a fruit tree branch requires supporting their weight on multiple branches, moving slowly and carefully so as to not lose balance. 

For our slow-moving ape ancestors, a tail may have been a waste of energy to grow, or a potential liability waiting to be yanked by a predator. “They were climbing, but they were doing it deliberately,” Ward says. “The tail just didn’t offer an advantage.”

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

The post Why humans don’t have tails appeared first on Popular Science.

SpaceX Starlink alone will generate $20 billion in revenue this year, almost doubling the estimated $11.8 billion it made in 2025. SpaceX will also have more launch revenue. Starlink has subscriber growth going from adding 750,000 per month to 1.5 million per month. A fundamental shift in revenue mix, pricing dynamics, and the growing role ...

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Amazon CEO Andy Jassy released the annual shareholder letter. • AWS AI revenue is running above $15 Billion annually • Amazon expects around $200 Billion of 2026 capex mostly tied to AI infra • Project Leo already has 200+ satellites in orbit ahead of launch. • $4 Billion+ is going toward rural delivery expansion while ...

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The next launch of the Blue Origin has been delayed from April 14 to April 16. The rocket sections are still in the Bay and have not been moved out to the launch pad. This is another important Blue Origin launch. It will be the third New Glenn launch. AST Space Mobile is launching BlueBird ...

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The next launch of the Blue Origin has been delayed from April 14 to April 16. The rocket sections are still in the Bay and have not been moved out to the launch pad. This is another important Blue Origin launch. It will be the third New Glenn launch. AST Space Mobile is launching BlueBird ...

Read more

Elon Musk says that Anthropic’s Claude Sonnet model has 1 trillion parameters and Claude Opus has 5 trillion parameters. XAI’s Grok 4.20, which has 0.5 trillion parameters and there are seven larger models being trained at XAI. Grok Imagine V2 2 variants of 1-trillion-parameter models 2 variants of 1.5-trillion-parameter models 1 variant of a 6-trillion-parameter ...

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Every mammal gives birth to live young, except for a handful of egg-laying monotremes like the platypus. But did the earliest ancestors of mammals also reproduce through eggs? It’s a question that’s stumped evolutionary biologists for decades, but researchers finally have a definitive answer. Published on April 9 in the journal PLOS One, their findings rely on a 250-million-year-old fossilized egg, sophisticated technological advances, and a lot of patience.

Paleontologists discovered the specimen in question almost 17 years ago during an excavation in South Africa’s Karoo Basin. The arid region located over 200 miles northeast of Cape Town is particularly well known for its vast troves of ancient fossils.

“My preparator and exceptional fossil finder, John Nyaphuli, identified a small nodule that at first revealed only tiny flecks of bone. As he carefully prepared the specimen, it became clear that it was a perfectly curled-up Lystrosaurus hatchling,” University of the Witwatersrand paleobiologist Jennifer Botha said in a statement. 

The fossilized egg photographed in the control room of the ESRF in France. Credit: Julien Benoit

Lystrosaurus was a pivotal species in the evolutionary journey of mammals. The herbivores arrived on the planet during the aftermath of the End-Permian Mass Extinction about 252 million years ago. Likely caused by volcanic eruptions in present-day Siberia, the End-Permian cataclysm eventually wiped out around 57 percent of all biological life, including 70 percent of terrestrial vertebrates. Lystrosaurus managed to thrive despite the era’s volatile climate, warm temperatures, and frequent droughts. Although Botha and her colleagues suspected their discovery showcased the remains of a hatchling inside its shell, the required imaging technology to assess their theory did not exist in 2008.

Within a few years, however, the development of advanced synchrotron X-ray CT scanning allowed a path forward. Botha brought the fossil to the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in France, where collaborators could finally examine it under the proper conditions. Only then could they identify a key piece of evidence—an incomplete mandibular symphysis. This section of lower jaw is crucial for an animal to eat, but only after its two halves fuse during gestation.

“I was genuinely excited,” recalled University of Witwatersrand paleobiologist Julien Benoit. “The fact that this fusion had not yet occurred shows that the individual would have been incapable of feeding itself.”

This means their Lystrosaurus wasn’t fully developed when it died, and its positioning could only mean one thing: it was still inside an egg. More specifically, the team believes Lystrosaurus laid soft-shelled eggs, which explains why fossilized evidence is so difficult to find.

A 3D reconstruction of the skeleton. Credit: Julien Benoit

Although small, the egg is large compared to the mammal ancestor’s body size. Today, larger eggs usually contain more yolk, which include all the nutrients needed for an embryo to develop without a parent feeding it. The bigger eggs are also much more resistant to drying—a vital strength during the harsh climate following the extinction event. Taken altogether, it appears that Lystrosaurus was already highly developed when it hatched. This made them able to evade predators, take care of themselves, and quickly begin reproducing.

Beyond filling in a major gap in mammalian evolution, Lystrosaurus can help biologists understand how species might continue to adapt to an increasingly chaotic ecosystem.

“This work is highly impactful because it offers a deep-time perspective on resilience and adaptability in the face of rapid climate change and ecological crisis,” said Benoit, adding, “This discovery [is] not just a breakthrough in paleontology, but also highly relevant to current biodiversity and climate challenges.”

The post Proto-mammals laid eggs, paleontologists finally confirm appeared first on Popular Science.

Every mammal gives birth to live young, except for a handful of egg-laying monotremes like the platypus. But did the earliest ancestors of mammals also reproduce through eggs? It’s a question that’s stumped evolutionary biologists for decades, but researchers finally have a definitive answer. Published on April 9 in the journal PLOS One, their findings rely on a 250-million-year-old fossilized egg, sophisticated technological advances, and a lot of patience.

Paleontologists discovered the specimen in question almost 17 years ago during an excavation in South Africa’s Karoo Basin. The arid region located over 200 miles northeast of Cape Town is particularly well known for its vast troves of ancient fossils.

“My preparator and exceptional fossil finder, John Nyaphuli, identified a small nodule that at first revealed only tiny flecks of bone. As he carefully prepared the specimen, it became clear that it was a perfectly curled-up Lystrosaurus hatchling,” University of the Witwatersrand paleobiologist Jennifer Botha said in a statement. 

The fossilized egg photographed in the control room of the ESRF in France. Credit: Julien Benoit

Lystrosaurus was a pivotal species in the evolutionary journey of mammals. The herbivores arrived on the planet during the aftermath of the End-Permian Mass Extinction about 252 million years ago. Likely caused by volcanic eruptions in present-day Siberia, the End-Permian cataclysm eventually wiped out around 57 percent of all biological life, including 70 percent of terrestrial vertebrates. Lystrosaurus managed to thrive despite the era’s volatile climate, warm temperatures, and frequent droughts. Although Botha and her colleagues suspected their discovery showcased the remains of a hatchling inside its shell, the required imaging technology to assess their theory did not exist in 2008.

Within a few years, however, the development of advanced synchrotron X-ray CT scanning allowed a path forward. Botha brought the fossil to the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in France, where collaborators could finally examine it under the proper conditions. Only then could they identify a key piece of evidence—an incomplete mandibular symphysis. This section of lower jaw is crucial for an animal to eat, but only after its two halves fuse during gestation.

“I was genuinely excited,” recalled University of Witwatersrand paleobiologist Julien Benoit. “The fact that this fusion had not yet occurred shows that the individual would have been incapable of feeding itself.”

This means their Lystrosaurus wasn’t fully developed when it died, and its positioning could only mean one thing: it was still inside an egg. More specifically, the team believes Lystrosaurus laid soft-shelled eggs, which explains why fossilized evidence is so difficult to find.

A 3D reconstruction of the skeleton. Credit: Julien Benoit

Although small, the egg is large compared to the mammal ancestor’s body size. Today, larger eggs usually contain more yolk, which include all the nutrients needed for an embryo to develop without a parent feeding it. The bigger eggs are also much more resistant to drying—a vital strength during the harsh climate following the extinction event. Taken altogether, it appears that Lystrosaurus was already highly developed when it hatched. This made them able to evade predators, take care of themselves, and quickly begin reproducing.

Beyond filling in a major gap in mammalian evolution, Lystrosaurus can help biologists understand how species might continue to adapt to an increasingly chaotic ecosystem.

“This work is highly impactful because it offers a deep-time perspective on resilience and adaptability in the face of rapid climate change and ecological crisis,” said Benoit, adding, “This discovery [is] not just a breakthrough in paleontology, but also highly relevant to current biodiversity and climate challenges.”

The post Proto-mammals laid eggs, paleontologists finally confirm appeared first on Popular Science.

Starship FCC licenses for Flight 12 and 13 have been modified. Starship Flight 12’s license includes a suborbital first and second stage. Currently, SpaceX is looking at a late April or early May launch for Starship 12. Starship Flight 13’s now says suborbital first stage and ORBITAL second stage. Starship 13 is looking at an ...

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Travel is notoriously hard on your digestion. Jet lag, dehydration, stress, and even slight disruptions to a regular meal schedule can result in unpleasant bathroom difficulties. But the next time you’re struggling with toilet troubles away from home, try to remember: At least you’re not dealing with it in outer space.

“I was thinking about how even on Earth, travel is one of the biggest constipation triggers,” Sarah Jane Bunger tells Popular Science. “[It’s] always going to make this perfect storm of constipation while on Earth. So it’s only going to be more and more exacerbated once you go outside Earth.”

It’s Bunger’s job to think about these things. She’s the global research and development lead for Dulcolax, where she oversees anything and everything tied to new formulas and clinical activities for the laxative and stool softener. But even after more than 13 years in the business, she was honored to learn the medication was available to a new demographic: the astronauts aboard Artemis II.

“We weren’t propositioned ahead of time. It was a lovely surprise for us that we were included,” she says of Dulcolax’s inclusion in NASA’s official Formulary and First Aid Kit.

Supplements like Dulcolax—specifically bisacodyl—are included on the World Health Organization’s list of essential medications, something keenly monitored by NASA’s medical team. At the same time, spacecraft cargo storage is always at a premium, so astronauts need meds that both get the job done and take up as little room as possible.

“I always think of the infamous example of sending a female astronaut up with, like, 100 tampons,” says Bunger, referring to Sally Ride’s historic first mission. “They want to make sure that they’re not overpacking, but that they have everything on hand that the astronauts might need to treat themselves while they’re up there.”

Bunger explains that constipation can be particularly troublesome for astronauts during the first few days in space while their bodies adjust. Eating is predictably difficult in space, although not necessarily for the reasons you think. Zero gravity makes digestion harder on an astronaut’s body because their organs and musculature must work in conditions they’re not evolved to handle. Bunger likens the digestive tract to an elastic material like leggings. While peristalsis—a muscle’s ability to contract and produce wavelike motions—helps move an object through the stretchy passageway, gravity is always lending a hand. Remove the earthbound physics altogether, and all that’s left is the peristalsis.

“That’s why they’re still able to swallow, even without the help of gravity. So there is some impact from the lack of gravity up there,” Bunger says.

Luckily, laxatives like Dulcolax are engineered to work both on- and off-world. The medication aboard Artemis II is the same as the types found in grocery stores, and features a protective coating that guards it against corrosive stomach acid. This allows it to delay dissolving until it reaches the lower GI tract. Bisacodyl also works on contact, so it doesn’t need to be metabolized by the kidneys or liver.

As helpful as the laxatives may be during the Artemis II mission, Bunger hopes their inclusion in the first aid kit has wider ramifications for everyone, not only astronauts.

“Honestly, if I could pick a benefit coming out of this, it would be that it helps address the stigma [of constipation] for some consumers,” she says. “If even astronauts are dealing with this, then you shouldn’t feel bad about the fact that maybe your GI tract is a little bit off, too.”

While not on the official list of mission experiments, there is also the possibility of real scientific progress thanks to laxatives in space. Bunger points out that no one has yet to study the effects of taking them while traveling to the moon.

“I would settle for a stock report,” she suggests. “I don’t need to know who took it and I don’t need to know when. I just want to know that it was taken.”

The post Even astronauts get constipated in space appeared first on Popular Science.