New paint ‘sweats’ to keep buildings cool

The paint relies on passive cooling through water evaporation. Credit: Deposit Photos / Kevin Brine Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. Buildings coated in a cement-based paint that “sweats” could help keep communities cool during the hottest days of the year. TheContinue Reading

Viking woman buried in ceremonial boat with her dog

The burial site is located near a rural road in Norway. Credit: The Arctic University Museum of Norway, UiT Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. In 2023, metal detector enthusiasts scouring Norway’s remote Senja Island stumbled across a remarkable archeological find. WhileContinue Reading

Mathematician solves algebra’s oldest problem

Polynomials were first conceived by the Babylonians around 1800 BCE. Credit: Getty Images Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Most people’s experiences with polynomial equations don’t extend much further than high school algebra and the quadratic formula. Still, these numeric puzzles remain a foundational component of everything from calculating planetaryContinue Reading

Future planets revealed in unprecedented detail

Deep ALMA observations of 12CO emission from fifteen protoplanetary disks reveal a stunning range of structures in the gas morphology including gaps, rings and spirals. Credit: Richard Teague / exoALMA Collaboration Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Our solar system is approximately 4.6 billion years old, but countless planetary neighborhoodsContinue Reading

NASA uses GPS on the moon for the first time

A sunrise on the moon photographed by the Blue Ghost lunar lander on March 3. Credit: Firefly Aerospace On March 2, Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost made history, becoming the first commercial lunar lander to successfully touchdown on the moon’s surface. The groundbreaking lander is wasting no time in getting toContinue Reading