For the first time in more than 30 years, NASA has no firm plans to send any new landers or rovers to Mars. Instead, the agency’s near-term focus at the red planet is on aerial drones, a pioneering mode of exploration that didn’t seem realistic until a few years ago. The first real use of…

On Tuesday, the House of Representatives passed a stopgap measure that would continue funding the US government through early December. While the measure still requires the signature of President Trump, it’s widely expected that he will act to avoid a government shutdown immediately before the midterm elections. This is a normal part of how the…

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APOD Science APOD APOD: 2026 September 3 – The… Today’s APOD Archive Submissions Index Search Calendar RSS Education About Discuss   APOD Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. The Eclipse…

Our DNA stores a remarkable amount of information. A single gram contains about 215 million gigabytes of data on everything from our eye color to the shape of our feet. Now, scientists are harnessing this storage power to make a low-power memory device.  The technology combines synthetic DNA and a semiconductor to create a memory…

Summer is a time for transformation. The long days, warm weather, and outdoor adventures provide the perfect opportunity for people to embrace a tanner, fitter, and more relaxed version of themselves. It’s a season of change for yellow-bellied marmots (Marmota flaviventer), too—except for these large ground squirrels get unbelievably fat, and their lives literally depend…

There is little to love about plastic. Most of the manufacturing processes still rely on fossil fuels, it often still takes generations to decompose, and their microscopic residue is contaminating the planet (as well as our bodies). But chemical engineers at Southern Illinois University (SIU) Carbondale are developing a NASA-backed process that turns toxic plastic…

As summer begins to melt into the fall, internet-famous bald eagle Shadow and his new friend Kaydee continue to spend time together in Big Bear Valley.  On Friday, August 21 Shadow appeared content while looking out over the lake. Kaydee was spotted towards the lower part of the tree, greeting the morning with song. She…

Wacken Open Air is widely considered the world’s heaviest of heavy metal music festivals for good reason. The annual event in northern Germany has drawn metalheads from around the world to the otherwise quiet town since 1990, and regularly features hundreds of the genre’s biggest acts. With upwards of 85,000 headbangers in attendance, the hub…

Just like some humans, animals can benefit from acupuncture, too. ZooTampa at Lowry Park in Tampa, Florida is using veterinary acupuncture to treat some of its animals with complex medical conditions. The patients that have received this treatment include a manatee (Trichechus manatus) named Sloth, a black-bellied whistling duck (Dendrocygna autumnalis) named Earl Grey, and a…

Many cosmic images don’t quite look like the nicknames astronomers bestow upon them. Case in point: the Crab Nebula. The Hubble Space Telescope’s portrait of the star factory looks more like an amorphous blob than a crustacean, and it’s still hard to envision a clawed creature in 19th century astronomer William Parsons’ early sketch of…

I recently almost left my camera bag in a hotel room after checkout, which is the stuff of nightmares. Luckily, it had an AirTag in it, which reminded me of my mistake. Currently, Apple’s four-pack of second-generation AirTags is available for $79.99 at Amazon, or $20 per tag, marking the lowest price Amazon has ever…

On January 23, 1973, the 5,000 residents of the tiny Icelandic island of Heimaey—located in the Westman archipelago just four miles off Iceland’s southern coast—woke up to the Earth splitting open. In the dead of night, a mile-long volcanic fissure ripped through the ground just a half-mile from the town of Vestmannaeyjar, marking the birth…

Earlier this year, a team of researchers in Virginia spent more than eight weeks tracking down Eastern box turtle (Terrapene carolina carolina) nests, employing a technique that seems straight out of ancient Greece’s Minotaur myth.  The Turtle Conservation Ecology Lab has been collecting data on Eastern box turtle habits since 2022. The team started studying…

One of a smartwatch’s main selling points can be its ability to track the calories burned while exercising. But similar to the health tech industry’s “10,000 steps” selling point, new research strongly suggests a wearable’s workout assessment may overestimate your efforts—and in some cases, the readings are off by as much as 25 percent. “You…

It’s a bird’s world, and we’re just living in it. Today, the National Audubon Society officially announced the winners of the 2026 Audubon Photography Awards. The contest is now in its 17th year and celebrates stunning photos (and even a few videos) that showcase the beauty of birds and the challenges they face. For the…

What began as a routine police response to a reported break-in turned into a brief standoff between nature and technology. Last week, law enforcement in the city of Kirkland, Washington (just northeast of Seattle) responded to a 911 call from a resident reporting loud banging inside their home. Officers arrived expecting a human intruder, but…

A rare dime that inadvertently launched one of most successful coin collecting careers in history has sold for an astounding $1.25 million. The coveted 1894 S-Dime was auctioned during Stack’s Bowers Galleries “Rarities Night” on September 1, and was this particular coin’s fourth auction appearance. Known as a Barber Dime for its designer, United States…

REI runs two big sales a year and the Labor Day event is where the co-op clears summer stock before winter inventory needs the shelf space. That means tents, sleeping pads, camp chairs, and trail shoes get cut hardest just in time to enjoy the tail end of warm weather. The Labor Day sale runs…

People generally want to spend as little time as possible in a public restroom. The vulnerability, the crass graffiti, the (lack of) cleanliness, uncomfortable toilet seats—the list of reasons is lengthy. But despite their infamy, public bathrooms remain an absolute societal necessity that deserve much more appreciation. At least, that’s what designer Jake Welch believes….