The human skin is the body’s largest organ. It also provides one of our most important senses: touch. Touch enables people to interact with and perceive objects in the external world. In building robots and virtual environments, though, touch has ...

Sometime later this year—perhaps this summer, perhaps this fall—an electric aircraft from NASA, the X-57, is set to take flight in California. It’s what NASA describes as its “first all-electric experiment aircraft,” and when it does lift off the ground, ...

Sci-fi film fans are likely very familiar with that scene in Terminator 2 when Robert Patrick’s slick, liquid metal T-1000 robot easily congeals itself through the metal bars of a security door. It’s an iconic set piece that relied on ...

Lidar, a way to use laser light to measure how far away objects are, has come a long way since it was first put to work on airplanes in 1960. Today, it can be seen mounted on drones, robots, self-driving ...

When the Hunga Tonga–Hunga Haʻapai volcano in Tonga exploded on January 15, 2022—setting off a sonic boom heard as far north as Alaska—scientists instantly knew that they were witnessing history.  “In the geophysical record, this is the biggest natural explosion ...

If an animal passes through the forest and no one sees it, does it leave a mark? A century ago, there would be no way to pick up whatever clues were left behind. But with advancements in DNA technology, particularly ...

There’s a phrase that rings loudly in the heads of Popular Science editors any time we bring together a new Brilliant 10 class: “They’ve only just begun.” Our annual list of early-career scientists and engineers is as much a celebration ...

If you want to be able to see in the dark, a good first step is to turn on the lights. That’s why cars have headlights, nocturnal hikers wear headlamps, and dog-walkers carry flashlights after the sun sets. Adding artificial ...

After a successful pilot run, a start-up called CarbonQuest is expanding its footprint in New York City. Its mission? Outfit high-rise buildings in carbon capture technology. Carbon capture tech aims to do exactly what the name implies: capture carbon dioxide ...

From deadly floods in Queens, New York, to a deep-freeze in Texas, the climate crisis is banging on the US’s front door. This year’s top engineering innovations reflect a growing awareness that crucial industries like construction and shipping can no longer ...