Pure Tech

Popular Science

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....

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On paper, few physical jobs seem as ripe for AI takeover as that of the loyal service dog. These four-legged assistants undergo years of intensive (and expensive) training to help people with vision loss or other physical impairments...

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Not every mummy is treated equally. While the traditional image conjures a well-preserved, carefully wrapped ancient Egyptian body inside an elaborately decorated tomb, there are many more examples of partial and poorly prepared remains....

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The USS Cassin Young at sea in 1944. Credit: CPhoM Paul Madden, USN / Navsource.org / Public Domain The heavily armed Fletcher-class destroyer is an iconic piece of United States naval history. Although its name may not sound immediately...

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This story was originally published by Grist. Sign up for Grist’s weekly newsletter here. Picture yourself in a wind-swept forest. Leaves are rustling and trunks are creaking as trees sway to and fro. This oscillation might seem...

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No matter how snappy your smartphone feels when you first buy it, it will inevitably slow down over time. When that happens, you have to decide when it’s time to upgrade. Eventually, an upgrade becomes necessary—especially once your phone...

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Air travel can be notoriously headache-inducing, even on the best days. While no single traveler can do much to lower outrageous prices on airport snacks or unnecessarily delayed security lines, Matty Benedetto recently envisioned a few...

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It’s been called “dirt fishing,” “beach scooping” and “relic hunting,” but no matter what you choose to call it, you’ll almost always see someone with a metal detector scanning the beach or park in search of lost or abandoned treasures. As...

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Most of the tech you use each day tracks you—whether it’s to target ads at you or to make sure your smart lights come on when you walk in the front door. Smart TVs are no different. A television set doesn’t follow you around all day like a...

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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...

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In one corner of a typical 3D printing workshop, failed prints and discarded support structures pile up like industrial kindling. The technology is supposed to be lean. produce only what you need, when you need it. But anyone who runs a...

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For many years, iPhones and Android devices didn’t play nicely together. Sure, you can get files and data swapped between platforms, but it hasn’t been easy. Plus, you’d typically need to rely on a third-party tool to do the job rather...

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I have a confession to make: In my late teens, my car ran out of gas along the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Rather than pump my own gas in PA, I’d been trying to make it across to neighboring New Jersey—a state that’s notoriously known for...

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Aside from the hallucinations, immense energy requirements, and potentially negative mental health effects, generative artificial intelligence still has an issue with accuracy. However, that hasn’t stopped major tech companies like Google...

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The Artemis II astronauts have completed their historic lunar flyby and taken the pictures to prove it. But as skygazers continue enjoying the images of both the moon and Earth, one question is making the rounds online: If there’s such a...

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Sports arenas across  the United States could soon have a new, jiggly way to measure the excitement of a game. Jell-O, the company most known for its physics-defying gelatin dessert, is introducing a device it says can calculate...

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No matter how sprightly and speedy your laptop was when you first bought it, it will inevitably slow down to a sluggish pace eventually. And it’s when you reach this point that you can’t really put off an upgrade any longer. However, there...

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(Left), the axonometric hand drawing of the polybolos, by A.R., was partially colored by V.C. using the graphic post-production software GIMP 3.0.4.; (right), the 3D model by C. Formicola based on the surviving module of the Scorpion of...

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In 1804, a British man named Richard Trevithick invented the first steam-powered locomotive. But it was Americans who truly ran with Trevithick’s invention in the decades that followed. In 1830, the 13-mile, horse-powered Baltimore and...

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Ask someone to chart the progression of artificial intelligence (AI) models over the past few decades and you’ll likely hear some reference to how good they are at playing games. IBM shocked the world in 1997 when its Deep Blue model...

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The people have spoken. The Weather Channel has officially announced a new look rolling out across both its website and on its app—one with a distinctly nostalgic, Y2K-esque vibe to it. “This is not an April Fool’s joke. You’ve asked (a...

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In 1872, New York City’s Broadway was a slow-moving snarl of horses, wagons, and pedestrians, all competing along the same well-worn corridor. Alfred Speer, a merchant known around town as “The Wine Man,” believed the congestion outside...

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As millions around the world watched on smartphones, T.V.s, or in person, Artemis II and its four-person crew burst from the ground on April 1 and successfully began its 10-day journey to the moon. While all eyes were focused on the Orion...

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At this time yesterday, there were only nine toilets in space. Today, the freshly-launched Orion space capsule’s commode makes it an even 10.  Orion (on its way around the moon): 1  Crew Dragon Docked at ISS: 1 Soyuz Docked at...

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If you want to look like a million bucks, pose for a photo next to the $1,058,400 2026 Aston Martin Valhalla, the company’s first production mid-engine supercar. As an Aston Martin, the car is predictably gorgeous and you can bask in its...

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Modern life requires lots of logging into apps and websites. Even with a password manager, remembering all of that log in information can be difficult. Using a fingerprint, eye, or other biometrics can introduce privacy concerns. A new...

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Navigating streaming services is basically a nightmare at this point. On top of their constantly shifting libraries, it feels like nearly every week includes the announcement of yet another subscription price hike. If you’re looking for a...

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Peter Cottontail would probably pull a muscle trying to lug this giant chocolate egg down the bunny trail. After the success of the world’s largest Cadbury Creme Egg in 2025, Cadbury World has a new sweet concoction. Behold the world’s...

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We never fully lost our love for physical media. Tangible copies of music, movies, and books have never been completely obsolete. In fact, collecting has come back in vogue among younger generations. That said, physical media isn’t...

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Have you ever walked into an old garage or antique store, seen a VHS tape gathering dust and wondered: would those sad old pieces of plastic still play? An eclectic YouTuber named Brady Brandwood is taking that  curiosity to the...

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Pepperoni or anchovies? Mushrooms or black olives? And what about the ever popular and polarizing pineapple? Pizza topping preferences are as varied as the people who order them. While that’s fine for one or two hungry friends, planning...

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Making alcohol is pretty straightforward stuff, and humans have enjoyed toying with the pastime for at least 8,000 years. Combine sugar, yeast, and a few other flavorful ingredients, let natural fermentation do its thing, and voilà—you...

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Robots are already better than humans at quite a few tasks. Try to outplay an AI-enabled system at chess or outlast a robot worker operating in rooms filled with radiation and you’d likely fall short. But even with all that advancement,...

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Food delivery robots are struggling to steer clear of Chicago’s bus stop shelters. Within just 48 hours, two autonomous couriers from different companies veered off course and collided with shelters shattering glass and alarming nearby...

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Concert venues are supposed to measure a star’s reach. BTS skipped the measurement entirely. On March 21, 2026, they played a free concert at Gwanghwamun—their first performance as a complete group in six years—and in doing so,...

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After over four years of war, Ukraine’s military says it’s testing an exoskeleton in the field that can help soldiers more easily load artillery and run at speeds of up to 12 mph over sustained periods. The tests would mark one of the...

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Earth has a big diaper problem. Families in the United States toss out over 1 trillion of the soiled garments every year, making it the third most common consumer product piling up in landfills. They also aren’t going anywhere anytime...

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It’s generally not a great idea to mix bourbon with high-voltage electricity. That said, chemists at the University of Kentucky discovered a potentially powerful use for one of whiskey’s most annoying—and plentiful—byproducts. According to...

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You can find a lot of random things for sale on Facebook Marketplace: vintage collectibles, oversized teeth in a suitcase, and even a World War I shipwreck. Now bargain hunters can get their hands on a 2002 Houston METRO bus for the low,...

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Anyone in the market to take ownership of the World’s Largest Dinosaur? The 86-foot-tall, 145,000-pound Tyrannosaurus rex named Tyra resides in the small town of Drumheller in the Canadian Badlands about 84 miles northeast of Calgary. If...

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No one wants to get pelted by a rock, much less one inscribed with an infuriating taunt. Nevertheless, the unwanted projectiles have brained unfortunate targets for thousands of years. And near the ancient city of Antiochia Hippos in...

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It might not seem like it when you nonchalantly click a Buy Now button while online shopping, but that new t-shirt is part of a complex global web of commerce taking a toll on the environment. Consulting giant McKinsey estimates that the...

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It’s a warm July day in Yellowstone National Park’s grassy Hayden Valley and wildlife photographer Tom Murphy is tracking herds of chocolate-colored bison gathered for the annual breeding season. He eventually spots a young male, not yet...

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Even the biggest fans of Dune know that Frank Herbert’s classic sci-fi epic quickly veers into the fantastical. Giant subterranean sandworms measuring 1,500 feet long; a narcotic that fuels interstellar travel and bends a user’s perception...

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Growing up in the early 2000s, few weekly rituals stuck with me quite like New Release Tuesday. Every week, without fail, I remember wandering the slightly-moldy-smelling, blue-carpeted aisles of our local Blockbuster while my mom...

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Beulah Louise Henry was just nine years old when she came up with her first invention in 1896, a device that allowed a man to tip his hat without ever putting down his newspaper.  By her death in 1973, at the age of 85, she’d come up...

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It’s always good to have a passion project, but what’s going on in Staffordshire, England, is likely a one-of-a-kind endeavor. In the town of Burton upon Trent, a rotating team of volunteers has spent over 30 years restoring a Victorian...

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The RSS (Really Simple Syndication) protocol has been giving users a way to keep up with their favorite websites for decades. It essentially presents all the new articles on a specific site in chronological order as they’re published, so...

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If you’ve invested in an iPhone, what do you use it for most? Maybe it’s taking photos, or messaging friends and family, or just endlessly doomscrolling through whatever feeds you happen to have open. Even with a device as ubiquitous as...

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Using a Kindle may seem unnecessary in a world where reading books, articles, and any other text on a phone or tablet is easy. Carrying around a dedicated mono-tasking device will add weight to your load, and it’s another gadget to keep...