Caroline Delbert

I'm a writer, editor, researcher, and avid reader, and a contributing editor at Popular Mechanics. I'm also an enthusiast of just about everything, with bylines at the Awl, Tiny Cartridge, Eater, Scientific American, and more.

Welcome

I'm a freelance writer and reporter with an eclectic portfolio. I've linked select pieces and books below, or look through way more pieces using the menu to the left. Contact me.

Popular Mechanics •

Why Doesn’t the Living Human Body ‘Go Bad’ Like Leftovers on the Counter?

• Despite existing in the food safety danger zone, the living human body does not go bad. • Like in a tower defense game, our body is picking off invaders on multiple fronts at all times. • The mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell. I’ve never been a Reddit user myself, but I’m at least familiar with famous subreddits like r/Showerthoughts, where users have mini epiphanies or ask other netizens questions they’ve been pondering about. Recently, I’ve had a recurring “shower thought” of my o
ConsumerAffairs •

The 10 Most Dangerous Things Inside Every Home May Surprise You

What are the most injurious surfaces and objects in your home, as reported by U.S. hospitals? Here’s the definitive list from ConsumerAffairs. Read our full methodology below . Floor-related injuries surpassed 2 million in 2022 for the first time in a decade. That was a dramatic increase of 45% from the year prior. Nearly 2,000 deaths resulted from floor-related injuries in the home in 2022. That’s more than double the deaths caused by anything else in the home. A sampling of injury reports ma
Popular Mechanics •

This Is the Perfect Size Table for Your Jigsaw Puzzle, According to Math

• A fun, delightfully short paper shows us the math of how much space a jigsaw puzzle takes up. • The answer relies on how circles “pack” into a space, which is a major topic in physics research. • Representing pieces of the jigsaw puzzle as circles reflects how people lay pieces out and manipulate them. In new research posted last month to the ArXiV preprint server (meaning the work has not yet been peer-reviewed) biophysics researcher Madeleine Bonsma-Fisher, Ph.D., and her family explore a
Popular Mechanics •

What Went Wrong With Alaska Airlines Flight 1282’s Door Plug?

Gear-obsessed editors choose every product we review. We may earn commission if you buy from a link. Why Trust Us? • A climbing Alaska Airlines flight depressurized at 16,000 feet. Thankfully, no one was seriously injured. • The Boeing 737 MAX 9 used a door plug to fill an unneeded emergency exit; this is what blew out. • Inspectors don’t yet know what happened to the four bolts that hold the door plug. Since Saturday, an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9 has riveted the nation after a small par
Popular Mechanics •

Baking in Space Will Pose a Major Challenge

Here on Earth, preparing food is a universal activity. We do it every day, or pay for food that others have prepared. But preparing food in space presents unique challenges at almost every turn. American astronauts eat a combination of rehydrated freeze dried foods, traditional dried foods like jerky and fruit, and some foods that come in carefully prepared envelopes. There are also some foods that can occasionally be sent fresh, like garlic and onions. But will it ever be possible to bake in s
Popular Mechanics •

Hyperrealistic Cakes, With Regular Hardware Store Stuff

Hyperrealistic cakes (like the one pictured above) have been all the rage the last few years, from massively popular TikTok and Instagram accounts to Netflix’s 2022 competition show Is It Cake? The skilled and patient people who create these sweet treats strive for them to look just like everyday objects. But you may not know that many of the tools of the realistic cake trade (and of cake decorating, in general) aren’t from a fancy specialty shop—they’re from your local hardware store. With tha
Popular Mechanics •

Cooking the Burgess Shale with Mythical Kitchen

The in Victoria, British Columbia, is one of history’s most iconic fossil sites, bringing together a large collection of creatures from the Cambrian Period, 500 million years ago and an entire evolutionary world away. Charles Doolittle Walcott, a paleontologist and then-leader of the Smithsonian, discovered the fossils while on an expedition with his family. (During his life, he also started a catastrophic beef with the Wright brothers. I couldn’t believe the same guy did both things.) These cr