Popular Mechanics • February 26, 2024

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 • February 20, 2024

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

Stacker • August 1, 2022

From easy-open lids to magnetic button shirts: 10 examples of inclusive design

In this field, designers seek to include as many users as possible by making small changes that affect the accessibility of items or places.

Uppercut • July 8, 2022

Rogue Legacy 2 and CBT Have More in Common Than You’d Think

While Rogue Legacy 2 is much more difficult than the original, it’s also much more thoughtful and approachable — something I learned firsthand by learning to fly. All it took was a little bit of a running head start, and some realistic goal-setting.

Stacker • June 21, 2022

Smart devices that could improve the lives of people with disabilities

The category of adults with disabilities is varied and many individuals have needs that are unique to their lifestyle, age, and condition. But new smart devices are increasingly offering convenient solutions that can offer support for diverse needs.

Stacker • December 8, 2021

15 terms you might see when looking at your medical records and what they mean

A new U.S. federal policy requires medical providers to make your medical records easily available to you. Guava Health compiled a list of 15 terms that can show up on a patient’s medical records, defined what they mean, and explained what can be covered under those terms, using information from doctors, health journals, and other medical experts.

Newsweek • August 3, 2020

What You Need to Know About COVID-19 Testing

Answering key questions like who should get tested, where they can and should take the test, and why it takes so long to receive results in the United States.

Popular Mechanics • July 31, 2020

Hot New Medicine: This 1,000-Year-Old Mixture of Garlic, Onion, Wine, and Cow Bile

Scientists are studying a millennium-old medicinal recipe they say might be able to kill some antibiotic-resistant bacterial structures: onions, garlic, a splash of wine, and cow bile.

Popular Mechanics • May 4, 2020

Southwest CEO Says It's Safe to Fly Again. Our Math Says It Isn't.

I did the math, and to act like flying will feel fairly normal fairly fast is irresponsible. Real safety won't feel normal, and airlines owe the truth to the passengers they’re claiming they’re eager to accommodate.

Freethink • January 18, 2020

Customizing Medical Cannabis Treatments with CRISPR

How can we all have such different reactions? Is it accumulated tolerance, variations in strains of marijuana, or something else altogether?

Popular Mechanics • January 15, 2020

The Nasal Ranger: A Weed Farm's Worst Enemy

How does this device, which looks like a combination vape and bullhorn, help an investigator find the source of a smell? The Nasal Ranger is a field olfactometer, and it uses a method called dilution to threshold: stinky air is sealed and then diluted with purified air that has no odor particles.

Freethink • January 15, 2020

Does Playing Sports Quiet the Brain?

A new study shows that athletes in different sports are all better at quieting their brains and focusing on what's really going on. The researchers say this could even mean prescribing sports for people with audio processing disorders.

Popular Mechanics • January 14, 2020

This Machine Keeps Livers Alive for a Week Outside the Body

Scientists hope this machine can extend viability for all livers and model a solution for other organs. More importantly, the machine can let livers restore themselves to health after damaging car crashes and other injuries that would take the organs of the running for transplant.

Freethink • January 13, 2020

Unlocking the Mysteries of Muscles in Motion

Scientists in Japan have used kirigami-inspired technology to make a patch to measure muscle activity. The patch runs a test called surface electromyography (SEMG) — watching muscle activity from outside the body — which dates back to the 1920s but has been limited by clunky technology.

Popular Mechanics • January 9, 2020

Why Our Bodies Have Gotten Colder with Each Passing Decade

Using hundreds of thousands of reported temperatures from the last 150 years, scientists made a linear plot that shows our temperature has dropped 1/20th of a degree Fahrenheit per decade.

Popular Mechanics • January 3, 2020

AI Is Getting Better Than Humans at Catching Cancer

Artificial intelligence can diagnose breast cancer with greater accuracy than human radiologist, according to study published in Nature where Google Health programmers explained their findings and methods.

Popular Mechanics • December 24, 2019

Head Transplants Could Definitely Maybe Happen Next Decade

The bizarre fixation on head transplants has mostly been the stuff of immortality legend, but with this step into the realm of possibility, more mainstream doctors are finally joining the discussion.

Popular Mechanics • December 19, 2019

This 5,700-Year-Old Chewing Gum Contains a Complete Human Genome

Scientists have extracted and fully sequenced the genome of a human girl from a piece of chewing gum that’s 5,700 years old. The finding is the first ever complete genome from ancient times that wasn’t obtained from human bones.

Popular Mechanics • December 19, 2019

Here's Your New Pretend Toothpaste

New Atlas reports that a new contender has entered the “toothpaste capsule” space, with nearly identical ingredients to an existing product—and neither has cavity-fighting fluoride.

Popular Mechanics • December 13, 2019

Water Desalination Just Got a Lot Better

A mechanical engineer at Carnegie Mellon University has developed a new, micro-thin material to make membrane water desalination even better. Amir Barati Farimani, with fellow researchers Zhonglin Cao and Vincent Liu, has calculated how much better his metal organic framework (MOF) works than the traditional membrane method.