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The complicated, century-long relationship between swimming pools and chlorine

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San Simeon Hearst Castle Neptune Pool

Even new-fangled salt water systems can't quit chlorination.

Pool owners may think they’re eschewing chlorine in favor of so-called saltwater systems. But no one can escape this omnipresent chemical cleaner.

Old footage of sports events can help scientists track climate change

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Cycling videos of the Tour of Flanders show how trees are responding to warmer weather.

Scientists are using media coverage of annual sporting events to document climate change.

The weirdest things we learned this week: artistic farts, meat lozenges, and Tesla's beloved pigeon

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a white pigeon

Our editors scrounged up some truly bizarre facts.

What’s the weirdest thing you learned this week? Well, whatever it is, we promise you’ll have an even weirder answer if you listen to PopSci’s newest podcast.

Why websites still break at the worst possible times

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dog

Even the mighty Amazon isn't immune from system failures.

This is why even big companies like Amazon still sometimes have issues with their websites.

The tanning bed in your gym is worrying dermatologists

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man lying in tanning bed

How healthy is that ‘healthy glow’?

Gyms across the country include tanning beds among their offerings. A new paper is the first to look specifically at gym users who tan, finding that they’re part of a…

'Glider trucks' are pollution machines, but they might roll past EPA regulations

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semi truck

Old, inefficient engines inside new frames have been sneaking through a regulatory loophole that the EPA was supposed to be closing.

Leading up to the Trump administration, the Environmental Protection Agency had been on track to regulate a group of highly polluting freight trucks called gliders or…

Cool your home without air conditioning

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air conditioners

Strategies for chilling out.

Air conditioning makes your home much more comfortable during the summer. But you can do a lot to drive down the temperature before you flip on the AC.

Rising sea levels are going to mess with the internet, sooner than you think

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a mess of fiber optic cables

Connectivity issues could get much worse.

Snaking beneath roads and strung across oceans, hundreds of thousands of miles of cables and their connections make up the backbone of the internet. Despite its…

A realistic guide to the current crop of tech rumors

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Tech rumor roundup

Catch up on all the technology gossip without all the hype.

Keep it real with your tech rumors.

Sleep trackers probably won’t help you sleep any better

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We know how sleep cycles work, but we don’t know what a normal one is or how to alter it.

Aside from keeping count of the number of hours we get each night, sleep researchers say sleep monitors are cool to look at, but don’t provide any valuable data to…

Why this algebra teacher has her students knit in class

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Knitting isn’t just for passing time.

I decided to offer a class called “The Mathematics of Knitting” at my institution, Carthage College. In it, I chose to eliminate pencil, paper, calculator (gasp) and…

China's super-sized space plans may involve help from Russia

Geologists think there could be a quadrillion tons of diamonds inside our planet

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diamonds on black background

But we’ll never get them out of the ground.

In a new paper published this week, an international team of researchers estimates that about 1 to 2 percent of the Earth’s cratonic roots are made of diamond. That…

Termites are nature’s most amazing skyscraper engineers

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circulating termite hill microbiome

Their towers even have central air.

Some termites build towers that put our biggest feats of engineering to shame, with internal structures that act as an extension of their own bodies.

It's surprisingly easy for your headphones to damage your hearing

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man with headphones

Here's how to check.

When the world gets too distracting, you crank up the volume on your headphones. But if you blast your music too loudly, you may permanently damage your hearing.

The truth behind 8 common misconceptions about drugs

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concert rave drugs

Your spine doesn't store LSD, and MDMA doesn’t put holes in your brain.

Drugs, especially illegal ones, are notorious for their misinformation. Without a reliable knowledge base, users—from recreational ones to addicts—often rely on friends,…

Five rad and random things I found this week

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The end-of-week dispatch from PopSci's commerce editor. Vol. 50.

My job is to find cool stuff. Throughout the week I spend hours scouring the web for things that are ingenious or clever or ridiculously cheap.

This textile's twitching tendrils hint at a future of programmable materials

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Laminated material environmentally responsive textile design

Responsive environments. No robots needed.

The Active Textile is the largest prototype in a new class of responsive materials developed by MIT’s Self-Assembly Lab in collaboration with Designtex and Steelcase.

Here’s what you can do if your social media post gets taken down

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Statue butt

You can appeal when your social media content gets taken down, but you need to know where to look.

If you think your social media post shouldn't have been removed, you have options.

Neptune, Titan, Jupiter, and Pluto look gorgeous in these new photos

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A good week for space photography

Astronomers released some incredible images of our Solar System this week—let’s take a peek at some of the highlights.
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