I call shotgun!” has long been a typical battle cry when piling into a car. The term predates automobiles entirely, harkening back to the Wild West when the passenger sitting next to a stagecoach driver would carry a very literal shotgun. These days, there’s still a certain cachet to sitting next to the driver, even if the position no longer requires firearms.

If safety is your primary concern, however, you might want to reconsider calling “shotgun.” Being driver-side can come with real risks in an emergency situation, which begs the question: Which car seat is safest? Where your buckled can potentially save your life, although it’s far from the only factor.

A car’s safest seat “also depends on the vehicle that you’re in,” says Byron Bloch, an auto safety expert and advocate. The nature of a crash also plays a role. “Is it a rollover accident? Is it a side impact? Is it a front impact?”

Here’s what you need to know about how to pick the safest vehicle and where to sit in it. 

“As a preface, there is no universal safest seating position that applies to every car, minivan, SUV, and pickup truck,” Bloch explains. That being said, there’s strong statistical evidence that one seat has a slight edge above the rest. “The rear seat middle position would be the safest because you’re furthest away from side impact intrusion or penetration.”

According to one study that analyzed every fatal crash in the United States between 2000 and 2003, the chance of survival in the rear middle seat is on average 25 percent higher than in other positions in the car. 

The data becomes even more convincing when you look at younger passengers. It’s common knowledge that you should never, ever let a child sit in the front seat. In fact, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends waiting until kids are 13 to let them ride shotgun (no matter how much they beg to do so sooner). That’s because airbags are calibrated to adult bodies weighing around 150 pounds. Children’s bones are softer and can easily crack when hit with an airbag deployed at 200 miles an hour. 

But it’s not enough just to put a small child in the backseat. Another study, based on car insurance claims from December 1, 1998, to December 31, 2006, found that children ages three and under had a 43 percent lower risk of injury if they sat in the rear middle as opposed to the sides. In short, if you’re traveling with a little passenger, make sure to put them in your car’s safest seat: the rear middle.

Choosing where to sit can have a real effect, but Bloch cautions that it’s more important to pick the safest possible vehicle. After studying the issues and fighting for safer automobiles for roughly 50 years, he understands the pitfalls.

“You might reasonably assume that each automaker produces a vehicle that’s pretty comparable to others in terms of safety,” Bloch says. “But there are major differences, because the federal motor vehicle safety standards are only minimum requirements. So as long as you do the minimum, you can still sell your vehicle in America.” 

Oftentimes, the minimum isn’t enough, which is why it’s so important to ask the right questions at the car dealership. For starters, make sure that side curtain airbags protect every seat. Unlike front airbags, the risk of injury to kids is pretty minor from these side airbags, as long as they’re in carseats or buckled up.

“Some vehicles will have them for the driver’s row,” Bloch says, but not all. “And then there’s two rows behind them in an SUV. You have to make sure that the side curtain airbags protect all passengers in all rows.” 

Another feature you want is laminated glass. Unlike tempered glass, which shatters easily, laminated glass is made of two thick pieces of glass sandwiching a type of durable resin called polyvinyl butyral (PVB) and is much more likely to hold together during impact. Laminated glass was first used for windshields in 1927. It continues to be the standard for the front windshield, but because it’s costlier to use, many car manufacturers use tempered glass for the side windows. 

“You want all of the side windows and the sunroof to be laminated glass,” Bloch says. “Because the tempered glass immediately shatters out into thousands of little pebbles of glass.”

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Finally, you want to make sure that your car has a roof sturdy enough not to crumple in a rollover accident. “Whatever the type of vehicle you want, ask the [car dealer], ‘What is the strength-to-weight ratio of the roof of this vehicle that you want me to buy and risk my family’s life [in]?’” Bloch says. 

You’ll find cars on the market with a strength-to-weigh ratio of 2.5, but you’re looking for 4.0 or higher. That tells you that the roof can withstand four times the weight of the vehicle before it crushes down five inches. As long as all passengers are securely buckled, that dramatically ups the odds of survival in a rollover crash.

“Vehicles that have the safer, stronger roofs are basically at least 4.0, some are even 5.0 or higher,” Bloch says. “That tells you that the manufacturer cares about your safety if there should be an accident.”

In short, it pays to be smart when it comes to choosing which vehicle to drive and where to place your passengers. Aim to buy the safest car you can and make sure you keep kids or more vulnerable passengers in the rear middle seat. 

This story is part of Popular Science’s Ask Us Anything series, where we answer your most outlandish, mind-burning questions, from the ordinary to the off-the-wall. Have something you’ve always wanted to know? Ask us.

The post What’s really the safest seat in a car? An auto expert weighs in. appeared first on Popular Science.

Amtrak’s Keystone Service could lose over $71 million in payments from the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) due to that agency’s significant budget gap, a move that could “severely impact” Amtrak operations on one of the nation’s most popular intercity rail lines.

According to an article by Peter Hall in the Pennsylvania Capital-Star, U.S. Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-2nd District) said the cuts to SEPTA commuter rail lines and funding could lead to the closure of the line and impacts on other Northeast Corridor services. “The train makes 13 daily round trips between Harrisburg and New York with stops in Lancaster, and several smaller communities in southcentral and southeastern Pennsylvania, in addition to Philadelphia. The trains, which are primarily funded by PennDOT, carried 1.27 million passengers last year, according to Amtrak.”

This reveals the rippling impacts of cuts to transit funding and service. An Amtrak spokesperson said “This could lead to a deterioration in infrastructure condition and authorized train operating speeds, negatively impacting Amtrak-operated, PennDOT-sponsored Keystone Service and Pennsylvanian service between Philadelphia, Harrisburg, and Pittsburgh, as well as Northeast Corridor services.”

• Philadelphia
• New York City
• Public Transit
• SEPTA
• Amtrak
• Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority
• Intercity Rail
• Trains
• Northeast Corridor

The New York City Council approved the Midtown South Mixed-Use Plan (MSMX), which rezones four areas amounting to 42 square blocks of Manhattan to allow for residential and mixed-use development that could yield over 9,500 new housing units in neighborhoods that contain some major job centers but little housing.

As Cozen O’Connor explains in JD Supra, “The newly adopted zoning districts, together with the newly created Special Midtown South Mixed-Use District, will permit housing in an area with exceptional public transit access and job opportunities that has, for decades, generally prohibited housing development.” New developments will be required to include income-restricted units as 20 to 30 percent of a building’s floor area.

“The new Special District, which governs the four quadrants, allows floor area exemptions for the construction of public schools on qualifying sites, a floor area bonus for the provision of covered pedestrian spaces, and an extension of an existing floor area bonus for mass transit station improvements.” The plan also includes $120 million in investments in the garment and fashion industries and “more than $325 million in investments to transform Broadway between 21st and 42nd Streets into a fully pedestrianized, park-like promenade.”

• New York City
• Zoning
• Zoning Reform
• Manhattan
• Housing Supply
• Density
• Mixed-Use Development

It’s an archeological mystery 65 years in the making. In 1960, a villager was exploiting Petralona Cave about 22 miles southeast of Thessaloniki, Greece. Eventually, the villager spotted something unexpected—the nearly complete cranium of an unknown, ancient hominin protruding from a small chamber’s interior wall.

Although covered in calcite and missing its lower jaw, the Petralona skull has fascinated paleoarchaeologists since its discovery decades ago. The remains don’t match the anatomy of a Neanderthal or modern human, and even after decades of research, its exact place within the Homo genus remains unknown. Additionally, the environment in which the villager discovered the cranium has hindered efforts to date the skull, with previous studies estimating that the specimen is anywhere between 170,000 and 700,000 years old. Now, with advanced isotopic analysis, a team led by France’s Institut de Paléontologie Humaine has confidently established that our mysterious evolutionary relative is 286,000 years old  at minimum.

The team’s findings published in the Journal of Human Evolution come from a technique called U-series dating. The process leverages the natural properties of uranium isotopes, including the precise half-life at which it breaks down into thorium. Comparing the ratio of uranium to thorium on the cranium’s calcite allowed the study’s authors to at least pinpoint when the isotopic decay began.

U-series dating isn’t possible for artifacts excavated from soil deposits because dirt is constantly adding uranium isotopes from decaying debris, erosion mixtures, and other factors. But a cave is a different situation—it loses its water-soluble minerals (and uranium) as moisture moves through the damp environment. However, any thorium present in the cave stays in place. And if that cave wall moisture eventually evaporates, all that’s left are residual layers of trace minerals and uranium isotopes, sans previously created thorium. The result is a closed environment that allows uranium isotopes to continue decaying into new thorium. This means that experts can pinpoint clear start dates for each layer of encrustation.

Researchers collected samples from the Petralona skull’s calcite coating and from various locations throughout the cave. Subsequent U-series testing finally shows that the cranium is at least 286,000 years’ old, give or take about 9,000 years. Compared with the additional sample dating, the team now believes the skull is likely 277,000 to 539,000 years old if sediment formed around it, or 410,000 to 277,000 if it was deposited there.

It remains to be seen if the Petralona skull will ever be linked to a clear hominin ancestor. That said, the narrower age range makes one thing clear:whoever they were, they likely lived alongside the evolving Neanderthal lineages of Europe’s Middle Pleistocene.

The post Hominin skull discovered in 1960 finally gets an accurate age appeared first on Popular Science.

A completely new supernova variant finally shows a glimpse of a star’s innermost “guts” moments before its destruction. Detailed in a study published August 20 in the journal Nature, their study confirms a longstanding theory about the internal structure of massive stellar objects, and kicks off a host of new questions.

Astronomers have long posited that a star’s innards aren’t simply a chaotic, roiling ocean of superheated plasma. Instead, they believe they possess layers of chaotic, roiling superheated plasma. In massive stars (those 10 to 100 times larger than the sun) nuclear fusion forces lighter elements in a stellar core to combine into heavier relatives. Over eons, these increasingly dense elements burn away within the core as lighter elements incinerate across successive, encompassing layers. This ultimately results in an incomprehensibly heavy iron core that, once collapsed, initiates a supernova or black hole event.

Previously, researchers have documented examples of stripped stars that already lost their helium, exposing stratified, elemental encasements of helium, carbon, and even oxygen. This is usually where such glimpses always ended–until the discovery of SN2021yfj.

In 2021, a team led by astrophysicists at Northwestern University utilized the wide-field camera array at the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) near San Diego to scour the evening skies. ZTF’s equipment is particularly designed to spot bright, short-lived events like supernovae. In September 2021, researchers noticed just such an occurrence roughly 2.2 billion light-years away. After some assistance from a collaborator at the W.M. Keck Observatory in Hawai’i, they then proceeded to conduct a spectrographic analysis of their supernova discovery, SN2021yfj.

“Almost instantly, we realized it was something we had never seen before, so we needed to study it with all available resources,” study co-author and Northwestern University astrophysicist Steve Schulze said in a statement.

Schulze and colleagues didn’t find the elements they expected (helium, carbon, nitrogen, or oxygen). Instead, their spectrum analysis displayed huge amounts of silicon, sulfur, and argon. These are all heavier elements produced during stellar nuclear fusion near the end of a star’s lifespan.

“This star lost most of the material that it produced throughout its lifetime,” explained Schulze. “So, we could only see the material formed during the months right before its explosion. Something very violent must have happened to cause that.”

That violent something is still a mystery, although researchers have a theory. This gigantic star had literally ripped itself apart from the inside, revealing a cosmic body “stripped to the bone,” according to Schulze.

The team believes that as the core condensed under its own gravitational strength, it became an even denser inferno. At a certain point, it became so hot and dense that it actually reignited a nuclear fusion process so powerful that it generated a huge energy burst. This, in turn, flung away the star’s outer layers. Each subsequent “pair-instability episode” then shed additional elemental layers.

“One of the most recent shell ejections collided with a pre-existing shell, which produced the brilliant emission that we saw as SN2021yfj,” Schulze theorized.

However, he stopped short of saying this was the star’s definitive cause-of-death. Other possibilities include a pre-supernova eruption, especially strong stellar winds, or even a run-in with an unknown companion star.

“I wouldn’t bet my life that it’s correct, because we still only have one discovered example,” said Schulze. “This star really underscores the need to uncover more of these rare supernovae to better understand their nature and how they form.”

But according to study co-author Adam Miller, the discovery doesn’t mean he and other astrophysicists need to forget everything they know about star life cycles.

“It’s not that our textbooks are incorrect, but they clearly do not fully capture everything produced in nature,” he said. “There must be more exotic pathways for a massive star to end its life that we [haven’t] considered.”

The post Violent supernova spilled a star’s ‘guts’ before exploding appeared first on Popular Science.

Most of the time, feet are easy to forget. Hidden away in socks and shoes, and all the way at the bottom of our bodies, you’d be forgiven for not thinking about them much at all. But stumble into a particular zone of the online wellness sphere, and feet are the focus. Influencers frequently recommend toe spacers (or separators) to fix all sorts of problems, from bunions and blisters to back aches and poor athletic form. Can one small piece of silicone really have so many benefits?

Toe spacers aren’t a sure fix for all, but—for many people experiencing foot pain—experts suggest they may be worth a try.

Walk around barefoot and you might notice that your toes spread and flex as you walk. But we spend our lives in shoes, and shoes don’t allow for the same level of movement. Over time, that restriction (especially with pointed, stiff, or narrow shoes) can cause feet to shapeshift. Toes may start rubbing together or overlapping, and the muscles that barefoot walking would normally engage, weaken. “Shoes have been the downfall of foot strength,” Jay Spector, a podiatrist and fellow of the American Academy of Podiatric Sports Medicine, tells Popular Science. 

In addition to overall weakening, shoes can trigger other issues. Improper footwear may cause or exacerbate bunions, protrusions of the big toe knuckles. Bunions can, in turn, lead to painful blisters or corns where squished toes rub against each other or a shoe, Grace Torres-Hodges, a podiatrist and foot surgeon tells Popular Science. The wrong shoes can even cause biomechanical issues like back pain and unstable gait. And there’s a longstanding debate in shoe design over what sneaker features best prevent athlete injuries.

Eschewing footwear entirely isn’t a practical response, given the necessary protection shoes provide our soles. Shoes are even important for disease prevention. But Spector and Torres-Hodges say it’s worth taking steps to strengthen and stretch our under-utilized feet—especially if you’re experiencing foot-related discomfort like hammer toe, arch pain, bunions, blisters, or plantar fasciitis. Both commonly recommend soft, silicone toe spacers (in addition to other interventions, like exercises, toe socks, and more forgiving shoes) to a subset of their patients. 

In Torres-Hodges’ view, toe spacers can be helpful but they aren’t a fix-all. She says they’re most useful as a short-term fix for the friction between toes that causes blisters, corns, and unpleasant pressure, or as a way to retrain and re-align feet pre- and post-bunion surgery. 

Spacers (alongside foot strengthening and avoiding restrictive shoes in the first place) can help prevent bunions from worsening or appearing in the first place, but Torres-Hodges is careful to emphasize that spacers don’t treat problematic bunions once they’ve developed. “They will not correct the deformity,” she says. They can help alleviate symptoms if paired with a proper exercise regimen. Even then, many severe bunion cases may require surgery.

If you have uncomfortable corns or blisters between toes, spacers can offer some immediate relief, even if they aren’t proven to correct the root cause. The passive stretch from spacers can also lengthen ligaments and engage foot muscles, Torres-Hodges says. She further notes some of her patients using spacers describe improvements in their balance and ability to detect and respond to uneven ground. She’s also open to the idea that spacers might even be able to help with knee, hip, or back pain. 

The foot is the foundation of the body when standing, and “if your foundation is strong” then better bodily alignment is likely to follow, she explains. Yet Torres-Hodges also notes there’s little published research to support the theory.

Indeed very few studies assess the effects of long-term spacer use. Those that do have found mixed results. One 2024 study of the short-term effects of toe spacers on balance and ankle movement in healthy people found no impact. Whereas a prior study of people with gait imbalances did find that spacers help correct walking and improve stability and other research of stroke patients found similar benefits. It’s possible toe separators are useful for those with diagnosed walking difficulties, but less so for those with healthy strides. 

For his part, Spector is enthusiastic about spacers. As a marathoner and running coach, he considers foot strength frequently from an athlete’s perspective. At the high performance level, every little bit matters to push someone’s speed over the edge and to minimize risk of injury. In his view, toe spacers can strengthen feet and correct toe alignment by engaging a set of foot muscles most people don’t use often.

Wearing spacers activates the muscles and ligaments that enable lateral toe movement, allow for toe spread, and ideally keep the big toe pointed forward. Walking, running, or otherwise training with those muscles engaged makes them stronger, he says. “If the foot is stronger, theoretically you’re going to perform better in any kind of running sport,” he notes. However, again, there’s very little research out there on how spacers affect foot strength and athletic performance. There’s not enough science yet to say if using spacers regularly or running with them will improve your form. 

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At least one study has shown toe spacers can shift lower leg muscle activation—potentially helping prevent or mitigate injury. And a handful of studies have indicated that combining spacers with foot exercise routines can boost foot strength and flexibility. Though, it’s worth noting the primary author of the largest review study summarizing those findings is affiliated with a shoe company that sells spacers.  

“The jury is still out,” Torres-Hodges says, on whether or not passive toe stretching with spacers alone really boosts foot strength. The best results seem to come from using spacers alongside practicing intentional foot maneuvers, like toe lifts and grasping objects with your feet. 

What is clear is that foot strength is important. Studies routinely indicate that better foot strength can reduce injury for everyone and fall risk in older adults.

Outside of those with particular foot problems like bunions and gait abnormalities, there’s been relatively little scientific research into the long-term effects of wearing toe spacers. Both Spector and Torres-Hodges warn that those with neuropathy or who otherwise lack sensation in their feet should not use spacers, because of the risk of friction injuries, blisters, ulcers, and infection. But there’s little reason to expect they’re harmful for most healthy people. 

As with most wellness trends though, there are disparate opinions about just how impactful a single intervention can be. Torres-Hodges says toe spacers aren’t necessary for everybody. “In general, the feet are really very resilient on their own. I’m a big believer you don’t fix what ain’t broke,” she explains. While Spector suggests most, if not all, people could benefit from the muscle activation separators provide. He also recommends regular toe exercises, or “toe yoga” as he calls it, and barefoot running (on safe surfaces, like a grassy field or a sandy beach—initially for short periods of time) to build foot strength.

Yet unlike so many of suggestions from TikTok influencers, silicone toe spacers are relatively affordable and easily purchased at most drug stores. They’re also washable and reusable. If you’re suffering from foot pain, a plateau in your running gains, or even just looking to get in a good stretch, toe spacers may be worth a try, says Torres-Hodges. If you intend to try them out, start slowly—a few minutes at a time—and make sure, if you wear them with shoes, your footwear is wide enough to accommodate the spread without discomfort. It’s possible you might feel a difference, just don’t expect them to be a podiatry panacea. 

This story is part of Popular Science’s Ask Us Anything series, where we answer your most outlandish, mind-burning questions, from the ordinary to the off-the-wall. Have something you’ve always wanted to know? Ask us.

The post Can toe spacers actually help your feet? It could be worth a try. appeared first on Popular Science.

Hot off of a whopping Martian meteorite auction earlier this summer, a dire wolf skull, fossilized cave bear, T. rex bones, and more are headed to the auction block next week. Heritage Auctions’ Nature & Science Signature® Natural History Auction is scheduled for Friday, August 29 at 11 am CDT.

“We are proud to present this auction of amazing specimens, including real-life ‘monsters’—at least in fossil form—and meteorites that span the farthest reaches of outer space,” Craig Kissick, Vice President of Nature & Science for Heritage Auctions, said in a statement. “Not to mention an array of colorful gemstones, collectible gold specimens, and rare scientific memorabilia not to be missed. We have literally crossed the boundaries of space and time to bring together this collection of items representing the best in quality of many different varieties.”

Cave bears (Ursus spelaeus) stomped through present day Europe during the Pleistocene Epoch, about 2.6 million to 11,700 years ago. Scientists have unearthed the skulls of more than 100,000 cave bears in European cave deposits, and the one up for sale was found in present day Romania. The fossilized skeleton that is up for auction clocks in at eight-feet-tall.

Also up for auction is a complete upper skull of a dire wolf (Aenocyon dirus). Dire wolves also lived during the Pleistocene, roaming North and South America with their achy joints. Numerous dire wolf fossils have been found in the famed La Brea Tar Pits outside of Los Angeles, California. The specimen that’s up for auction also has a cast mandible (or jaw bone) to complete the skull.

In addition to the dire wolf skull, a mosasaur skull belonging to the extinct apex predator lizard Tylosaurus proriger is also up for bid. Tylosaurus proriger was a fearsome predator that stalked the seas of the Late Cretaceous period 66 to 92 million years ago. The skull up for auction has a near complete set of cone-shaped teeth. 

A giant woolly mammoth tusk; iridescent ammonite fossil that shimmers with green, gold, blue, and purple; a colorful and petrified conifer slab; and more are also up for bid.

The post Dire wolf skull could fetch over $30,000 at auction appeared first on Popular Science.

Tattoos, as anyone’s concerned parents have reminded them, are notoriously permanent. But even ink needled under the surface of the skin can’t withstand time’s inescapable weathering. Untreated dead bodies eventually decay, and skin dotted with panels of stark-lined tigers or delicate wildflowers eventually break down to nothing more than the soil around it.

A father and son team of morticians are trying to break that natural cycle using a secretive formula, preservative chemicals, and a taxidermist’s eye.  

The duo operates the Ohio-based company Save My Ink Forever, which removes a corpse’s tattooed skin, treats it, and then returns the tattooed skin to the deceased’s loved ones. The end product, which looks closer to aged parchment paper than a Cronenberg-style horror trinket, currently hangs behind framed, museum-quality glass in the homes of thousands of customers.

And while many, including some funeral homes responsible for removing the skin, might turn their noses up at the practice, founder Kyle Sherwood told Popular Science that he sees preserving tattooed flesh as no more off-putting than keeping a relative’s ashes in an urn. For customers, the framed skins serve as a visual reminder of the people they’ve lost and the physical art that came to define their identity. Sherwood, who has always had an artistic disposition but prioritized financial practicality, says preserving tattooed skin with dignity and respect for families has become his passion. 

“Embalming became my art form,” Sherwood said.

A post shared by Save My Ink Forever (@savemyink4ever)

A post shared by Save My Ink Forever (@savemyink4ever)

Sherwood founded Save My Ink Forever in 2017 with his father, Michael. Since then, the pair estimate they’ve preserved thousands of tattoos. Kyle says he came up with the concept while working at funeral homes and seeing families demand an increasing level of personalized options for the deceased. That trend coincided with a boom in tattoo adoption and acceptance. In 2023, Pew Research estimated nearly a third of US adults and 46 percent of millennials have at least one tattoo.

It took some persuading, but Kyle says he convinced his father of an untapped market bridging the gap between tattoo collectors and funeral home services. But he also had to prove that his tattoo preservation process would actually work. Rather than starting with skin from the deceased, Sherwood says they conducted early tests using excess skin from tummy tuck surgeries. Volunteers willingly tattooed themselves before the procedure, agreeing to donate their removed skin afterwards for testing. It worked. 

Today, nearly a decade later, Save My Ink is still the only major company offering the service. Legally, Sherwood says they are able to operate in every state except Washington. They’ve also worked with funeral homes in the United Kingdom and Canada.

A post shared by Save My Ink Forever (@savemyink4ever)

The process for requesting tattoo flesh preservation can begin before death or up to 72 hours after someone’s death. The person making the request—often the tattooed individual’s partner or next of kin—works with a local funeral home, which acts as a kind of middle-man between the family and Save My Ink. After signing an authorization form, the Sherwoods send the funeral home an instructional video with a step-by-step guide on how to properly extract the skin and store it for preservation. Most of the people asking for tattoos tend to ask for individual tattoos (which costs $1,699), though the company will do entire arms and legs sleeves and even body suits—a pricey endeavor that can cost $100,000. Tattoos located on the tops of hands and feet tend to preserve the best, Sherwood added. 

[Related: Where does tattoo ink go in your body? There’s one particular spot.]

The funeral home then ships the skin to Save My Ink in a dry preservative (Sherwood notes that the exact chemical formula is a trade secret), and it typically arrives within a few days. Save My Ink delivers the final product, encased in glass, to the family, usually within three months.

Sherwood says they’ve had to set some boundaries in recent years. Save My Ink won’t preserve genital or facial tattoos. They also refuse requests to turn skin into lampshades or other trinkets—something people have asked about in the past. But that doesn’t mean they’re unwilling to consider all unusual requests. Sherwood told Popular Science that they have preserved tattoos from living people who lost significant amounts of weight, as well as those who underwent gender reassignment surgery. They’re also happy to preserve tattoos from amputated limbs as well as certain meaningful scars.

A post shared by Save My Ink Forever (@savemyink4ever)

Of course, the business isn’t without its detractors. Many people still recoil at the idea of hanging grandpa’s preserved flesh on the wall. Some funeral homes—particularly those with more traditional religious values—also aren’t on board and have refused to extract the skin, Sherwood said. While he acknowledges that the process isn’t for everyone, Sherwood still believes funeral homes should be willing to honor a family’s wishes.

“Most funeral homes and people in it are stuck in their ways,” Sherwood said. Ensuring business success moving forward, he added, means being willing to “adapt or die.” 

Save My Ink might not have much company in the commercial tattoo preservation space, but the practice itself isn’t new. A handful of museums around the world, like the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle in France and the Instituto Nacional de Medicina Legal e Ciências Forenses in Portugal, maintain collections of tattooed skin. In these cases, the skin was preserved less for the artistic value and more as medical or anthropological specimens. The Wellcome Collection at London’s Science Museum is considered the largest repository of preserved tattooed skin, with over 300 individual fragments. That collection, which has faced some criticism regarding the historical ethical sourcing of its specimens, includes tattooed skin from arms, legs, and even entire skulls.

[Related: Inside the warehouse that builds machines to liquify dead bodies]

The Wellcome Collection did not respond to Popular Science’s request for comment. 

Another large collection of tattooed skin resides in the Medical Pathology Museum at the University of Tokyo. Primarily extracted from deceased yakuza members, the skins were first collected by Japanese medical doctor Masaichi Fukushi. As detailed in the 2013 book Wear Your Dreams: My Life in Tattoos, Fukushi began the collection while studying the effects of syphilis on human skin. He reportedly sought out tattooed specimens because the color and texture variations made it easier to track pigment movement. During his research though, Fukushi discovered that tattooed skin appeared to resist the damage and lesions typically associated with syphilis, particularly in areas with prominent ink. Some of his preserved skins were even featured in a 1950s edition of Life magazine.

A post shared by History Everyday (@historyfromeveryday)

When asked about the museum’s collections, Sherwood said he was considering taking on his own curatorial role but with an emphasis on showcasing the artistry behind tattoos. He envisioned a future in which customers who preserved tattooed skin could agree to loan it for display  on a limited time basis. Sherwood compared some tattoo artists to “modern-day van Goghs and Rembrandts.” But unlike their oil-painting forebears, tattoo artists’ creations die alongside them, their only traces scattered across photographs or old social media posts.

Fittingly, Sherwood has already chosen one of his own tattoos to preserve. On one of his legs are images of three “trocars”—medicinal instruments shaped like large pencils that are a staple in a mortician’s toolbox. The three represent the generations of morticians from which Sherwood descends. One day, that preserved skin might even appear behind glass in Sherwood’s future collection for the world to see. 

The post Father-son morticians turn tattoos into wall art appeared first on Popular Science.

At 62 years old, a fish nicknamed “Mary Catherine” was swimming through Lake Superior during some big events. The lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush) was born when President John F. Kennedy was in office, when the “gales of November came early” sinking the SS Edmund Fitzgerald, and lived through 15 Summer Olympics. Mary Catherine is believed to be the oldest-known specimen of her species ever caught in the Great Lakes. 

A team from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) caught the trout in Klondike Reef towards Lake Superior’s southeastern side in the fall of 2023. At just under five pounds and about two-feet-long, the specimen wouldn’t have won any fishing tournaments, but her age made her stand out.

Determining the age of a fish is similar to how we determine the age of a tree. Scientists use a structure inside the ear called the otolith, or ear stone. The ear stone grows throughout the years of a fish’s life, so scientists can count the rings to identify its age. 

“Otoliths are used to assess the age of many other species of fish,” the Michigan DNR wrote in a social media post. “They tend to be used for long-lived fishes such as lake trout, lake whitefish and cisco, whereas for shorter lived fishes, fin spines and scales are used to count annual rings for species such as walleye, yellow perch, steelhead, and salmon.”

From time to time, they take fish specimens in order to track population health. According to the Michigan DNR, finding such an old fish indicates that the lake trout in Lake Superior are doing okay. Lake trout are adapted to live in “unproductive ecosystems,” which gives them the opportunity to have a slow and steady approach to life and live long. They don’t have to hatch, migrate, spawn, and die all in only a few years the way that other fish like salmon do. 

Mary Catherine is a humper lake trout, a subspecies of trout that is usually found in offshore lake mounts in Lake Superior. Lake Superior’s average annual surface temperature of 40 degrees Fahrenheit and depth of 483 feet makes it a low productivity ecosystem. Mary Catherine living such a long life in those conditions is a good sign for lake trout living in the largest of the Great Lakes and their ability to adapt.

Lake trout in Lake Superior are believed to live about 25 to 30 years. The Michigan DNR says that the oldest trout reported in Lake Superior was estimated to be about 42 years old. The name “Mary Catherine” is an homage to her birth year. Mary was the most popular name for baby girls in 1961, followed by Lisa, Susan, Linda, and Karen.

The post Meet Mary Catherine, the Great Lakes’ oldest-known trout appeared first on Popular Science.

While sexual reversal, genetic gambling, or evolving to reproduce later into life make the animal kingdom incredibly resilient, it’s difficult to outrun inbreeding. Or out-slither it, in the case of the only rattlesnake species found in the state of Michigan. 

A 15-year study found that farms, buildings, and roads are making it difficult for the Eastern Massasauga rattlesnake (Sistrurus catenatus) to find a mate. The most inbred snakes had some serious problems not only producing viable offspring, but in simply surviving year-to-year.. The findings are detailed in a study published August 18 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

“These are fairly large and stable populations of Eastern Massasaugas,” study co-author and Michigan State University conservation biologist Sarah Fitzpatrick said in a statement. “The fact that we’re detecting problems from inbreeding in these populations is concerning, given that many other populations throughout the Midwest are much smaller and even more fragmented.”

As venomous snakes, Eastern Massasauga rattlesnakes aren’t necessarily the most popular animal. Yet the reptiles are a keystone species of wetland food webs throughout the Midwest. The snakes hunt mice and rats that could run rampant in nearby homes and barns if not kept in check. According to study co-author Meaghan Clark, if the rattlesnakes disappeared, the entire balance of the ecosystem would be disrupted.

These rattlesnakes are considered timid, and don’t stray too far from the wetlands where they were born. They will typically only wander to explore a nearby habitat and find a mate before they head home. However, increasing human development is likely keeping Eastern Massasaugas even more homebound. When it’s eventually time for the snakes to choose a mate, they are more likely to end up with a snake that is related to them instead of one from a distant population. 

[ Related: The last woolly mammoths were impressively inbred—but that’s not what killed them.  ]

“They’re very vulnerable to even minor disturbances to their habitat,” said Fitzpatrick. “Even a single road can isolate populations.” 

When animals reproduce with their relatives, it typically harms their babies’ fitness. In biology, “fitness” describes how successful an animal is at surviving, producing babies, and continuing on the species.  

Inbreeding can decrease fitness in what conservationists call inbreeding depression. However, it can be quite difficult to prove in wild populations, especially snakes with a venomous bite. 

In the study, Fitzpatrick’s lab joined forces with long-term snake monitoring projects, partnering with researchers at Grand Valley State University, West Virginia University, and the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. Every summer since 2009, scientists armed with snake tongs have trekked through wetlands to capture the elusive reptile. 

The team noted each snake’s length, weight, and pregnancy status. They also drew blood so that they could extract DNA and sequence their genomes. That genetic information helped them track how many babies were born and survive into adulthood, but also allowed the team to reconstruct pedigrees and determine how closely any two individual snakes were related. The team ultimately traced the family histories of over 1,000 Eastern Massasauga rattlesnakes.

Before being released into the wild, each snake was marked with a PIT tag, similar to a microchip that a pet might have. This tracking means that the team can track the snakes’ survival, based on whether they were recaptured.

They found that the most inbred snakes were 13 percent less likely to have surviving offspring and their annual survival rate was nearly 12 percent lower than the less inbred rattlesnakes. Numbers this high even surprised the researchers. 

“This long-term field monitoring is the backbone of the study,” Clark said. “Having people out each season catching these snakes made all of this possible.” 

The team hopes that this data informs conservation efforts that could help Eastern Massasaugas find mates outside their families. Some small changes, including road underpasses or habitat restoration in wetlands, could promote more connectivity between snakes that would boost the gene pool. Conservationists could also experiment with moving the reptiles to new habitats with more options for finding suitable rattlesnake mates. 

The post Michigan’s only rattlesnake is inbreeding appeared first on Popular Science.

It wasn’t quite the eureka moment a team of scientists in Japan had set out for. Leo Uesaka, a marine biologist at the University of Tokyo, planned to study how seabirds use their legs to take flight from the ocean surface. He secured matchbox-sized cameras to the undersides of 15 streaked shearwaters (Calonectris leucomelas), a Pacific Ocean petrel species, to observe their movements. The tiny, tail-facing cameras successfully recorded information on the birds’ legs. 

It just so happens that they also documented something else. “Unexpectedly, the footage captured many defecation events,” Uesaka tells Popular Science. 

In the course of their scientific investigation, Uesaka and his co-author collected nearly 200 instances of the shearwaters pooping. Initially, the researchers thought of it as a funny accidental side-effect. But then they noticed a curious pattern in the smelly snippets, with implications for avian and ecosystem health. The findings are reported in a study published August 18 in the journal Current Biology. 

In all 195 documented “excretion events,” only one shows a shearwater doing its business while sitting atop the water surface. In the remainder, all defecation occurred while flying, and usually within 30 seconds of lift-off. In 10 instances, birds took off, pooped, and then landed back on the water within the span of only one  minute, suggesting the whole purpose of the flight was to go to the bathroom. Taken together, the observations imply there is a strong reason shearwaters avoid pooping while floating. 

Shearwaters have narrow, long wings that make them great gliders over distances, Uesaka notes. However, the act of getting airborne takes quite a lot of effort, requiring them to flap their wings and run across the water’s surface simultaneously. It’s “comparable to a human’s sprinting,” he says. And shearwaters aren’t just hitting the head once or twice a day, but rather multiple times an hour. 

The average bird in the study pooped more than five times every 60 minutes, at regular intervals. Imagine breaking into a sprint every time you had to relieve yourself, and then doing it every four to 10 minutes– all day, every day. The behavior implies that the benefits of not pooping while floating outweigh these hefty costs. 

Clearly, something is motivating the shearwaters’ particular bathroom habits. The scientists aren’t exactly sure why the birds are so particular about pooping, but they have some ideas. First, it’s likely that defecating while taking off on a flight actually makes flying easier. 

[ Related: How pungent poop could help Antarctica’s penguins. ]

In addition to recording video, Uesaka and his co-author also collected droppings from captive birds to determine just how much poop they produce. Based on this data, the scientists estimate each bird releases about five percent of its bodyweight in excrement each hour– a substantial amount of weight. Dropping that biological cargo presumably lowers the energetic cost of the flapping  needed to take flight. 

This amount of poop also has ecological implications. Seabird droppings are a natural fertilizer. Many coastal and shoreline zones depend on a seasonal influx of the stuff. Uesaka’s new estimate of excretion mass per hour is much larger than previous assessments of seabird poop volume, based on land observations. This revised estimate of seabird excrement means that the animals are moving even more critical nutrients than previously thought. Having a better sense of when, where, how, and how much they defecate  could improve scientific understanding of ocean food webs and nutrient flows. 

But still, that doesn’t quite explain why the birds almost never seem to defecate while floating. Instead, Uesaka hypothesizes it could be a hygiene practice. Perhaps not pooping where you swim and forage helps to minimize infection risk. It may also aid the birds in avoiding predators, as a cloud of fresh waste might tip off hungry seals or sharks on the prowl. Defecating could also expose sensitive, internal cloacal tissue to saltwater– which might simply be unpleasant for the birds. 

Finally, flying probably makes pooping easier. Perhaps the act of flexing and bearing down to become airborne naturally eases the process of going #2 (and #1– birds poop and pee at the same time, through the same hole). Though, at nesting sites on land, Uesaka says the birds frequently do just defecate on the ground. 

To fully understand the exact forces at play behind the birds’ toilet time, more research is needed. Uesaka hopes to conduct follow-up spatial analyses and to repeat the experiment with other seabird species like albatross to determine how widespread the shearwaters’ poop patterns are.

In the meantime, the accidental defecation discovery goes to show that, “even something as unappealing as bird droppings can reveal surprising and interesting insights when studied closely,” Uesaka says. 

The post These seabirds poop on the fly (literally) appeared first on Popular Science.

Confession time: my hair care routine is mostly shampoo, conditioner, and hoping my follicles don’t unionize. But a scalp massage? That’s a luxury I will drop everything for. It’s relaxing, a little addictive, and—if the beauty blogs are to be believed—can make your hair look fuller and shinier. Right now, the Breo Scalp3 Scalp Massaging Brush is on sale at Amazon, which means your head can feel like it just spent the afternoon at a five-star spa without having to make small talk with a stylist.

Think of this as the Swiss Army knife of scalp care. Dry, itchy scalp? It’s got you. Want to distribute a fancy hair serum like you’re in a glossy shampoo commercial? It’s got a built-in basin for that. The bristles don’t just vibrate: They move in and out like tiny fingers determined to give a satisfying scritch. Three modes let you choose your vibe: a slow, soothing wind-down, a brisk “wake up” refresh, or a low-and-fast deep chill. You will have to clean the basin after use, but it’s small and manageable because a little bit of hair serum goes a long way. And if you click the product page coupon box or add code RELAXSCALP at checkout, depending on the colorway, you can get one for $30 – $40 less right now.

• Shark Hair Dryer | FlexStyle Hair Styling System, $269.99 (was $369.99)
• Shark Hair Dryer SpeedStyle RapidGloss Finisher and High-Velocity, Ionic Hair Blow Dryer $169 (was $229)
• YANIBEST Silk Bonnet for Sleeping, $9.99 (was $14.99)

The post Amazon has the Breo Scalp3 scalp massager for 22% off—your stressed-out scalp will thank you appeared first on Popular Science.