'Breather holes' in airplane windows help manage cabin pressure

Differences in air pressure above and below an airplane's wing allow it to fly

The bending of air around a surface causes it to flow more quickly, reducing the pressure exerted by the airflow. In a commercial airplane, the pressure difference between air diverted above the wing and air flowing undiverted below it creates enough lift to overcome gravity.

Airplane travels 14 hours with a hole in its side

Passengers traveling on an Emirates flight to Brisbane, Australia were stunned when they noticed a huge hole in the side of the aircraft while they were disembarking.

An artificial ‘lung’ protects the glass structures making up Biosphere 2

Although confined from much of the surrounding environment, B2 allows sunlight to enter, enabling its plants to engage in photosynthesis. Expansion chambers were built to protect the facility's integrity by managing changes in gas pressure resulting from temperature fluctuations.

Randomly boarding passengers onto a plane is often faster than using boarding groups

Although boarding back to front or windows to aisles appear to be sensible approaches to quickly filling a plane, these methods still suffer from passengers stowing away their luggage, which too often halts the boarding flow. Research has shown that the ideal process, called the Steffen method, optimized efficiency by allowing boarding to continue even while stowing is underway.

Aviation expert breaks down the safest seat on an airplane

The bottom line is air travel is very safe—much safer than road travel. But you can always up your chances. So, here's one expert's take on the safest seat on an airplane.

How black boxes made flying safe

Black boxes—which are actually orange—were not universally present in airplanes until roughly 1967, a process which grew out of frustration over frequent, unexplained crashes in the industry's first few decades. This piece tells the origins of...

NASA uses a specialized plasma wind tunnel to test heat shield technology

The ArcJet Complex ionizes compressed air that fires onto shields at hypersonic speeds, replicating the conditions of high-speed, planetary reentry. An enhanced facility incorporates lasers to mimic the radiant heating experienced during high-energy atmospheric traversal.

A tube-and-diaphragm system tells gas pumps when to stop providing fuel

As long as air passes freely through a small hole at the end of the nozzle, the diaphragm is inflated, and fuel flows normally. Once fluid reaches the hole, the change in pressure from the difference in air and fluid densities collapses the diaphragm, which cuts the flow of gas.

Broken or neglected air conditioners are risky for respiratory health

A well-maintained air conditioner can typically keep out unwanted pathogens, but units that are dusty or water-logged can foster germs and cause harm. AC units also remove moisture from the air, potentially causing mucus membranes to dry out and become vulnerable to infection.

Drum shields help prevent mic bleed and dampen drum sound

Made of plexiglass or acrylic, the shields are commonly seen in churches and live venues to prevent drums from overpowering other instruments, improving the quality of the audio mix.

Water vapor is used to manage heat in high-end smartphones

While smartphones have traditionally been cooled using a highly conductive plate that dissipates heat from the chip, vapor chambers offer a higher heat-removal capacity. This technology has been utilized in laptops for decades to absorb heat by cycling a fluid between liquid and gaseous phases.

Volcanic ash is composed of fragments of volcanic rock, minerals, and glass

These abrasive particles are hazardous to aircraft. They can melt within engines and re-solidify on turbine blades, preventing forward propulsion. If inhaled, chemicals within ash can be toxic, and the particles can embed themselves into the lungs' ducts, causing suffocation.

Tokyo's transparent toilets use smart, automatic glass to make cleanliness visible

Dubbed the Tokyo Toilet project, this initiative installs restrooms whose walls are transparent when empty, so users can see whether they are clean and safe. When they lock, they turn opaque for privacy. Beyond addressing two key anxieties (hygiene and security), the project lends a distinct architectural prestige to typically banal (and reviled) toilets.

Nasal hairs, called vibrissae, help protect the body from particulate matter and other dirt

The nose structure plays a key role in filtering air before it enters our lungs and makes sure that the air temperature and humidity are also suitable for the body.

Cleaning a glass bridge 4,000 feet in the air

Dangling 4,000 feet above the Grand Canyon, these cleaners risk it all to scrub a glass bridge. With a custom-built trolley and nerves of steel, they tackle one of the scariest jobs in America.

Where does your glass come from?

Glass is created from silica sand, soda ash, and limestone. The more transparent you want your glass to be, the higher the purity you need from your silica—a rarity. Colorless, low-iron glass featured in skyscraper windows and Apple's cube-shaped showrooms has increased demand for such pure silica.

Why helium mixtures are used in respiratory medicine

Unlike the air near Earth's surface, which is primarily composed of oxygen and nitrogen, heliox is composed entirely of oxygen and helium. Because helium is lighter than nitrogen, the lungs do not have to work as hard to push air, easing the uptake of oxygen via a ventilator, mask, or nasal tube.

Deep sea fish rely on a molecular strengthener to prevent being crushed

Trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) stabilizes hydrogen bonds and prevents water and proteins within organisms from being misshapen under immense pressure. Compounds called piezolytes protect cellular membranes from being crushed in regions like the Mariana Trench, where pressures are 1,100 times greater than surface atmospheric pressure.

View a diagram of Earth's atmosphere, which is composed of five layers

Starting from the surface, the troposphere is home to Earth's weather, followed by the stratosphere, which houses the ozone layer, and the mesosphere, which burns up most debris from space. Above these layers lies the thermosphere, where auroras are produced, and the exosphere, which lacks a clear outer boundary as it fades into outer space.

What makes food crispy, and how science can be used to maximize this property

The fracturing texture experienced when biting into vegetable tempura, fried chicken, pastry crusts, and other foods comes from having a dehydrated, porous surface. When frying food in hot oil, trapped water vaporizes and escapes, creating tunnels and pores in the food as it dehydrates. Breading, particularly with the large, irregular shapes of panko, and leaveners can help create more air spaces.

What pupils can reveal about a person’s thoughts and feelings

Eyes have long been said to be the window to the soul. In this article, a psychologist and pupillometrist explores research demonstrating pupils as a window into the mind. Pupils tell us how intensely someone is exerting mental effort, or even reveal what a person is imagining. Read this article for insight into the field of pupillometry and how it can offer insights into our psyches.

Fear or disgust related to clusters of holes and cracks, called trypophobia, may stem from evolutionary processes to help us avoid pathogens.

An imperfection 1/50th the width of a human hair blurred Hubble's initial images

Not all parts of the space telescope's primary mirror focused incoming light to the same location, an effect known as spherical aberration. Because Hubble was designed to reside in low Earth orbit and be serviced by astronauts, service missions were deployed in the years after its launch to conduct repairs.

Massive 3D printers have been used to build homes by stacking layers of 'concrete toothpaste,' a fire-resistant material that effectively insulates against outside noise.

As deposits build up under the eye, the retina bends with macular degeneration

The retina bends due to the accumulation of proteins and other materials beneath it. That's considered the milder "dry" form of macular degeneration. Another form, called "wet" macular degeneration, is caused by abnormal blood vessels leaking fluid into the eye, which can rapidly affect central vision.

Power lines are dotted with large, brightly colored balls to improve the visibility of these thin wires to helicopters and small planes and help prevent potential crashes.

After 25 people used virtual reality headsets to practice flying with virtual wings—flapping their arms—their visual cortex responded to the wings almost as if they were real arms, treating them as body parts.

The Australian $5 bill has an image of a bird that glows when exposed to UV light

That’s just one of the many anti-counterfeiting security measures that the Australian government implements on its currency. Popular banknotes from around the world all include their own unique security features—this infographic outlines a few unique ones.

How to repair a baby’s broken heart

A rare disorder that prevents some babies from getting enough oxygen to their organs can be repaired through a series of three intricate surgeries. This article and graphic explain the process behind correcting single-ventricle defects, also known as SVDs.This disorder happens when one of the heart's lower chambers doesn't work correctly, resulting in deoxygenated and oxygenated blood circulating the body rather than just the latter.

The boiling temperature of water decreases with increasing elevation because the molecules need less energy to overcome the lower atmospheric pressure associated with thinner air.

All rainbows are 'raincircles' caused by water droplets separating white sunlight into a spectrum of colors, but Earth's surface blocks the bottom half of the circle from our line of sight.

Legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright designed the SC Johnson headquarters in Wisconsin, aiming to make a cathedral-like workplace

Scientists can determine Earth's past climate conditions by analyzing air trapped in microscopic bubbles within ice cores—columns of compressed snow layers that build up over hundreds of thousands of years.

Double world record holder Hunter Ewen helped conquer his fear of balloons, called globophobia, by training to win Guinness World Record titles for balloon inflation.

Learn how your body is, scientifically, like a firework with its own slow, controlled burn.

According to the physics of black holes, our 4D reality may be a hologram—a projection of information coded on a 2D surface on the edge of the universe.

The animatronic shark from Steven Spielberg's 'Jaws,' the first modern blockbuster, was a complex underwater apparatus called 'Bruce.'

Some coin denominations have ridges etched on their sides, partly to prevent counterfeiting, in a practice called 'reeding.'

Netflix profits when you're not watching, and its movies are designed that way—read a detail-rich critical essay exposing lesser-known Netflix takes

The syncytiotrophoblast is the outer layer of the placenta and the largest human cell, spanning an area about twice that of a king-sized bedsheet.

To reduce wrinkles in clothing, research recommends gentle wash cycles with more water and tumble drying with smaller loads and longer times.

Watch the cumbersome, but necessary, precautions healthcare workers must take to care for and protect themselves while caring for Ebola patients.

Hotels in Cannes, the glamorous city on the French Riviera, hire hawks to ward off seagulls during the city's famous film festival.

Budweiser stores yeast derived from the original 1800s strain in a secret bunker, which only the Head of Yeast Management can access—not even the CEO

Explore the known asteroids, comets, and spacecraft involved in asteroid studies within our solar system with 'Eyes on Asteroids,' a 3D visualization from NASA.

Gerrymandering works through two techniques: cracking opposing voters across districts to dilute their power, and packing them into a few to waste their votes in lopsided majorities.

Dorothy's famous entrance into Oz in 'The Wizard of Oz' relied on analog tricks, including a body double and sepia-toned paint, as much as it did on technology

The price of gas is a composite made up of several different factors, with the federal gas tax making up less than 20% of what drivers pay at the pump.

The American Society of Civil Engineers' infrastructure report card gave the US a C in 2025, its highest grade since the project launched in 1998.

For centuries, it was common to sleep in two shifts: a few hours at the beginning of the night, and a longer period beginning around midnight