{"id":8230,"date":"2026-05-15T20:03:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T20:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rjbarrett.redirectme.net\/?p=8230"},"modified":"2026-05-15T20:03:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T20:03:00","slug":"why-airplane-toilets-are-tiny-engineering-marvels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rjbarrett.redirectme.net\/?p=8230","title":{"rendered":"Why airplane toilets are tiny engineering marvels"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<section class=\"recurrent-blocks recurrent-newsletter-block recurrent-newsletter-email-block recurrent-newsletter-email-block-on-top pw-incontent-excluded flipboard-remove \">\n<div class=\"container newsletter-container\">\n<div class=\"newsletter-content\">\n<h2 class=\"newsletter-cta-title\"> <\/h2>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\">Get the Popular Science daily newsletter\ud83d\udca1<\/p>\n<div class=\"newsletter-cta-description\">\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<p class=\"pw-incontent-excluded article-paragraph skip\">There\u2019s nothing quite like the sound of an airplane toilet flushing. But that incredibly loud sucking sound is actually something of an engineering marvel. These toilets flush, with no water, while zooming along at 500 miles per hour.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\">In this episode of Ask Us Anything by <em>Popular Science<\/em>, we get into all the smelly details of how airplane toilets actually work.<\/p>\n<p><iframe data-testid=\"embed-iframe\" style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/episode\/5PahroWMeQ0u0xG9P1cI5t?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"pw-incontent-excluded\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\">Ask Us Anything answers your most outlandish, mind-burning questions\u2014from the everyday things you\u2019ve always wondered to the bizarre things you never thought to ask. So, yes, there\u2019s a reason we can\u2019t remember being babies and no, not all cats hate water. If you have a question for us, send us a note. Nothing is too outlandish or too ordinary.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\">This episode is based on the <em>Popular Science<\/em> article \u201cHow do airplane toilets work?\u201d<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-subscribe-to-ask-us-anything\">Subscribe to Ask Us Anything<\/h2>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\">Listen and follow <em>Ask Us Anything<\/em> on your favorite podcast platform:<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\">Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube | Or wherever you get your podcasts.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-full-episode-transcript\">Full Episode Transcript<\/h2>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>Sarah Durn:<\/strong> You\u2019re six years old, wedged into a middle seat on your very first flight.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\">Your ears are popping. The engine sounds impossibly loud. Somewhere a baby is crying. And after nervously sipping one too many ginger ales, you realize there\u2019s something else you need to do.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\">So you make the LONG walk down the NARROW aisle to the airplane bathroom.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\">You open the weird sliding door, and this lavatory is <em>tiny<\/em>. And, after doing your business, you hesitantly hit the flush button.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\">For one horrifying second, you\u2019re convinced the toilet might actually suck you into the sky.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\">But what exactly is happening here? How do airplane toilets work?<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\">Turns out, the answer involves physics, pressure differentials, and one surprisingly clever engineering trick.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\">Welcome to Ask Us Anything from the editors of <em>Popular Science<\/em>, where we answer your questions about our weird world, from \u201cwhy do parrots talk like people\u201d to \u201cwhat\u2019s the coldest temperature humans can survive?\u201d No question is too ordinary or too outlandish.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\">I\u2019m Sarah Durn, an editor at PopSci.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>Laura Baisas:<\/strong><strong> <\/strong>And hello, I\u2019m news editor Laura Baisis.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>SD:<\/strong> Here at <em>Popular Science<\/em>, we can\u2019t stop thinking about all the world\u2019s strangest questions, and this week, we\u2019re wondering how the heck airplane toilets actually work, something Laura actually edited a story on.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\">So Laura, what\u2019s going on here? What happens when we use the bathroom at 35,000 feet?<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>LB:<\/strong> First of all, you can relax. The toilet is <em>not<\/em> strong enough to suck you out of the plane.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>SD: <\/strong>Ah, thank God. Childhood fear officially resolved.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>LB: <\/strong>But that terrifying slurp sound, very real. And it turns out that airplane toilets use a surprisingly clever system that takes advantage of something that planes already have at high altitude, the enormous pressure difference between the cabin and the outside of the plane.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>SD:<\/strong> So every time we flush on a plane, physics is essentially doing the dirty work?\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>LB:<\/strong> Pretty much. We love physics.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>SD:<\/strong> Oh, we do.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>LB:<\/strong> And once you learn how the system actually works, from vacuum toilets to something called blue ice, I\u2019m pretty sure you\u2019ll never hear that sound the same way again.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>SD:<\/strong> All right. I\u2019m in. Tell me all the airplane bathroom facts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>LB:<\/strong> I\u2019d be happy to. But before we dive into the science of sky-high plumbing, we want to hear from you. What questions are swirling around your brain? Submit your question by clicking the \u201cAsk Us\u201d link at popsci.com\/ask. Again, that\u2019s popsci.com\/ask, and click the \u201cAsk Us\u201d link.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>SD:<\/strong> We\u2019ll be right back with more about airplane toilets after this quick break.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>SD:<\/strong> Welcome back! Okay, Laura, before we get into all the smelly details, I think we need to talk about the history of airplane toilets because early flying was kind of a nightmare.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>LB:<\/strong> Oh, absolutely. I mean, that glamorous golden age of air travel, a lot less glamorous if you needed to pee.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>SD:<\/strong> Right. So in the very earliest days of aviation, planes just, you know, straight up no bathrooms at all.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>LB:<\/strong> Which makes sense if you remember early flights were a lot shorter and planes flew so much closer to the ground.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>SD:<\/strong> Yeah, exactly. Pilots were basically flying by sight, and it\u2019s said that early pilots actually peed into their shoes and then would just toss it into the air.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>LB:<\/strong> I still can\u2019t believe that\u2019s real.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>SD:<\/strong> Me neither. Or they\u2019d make a hole in the cockpit floor\u2026and just go ahead and, you know, pee through that.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>LB: <\/strong>Correct. This is all so, so bad. So bad.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>SD:<\/strong> But it does get better. I mean, kind of. As passenger air travel became more common in the later 1920s, airlines were like, \u201cOkay, we should probably do something about the bathroom sitch.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\">So early passenger planes basically had buckets. Just, you know, a bucket in the back of the plane.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>LB: <\/strong>Ah, truly a luxury travel experience.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>SD: <\/strong>Very chic, very elegant. Then in the late 1930s, the first enclosed plane lavatory debuted on the DC-4 passenger plane. But even those were pretty primitive. The toilet had a removable bowl that crews had to take out and dump after landing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>LB: <\/strong>Yeah, not sure I\u2019d want that job.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>SD: <\/strong>Yeah, same. Eventually planes, though, started using chemical toilets, you know, kind of like a fancy porta potty situation. Waste would sit in these tanks full of bright blue disinfectant liquid.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>LB:<\/strong> Ah, yes, we come to the origin of one of aviation\u2019s most disgusting phrases: blue ice.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>SD: <\/strong>It doesn\u2019t sound disgusting, which is what throws me.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>LB:<\/strong> It\u2019s kind of a misnomer.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>SD: <\/strong>I know. It sounds like something a superhero would use. But anyways, explain it to us. What is blue ice?<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>LB:<\/strong> So blue ice forms when waste leaks from a plane at a really high altitude. Since it\u2019s so cold outside, the waste instantly freezes onto the aircraft.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>SD: <\/strong>Okay, which is already kinda gross.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>LB:<\/strong> Yeah, and then sometimes, I\u2019m gonna emphasize this, very, very rarely it can break off as the plane descends.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>SD:<\/strong> Wait, meaning frozen airplane toilet waste can theoretically fall from the sky? That\u2019s what blue ice is? Frozen human waste raining from above?<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>LB:<\/strong> Again, gross, but very, very rare, but yes, it can.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>SD:<\/strong> Okay. Awful. New fear unlocked. Hate that. Really bad.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>LB:<\/strong> But the good news is that modern airplane toilets are much, much more sophisticated. Most commercial planes today use vacuum toilet systems, which are lighter, cleaner, and honestly kind of ingenious.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>SD: <\/strong>Okay, so let\u2019s get into it. What\u2019s actually happening when we flush while up in the sky?<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>LB:<\/strong> Okay, so the key thing to understand here is pressure. Airplanes fly at very high altitudes, usually between 31,000 and 42,000 feet up. There, the air pressure outside of the plane is way lower than inside of the cabin.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>SD:<\/strong> Because the cabin is pressurized so all of us, you know, can breathe.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>LB:<\/strong> Exactly. Breathing equals important. Right.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>SD:<\/strong> Right.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>LB:<\/strong> So engineers realized they could use that pressure difference to their advantage. So when you hit the flush button in an airplane bathroom, a valve opens between the toilet bowl and a waste tank. So because the air pressure is lower on the tank side, everything gets sucked downward incredibly fast.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>SD:<\/strong> Which explains the very loud sucking sound.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>LB:<\/strong> Exactly. And one reason engineers love this system is because it saves a ton of weight. Traditional toilets need a lot of water, but on airplanes water is heavy and heavier planes burn more fuel.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>SD:<\/strong> So instead of gallons and gallons of water, plane toilets mostly use air pressure.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>LB:<\/strong> Right, which is why the flush is so dramatic and loud and fast.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>SD:<\/strong> Okay, and, you know, silly question, but can you actually get sucked into an airplane toilet?<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>LB:<\/strong> No. Despite what every child, and honestly some adults, might believe, the vacuum is nowhere near powerful enough to suck a human into the plumbing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>SD:<\/strong> Oh, thank goodness.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>LB:<\/strong> Although aviation experts do say that you should close the lid before flushing because the suction can splash some gross things around more than you\u2019d maybe like.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>SD:<\/strong> Ooh, yikes. Noted forever.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>LB:<\/strong> And that\u2019s\u2026 Come on, that\u2019s just good general toilet flushing behavior anywhere. You know, flush with that lid down.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>SD:<\/strong> Yeah, I\u2019m a strict lid down girl.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>LB:<\/strong> Yep, same. Same.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\">And, you know, airplane toilet systems are also designed with a lot of safety features. There are pressure valves, sealed tanks, all kinds of redundancies to make sure the cabin stays pressurized and everything works safely.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>SD: <\/strong>Right, \u2019cause you don\u2019t wanna mess with the air pressure on a plane.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>LB:<\/strong> Absolutely not.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>SD:<\/strong> Okay, so when you flush an airplane toilet, where does everything actually go?<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>LB:<\/strong> So all the waste gets sucked through pipes into holding tanks elsewhere in the aircraft, and contrary to a very persistent myth, planes do not just simply dump sewage while flying. The waste stays on board until the plane lands.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>SD:<\/strong> Unless it\u2019s blue ice.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>LB:<\/strong> Unless it\u2019s blue ice. But remember, very rare and not that often anymore. Planes are more sophisticated with their waste.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>SD:<\/strong> I\u2019m gonna be so aware of anything falling from the sky.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>LB:<\/strong> I know.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>SD: <\/strong>Watch out. We\u2019re really helping, you know, just assuage a lot of childhood fears on this episode.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>LB:<\/strong> You know, we aim to please here.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>SD:<\/strong> And okay, so then after the plane lands comes the very misleadingly named honey truck.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>LB:<\/strong> The honey truck. Uh, yeah, unfortunately the honey truck is a lot grosser than it sounds. After landing, airport ground crews bring over these specialized service trucks that connect to the aircraft and pump all of that waste out of the holding tanks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>SD:<\/strong> The fact that they\u2019re called honey trucks feels like a crime. Like, who is naming things\u2014blue ice, honey trucks\u2014what the heck is going on?<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>LB:<\/strong> But, at major airports this happens constantly. Honey trucks are always roving around, pumping waste from planes into their holding tanks for disposal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\">Kinda cute, sort of like a poop version of WALL-E happening all along the tarmac without us even knowing.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>SD:<\/strong> Is it cute? Do we think that\u2019s cute?\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>LB: <\/strong>I kind\u2026 You know what? I kind of do. It\u2019s important. It\u2019s important, so I think it\u2019s cute.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>SD:<\/strong> Fair. Yeah, I can\u2019t imagine being the person assigned to the airplane poop truck.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>LB:<\/strong> And apparently, as I said, those very important crews also deal with people flushing things they absolutely should not flush.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>SD: <\/strong>Oh, no.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>LB:<\/strong> According to one aircraft engineer, mechanics have found diapers, silverware, soda cans.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>SD: <\/strong>Soda cans?\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>LB:<\/strong> Soda cans. And airplane toilet pipes are tiny, so clogs are a huge deal, not to mention they can cause major delays.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>SD:<\/strong> Yeah, you do not wanna be the person responsible for grounding a plane because you flushed your ginger ale can.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>LB:<\/strong> There are already enough reasons you could get delayed. Do not delay a flight because you decided to flush that can, exactly.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>SD:<\/strong> People are crazy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>LB:<\/strong> A clog can even take a plane out of service for days while mechanics fix the plumbing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>SD:<\/strong> It\u2019s honestly incredible that these toilets don\u2019t have more issues. I mean, they\u2019re really clever little pieces of technology.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>LB:<\/strong> And the engineering behind all of this is fascinating. These systems have to work safely, reliably, and hygienically while flying hundreds of people through the sky at 500 miles per hour. It\u2019s amazing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>SD:<\/strong> Airplane toilets are one of those weird engineering marvels most of us never think about unless we\u2019re hearing the very loud slurp sound.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>LB:<\/strong> And yep, never gonna hear that sound the same way again.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>SD: <\/strong>Yeah, same.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>LB:<\/strong> Or think of blue ice and honey the same way again, if I\u2019m being honest. And with that image in mind, we\u2019ll be right back after this quick break.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>SD:<\/strong> Welcome back. Since this episode is all about flying toilets, we have to talk about the fact that while we were making this episode, NASA sent four astronauts into space, headed to the dark side of the Moon for the first time, and then their toilet basically immediately broke.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>LB:<\/strong> Immediately. I mean, that poor crew.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>SD:<\/strong> I know. Yeah, Artemis II embarks on this historic mission around the Moon, and then just a few hours into the mission, NASA\u2019s like, \u201cOoh, guys, quick update, the space toilet fan broke.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>LB:<\/strong> Guessing that\u2019s a sentence that probably caused, you know, some stress at Mission Control.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>SD:<\/strong> Yeah, just, you know, a little bit, especially because there was only one toilet on board for four astronauts on a 10-day mission.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>LB:<\/strong> Yeah, that toilet had a lot riding on it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>SD:<\/strong> Yeah. And unlike airplane toilets, space toilets can\u2019t really rely on gravity because, you know, space.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>LB:<\/strong> Space. In microgravity, nothing naturally goes down, which means space toilets use fans to pull waste in the correct direction, and in this case, the fan stopped doing that, which would have meant urine floating around the cabin. Ew.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>SD:<\/strong> Yeah. The good news is NASA fixed it pretty quickly. Astronaut Christina Koch worked with Mission Control to get the system back online within a few hours.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>LB:<\/strong> And apparently the astronauts had backup emergency urine bags, just in case.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>SD:<\/strong> Which, fun fact, is basically how Apollo astronauts handled this back in the 1960s. No luxury Moon bathroom, just Neil Armstrong peeing and pooping in a bag.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>LB:<\/strong> What an image.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>SD:<\/strong> I mean \u2026<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>LB:<\/strong> I know, right? Humanity can build giant rockets, fly hundreds of thousands of miles through space, and still end up improvising bathroom solutions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>SD:<\/strong> Honestly, it all feels very, very human.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>LB:<\/strong> It does. And on that note\u2026<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>SD:<\/strong> May all of your toilets, earthly or cosmic, function correctly.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>LB:<\/strong> And that\u2019s it for this episode, but don\u2019t worry, we\u2019ve got more episodes of Ask Us Anything live in our feed right now. Follow or subscribe to Ask Us Anything by <em>Popular Science<\/em> wherever you enjoy your podcasts, and if you like our show, leave us a rating and review.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>SD:<\/strong> Our producer is Alan Haburchak, and this week\u2019s episode was based on an article written for <em>Popular Science<\/em> by Tom Hawking, with a link in the show notes if you wanna learn more about airplane bathrooms.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>LB:<\/strong> Thank you, team. Thank you, toilets, and thanks everyone for listening.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>SD:<\/strong> And one more time, if you want something you\u2019ve always wondered about explained on a future episode, go to popsci.com\/ask and click the \u201cAsk Us\u201d link. Until next time, keep the questions coming and close those toilet lids.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\"><strong>LB:<\/strong> And watch out for the blue ice\u2026<\/p>\n<section class=\"content-widget content-widget--large pw-incontent-excluded\">\n<p>\t<span class=\"block bg-secondary-300 h-2 w-16 mt-10 mb-8\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"flex flex-col md:flex-row items-start justify-items-start\">\n<div class=\"mb-4 md:mb-0 md:w-4\/12 w-full\">\n\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" src=\"https:\/\/www.popsci.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/best-of-whats-new-2025-HERO.png?quality=85&amp;w=300\" class=\"max-w-[100%]\" alt=\"products on a page that says best of what's new 2025\" loading=\"lazy\" fetchpriority=\"low\"\/>\t\t\t<\/div>\n<div class=\"ml-0 md:ml-10 md:w-8\/12 w-full\">\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\n\t\t\t\t<\/h3>\n<p>2025 PopSci Best of What\u2019s New<\/p>\n<div class=\"content-widget-content mb-4\">\n<div id=\"1737663310.940689\" class=\"c-virtual_list__item\" role=\"listitem\" data-qa=\"virtual-list-item\" data-item-key=\"1737663310.940689\">\n<div class=\"c-message_kit__background c-message_kit__background--hovered p-message_pane_message__message c-message_kit__message\" role=\"presentation\" data-qa=\"message_container\" data-qa-unprocessed=\"false\" data-qa-placeholder=\"false\">\n<div class=\"c-message_kit__hover c-message_kit__hover--hovered\" role=\"document\" data-qa-hover=\"true\">\n<div class=\"c-message_kit__actions c-message_kit__actions--above\">\n<div class=\"c-message_kit__gutter\">\n<div class=\"c-message_kit__gutter__right\" role=\"presentation\" data-qa=\"message_content\">\n<div class=\"c-message_kit__blocks c-message_kit__blocks--rich_text\">\n<div class=\"c-message__message_blocks c-message__message_blocks--rich_text\" data-qa=\"message-text\">\n<div class=\"p-block_kit_renderer\" data-qa=\"block-kit-renderer\">\n<div class=\"p-block_kit_renderer__block_wrapper p-block_kit_renderer__block_wrapper--first\">\n<div class=\"p-rich_text_block\" dir=\"auto\">\n<div class=\"p-rich_text_section\">\n<p class=\"article-title\">The 50 most important innovations of the year<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>\t<span class=\"block bg-secondary-300 h-2 w-16 mt-8 mb-10\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/section>\n<footer class=\"article-content-footer lg:max-w-[730px] lg:mx-auto\">\n<section class=\"recurrent-tag-list-article recurrent-tag-list mb-8 md:px-0\">\n<\/section>\n<\/footer><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Get the Popular Science daily newsletter\ud83d\udca1 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. 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