Archive Gallery: Popular Science's Brief Foray Into Pseudoscience
March 1937 Telepathy, ouija boards, hypnosis, mythical monsters, and more subjects that probably shouldn't be classified as legitimate science Everyone has some skeletons in our closet, and after 138 years in publication, we're no exception. Just type the words "telepathy" or "Abominable Snowman" into our archives and you'll realize that "Popular Science" includes fields that are a little heavy on the popularity, less so on the science. Click to launch the photo gallery. To be fair, at least half of our pseudoscience features focused on debunking these practices instead of supporting them. After American spiritualists elevated ouija boards from harmless parlor games to supernatural communication devices, one inventor created a typewriter-ouija board hybrid to that forced the operator to punch blank keys instead of moving a triangle over painted letters. Granted, the ouija board typewriter didn't prove or disprove the involvement of spirits, but it did prevent swindlers from consciously moving...