Awe-inspiring science reporting, technology news, and DIY projects. Skunks to space robots, primates

[ad_1] Many newborn and toddler stars are not all that different from newborn and toddler humans—prone to bouts of cranky energy, loud and violent tempers, and indiscriminately wailing and vomiting heaps of disgusting matter in every direction. It’s natural to assume even our 4.6 billion-year-old sun had a messy heyday in its youth, but without any hard evidence to prove this was case, the only thing many scientists had going for them were strong suspicions. New data, focused around a peculiar set of ancient blue crystals from space, seems to suggest the sun emitted a much higher flux of cosmic rays in its early history than we once thought. Those blue crystals are called hibonite, and they’ve arrived here on Earth by way of meteorite impacts. Hibonite are effectively some of the first minerals formed in the solar system, created by the cooling gas derived from the sun. The new study, published in Nature Astronomy , focuses on the Murchison meteorite, which fell in Aus...

[ad_1] I t seems these days there are few industries unchanged by 3D printing. The technology is being used to make advanced running shoes, to prototype new product designs and to make healthcare cheaper. It’s influencing the photography world, too—especially those pockets interested in analog techniques and DIY projects. There are now several cameras to excite film photographers that use elements of 3D printing. The cardboard PinBox from Hamm Camera Company incorporates 3D printed film spools. Then there’s the Goodman One, an open-source camera designed by Dora Goodman and offered for free download via her website. And of course there are Kickstarter camera projects like the Standard Camera and Cameradactyl, which are are slinging 3D printed 4x5 film cameras that are affordable and lightweight, thereby making the format more accessible. The use of 3D printing is reinvigorating the analogue camera community. This new technology is breathing life into old camera designs...

[ad_1] It’s hard to imagine an ice age would be the ideal climate for horses, but almost 12,000 years ago, it was. Swathed in short shrubs and dry grass, the open tundra was a perfect place to gather, graze, and keep an eye out for predators. But when natural global warming snuffed out the Stone Age—or what some refer to as “the Last Ice Age”—the grasslands disappeared, and so did the wild horses. At least that’s what new research suggests. Ludovic Orlando, a professor of molecular archaeology at the University of Copenhagen, helped create a database of more than 3,000 horse fossils spanning 44,000 years—one of the largest collections to date—and noticed a steep decline in wild horse populations across Eurasia once the Holocene period (the beginning of the warm weather we live in today) hit 11,500 years ago. Orlando says it was likely the disintegration of habitats that led wild horses to a similar fate (although not so permanent) as fello...

[ad_1] Ditching a TV remote for simple voice commands sounds great in a lot of circumstances. And, with a little help from Alexa (and some other digital assistants down the road), the Sonos Beam comes as close to executing that as anyone has so far. And while the Beam won’t let you toss your clicker just yet, it’s still one of the best home audio devices around, even with its $400 price tag. What is it? The Beam is the latest in the Sonos series of speakers meant to pull double duty, handling both music as well as the sound that comes from your home entertainment center and TV. It’s the smallest and cheapest option in the Sonos lineup to handle that kind of task, sliding in under both the Playbar and the Playbase. It ties in seamlessly to the Sonos multi-room wireless audio system if you already have previous speakers. Like the Sonos One speaker, the Beam claims to be agnostic when it comes to digital assistants, with Alexa built-in, the Google Assistant coming, and Si...

[ad_1] Summer. Con: It’s hot. Pro: You have more time to read Popular Science . And maybe even some books too. Here are some literary recommendations from the PopSci staff. Dune by Frank Herbert. Ask a room of science and tech people for a fun beach read, and their minds immediately go for the science fiction classic. Haven’t read it yet? Don’t be scared. Fear is the mind-killer. You'll have plenty of time to read it during your time off. — At least half of the PopSci staff. I don't normally read non-fiction on vacation, but I would recommend The Man Who Caught The Storm to anyone looking for an exciting non-fiction read. Besides, who doesn't want to read about storms, storm-chasers, inventions, and narrow escapes while relaxing on a sunny beach? — Mary Beth Griggs I read Why We Sleep recently and I have literally never had a book influence my behavior faster or more effectively. Walker is a leading sleep researcher and clearly knows his stuff, but is a...

[ad_1] T he windows of many cars and buildings are tinted with a film that shuts out unnecessary sunlight, an energy efficiency measure that helps lower heating and cooling costs. Other environmentally-friendly windows feature a coating of see-through solar cells that transform them into mini electricity generators. But you probably won’t find any that can do both. Not yet anyway. This could be about to change. Chinese scientists have invented a new material that can both block the sun and produce power. They predict that windows outfitted with this product — or even window curtains that have it — eventually could cut the average household’s electric bills by at least half. “We combine both material innovation and optical thin film design to achieve the goal of combining both solar electricity generation and heat insulation in one single film,” says Hin-Lap (Angus) Yip, a professor of materials science and engineering at the So...

[ad_1] As we all learned in health class, when a baby animal is created, genetic material from two biological parents combines to create a new being—one with some genes from each parent. What you may not know is that a third genetic element is involved in this process, a hitchhiker whose existence and self-propagation may be essential to life as we know it. Transposon, or transposable element, is the scientific name for these hitchhikers lurking in our genome. These DNA sequences are able to move around within the genome and replicate themselves, sometimes with negative consequences for their hosts. Transposon-related mutations have been blamed for hemophilia and some kinds of cancer. But research over the past decade has revealed that our relationship with these elements, which make up a large percentage of the human genome, is much more complex than previously thought. The mutations caused by transposons’ presence and movements have also shaped evolution over the millennia...

[ad_1] You may have heard about a weird new product from Google: a little device called the Titan Security Key that will serve as a form of two-factor authentication. That means you would use the gizmo as part of a login process to verify that you are, in fact, you. Instead of getting a text message with a code, you plug the security key into your computer and press a button. You can’t buy one of these yet (Google says it will be available to the general public “soon”), but the announcement is a good reminder that setting up two-factor authentication on your accounts is one of the easiest ways to keep your info private— even if your username and password are compromised. “We see consistently that in a large percentage of cyber incidents, had individuals had some sort of multi-factor authentication, they would have at least delayed—or made it slightly harder—for attackers to gain access,” says Oren Falkowitz, the CEO of Area 1 Security, a f...

[ad_1] Think of a familiar recipe, one so ingrained in your cooking brain that you can whip it together after a long day at work without much thought. You have your bowls and pans laid out on the counter, the oven is preheated, but...shoot. You are completely out of that one key ingredient, and the closest store is tens of millions of miles away. Time for plan B? For people who dreamed of terraforming Mars using local greenhouse gases, that might be the situation they find themselves in—in possession of a detailed plan but without enough raw materials to see it through to fruition. A paper published today in Nature Astronomy finds that there might not be enough carbon dioxide on Mars to make the Red Planet into a second blue marble. Terraforming Mars at some point in the future isn’t a given—there are long-standing ethical concerns about changing another planet to suit our species—but given the popularity of terraforming in popular culture, and the current (if g...

[ad_1] Reaching the deepest depths of all the world’s oceans seems unfathomable. But new research suggests we’re getting close, and that’s not a good thing. Only 13 percent of the planet’s ocean waters are still considered truly wild—meaning free from human activity—according to a study that came out Thursday in the journal Current Biology . After years analyzing comprehensive datasets of the Earth’s oceans, conservation biologist Kendall Jones was disheartened to discover that more than 118 million square miles of ocean ecosystems are unable to function naturally due to human impacts like commercial shipping, fertilizer runoff, and fishing. Of this small slice of remaining marine wilderness, the study also found that less than half is in protected marine areas. “It’s concerning because those unimpacted places in the ocean allow a lot of ecosystems to function,” says Jones, a PhD candidate at the University of Queensland, and l...

[ad_1] We’re deep in the heart of summer road-trip season and it can be tough to keep up with all the latest tech news when you’re cruising the country. Luckily, we’re here with a new episode of the podcast and a succinct round-up of all the stuff you missed in the land of gadgets and technology while you were on your search for a non-gross rest-stop bathroom. Download the latest episode of the podcast This week, Google announced its new two-factor authentication key for protecting your account, and camera giant Nikon went public with its plans to introduce a new pro-level camera. Plus, we talked to a hardware hacker who added a microphone jack to his own iPhone 7. Let us fill you in on all these topics in the latest episode of the Last Week in Tech podcast. You can listen in the player above, subscribe on iTunes, follow us on SoundCloud, or add us on Stitcher. The Kuri robot danced its last dance After more than a year of hype, the company behind the adorable Kuri rob...

[ad_1] Why do batteries die? And, why can they only be recharged so many times before they won’t hold a useful amount of charge? My young son asked me about that years ago when his battery-powered toy car stopped moving, wondering about what he called an “everlasting battery.” And this same question has probably crossed the mind of every cell phone user trying to send one last text before the screen blinks off. Research, like mine, continues around the world to make batteries that charge faster, last longer, and can be recharged and discharged many more times than today’s. But as much as you and I would like, it’s impossible to make a truly everlasting battery. I have taught thermodynamics for more than 30 years. So far, there is nothing that suggests we can break the fundamental laws of science to get that elusive battery. Battery scientists and engineers call the main problem “capacity fade.” Regular people wonder about it with questions like,...

[ad_1] Everyone agrees that the Pacific walrus is stressed. The large, tusked pinnipeds depend on floating sea ice to rest and give birth in the spring and summers, when the Goldilocks-sized not-too-thin, not-too-thick ice floes they require are becoming increasingly rare. But coming to a consensus on how the large marine mammals will react to that stress is less straightforward. “While the Pacific walrus will experience a future reduction in availability of sea ice ... we are unable to reliably predict the magnitude of the effect,” read the official Fish and Wildlife service finding in October 2017, explaining the decision not to list the species under the Endangered Species Act despite the service’s own 2011 assessment that it was threatened by climate change. The text continued: “We do not have reliable information showing that the magnitude of this change could be sufficient to put the subspecies in danger of extinction now or in the foreseeable future....

[ad_1] When the time comes to switch phones, you need to bring your data with you. But this is particularly difficult if you're switching from iOS to Android—or vice versa. If you're an Android user gearing up to buy your first iPhone, you can still preserve your apps and data. It just takes a little more work. Here's how to transfer your emails, contacts, calendars, movies, music and everything else you'll want to put on your new phone. Do you plan to keep using Google or Microsoft apps? Your data-shifting process will depend on whether you plan to start using Apple's apps or to stick to the Google and Microsoft services you already rely on. If you want to go all-in on Apple, then skip to the next section to learn how to move your data. However, if you plan to keep on using the same Google apps that you had on your Android device, then your move to iOS will actually be very straightforward. That's because all of Google's main apps—Gmail, Google Maps, Google...

[ad_1] When an appliance starts acting up, check whether it has a filter. If the answer is yes, then the next question is: When's the last time you cleaned that thing? From your air conditioner to your vacuum, everything works better with a clean filter. Air conditioners You bought a new window AC unit only last year, but when you switch it on these days, it just doesn't fight the heat as well as it once did. That's probably because you've let debris build up on its filter, making it harder for air to force its way through. Even if you cleaned the whole window unit at the beginning of summer, you probably need to do it again. In fact, some suggest you should scrub your air conditioner filter as often as twice a month. Turn off your AC, pop open the plastic front panel, and gently pull out its filter. First, get rid of loose dirt by shaking it over a trash can or vacuuming it. Next, rinse it or carefully wipe it with a cloth soaked in mildly soapy water. If you're fe...

[ad_1] A program that spies on your computer activity is one of the most dangerous forms of malware. It won't present you with a ransomware request or announce it's deleting your files. Instead, it hides silently on your system, watching and recording all your computer activity. Spyware can do everything from hijacking your webcam feed to recording your keyboard inputs. The culprits ultimately aim to collect enough of your personal data to steal your identity, take over your accounts, or expose your digital life in other ways. To minimize the odds of an unwanted program taking root on your machine, follow our guide to staying spyware-free. Secure your system To start with, you need to establish solid protection for your computer. Most antivirus programs for both Windows and macOS will protect against keyloggers, webcam hackers, and other types of spyware, especially if you vigilantly keep this software up to date. How do you choose? You won't find a "one size fits all...

[ad_1] “Just how old do you think my dog is in dog years?” is a question I hear on a regular basis. People love to anthropomorphize pets, attributing human characteristics to them. And most of us want to extend our animal friends’ healthy lives for as long as possible. It may seem like sort of a silly thing to ponder, born out of owners’ love for their pets and the human-animal bond between them. But determining a pet’s “real” age is actually important because it helps veterinarians like me recommend life-stage specific healthcare for our animal patients. There’s an old myth that one regular year is like seven years for dogs and cats. There’s a bit of logic behind it. People observed that with optimal healthcare, an average-sized, medium dog would on average live one-seventh as long as its human owner – and so the seven “dog years” for every “human year” equation was born. Not every dog is “average...

[ad_1] A friendly robot named Kuri recently visited the Popular Science offices. The waste-basket sized bot rolled around the cubes making bleep and bloop sounds, trying its best to mimic and illicit familiar human emotions. At the time of the visit, Kuri was more than a year old, having made its debut at the 2017 Consumer Electronics Show, but the little bot still hadn’t made it to market. Then, just a few days after Kuri visited our office, Mayfield Robotics (part of the Bosch startup platform) announced that the home robot was on-hold indefinitely. Development stopped and those who pre-ordered would get refunds. Kuri’s bid to become the go-to home companion that dances and takes video of your family doing everyday activities had ended before it ever really began. This isn’t a totally unfamiliar story. Hardware, as they say, is hard, and getting it to market past various technical and logistical hurdles can put a serious damper on even the most hyped products. Costs ...