More businesses have become open to the idea, and fresh food vending machines are getting a boost as pandemic protection measures push for a minimization of nonessential human interaction. Industries that require high amounts of human-to-human contact, like food service and restaurants, have been considering ways to keep their businesses running while accommodating customer comfort. Even as cities start to re-open, some restaurants have continued to digitize whatever they can....

“We are not sending commands any more and it would be very surprising if we were to receive a signal again,” said Stephan Ulamec, Philae project manager at the German Aerospace Center. Philae’s touchdown in November went awry, leaving the lander in a dark and somewhat mysterious location, operating on battery power alone. After 60 hours, the battery died and Philae went silent. Although the lander got in touch with the Rosetta orbiter a few times last summer, the comet is now moving farther and farther from the sun....

As such, urban planners are looking for ways to mitigate that heat island effect, and one method has come out on top: trees. By blocking the sunlight and using evapotranspiration (a fancy term for evaporating water from their leaves), trees can cool the air around them. But how many trees do you need? That might sound like a silly, pedantic question and the answer is simple: More trees is almost always better....

Transportation will inevitably get faster and cheaper, but we also hope it will be without jet lag. Hotels might transform their own furniture to make your room just the way you like it. And don’t worry—the good ol’ postcard isn’t going anywhere (aside from your Grandma’s mailbox). With our look back at the Popular Science archives, you can join us in the cockpit of the Concorde in 1973, before the supersonic plane would first carry its commercial passengers....

1. Eddie Bauer ­Voyager 2.0 Jacket A durable water-repellent finish protects this garment and everything you put into its six pockets. Two-way stretch fabric gives when you reach to turn on an overhead light. 2. Lululemon ­Commission Pants Lycra in these slim-cut cotton slacks leave room for pre-flight stretches without fear of a split seat. A zippered fifth pocket on the front left snugly holds a smartphone. 3. EMS Women’s Techwick Essence This polyester knit pullover moves moisture away from the skin as you sweat....

So far, the researchers have identified 109 people with this variant in total, 107 of whom were among 6,706 participants in the AIDS Therapy Evaluation in the Netherlands (ATHENA) cohort which is part of the Bridging the Epidemiology and Evolution of HIV in Europe (and Uganda), a.k.a. BEEHIVE, project. They also identified one Belgian individual and one Swiss individual as part of additional BEEHIVE cohorts. The variant belongs to a family of HIV strains known as B subtypes, but it appears to generate more virus particles and also more quickly decrease certain immune cells than previously known subtype B variants....

How to clean your Himalayan salt block It’s not hard to clean. All you have to do is just moisten an edge with a wet sponge and scrub with a soft brush. The residue should easily come off. Just make sure you don’t scrub too hard or you could damage the block. Why snag this deal? This Himalayan salt block’s surface area is 12- x 8-inches, and it’s 1.5-inches thick. This is the lowest price it has been all year—now $23....

In a study published on Thursday in Evolutionary Anthropology Issues News and Reviews, researchers compared anatomical traits in fossil hominins—the group that includes present-day humans and our extinct close relatives—from Africa, Europe, and Asia. They concluded that two currently recognized species should be retired, and that the 600,000-year-old remains from Ethiopia, along with several other specimens, should be classified as a new species they’ve dubbed Homo bodoensis. Not everyone is convinced that a new species name is needed—after all, none of these specimens represent lineages that have never been studied before....

Crowder’s focus is on systems that reason and learn on their own. For a decade, this meant building a robotic cockroach that’s afraid of light. Now, it means an octopus-inspired robot with a central brain that filters responses from smaller sub-brains. In the future, lessons from this octo-bot could power autonomous swarms of drones. “My thought is that if I can’t build self-evolving lifeforms at the cockroach level, I’ll never build C-3PO,” Crowder told Popular Science....

Remains of the small hominid, known as Homo floresiensis, were discovered on the island in 2003, but the details of its evolution and how it came to be so small have been a matter of much debate ever since. This evolutionary enigma could finally be cracked open, however. New fossils found on the island of Flores have revealed the existence of another small hominid that suggests the Flores hobbits evolved from Homo erectus, our most recent ancestor....

This research comes from the “Bat Pack,” a team of scientists at the Australian Animal Health Laboratory, and the Beijing Genome Institute. The team sequenced the genomes of a huge fruit bat and a tiny insectivorous bat and found both were missing a gene segment that can cause extreme immune reactions to infection. In most mammals, the so-called “cytokine storm” that results from an invading virus is actually what kills, not the virus itself....

1. Amygdala Before you consciously process a problem, this almond-shaped brain region activates and begins to amp up the sympathetic nervous system’s fight-or-flight response. 2. Hippocampus and frontal cortex The rational centers of our brain kick in, analyzing whether the perceived visual or auditory input shows a true danger. 3. Cardiovascular system Stress hormones increase your heartbeat and breathing rate while dilating the tiny airways in your lungs. This allows more oxygen to reach your muscles....

As missile defense goes, these success rates are more or less unprecedented. One of the five Iron Dome batteries deployed to southern Israel reportedly intercepted a full 100 percent of incoming rockets fired during one Hamas salvo. The overall success rate has been described by various officials at anywhere between 75 and 95 percent. Calling it a conservative 85 percent success rate still puts Iron Dome in a class by itself where missile defense systems are concerned....

An initiative spearheaded by the Centers for Disease Control’s Office of Advanced Molecular Detection (OAMD) seeks to bring the SARS-CoV-2 sequencing work of private and academic labs into the public sphere. They hope this will help to coordinate cross-country efforts to better understand the virus’s genome and all its current and potential future mutations. Known as the SARS-CoV-2 Sequencing for Public Health Emergency Response, Epidemiology and Surveillance (SPHERES), the consortium of about 50 laboratories represent the majority of the United States’s almost 4000 genome submissions to GISAID, an international repository of viral data that provides open access to the genomes while preserving the intellectual property rights of sequencers....

Not everyone can join us in New York, but anyone can build the same type of tabletop catapult by following these instructions (based on this project). Feel free to modify the steps if you see the opportunity to make a stronger structure. WARNING: The wooden dowels can jump all over the place. Don’t poke your eye out! Stats Time: Less than an hourCost: $15Difficulty: Easy Materials 12 wooden dowels, 12″ long by ⅜” diameter~40 rubber bands, various sizesSpoon or stemmed plastic cupPing-pong ballsA couple moderately heavy items for weight (optional)...

In this guide, we’ll outline the different types of digital camera you can choose, how much you should expect to spend, and the sort of specs you need to keep an eye on. At the higher end of the market, you’ve got to choose between lenses as well as cameras, and we’ll explain the basics of these, too. Here’s what you need to know. Camera types The digital camera market shifts quickly, which means the labels and categories you’ll see as you shop around may be confusing....

Take a screenshot yourself Without a built-in option, you have two choices: take screenshots and crop them on your own, or let a browser-based photo-editing program help you. To be clear, you can technically “screenshot” a full webpage in Safari on iOS, but the resulting file won’t save as an image. It’ll save as a PDF, which is… the opposite of what you’re trying to do. Recording your iPhone or Android phone’s screen is not an option either, because you’ll end up with a video file, not an image....

How to fix Google Maps You can edit the details of Google Maps through either the app or the website. Perhaps the most common data you’ll find the need to modify are the details of local venues. For example, if you pull up your favorite watering hole and notice errors in the listed opening hours, you can correct that information—even if you don’t own or work for that particular business. While you’re reporting the mistake and adjusting the data, you can also register your own business....

There are around 50 species of these noodly reptiles in North America, and yes, a handful of them are venomous. But while snakes are predators to small rodents, they’re generally harmless to humans and aren’t interested in hanging out—the vast majority of human-snake interactions happen by accident, often startling both parties. Snakes will only enter human dwellings in search of shelter, warmth, tasty mice, or a combination of the three....

In a perfect world, every salumi board you style would include paper-thin slivers fresh off your personal Berkel meat slicer. But if you’re not ready to shell out five grand for one, these experts have a few ideas on how to hand-cut salumi like a pro: • Pick the right knife: Rob Levitt of Publican ­Quality Meats prefers at least an 8-inch blade for a smooth, more stable stroke. For dry sausages, Theo Weening, the vice president of meat and poultry at Whole Foods, opts for a Japanese-style knife with a single beveled edge....