Without a battery, your expensive laptop or smartphone is just a hunk of dead electronics. And these rechargeable powerhouses have a finite lifespan: Over time, they will start losing power faster and taking longer to charge. To extend the battery’s useful life for as long as possible, you need to take care of your device properly. That means adopting good charging habits and taking care with battery storage. Here’s what you need to know....

As a millennial, I was lucky enough to witness everything that happened as the internet started to change the world. Back then, phones weren’t smart and had buttons, and if you wanted to listen to that earworm song you couldn’t get out of your head, you only had two options: call your local radio station (on a landline!) or carry it around with you on a cassette. Why we would ever want to go back to torturing our bodies by carrying plastic cartridges that play music is beyond me, but we certainly are—2020 saw an increase in cassette sales of 103 percent compared to the previous year....

The origins of buckypaper date back to 1985 when Rice University scientists came upon a ball of 60 carbon items or “buckyballs” by chance (shortly after, Arizona State University scientists created buckypaper by sticking the balls together), but until now researchers have faced major challenges in getting the material to reach its maximal strength. Last week, however, scientists at Florida State University (FSU) said they had made significant progress, which could soon turn buckypaper from a lab marvel to a large-scale commercial material for everything from aerospace vehicles to super capacitors and batteries....

Any human introvert watching the scene might recognize themselves in the politely reserved canines. After all, part of what makes dogs so endearing is how clearly they express themselves. Of course, it’s hard to know on the basis of the 21-second clip alone whether Rosten’s guests were truly introverted or (adorably) keeping their distance for other reasons. But it makes for a good excuse to contemplate the question: Can dogs, which are often stereotyped as being enthusiastically social, be introverted?...

Now the researchers, who found the spider near the Tambopata Research Center, will go through the process of making sure it’s really a new species: checking it against other species, dissecting it, publishing the find in a journal, etc. Its artwork probably won’t get the same treatment. [Peru Nature via The Verge]

While the first human-made objects to reach Mach 5 were launched in the 1940s, there has absolutely been a recent uptick in missiles built to go that fast. The other new aspect is that, while in the past hypersonic speeds were a feature of other weapons, today nations such as the United States, China, and Russia are specifically developing weapons to travel at this speed. “Hypersonic” has become a category term for the development of very fast and maneuverable weapons....

The research, first published in the journal The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, builds on earlier work by the MIT group involving viruses. In the earlier experiments the scientists genetically engineered viruses to make a protein skin that attracts bits of metal. In the new experiment, the researchers put that skill to work by having the viruses build a specific part of a larger machine. Batteries are composed of four key components, an anode and cathode that form the positive and negative poles, an electrolyte that transfers the electric charge between them, and a separator to keep the anode and cathode apart....

Similar to Taylor Swift’s choice not to make use of Spotify, Adele has opted to forgo streaming altogether when the album is released tomorrow on Friday, November 20. While streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music provide an easy way for fans to listen to virtually unlimited numbers of songs at one low monthly price, the business model has come under fire as of late due to low returns for the artists involved....

How agriculture is funded is part of the problem. The United Nations described how the current subsidies system contributes to pollution in a recent report. It was published by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), in the days leading up to the UN food systems summit. What they found was that agricultural subsidies are hurting the planet—but that cold hard cash can be repurposed into more sustainable crops and other ways to make the industry more sustainable....

However, a new study in the journal Nature places the emergence of HIV smack in the middle of that turbulent era, decades earlier than previous estimates for the evolution of the disease. While a 2006 paper showed HIV emerging in the 1930s, this new research has the disease showing up sometime between 1884 and 1924. “[New samples] allowed us to push the date back to around 1908,” said Marlea Gemmel, a research specialist at the University of Arizona and one of the authors of the Nature paper, “the big difference in that new date is the social context....

Now, a study published this week in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, suggests that our loneliness is only temporary. If human civilization manages to hang on for several billion years (unlikely, but we’re an optimistic bunch) then we might just see other planets with other civilizations. The researchers, from NASA’s Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), looked at the data from telescopes like the Hubble and Kepler to get a better idea of how galaxies, planets and solar systems form....

FACT: A jaunty foreskin trend may have influenced religious circumcision By Rachel Feltman While researching weird historical sex stuff (as one does) and trying to determine whether or not Prince Albert really had a penis piercing (he probably didn’t) I came across the fascinating phenomenon of the kynodesmē, which is Greek for “dog tie.” In Ancient Greece and Rome it was common—trendy, even—for young people with penises to grasp the ends of their foreskins, pull them up over the glans, and use pieces of sticky paper or strips of string or leather to fasten them shut....

Once upon a time, there was a broad and fathomless ocean. Beneath the waves swirled the currents that flushed saltwater in magnificent gushes. Deep in the dense, cold darkness, the seafloor waited with perfect patience to embrace the corpse of every living thing above This was called the Panthalassa Sea, and I am certain that the creatures swimming in it believed their watery world to be the entire Universe, extending forever in every direction....

Three years later, this “rare cancer” was officially diagnosed as Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, a disease caused by a retrovirus that interferes with the body’s ability to fight off infections and disease. Panic was felt the world over as scientists raced to understand how the new infection, better known as HIV/AIDS, was spread and who was most at risk. That same year, Anthony Fauci, a doctor and head of the Laboratory of Immunoregulation, was appointed as National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID) director....

Midnight, which has not yet left the ground, is intended to hold four passengers, have a pilot at the controls, and wing itself through the air at 150 mph. “It can carry 1,000 pounds of payload, and it can travel up to 100 miles,” Adam Goldstein, the company’s CEO, said at an event yesterday. “But this vehicle was optimized around rapid, back-to-back, 20-mile trips in and around cities.” Some quick math suggests that the weight limit for the five humans on board and their bags will be around 200 pounds each....

The Great Pyramid: more than 6.6 million tons of stone Modern headstones can’t hold an oil lamp to the approximately 2.3 million blocks that laborers stacked 481 feet high over the ancient Egyptian tomb of Khufu. Although the king’s burial chamber is encased in granite, most of Giza’s largest pyramid consists of limestone: both the weathered brown core that remains today and the mostly missing pale exterior were built with that rock....

It comes from the north, dragging frigid air and awful commutes like a terrible shroud over the continental United States, from the Rocky Mountains all the way to the Atlantic. While the East Coast saw temperatures about 10 degrees below average Friday, snow hit much of the Midwest following a 40 degree drop over just a couple days in Chicago, and a region stretching from Denver to Montana saw sub-zero chills and record lows....

The four-wheeled Audi Lunar Quattro—rocking the carmaker’s familiar four-ring logo right on its grill—is the work of a German team called Part-Time Scientists (PTS), which created the machine as their entry into the Google Lunar XPrize. This competition challenges private teams to build, launch, and land a rover on the Moon, and then traverse 500 meters of the dusty lunar surface while shooting back photographic evidence of the feat. It’ll be an Instagram for the ages—and a $30 million bounty for the first team to do it....

The continent’s fire season started in September, and is still going strong. Bushfires are a normal part of Australian life, but these are unprecedented in size and duration, thanks to a drought that’s been going on since 2017 and a record-breaking heat wave. Millions of hectares have burned so far, killing an estimated half a billion mammals, birds, and reptiles, as well as an unknown number of insects. Biodiversity and human survival are tightly linked: Without the networks of microbes, fungi, animals, and plants that sustain ecosystems, everything from the weather to global food supply is threatened....

To help you find what you need, whether it be for gaming or productivity, we curated this list of the best 49-inch monitors for a variety of different users so that you can have everything you need right at your fingertips and in front of your face. Best overall: Samsung Odyssey Neo G9Best gaming: Samsung CRG9 49-Inch 1440p Ultrawide MonitorBest for productivity: LG 49WL95C-WEBest features: Philips Brilliance 499P9HBest curved: Dell UltraSharp QHD Curved Monitor Best for gaming on a budget: Asus ROG Strix Curved Gaming MonitorBest budget: AOC AGON 49-Inch 120Hz Gaming Monitor...