The laser was developed for the MOD’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL). Like most laser weapons, it is a composite technology, a sum of multiple systems put together into one more functional package. This included controls and image processing from defense contractor MBDA, a beam directory to track and point at targets made by defense contractor Leonardo, and a 50-kilowatt laser built by QinetiQ. In the future, the plan is for this laser to be able to “scale fire-power levels,” likely letting the user increase or decrease power to match the target....

This week’s episode features special guest Arielle Duhaime-Ross, who until recently served as Climate Correspondent on HBO’s Vice News Tonight. She’s now the host of Reset, a tech podcast from Vox launching October 15. Arielle joined us to tell the tragic and troubling tale of the creatures most of us call buffalo, which fell prey to the government’s targeted attacks on Native Americans and now exists in a strange state of not-quite-extinction....

So how do smart syringes work? A quick search finds dozens of patents, dating from the 1980s onwards. Many designs block users from being able to pull the syringe’s plunger up again after someone pushes it down for the first time. Here’s a syringe design with a barrel containing little barbs inside that keep users from drawing the plunger up again after just one use: Here’s a patent, one of many, for a syringe with a locking mechanism and a plunger that’s purposefully designed to be weak....

Whether these masterpieces of destruction come from miles above Earth or millimeters below the skin, they have one thing in common: they’re spooky as hell. Can turning animals into cyborgs ever end well? Should lasers really be strapped to planes? Is dispersing humans with the worst smell ever created a better alternative to doing it by burning their skin? You be the judge. Launch our gallery of the world’s spookiest weapons—some decades away and others already implemented—and marvel over what humans can create when they work apart....

Test: Press Conference I took minimal notes at the event while recording the entire presentation (the Pulse stores at least 100 hours of audio). I wore the included earbuds, which have not only speakers but also microphones that capture three-dimensional audio by recording how sound strikes each ear. Results: I heard clear audio perfectly linked to my notes, and the 3-D playback let me focus on the voice at the front of the room while ignoring noisy journalists on either side....

There’s really no denying the convenience wireless listening devices bring. They offer increased flexibility, making them ideal for people on the go. Now that we’ve reached the point that we’re living life semi-normally, wireless earphones allow you to enjoy your music even when you’re out and about. You don’t even have to break the bank to get yourself a quality pair. Why splurge on AirPods when you can cop the Coby True Wireless Earbuds, which are designed to sound off high-quality sonics....

For retailers and brands from Coca-Cola to Anheuser-Busch, incorrectly-stocked shelves, whether because stuff is selling or because it’s been put in the wrong place, is more than an annoyance: it’s potential for millions in lost sales. The Pensa Systems drone can fly around a store and examine items on both normal shelves and coolers, comparing what’s actually in the store to planograms — a retailer’s map of what things should look like....

These properties make the colorful little beetles a great source of inspiration for flying robots, says Kyu-Jin Cho, the director of the Soft Robotics Research Center at Seoul National University in South Korea. He and his colleagues have built robots that fly using a pair of wings that snap open and lock much like those of real ladybugs. “We are trying to mimic the fundamental principle behind creating those motions,” says Cho, who described his work this week in the journal Science Robotics....

1. Sean Casten Where he’s running: Illinois– 6th district Party: Democrat Science Background: Biochemical engineer Prior position: Clean energy entrepreneur How did you come to work in the clean energy sector? For my whole professional career I’ve been concerned about climate change. I went to graduate school to work on biofuel research and fell in love with the idea that you could make industrial processes more efficient with pretty simple technological changes....

Some 5,000 satellites currently orbit Earth, beaming back data about our little blue planet from the vantage point of space. The results can be surprising, altering human perception of the ground beneath our feet. Here are six satellite images of some of the globe’s most famous natural features. Can you identify them all, or do these far-out photos leave you seeing stars?

The unabbreviated German name of the system is almost as long as the arm itself: Kampfmittelaufklärung und-identifizierung, which stands for “ordnance reconnaissance and identification.” It’s known simply as KAI. The long arm is carried atop the latest variant of a 30-year-old armored transport vehicle called the Fuchs 1A8 (“fuchs” is “fox,” in German). The 23-ton vehicle itself is well protected from mine and improvised explosive device (IED) blasts and can hit speeds as fast as 50 miles per hour....

The DNS is frequently compared to a phone book—it translates the words of a domain name into an IP address, which are the numbers that represent that name. For example, 172.217.6.68 takes you to Google.com. In part because it is easier for people to remember words than strings of numbers like that, the DNS is what figures out what those numbers should be when you type an address into your browser....

The researchers who most recently captured footage of one of these swimming globs of gelatinous flesh weren’t the ones to name it, but they are the first to find it so far south. This particular cuke was hanging out in the Southern Ocean off the coast of East Antarctica. Other scientists have only ever filmed it in the Gulf of Mexico, though other sightings have been recorded since it was first discovered in the late 1800s....

Here are a couple of examples IBM’s PR agent sent to me: But if those don’t entice you, you can always do some searching yourself. Type in “Christmas” or “New Year’s Eve” or “Holidays” in as a style, and see what strange halibut, turkey, and prune dishes Chef Watson spits out. This year I may just end up serving some Holiday Short Grain Fried Rice with cocoa, or or maybe some Christmas Dried Papaya Seared Tuna....

Kamo’oalewa, which is less than 200 feet across, never gets closer to Earth than 9 million miles, remaining 38 times farther away than our moon. Its wee size and dim reflectiveness mean Kamo’oalewa is extremely difficult to observe. The asteroid comes closest to our planet every April, giving astronomers a few precious weeks to observe the tiny celestial body. Using the Large Binocular Telescope on Mount Graham in southern Arizona, astronomers analyzed the light reflections of the asteroid and found that the resulting spectrum closely matched those of lunar rocks from NASA’s Apollo mission, indicating that Kamooalewa might be an ancient fragment of our moon....

Kelly Fields can’t show up to Thanksgiving without a bourbon chocolate pecan pie. For the past 20 years, the pie has been her ticket into the annual celebration, and she never risks attending a holiday meal without the decadent treat. “The pie gets better every year,” Fields says via phone as she starts the day at her New Orleans restaurant, Willa Jean. Some years, her pie is really gooey, others, more dry, but the textural differences are what lure Fields and her family back to the dessert every year....

In 2020, the Clean Air Act prevented more than 230,000 deaths, around 85 percent of which are linked to reductions in ambient particulate matter that have caused premature mortality rates to decline. According to the EPA, benefits from the act exceed costs by an average factor of 30 to one. However, while air contaminants have fallen across the entire country, disparities in the populations most exposed to pollution still very much exist....

But not all media is bad for slumber. Restflix, as you can tell by the name, uses binaural beats in its content to harness the brain’s responsiveness to sound, helping you sleep happy and relaxed instead of stressed and agitated. Sleep patterns are changing with Daylight Savings so close, and watching Restflix might be just what you need to knock out. You can grab a lifetime subscription on sale for 74 percent off....

Cake, a Swedish company focused on developing light, electric motorbikes, has revealed its first-ever street-legal machine called the Kalk& (and). It debuted at the Outdoor Retailer Show in Denver, a fitting location considering Cake’s downhill and enduro mountain bike influences. This is just an introductory launch however. The full sales launch with final sales price, complete specs and estimated availability will be in March of this year. We do know that the Kalk& (and) is a close sibling of the Kalk OR, which was released in January 2018....

1. Good The Panasonic RP-HD605N headphones tap two sets of mics to power three tiers of noise ­canceling. Tap a button on the right ear cup to choose what you block (or hear) in a given scene. Use the lowest setting to catch both your podcast and a gate announcement, the middle to zap train engines, and the top for sweet, total solitude. 2. Better The rotating dial on the right ­ear cup of the Microsoft ­Surface Headphones lets you toggle through 13 ­noise-​­altering modes....