Reboot your yard Lawn replacements cut down on the amount of water and pesticides familiar grasses suck up. Mary Cadenasso, an urban ecosystem ecologist at the University of California, Davis suggests using cardboard to break up with your luscious (and thirsty) lawn. First, cut your grass as close to the root as your mower can get. Leaving the blades where they fall add nitrogen to the soil, so leave them be....

Science and money have always had a fraught relationship. It costs a lot to keep labs and research projects funded, and researchers often have to cobble together a budget based on grants from government groups, non-profits, and for-profit companies, in addition to whatever funding might be available via the institution they’re affiliated with. This results in a complicated web of funding sources, sometimes from companies or groups with distinct investments in the outcome of the research....

“It is a lot harder for children with special health care needs to get stable housing,” says Andrew Barnes, professor of pediatrics at the University of Minnesota Medical School, who was not involved in the new study. “It can lead to a really concerning negative cycle: Kids are less healthy, they’re less likely to get good housing, and that in turn can [negatively] affect [their] health.” The new study, published this week in the journal Pediatrics, used data from surveys given to caregivers of over 14,000 children under the age of four at five different hospitals around the country....

Each type of heat illness occurs when the human body can’t cool itself efficiently via thermoregulation. A root cause: dehydration. When our bodies are short on fluids, either because we haven’t had enough water or we’ve been sweating profusely, that perspiration—our built-in cooling system—dries up. That leaves us without an effective way to avoid overheating. Heat sickness of any kind can happen whenever the mercury rises, but is most common in hot and humid areas of the world....

Sadly for Spike, the kicks don’t hold all the answers. At least, they aren’t more ergonomically advantageous or safer to play in than other footwear, says Jay Hertel, a professor of sports medicine at the University of Virginia. For example, he explains that there isn’t any good evidence of Chucks or Jordans protecting athletes from ankle sprains. Most studies found no significant differences between high-tops and low-tops when it came to injuries; a few even found that the former can put increased stress on the Achilles tendon during certain movements....

The rising number of homemade doggy diets reflects a general trend that vets have pointed out in academic papers for years: more and more pet owners don’t want to feed their companions dry food manufactured by a big company. Natural dog food sales shot up 43 percent in 2018 compared to the previous year, and there was a 27 percent increase in sales of kibbles without artificial colors. “Every time there’s a large pet food recall, more people become interested in making their own food,” says Rebecca Remillard, a veterinary nutritionist who founded a consultation service for other vets....

Chess The history of AI arguably begins with chess. Around 1948, computing pioneer Alan Turing scribbled the first lines of an algorithm for pondering rooks and bishops. Nearly 50 years later, IBM’s Deep Blue program edged out world champ Garry Kasparov in a sweat-soaked competition. Checkers IBM whiz Arthur Samuel wrote the first checkers program on his company’s clunky 701 computer in the 1950s. A generation later, researchers at the University of Alberta solved the board for good: Their Chinook program clobbered a checkers champ in 1994 and became officially unbeatable by 2007....

Each project begins with the artist inserting the far end of a blowpipe into the furnace and rolling it back and forth until a gob—it’s actually called that—of glass forms. Any excess is dropped into a steel can and reused. A wooden mold called a block helps shape the molten bubble. Although it cools rapidly, the material is still more than 1800°F. The team soaks the timber in water to create a protective layer of steam that keeps the tool from burning—which would damage it and mar the artwork....

Fortunately, there’s a solution: hydroponic farming. It involves less space, time, money, and effort than traditional in-the-soil gardening, and yields spectacular results jam-packed with nutrients. What is hydroponic gardening? Hydroponics encompasses several methods of using nutrient-infused water to cultivate plants without soil. Aeroponic gardens, for example, use misters to bathe plant roots in nourishing water vapor, while aquaponic setups pump nutrient-rich water from tanks of fish or snails. Hydroponics also uses a number of different types of systems, from shallow, tabletop-style trays with irrigation lines for watering plants, to water-filled tanks full of floating plants with their roots immersed in a nutritive solution....

A review commissioned by the UK Environmental Observation Framework (UK-EOF) highlights some of the work that citizen scientists have done. A team looked at 234 projects and determined that pro bono volunteers offered a cost-effective way of collecting data whether they were nature fans or kids. The researchers also found that volunteer contributions could have immediate effects outside academia: With more data than usual collected from a small army of volunteer researchers, the environment can be monitored like never before, and that mountain of data can help better inform environmental policy....

Did they build this massive thing on their own? Did they get their architecture, engineering, and interior design degrees while they went through that training/backstory montage? No, of course not. They had henchpeople build it for them, outsourcing the complicated stuff to people who knew more about constructing an island fortress than they do. There’s only one problem with that plan. Letting more people in on a secret virtually ensures that it won’t stay secret for long....

Our team of scientists studied how extreme weather events affect river fish in Puerto Rico. The island is ideal for examining the environmental and human impacts on freshwater fish because Puerto Rico has only nine native species and, unlike smaller Caribbean islands, many inland rivers—46, to be exact. Numerous exotic fish, introduced by humans over the past century, compete for limited food and habitat with Puerto Rican species like the waterfall-climbing sirajo goby, the streamlined mountain mullet, and the bigmouth sleeper, a top river predator....

Use apps to learn instrumental techniques Mastering instrumental techniques is the most tedious part of the learning process. Instrument technique apps can help you practice while keeping you engaged. No matter what your ultimate goal is, playing music offers vast cognitive benefits for children and adults alike, and you should consider using the following tools as you embark upon your musical journey. When I began to learn the piano at around 17 years old, The One Smart Piano app (free for Android and iOS) helped me master the fingerings and learn how to play with both hands....

However, there is a bit of hope in the European Union at least. Just this week, the group of nations proposed binding targets to reduce risky pesticides by 50 percent by 2030. On top of this, they put forth an all-out ban in areas like public parks, gardens, playgrounds, public paths, and ecologically sensitive spots. “We need to reduce the use of chemical pesticides to protect our soil, air and food, and ultimately the health of our citizens,” European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety Stella Kyriakides said in a release....

That’s a lot of cultural history right there. Sure, Bond’s world is fictional, but it provides a curious lens into history — especially the colossal threats posed by supervillains whom Bond is, of course, licensed to kill. Here are five James Bond movies that twist technological threats from the zeitgeist — and from the near future. See the gallery.

Rain jackets are more than just a membrane. They usually consist of three layers: an outer textile that the big fat rain droplets hit first, then that porous membrane, then another layer that’s against your skin. They come in different variants, but that’s the general construction. The innovation that the North Face is crowing about the loudest with Futurelight pertains to that membrane in the middle, which must have pores in it small enough to prevent water from penetrating, but large enough to let water vapor molecules through....

Every once in a while, a beach you want to swim at may be closed due to increased shark activity. But the truth is, encounters with these regal creatures of the deep are extremely rare—more so, in fact, than getting struck by lightning or succumbing to insect stings. But if you spend a significant amount of time in shark territory (i.e. the ocean), it doesn’t hurt to be informed before you strap on your flippers....

Warning: DIY projects can be dangerous, even for the most experienced makers. Before proceeding with this or any other project on our site, ensure you have all necessary safety gear and know how to use it properly. At minimum, that may include safety glasses, a face mask, and/or ear protection. If you’re using power tools, you must know how to use them safely and correctly. If you do not, or are otherwise uncomfortable with anything described here, don’t attempt this project....

The fake, the gray, and the non-existent By its very nature, a lot of tech gear is easy to forge. Sure, you’ll spot a fake iPhone without much effort, but what about a fake SanDisk SD card? This is a huge problem for photographers, as SanDisk is one of the most popular brands of memory cards. In 2011, an engineer at the company estimated that around 30 percent of SanDisk-labeled cards were fake....

MONOPOLY Most players forget the real goal of this game: It’s not to become rich. Instead, you must bankrupt your opponents before they wipe you out. Brian Valentine, who placed third at the 2015 World Monopoly Championship, recommends going all in on the orange properties. From jail, a ­rival’s dice toss of six or eight—statistically among the most likely rolls—puts them smack in the middle of this real estate. This makes these amber gems some of the most lucrative on the block....