This year we could see big payouts for innovations in genomics and technology to be used to build the space elevator. And expect more challenges to be announced. Dozens of smaller competitions are promising impressive bundles in exchange for breakthroughs in alternative aviation fuels, cancer research and affordable health care. Pick a field and prepare to quit your day job. Here, a tinkering man’s guide to getting rich this year and beyond....
According to Peter Eckersley, an EFF technologist involved with the Switzerland project, there’s just not enough transparency for end-users to know whether a service provider is deliberately tampering with their connection and therefore reducing the value of the service. “At a technical level, the problem we’re really addressing is that there are no existing tools that make detection and examination of modified traffic easy and automatic, Eckersley told me via email....
A few weeks ago, I received an unsettling email. The staff at my daughter’s pediatrician’s office—a family-run private practice in Brooklyn that serves more than 3,800 patients—was shifting to part time. The practice had applied for the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program, meant to help small businesses weather the economic turmoil brought by the COVID-19 pandemic. But the money wasn’t coming, at least in the initial round of funding....
Born in 1755 in Meissen, near Dresden, Hahnemann was—in the parlance of the time—super-duper-smart. His father, disdainful of formal education, took him out of school for “thinking lessons,” where he would instruct the boy to simply sit there and . . . uh . . . think. Despite this unusual practice (or maybe because of it, who knows?), Hahnemann quickly mastered pharmacy, botany, physics, and at least ten languages. After working as a translator, he studied medicine at Leipzig and Vienna, and at last graduated from the University of Erlangen....
A gene in South Asian individuals could increase the risk of death from COVID-19 A new study published in Nature Genetics identifies a gene that contributes to respiratory failure and death in South Asian individuals who’ve contracted COVID-19. It could explain the increased susceptibility of mortalities from the disease in certain ethnicities, but medical experts also reminded the public that socioeconomic status and other external factors contribute greatly, as well. The gene changes the way that a person’s lungs react to contracting an infection, and is one of the most important genetic indicators of risk level found for the coronavirus so far by researchers....
On July 17, SpaceX completed a launch of 53 Starlink broadband satellites via one of its Falcon 9 rockets. This marked the 31st successful mission this year and the 13th launch using the same Falcon 9 rocket stage. SpaceX has also sent the most boosters to space this year. SpaceX’s US-based competitor United Launch Alliance has completed about one launch every 64 days. SpaceX is also launching more often than national space agencies....
The oven itself is about the same size as a microwave oven—18.5 x 12.32 x 11.75-inches. It also weighs 21 pounds, so it’s fairly easy to store or move around. Controls on the front allow you to pick the cooking mode, scan barcodes to trigger different prep times, pick your temperature, and preheat the oven if you’re baking. Along with the oven, you’ll receive an oven mitt, drip tray, crumb tray, oven rack, cooking sheet, and measuring cup to add the water into the machine’s tank....
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Initially, the explosions were inexplicable. What could have possibly set the mines off? Big marine animals? Equipment malfunctions? Were the North Vietnamese using a secret strategy to blow up the mines remotely? Over four-and-a-half decades later, we now know the culprit was the sun. According to findings recently published in the journal Space Weather, a powerful solar storm likely triggered the mines’ magnetic sensors and caused them to explode. “It was a storm of magnificent proportions,” says Delores Knipp, a space weather researcher at the University of Colorado, Boulder and the lead author of the new paper....
Allison Wing: Making forecasts less hazyMichael Giacomelli: Turbocharging surgical pathologyBianca Jones Marlin: Untangling generational traumaMatthew Stamm: Dusting for digital fingerprints to find deepfakesFrank Leibfarth: Removing forever chemicals from drinking waterJosiah Hester: Powering electronics without batteriesBrenda Rubenstein: Storing data in chemical soupFangqiong Ling: Tracking public health with smart sewersMichael Troxel: Shining light on dark matterStacy Branham: Adapting technology for those who need it most Making future forecasts less hazy Allison Wing sees a hole in the world’s major climate models: The reports published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change factor in water vapor, but not the way it forms clouds—or, more specifically, the way they cluster in the skies....
Some 240,000 miles below, earthbound researchers waited on a soon-to-be fulfilled fantasy: the opportunity to subject lunar samples to every known chemical, geological, physical, and biological test available. Over the course of six Apollo missions—the first of which celebrates its 50-year anniversary this week—astronauts retrieved 842 pounds of sand, dust, rocks, and core samples from the moon. They make for unconventional souvenirs, but the Apollo samples collected from 1969 to 1972 are a gift to science that keeps giving....
For centuries, seeing where the enemy is without being caught was the primary form of military intelligence. Human scouts, on foot or horseback, would advance beyond the main formations of an advancing army, looking for the telltale signs of a mass of armed people. In modern times, that task has expanded to include work done from vehicles on land, sea, air, and satellites in space, but the human scouts haven’t been forgotten....
Really, the phrase “Apple Watch alternative” sometimes does these gadgets a disservice. Apple’s offering is great, but there are other top smartwatches and fitness trackers on the market that deserve to be recognized for their own forms and features. You can find brainy accessories that satisfy all kinds of purposes: collecting health metrics, delivering notifications, tracking outdoors adventures, and much more. So let’s look at the non-Apple products that can keep your phone in your pocket but your life connected to the web....
Dark Sky Of course you’ll want to keep a careful eye on the forecast during your days in a tent, and of all the mobile weather apps, few can match Dark Sky for the sort of hyper-local, next-few-hour forecasts you’re going to need out in the fields. The app employs some smart algorithms to predict what the weather’s going to do next, and also offers a detailed radar map view so you can see exactly where the rain clouds are headed....
Comfort. If your campsite is just off the road or you’re pitching a tent in the backyard, consider a cot that comes with foam or an air mattress. The extra weight of this design can be a more-than-acceptable tradeoff for a softer and more supportive surface. Camping cots can also make a comfy guest bed for indoor sleepovers. The best models should still only take up minimal space in your closet or trunk....
Samsung kicked things off with its folding phone Last week marked the announcement of a whole gaggle of Samsung gadgets just before MWC got started. The most practical announcement was the Galaxy S10 with a nifty fingerprint sensor that’s under the screen itself. The most exciting new device, however, was the Galaxy Fold, which flaps open to reveal a 7.3-inch screen that functions as a tablet. Huawei Mate X is a skinnier folding phone with a bigger screen While Huawei’s phone folds, it’s a lot different than Samsung’s....
Best overall: Jackery Explorer 2000 ProBest for camping: Goal Zero Yeti 1000 CoreBest for off-grid living: Bluetti AC200 MaxBest for homes: EcoFlow Delta ProBest portable: Anker 545Best budget: Jackery Explorer 300 How we selected the best solar generators As an avid outdoorsman, I’ve had the opportunity to test an extremely wide range of outdoor gear, including mobile and off-grid electrification equipment like solar-powered generators. These became particularly essential when the pandemic forced my travels to become domestic rather than international, which prompted me to outfit a van for long-term road-tripping....
The Cassia Hub, announced at CES today, wants to make Bluetooth better. It takes the router’s idea of a central device that can talk to every other connected device in the home, and bridges it to Bluetooth, which is more popular for things like small speakers. Cassia claims that their device can work up to 1000 feet with 22 devices, which is far, far more than the standard range for Bluetooth....
The company’s chemists tested 5,000 recipes before they came up with EcoRock’s stew of 20 materials. The fly ash, slag, kiln dust and fillers—85 percent of which are industrial by-products—react chemically when mixed with water and bind together into a paste that’s poured into sheets. The oven-free process uses just 20 percent of the energy of the typical method. And without the starch and cellulose that’s mixed into ordinary gypsum boards, EcoRock is impervious to termites and mold....
We’re not on the floor of CES this year, but we keep track of all the new products making their debut, highlighting the ones we feel stand out. We’re hoping to review a ton of them this year, but for now, here’s a list of the coolest stuff we’ve seen so far from CES 2023. Formlabs Automation ecosystem 3D printers are fun and surprisingly useful, but they require attention and babysitting, which leads to downtime between prints....
