We’re going to stay within the laws of physics, though, and focus on the second option. These apps, sites, and services help you get some of your life back by hiring people to take care of a few of your chores, or streamline your day by letting you get certain tasks done via your phone or laptop that would otherwise require travel, time, and money. Learning a language Online language tutors fill that gap between actual classes you physically have to attend—not always convenient or practical—and language learning apps that are simple to use but don’t necessarily give you the personalized, detailed education you really need to master a language....

The pages of Popular Science reveal all the instruments you need for the world’s weirdest orchestra. For the indecisive, there’s the “cello-horn,” pictured above. For giants, there’s the 14-foot fiddle. And for those who like playing with their food, the singing coconut makes a nice fit. Personally, I would pick the typewriter that plays music as you type words. Finding the guitar to be a “sweet-toned instrument, but [lacking] in projection power,” R....

The demonstration took place earlier this year at the Salisbury Plain Training Ground in southern England near Stonehenge. The drone was controlled, at least in part, by a system called “Free Space Optical Communications (FSOC),” in which information is turned into light, transmitted through the open sky, and picked up by a dedicated receiver. “FSOC provide very high bandwidth, very low probability of detection communications, low logistical footprint and the potential to negate the considerable investment that adversaries may have made in denying the RF spectrum,” reads the July announcement from QinetiQ....

Braising is a method for cooking food very slowly in a closed pot with a bit of liquid until it’s tender. The process is straightforward in theory, but the sheer volume of recipes out there means it’s hard to know what you’re getting into until it’s too late. Braising is commonly used to cook tough cuts of meat, and though they’re cheaper than steaks, that doesn’t mean they’re budget-friendly wonders....

Their idea is based on epigenetics–the concept that things like your height, weight, and other physical traits are based on not just what genes you inherit, but also the interaction of those genes with the environment you live in. Depending on that interaction, certain genes can turn on or off other genes–one of the main reasons why identical twins sometimes don’t look so identical. The researchers focused on a particular gene, named Trim28, which they found affected weight in mice–making them either lean or obese, but nothing in between....

The downside? Carbon emissions related to tourism have been on the rise in the past few years, and scientists suggest the industry is responsible for up to 8% of the world’s total carbon emissions. Fortunately, that’s something we can change. “Sustainability starts with breaking down our assumptions about what day-to-day life has to look like, even on vacation.” says travel and outdoor writer Meghan O’Dea. “A beautiful landscape doesn’t always equate to an eco-friendly destination....

The unusual collection of stars—dubbed the “Phoenix stream,” after the constellation in which it’s visible—is what’s known as a stellar stream: an elongated chain of stars that used to be a globular cluster, a densely packed swarm of ancient stars. There are around 150 known globular clusters patrolling the outskirts of the Milky Way’s halo, a cold and sparse expanse of space. But when researchers examined the chemistry of the dozens of bright, red giant stars contained within Phoenix, they noticed something peculiar: They had an unusually low “metallicity”, which is shorthand for the presence of elements heavier than hydrogen and helium....

His solution uses two turbine generators; in the first, the pressure of escaping exhaust spins the turbine to generate electricity. The second uses waste heat from the exhaust to turn water into steam; the steam powers the generator before traveling into a condenser, where it turns back into water and starts the loop again. Both turbines feed electricity back into the hybrid system’s batteries for a 20 percent reduction in greenhouse-gas emissions and a 20 percent more efficient vehicle....

The proposed pill contains an experimental compound that blocks proteins from binding to vitamin A, also known as retinoic acid, which is known to be crucial to fertility and virility in mammals. Chemists and pharmacologists at the University of Minnesota hope that blocking vitamin A’s selective compound interactions in cells will create reliable but reversible sterility in humans. The team has already shown that it’s 99 percent effective in preventing pregnancy in mice without known side effects, plus the mice were able to produce offspring normally again 4-6 weeks after they stopped receiving the compound....

Because the increases are so extreme at Svalbard, scientists have flocked to study the site, and since 2019, photographer Esther Horvath has captured life in this icy terrain. Her focus: an international group of women, some as young as their 20s, who run Ny-Ålesund, a mining village turned scientific base camp. From there, they witness the shift in all its fury and reveal how changes in the far reaches trickle down to the rest of the planet....

All you need is a mirror, some cardboard, and lenses harvested from an old slide projector. Set up your portable iPod projector in a dark room, and the images from the iPod’s screen will be reflected through the lenses, creating a roughly five-by-seven-inch picture. Then grab some Milk Duds and kick back with a downloaded movie or the latest episode of The Daily Show. Make an iPod Projector **Cost: $25 Time: 30 minutes Easy | | | | | Hard Materials...

Here’s a look at what to expect from the two new services. Car crash detection Apple has previously rolled out two features tied to its wearable device that detect if you’ve taken a spill: a form of everyday fall-detection (in 2018) and then, last year, a workout-focused version of the same. A new service, announced today, aims to notice that you’ve been in a car accident and then call for help....

But, in 2015, the MacBook Pro really felt like it lost its way. Thermal performance and a desire to make the laptop slimmer limited its performance and the fancy new Touch Bar added cool functionality, but it also evicted the physical escape key, which coding users need. The keyboard as a whole represented a major sticking point for heavy users—literally. The butterfly mechanism under the keys was too easily defeated by crumbs or debris, which is a scary prospect when you’ve spent plenty of nights eating dinner at your desk trying to finish a video, photo gallery, code, or any other thing a pro user might have to churn out....

The paper advises clinicians to share their experiences and consider developing some kind of source file that other medical personnel can draw upon for case studies and reference. It also calls for medical documentation of spaceflight cases past be made readily available to doctors serving a general public that will soon be visiting the upper reaches of the atmosphere and beyond. Spaceflight is not for everyone. Common side effects include motion sickness, vomiting, back pain, fatigue, loss of appetite, dehydration, long and arduous cold wars, loss of sleep, and in rare cases: death....

The pair are actually mannequin torsos, called phantoms, that are inspired by hospital training tools and are made to mimic human bones, soft tissues, and the internal organs of an adult female. They were borned out of a collaboration with the Israel Space Agency and the German Aerospace Center, and are designed with sensors that can map radiation exposure levels throughout the body. Zohar, specifically, will wear a radiation protection vest designed to protect the real astronauts slated for future Artemis missions—including the first women to go to the moon....

In Mark’s own words: I always thought scientists needed a large sample size. It turns out when you don’t have that opportunity, a small sample can still lead to really useful science. In our case, it’s just one sample: Scott as subject, me as control. I’ve spent only 50-something days in space. When Scott gets back in March, I think he will have spent something like 3 percent of his life there....

Hitting a red light annoyingly interrupts a smooth cruise through the greens, of course, but fortunately, Audi has been working on an answer to this problem using a form of in-car technology it calls the Traffic Light Information (TLI) system. As an Audi equipped with the TLI system drives along a roadway, the car’s cellular radio downloads real-time updates on the status of nearby traffic lights, supplied by participating local traffic control centers....

Under the right circumstances, seals have been shown to display parrot-level mimicry. A harbour seal named Hoover was found and raised by a Maine fisherman, and spent his adult years in an aquarium hollering at visitors in a thick New England accent. And two years ago, a team at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland taught a grey seal to sing the “Star Wars” theme. “If you go look around the animal kingdom, there aren’t so many species that can do that,” says Jadoul....

The goat head showed just how desperate Chicago Cubs fans had gotten. For decades, they’d tested every charm and superstition to break a curse that was supposedly keeping the team championship-less. I should know—I grew up rooting for the Cubs (and still do). And though I’ve never hand-delivered organs to anyone, I’ve partaken in my fair share of superstitious behaviors. For reasons unexplained, baseball fans indulge in freakish rituals they believe are crucial to their team’s prosperity....

Planetary researchers at the German Aerospace Center last week announced a completed atlas of the Ceres. From their announcement: Below are the other image plates from the atlas. Be sure to pore over them closely, in case there’s any signs of a womp rat-sized thermal exhaust port.