This was the heyday of Bell Labs. Established as the research arm of a telephone company, it had become a playground for scientists and engineers by the 1940s. This office complex was the forge of innovation after innovation: radio telescopes, lasers, solar cells, and multiple programming languages. But none were as consequential as the transistor. Some historians of technology have argued that the transistor, first crafted at Bell Labs in late 1947, is the most important invention in human history....

While many may dream of living their remaining days on Mars, those days may be numbered. The Martian environment poses significant challenges to Earth life, and establishing a Mars habitat will require an extraordinary amount of engineering prowess and technological knowhow to ensure the safety of its residents. Though we may soon have the launch vehicles needed to transport people to Mars, a lot of the technology required to keep astronauts alive on the planet just isn’t ready–and it may not be for many years....

Now at 51, the inventor and engineer is a member of IEEE and the co-director of MIT’s Center for Extreme Bionics, where he designs prosthetic legs (including his own), along with feet, ankles, knees, and hips which push the limits of human capabilities. Herr’s prosthetics have helped him to climb even more treacherous icefalls, and to continue clearing hurdles in the field of bionics. In his own words: Shortly after my amputation in 1982, I was fitted with prosthetic limbs....

“People around the world are increasingly feeling the impact of climate change on their health and wellbeing and these compounding crises are amplifying those harms. Yet governments and companies in both high- and low-income countries continue to prioritize fossil fuel interests,” the authors wrote in a statement. “This year’s report launches as countries and health systems grapple with the health, social and economic implications of climate change, which now compound the impacts of the global energy crisis, and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic....

But wind speed isn’t the only—or even the most important—variable in what makes a hurricane destructive. Part of the equation is, of course, where it hits. Plenty of hurricanes bluster through the middle of the Atlantic with little fanfare, since they’re far enough away that they don’t really affect us. And wind speed is, of course, a factor. But most of our most recent dangerous hurricanes have been all about water....

The X-47B is the world’s first autonomous warplane. From takeoff through landing, it flies with little or no direct control from human handlers. Although it is a prototype not intended for actual combat use—the Navy calls it a technology demonstrator—engineers designed it to slip into contested airspace, dodge antiaircraft defenses like cannons and surface-to-air missiles, and deliver strikes or perform reconnaissance. When it completes its mission early next year, the X-47B will be both the first tailless aircraft and the first unmanned one to ever land on a carrier....

This three-speed impact driver delivers a whopping 1,800 inch/pounds of torque, and features a one-handed bit loading 1/4-inch hex chuck with an easy-grip sleeve. Precision Drive and a variable speed trigger provides added control, and three bright LEDs eliminate shadows—and remain active for 20 seconds after you release the trigger so you can double-check your work. A brushless motor helps extend the tool’s life, and the included belt-clip keeps it handy when you need it....

Not to mention, wrapping iron molecules in organic molecules to alter their characteristics is way, way cheaper than mining asteroids. Read the whole story over at the NYT. New York Times

Many people look for more privacy when they browse the web by using their browsers in privacy-protecting modes, called “Private Browsing” in Mozilla Firefox, Opera, and Apple Safari, “Incognito” in Google Chrome, and “InPrivate” in Microsoft Edge. These private browsing tools sound reassuring, and they’re popular. According to a 2017 survey, nearly half of American internet users have tried a private browsing mode, and most who have tried it use it regularly....

FAILURE By default, the dual hard drives mirror each other, so if one drive fails, the other will have a copy of every byte lost. (This of course cuts the max storage from eight terabytes to four.) In the event of a complete meltdown, ioSafe will pay for forensic data recovery. DROPS AND THEFT A 0.05-inch steel shell surrounds the entire N2 and protects the drive from falls. The shell also helps deter thieves; an accessory allows users to padlock the front door and also bolt the drive to the floor or a tabletop....

In 2018, a team of researchers spotted a region with unusually bright radio reflections at the ice cap of Mars’s South Pole, using data from a radio instrument called MARSIS on the European Space Agency’s Mars Express Orbiter spacecraft. That detection launched a scientific debate that hasn’t slowed since. Pockets of liquid water under the surface could have explained the readings, says Cyril Grima, a planetary scientist at the University of Texas and lead author of the study published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters....

Last November, a 10-mile-wide and 42-foot-thick swarm of baby mauve stingers (Pelagia noctiluca) decimated Northern Ireland’s farmed-salmon population. Overnight,120,000 fish were reduced to a floating mass of carcasses by billions of the small jellies native to warmer waters thousands of miles to the south. The salmon, which were killed by stings and oxygen deprivation, had a market value of $2 million. Since 1996, massive “blooms” of mauve stingers have also plagued Mediterranean beachgoers....

Check out the latest episode of the Techathlon podcast! On this week’s episode of the podcast, we dig into some of the social media rules you might not even know you’re breaking and find out about some digital items from video games that are probably worth more than your actual house. And of course, the Techathlon Decathlon tests your knowledge of recent technology news. Check it out in the player above, subscribe on iTunes, add us on Stitcher, follow on Anchor, or find us wherever quality podcasts reside....

Download the latest episode of the Last Week in Tech podcast Executives from Twitter and Facebook sat in front of some very grumpy Congressional committees last week to talk about pesky problems like harassment, censorship, and international espionage. We watched the whole thing to pull out the interesting bits. At the same time, Google celebrated its 20th birthday (and Chrome turned 10!), so we talk about some of its most important moments (and biggest flops)....

It’s hard to tell exactly what this means for the average person, but we can only hope that within a decade, we’ll be using quantum smartphones to send dog-filter Snapchats to each other while we’re bored at the DMV. Keep reading for a rundown of the other big tech news that you may have missed this week. It will only take you a few minutes to read, or a small fraction of a second if you replaced your squishy human brain with a fancy new quantum brain....

A new study suggests it is. People who start exercising later in life—and yes, we mean as late as your 50s—reduce their mortality risk just as much as people who’ve been exercising their whole lives as compared to folks who are completely sedentary. What’s more, in this new study that held true regardless of how a person’s BMI fluctuated throughout their lives. The study, which was published in JAMA Network Open, shows how powerful exercise is and why it’s so important to be active late into your life....

Astrophysicists know that violent deaths of stars can form black holes typically up to tens of times the mass of the sun. Yet astronomers have seen black holes that are billions of solar masses, says Hooman Davoudiasl, a theoretical particle physicist at Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York and author of the study published last month in Physical Review Letters. What’s more, there’s evidence that these “giants” have existed since the first billion years of the universe’s history....

This project is great for younger children, especially if you stick to edible ingredients. Some recipes—like this one by PBS Parents—are based on flavored gelatin. If the tasty smell overcomes a child’s self-control, that main ingredient won’t hurt them, although the powder doesn’t taste great solo. We experimented with this formula, but most Jello mixes come in fruity flavors not often associated with winter holidays. So we also mixed up some paints based on cooking extracts—which kids should not sample on their own....

“We created a small pipe outlet to a yard drain at the downhill end to help it drain when there are really big storm events, but otherwise the water infiltrates into the ground, evaporates and is used by the plants,” she said. “Our project has gotten some attention from neighbors either curious about how it works or wanting to show us what they have done for more sustainable water management on their own properties....