But a new model-based study contradicts that idea and suggests that certain species may have in fact travelled widely amid global glacial conditions. While the findings don’t spell out exactly when birds began their seasonal flights, they could deepen our understanding of the large-scale migration cycles. Unlike previous migration models, the researchers behind the paper, recently published in Nature Communications, based their simulations on how birds optimize energy on the move....

And “boids” they are: The illustrations themselves are not scientifically accurate, and a couple of them never even existed (the “nasty tern” or the “jail bird,” for example). But that hardly matters: this isn’t supposed to be a guidebook to extinct species. It’s one artist’s view of birds, their spirits and personalities and their place in our collective imaginations.

Hurricane warnings are in effect in western Cuba, where the storm is likely to hit from this afternoon into tomorrow. Ian is set to rapidly intensify over the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico and could reach Category 4 strength as early as this afternoon. It is currently forecast to make landfall on either the western coast of Florida or the Florida Panhandle by midday Thursday, but uncertainty remains about the hurricanes track and intensity....

Readers want to know: how can you tell if the new animal or plant you’ve stumbled across is a unique, as of yet unnamed species? Do you know the answer? Submit your science and technology questions to fyi@popsci.com.

But what’s ironic is that there’s nothing inherently sexy about making meaning out of seemingly incomprehensible mounds of raw data. If anything, the job is incredibly laborious, as it requires gathering, organizing, processing, analyzing, and visualizing information. If there’s a “sexy” part of the job, though, it’s probably making data visually appealing to the masses. Now data scientists use multiple tools in order to transform data into digestible content, but few are more powerful than Microsoft Excel and Power BI....

Through a lot of trial and error—reportedly over 882,000 training simulations, to be more exact—developers designed a new “Damage Reflex” system for their humanoid robot test subject. When activated, the robot’s neural network quickly identifies the best spot on a neanrby wall to support itself if its stability gets compromised. Well, perhaps not so much “if” as “when,” judging from the demonstration video below. As Engadget explains, the testing procedure sounds pretty simple, if a bit macabre: To showcase the Damage Reflex system in action, the robot has one of its legs “broken” to ensure it tips over towards a nearby test wall....

Your router’s features make easier to use, but these same properties often make it less secure. In recent years, vulnerabilities in the common Universal Plug and Play (UPNP) protocol, which facilitates communication between devices on a network, was used to hack thousands of routers. There’s a good chance your device remains vulnerable to this and many other security holes. The problem gets worse if you rely on an older model, which may not have patches for recently discovered vulnerabilities....

The process, in theory, starts with a cyclocopter, a drone that flies without rotors or traditional wings. Resting on the cyclocopter as a platform, a fixed-wing scout drone would be carried into the air. Then, with the cyclocopter flying forward, the fixed-wing drone would take off from it like it was on a runway, with the platform drone dropping away. For landings, the process would reverse, with the fixed-wing drone catching a ride on a moving platform, and then descending back to the ship....

With spring approaching, you may want to stay prepared and invest in a power station before anyone else gets the same idea. The EcoFlow DELTA Power Station, which was successfully funded on Kickstarter and raked in almost $2 million in support, is the ideal energy companion on your travels, and for a limited time, you can grab it on sale for 21 percent off. An incredibly powerful battery-powered generator, the EcoFlow is compatible with a wide range of devices, allowing you to stay powered for hours whenever and wherever....

The question remains, though: why seven layers? What is the numerological significance?

In a study published this week in the journal Science, researchers compared our sun to 369 stars deemed similar to the one at the center of our own solar system—ones that take between 20 and 30 days to rotate on their axes, along with having comparable chemical compositions, masses, ages, and surface temperatures. Each of the studied stellar bodies had been observed by NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope from 2009 to 2013, allowing the researchers to compare fluctuations in brightness during that period....

The new investigation comes out of a larger quest to understand how planets are formed. According to Amy Bonsor, an astronomer at the University of Cambridge and a coauthor of the new paper, the goal was to “study the composition of rocky bodies outside our solar system that have been swallowed by the remnants of stars like our sun, called white dwarfs.” These sorts of studies have shown just how prevalent materials like calcium and aluminum are in rocky exoplanets, and the team wanted to know what sorts of conditions might give rise to a planet made entirely of such materials....

Now the Dawn spacecraft has returned the best image yet of this cryptic region, after moving into a lower orbit around the planetoid in August. The image makes it clear that one of the spots is centrally located and highly concentrated, while the other appears to be more speckled. That rules out our Death Star hypothesis. Dawn’s chief engineer Marc Rayman says the spacecraft could soon answer our questions about the spots....

First, the scale of the problem. There are a staggering amount of guns in existence. Not just guns, which the Small Arms Survey estimated as at least 875 million in 2007, but also a staggering number of types of guns. And it’s not just recent guns; NATO troops in Afghanistan recovered multiples weapons dating back to the World War I and even one from the 1870s. “Jane’s Guns Recognition Guide,” a gun identification reference manual intended for law enforcement and other legal authorities, contains extensive detail on almost 400 types, and includes a list of over 1,100 other brand names for guns....

However, according to a study published today in the journal Science Advances, some of the largest animals in Asia are thriving and seeing population growth while living alongside humans. The team of researchers examined paleontological records showing where Asia’s 14 largest animals species have been distributed throughout history and compared it with their current populations in present-day tropical forests near human settlements. Four species—tigers, Asian elephants, wild boars, and clouded leopards—showed an increase in population in areas with human infrastructure....

A power failure in Atlanta eliminated the ability to transmit live footage while immediately placing every bartender in Boston in a very clear and present danger. “People were in a little uproar because they thought we didn’t put the game on. They were just screaming at us to put it on and try all the other stations — Fox, TNT,” said Mike Fusco, manger of the Boston bar Cask N Flagon, to the AP....

“With a price point of just $29, it has become the weapon of choice of stalkers and abusers,” reads a portion of the lawsuit, as The New York Times reported yesterday. Apple first debuted AirTags in April 2021. Within the ensuing eight months, at least 150 police reports from just eight precincts reviewed by Motherboard explicitly mentioned abusers utilizing the tracking devices to stalk and harass women. In the new lawsuit, plaintiffs allege that one woman’s abuser hid the location devices within her car’s wheel well....

A new study has classed a species of bird into groups of more and less aggressive males. Researchers gauged the response of male collared flycatchers to female birds, to a strange object, and to other males. They found that each type of individual displayed consistent behavior in each of these situations. However, they also found that the birds more likely to take risks also were the ones most likely to be trapped — and thus studied further — raising important questions about the skewed sample set presented when researchers base their findings on animals caught in traps....

The Hummingbird drone is just over 4 feet long, with a wingspan of about 5 feet, and many little propellers driven by electric motors. A dozen of those props exist to help the small aircraft hover or move through the air vertically, but four propellers on the wings also help it cruise horizontally to get where it needs to go. (Another version of the Hummingbird has just two propellers for cruise and a shorter wingspan: 3....

According to the EPA, the Tesla facility uses multiple hazardous materials during its vehicle coating process, including formaldehyde and ethylbenzene, and failed to have plans in place through the three-year period to minimize such operations emissions. The company also did not calculate whether their emissions during vehicle coating met the EPA requirements and failed to collect and keep all necessary monthly records relating to this process. These emission standards are part of the EPA’s initiative to protect the air quality of communities that are located in close proximity to sources of hazardous air pollution....