The FDA also shortened the minimum time recommended between the second Pfizer jab and a Pfizer booster dose by a month for all eligible ages, based on the agency’s analysis of multiple laboratory studies as well as real-world data from Israel. Previous recommendations said to wait six months between the second and third shot. Now, anyone 12 or older is eligible to receive a booster shot if at least five months have elapsed since their second Pfizer dose....

Using more and more AC may contribute to a “positive feedback loop” with climate change. Air conditioners consume large amounts of electricity, which primarily relies on fossil fuels to generate power. Moreover, the units themselves contain greenhouse gasses (GHG) known as hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) that deplete the ozone layer. The warmer it gets, the more people use air conditioning, which increases GHG emissions that further add to the warming of the planet....

Location of carrier. There are three main styles of rack: roof, trunk, and hitch. Roof racks attach to the top of your car. Hitch racks are installed using a vehicle’s receiving tube and then locked into place. Trunk racks attach to the back of your car using straps and hooks. Compatibility. You might like hitch racks the best because you don’t want to lift your bikes up onto your roof. But does your car even have a hitch?...

What you probably don’t know is that the A/B/O and plus/minus (which is really called the Rh or Rhesus group) systems are just two of 35 human blood groups. You read that right: there are 35 indicators that determine your blood type. Most of the time, all 35 indicators don’t matter. Many are largely the same across the population, so people are likely to match anyway, plus plenty of people never require a blood transfusion....

First, some background: The 2017-18 flu season was one of the worst in recent history. More than 79,000 people died, 959,000 were hospitalized, and 48.8 million simply suffered the flu at home. That’s the most since the H1N1, or swine flu, pandemic of 2009. Part of the reason for the severity of the 2017-18 season was that it was an H3N2 dominant year, which is the more serious strain of influenza—more people tend to get hospitalized and die during H3N2 seasons....

Two space shuttles tethered together would pirouette around a center propulsion stage, providing artificial gravity for the crew. An accordion-style crew transfer conduit would connect the airlock hatches of both shuttles. The modest proposal, titled “Mars on a Shoestring,” surfaced this week on the website of inventor Eric Knight. His aerospace firm, UP Aerospace, previously launched the ashes of Star Trek’s “Scotty,” James Doohan, and astronaut Gordon Cooper into space in 2007....

But this fish, too, has a very particular appetite—and that may prove to be its undoing. The parrotfish is among many fish that are picky eaters (scientists call them “specialists”) who feast only upon certain things, unlike “generalists,” who are less selective about what they gobble up. Parrotfish munch upon the algae that cover coral reefs—excreting undigested coral, the stuff of which the finest white beaches are made—making them critically important to reef survival, and vice versa....

While there’s no doubt that you do need to protect your computer with a reliable antivirus tool, the question comes down to whether that tool should be free. Many antivirus solutions cost absolutely nothing — and that’s a pretty strong selling point. But what separates these free options from the many premium solutions out there? What do you get for your money, and are those added benefits worth it? In today’s ever-evolving digital world, a premium app can give you the edge you need to stay ahead of emerging threats....

What defines creaminess, and why do people find it so appetizing? That’s a mystery. But a group of scientists based in the Netherlands, using experimental vanilla custard, found that the dessert’s creaminess depends on factors including its viscosity, homogeneity, and texture and surface appearance. One of the scientists, René de Wijk of Wageningen UR’s Food & Biobased Research division, says test subjects were especially inclined toward custards that produce lower friction in the mouth....

Airports are crammed with frustrated travelers, flights are getting delayed left and right, airlines keep delivering shoddy service, and airfare just can’t seem to stop rising. It all seems more trouble than it’s worth, and it doesn’t look like the situation will improve anytime soon. If you’re one of those people who don’t want to risk traveling now, you may want to use this time to prepare for your future adventures instead....

The brain area in question, the entorhinal cortex, acts as a hub for consolidating new memories into long-term ones. It’s also one of the first targets of Alzheimer’s disease. Senior author Tamar Gefen, an assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, says her team was interested in looking at the entorhinal cortex in super-agers because their exceptional brain may hold a clue on what makes a person resistant to Alzheimer’s disease....

On the one hand, this little baby is the best travel mug money can buy. On the other hand, it’s just a travel mug. 10/10, extremely thoughtful (and eco-friendly!) but low-pressure gift. And hey, you can always keep it for yourself. Who among us has too many travel mugs? Codenames made it onto our office gift exchange list, and for good reason: it’s frickin’ fun, and super affordable. If your do-I-or-don’t-I gift recipient is throwing a holiday party, bring this along in a jaunty little gift bag....

Electronics and over-the-air software updates have exploded in the automotive industry over the last several years. Renault says the partnership is focused on what they call the “Software Defined Vehicle,” which brings more opportunities to update its cars, melding further the relationship between tech and autos. SDV may sound like a new acronym, but it’s a term on the rise as more automakers embrace electrification and find ways to improve efficiency....

In its search tool, Google is rolling out a feature that shows users appointment availability when they look for healthcare providers or care centers like MinuteClinic. This expands upon earlier efforts from the Google search team last year that aimed to make finding a doctor that accepts Medicare easier. For YouTube, the platform will add health source information panels on videos starting this week in Japan, Brazil and India. These panels will note when the health information presented in the viewed video is from an official source like a government agency or an accredited hospital....

Products mentioned in the new suits that could be affected include Sonos’ Move, Arc, Beam, Roam, Roam SL, and One speakers. A statement issued by Google spokesperson, José Castañeda, claims that Sonos “started an aggressive and misleading campaign against our products, at the expense of our shared customers. We prefer innovation to litigation but their actions leave us no choice but to defend our technology and challenge Sonos’s clear, continued infringement of our patents....

Until recently, most of North Korea had largely appeared as blank white space on the maps service. But using Google Map Maker, “citizen cartographers”–ordinary people, mostly from outside North Korea–added roads, names and details to the North Korean map, according to Google Maps blog. They contributed labels for prison camps and nuclear research sites along with schools, government buildings and theaters. You can even burrow all the way down to Street View in some places to catch a ground-level glimpse of buildings, playgrounds, subway stations and propaganda billboards....

A new study tracked a cohort of over 2,000 individuals in the United Kingdom throughout childhood and adolescence to discover links between mental health and pollution. The long-term study found higher rates of symptoms related to mental illnesses like depression and schizophrenia in those exposed to fine particulates and nitrogen oxides from cars, factories, and power plants. Aaron Reuben, a clinical psychology doctoral student at Duke University and study author, says researchers recognized a potential link between exposure to pollutants and brain health back in the 1990s....

Uber announced yesterday that it had taken many of its internal communications channels and engineering systems offline after an anonymous individual gained access to scores of secure data that purportedly includes emails, cloud storage, and coding repositories. The still unknown person claiming responsibility has since provided screenshots of their work as proof to both The New York Times and a security engineer at Yuga Labs. The screenshots revealed that they gained their stunningly comprehensive and potentially devastating entry into Uber’s inner workings using one of the simplest, oldest tricks in the book: Simply put, they duped an Uber employee into giving them their password....

But the new Dyson products blast your hands with tons of air pressure to actually squeegee the water off them, rather than attempting to evaporate it. The first is the Airblade MK II, an evolution of last year’s Airblade–you stick your hands into hand-shaped holes in the top of the dryer and move them up and down to achieve that squeegee effect. The Airblade has been around for a little while, but Dyson has updated it with a new, super-powerful engine (so it’ll dry your hands faster) and a silencing system to keep the noise down....