Make the most of these tools by knowing what they are and how to use them, so your photos really stand out from the crowd. Your device will process the picture in the background, and when you go and look at the finished product in Google Photos, you should see the main object of the shot in focus against a blurred background. From the Camera app, swipe across the camera modes to find Motion, choose Long exposure and then tap the shutter button as normal....

_ Click to launch the photo gallery_ Nanoscale materials are used in everything from sunscreen to chemical catalysts to antibacterial agents–from the mundane to the lifesaving. “I spilled wine at a Christmas party once, and I was terrified. Red wine on a white carpet. And it wipes right up,” Mirkin recalled. “The reason is the nano-particulate used to coat the carpet keeps that material from absorbing into the carpet and staining the carpet....

One such cable is called Marea. It runs from Virginia Beach in the U.S. to Balboa, Spain. And recently, a company called Infinera announced that it had broken a record for how much data it could send through this cable in a second. It’s a mind-boggling amount. Below, we break down everything you wanted to know about undersea cables and this experimental accomplishment, by the numbers. 378 cables That’s the total number of undersea cables in use right now, according to a company called TeleGeography, which conducts telecom market research....

Air-Cooled: Engines that transfer their excess heat directly to the air via cooling fins. You also see these on lawnmower engines. Ape Hangers: Tall handlebars that require the rider to reach up, like a monkey hanging from a branch. Commonly used on Choppers. Bikini Fairing: Small plastic wind deflector surrounding the headlight, usually with a small clear windshield on top. Commonly used on Café Racers. Beanie Helmet: Minimal half-shell style helmet that sits on the head like a beanie....

The circumstantial evidence for this origin story, known as inflation, is overwhelming. It has inspired a generation of cosmologists to write papers, teach classes, and publish textbooks about the sundry ways inflation could have played out. And yet, a smoking gun remains elusive: Ancient ripples in spacetime should have left a particular imprint on the sky, but searches have repeatedly come up short. A group of astronomers known as the BICEP/Keck collaboration leads the hunt for these “primordial gravitational waves....

This was not a routine operation for NASA. Trying to insert a spacecraft into the orbit of an object like Bennu is a fraught process. The team at NASA ended up having to account for a myriad of variables that could have derailed the entire thing. OSIRIS-REx currently sits in an elliptical orbit about a mile from the center of Bennu, taking 61 hours to complete a full spin. Bennu itself has a diameter of about 0....

After reading a Popular Science article on the concept in 2011, Caltech Board of Trustees lifetime member Donald Bren approached the school in hopes of making the science fiction idea a reality. The resultant Space Solar Power Project, co-funded by defense manufacturer Northrop Grumman alongside the Bren family’s $100 million endowment, saw its first major milestone completion yesterday via the SSPD arrival above Earth. Over the next few weeks and months, the roughly 110-pound prototype will send back data on three main projects....

But that claim and ones like it fail to consider the complicated dynamics of human and animal relationships: Humans and animals will always closely coexist in one way or another. Cats and dogs live in our homes, we ride horses, pest species like mice and bed bugs invade our living spaces, and wild animals move into our territory and us into theirs. The best thing we can do is try to mediate that coexistence to ensure we’re not making one another sick, says Gregory Gray, a Duke University infectious disease epidemiologist who first spoke to Popular Science in January for a story on the origins of COVID-19....

To think of the eruption’s effects in this way—as a function of surprise, rather than of a system obediently marching along to the dictates of theory—opened the way to other insights. One concerned the specific time and date of the eruption. That moment, 8:32 a.m. on Sunday, May 18, 1980, grew in idiosyncratic significance. What if Mount St. Helens had erupted twelve hours earlier, at 8:32 p.m.? Then many more animals, particularly small mammals, would have died....

How the AirPods 3 are more like the AirPods Pro The AirPods 3 are getting some substantial audio quality upgrades, most of which come from hand-me-down features introduced in the AirPods Pro. First and foremost, they’ll support Dolby Atmos spatial audio with head tracking, which creates simulated surround sound that can replicate sounds coming from above, below, and all around you. The added gyroscope, a new hardware component added to AirPods 3, follows the movement of your head and ensures that the positions of those virtual speakers move when you turn your head....

But you can also take a few shortcuts from the lock screen to access various apps more quickly—useful for taking photos, running Google Assistant and Siri, making emergency calls, and more. Access your digital assistant Whether you have an Android or iOS phone, you can access Google Assistant or Siri, respectively, from the lock screen, though you’ll need to do some setup work to access these apps hands-free. On Android, open the Google Assistant app, then tap the compass icon in the lower right....

Alphabet’s research and development subsidiary, X, announced on Thursday that it is now beaming high speed internet across the Congo River as a part of an initiative called Project Taara. Alphabet, Google’s parent company, partnered with Liquid Intelligent Technologies to bridge a 3-mile connectivity gap between Brazzaville in the Republic of the Congo and Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The conventional way of providing broadband connectivity is traditionally through a network of cables and wires, but that approach is “five times more expensive in Kinshasa because the fiber connection has to travel more than 400 kms to route around the river,” Baris Erkmen, director of engineering for Taara, writes in a blog post....

To get started, customers select their condition, then choose their preferred provider from a list of licensed and qualified telehealth providers. Next, they complete a short intake questionnaire. Customers and clinicians then directly connect through a secure message-based portal, giving customers the flexibility to message their clinician when it’s most convenient for them—anytime, anywhere. After the message-based consultation, the clinician will send a personalized treatment plan via the portal, including any necessary prescriptions to the customer’s preferred pharmacy....

Summoning Siri on the new Apple TV consists of pressing the microphone button on the remote. But with the set-top box always plugged in near your TV, a microphone on the unit that is always listening for your input becomes a viable option, one Apple hasn’t taken yet. Albeit, Apple probably eschewed this in part out of its stated commitments to user privacy, but giving users the option to have an always-listening Apple TV wouldn’t hurt....

The motion to vacate is the strongest move yet from Apple in its growing legal battle with the FBI over the specifics of a phone used by San Bernardino shooter Syed Farook, and the broader fight over the security and privacy of our increasingly vital mobile devices. A week ago Tuesday, a judge ordered Apple to help the FBI unlock the old iPhone 5C administed to Farook by his employer, San Berardino County, months before Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, shot and killed 14 people in December 2015....

What’s New About the Apple Watch 7? Did I mention the screen is bigger? Fine. Tell me about the screen. The Apple Watch 7 case—the physical watch body—is slightly larger. The larger, 45mm Series 7 measures 1.8 x 1.5 x 0.4 inches (HWD) versus 1.7 x 1.5 x 0.4 inches (HWD) of the 44mm Apple Watch Series 6. That translates to a display that’s 1mm larger—41mm and 45mm. Apple also substantially trimmed down the display bezel, creating more room for the screen to grow....

This week a resupply mission will carry two Microsoft HoloLenses to the International Space Station (ISS). The devices will be used by astronauts like real-time instruction manuals, part of a NASA project called Project Sidekick. The idea is to facilitate closer communication between astronauts in space and ground control. A technician in Houston could see what an astronaut wearing the HoloLens is seeing in real time. The person in ground control could then draw a circle around a particular piece of hardware or button on the space station, pointing it out to the astronaut and making instructions for repairs or experiments even more clear than relying on written or vocal instructions....

Purists note: I’ve glossed over the typography part: we’ll cover that in a future installment. Come back each Wednesday for upcoming stories which will include product reviews that you won’t find in PopSci, movies, TV, books and the arts in general and of course more insider secrets. We hope you like what we’re doing and we’d love to hear from you, about these stories and the magazine’s design in general....

Best overall: Orbitkey Desk MatBest multifunctional: Adir Self-Healing Reversible Cutting MatBest gaming: Razer Goliathus Extended Chroma Gaming Mouse PadBest clear: Artistic Krystal View antimicrobial desk padBest smart: KeySmart TaskPadBest felt/wool: Oakywood Merion Wool and Cork Desk PadBest budget: YSAGi Multifunctional Office Desk Pad How we picked the best desk pads Things to consider before buying a desk pad Every desk is a little bit different, so picking the perfect desk pad may require a little bit of forethought....

The best home workout equipment The best home workout equipment gets you excited to exercise and helps you reach your health goals, but also works within the space you have for your home gym. Deciding upon the types of exercise you want to implement into your routine is the first step to building out your home gym. Best treadmill: Horizon Fitness T101 Treadmill Series Running can be tough for your joints, so the Horizon Fitness T101 Treadmill Series is designed to lessen the impact....