One of those businesses, the now-defunct Cambridge Analytica, became a focal point of the Big Tech controversy for its leverage of a relatively obscure app’s trove of personal user information. Despite only 300,000 people installing an app called This Is Your Digital Life, its access to users’ friend networks allowed it to build a vast set of voter “psychoanalytic profiles,” which it then sold to both Ted Cruz’s and Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaigns....

The metamaterial is fashioned into a concave lens made with help from 3-D printing. Usually a concave lens works by radiating waves out, like a speaker sending sound out into a room, but with the new material those rays get focused from the ends of the lens into a single point. Researcher Isaac Ehrenberg compares it to the Death Star focusing lasers to take out a planet, which is 1) awesome, 2) accurate, and 3) an excuse to use this clip....

In a tweeted statement from NASA, MIT astrophysicist Sara Seager, a leader of the mission said: “The team is excited about what TESS might discover next. We do know that planets are out there, littering the night sky, just waiting to be found.” Both exoplanets are still candidates, which means astronomers have yet to confirm their existance—but experts are already actively vetting the preliminary results. The first exoplanet candidate was announced on September 19 and orbits a star called Pi Mensae, 60 light years away from Earth....

The Solution An electric charge can zap the stuff right off. NASA scientists proposed the idea in a 1967 paper, but the space agency didn’t return to it until 2003, when Carlos Calle and colleagues at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida considered building the technology into Mars rovers. Running mere milliwatts of power through thin wires creates electric fields that cleared away 99 percent of dust in simulated lunar and Martian conditions....

Starting with an Irish missionary’s report of a monster in the River Ness in 565AD, repeated sightings in the modern era have kept Scotland’s greatest myth alive. The most famous of which is a grainy photo from 1934 which appears to show the shadowy outline of a long-necked creature, bobbing on the water’s surface. The hoaxed photo of the Loch Ness monster taken in 1934 by Colonel Robert Wilson. Until now, such glimpses were all people had to go on....

Each day will also brim with meetings, panels, and exhibits on climate change, energy, and resilience happening all over town. PopSci will be covering the summit and the best of the rest, so check back here for updates. Tuesday’s climate summit is being held at UN headquarters, but isn’t officially part of the existing international climate treaty process (the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, or UNFCCC). So it’s not going to end with a unified international statement on how we’ll curb global warming....

RIDDS devices are implanted under the skin and connected wirelessly to a medical control center where healthcare workers can adjust medication frequency or levels as necessary, based either on direct patient observation or sensor outputs. The technology is being created for patients with physical disabilities, learning difficulties, or who are otherwise unable to give themselves medication. As with any unproven wireless communications technology, RIDDS are open to various hacking and cracking issues, including eavesdropping, jamming, and tampering....

Globally, 50 percent of parents surveyed would encourage their kids to pursue a career in science. While this bodes well for investment in science education and STEM career training, parents shouldn’t leave it all to the next generation to pick up the slack. If adults have a passion for science, they can keep the spark alive for kids. And in the U.S., we shouldn’t take science education for granted. According to the Department of Education, only 16 percent of high school seniors are proficient in Math and are interested in STEM....

There’s lots you can’t control, from the emergence of new variants to vaccination rates around the country. But there’s also plenty you can do to minimize your risk—it’s the same things we’ve been doing all along. Get a shot, get a booster It’s possible that Omicron will prove better at infecting vaccinated people than previous variants. That would definitely pose a problem. But a vaccine is still the easiest way to reduce your risk....

I’m doing this for two reasons. First, this year’s annual meeting of the National Association of Science Writers, which took place week before last in Cambridge, opened with a panel on ethics and COIs. The panel explored the different ways that science journalists and writers face potential financial conflicts, particularly those of us who are freelancers and write for a range of outlets. In some cases, writers may have the opportunity to do paid work for universities and companies....

The exoplanet, called GJ 367b, is three-quarters the width of Earth, falling into the elusive category of sub-Earth. Earth-size and smaller exoplanets are difficult to detect. The go-to methods of exoplanet detection rely on measuring how much light a planet blocks while crossing its host star, or looking at how the star wobbles as the planet orbits it. Both of these features are harder to spot for smaller, lighter planets....

Hasselblad Cameras OnePlus spent a considerable amount of time during its launch event talking about its new camera partnership with iconic Swedish camera maker Hasselblad. Right now, Hasselblad hasn’t developed any of the actual camera hardware, but OnePlus says it helped with fine-tuning the color performance as well as the menu system. From a hardware perspective, the main camera on the 9 Pro uses a relatively large 48-megapixel Sony sensor set behind a wide-angle f/1....

So it’s perhaps no surprise that the number of platforms allowing patients to get birth control online has grown in recent years. Today, women can get a prescription and order birth control through more than 15 online providers, like Nurx, Maven, LemonAid and Planned Parenthood Direct. This means you can get a prescription for birth control online as your schedule allows without leaving your home. Getting the drug off the web also means skipping out on an in-person appointment with your doctor, a time set aside to discuss birth control options, effectiveness and potential side effects....

The FDL program itself is now in its third year. Previous sessions have tackled problems including asteroid detection, mapping, and deflection, as well as mapping solar storms. This year there were sessions focused on our solar system, including groups looking for ways to improve space weather predictions sponsored by IBM, KX, and Lockheed Martin. There were teams sponsored by Intel, Space Resources, and Xprize, who turned to AI to develop new ways to chart maps and routes on the surfaces of asteroids and other planetary bodies in the search for space resources....

Take outdoor cats, for instance. Veterinarians, ecologists, and disease experts largely agree that the wandering lifestyle not only hurts felines, but also poses a risk to the larger ecosystem and to public health. “No veterinarian would say it’s safe to just let your cat outside,” says Peter Marra, a professor of biology and the environment at Georgetown University and author of Cat Wars. “We wouldn’t let our dogs freely roam around the neighborhood, so why would you do that with a cat?...

However, the summer months have allowed folks to gather outside with friends and family (safely and often from a distance, of course). Outdoor meetups are generally less dangerous than indoor ones, with less of a risk of COVID-19 transmission than indoor ones. But the days of warm temperatures and sun-filled afternoons are quickly drawing to a close for many places across the country. While some balmier corners of the US are just approaching a good time to finally enjoy the outdoors, a lot of folks are prepping for sweater weather and cozy indoors evenings....

Scientists at the University of California, Davis tracked how blue orchard bees that encountered chemical-laced nectar and pollen as larvae or adults fared over two years. The researchers found that exposure early in life could impair reproduction, as could exposure during adulthood. However, the effects were especially dramatic in bees that faced a double whammy of pesticide exposure as youngsters and adults; these unlucky insects produced 44 percent fewer offspring than bees that were never exposed to the chemical....

In a study published online today in Nature, researchers identified the nerves that respond to pleasant, massaging stroking in mice. The nerves, found under hairy skin, are called C-tactile fibers in humans, and they’re why we enjoy cuddling and massages. Researchers found the corresponding nerves by injecting mouse embryos with a gene that caused the neurons to light up when active. They found that the C-tactile-like neurons were activated by stroking the mouse’s hindfoot with a paintbrush, but not by pinching it with tweezers....

The World Press Photo Foundation recognized this with its 2021 contest and yearbook by Lannoo Publishers. Winners and finalists spanned 28 countries, and though quite a few did document the tremors of the pandemic, many continued the drumbeat of coverage around pressing issues like climate change, life with disabilities, and disaster relief. The PopSci picks below bridge human crises and creativity with wildlife interactions and conflicts. To see the full list of stories, projects, and single-taken photos chosen by the foundation, head to the website or an in-person (but socially distanced) exhibit....

Zika, the mosquito-borne virus that has spread throughout the Americas in an outbreak that started in April 2015, has been linked to microcephaly, a severe birth defect that causes children to be born with abnormally small heads that can inhibit their development. Since there’s no treatment for Zika and the connection to microcephaly is still poorly understood, public health officials in several of the countries most affected by the outbreak have encouraged women to simply not get pregnant....