At the top of the list was vaccines for chronic diseases such as cancer and diabetes, followed by driverless cars everywhere on the road, and robots in every workplace. Respondents were mostly afraid of advancements like human cloning, gene editing, and genetically modified foods. The 2019 State of Science Index shows two competing narratives: skepticism and fear about science as well as confidence in world-changing innovations happening not too far down the road....

However, over the last 20 years, a combination of diseases caused by viruses and red tides have hit the cultured pearl industry very hard. The production of Japan’s iconic pearls fell from over 150,000 pounds in the early 1990’s to just 44,092 pounds today. To learn more about oyster genetics with the hope of discovering more resilient strains, a team of researchers have built a high-quality, chromosome-scale genome of a pearl oyster....

The new tardigrade fossil, Paradoryphoribius chronocaribbeus, dates back to the Miocene, about 16 million years ago. The only other two full known tardigrade fossils, Milnesium swolenskyi and Beorn leggi, date back to 92 and 78 million years ago respectively. Though tardigrades, when alive, are extremely resilient and hard to kill, they don’t show up in the fossil record very often. Their extremely small size and lack of hard tissues mean they don’t fossilize easily—and when they do, they are very difficult to spot....

The MIRI aboard the new telescope observes the furthest reaches of the universe and can see infrared light, so it’s able to peer through the galaxy’s clouds of dust and into the “skeleton” of stars and gas underneath its signature arms. MIRI basically was able to take an x-ray of a galaxy, revealing IC 5332’s bones and a world that looks different, yet somewhat the same. The dust between the arms of the galaxy virtually disappear in this new image, and it also shows some blood-red stars that were missed or blocked in previous pictures taken by the three-decade old, but still kicking, Hubble Space Telescope....

One of Google’s sister companies, an outfit called Loon, has been working to use balloons floating some 12 miles above the ground to address this problem. These helium-filled vessels take a cell signal from terra firma, and then pass it along from balloon to balloon to get it where it needs to go. Equipment on the bottom of the balloons creates an LTE signal to give people below them a connection—one balloon can cover some 1,930 square miles underneath it....

Good vibrations Exfoliation is crucial for properly cleansing skin and removing dead cells, but finding the right product for the job can be tricky. Chemical options are generally too harsh for daily use, and a growing awareness of the pollution problem posed by plastic microbeads has cancelled an entire sub-genre of products. But some of the most “natural” exfoliants, like ones made from ground-up walnut husks, are actually so abrasive that they damage skin....

Between March 10 and March 25, all 50 states and the District of Columbia adopted at least one form of social distancing. These restrictions prevented 621,000 cases of COVID-19 across the United States within three weeks of being implemented, the researchers estimated. What’s more, after a state enacted social distancing, its rate of deaths related to COVID-19 dropped, on average, after one week. “Although we’re anxiously waiting for the development of a vaccine and for some therapeutics that may help prevent transmission of this virus, at the moment we have very few tools available to us,” says Mark Siedner, an infectious diseases physician at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and a coauthor of the new findings....

What is the Sonos Beam? The Beam is the latest in the Sonos series of speakers meant to pull double duty, handling both music as well as the sound that comes from your home entertainment center and TV. It’s the smallest and cheapest option in the Sonos lineup to handle that kind of task, sliding in under both the Playbar and the Playbase. It ties in seamlessly to the Sonos multi-room wireless audio system if you already have previous speakers....

According to the original plan, posted and emailed to product owners this past Tuesday, Sonos intended to stop the flow of updates to the original Zone Players, Connect, and Connect:Amp (launched in 2006; includes versions sold until 2015), first-generation Play:5 (launched 2009), CR200 (launched 2009), and Bridge (launched 2007), which means no new software features, but more importantly, no more security upgrades. Sonos speakers typically work as part of a system to which users can add components as they want, need, or can afford them....

Popular Science: What does it mean for a private sector entity to be a good partner for the United States? Lt. Gen. John W. Raymond: That’s a great question. First of all, let me just say, space, historically has been a pretty benign domain. There was not a lot of satellites or pieces or debris that were up there, and that’s not the case today. And it’s become much more contested....

On February 14, NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) posted a Hubble image depicting three galaxies swirling into one. The newborn formation is located 681 million light-years away from Earth in the Cancer constellation. The gravitational force of the triple merger is so intense, it’s packing dust into new stars and causing bulges in the galactic cloud (an effect known as tidal distortion). Mergers are a common way for galaxies to grow and shape stars in disparate conditions....

The grey wolf (Canis lupus) was historically found throughout the northern reaches of North America and Eurasia. In North America, it’s still well-spread in Alaska and Canada, despite the best efforts of Alaskans, who like to shoot them from planes. But in the continental United States, it’s had to be reintroduced and protected because state laws have bowed to the ill-informed power of agribusiness and hunters and allowed the wolf to be shot, for no reason, all the time....

The key to the drug’s fat-burning potential lies in its apparent ability to help convert one kind of fat–“white adipose tissue,” the kind most people have in abundance–to another kind, called “brown adipose tissue.” The difference is described nicely in a blog post by biologist Jalees Rehman: Brown fat cells are packed with many small fat droplets and mitochondria, which is why they appear “brown” under the microscope. Their mitochondria contain high levels of the protein UCP-1 (uncoupling protein 1), which “uncouples” fat metabolism from the generation of chemical energy molecules (ATP) for the cell....

MIT engineers have recently helped up the feasibility of widespread solar power by developing a new “solar concentrator.” The concentrator, which is a flat glass panel spread across a large area, gathers light at the edges of its surface. Expensive solar cells only need to sit on these borders – a difference that lowers costs and increases efficiency by 10 to 15 percent. Scientists rerouted light to the panel’s edges by painting the surface with two or more organic dyes....

Unfortunately, not all will be able to witness this sunrise eclipse. Only early birds in the northeastern US and eastern Canada will get a peep of the phenomenon. If you’re in New York City, maximum eclipse will happen just eight minutes after sunrise, at 5:32 a.m, with 73 percent of the sun covered by the moon. Those in Toronto can afford eight more minutes of sleep. Maximum eclipse will happen there five minutes after sunrise, at 5:40 a....

Recently, researchers have turned their attention to the fang-like jaws of marine worms, which they believe could lead to a new cutting-edge, lightweight material so strong that it could be used for construction and as repair material for spacecraft and airplanes. Known as sandworms or ragworms and found in the North Atlantic, the little critters have jaws and long pincers that are stronger than human teeth and synthetic plastics. The scientists from California and New Hampshire who are heading the research have yet to fully investigate the chemical composition of the worm’s jaw structures, but they have already found a unique type of protein after analyzing approximately 1,000 worms....

Previously, scientists relied on chemical modification to make surfaces repel liquids, a time-consuming process. In the end, each coating worked to repel only certain liquids, and oil-repellent surfaces simply weren’t possible to manufacture. The new surface blocks almost all liquids. Researchers can also turn off the physical barrier: An electric voltage instantly draws liquids down between each spike, where they spread out along the base upon which the spikes sit....

Founder Henrik Fisker is a mad genius, designing a slew of iconic vehicles like the BMW Z8, Aston Martin DB9, and Aston Martin V8 Vantage before starting his latest company, Fisker Inc, in 2016. The outspoken entrepreneur’s Midas touch is proving itself once again, as his company has already sold out two trim levels of its Ocean SUV, the Ocean Sport and Ocean Ultra. It also sold out 5,000 units of its Fisker Ocean One edition....

Vitamix 5200 Blender, $299.95 (Was $549.99) Vitamix’s 5200 Blender is powerful enough to cut through frozen fruits and vegetables for smoothies or make hot soup in a matter of minutes. Its 64-ounce container is large enough that you can easily batch cook meals, or prepare a meal for an entire family. The blades spin so rapidly that you can clean the blender by filling the container with a little soap and water and running it for about a minute....