Scroll through our gallery to see other self-protective gadgets, both in use today and imagined for the future.

“We know that in nature, H5N1 viruses in birds are becoming more like viruses that affect mammals,” said Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, co-signer of a new letter declaring an end to the research moratorium. He is also lead author of a paper examining genetic changes that can make the flu airborne. “The greater risk is not doing research that could help us to be better equipped to deal with a pandemic....

Understanding the relationship between prairie plants and fire is important for preserving this rapidly dwindling ecosystem, says Stuart Wagenius, a conservation scientist at the Chicago Botanic Garden in Glencoe and Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, who published the findings in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Prairies once covered vast swaths of central North America, but European settlers converted most prairies into agricultural land. Today, more than 95 percent of tallgrass prairie land has been destroyed, and fires are often suppressed in what prairie remnants remain....

“We humans, we think it’s what makes us special, what’s causing our great cooperative success,” says Désirée Brucks, the author of a new study in Current Biology and a postdoc at the University of Zurich. “But actually it’s not the case. Other species show it. Even birds, which split from mammals 300 million years ago.” This new study, performed by Brucks and coauthor Auguste M.P. von Bayernat at the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Germany, documented African grey parrots helping companions get a snack....

Image manipulation: GIMP If you take a lot of photos, some are bound to be pretty good. A few could be great if they were cropped correctly, with perhaps minor tweaks to their exposure or clarity. You might even want to change a photo altogether, maybe by inserting Aunt Ida into a family shot or deleting that zit that just kind of popped up. “Photoshop” may pop into your mind—as a verb even—but there is a free and open-source alternative to Adobe’s well-known program: GIMP....

Tonight at the New York Academy of Sciences, David Quammen—the author of Spillover and PopSci’s “Out of the Wild” November feature story—will probe how such diseases spill over from animals to people and why most emerging infections are viral. He’ll ask an expert panel composed of Ian Lipkin and Dan Jernigan, two of America’s top disease scientists, and Maryn McKenna, one of its top disease journalists, what the next big outbreak will look like—and what scientists are doing to try to stop it....

These aren’t the latest version of the AirPods, but they do offer almost all the same features despite the much lower price. The built-in H1 chip helps them connect immediately and seamlessly to Apple devices, just like the current model. They provide five hours of playback per charge, but you can get a total of 24 hours of playtime if you include the charging case’s built-in battery. This is a fantastic pair of earbuds at the lowest price we have seen so, even if you’re on the fence, you might as well just grab a pair....

This isn’t to dissuade you from learning the game, of course. If you want to get good at playing chess, you have to find your own Mr. Shaibel. That could be Grandmaster Damian Lemos, who has put together the Chess Masterclass Bundle to help you become a chess champ. For a limited time, it’s on sale for 75 percent off. This jam-packed training bundle packs 56 hours of instructional content to teach you all about chess strategy, chess tactics, chess endgames, and basically everything you need to win every tournament you join....

You’ll be a winner with the Two Million Dollar Puzzle, guaranteed! Everyone who plays wins something and two lucky winners out there will win a million dollars apiece. The game is simple, just order your copy of the Two Million Dollar Puzzle, complete the 500-piece jigsaw puzzle included, scan the giant QR code the puzzle makes, and see how much money you won. That’s all there is to it, and every puzzle wins between 1 cent and $1 million!...

The iScanner App is the all-in-one app suite that can handle way more than just scanning and editing documents. Not only does it provide a whole host of editing features like blurring, color correction, e-signing, and password protection, but it also scans objects your everyday life. You can pull QR codes at restaurants, count objects in view, solve math equations, and even calculate area or length. Perfect for DIY home renovations, the iScanner App lets you scan your room with the iPhone’s Area mode and create a digital mockup of what a piece of art or furniture would look like once you put it there....

If any of your loved ones have been dreaming of an Apple MacBook Air, it’s possible to have one wrapped and ready under the tree for under $250. Though it sounds too good to be true, a refurbished model is packed with all the same bells and whistles for a fraction of the price. Like this particular model, an Apple MacBook Air 11″ in chic black, for just $247.99—64 percent off the usual price....

The paint is made from two chemicals. The first is chlorotoxin, a protein derived from scorpion venom, which targets the chloride receptors on the surface of tumor cells. The protein carries a second, non-toxic chemical that makes the cells fluoresce when they are exposed to near-infrared light. Tests at this early stage are designed to make sure that the paint works as it’s supposed to, and initial results have been promising....

Nothing beats free internet from public establishments, but connecting to their networks is generally unsafe and puts you at risk of strangers tracking your online activity. The wise thing to do is to connect to a VPN to mask your digital footprint and, for a limited time, you can grab this VPNSecure Online Privacy: Lifetime Subscription for an extra 25-percent off. This is a fantastic deal that’s exclusive to Popular Science readers....

My main space—a long, oddly shaped loft with towering ceilings—is far from ideal so it’s perfect for testing the limitations of virtualization. The AMBEO’s front-, side-, and up-firing speakers (13 total) do an amazing job of reflecting soundtracks (Atmos, DTS:X, or upmixed stereo) off of my architectural torture test, filling the space with kinetic audio without the multidimensional soundstage ever feeling disjointed. It’s the first soundbar in some time where my partner actually perked up only a few minutes into a Dolby Atmos-encoded film (Baby Driver, if you were wondering) and said, “OK, I can hear the difference....

Snoring is harmless, and it usually happens when your airway narrows and your tongue slides back to your throat, resulting in vibrations that can be, well, quite a nuisance to anyone you share a bed with. It’s not surprising why snoring has also earned a long list of alternative descriptions, including “sawing logs,” “mowing hay,” and “rattling the shingles.” Snoring has been a problem for so long that even folks from the past attempted to invent devices to stop it, with many of them being borderline torturous....

If you’re thinking about making an upgrade anyway, there is also no need to splurge on a brand new unit. Not only will it hurt your bank, but you’re also contributing to e-waste. To save money and get a thumbs up from Mother Earth at the same time, consider buying refurbished instead. From now until July 5th, the Apple MacBook Air 13.3″ Core i5, 1.8GHz 4GB RAM 128GB SSD (Refurbished) is on sale for an extra 20 percent off with the code JULY20....

Most choices: MOSISO Laptop Sleeve This neoprene sleeve resists water and can withstand everyday impacts. It also comes with an additional mini sleeve for storing external hard drives, headphones, and other accessories. Express yourself by choosing one of 24 colors and patterns. This one comes in multiple sizes to suit most laptops on the market. This standard laptop sleeve comes in different sizes to fit every sort of laptop snugly. The basic, top-loading design is no-nonsense and gets the job done on a budget....

But not all grilling tools are created equally. The right or wrong grilling tool can make or break an entire season of outdoor cooking. Learn what to look for in grills and grilling accessories. Discover grilling tools you never knew you needed. Explore new, better ways to add flame and flavor to meat and veggies. Turn up the classic rock and slap on the sunscreen—it’s time for a good ol’ fashioned and new fashioned outdoor BBQ....

Researchers across the country, including at the University of California Berkeley’s Cannabis Research Center, are interested in examining how cannabis cultivation impacts the land and environment. Ariani Wartenberg, a postdoctoral fellow at UC Berkeley, is an author of a recent article that reviewed all studies that have looked at the environmental impacts of cannabis. “I was surprised, actually, at how few I found. I expected there would be more,” Wartenberg says of the studies they were able to include in the review paper....

Movement produces kinetic energy, which can be converted into power. In the past, devices that turned human kinetic energy into electricity, such as hand-cranked radios, computers and flashlights, involved a person’s full participation. But a growing field is tapping into our energy without our even noticing it. Consider, for example, a health club. With every step you take on a treadmill and with every bicep curl, you turn surplus calories into motion that could drive a generator and produce electricity....