In December, the U.S. made its first fresh plutonium in almost 30 years. It was a relatively small amount–1.8 ounces, compared to the 8.8 pounds that a rover like Curiosity requires–but it’s a start. In 2016, the Department of Energy (DOE) aims to produce 12 ounces of the stuff. At today’s meeting of NASA’s Outer Planets Assessment Group, Rebecca Onuschak from the DOE explained how the government plans to get better at making plutonium for deep space missions....

The dark spots are created when emissions from supermassive black holes at the center of galaxies produce huge pairs of “lobe” shapes. These structures show up in the radio spectrum but are dark voids in the X-ray spectrum. For the first time, researchers have found a set of four lobes in the same spot. Multiple sets of lobes in the same area isn’t unheard of, but they’re typically different sizes and further apart than this clover-shape feature....

The Neat King Bee II’s design At first glance, the Neat King Bee II looks more or less like any average studio condenser microphone in its price range, with a subdued black metal chassis and simple logo that mark a departure from the loud design of the original King Bee. Upon removal from its packaging, what sets the King Bee II apart starts to become clear. For starters, it’s heavy, weighing in at nearly 2....

So, it’s even harder to imagine that come 2012, the Big Apple could be a hot spot for an eco-friendly vacation. And, yet, it may very well be, because that’s when the city hopes to complete its transformation of the southern half of Governors Island into a 40-acre sustainable, eco-friendly park. Formerly a military post for the US Army and Coast Guard, Governors Island became the property of New York in 2003 when the state bought the 173-acre strip of land just below lower Manhattan from the federal government for a bargain price of $1....

Here are some of the cosmic events to keep your eye on as you ring in 2023. If you happen to get any stellar sky photos, tag us and include #PopSkyGazers. January 1 – Lunar occultation of Uranus The night sky doesn’t take a holiday. The moon will pass in front of the planet Uranus, creating a lunar occultation, which is similar to an eclipse. Uranus will disappear behind the unilluminated side of the moon and reappear from behind the illuminated side of the moon....

The phone’s distinguishing feature is a customizable home screen. As on Apple OSX or Windows Vista, for example, the N97 supports “widgets” small programs or links to programs that provide snippets of information, such as weather forecasts or the latest Facebook updates. Users can select the widgets that appear on the home screen and drag and drop to organize as they like. I slid them around with ease on a prototype last night....

The flight time, as well as footage of the truck-mounted launchers believed to fire the missiles, come from official North Korean releases. The missiles’ flight times were later confirmed by US and South Korean sensors. Kim Jong-un, leader of North Korea, had announced that the missile was in development at a party conference earlier this year. The weapon was described as “strategic,” a word often used by countries to imply, without explicitly stating, that the weapon is designed to carry a nuclear warhead....

Beginning with the Berlin 1936 summer games and the 1952 Oslo winter games, each iteration has featured a novel torch design that reflects the identity of the host country in addition to displaying the Olympic flame throughout the torch relay. This year, the games kick off today, July 23, with the lighting of the “Celebration Cauldron” in Tokyo. Expect that to happen just after 8 pm Tokyo time, or 7 am EDT....

The resultant dialogue format “makes it possible for ChatGPT to answer followup questions, admit its mistakes, challenge incorrect premises, and reject inappropriate requests,” OpenAI explains in a blog announcement posted on Wednesday. A quick ChatGPT test drive from PopSci immediately highlighted how bots can be successfully programmed to avoid being manipulated into providing at least the worst-of-the-worst answers. When asked about ChatGPT’s opinion on notable public figures, hot button political issues, and socio-cultural demographics, it generally responded with a reminder that it “[does not] possess personal beliefs or emotions,” adding that it is only “designed to provide information and answer questions to the best of my ability based on the data that I have been trained on,” while also cautioning that it does not “engage in social or political discussions....

One new study from Stanford University researchers finds that we seem to be colder, on average, than our forebears. The difference they detected isn’t huge—between 1.06 degrees Fahrenheit lower, on average, for men born today compared to those born in the early 1800s, and 0.58 degrees Fahrenheit for women born today compared to those born around 1890—but it adds to a growing body of evidence that body temperature is a lot more flexible than previously thought....

“People are desperate to do something,” Paul Ekins, a professor of resources and environment policy at the University College London, Institute for Sustainable Resources, says in a press release. “But too often they get trivial advice, such as pre-rinsing dishes before putting them in the dishwasher.” One foil for this sense of helplessness that has made appearances in policy circles throughout the years is personal carbon allowances, or PCAs. Back in the early 2000s, British policymakers considered a “credit card” of sorts that would allow UK residents to monitor their carbon usages—and trade for more or less carbon credits if need be....

This claim is the result of new 2,000-year-old climate records from caves, a “war index” consisting of certain keywords in Mayan rock inscriptions, and archaeological data. The decline and fall of the Maya is still a great mystery, and the role of climate change–specifically, drought–has been controversial in part because of the lack of data. To remedy this, Baldini and researchers from the U.S., Switzerland, Germany and Belize analyzed stalagmites from a Belizan cave called Yok Balum, which is located a little less than a mile from the Mayan site of Uxbenká....

We’ve included the Westinghouse iGen4500DF in our best dual-fuel generators list, so we’re confident in the brand and the WGen7500DF’s performance. It has an 11-hour runtime to power the DJ’s portable PA for day-long dancing, with seven plugs to pump whatever components you have. Choose from gasoline or propane for fuel, and turn it from your grill station with the included electric start remote. A hardened-steel frame with roll bars, a foam grip handle, and wheels let you transport the generator when the party’s over....

[Via the British Journal of Sports Medicine]

Earlier this year, Razer finally released the true successor to the Ultimate, the Razer Wolverine V2 Chroma, which updates the full feature set of the Ultimate with a new controller design with distinctively molded grips and, true to its name, customizable RGB lighting. The Wolverine V2 Chroma is comfortable, feature-rich, and retains the unique set of features that made the original good enough to justify wired connectivity. If you don’t mind the extra cable, the Wolverine V2 Chroma is flashy, functional, and a hell of a good time....

Clean Water like Plants Do Task: Treat our water on fewer terawatts Status: First small-scale versions by 2011 Plants pull water into their roots by osmosis, using tiny channels called aquaporins, a method that doesn’t require any energy. Now a Danish company called Aquaporin is developing a membrane based on that same principle to extract pure H20 from saltwater at about a third of the cost and a tenth the energy of conventional reverse-osmosis systems....

At its core SURE HOUSE is a super efficient, solar powered, net-zero home, storm-proof home. However, like the Stevens students who went the extra mile to help, we wanted SURE HOUSE to actually assist the community after a storm had passed through. One of our concepts is the REsilient Charging Hub. Community members would be able to come by and charge up their devices with clean solar energy, because we all know how much peace of mind can come from having a charged phone, especially during an emergency....

Welcome to the Robot Rodeo, an annual competition that is both more and less absurd than it sounds. More absurd because for five days, grown men and women with important jobs (military technician, police officer) use obscenely expensive robots (the machine in the image above costs $100,000) to defuse fake threats (a bombing attempt against the fictional “MIB headquarters,” which may or may not be a nerdulent reference to Men In Black)....

One of the models available is the MG20, a gaming headphone that our review said “… looks, feels, and sounds like a finer class of device.” What’s inside these ovular ear cups are angled 40mm drivers in Beryllium—a material found in similarly plush, even more indulgently priced headphones from the $999 Mark Levinson No. 5909 to the $2,999 Focal Stellia. What this rigid but reactive diaphragm means when well-implemented—as it is here— is spry highs that achieve rarefied air, mids that are rich but refined, and bass that is resonant … reaching and rolling effortlessly....

Solar technology is still confusing for the average person, but luckily, solar panel kits exist to make it more accessible. If you’re ready to start your solar journey, check out these kits that are on sale for a limited time: ACOPOWER PLK Portable Solar Panel Kit Lightweight and portable, this mono-crystalline 120W solar panel kit delivers an output of up to 600Wh per day, depending on sunlight availability, and comes with a preinstalled stand to allow for an easy and quick setup....