You’ve scoured the web, or maybe you went old-school and leafed through the paper inserts in Thanksgiving’s newspaper (how quaint!). But either way, your Black Friday shopping targets are in your sights. The horrible truth: All that preparation can get shot to hell in an instant, once you’re faced with the reality of the biggest retail day of the year. And the actuaries think this one is gonna be a doozy; online sales over the Thanksgiving weekend last year totaled roughly $19....

“We’re working on how to analyze patient responses,” says Peter Foltz, a research professor at the University of Colorado’s Institute of Cognitive Science. “Currently in mental health, patients get very little interaction time with clinicians. A lot of them are remote, and it’s hard to get time with them.” To chip away at that problem, Foltz and his team are working to build applications that could collect and analyze data about individuals’ mental states and report them back to clinicians....

I’ve fielded that question many times, usually after someone has sampled an especially resinous IPA — although at least one PopSci editor asked me the same question when looking at a photo of the leaves of a hop plant. The answer to that question is yes and no. The fact that both Humulus lupulus (hops) and Cannabis sativa (marijuana) have similar organoleptic properties (taste and smell) could indicate a common ancestry–but it isn’t proof....

Breast pumps help moms create an emergency stash of milk for other caretakers or just enough for an extra bottle at night. They’re made in manual, electric, single, double, wearable, and hands-free designs. Pumps have become baby registry must-haves for many moms on the go. There’s a lot to take in when picking the best breast pump for you. Take a look at our guide and product recommendations to help you narrow down your options....

Milk Frother: Espresso machines do more than brew a perfect shot. Many devices have milk frothers built in to help you warm up milk and get it to a perfect, velvety texture to compliment your coffee. If you love a latte or are fond of a flat white, make sure you choose a machine with a milk frother.Ease of Use: Home espresso machines can handle every step of the brewing process, with a variety of custom options....

Best overall: Rocky Mountain Instinct Powerplay Carbon 90Best fat tire: Juiced RipRacerBest step-through: Rad Power Bikes RadRover 6 Plus Step-ThroughBest hybrid: Ride1Up Prodigy XCBest budget: Cannondale Monterra Neo 5 How we picked the best electric mountain bikes As a die-hard outdoorsman and general bike enthusiast, I’ve provided a wide range of gear and tech coverage across a wide array of publications, including Popular Science, the Daily Beast, Runner’s World, Thrillist, The Manual, Popular Mechanics, and more....

The following titles are not only terrific games in their own right but they are designed to shine a spotlight on every bell and whistle in the PS5’s formidable arsenal. Best updated version of an older classic: Demon’s SoulsBest example of super-fast load times: Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles MoralesBest for showing off haptic feedback: Astro’s PlayroomBest game to use the PS5’s adaptive triggers: ReturnalBest all-around PS5 experience: Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart...

Best full system: Vizio M51ax-J6Best for movies and music: Polk Audio Signa S3Best 3.1 sound: Samsung HW-A650Best 2.1 sound: Yamaha ATS-2090Best budget: Roku Streambar Pro How we selected the best soundbars under $300 The PopSci staff has spent a lot of time researching and testing budget-friendly audio products; everyone deserves access to standout sound, so we pride ourselves on knowing what to look for to ensure all personal audio we recommend will suit listeners of various types....

Best overall: Antennas Direct 8-Element BowtieBest for long range: Five Star Outdoor Digital Amplified HDTV AntennaMost durable: Channel Master CM-5020 Masterpiece SeriesBest value for long range: RCA Compact YagiBest budget: Five Star Indoor/Outdoor Yagi Antenna How we selected the best TV antennas for rural areas The “best” TV antenna for you will be the one that captures all of the broadcasts you want, with minimal distortion and at a reasonable price....

Existing contraceptives can safeguard women against both unwanted pregnancies and STDs, such as the female condom and nonoxynol-9. But the former method lacks discretion and the latter “in vivo is not safe for multipurpose prevention,” researcher Kim Woodrow says in an email. “To date, no single product exists that women can use discreetly for simultaneous and effective prevention of STIs (including HIV) and contraception,” she says. The researchers used electrospinning, a method of creating fibers from liquid in an electric field....

Seeing him on stage demonstrate the commonality of what is normally perceived in social occasions as a miraculous coincidence was one of those mind-opening experiences for me. He showed me that math is everywhere, and that it’s fun. I was able to talk to him a bit during WSF’s webcast of the panel. I showed him the doodle above, which I had drawn for the occasion, and I remember how amused he was by it....

A study published Thursday in Trauma Surgery & Acute Care Open digs into the consequences of drinking and scooting. Researchers from the University of California San Diego analyzed data from three major trauma centers in the U.S. between September 2017 and October 2018, and tallied 103 patients who came in after eScooter mishaps. The majority (62 percent) were between the ages of 20 and 40, two-thirds of which were white men....

Like other distributed-computing projects (such as SETI@home, which analyzes telescope data for signs of extraterrestrial life), QCN recruits volunteers to download software that harnesses the processing power of their computers and uses it to perform scientific tasks. But what’s different about QCN is that it wields sensors as well as software. Those sensors are small accelerometer chips built into every Apple laptop manufactured since 2004, as well as into post-2003 IBM Thinkpads and some recent HP and Acer models....

This straightforward codebook is full of substitution ciphers for you to crack. Each letter in the encrypted messages replaces another letter in the alphabet—for example, the letter “X” could replace the letter “P”. It’s a simple principle that gets harder to solve depending on the snippet of code you’re given. Knowledge of the English language and an ability to spot repetitive sequences is all that is required to figure these out....

Check out our surprise holiday episode below: Fact: The treadmill was originally designed as a way to occupy and employ prisoners. By Claire Maldarelli January is a rough time for staying in shape. In at least half the world, the days are as short as they are cold. But, at least for me, working out indoors can be even worse. Case in point: The treadmill. Some gym rats swear by the device, but I see the machine as pure torture....

Compared to boost-phase and terminal missile defenses, exoatmospheric ballistic missile defense (BMD) is the most difficult of all missile defense mission sets. It requires launching a hypersonic missile interceptor to shoot down another hypersonic missile in space. Hit-to-kill interceptions, such as those performed by the DN-3 and the American SM-3, are even more technically demanding. They require the interceptor vehicle to precisely smash into the incoming warhead in order to destroy the missile with force of impact alone....

Decide if you need a dash cam Dash cams aren’t as popular in the U.S. as they are elsewhere, so you don’t hear about them as often after a big car crash. When I reached out to insurance companies, most were hesitant to say whether they use dash cams to determine fault or not, or whether they recommend their customers install one. “There are so many things that go into what happens in an accident,” says Janet Ruiz, spokesperson for the Insurance Information Institute....

During the week of June 24, transportation monitoring service EcoCounter logged a 28-percent year-over-year increase in US bike ridership. Similarly, a May 2020 survey conducted by advocacy group People For Bikes of 11 major metro areas found that 55.8 percent of respondents were either changing their primary mode of transportation or halting their commutes altogether due to COVID-19. Nearly half of those polled also said they’re biking for exercise and recreation more....

The real line that separates humans from insects, slugs, and shellfish? The answer lies partly in the anus. According to more recent thinking, the development of butts has become a key question for taxonomists cataloguing the diversity and evolution of the animal kingdom. All animals begin life as a rapidly dividing bundle of cells. Early in that process, the embryo is just a tiny sphere of cells. But to develop a gut, the round blob needs to somehow turn itself into a donut....

The key machine here is the Uran-6, a remotely piloted tracked robot used for demining. Russian forces used Uran-6 demining robots in Syria, as a way to clear roadside explosives. In a video shared by Russia’s Izvestia paper, an Uran-6 can be seen driving along a dirt road in what is claimed to be a location outside Mariupol in occupied Ukraine. The machine carries a heavy cylinder in front of it, which sets off explosions as it passes over landmines....