When PopSci reviewed the SX-70 in January 1973, we called it “the most fiendishly clever invention in the history of photography.” And then – true to the PopSci spirit – we busted it open to see how it worked. THE CAMERA When you push the red electric shutter button, a remarkable series of events unreels within the SX-70. It’s all over in 1.5 seconds, but the sequence is so Rube Goldbergian that it takes far longer just to list what happens, much less describe it....

When you start brainstorming gift ideas for these fact-loving folks, expensive tech gadgets might be the first idea to leap into your head. But you don’t need to shell out a ton of cash to please a nerd. Try these thrifty recommendations instead.

Most digital pianos on this list are full 88-key keyboards meant to be used with a stand. However, digital pianos come in many sizes. We featured one full-body piano, which has an upright body that would trick you into believing it’s an acoustic at first glance. Digital keyboards with fewer octaves are also available. Digital pianos with 76 keys are common, while many MIDI keyboards and synthesizers use just 25 keys—often with the addition of some pads and control knobs....

Looking for the complete list of 100 winners? Check it out here. Grand Award Winner: A new way to make on-screen images pop Since the dawn of flatscreen TVs, most displays have relied on an LCD panel with colored filters in front of a backlight to create the pictures we see. Manufacturers have done some truly impressive things with this same basic setup, but the tech’s ever-present glow is not great for producing deep, inky blacks that maximize contrast and make the image really pop....

Other worthwhile deals Datacolor SpyderX Pro – Monitor Calibration Designed for Serious Photographers and Designers SXP100—$136 (was $170)Kodak Dock & Wi-Fi Portable 4×6″ Instant Photo Printer—$100 (was $150)HP Sprocket Portable Photo Printer—$60 (was $100) Ideally, we could all have fancy, reference-grade monitors for editing photos. But, you don’t have to spend a ton of money to get something relatively reliable. This 21.5-inch monitor is just $89 and has IPS tech in the display, which helps maintain more accurate and consistent color than the clapped out screen you’ve been using since college....

Best overall: Asus ROG Rapture GT-AXE11000Best dual-band: Asus RT-AX86U Wi-Fi 6 gaming routerBest for gaming: Asus AX6000 Wi-Fi 6 Gaming Router (RT-AX88U)Best for streaming: TP-Link Archer A20 (AC4000)Best Wi-Fi 6: Netgear Nighthawk Wi-Fi 6E Router (RAXE500) Best budget: TP-Link Archer A7 How we chose the best routers for Verizon Fios Before becoming part of Popular Science’s commerce team, I covered gadgets and gear, including routers, for sites like TechnoBuffalo, XDA Developers, and CNN Underscored....

But chances are you’ve been doing this in the same way for decades now—clicking or tapping and dragging with your mouse or finger. On both mobile and desktop, there are handy shortcuts you can use to select text faster and more accurately. On Android, a double-tap or a long press on a word will select it in its entirety. But if you then want to select more words on either side of the first one, keep your finger pressed down and drag it around the screen....

Invasive plants have been making their way into the state since the Spanish were building missions in the 1700s, says Matthew Brooks, research ecologist at the USGS Western Ecological Research Center. As more people continued to settle in the area, so did stray seeds. The plants, most of Mediterranean origin, were often introduced accidentally through animal feed. There are dozens of these weeds, but ecologists are most worried about a few species; these include cheatgrass, red brome, ripgut brome, and medusahead, according to Jutta Burger, science program director at the California Invasive Plant Council....

It’s fantastic,” Calzaghe told Sky News Online before the fight. “A good friend of mine, Kevin Davies, came up with this idea a couple of years ago and I’ve been basically using it over 12 months now. I’ve kept it a secret because it has improved my speed. It’s another exciting thing that I’ve got going on after this (last) fight.” That speed was quantified at nine punches a second....

As with the rush to orbit, “this is an international race,” says Horst Simon, deputy director at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and co-editor of the TOP500. The next mile marker will be achieving “exascale” computation, which means performing 1 quintillion calculations per second (about 30 times faster than Tianhe-2). Whoever gets there first could revolutionize weather forecasting, design hyperefficient airliners, and fight disease with precision medicine—not to mention corner the market for computing power....

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The strategy is couched, first and foremost, in continued open, free, and lawful trade across the seas, including the familiar commerce of goods and materials, but also incorporating the undersea cables that connect the internet as vital infrastructure. To ensure this peace, the plan says the Navy must maintain a nuclear deterrent (presently missile-carrying submarines), control the sea to deter invasion (and land Marines as needed), and to defeat enemies in ocean battles should it come to that....

Most people know this for what it is: a scam. Also known as the 419 fraud, the Nigerian prince is a variation on the centuries-old Spanish prisoner swindle, an advance-fee scam that emerged after the French Revolution, where people sent handwritten letters soliciting help for a (non-existent) nobleman falsely imprisoned. While it’s closely associated with the early internet, the Nigerian prince first went global in the 1980s when West African fraudsters began snail-mailing scam letters around the world....

In order for researchers to test if the brain could interpret meaning, they had to create a new language. Using familiar English words like “kick” had too many nuances in meaning, they say, for them to properly capture results. So, scientists decided to test the motion part of the brain, known as V5, by creating words with similar beginning syllables to motion verbs but different ending syllables. They got test subjects to learn new words like “biduko,” meaning the shape will move across the screen,” and “biduka,” the shape would change color....

Male seahorses don’t just carry the eggs and young in their brood pouch. Once they receive the female’s eggs, the outer shell of the eggs break down and the male’s tissues in the pouch grow up around them. After fertilization, the male tempers the environment as they develop, maintaining blood flow, salt concentrations, and providing nutrients and oxygen just as a mother’s placenta would. The traditional male and female roles are as well reversed with mating behavior—the males are choosy, while the females compete....

In short, diving into a phone’s spec sheet means different things to various segments of the smartphone-using public. For some, it’s something to pore over and argue about on the internet. For others, it’s an irrelevant math problem that you don’t have to solve in order to fire up the TikTok app. Samsung’s Galaxy Note series devices have always put up big numbers on the spec sheet while trying to make its juiced-up hardware accessible to people who couldn’t care less how much RAM sits under the screen....

“It’s very intentional,” says Reid. As a doctoral candidate in developmental psychology at the University of Toronto, she is trying to demystify the circumstances that lead people to commit multiple murders. That means poring over their own words from journals and media interviews. The viewpoints they express often share uncanny similarities, to the point where diary entries penned by different people begin to bleed together. On one occasion, Reid was brought up short by the words of Edmund Kemper (popularly known as the “Co-ed Killer”)....

Remember the stereotype about the snotty rich kid? Well, now science may even support this old cliché. Generally, people gauge each other’s wealth in material terms——the kind of car you drive, your house, or the clothes you wear. But, according to psychologists Michael W. Kraus and Dacher Keltner at the University of California, Berkley, body language also indicates where you stand in the economic pecking order. Kraus and Keltner videotaped more than 100 college students as they got to know a complete stranger in 5-minute, one-on-one interviews....

By that time, the seasons and stars had been a central force in human lives for thousands of years, spurring religious traditions and scientific inquiry, and shaping artistic impulses. Ancient farmers prayed to their gods for a good harvest. The oldest known almanacs—sage advice chiseled in stone—date back almost 4,000 years, to the advent of astronomy. And many a Shakespearean plot is driven by alterations in the natural world, from titular tempests to the romance of spring....