Because the Bionic Bird flies by flapping its wings instead of using the helicopter-style design favored by most drones, it can actually blend in among real birds. The Bionic Bird is shown attracting other birds, including predators (see video below), or being swatted at by every bird’s worst enemy—cats. (The Bionic Bird team says the drone’s foam body is “indestructible”, which seems a bit hyperbolic, given what I’ve seen a cat’s claws and teeth do to many a rug, but the carbon fiber wings can at least be replaced separately....

New research on the long-term benefits of reintroducing bison shows that their presence makes the land more biodiverse and resilient to drought. A paper published this week in the journal PNAS measures the ripple effects of the giant grazers on the tallgrass prairie ecosystem that used to stretch from modern-day Texas to Minnesota and cover 170 million acres of North America. Today, only about 4 percent of the old-growth prairie remains, mostly in the Flint Hill region of Kansas where the study took place....

Awarded the Best Language-Learning Software five years in a row by PC Magazine Editors’ Choice Award, Rosetta Stone has been trusted for nearly 30 years by top organizations and individuals alike to learn a new language. The highly rated language solution offers a simple yet effective learning method that helps many conquer a new skill with immersive training—preparing them to interact with locals when they travel. Equipped with TruAccent, an innovative speech recognition technology, the platform teaches conversational skills, such as ordering at a restaurant, and moves to more advanced sentence structures after mastering the basics....

The latest full-sized prototype in this category comes from Boeing, and it’s a 38 foot-long airplane with twin tails and no space for a human pilot. Essentially, it’s a fighter jet drone. But, rather than simply cruising at high altitudes and conducting surveillance like a Global Hawk, Boeing’s plane can perform much more dynamic movements. While the aerospace company isn’t revealing too many details, it does say that it will have a range of some 2,300 miles and “fighter-like performance....

This 2012 winner of a Gelett Burgess Children’s Book Award tells the story of a wave named Roland who’s afraid of his fate once he hits the beach. As he ponders the end of his existence, he realizes he’s not just a wave, but also the whole ocean. It’s a compelling and beautiful metaphor for how interconnected we all are. For kids who break out into tantrums or get easily upset, Breathe Like a Bear is an illustrated collection of mindfulness exercises....

Spot, Boston Dynamic’s smallest pack mule/headless robodog has been spotted wearing antlers, bells and even a red nose before, in its introduction video earlier this year. Apparently the team decided to take the idea and hitch a sleigh filled with presents to it. It must be a relaxing break from Spot’s day job training with Marines at Quantico. Only one big questions remains. If, for some reason Santa did decide to use robot reindeers to pull his sleigh, would it be more or less difficult for NORAD’s Santa Tracker to keep tabs on him?...

When thinking about camping stoves, the name Coleman is probably the first to come to mind. That’s because they’ve been around since before WWII, originally making portable stoves for U.S. soldiers. Now, their portable gas stove is a go-to for campers all over the world. With it’s two adjustable burners, wind-guard, and simple, foldable design, the Coleman gas stove is the perfect option for anyone looking for a classic, no-frills portable stove for outdoor meals....

While you may not show explicit signs of racism against any particular group, or even consciously think negative things about them, you probably still carry prejudice in the form of implicit bias. Implicit biases are a symptom of grouping, which is something our brains start doing shortly after we’re born. When someone says peanut butter, jelly comes to mind. Salt and pepper. Beaches and sand. Every day, we bathe ourselves in news reports, encounters with friends and co-workers, movies, books, and gossip....

After discovering geysers spouting off the moon’s southern pole, the NASA team in charge of Cassini altered the craft’s trajectory to get as many Enceladus close-ups as possible. Now we know that the geysers are spewing water ice and simple hydrocarbons from a deep underground ocean–making Enceladus one of the top real estate areas to search for alien microbes. After this weekend, the spacecraft will have flown by Enceladus a total of 22 times....

His options: a square outline, an illusory “square” made of four Pac-Man-like shapes, and the same Pac-Man shapes that didn’t form a square illusion. The test: Would Stinky Valium prefer to sit inside one of the squares? He and eight other cats with less interesting names were part of a citizen science study designed to test to what degree cats prefer to sit inside boxes, no matter how illusory. The inspiration for the study came from an online phenomenon: people putting tape down on their floor in the shape of a square and recording their cats sitting inside the squares....

Ford already has a robust platform that lets drivers access their favorite apps, hands-free. With Synch AppLink, drivers use voice commands to tune into everything from Pandora to NPR News; no need to lift your eyeballs from the road to stab at a smartphone. The Ford Developer Program follows up on that. “Today is really about expanding the access and availability of the AppLink software,” vice president of engineering Hau Thai-Tang said in a press conference at CES, “so that everyone who has a great idea has the opportunity to create tests and possibly deploy the app....

But unlike previous orbital crews, the members of the Inspiration4 mission, operated by SpaceX, are not professional astronauts who had spent a career preparing for the experience. Rather, they belong to an emerging class of travelers, variously called spaceflight participants, space fliers, or space tourists. These adventurers are distinguished by a combination of wealth and luck. Otherwise, however, the first private orbital crew consists of normal people, presenting researchers with a unique opportunity—and a singular challenge....

The Chilisleep Ooler Sleep System promises to give you a better night’s sleep by helping your body reach lower temperatures at night. It then raises the temperature in the morning to wake you in a more natural way—no alarms are needed. Even the best mattress cooling pad can’t do that. Chilisleep Ooler Sleep System review: What is it? The Ooler consists of three pieces. It includes a cool pad that covers your bed, a control unit, and the Ooler mobile app....

The following apps for Android and iOS can prevent you from endlessly hitting the snooze button on your alarm, or wake you up gently at a time that suits your body. Some even give you statistics on how well you slept too. Choose the best option for your needs, and wake up the right way. Snooze no more In an ideal world, you’d wake up when your alarm rings, turn it off immediately, and get out of bed like a responsible adult....

Despite increasing green awareness and steadily rising gasoline prices, Americans and other denizens of the developed world—not to mention millions of new Chinese and Indian drivers hitting the road every week—are loath to give up the freedom and privacy of their personal automobiles. But snarled traffic, longer commute times and rising pollution levels have given city transportation planners new ammunition in their efforts to encourage the use of clean, energy-efficient public transit....

This odd behavior defies all known explanations, and astronomer Jason Wright has pointed out that these light patterns are similar to what we might expect if aliens built a complex of machines around the star to harvest its energy. But even Wright admits it’s much more likely there’s a natural explanation. In September, he and coauthor Steinn Sigurd̵sson rounded up and analyzed some of the most common explanations. Wright has been been fleshing out those analyses in a series of posts on his blog....

Even before California went on lockdown thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, MacKenzie Smith, the head librarian at the University of California, Davis, was concerned. The roughly 400,000 square feet of library space she oversees is filled with books and other items that constantly change hands—and could help spread SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. Smith and her colleagues wanted to know if they should implement self-checkout stations, quarantine books upon return, and ramp up cleaning and disinfecting efforts....

A recent series of investigative reports from the Wall Street Journal have focused attention once more on the service, surfacing internal documents that reveal the company’s long term research and interest in attracting younger users. Now, Facebook is now being called in front of Congress once again, this time to testify about its impact on kids and teens. “While we stand by the need to develop this experience, we’ve decided to pause this project,” Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, wrote in a blog post published Monday....

The process is much how you would imagine it — a small amount of donor feces are inserted into the intestines during a colonoscopy or with an enema. The latest discovery in the realm of medical poop treatments may make the procedure less icky: Researchers are developing a synthetic version. Normally, when feces from a healthy person are inserted into a sick person’s large intestine, there’s a risk that the donor may transmit an infection along with their healthy bacteria, or that the patient’s body won’t accept the transmission....