With a good pair of headphones, your music can sound incredible … and your brain can feel like it’s in a trash compactor. No matter where they’re hurting you, you’ll get way more comfortable headphones if you’re willing to mod them a little bit. Every pair of cans is different, which means there’s no one-size-fits-all solution to the discomfort they cause. So as a first step, inspect your headphones to see if you can figure out where the pain is coming from and why....

“It’s playing oppression. It’s like history fan fiction with all these games… You find an island and it’s yours” says Jakobsson, a lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and research coordinator at the university’s Game Lab. “It’s a pretty shitty theme for a board game.” To break the all-too-popular pattern, over the past two years, Jakobsson has been working with Puerto Rican graphic artist Rosa Colón Guerra to create Promesa, a new board game that more accurately reflects the reality of Puerto Rico’s history and people....

However, about 20 to 30 percent of female White-necked Jacobins resemble their masculine counterparts, according to a study published today in Current Biology. Turns out, looking like a male means the fluttering females are much less likely to be harassed by them, which improves their access to food. “Sexual selection is the dominant narrative in the field for why we expect to see ornamentation in birds,” says lead author, Jay Falk, who conducted the study while completing his PhD at Cornell University’s Lab of Ornithology....

“Fungi are pretty closely related to animals,” says Matt Kasson, an associate professor of forest pathology and mycology at West Virginia University. “I thought, well, people have preferences. Maybe fungi have preferences for these pumpkin spices, too.” That’s how Kasson, an avid supporter of team PSL, ended up with a lab smelling of pie. He created stacks of agar plates, or containers of gelatinous fungus food, full of pumpkin spice ingredients....

Silly Putty is a toy most anyone can appreciate. Pinch it, bounce it, stretch it, slap it on the side of your face—it does whatever you want it to do, with little complaint. But the chemical properties that make Silly Putty so bendy and durable are shockingly complex, as are its ingredients. The list is long and includes tongue twister-like names like polydimethylsiloxane and boric acid. Sounds tough to replicate at home....

This means you can load up podcasts and playlists more easily on your phone, tablet, or laptop before handing the playback duties over to your smart speaker. The last option here is Bluetooth. Say “Alexa, pair Bluetooth,” and your Echo will go into pairing mode. You can then connect any mobile device or computer to it over Bluetooth, and stream audio across the connection. Depending on what device you have, you can then go to Connected devices in Settings (Android), Bluetooth in Settings (iOS), Devices and Bluetooth & other devices in Settings (Windows), or Bluetooth in System Preferences (macOS) to detect your Echo and complete the connection....

A team of Harvard researchers tricked 18 physicians into thinking they were either relieving patients in pain or letting them suffer. This all took place within an fMRI scanner, where researcher could measure the doctors’ brain activity. The participating doctors were told they were using an electronic device that relieved pain. To make this believable, researchers first gave the doctors a dose of thermal pain, then used the fake machine to treat them (while lowering the heat)....

The key measurements Somnio takes are arch height (mine are very high) and pronation, or the amount your foot rolls in when it lands (I underpronate on the right and am fairly neutral on the left). Sullivan measures this by shining a straight vertical laser on the knee and then having you squat—how much your knee deviates from that straight line as the leg bends indicates how much your leg and foot roll inward on a step....

In the 1860s, a group of local investors wanted to lure home buyers to their land, so they commissioned landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted to design the antidote for crowded urban life. He drew inspiration from his tours of England’s public gardens, and dotted his blueprints with large parks and green plazas. He also wanted to create natural spaces that residents could see and reach from their front doors. To do this, he sat all houses 30 feet back from the road, behind close-cut lawns and two well-spaced trees....

Best overall: Samsung Q60ABest for gaming: Samsung QN90ABest OLED: LG C1Best designer: Samsung The FrameBest budget: TCL 4-Series (40S435) How we picked the best 40-inch TVs I have over a decade of experience reviewing tech gear for sites like TechnoBuffalo, XDA Developers, iMore, and Android Central. During that time, I tested TVs, tablets, and mobile phones—basically any device with a screen. When I’m not testing products, I’m probably relaxing in front of a TV, watching my favorite movies, or playing video games....

Best for endurance athletes: Apple Watch UltraBest for recovery: ROLL Recovery R8 Plus Deep Tissue Massage RollerBest for maximized minimalism: lululemon Studio MirrorBest for weight lifters: SMRTFT Nüobell Adjustable DumbbellsBest for small apartment dwellers: Tempo MoveBest for tennis players: Wilson RacketBest for music lovers: Jaybird Vista 2 True Wireless Sport Bluetooth HeadphonesBest for runners: Brooks Levitate 2Best for valuables: Sprigs Big Banjees Wrist WalletBest for skaters: Whirly Board for Spinning BalanceBest for pushups: Vita Vibe – Ultra Portable Mini Wood Parallettes SetBest for the home gym: TRX All-in-One Body Suspension TrainerBest for cardio: Everlast Evergrip Weighted Jump RopeBest for data geeks: Withings Body Cardio – Premium Wi-Fi Body Composition Smart ScaleBest for hydration: Gatorade Smart Gx Bottle Kit...

When it comes to climate change, the diversity we often think of is biodiversity, which has been directly threatened by a hotter, drier world. The latest IPCC report detailed how climate change will make the planet less livable for species through increased wildfires, heatwaves, droughts, and floods, and how these disasters are already testing the tolerance of plants and animals. Studies on birds, reptiles, mammals, fish, and amphibians have already shown population declines of around 68 percent since the 1970s....

Over the past week both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration, as well as their outside advisors, met to decide whether booster shots for the Pfizer vaccine should be authorized and recommended for certain groups. The decision culminated on Friday when the CDC recommended boosters of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine for those aged 65 and older as well as adults who are at increased risk for severe COVID-19 or work in a setting where exposure to COVID-19 is high....

The jury is still out on how necessary bidets are for cleaning every last bacterial cell off your backside—but for folks with especially itchy bottoms, one study has shown that the water jets can reduce irritation. But for the more general population, the sustainability aspect of spritzing after a poo is likely the real draw. And there are still a lot of unanswered questions in that department, too. Every year, the average American family goes through more than 400 rolls of toilet paper, with each roll requiring gallons of water to create)....

A host female dog gave birth to seven puppies, two of which were from a beagle mother and a cocker spaniel father, and five of which were from beagle parents. Why it took so long For the past thirty years, researchers have been trying to use assisted reproductive treatments in dogs. Unlike in humans and other mammals, an oocyte (or unfertilized egg) in a dog requires time to mature before it can be fertilized....

Expanding the medium’s reach to include women and seniors, Nintendo’s family-friendly DS and Wii systems continue to dominate hardware sales. To meet demand this year, publishers will focus even more heavily on mainstream titles from_ Grey’s Anatomy_ to Wii Fit-inspired workout simulation EA Sports Active. Championing socialization and community, free-to-play massively-multiplayer online universes targeted at teens, tweens and social butterflies like Habbo Hotel and zOMG!_ are expected to fast outpace traditional offerings’ popularity too....

In the years since, several researchers have undertaken the task of translating biological data into musical notation, known as sonification. Genes and proteins have now been transformed into audible passages. When played, they convey a unique perspective on the nature of the fundamental molecules of life. The efforts of researchers to sonify genetic and protein data have spawned many interesting, if perhaps discordant, compositions. Unfortunately, the end result is limited in usefulness....

It’s no surprise that hair is heavily influenced by genes—for example, hair color varies a lot in places like Western Europe, the researchers write, and no one has straight hair in sub-Saharan Africa. The researchers decided to look at the entire genomes of more than 6,600 people from Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Mexico, and Peru, all of whom had a mix of European, Native American, and African backgrounds. These participants show “high genetic diversity and extensive variation in head hair appearance,” the researchers write....

That was the genesis of what is now called the Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef, an art installation currently on tour in London before it returns to its home in Los Angeles at the Institute for Figuring (presently physically located in the sisters’ shared house). The IFF was set up by the Wertheims as an exploration of aesthetic forms in science. Margaret is a science writer with a background in physics; Christine is a lecturer at the California Institute of the Arts....

When Apple introduced the iPhone 12 Pro Max, however, camera nerds like myself took notice. The company promised to grow the main imaging sensor by 47 percent while keeping the same resolution. That means bigger pixels, which typically translates into less ugly digital noise in low-light situations and, generally, less reliance on features like Night Mode. The Pro Max also promises a new lens with a wider f/1.6 aperture to let in more light and an image stabilization system that moves the sensor instead of glass lens elements to combat blurry photos stemming from shaky hands....