Hyperbole aside, that seems like a fairly reasonable claim. Faster, lighter-weight, more water-resistant, with a much better camera (two cameras, actually, on the iPhone 7 Plus), better software, fewer antenna lines, and a cool sleek black finish, the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus do offer some functional and aesthetic improvements over their predecessors. Even if you’re one of the many people vocally dismayed by Apple’s decision to remove the standard headphone jack in favor of new Lightning connector headphones or expensive wireless “AirPods” ($159!...

Watch the difference in thickness between plain water and when it’s mixed with cornstarch here: Credit: Cohen Lab There are two main theories, and figuring out which is right could affect the way we make things like cement, body armor, concussion preventing helmets, and even spacesuits. The prevailing theory is that it’s all about the fluid dynamics (the nature of how fluids move) of the liquid and the particles in a solution....

In a ceremony full of fog machines and flashing lights, Chinese car manufacturer Nio opened an electric vehicle battery swapping station in Norway last month. Drivers will supposedly be able to swap drained batteries in a matter of minutes. And in a budget speech for the coming year, India’s finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, laid out a vague commitment reported by Reuters: “considering the constraint of space in urban areas for setting up charging stations at scale, a battery swapping policy will be brought out....

More states are making masks mandatory On Wednesday of last week, Pennsylvania joined 10 other states that are making face coverings mandatory. Pennsylvanians must now wear masks at all times when outside their homes. North Carolina, California, Nevada, Rhode Island, New York, Delaware, Connecticut, New Mexico, Illinois and Washington also tout mask requirements, according to NPR. Oregon officials require face coverings while indoors and in Kansas, masks must be worn inside and outside when social distancing isn’t possible....

In Jules Verne’s Journey to the Center of the Earth, the fictional Professor Lidenbrock, his nephew Axel, and a guide named Hans begin their adventure by descending into Iceland’s Snæfellsjökull volcano. But their story only comes full circle (get it?) when they’re ejected from the bowels of the Earth through an eruption of Stromboli.The volcano may feature in another prominent literary work: J.R.R. Tolkein’s The Lord of the Rings. Apparently, fans (and at least one scholar) think the real-life volcano is the inspiration for Mount Doom (aliases: Orodruin and Amon Amarth), a volcano in Mordor controlled by Sauron....

RELATED: Flying taxis are making progress, one minute at a time This article was originally published in the Spring 2019 Transportation issue of Popular Science.

I’ve always thought of these extended warranties as thinly veiled forms of extortion. Think about it. I pay the manufacturer more money than my new gadget is worth (by the manufacturer’s own estimation), and suddenly its quality, durability, and longevity are guaranteed to be better. Is this a different, upgraded version of the product I was about to buy without the extended warranty? No. The manufacturer seems to be willing to stand by the quality of its product for an additional two or three years on top of the standard one-year warranty....

“The purpose of this analysis is to see if the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus has any siblings or cousins or other similar viruses in circulation anywhere,” says study author Maciej F. Boni, who is a professor of biology at Penn State. If there are close relatives out there, Boni and other researchers could compare their genome with SARS-CoV-2 to better understand how long SARS-CoV-2 has been around. Boni and his colleagues compared SARS-CoV-2 to another virus sampled from horseshoe bats in 2013, which is part of the same subgenus, known as sarbecoviruses....

Fact: Medical students used to be jerks, and one time they got into a fist fight with feminists over a dead terrier By Rachel Feltman While researching several historical balloon riots (yes, really) I came across a list of bizarre riots from throughout history. And one of them sent me on a wild historical ride: The Brown Dog Affair. In 1903, William Bayless—an English physiologist, and part of the duo that first discovered and named hormones—was cutting open a live dog....

Fact: New Zealand was once chock-full of oddities, including a 12-foot-tall bird By Eleanor Cummins I love New Zealand (or the idea of it, anyway—I have yet to go). Lorde is my favorite musician. The Breaker-Upperers and What We Do In the Shadows are two of my favorite movies. I’ve spent a year perfecting my impression of a Kiwi accent. And then there is the wildlife. It’s often said that “birds occupied every niche” in New Zealand, which means that eagles were apex predators instead of lions, 12-foot-tall birds called moa were grazers instead of deer, and kiwis served as grub-eaters in lieu of badgers....

The same goes for jackets. The very garments that keep you warm and toasty during the harshest winter months have also been outfitted with state-of-the-art technology to enhance your comfort. The Gamma Graphene Infused Heated Jacket is a prime example, as it’s engineered to function as the ultimate all-climate jacket, ideal for everyday wear. It’s on sale for 60 percent off for a limited time. Whether you’re traveling off the grid, heading to work, or simply just making your way around town, this jacket helps you brave all the elements....

The researchers used a technique called cryo-electron microscopy, in which the virus is first frozen at extremely cold temperatures and then imaged. Biological samples, like viruses, need to be placed in a solvent like a water/salt solution to stabilize them. But before they are hit with an electron beam, they need to be completely dry. This is either done by blotting them dry and then dyeing, which can distort the shape and damage the virus, or by freezing....

As you might imagine, researchers are keen to understand more about how this clock works. But it’s difficult to measure different people’s clocks. The conventional way of doing it requires numerous blood samples, taken over a number of hours, to measure changes in melatonin. “It’s expensive and burdensome for the patient,” says Northwestern University computational biologist Rosemary Braun. But understanding a particular person’s specific internal time allows for things like more effective drug delivery because the human body works differently at different times of day....

Not all puzzles can give people a million dollars, though. The One Million Dollar Puzzle by MSCHF is the first and only one, and for a limited time, you can get it on sale for 16 percent off. As seen on Mashable, Business Insider, iHeart Radio, and Nerdist — The One Million Dollar Puzzle is the brainchild of the next-generation street art collective MSCHF, who also previously introduced The One Hundred Thousand Dollar Puzzle....

The results were published today in the journal Cell. The model, which can be explored for free online, is the first major result for the controversial Blue Brain Project, a research initiative launched in 2005 whose goal is to build a computer simulation of the human brain. However, its intentions have not been backed by most of the neuroscience community, and these latest results are unlikely to persuade them. The Blue Brain Project, which is led by neurobiologist Henry Markram, hopes to one day create a complete simulation of the human brain by incorporating information about the 3D shape of a neuron as well as its biological and electrical properties....

Popular Science tracked down ground-breaking startups at the Kairos Global Summit. Check out our complete coverage here. You can hear more from Katie on her podcast.

Since about 1920, when researchers first began studying how humans learn to walk, the standard method has been to encourage young children to move from point A to point B. Babies can do that, of course, but they usually veer away from the path. Maybe they go to point C, or they stop halfway between A and B to pick a piece of lint off the carpet. They’re not goal-directed the way ­researchers assume they are....

Everything in our world is made up of molecules, from the materials around us to humans ourselves, all by linking together atoms in very specific arrangements. The reactions that connect these atoms together to form molecules are often slow processes, and require help to speed them up. Before 2000, there were only two known catalysts for accelerating reactions: metals and enzymes. List and MacMillan independently discovered a third form: asymmetric organocatalysis....

The novel was published in 1958, at the height of the Cold War. But four decades before the Berlin Wall would crumble, vodka had already bridged the East-West divide. Between 1950 and 1975, vodka went from being a statistical blip to America’s best-selling spirit. In addition to the martini, it’s become the base spirit in popular cocktails like the Cosmopolitan, the Moscow Mule, and the Vodka Red Bull. With National Vodka Day taking place on October 4, here are the answers to a few questions I sometimes hear in my classes on food and beverage management....

Spirit and Opportunity were sent to the Red Planet in search of signs of its hydrological history (and, therefore, potential past life). Spirit made perhaps its biggest contribution in 2007 when it uncovered a long-defunct hydrothermal system in Gusev crater, an indication that Mars was once home to both liquid water and an energy source, key ingredients for life as we understand it. But in 2010 it became stuck in a bed of soft sand and couldn’t reorient its solar panels in a way that would allow it to survive the Martian winter....