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James Fowler of UC–San Diego and Nicholas Christakis of Harvard Medical School were curious how emotions and other health factors might ripple through social networks, a burgeoning field of research. So they mapped the well-being of a group of nearly 5,000 interconnected people, whether it be as blood relations, friends, neighbors, or coworkers. They pulled 20 years of the happiness data from the Framingham Heart Study, which has been tracking health stats on a group of Framingham, Massachusetts residents and two generations of offspring since 1948....

Researchers examined three decades of wolf tracking data and found that poaching in the state increased during snowy periods when wolf tracks are easier to detect. When these conditions coincided with hunting seasons for deer and other large mammals, the rate of poaching increased more than six times. The findings emphasize the need for stronger protections for wolves, the study authors wrote on February 2 in Scientific Reports. “The odds are that a wolf in Wisconsin is more likely to die of poaching than any other cause,” says Francisco J....

Read more of Popular Science’s predictions for 2009.

This swing trainer is great for both baseball and softball enthusiasts. The Hurricane will improve your power, accuracy, and speed so you can confidently approach the plate at your next game. This at-home training tool is customizable with four levels of resistance to help you drive through the pitch and adjustable height settings so even your littlest one can hit a few balls. You can use the Hurricane for stationary tee or moving target practice to attack your personal training goals....

Integrating a 7-layer enterprise-grade firewall, Deeper Connect Pico makes it easy never to worry about your online protection on all your IoT devices. Travel-friendly and packed with a fully decentralized VPN experience, the unique cybersecurity hardware device allows you to view your favorite content securely and with ease. All your essential data will be kept safe from prying eyes, whether it be games, movie streaming, online shopping, or sports sites....

While you may be always looking for ways to upgrade your gaming, one thing is for sure: the best way to really upgrade it is to invest in a premium product. Fortunately right now Xbox Live Gold is offering a 3-month subscription for a discounted price. Xbox Live Gold provides its users with an opportunity to indulge in an exciting social entertainment network in the world of Xbox One and Xbox 360....

The supernova emitted an unusually strong radio signature, which the researchers took as evidence that the star had shed some of its mass into the surrounding space before it exploded, presumably from the merging of the two bodies. Later, in the throes of its dramatic end, the star’s remnants collided with this drifting starstuff and produced the radio waves. Typically, stars explode into a supernova when changing conditions inside the star sap “the pressure support that’s maintaining the core against … gravitational collapse,” says David Vartanyan, an astrophysicist at the University of California at Berkeley, who was not involved in the study....

By genetically modifying a transparent zebrafish larvae to create a glow in reaction to calcium ions–which skyrocket during neuron activity–scientists could track the regions in the fish’s brain activated by the thought process. Researchers released a paramecium, a single-celled zebrafish food source shaped like a grain of rice, and watched the glowing neurological response from the fish. As the paramecium moves from right to left, the zebrafish’s thoughts bounce from left to right....

As caterpillars, monarchs munch on milkweed. That diet would sicken or even kill most animals; the plants produce cardiac glycosides, which disable the sodium pumps that cells use to regulate salt levels. For organisms with hearts, this can result in cardiac arrest. But monarchs never digest the toxins. Instead, in a process called sequestration, they carry the cardiac glycosides inside their bodies as they create cocoons, mature into butterflies, and take flight....

The BBC reported today that Roscosmos (the Russian space agency) and the European Space Agency (ESA) were working together on a plan to send a lander to the Moon’s south pole to look for water. The Lunar 27 mission, will launch in 2020 and its primary mission will be to look for deposits of water ice. Water is an incredibly valuable resource for space exploration, not only because it is required for life, but also because it can be separated into oxygen and hydrogen, and hydrogen is a fantastic fuel source....

Yesterday, Russian president Vladimir Putin announced that the country’s health regulators (Russia’s equivalent of the FDA) had approved a COVID-19 vaccine for limited use. However, the vaccine itself has yet to complete clinical trials, having only made it through the second of three phases. But approving the vaccine without completing that last phase could prove harmful, both immediately and down the road. The vaccine, known as Sputnik V, can now be administered to a restricted group of vulnerable Russian citizens such as healthcare workers and to at-risk populations like the elderly....

In 2006 the rangers tested the collars on a repeat offender named Kimani, who had broken through electric fences 20 consecutive nights and caused thousands of dollars in damage to crops and farm equipment. “Most farmers have no idea that their field is being raided until the damage is done,” says Jake Wall, a software programmer for the Save the Elephants Tracking Animals for Conservation program. Now Kimani’s collar texts his hourly position to a server in Nairobi, where Wall’s AnimalLink software compares the animal’s location with a database of virtual borders established around villages and farms....

Dan Nosowitz: I wasn’t optimistic about the Samsung Galaxy Camera. The idea of a camera with a big touchscreen and a full version of Android, complete with 4G LTE connection, is enticing, but I do not care much at all for Samsung’s other Galaxy products, which to this point have just been smartphones and tablets. I find their hardware chintzy and their software difficult and confused, as the company insists on mucking up Android (which is really great!...

This sweat-resistant smartwatch can get up to six full days of battery life out of a single charge. That doesn’t leave room for gaps in your data. Plus, if you buy a smartwatch now, you can see just how much the holiday season stresses you out in the form of handy, colorful graphs.

VPN Unlimited is the internet privacy service that will keep the whole family safe from thieves, hackers, and malware of all kinds while you surf the web on up to five devices (including a smartwatch!). Able to protect your data on any public WiFi network without bandwidth or speed caps, VPN Unlimited has hundreds of servers so you can avoid geo-blockers, adware, and unwanted cookies that keep you from enjoying the content you love....

Theragun Elite, $298 (Was $399) This is Theragun’s high-end model. It’s powerful, durable, and versatile enough for professional athletes, but that doesn’t mean it won’t make your neck and shoulders feel way better after a marathon Xbox session. Massage guns rapidly jiggle your muscles in order to achieve a few benefits. It can redistribute fluid in your fascia in order to prevent your muscles from feeling stiff and inflexible. A good massage gun will also evict lactic acid that builds up in muscles during a workout, reducing soreness that would come on later....

Here are some of the most popular products you might want to check out before the prices go back up: iPhone 13 Pro Max Defender Series Pro XT Case with MagSafe $60 (Was $75) This is a slimmed-down version of one of OtterBox’s most popular cases. The lower profile stays truer to your phone’s typical shape, which makes it more pocket friendly. Plus, it’s compatible with Apple’s MagSafe accessories, so you can charge your device wirelessly while keeping it nestled into its protective shell....

Rice is a staple crop for multiple countries and regions and some new research is shedding light onto just how long humanity’s love of the grain goes back. A study published yesterday in the journal PLOS ONE details the analysis of stone tools from southern China, that provide the earliest evidence of rice harvesting. The tools show that harvesting the grain could have begun as early as 10,000 years ago....

A team led by researchers from the University of Oregon have sought to get a closer understanding of how these gelatinous organisms are steering themselves about their underwater domains, in order to brainstorm better ways of designing underwater vehicles of the future. Their findings were published this week in the journal PNAS. The creature they focused on was Nanomia bijuga, a close relative of jellyfish, which looks largely like two rows of bubble wrap with some ribbons attached on one end of it....