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What underlies that uncertainty is the fate of the old carbon stored in permafrost. Much like burning fossil fuels, releasing carbon from frozen soil that has been stored in the earth for thousands of years can warm our planet rapidly. But scientists aren’t sure whether that carbon will be released mostly as carbon dioxide, or as methane—a more powerful greenhouse gas. Permafrost is soil that’s frozen year-round. It can include sand, rocks, or dark earth that’s rich in organic matter....

Best overall: Rejuvenate All Floors CleanerBest for linoleum: Zep Neutral pH Floor CleanerBest for hardwood: Bona Hardwood Floor CleanerBest for laminate: Black Diamond Wood & Laminate Floor CleanerBest for tile: Black Diamond Marble & Tile Floor Cleaner The best floor cleaners: Reviews & Recommendations Best overall: Rejuvenate All Floors Cleaner If you’re looking for the best floor cleaner that you can use in all rooms of your house, Rejuvenate All Floors Cleaner is the best floor cleaner overall that can handle pretty much anything....

Best overall: LG 27GP950-B 27-inch UltraGear Gaming MonitorBest for gaming: LG 27GN950-B 27-inch UltraGear Gaming MonitorBest for Mac: LG UltraFine 27-inch OLED Pro DisplayBest 4K: LG UltraFine 32-inch OLED Pro DisplayBest 34-inch: LG 34GP83A UltraGear Gaming MonitorBest for photo editing: LG UltraFine 32-inch 4K MonitorBest budget: LG 27MP450-B How we chose the best LG monitors I’ve spent the past 10 years testing and reviewing consumer electronics for TechnoBuffalo, XDA Developers, and iMore....

Best overall: Champion Power Equipment Compact Log SplitterBest gas: NorthStar Horizontal/Vertical Log SplitterBest electric: Boss Industrial EC5T20Best manual: Fiskars IsoCore 36-Inch MaulBest budget: Southland Outdoor Power Equipment SELS60 The best log splitters: Reviews & Recommendations There are two important measurements to watch for when shopping for log-cutting tools. Hydraulic log splitters are rated in tons for the amount of pressure they apply to the log, with the smallest machines applying about 5 tons and the largest more than 30 tons....

These single-serve pour-over coffee packets are the perfect option for traveling or camping, and require no heavy equipment. All you need is a cup to hang the eco-friendly filter filled with coffee, and hot water. Kuju Coffee is also nitro-flushed, which keeps out all the oxygen and ensures the freshest-tasting coffee. As an added benefit, one percent of profits are donated to the National Park Foundation. This handheld espresso machine is light and easy-to-pack, making it a nice option for campers and hikers not willing to give up their fancy coffees....

Behind the scenes, though, cosmetic companies and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) must ensure that the stuff we use is not only doing its job but also not harming us in the process. And that’s been a slow operation. This week, the FDA made a big step forward, though, issuing proposed guidelines and regulatory regulations to better reflect what we know about sunscreen ingredients, how they work, and how they affect our health....

The Human Consciousness Project sets out to explore the nature of human consciousness and the brain. The first step of the project is the “Awareness During Resuscitation” study, a collaboration among more than 25 medical centers throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe. With the expectation of recruiting 1,500 patients during a 36-month time frame, the study will examine everything that happens to the human brain during cardiac arrest, from oxygen levels to the ability to recall images....

At top speed, she dove toward the predetermined point. But midway through the air, McMichael saw something was wrong: The stunt driver had missed the mark, and she was flying headlong at the vehicle’s roof. Sailing through space-time, she couldn’t alter her course. Oh, this is bad, she thought. This, in fact, was a concussion waiting to happen—one of three that McMichael has gotten doing the dangerous physical work stars can’t....

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The test center is the second-largest of its kind in the world. (The largest is McKinley Climatic Laboratory at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida.) “But you’d never see a plane [flying] like that,” says Paul Lagace, an aerospace engineer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, of the plane’s ice-swathed exterior. Even when a fighter streaks by at chilly high altitudes, air friction against the craft keeps the surface significantly warmer than the air around it, he explains....

I own a 3G iPhone, and I actually make calls with it—or rather I try to. I always start my conversations by telling the person “When the connection drops, I’ll call you back.” I just accepted the phone problems because I’m an Apple nut and love everything about the iPhone—well, except the phone part. My Intervention came in a black box containing an LG Lotus, a squarish avant-garde flip phone running on the Sprint network 3G network....

Glance at an Incan brick, and you’ll notice there’s very little that’s conventionally bricklike about it. There are no right angles, no proper corners. And it’s not a rectangle at all, but a trapezoid: one side wider and squatter than the other. Look at another. Then another. Then another. No two are exactly the same, each a polygonal version of the unique rock it started as. Carefully stacked together like a 15th-century game of Tetris, these seemingly haphazard blocks have withstood 500 years of disasters, both natural and human....

This week, however, rumors popped up about a future keyboard accessory that would bring a laptop-like trackback to the updated iPad Pro when it debuts later this year. That would be a huge step for Apple that could change the way people interact with the device on the whole. Accessory-maker Byrd is already working on a keyboard with a trackpad, but first-party support would likely come with important software updates to make the whole thing work nicely together....

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It’s almost the Fourth of July, which means it’s time to break out the grill and mini American flags and have fun in the sun. If it were a normal year, you probably wouldn’t think twice about hosting your annual pool party, gathering up with all your buddies at the beach, or piling as many people as possible on a boat for a ride on the lake. This year is different, though, for the obvious reason that most any social activity can lead to getting infected with COVID-19 or passing it on to your loved ones....

“As things get to be more like humans, they get cuter to us, until they’re almost exactly like humans and then there’s revulsion,” says Frank McAndrew, a psychology professor at Knox College who studies the phenomenon of creepiness. “That’s why you see things like life-like dolls and ventriloquist dummies in so many horror movies. It’s the same for zombies, too.” The phrase “uncanny valley” tracks back to a 1970 hypothesis from Japanese researcher Masahiro Mori‘s work with robotics at the Tokyo Institute of Technology....

On Thursday, a solar flare was recorded at its peak by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory at 11:35 a.m. Eastern Time. The burst of energy caused a coronal mass ejection (CME), which is essentially a giant magnetic field fart. The light and particles from the CME will reach Earth this Sunday as a solar storm, but won’t physically affect humans or wildlife. The space agency classified this flare as an X1, which is particularly raucous; the rating system runs from A, B, C, M, and X in terms of weakest to stronger, with numbers on top to show even more power....

The HOKA brand is known for thick soles, and this one is no different. But the shoe is also carefully built for trails. It has a multi-lugged outsole, with lugs arranged closer together toward the heal for an easier run. The upper part of the shoe is breathable to give your feet air in the mountains, and the larger toe guard area has even more durability. This shoe was built for the mountains....

This is because standard combined oral contraceptive pills—such as Loestrin, Ortho Tri-Cyclen, or Yasmin—are designed to be taken for 21 days, followed by a seven-day break, during which time the woman doesn’t take the pill and experiences vaginal bleeding. Pill-taking women therefore have what seems like a “period” every month. But this “period” is far from necessary. Shortly before his death in 2015 I attended a lecture given by Carl Djerassi, the “father of the pill”....

Fact: Poodle cuts are crazy practical By Eleanor Cummins Poodle haircuts get a bad rap. There are vaguely French and, at least to modern eyes, totally frivolous. The American Kennel Club describes the breed as “proud” and reminds casual admirers that the dog’s fur orbs are not pompoms, but pompons, thank you very much. But poodles weren’t always a symbol of vanity or luxury. They were once hard-working water dogs; they pranced right into icy lakes and freezing rivers to retrieve the game their masters shot down from the sky....