Anycubic Kobra Max 3D Printer $524.99 (was $749.99) With a build volume of 17.7 x 15.7 x 15.7 inches, you can create larger projects without worrying about space. Auto-leveling and precise calibration mean your creation will look how you want, detail and all. The printer also comes with a runout sensor: If the filament runs out, the printer will stop automatically. Creality Ender 1.75mm Gray PLA (Pro) 3D Printer Filament $17....
If you anticipate being away from your cat for more than a day at a time, look for a model with a large capacity, programmable portion amounts, and the technology to keep food fresh. You can also find an automatic feeder equipped with fun features to help you feel connected when you’re away. Some will let you record a voice memo that plays during mealtime, while others might include a camera so you can get a glimpse of your favorite little guy or gal....
Having trouble remembering 2021’s bright spots? Look no further. Here are the health stories that make us optimistic about 2022. A malaria-free future Malaria is one of the world’s deadliest diseases, taking 400,000 lives each year, most of them children. It’s also been around for millions of years—paleontologists have found evidence of the parasite in Cretaceous midges—and remains challenging to treat. So the announcement this year that a new vaccine for the disease proved 77 percent effective in a real-world trial marked a historic moment....
Best overall: Rocket LeagueBest adventure: Sackboy: A Big AdventureBest for families: Overcooked! All You Can EatBest racing: Hot Wheels UnleashedBest action: LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker SagaBest survival: Minecraft Best story: Ratchet & Clank (2016)Best for older kids: Marvel’s Spider-Man (2018)Best free: Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout How we picked the best PS4 games for kids I’ve covered games and gaming hardware for many publications, including Popular Science, Popular Mechanics, and NBC Select....
Like human fingers, Mystrium camillae mandibles can slide past each other at blazing speeds, though the ants’ snaps are 1,000-times faster. At 90 meters per second (that’s roughly 201 miles per hour), their mandibles are the speediest body part around. What are their mandibles—that’s their mouth parts, in case you weren’t sure—even doing going so fast? They’re snapping. And yeah, that might not sound as exciting as how a mantis shrimp punches, but haven’t they gotten enough attention?...
Thanks to his penchant for collecting, Poole already had the basic materials. To start, he rewired a tiny green laser—the kind used in a pointer—so it could work with a longer-running battery pack he had lying around, which he had pulled out of an electric bicycle. Next he nailed an electronics-mounting frame to a three-foot-long wooden board and set the laser at one end, aimed down the frame. He snapped in a lens from a used disposable camera at the other end and set a makeshift slide holder and the scrapped slide viewer’s lens in between....
The handoff had involved so much effort and intrigue that he felt as if the parcel should be in a suitcase that got handcuffed to his wrist. Instead, Helbert was amused to see a rumpled plastic Walgreens bag left outside for contactless pickup. It held 30 disks made of various rocks analogous to those that might be found on Venus. They had been painstakingly collected and analyzed by Darby Dyar, an astronomy professor at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts....
What’s also likely is that this heat will contribute to thousands of deaths—and that this impact could be made worse by the pandemic. More people will stay at home this summer rather than cool off in public spaces, even if they lack air conditioning. To prepare, researchers say we need to understand that heat waves are a serious natural disaster made worse by climate change, and it’s on us to make cities safer....
Most recently, this past week, Reuters reported that Johnson and Johnson had known since the 1970s that its baby powder might have contained or been contaminated with small amounts of asbestos, a known carcinogen. But how talc, asbestos, and cancer all connect together is a far more complicated web to weave—and unravel. What is talc—and how is it related to cancer? Talc is a natural mineral found in metamorphic rocks around the world....
While the heavy rains from the last week’s winter storm were a “tipping point” for the floods, says Erdman, a number of factors led to the extreme event. Cold, snow, and then a rapid warming The Midwest has faced several cold snaps this winter. Thanks to this year’s polar vortex disruption, gusts of Arctic air have chilled the region and brought some of the lowest temperatures in decades. Even early in March, Nebraska was having subzero lows, well below normal for that time of year....
No need to fret: This won’t happen for billions of years. Unfortunately for whatever life forms might find themselves around in the distant future, however, this could happen (relatively) soon. We’ve known for a while that the Milky Way would eventually collide with the Andromeda galaxy in about eight billion years and wreak intergalactic havoc on both bodies. But according to new findings published Friday in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, we should be concerned about another collision with another galactic object, set to occur in as little as two billion years’ time....
In the absence of hard proof, two researchers have made a new soft estimate of how alone humanity might be based on the (limited) information at hand. Their calculation, which appeared Monday in the Astrophysical Journal, blends current astronomical observations with one big assumption—that life on Earth is in no way special—to conclude that dozens of radio-capable civilizations may currently exist in the Milky Way, with 36 being the most probable number....
Meanwhile, some Ebola survivors are struggling with neurological problems. And new research suggests that a previously unknown bacterium may cause Lyme disease, in addition to the bacterium we already knew causes the illness. Read more from Melinda Wenner Moyer at Scientific American. In agriculture news: Stephen Hall has a great longread at Scientific American about how gene-editing tools—particularly the much-hyped CRISPR-Cas—may be used in agriculture (paywall). Speaking of Scientific American, there is also a good feature on curbing antibiotics on the farm....
We may be tired of hearing about the climate crisis, but here’s the thing: It’s still the most important challenge we face today. The good news is, lots of companies are taking novel tacks to make smarter use of the planet’s finite resources. Modernized sails might soon give the shipping industry a boost in fuel economy, and mechanical trees will shortly be scrubbing carbon dioxide from the air. Consumers can even pitch in by hopping on the fake-meat train or buying jeans dyed with greener indigo....
Hey, Boxplot fans, recently I set up a Patreon as a way for readers to support my comic work. If you’re an avid reader and want a backstage look at how all this stuff comes together, You can subscribe for as little as $2 a month. At higher levels you even get new books like OTP as they’re released. Check it out! Maki on Patreon »
For 45 minutes, Norman Vossschulte, the team’s Director of Guest Experience and my temporary tour guide, wound us through the cavernous building, from the aluminum baler and kitchen biodigester in the bowels of the structure, to the roof overlooking a solar-paneled parking lot, to the press box and special suites, where eager schoolchildren oohed and aahed over their home team. When we found ourselves in yet another endless dark hallway, I expected the next set of doors would reveal still more machinery....
But the mountain did blow — and it blew with a vengeance, spawning pyroclastic flows that traveled at 50 to 80 miles per hour and sending about 520 million tons of ash eastward across the United States. The lengthy time span between pre-eruptive activity and the actual eruption can put area residents on edge, as they prepare…and wait. And waiting is exactly what Alaskans living near Redoubt Volcano in the Aleutian Range are doing now....
Researchers from the University of New Hampshire correlated meteorological data with 5,000 random-sample telephone interviews. Respondents were asked whether they a) thought climate change was real and caused by humans or b) was either not happening at all or wasn’t caused by humans. If the day before or day of the interview was unseasonably warm or cold, the respondents’ overall attitude about climate change, well, changed. When it was warm, the interviewees were more likely to believe in anthropogenic climate change....
The Galápagos island that Charles Darwin landed on, San Cristóbal, was thought to be home to only one species: Chelonoidis chathamensis. But researchers have found that a second, now-extinct lineage of tortoises possibly lived alongside the surviving ones. If the new findings are confirmed, the extinct lineage will keep the species name C. chathamensis, and the still-living tortoises on San Cristóbal will need a new one. The research was published in Nature’s journal Hereditary in February....
If you have the cash to spare, then it’ll be easy to throw money on a pair of state-of-the-art earphones. But if you’re looking to save but still want quality earbuds, the Flux 7 TWS earphones are a great alternative. They’re on sale for over 70 percent off for a limited time. The Flux 7 TWS are specifically designed to reduce unwanted noise during exercise. They pack advanced noise-reduction technology, reducing loud environmental noise and allowing for a better listening experience....
