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1. Common squid Jet propulsion This cephalopod shoots through the ocean like a tentacled jet. It sucks water into a chamber in its 8-inch-long cone-shaped body, then contracts its muscles to push the liquid through a narrow ­funnel-​shaped organ near its head. The flow blasts in one direction, launching the adult squid’s gelatinous form the opposite way at 10 body lengths per second. 2. Cheetah Speeding spines Famous for sheer giddyup, these spotted cats’ flexible spines give their limbs a wide range of motion....

Yesterday, by a vote of 215 to 205, the House of Representatives voted to strip privacy safeguards from people who use the internet. The measure already cleared the Senate with a narrow majority, and experts expect that President Trump will sign the bill into law. When he does so, ISPs, the companies that connect people to the internet, will be able to collect and sell information about specific users without their permission....

It’s true that iPhone 6S looks very familiar, but it’s not an exaggeration to say the changes introduced along with it could affect the smartphone experience forever. Here’s how it’s different. Design Many saw the iPhone 6, released just over a year ago in September 2014, as a callback to the original iPhone’s physical design. For the first time since 2007, the flagship iOS device had an all-aluminum back with rounded edges....

We might finally have answers soon enough. Hakan Kayal, an astronomer based at the University of Würzburg in Bavaria, Germany, is currently in the midst of a project that might reveal what’s spurring these shifts in light and darkness on the moon, thanks to a new lunar telescope system run out of an observatory 60 miles north of Seville, Spain. Though still underdevelopment, the system has been operational since April, and is already raising hopes that we’re on the cusp of solving a decades-long mystery of the moon....

While we’re certainly not above dark chocolate or sentiment-filled cards, the team at Popular Science is inclined to up the ante with gifts that will stick around long after February. From a Theragun to soothe your loved one’s aches and pains to a retro-fitted Polaroid camera that captures your favorite memories, we’ve collected thoughtful gifts to share the love. Mike Epstein, Reviews Editor Hush Hush Projects Fog of Love Board Game Do you ever wish you could fall in love with your partner all over again?...

I, like most consumers, want to make more informed decisions about the food I eat. Some 88 percent of Americans favor labeling foods containing GMOs. But if we’re going to use legislation to force food companies to provide more information, let’s make it more meaningful information. There’s something not quite right about labeling something “GMO” or “nonGMO.” Folks in states that have passed labeling legislation—Maine, Vermont, and Connecticut—will know just one thing: that their food “may contain GMOs....

Part of the joy of having indoor plants is that you can regulate their environment. One of the most important tools in your arsenal is the grow light: a fake sun, standing in for the real thing during cloudy winter days. It also solves the broader problem of houseplants that demand “full sun,” which by definition does not exist inside a building. With the advent of increasingly affordable and high-quality LED plant lights, you can manufacture that sunshine without the nuclear fusion reactions....

SETI’s Allen Telescope Array recently searched the skies to no avail, so this spring, scientists plan to investigate using the Green Bank Telescope. It is far more sensitive than the array and is equipped to scan 1.5 billion radio frequencies simultaneously. If the object is built, we might be able to detect radio signals, like those of earthly electronics, from its makers. Whatever Green Bank reveals (we’re hoping aliens), it will be new to science....

For a spacecraft, the sun is a particularly vital supplier of energy, and the recent Artemis I mission proved just how powerful it can be to harness solar energy in space. During the nearly month-long flight around the moon, NASA tested all functions of the uncrewed spacecraft, including the Orion crew capsule’s innovative solar panels. The vehicle’s solar panels exceeded expectations, proving themselves to be a key technology for the future of human space exploration....

Known as Sonars, Kirby drew their shape in 1979 with a day just like this in mind. The Noroton Yacht Club, Kirby’s home port in the suburban town of Darien, Connecticut, wanted a craft for its members to race—something nimble and fast, but also sturdy and well-behaved. The Sonar is a “one-design boat,” meaning its specifications and equipment are governed by strict rules to ensure that competing in one is a test of skill, not money....

FACT: Benjamin Franklin liked to sit around naked By Rachel Feltman Air bathing is exactly what it sounds like: It’s like bathing, but with air. Of course, one could also refer to air bathing as “sitting around in the nude,” and they definitely wouldn’t be wrong. One famous proponent of this practice was none other than Benjamin Franklin. Here’s a paper on the subject written in the early 1900s, featuring excerpts from the founding father’s pro-nude-naptime letters....

RTS,S, produced by GlaxoSmithKline under the name Mosquirix, is not only the first malaria vaccine to be recommended for widespread use, it is also the first malaria vaccine that has been approved for humans ever. And while it is less effective than health officials might have hoped—it reduces malaria cases by about 40 percent and reduces hospitalizations by about 30 percent, with waning efficacy over time—the WHO is positive that its rollout could save tens of thousands of children’s lives a year....

Cannabis sativa has been used for millennia, first cultivated in Taiwan around 8000 BCE. Archaeologists have well-documented evidence of people in East Asia using cannabis seeds for oil and hemp fibers for textiles and clothing. But when humans caught on to the plant’s psychoactive effects have largely remained a mystery. Robert Spengler, the laboratory director at the Max Planck Institute and an author of the new study, said in a press conference that how humans encountered mind-altering cannabis remains a hotly contested debate among archaeologists....

“In time-sensitive missions, such as active combat operations or disaster response, warfighters and first responders face difficult terrain, unstable structures, degraded environmental conditions, severe communication constraints, and expansive areas of operation,” said Timothy Chung, program manager of the SubT Challenge, in a release. “The Challenge has helped to significantly advance technological tools for tackling these impediments and safeguarding lives.” The finals of the Subterranean Challenge took place over September 21 – 24....

It’s long been clear that the landscape was made by humans, says Walker, who has worked in the region for decades and was an author on the recent study, published in the journal PNAS. There are three key human structures in the Mojos: long, narrow fields that stick out of the floodplain just a handful of centimeters, fish traps that cut across waterways, and “forest islands” that loom over the flat horizon....

The ancient animal’s bones and teeth, which were uncovered in Kenya sometime before the 1970si spent decades tucked away in the Nairobi National Museum in Kenya before Matt Borths, a graduate student at the time, opened the drawer while poking around the collection. “I had been going through the drawers on my lunch break because I wanted to look at a different part of the collection, a younger carnivore fossil,” says Borths....

VentiFresh ECO is a compact, portable device that’s engineered to purify and freshen the air you breathe. Over 388 percent funded on Indiegogo, it utilizes NASA-inspired technology to eliminate the stench lurking in your home. For a limited time, you can snag it at its lowest price yet. As much as you want your home to smell like a 5-star hotel lobby or grandma’s freshly baked cookies all the time, that’s not always the case....

In other words, this is Gustav Metzger’s Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, empirical proof that even when we try our hardest to think of nothing, there’s always something going on up there. DesignWeek

The outfit uses two different methods to render these concepts into the physical world. The first is what is known as subtractive manufacturing. This is when a Computer Numerical Control (CNC) machine does the carving, following a software model of the part to know what to carve away. Commonly the process starts with a solid block of aluminum and the machine whittles a massive block of metal down to a finished component....

Here are a few events from 2019 that made space feel closer than ever. We took a picture of a black hole For decades, physicists didn’t believe that black holes—regions of space so twisted that they have no exit—existed. Sure, you could write down some math to describe them, but would the universe actually allow such monstrosities to exist? This year, while continuing to listen to the titans crash together, researchers managed to snap a picture of one—thanks to the help of a network of eight telescopes spanning the entire planet....