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Just as designing a house that can withstand a hurricane’s wind or water isn’t easy, building a structure that can outlast a wildfire’s lapping flames is nearly impossible. But with persistence—and money—some engineers have found a way. The Getty Center in Los Angeles, a sprawling hilltop art museum, is one such complex. The “fire resistive” center, built between 1984 and 1997 by Richard Meier & Partners Architects for more than $700 million, relies on a mix of resilient materials, indoor fire suppression systems, and external landscaping to keep its priceless collection of European paintings and international photography safe....

First, picture an aircraft—a commercial airliner, such as a Boeing or Airbus transport jet—cruising in steady flight through the sky. That flight involves a delicate balance of opposing forces. “Wings produce lift, and lift counters the weight of the aircraft,” says Holger Babinsky, a professor of aerodynamics at the University of Cambridge. “That lift [or upward] force has to be equal to, or greater than, the weight of the airplane—that’s what keeps it in the air,” says William Crossley, the head of the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Purdue University....

From the US to France The cable will be called Dunant—after the founder of the Red Cross, Henry Dunant—and it will stretch from the United States to France over some 3,977 miles. Since it’s a private Google cable, it will (unsurprisingly) be a part of Google’s network, connecting data centers, carrying internal data, and more. All of that means that if you’re in the US and you send an email to someone in Europe, the information for that note could someday travel over this cable....

1. Tyrian purple Phoenician and Roman emperors loved that this wine-colored dye didn’t fade. But making just an ounce meant milking or crushing 250,000 Murex sea snails, which use their tinted mucus to protect eggs and sedate prey. 2. Ultramarine For more than a thousand years, a single region in Afghanistan was the only source of lapis lazuli, the blue rock we refine into ultra­marine. Scarcity and a supposed resistance to fading made it as valuable as gold for millennia....

However, ecosystems like those in the southwest require some fire to remain healthy. Regular fire prevents the forest from overgrowing, clears out dead organic material, and encourages the growth of certain plant species. In the past few decades, forestry managers have attempted to recreate wildfire management practices from the Indigenous peoples who were once the primary stewards of the land. One such practice is creating controlled “good fire” also called prescribed burning....

It was December 1989. Something was clogging the Lake Erie drinking water intake of the city of Monroe, interrupting the flow to city residents. Two days would pass before Monroe was able to supply all of its citizens with drinking water again. What the heck was going on? An exotic species known as the zebra mussel, Dreissena polymorpha, a European mollusk, had found the Great Lakes a welcoming new home....

One of the most important needs in terraforming is microbial life. Granted, some people already believe bacteria may exist in that liquid water (perchlorate-respiring organisms, to be exact). But in order to have a sustained planet, a much larger biodiversity would be needed. Thankfully, studies here on Earth focusing on the potential for microbial colonization of Mars have revealed some very interesting phenomena that may one day allow us to be microbial farmers on Mars....

Do Not Disturb is one of the best (and most underutilized) features on modern smartphones. With the press of a button, you can silence incoming calls and texts while you’re driving, in a meeting, or taking a nap. But it’d be a lot better if you could automatically send a text message back to the caller, letting them know when you’ll be available again Unfortunately, neither iOS nor Android have this feature baked in....

At the time of publication, the laundry hanger has been up for about a month, and it’s already significantly improved both the look and function of our laundry room. This is a relatively straightforward build, though there are a lot of places where things can go wrong if you’re not careful. I was able to build mine from a mixture of poplar and pine I had lying around, but you can use just about any wood you want....

You’ve probably been told you should eat more fiber. But despite a broad-spectrum recommendation for the roughage, researchers can’t say for certain why it’s so good for us, what diseases it actually helps prevent, or how exactly we should consume it. Here’s what we do know: First, what is fiber? Broadly speaking, fiber is any carbohydrate that our bodies can’t digest. When we eat food, our digestive systems use various enzymes to break down the fat, carbohydrates, and protein therein....

Identify any source of that unpleasant, unwanted smell For best results, do this the instant you come in from outside with a fresh nose, before so-called nose blindness, aka olfactory fatigue, sets in, so you’re more attuned to what the house smells like and can identify exactly where those smells are coming from. If you have an idea of where the previous homeowners’ pets used to spend most of their time, head straight to those areas first....

However, there’s a reason most colleges haven’t done away with face-to-face classrooms. Learning by yourself has its own set of challenges—you can’t ask questions, there’s no feedback, and you have to be totally self-motivated. But people still overcome these caveats and teach themselves everyday—and you can be one of them. If you want to learn how to sew, cook, or take a decent photograph, here’s how to do it well....

While the bulk of harmful emissions is tied to large businesses and industries such as energy, farming, and manufacturing, we can’t understate the efforts to reduce the carbon footprint of smaller contributors—that includes you and your small business. Start by making easy and purposeful swaps in areas like packaging, for example. Decrease or eliminate the amount of single-use materials you use, and adapt the size of boxes to use as little filling per order as possible....

The COVID-19 pandemic is keeping many Americans stuck at home, which is a good thing: Social-distancing will help flatten the curve of this disease and minimize its toll on the nation’s health care system. But this sudden surge in self-isolation means many couples are now suddenly spending an awful lot of time together—like, all the time—and that can be stressful for even the most solid partnership. Here, we’ve gathered advice from mental health and relationship-counseling experts to help you survive all that togetherness....

How to rename multiple files on a Mac To change the identity of a bunch of photos, documents, videos, or whatever you have saved on your computer, you’ll first need to select every last one. That’s easy: press Cmd + A to grab everything in a folder, hold Shift and click on two files to choose them and everything in between, or hold Cmd and click to highlight whatever you want....

The basics of being (and keeping) cool An appropriate outfit is the first maneuver in winning the battle against heat. Go for loose-fitting clothes that allow airflow between your skin and the textile. Stay away from synthetic fabrics—organic fibers like cotton and linen are the best choices, as they breathe better than any synthetic material. Colors matter, too—white and other bright shades reflect the light (and heat) whereas black and other dark hues absorb it....

On a previous expedition, our principal investigator (Alan Jamieson) had photographed a snailfish with long, wing-like fins at a depth of 7,000 metres. Only one species, Notoliparis antonbruuni was known to inhabit this area at such a depth. It had been described from a single specimen, so badly damaged that we are not able to use it to identify our images of living animals. We wanted to find this elusive winged snailfish again to learn more about it and observe it in its natural habitat....

Collectively, the trio is known as Arp 195 and is featured in the Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies, a 1966 compendium of wonderfully weird star systems observed and cataloged by astronomer Halton Arp. The latest image from Hubble, which has been in operation for more than 30 years, “captures a three-way gravitational tug-of-war” between the squabbling group of galaxies, according to a press release from NASA. The telescope orbits high above the surface of the Earth, allowing it to capture stunning images unclouded by our own atmosphere....

From 1970 to 2016, the number of Americans living in states directly exposed to tropical cyclones grew by 60 million. Most of that growth was in coastal counties, though there are also many people living inland who can still see impacts from lingering storms. Along with the burgeoning coastal population has come an increase in the number of houses. The Atlantic and Gulf Coast regions, the two most prone to hurricanes, have 34 million more homes in the current decade than they did in 1940....

While HyperX squarely focuses on the gaming world—it’s what the company, recently acquired by HP, has dedicated itself to since 2014—the HyperX QuadCast S operates just the same as other USB mics, so it’s just as good of a device for streaming, podcasting, and recording as it is for marathon “Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War” sessions. The QuadCast S mic’s design The USB-C QuadCast S updates the older, but still available, HyperX QuadCast micro-USB mic ($139....