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This Dell desktop makes you forget your laptop existed (37% off)
We may earn revenue from the products available on this page and participate in affiliate programs. Learn more ›. No matter what they tell you, size matters. When you got your laptop, the idea behind its compactness was portability (so you can bring it between home and office and work from the couch), but now its small screen space is probably making you squint and slowing your productivity.
The power bank that could survive a zombie apocalypse
We may earn revenue from the products available on this page and participate in affiliate programs. Learn more ›. Would you survive a zombie apocalypse? Beyond the need for food, water, and first aid, we’re concerned about keeping our tech charged up. With any luck, there’ll be Wi-Fi (and TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook), but we’ll need a way to stay plugged in.
How the Large Hadron Collider gets reset and refreshed each year
This article was originally featured on The Conversation. When you push “start” on your microwave or computer, the device flips right on – but major physics experiments like the Large Hadron Collider at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN, don’t work that way. Instead, engineers and physicists need to take a few weeks every year to carefully reset the collider and all the experiments on it.
Flash sale: Babbel now $130 for life! (You won’t find a better deal)
We may earn revenue from the products available on this page and participate in affiliate programs. Learn more ›. Would you believe that, in three weeks from now, you could be speaking a new language? Imagine ordering in Spanish at your favorite Mexican restaurant or being able to flirt with locals when you’re visiting France … Babbel makes it possible in only 10 minutes a day.
Two Pompeii skeletons reveal a new story of death at mega disaster
As if the cataclysmic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE was not enough, a series of violent earthquakes also played a role in destroying the city of Pompeii and killing many of its residents. Scientists are now beginning to understand how these two natural hazards affected one enough. A new study from the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV) and Pompeii Archaeological Park found that these earthquakes may have made the eruption more deadly.
What does a pug skull look like? University digitizes skulls of 152 dog breeds.
Come face-to-face with a pug and you’re likely left wondering what type of bone structure could support such an oddly dome-shaped dog head. Well, researchers at ELTE Eötvös Loránd University have the answer to not only the shape of pug skulls but the skulls of 152 dog breeds. A pug’s skull (seen below) is more rounded with a shorter upper jaw compared to other breeds, which is the result of a genetic mutation.
175+ editor-approved Amazon Prime Day deals to shop before they’re gone
We may earn revenue from the products available on this page and participate in affiliate programs. Learn more ›. We’re in the home stretch of Amazon’s Prime Day sale right now, but there’s still plenty of time to go in and grab some deals. We’ve spent literally hundreds of hours sorting through and arguing about the best deals available. I’d like to say we’ve narrowed it down, but this list isn’t narrow. It’s enormous. There’s something for everyone, from solar generators to Bluetooth speakers. Please peruse and, if your boss catches you shopping instead of working, tell them we said it’s OK. We’re scientists. We know best.
The best Prime Day tablet deals—from a $35 Fire Tablet to the latest-generation iPad Pro
We may earn revenue from the products available on this page and participate in affiliate programs. Learn more ›. A tablet is a fantastic tool that sits between your smartphone and computer in terms of both portability and power. Sketching, web browsing, watching videos, and even getting light work done is a lot easier with a large touchscreen unencumbnered by a keyboard (unless you choose to add one as an optional accessory.
Breakthrough cobra venom antidote discovered
A breakthrough from an international research team has produced a cheap new antidote to deadly cobra venom using a surprising source—a commonplace blood thinner. Cobras aren’t technically the world’s most venomous snakes—that honor goes to Australia’s notorious inland taipan—but they’re still incredibly dangerous. Exact numbers are unclear, but it’s estimated species like the nubian spitting cobra regularly kill thousands of people each year. Meanwhile, upwards of a hundred thousand more victims annually contend with serious injuries, even amputations. These emergencies also often occur in regions that lack access to adequate medical treatment. Existing cobra venom antidotes date back to the 19th century, but still cost tens of thousands of dollars and are largely ineffective at stopping necrosis.
Early humans butchered enormous armadillos
South America was once home to some giant armadillo ancestors. About 20,000 years ago, these plated mammals called Glyptodonts skulked around present day Argentina. They varied in size from about 661 to over 4,000 pounds at 5.5 to 11 feet long. Glyptodonts went extinct about 6,000 to 7,000 years ago, but not before serving as a food source for some early humans. Cut marks on some recently uncovered Glyptodon fossils indicate that early humans may have butchered and eaten these bulky animals and are described in a study published July 17 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE.
The Olympics has been obsessed with sex for centuries
What’s the weirdest thing you learned this week? Well, whatever it is, we promise you’ll have an even weirder answer if you listen to PopSci’s hit podcast. The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week hits Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and everywhere else you listen to podcasts every-other Wednesday morning. It’s your new favorite source for the strangest science-adjacent facts, figures, and Wikipedia spirals the editors of Popular Science can muster. If you like the stories in this post, we guarantee you’ll love the show.
How animals use physics
This article was originally featured on Knowable Magazine. Isaac Newton would never have discovered the laws of motion had he studied only cats. Suppose you hold a cat, stomach up, and drop it from a second-story window. If a cat is simply a mechanical system that obeys Newton’s rules of matter in motion, it should land on its back. (OK, there’s some technicalities — like this should be done in a vacuum, but ignore that for now.) Instead, most cats usually avoid injury by twisting themselves on the way down to land on their feet.
Get an Ooni outdoor pizza oven for just $239 with this Amazon Prime Day sale
We may earn revenue from the products available on this page and participate in affiliate programs. Learn more ›. Ooni’s outdoor pizza ovens allow you to cook restaurant-quality pies from your backyard in roughly a minute. The Karu 12 is the company’s entry-level oven, and it’s $60 cheaper than usual thanks to an Amazon Prime Day discount. This limited-time deal knocks the Karu 12 down to its lowest price ever on Amazon. Remember, if you don’t have an active Amazon Prime subscription, you can sign up for a free, 30-day trial here.
Say ‘yes chef’ to these Amazon Prime Day deals on All-Clad stainless steel cookware
We may earn revenue from the products available on this page and participate in affiliate programs. Learn more ›. No kitchen is complete without the right cookware, and you can get an extremely luxe set from All-Clad for $100 off during Amazon’s Prime Day. The set, which consists of a fry pan, saute pan, stock pot, and saute pan—plus two lids—allows you to get all the kitchen essentials you’ll need in a single click. Remember, if you don’t have an active Amazon Prime subscription, you can sign up for a free, 30-day trial here.
NASA beamed Missy Elliott’s ‘The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)’ to her favorite planet
Music legend Missy “Misdemeanor” Elliott’s favorite planet is Venus—so after over 30 years in the industry, it’s only fitting that her debut solo single received a one-way ticket to Earth’s neighbor courtesy of NASA. The agency and the first female hip-hop artist inducted into the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame both announced on July 15 that “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)” beamed to the planet on July 12 via the 122-feet-wide Deep Space Station 13 (DSS-13) radio dish antenna in Goldstone, California.
The 50+ best Prime Day pet sales, chosen by our editors
We may earn revenue from the products available on this page and participate in affiliate programs. Learn more ›. It’s a good thing that pets don’t have opposable thumbs. Otherwise, they’d probably run up your credit card with treats and toys. Just because they can’t spend your money doesn’t mean you shouldn’t spend your money on them. And Amazon Prime Day 2024 deals make spoiling your pet with new beds, meds, toys, treats, and their favorite food cheaper than ever.
What do storm chasers really do?
This story was originally featured on The Conversation. Storm-chasing for science can be exciting and stressful – we know, because we do it. It has also been essential for developing today’s understanding of how tornadoes form and how they behave. In 1996 the movie “Twister” brought storm-chasing into...
Why food tastes more bland in space
Researchers say they may finally have an explanation why astronauts often lose their appetite in space. Thanks to a first-of-its-kind study involving virtual reality headsets, experts could soon learn the ingredients necessary to solve this issue affecting not just space travelers, but more isolated populations, such as nursing home residents.
Google is making dark web reports free for everyone. Here’s how they work.
Good news for anyone with a Google account: A useful security feature that previously required a Google One subscription is now going to be made available to everyone, for free, from the end of July 2024. That feature is dark web reporting, and it’s being bundled with another related feature...
Want a job that doesn’t suck? Get CompTIA-certified
We may earn revenue from the products available on this page and participate in affiliate programs. Learn more ›. On a scale from 1 to 10, how hard was it to get out of bed this morning? (Or are you still there?) If your answer is anything above a three, it’s time to consider switching jobs. Sure, it’d feel great to tell off your boss, but an even better feeling is doing something you actually enjoy—and something that makes you moola.
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