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Montes and his colleagues at architecture firm AI SpaceFactory are in a ­cavernous exhibition hall near Peoria, Illinois, to show NASA how astronauts could use 3D printing and Martian materials to make houses on the Red Planet. After spending the better part of 30 hours watching their custom-built printer squirt out a chocolate-colored domicile called “Marsha,” they have just minutes before the agency calls time in its 3D-Printed Habitat Challenge....

If the answers are “very,” “not very,” “not very,” and “very,” respectively, then the iPad Mini will serve you well. Those with weak (or just discerning) eyes may think otherwise. What is it? It’s an iPad 2–the one right before the Retina Display iPad–but shrunk, from a 9.7-inch diagonal screen to a 7.85-inch diagonal screen. Same screen, same processor, same storage options. There honestly is not much else that’s different....

But the news on October 4, coming just a day before Steve Jobs’s death, was a reminder that not every Apple announcement blows off the roof. So here’s the 4S–faster, Sprint-ier, with a better camera to see the world, and Siri, the voice-recognition assistant to better listen to it. And the proverbial question: is it worth an upgrade? Like the iPad 2, the iPhone took a class-leader and subtly but smartly improved it, without breaking any moulds....

Researchers have discovered a new species of the mysterious deep-sea isopod Bathonymus in the famous underwater crater. Called Bathonymus yucatanensis, or B. yucatanensis for short, these crustaceans dwell in the deepest part of the ocean called the the benthic zone. The 10-inch long invertebrates are closely related to the common woodlice, pillbugs, and roly polies found on land and distantly related to shrimp and lobster. Scientists believe that there are about 10,000 different isopod species, with about half of them living in the ocean....

First, the basic specs: Jabra Elite 75t vs Elite 85t The Elite 75t and Elite 85t are both very compact, with each earbud weighing in at 5.5g for the Elite 75t and 7g for the Elite 85t. This, paired with their long battery life and compact charging cases, makes them a suitable option for users with active lifestyles and a good alternative to products like the $249 Apple AirPods Pro. The Jabras boast Bluetooth 5....

Clapper answered questions about the definition of “intelligence community“, his favorite part of the job, and his daily routine. He got asked a lot of questions about aliens, and pointed readers to a CIA explanation of the X-Files, which probably only deepens the conspiracy. Asked about a different James, Clapper said the current Bond is his favorite, and provided both Goldfinger and Skyfall as his favorite films in the long-running franchise....

Most nostalgic: Radio Flyer Classic Red Wagon Sometimes we buy toys for our kids, and sometimes we buy toys for ourselves that our kids will like, too. Whether you grew up with a Radio Flyer or always wanted one, the gleaming red body of this simple and robust classic wagon doesn’t disappoint. It’s appropriate for kids from 18 months to 10 years of age, and has 10-inch stainless steel wheels with durable rubber tires....

Eating is arguably one of the most pleasurable experiences we get to have. Getting a whiff of your favorite dish, or taking a single bite of your go-to dessert can instantly flood you with emotion—happiness, comfort, utter joy. First, there’s the sniffing we do with our noses. Any time you move your snout near a flower or a steamy plate of french fries, you breathe molecules in through your nostrils, pulling them up to the olfactory epithelium....

A paper published this week in the journal Nature Geoscience details the Martian impacts, which ranged between 53 and 180 miles from InSight’s location. InSight is in a region of Mars called Elysium Planitia, a smooth flat land just north of the planet’s equator. The first of the four confirmed meteoroids (a space rock before it hits the ground) made the most dramatic entrance, according to NASA. It entered Mars’ atmosphere just over a year ago on September 5, 2021 and exploded into at least three shards that each left a crater behind....

Earlier this month, NASA released the first recordings, or sonifications, of what two black holes sound like—and it’s just the kind of noise astronomers and science fiction buffs were expecting: eerie, ethereal, and aurally extraordinary. The universe is rife with the hum of celestial melodies—but it’s only relatively recently that humans have developed the technology to be able to hear them. A team of scientists at NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory were able to extract and make audible previously identified sound waves from a nearly 20-year-old image of the Perseus galaxy cluster—a collection so full of galaxies, it’s assumed to be one of the most massive objects in the universe....

No matter how capable these vehicles may be, the reality is they won’t likely spend much time with their wheels churning through mud and crawling through streams. But for the few that do, navigation experts at Magellan have created the new eXplorist TRX7, a ruggedized GPS navigation system that comes preloaded with more than 44,000 North American trails in 2D and 3D. But you don’t have to take Magellan’s word as off-road gospel....

While you can add all kinds of upgrades, such as hold-down clamps, integrated stop blocks, and miter jigs, every woodworker should build a basic crosscut sled, and anyone can. Of course, you can do the same job with a miter saw, but I’ve found that the crosscut sled offers more control and gives a better cut. I use my miter saw to cut wood to a rough length, then grab my crosscut sled to trim those boards down to their final size....

Chinese craftsmen have carved both kinds of ivory for thousands of years, but mammoth ivory, taken from long-frozen carcasses that occasionally emerged from Siberia, has been cheaper and considered of poorer quality. With the legal elephant ivory market shuttered, however, Russian hunters are combing the tundra in search of mammoth tusks for buyers in Hong Kong and mainland China, where wholesale prices are about $450 per pound, comparable to elephant ivory prior to the ban....

A camera aboard NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory satellite captured this 200,000-mile filament right before it detached; a 304-angstrom-wavelength filter enabled scientists to see the plasma. Three days later, the CME produced a benign effect: auroras over the Northern Hemisphere.

Back in 2009 Nissan developed a wrong-way driving prevention system called the IT-Assisted Road Information System, which basically worked using Car-2-Car and Car-2-Object communications. Unfortunately, the infrastructure required for such systems to work outside of the lab isn’t ready just yet, although much work in this area is taking place. Since then Mercedes-Benz has come out with an alternative solution, one that will feature on its 2014 E Class and 2014 S Class models due out later this year....

Researchers from Hokkaido University in Japan have found new evidence that the chemical components necessary to build DNA may have been carried to Earth by carbonaceous meteorites, some of the earliest matter in the solar system, as they report in a study published Tuesday in Nature Communications. Although these kinds of materials make up about 75 percent of all asteroids, they rarely fall to Earth, limiting how often scientists can study them....

The existence of both vehicles suggests that there is special value in this kind of composite technology. Both models are working with existing, known, and reliable trucks as platforms. Adding loitering munition launchers to the back creates a new vehicle, one that can launch weapons at distance and with accuracy, before moving away. These developments are taking place in light of the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, where artillery and drones have both had a major impact on how forces fight....

The women, a mix of current and former employees across a wide spectrum of positions and locations, detailed multiple occasions in which Apple management appeared indifferent or even dismissive to their problems. Of the 15 women interviewed during the investigation, eight claim to have experienced retaliation from the company, including job terminations and legal threats. In one instance, HR used the analogy of “a minor traffic accident” to describe a male employee’s sexual assault of an inebriated female colleague whom the latter once considered a friend....

What separates treehoppers is their headgear. Each species has its own model of enlarged and ornate helmet, known to entomologists as a pronotum. Some look like spines, others like leaves or ants. Still others have forms too bizarre for the Oxford English Dictionary to name. Even the hats at a royal wedding would fall short of these helmets’ extravagance. And, unlike all those princesses and duchesses, treehoppers have to wear their millinery 24/7, from birth until death....