My dad calls the first few months of a baby's life "the necessary larval stage". I've heard other people refer to it as "the fourth trimester". Basically, newborn human babies are pretty useless, as far as baby animals go. This is especially true in comparison to baby apes, who come out of the womb at a much higher level of development. Scientific American has an excerpt from an upcoming book by Chip Walter that talks about this fact and its connection to two key moments in human evolution — the development of bigger brains (and thus, bigger heads) and walking upright (which has the side effect of creating a narrower birth canal).
Baby humans are premature, fetal apes
Scientists develop the whitest paint ever
Ultra-white is the new Vantablack. Purdue University researchers developed the whitest white paint ever. It reflects 98.1% of sunlight. (The blackest black paint, Vantablack, absorbs 99.9% of visible light.) According to lead researcher Xiulin Ruan, "f you were to use this paint to cover a roof area of about 1,000 square feet, we estimate that… READ THE REST
How to fly a helicopter on Mars
On Sunday, Ingenuity—the small helicopter delivered to the surface of Mars by the Perseverance rover—will, hopefully, take its first flight. The distance between Earth and Mars means that lagtime precludes real-time remote control. The helicopter flies autonomously, but the helicopter's digital twin had a lot of practice in simulations back on Earth. At IEEE Spectrum,… READ THE REST
Can you slap a chicken until it's cooked?
Turns out, you can — if you can get the slapping machine to stay alive long enough for the 135,000 slaps required to get it to a minimum safe temperature to eat. Science! Image: Screengrab READ THE REST
Get up to 65% off on 12 gardening tools, planters, and other yard accessories
Now that everyone is starting to emerge back out into the world again, this might be the first time you're really checking out the current state of your home gardening and landscaping in a while. If your snap reaction is… not so great, this might be a good time to roll up your sleeves, tool… READ THE REST
Luminox watches are more than timepieces and these models are on sale for half off
Back in 1992, Luminox was a fledgling sports watch manufacturer when it began working with the U.S. Navy to create a new watch for use by elite Navy SEALs. After that popular Navy SEAL watch was born, other elite units reached out to follow suit as Luminox crafted timepieces for the U.S. Coast Guard, the… READ THE REST
This cool $40 humidifier works like a beast and doesn't leave a huge mess
The humidifier has been around for almost 100 years, going through all kinds of design variations and advancements along the way. Considering all that potential research and development time, it begs an important question. Why do you have to fill most humidifiers from the bottom? It seems like a pretty significant design flaw that most… READ THE REST