The profusion of data from phones, wearables, and the Internet of Things affords us new insights. But it also opens the door to hacking. “We never thought about the implications of all this additional data,” says Samy Kamkar, an independent security researcher and hacker. “We’ve all become targets.” According to IDC, 90 percent of IT networks will have experienced a security breach by the end of 2015. But as hacking grows, so too does cybersecurity....

“We are seeing an increased number of infections in vaccinated people,” acknowledges John Wherry, director of the University of Pennsylvania’s Institute for Immunology. These breakthrough cases are thought to be relatively uncommon and are usually mild. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have emphasized that vaccines aren’t 100 percent effective at preventing illness, and some infections are expected to occur even in vaccinated people. None of this means the vaccines aren’t working....

Dynamic World is a way for people to observe from space the myriad ways land cover changes on Earth, whether it’s from natural seasonal changes, climate change-exacerbated storms and disasters, or long-term changes that are caused by human activity such as clearing of wild habitats for crops, cattle, or logging. Experts and researchers can use this new project to understand how land cover changes naturally, and flag when some unexpected changes appear to be taking place....

But you can build your own remote-control wireless streamer for less than a hundred bucks using just about any old Windows computer (if you don’t have one gathering dust in the closet, ask your office’s IT department or search around on eBay). You can buy or make a custom enclosure that matches the room’s decor and add a small LCD screen to show you what song is playing. Then throw in a wireless remote control, and start streaming your favorite tunes anytime—and anywhere—you want....

The shutdown is happening because of concerns that the electrical grid could start another fire that would rival or even exceed the Camp Fire of 2018, which killed at least 86 people and destroyed the town of Paradise, CA. High winds are expected to batter northern California in the coming days, and conditions there are already extremely dry—perfect weather for sparks from a downed powerline to start another inferno. Hence the shutdown, which will affect 34 of the 58 counties in California to some degree....

Possessing Apple’s state-of-the-art features, this affordable and eco-friendly portable 2017 laptop will help you conquer your digital needs with high-quality performance. With a massive 128B storage capacity and a 1.8GHz processor for fast and reliable performance, you’ll be able to efficiently work with large files and download and stream your favorite software, apps, movies, games, and more without having to worry about processing power. The classic lightweight design and ultra-thin construction, which weighs only 2....

Ceres’ bright spots are mysterious in nature, but they might be made of ice and salt. And in a paper published today, scientists were surprised to find that the spots seem to be constantly changing. A telescope in Chile caught the spots getting brighter during the daytime, implying that whatever makes up the shiny region is vaporizing in the sun’s heat. The resulting plumes reflect more sunlight. The spots’ brightness also varies from day to day....

To help you visualize it, we put together a few graphs to illustrate the changes. Rainfall is increasing Last year, Hurricane Harvey killed 82 people and caused $180 billion in damages, largely due to the immense rainfall. Researchers estimated that warming due to climate change increased the storm’s precipitation by about 38 percent. A total of 34 trillion gallons of water fell on the area during Harvey, which a geophysicist told Popular Science would be enough to press the Earth’s crust down by more than half an inch in some places....

Nest Bedding You can save up to 20 percent on a mattress from Nest Bedding in time for Presidents Day, with a variety of options for different sleep preferences. From dreamy memory foam that you can sink into to natural latex hybrids that offer a plush finish and supportive center, you can find a steep discount on these quality mattresses. Owl Natural Latex Hybrid $840 (Was $1,050) Sparrow Signature Hybrid Memory Foam $760 (Was $950) Quail Love & Sleep $650 (Was $1,000)...

The muscle cars of today might look different than their ancestors, but the idea is still the same: shove a huge V8 engine under the hood and crank up the horsepower. Now, GM is revamping its famed COPO Camaro for 2022 and offering it with the largest gas-powered V8 available in a passenger-sized car today. When customers want to buy a new car these days, some automakers let potential buyers simply configure their desired vehicle online and wait for it to be delivered....

But people and other living things aren’t the only things with memory. Oceans, in a way, remember too. Ocean memory, a relatively new term, has hit the headlines recently as new research out this month in Science has demonstrated how the ocean is “losing its memory.” How that loss, which occurs thanks to human caused climate change, will alter the future is still up in the air. Here’s what you need to know about the concept, and what its loss could mean for the future of the oceans and the planet....

According to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), the season for usually dry parts of the US used to last about four months and typically starts in the summer and into early fall. But the season has been extended to almost six months—it started earlier than expected this year, blazing through 7 million acres in several states, including California and Oregon, with massive wildfires continuing into the fall. More fires mean more carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere....

Your basic bare-bones parts list might look something like this: 24VDC motor with gear drive #DCM-2445; $45.00(2) 12VDC 18AH batteries #GC-217; $53.00 eachElectric speed control #TXL-1; $12.75Disc brake #CPR-1; $5.75Horn #ES-11; $4.20 Note: You can locate additional bike-related parts from dealers like Nashbar. Once you’ve obtained the parts, it’s just a matter of fitting everything on your bike frame. Don’t want to struggle with a large DIY headache? You can still add some electric zip to your drive with a Currie Technologies conversion kit....

Shipping canals all over the world connect ships from one body of water to another and help shorten trips by having vessels go through land masses, versus around them. Some famous canals that connect international trade include the Panama Canal that connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. However, this isn’t a perfect system. There are snags that often mess up the global supply chain. Take the pandemic and other supply chain issues from this past year....

As told to Kaitlin Sullivan Victor W. Weedn, forensic scientist at George Washington University: Sperm are hard to find under a microscope, so we use a special dye to turn the heads red and tails green. But the tails often break off, leaving the heads, which, unless carefully examined, look like totally different cells. To make sure we find the sperm, we take it slow. Nilay Yapici, neurobiologist at Cornell University: In an attempt to pinpoint a similar protein found in fruit flies and mosquitoes that could stop skeeters from biting, I genetically modified 400,000 flies and counted, by hand, millions of eggs....

One of the deadliest battles fought on U.S. soil, for example, was the Battle of Gettysburg. Tens of thousands of men were killed or wounded in three days of fighting. Over 150 years later, millions of visitors have toured Gettysburg Battlefield. Across the US, 25 national battlefield and military parks have been established to protect battlefield landscapes and memorialize the past. Increasingly, visitors to these sites are attracted as much by their natural beauty as their historical legacy....

The researchers estimated the amount of plastic waste generated by different countries, calculated how much was ferried to the sea by major rivers, and used computer models to simulate its journey through the global ocean. They found that the pandemic spawned more than 8 million tons of plastic debris from hospitals, personal protective equipment, and online shopping, and most of the waste that reaches the ocean will wind up in beaches and coastal sediments....

Here’s some of what unfolded over the past week. Tokyo hosting viral cases along with Olympics Multiple athletes and other individuals linked to the Olympic games have tested positive for the coronavirus after arriving in Tokyo. The number of total identified cases now stands at 61, but about half of those are among residents of Japan, according to CNN. Most of the confirmed cases have been in those outside the athletes’ village, but a few within the village tested positive over the weekend....

On paper, the 1440p webcam looks like a higher-quality camera than many of our favorite webcams at just $50, or literally half the price. Despite the resolution bump, the image quality you’ll likely achieve with the Live! Cam Sync V3 out of the box falls well short of more expensive cameras. It produces a darker, warmer image, and lacks a strong configuration app to let you fine-tune your settings in real-time....