Imagine sitting down to a meal of ground-up bone, served on a plate made of burned bones, while two musicians—one rattling two sawed-off ribs together and the other ominously shaking part of a horse’s skull—provide grim ambience in the dim candlelight. Off in the corner, an oracle shoves some bones into a fire in an effort to predict whether the crops you just fertilized with shattered bones will yield a hearty harvest....

I recently had the opportunity to test a third-generation Scarlett 18i20 at my modest home studio by swapping it directly with my everyday recording interface, the Universal Audio Apollo x8. The two have a lot in common in terms of workflow and compatibility with external gear, but the Apollo x8 runs over double the cost of the 18i20. Thanks to their similar I/O configurations, I was able to make a fairly straightforward comparison of the two units and explore the 18i20’s ability to integrate with my studio’s existing workflow....

This is a familiar scenario for anyone who’s ever tried navigating around an obstacle in their lane, but couldn’t because of fast-flowing traffic in the lane next to them. The bus driver, like all cars in the lane adjacent to the Google car, likely had the right-of-way, though it’s reasonable to assume some courtesy would leave the lane open for a stuck car to pop in, get around an obstacle, and then get out....

The first time I saw forceps used was also when I learned how to use them. An experienced senior obstetrician and I did the emergency delivery in tandem. She showed me how to orient myself to the bony parts of the mother’s pelvis and guide each blade into the birth canal with my fingers while ensuring the curvature safely cradled the baby’s head. She clinked the shanks together so that both parts of the forceps locked definitively in place....

Fossilized feces are called coprolites and are not uncommon. You can buy coprolite jewelry on Etsy and a (potentially mis-identified) six-million-year-old coprolite sold at auction for $10,370 earlier this year. Unlike feces, liquid urine doesn’t get preserved for millions of years. But the impression of a high-powered stream of dinosaur pee hitting soft sand can be preserved. Those impressions are called urolites, and they look like this: Imagine you briefly turn on a hose and fire it at soft soil or sand....

Here are a few of the most promising ones. Seaweed and other supplements There are a number of promising food supplements that could cut cows’ methane emissions by 30 to 40 percent, says Ermias Kebreab, a professor of animal science at the University of California, Davis. The cow’s digestive tract is home to a diverse microbial ecosystem, which ferments the animal’s fiber-rich diet to produce energy. Some of those microbes produce hydrogen, and other bacteria use that gas to produce methane....

The findings, which CR describes as a “spot check” of the market as a whole, don’t mean that certain brands are being especially careless. Rather, they point to a broader issue about heavy metal contamination in foods and what levels are safe to ingest. To do the study, Consumer Reports purchased 24 different varieties of fruit juice—grape, apple, and fruit blends of primarily grape and apple—using its secret shoppers to buy three samples of each product from around the country....

Noveto N1 Smart Speaker Why it’s cool: Now hear this, or don’t. While not quite reheating-fish-in-the-microwave egregious, using speakers in an open office is rather gauche. For those of us who need personal sound, but find headphones uncomfortable, the Noveto N1 smart speaker projects ultrasonic audible pockets to your ears, letting you listen, sans headset, to music, calls, or podcasts. According to Noveto, these “invisible headphones” are 90-percent (20dB) undetectable from 1 meter (3 ft) away....

While Grant’s research applies to typical social interactions, other experiments using interactive technologies have been geared toward treating social disabilities. In British schools, testing has begun on a robot designed to teach autistic children how to communicate. And a study released in April showed that a virtual environment was useful for treating people with addictions. More importantly, Grant says her research confirms that communication and social skills are not diminishing, but changing, through the use of technology, as demonstrated by social networks like Facebook and MySpace....

It’s a thing of beauty. It makes you feel in awe of how the natural world works. Now let’s scramble the hell out of it and put it in our faces. Note: I’m a product geek and, while this goes deep into the science of preparing a delicious, plain egg, you’ll notice I couldn’t help making this a product story. I’m not sorry. First, crack your eggs—straight from the refrigerator—into a bowl....

Vitamix FoodCycler FC-50 An estimated 30 to 40 percent of the food supply in the United States is wasted, according to the USDA. If you’re looking to cut down on the amount of food waste you send to the landfill in 2023, Vitamix’s FoodCycler FC-50 can help. Just toss your vegetable peelings, egg shells, coffee grounds, and even chicken bones into the 2-liter container and press the on button. About four hours later, your scraps are turned into nutrient-rich soil you can use for your houseplants or in your garden....

That’s what happened earlier this month at Drakes Beach in Inverness, CA, according to Bay Nature’s “Ask the Naturalist” column. The photo, which biologist Ivan Parr admits may rightfully offend some viewers, shows “thousands of 10-inch wiggly pink sausages” strewn across the sand—and this is not a one-time occurrence. Penis fish have stormed our shores before, and they will surely invade again. What is a penis fish? A penis fish is neither a penis nor a fish....

Ice Power The melting glacier is the poster boy of global warming, but Nordic countries might be able to use all that extra water flow to boost their hydroelectric industry. “It’s not surprising that the warming effects of climate change can be beneficial for a cold country like Iceland,” says Tómas Jóhannesson, a geophysicist at the Icelandic Meteorological Office. In a recent study of the influence of climate change on hydro-resources in Iceland, Jóhannesson and other researchers project a 25 percent increase in water runoff by the end of the century, resulting in a 45 percent increase in potential power production....

Early smart speakers didn’t have to sound incredible. The novelty of an always-on digital assistant that users could beckon with their voice was enough to offset the audio shortcomings inherent to small house speakers with sound fields that spread out in every direction. Last week, Google announced its latest smart speaker, the Nest Audio, which promises seriously upgraded performance over the Google Home that came before it, as well as an aggressively low $99 price tag....

For that reason, McQueen-Mason and his research team have been trying to figure out how the gribble breaks through lignin, the tough coating surrounding the sugar polymers that compose wood — long a mystery. They recently discovered that the gribble secretes enzymes called hemocyanins, which are the same proteins that make invertebrates’ blood blue and that enable them to bore through the wood-binding lignin and eat sugars in wood. Their paper appears in the journal Nature Communications....

1. Neil deGrasse Tyson Vs. Frozen Banana Neil deGrasse Tyson posed for the front cover of our September issue as our guide on how to be an expert in anything. As part of his guide duties, he demonstrated some (literally) hard science by smashing a banana frozen with liquid nitrogen. 2. Step Aside, Hamilton Earlier this year the U.S. Treasury Department announced that beginning in 2020, the 100th anniversary of the year that all American women became eligible to vote, it will feature a woman on the $10 bill....

“This technology allows our guests to tag their own bags in just seconds and makes the entire check-in process almost all off-airport,” explained Charu Jain, senior vice president of merchandising and innovation at Alaska, on the airline website. It works like this: passengers in the pilot group will be given their own reusable electronic tags with digital screens, which they can activate in the 24-hours leading up to their flight through Alaska’s mobile app....

The move is part of a broader industry goal to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. Passenger air travel is a growing contributor to climate change, making up about three percent of carbon emissions worldwide in 2021. While flying less and investing in more efficient planes can help reduce emissions, new technologies will likely be needed to reach net zero. Other solutions, like battery-powered air taxis and sustainable aviation fuels, may help cut emissions, but hydrogen in particular might be one of the major paths forward to net zero because it could be used widely in the industry, from shorter regional hops to longer flights with larger planes....

Arctic sea ice has been declining since the 1970s, and according to one dire estimate, this drop will leave the ocean nearly ice-free by the 2050s. The loss of this Arctic ocean cover may have profound effects much further south. Climate scientists refer to such a link as a teleconnection—the effect that two different climate conditions located in distant regions can have on each other. Hailong Wang, a scientist at the Pacific Northwest National Lab and one of the co-authors of the study, explains that atmospheric circulation patterns drive the bulk of these phenomena....

A 2018 survey revealed 40 percent of Americans have sent at least one naked picture of themselves, while data from 2015 shows nine out of 10 adults have sexted. Contrary to popular belief, these activities are not restricted to single people on dating apps, but are very much a part of committed bliss. The same 2015 survey found that three out of four sexters were in long-term relationships, and they were more likely to say they were sexually satisfied than single people....