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A screen displays a slide deck for a 10-point strategy—called the One Linden Plan—to improve this historically underserved low-­income area. Onstage, hip-high cubes show photos of happy kids clinging to smiling ­parents. While Linden is just a few miles from the city center, transportation options from here—​to jobs, doctors, even grocery stores—remain mostly limited, slow, inaccessible, unreliable, or a combination of those factors. One Linden aims to change that. In Columbus, as in many cities, the people who would benefit most from public-transit improvements—people with lower incomes, minorities, residents with disabilities, the ­elderly—often have difficulty accessing it....

Dollar Shave Club Fitbit LG PayPal SquareSpace T-Mobile Honorary Mentions In addition to the hardware makers, mobile carriers and startups, other companies ran some interesting adverts during Super Bowl 50 as well. Marvel trailers for Captain America: Civil War and X-Men: Apocalypse made their way into homes last night–gearing everyone up for a few of the many superhero movies that lie ahead. And Pokémon, celebrating its 20th anniversary, bought some ad time in #SB50 as well....

Case in point: the recent consternation over an acknowledgment by Samsung that several of its smart TVs, which can be controlled with voice commands. In short, the television listens to the conversations around it in order to parse for keywords that trigger capabilities on the TV. One activist for the Electronic Freedom Foundation compared the functionality with the “telescreens” in George Orwell’s dystopian classic 1984. The concern is that our private conversations might be recorded and listened to by others without our knowledge....

This pencil case is ideal for artists, designers, and anyone who is hyper-organized. Every pencil has its own slot and the case comes in various sizes to fit 24, 48, 72, 96, or 120 pencils. The Speedball pencil case is made from leather, and the three-sized zip closure allows it open like a book, so when you’re sketching or drawing you’ll clearly see each color side by size. This felt pouch is soft, lightweight, and spacious enough to store a few more items besides pens and pencils—highlighters, a portable stapler, headphones, and even a very small A6 notebook....

Recently, Perseverance has been surveying rocks in Jezero Crater, a place that scientists believe previously experienced violent flash floods. Since it’s believed that life on the Red Planet would have been at a time when water covered it, this crater might be a good spot for Perseverance to find evidence of ancient life. Jezero was chosen over around 60 other potential landing sites for the rover after five years of decision making and research....

RSV is a common respiratory illness that is regularly seen during the fall and winter months. Most of those who contract it have similar symptoms to the common cold, but the virus can be life-threatening in young infants who have smaller airways. It is also a leading cause of hospitalization for babies. RSV is currently causing an unusually early spike in cases, overwhelming hospitals in many states. “It all has a very COVID-esque feel to it,” Meghan Bernier, the medical director of the pediatric intensive care unit at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center in Baltimore, told The New York Times....

In this episode of the podcast, we talk to Marcus Elliott, founder of the Peak Performance Project, or P3. The company uses a slew of data to build better athletes. And we hear from Ryan Warkins, who works at Catapult Sports, a company that tracks athletes with all kinds of sensors. We discuss how to keep star players injury-free and playing at their best. To figure out how to put together a team that works like a well-oiled machine, we talk to Dean Oliver, vice president of data science at TruMedia Networks....

As always, our 5-Minute Projects are available in video podcast form—subscribe here. And check out the whole series at popsci.com/5minutes.

Join us while we explore the wasteland! READ MORE: FALLOUT 4 REVISITS OUR COLD WAR NIGHTMARE SHELTERS

However, just like in any prediction, there’s no way to know for certain how things will go, especially if key factors are left out. A study out last week in Nature delves into a few of these often underestimated factors, especially public opinion and public pressure on institutions. It shows that normal folks expressing our opinions and experiences may have a bigger impact on climate change than previously thought. In fact, in the majority of scenarios the experts considered, social and political factors kept global warming increases below the target set by the United Nation’s COP26 climate agreement....

Logitech for Creators Blue Yeti USB Mic $70 (Was $129.99) There are great reasons you’ll find the Blue Microphones Yeti USB microphone in front of many streamers and podcasters: it’s simple to use, versatile, delivers great sound, and costs less than even a D-list cover band’s touring budget. With three separate condenser capsules and four selectable polar patterns, its 16-bit/48kHz analog-to-digital converter can pick up whatever you need: just yourself, both sides of an expressive debate, some ambiance during a musical performance, etc....

A heat wave occurs when unusually hot weather lasts for at least two days. In this case, high atmospheric pressure has trapped hot air that moved inland from the Pacific Ocean. Like a closed lid, the upper layer of air has pushed the hot air back down, creating a “heat dome” that prevents the ocean air from escaping. The heat dome stops clouds from forming, making it less likely for rain or cloud cover to block the sun’s sweltering heat....

The researchers propose putting the bacteria onto the tiny membrane of an electromechanical oscillator and cooling them both down to a cryogenic temperature in order to put the bacteria into a state of quantum superposition. Previous research has shown that it’s possible to put this oscillator membrane into superposition, and doing so, the researchers say, will also put the bacteria into a quantum superposition state. Then, a superconducting circuit enables the bacteria’s internal spin state to be teleported to another microorganism....

The show not only delivers a healthy dose of nerd-culture references, it also offers up some legitimate scientific content, something that’s pretty rare in mainstream television. How many TV nerds do you see engaging in real scientific banter? It’s more than the big words and convoluted sentence structure; the dialogue actually contains scientifically sound ideas. UCLA Professor of Physics and Astronomy David Saltzberg is the science man behind the curtain, and many of the punchlines....

After reviewing a century’s worth of photographs, researchers from the University of Cambridge found that the horns themselves have shrunk over time. In the study, published earlier this week in the journal People and Nature, the team measured the horns of 80 rhinos photographed in profile view between 1886 and 2018. The photos, held by the Rhino Resource Center, included all five species of rhino: white, black, Indian, Javan, and Sumatran....

Today, the race is on for the next frontier: battery-powered off-roading trucks. GMC accelerated its production schedule for the Hummer EV, which features a crab-walking trick made for tight turns on tough terrain, and Ford’s new all-electric F-150 Lightning wasn’t far behind. Chevrolet is nipping at its heels with an electric-powered Silverado truck coming to market soon. Meanwhile, small-batch upstart Rivian has been selling its R1T pickup since 2021 and R1S SUV since 2022—and coming up with new ways to make electric trucks as capable off the pavement as they are on it....

Roboy, which the inventors are trying to create in nine months, is tendon-based, and it’s modeled on people. Young ones, in this case. The idea is for it to help out with duties usually reserved for humans, depending on what the user needs. The robot, or at least similar robots, could help care for the elderly a la Robot & Frank, the researchers say. Roboy will also get so-called “soft skin,” a layer of something to make it “safer and more pleasant....

Rolls-Royce (not the car company) released a concept for an autonomous naval vessel last week, one that would be powered by Rolls-Royce engines and controlled by its own systems. The concept vessel has a range of 3500 nautical miles, a top speed over 28 mph, a displacement of 770 tons, and will be able to operate for at least 100 days at a time. It is envisioned as a platform in the truest sense: a body for naval missions, that can incorporate and perform any number of missions, depending on the special equipment installed....

According to The Economist, “the luggage-carriers could not climb stairs or go outside. A question-and-answer robot could not handle anything beyond basic inquiries—and responded to at least one guest’s snoring by waking him repeatedly to tell him it could not understand what he was saying. Rather than saving labour, the robots actually required the hotel to increase staffing in order to assist and repair the struggling robots.” Around this time, many hotels looked to automate components of their services, like checking in and out, storing luggage, delivering room service, making breakfast, vacuuming carpets, and providing digital door keys....