Atlantic cod have only in the last decade begun to recuperate from the devastation that happened 30 years ago. And new evidence published in Science Advances on the cod population genetics provides suggests one reason why it might have been slow going: It turns out the crash of the early 90s didn’t just wipe out their numbers, it also stripped away their resiliency and left a population that was genetically vulnerable....

Every Apple Watch user is different, so you’ll have to ask yourself a few simple questions before choosing the right amount of armor. Do your workouts involve a lot of potentially abrasive equipment? Is your wrist big enough to accommodate a burly case? How often do you attempt to deflect dangerous projectiles with your wrists as part of an elaborate Wonder Woman cosplay? All of these affect your choice of Apple Watch case....

Best overall: Hydro Flask 12-ounce Kids Wide MouthBest stainless steel: Yeti Rambler Jr.Best insulated: CamelBak Eddy+ Kids 12-ounce BottleBest leakproof: Thermos Funtainer Stainless Steel Water BottleBest travel: Takeya Kids Insulated Water BottleBest budget: Nalgene Kids Grip-N-Gulp How we chose the best kids water bottles I’ve been writing about gear and gadgets for over 10 years and, during that time, my byline has appeared on CNN Underscored, Gear Patrol, and TechnoBuffalo. At Popular Science, I’ve covered everything from the best 55-inch TVs to the best carbon monoxide detectors, so I write about a wide range of products....

If your mobile phone (or laptop) falls in a lake, what happens to those years of photos you’ve been saving up? Unless they’re safely backed up somewhere else, it’s likely they’re gone forever. That’s a worst-case scenario, of course, but it sure helps demonstrate why getting your pics synced to the cloud is such a good idea. There are plenty of other reasons to take on the task, though. If your pictures are saved on the web, you can delete your local copies and free up some space on your phone....

In her small lab in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Melanie Sanford has engineered a new solution. She’s learned how to transform one of the most basic chemical connections—the carbon-hydrogen (CH) bond, a link so common and stable that chemists shorthand it with a single squiggly line—into “anything that you could imagine,” she says. The discovery has opened up entirely new approaches to molecule-building. Her main trick is to build puzzle pieces out of catalysts, compounds that drive reactions forward....

Well, it depends how deep you look. The impressive (and slightly addictive) searchable interface lets armchair GMs search the best two- to five-player combos by team, season or league from 2005 through this year’s playoffs. In the 2008 playoffs, the +79 for the Celtics and +66 for the Lakers are the highest ratings for any five-player combination suggesting the math adds up. The regular season shows the same Celtic combo had by far the highest rating (+396)....

Today’s products include everything from a robotic pet to a super-fast electric motorcycle with a unique new type of motor. CES truly is a wonderful grab bag of cool new tech, and we’re suckers for all of it. LG M3 OLED TV Examine LG’s super-skinny 97-inch OLED TV and you won’t find any ports. Instead, the M3 keeps all of its HDMI and audio connectivity ports in an external box that can sit away from the TV and send a 120Hz 4K wireless signal to the TV itself....

Last year roughly 80,000 people died of the flu, many of them from complications that antivirals can help fight. But antivirals, Xofluza included, aren’t for everyone—here’s what you need to know as we head into this year’s flu season. Is this drug any different from Tamiflu? The reason Xofluza got a priority review from the FDA is that it works through a different mechanism than Tamiflu. Both are antivirals, meaning they prevent the replication of the virus, but they work at different stages in that process....

The company plans to test its custom designed electric motor to speeds of up to 540 km/hour (about 335 mph) on a 1 km (about 0.62 miles) long track. Hyperloop Technologies is currently still selecting a location for a Safety, Development, and Test site. Once it’s up and running (in “late 2016/early 2017”), the team will put a full speed, full-scale prototype to the test. The plan is to have a working Hyperloop system ready by 2020....

Ice in the Arctic continues to melt earlier, freeze later, and cover less area than ever before. That means polar bears find themselves traveling much longer distances by land—and sea—to find their food. Anthony Pagano, a wildlife biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey’s Changing Arctic Ecosystems research project, is working to calculate the energetic cost of all that movement. In April 2017, Pagano and collaborators put polar bears on treadmills and found the bears don’t have to work quite as hard when moving on land as previously thought....

Here are three of the main takeaways following year’s meeting. A climate justice fund is finally in motion After years of debate and resistance from wealthier countries, a deal was signed to create a fund to help developing countries pay for damages and losses due floods, storms, and drought that are made worse by climate change. The decision, called the Sharm el-Sheikh Implementation Plan, calls for a committee with representatives from 24 countries to figure out what form the fund should take, the countries should contribute, and where the money should go over the next year....

In disease news While health authorities proclaimed Sierra Leone Ebola-free earlier this month, the virus still lurks in Liberia. Read this Wired piece by Sarah Zhang on how the WHO messed up the Ebola response, and why that matters for future outbreaks of any disease. There’s a dengue fever outbreak on Hawaii’s Big Island, infecting a reported 107 people. France had its first reported bird flu outbreak in eight years....

Countless new products and medications hit stores’ shelves and doctors’ prescription pads every year. Many are a result of small tweaks to already available treatments. A select few, though, totally change the game: A preventative migraine drug slashes monthly headaches in half, an injectable gene restores sight to those with a degenerative eye condition, and a better-designed sunscreen helps more people keep damaging rays at bay. These 10 medical advances represent how science, technology, and creative thinking can help us live longer, better lives....

Refrigerator drawers Only 10 percent of Americans regularly sanitize their refrigerator drawers, according to a 1,500-person survey by Local Gardener. This is a problem, says Jasmine Davenport-Murray, a former health inspector and current owner of ARF Food Safety Consulting Group. “Anything that is going to come in contact with food needs to be cleaned and sanitized,” she explains. This is especially important given that drawers can collect almost anything that leaks inside your fridge....

The Ford’s construction began in 2009, and it was formally commissioned in 2017. In 2008, when funding for the Ford was approved, it cost $13.3 billion. The ship was first declared operational in December 2021, though it suffered delays as work on technical problems, like weapons elevators, was still needed before it could properly set sail. The Ford is the eleventh aircraft carrier presently in the fleet to enter active service, and it’s the first of the new design....

Apple’s groundbreaking changes empower users rather than the ever-growing cadre of tech companies desperate to track and collect your personal data. Here’s how to make the most of them. Easier iPhone unlocking while wearing a mask Apple Watch’s mask-inclusive FaceID update is welcome news to Watch users who want to stay covid-safe. Once activated, you’ll be able to unlock your iPhone without pulling down your mask to expose your entire face....

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Centers for Disease and Prevention (CDC) have warned people in all 50 states, plus Washington, D.C., to throw out old onions they have in their kitchens. The advisory comes after Thompson International, a large-scale grower based in California, recalled red, white, yellow, and sweet yellow onions for salmonella contamination. More than 600 cases in 43 states have been traced back to Thompson so far, with no reports of deaths....

From 1991 to 2006, 8 of the 14 champs asked their fans to pony up more than the rest of the league. So were the other six teams just being nice? Nope, in five of those six years the winning team had won recently, and increased prices, just years earlier. (That doesn’t include you, Philadelphia, so get ready.) But don’t think only winners pay a premium. The Chicago Cubs, 100 years since a title, have the second most expensive tickets....

Whether natural or artificial, we don’t blink twice when we’re in the presence of light. But to wildlife, the types of light, especially in urban areas, matter a lot. It’s well documented that artificial light, which occurs at night, has adverse effects on wildlife. This month, a team of international researchers added to that list in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, reporting that polarized light was causing species to change their behaviors in potentially dangerous ways....

Fact: This man bit bulls by the lip By Eleanor Cummins Don’t mess with Texas…’s native son Bill Pickett. The legendary cow-puncher, who lived from 1870 to 1932, invented his own rodeo event. Today it’s called steer wrestling and involves leaping off your horse mid-charge, grabbing hold of a steer, and wrenching its horn until it’s forced to lay down in the arena dirt (more on that later). But back then this singular sport was known as “bulldogging,” because Pickett’s preferred method for leveling cows was to leap off his horse mid-charge, grab hold of the steer, and then bite it on the lip....