Holt, 59, says the U.S. is at a critical juncture in its support of science and engineering. A new president, for example, could end the recent politicization of science. But he feels we also need to make a fiscal commitment. Our economy is fueled by innovation, yet, Holt contends, we’re not laying the groundwork for future breakthroughs. At press time, he was fighting for $500 million in emergency funding to revitalize programs at the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, the National Science Foundation, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology....

While the speed and the gliding are notable parts of the system China launched, what most stands out is the specific trajectory it took. Every missile has a path it follows. For intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), that path is a high arc over the North Pole, hundreds of miles up and then down again; they don’t go into orbit. Cruise missiles fly much closer to the ground. Atmospheric hypersonic missiles, like the kind DARPA tested in September, stay within the atmosphere while moving at great speed....

The purpose of the nine-hour surgery is to restore the ability to become pregnant to women who have either been born without a uterus or have had it removed. The New York Times reports that the patient will have to wait a year while she heals, and then can use in vitro fertilization to try to conceive. After one or two babies, doctors will remove the uterus again. Doctors in Sweden have previously performed nine uterus transplants....

The Raider is a stealth flying wing, designed to carry an explosive arsenal deep into hostile countries while bypassing their radar systems. The B-2 could deliver deadly payloads from conventional explosives to nuclear weapons. Unlike the Spirit’s 1988 reveal, the B-21 arrived in a world with a very different geopolitical climate, one where the nuclear superpower over the horizon for the US to worry about is China, not the Soviet Union....

Geothermal energy systems don’t drain heat directly from the core. Instead, they pull radiant heat from the crust—the rocky upper 20 or so miles of the planet’s surface—either by sucking up pockets of heated water or by circulating water through the hot rock. Power plants then use steam from the hot water to spin turbines to make electricity. Geothermal energy generates 7 to 10 billion watts worldwide, barely enough to account for 0....

Sony BRAVIA 65-inch 4K Smart OLED TV with HDR $1,798 (Was $2,495) Sennheiser IE 300 wired in-ear monitor headphones $199.95 ($299.95) If music gets you wired, and you don’t mind audio gear doing the same, the Sennheiser IE 300 earphones are a new take on an old-school approach to audio purity. There’s nothing—no Bluetooth or active noise-cancelling features, etc.—sitting between you and rich, emotive playback. As long as you have a 3....

It took a few decades to realize this impact, but once naval planners took it in, battleships were sunk for good. Now, DARPA wants to expand the aircraft carrier revolution by developing a small drone that can take off and land even on small ships. This would give reach and power not just to dedicated giant naval vessels, but smaller escorts too. Dubbed TERN, for “Tactically Exploited Reconnaissance Node,” the drone is a tail-sitter on land or decks, meaning the body takes off and lands like a helicopter, but turns 90 degrees once airborne to fly like a plane....

“Such data are critical for understanding the causes, costs, and consequences of dementia and mild cognitive impairment in the United States, and for informing policies aimed at reducing their impact on patients, families, and public programs,” Jennifer J. Manly, the study’s lead author and professor of neuropsychology in neurology at Columbia University, said in a statement. Dementia is the loss of cognitive functioning (things like thinking, reasoning, and remembering) to such an extent that it interferes with a person’s daily life and activities....

In the case of Hurricane Florence, there is also the danger that the extreme destruction caused by the storm’s high winds and flooding will generate huge amounts of debris — up to five to ten times usually produced by communities — posing a challenge for removal and storage, and raising the possibility of spreading termites beyond their usual borders. In recent years, climate change has amplified the spread of disease-carrying insects; it now could be fueling the spread of property-destroying bugs as well....

Now, in a paper published Monday in the journal, PNAS, scientists report that they have found them in the western Australian outback, and that they are nearly identical to those found in southwestern Africa. This finding, the researchers say, makes them more confident that they have narrowed down on the root cause of these mysterious dirt patches. Since researchers first started seeing them in Namibia, they have studied, researched, and theorized how they form....

Fashioning Technology contains large, colorful pictures and a plethora of uncluttered diagrams. Pakhchyan breaks down transistors, resistors, diodes and capacitors, all in clear, easy-to-follow language. The second chapter is full of technical primers to get you on your way to making Rock ‘n’ Roll Speakers or LED Chandeliers. These primers were so straightforward, even yours truly is confident about sewing circuits (and I haven’t even figured out how to use a sewing machine)....

The study identified 30 people—all vaccinated and boosted—who were given both PCR and antigen tests during routine testing at five US workplaces in December. Based on the PCR results, all but one appeared to be infected with the Omicron variant. But for the first two days after that positive result, every single individual was negative on an antigen test (either by Abbott or Quiddel). The majority also had false negative antigen tests on the third day....

Composed of exquisitely sensitive skin-based cells and snaking nerves, lateral lines are as integral to a fish’s perception as their sight or hearing. For a human, trying to wonder what it’s like to have one is an exercise in transcending the boundaries of our own ümwelt, or notion of our place in the world. Doing so might also help us better understand what our gilled counterparts’ lives are like, and how to better care for them, particularly in captive environments....

Dave Arnold would like to fix you a gin and tonic. Sound good? It will be. It will be very, very good. It will be like no gin and tonic you have ever seen or tasted in your life. It will also be considerably more involved, shall we say, than cracking open the Tanqueray and Schweppes. First, Arnold believes, he must clarify the lime juice. Why? Because his uncompromising conception of culinary perfection requires that gin and tonics be completely, crystalline clear, that´s why....

People with sickle cell disease don’t make beta-hemoglobin—the protein that both makes your red blood cells nice and round and helps transport oxygen through your body. Instead, they produce a faulty protein called hemoglobin S that changes the red blood cells’ chemistry and causes them to cave in on themselves and become rigid and sickle-shaped. The hook-like cells are not nearly as efficient at transporting oxygen as their healthy, circular counterparts....

Balloons are often made of rubber, latex, or nylon which either biodegrade very slowly or not at all. Balloons can wreak havoc on ecosystems and your local electrical grid if not disposed of correctly by puncturing them and putting them in the garbage. Balloons can be ingested by wildlife and those shiny, metallic mylar balloons can float into power lines causing outages and fires. Because of these effects, environmentalists have long asked groups like Indianapolis 500 to end traditions of intentionally releasing thousands of balloons before races....

No one wants to hear that there’s no solution to the problem that vexes them. And while we might hate to admit it, we don’t want to find out that the solutions that do exist are time-consuming and difficult. Take our bodies, for example: Most of us want whatever our personal vision of a perfect physique is, and we want it yesterday. We want our cellulite to improve instantly. But easy fixes to our beauty wishes are like magic tricks—you’re willingly suspending your skepticism in order to believe in something better than reality....

In plain terms, they are everywhere. Due to their ubiquity, scientists have long wondered just how many of these six-legged bugs are on this planet and what their total weight would be. A study out today in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA has a potential answer. The new research from The University of Hong Kong estimates that the Earth is home to 20 quadrillion (or 20 × 1015 or 20,000,000,000,000,000) ants....

Luckily, Popular Science reporters are excellent at waiting in line, and with much patience got into the highly anticipated forum. Musk knew his audience, sprinkling his answers to interview questions with statements like “I am super into science”, advocating the wildly controversial opinion that increased science funding is actually a good idea, and saying that “I do think geoscience is very important.” But really, what else are you going to tell a conference of over 23,000 geoscientists?...