A major obstacle to breaking down polyethylene is a feature of its molecular structure. It contains unreactive carbon chains, which are covalent bonds that hold atoms together so tightly it takes a high amount of force and energy to pull them apart. But scientists have been making efforts to find a solution for breaking down polyethylene. A new study published Thursday in the journal Science proposes a method to effectively transform polyethylene into propylene, a chemical that’s easier to use for future chemical reactions....

When it comes to flowing freshwater, most of it is buried out of sight. Around 99 percent of it exists underneath the Earth’s surface, resting in aquifers and groundwater reservoirs. But like with many of the resources humans so desperately need on the planet, groundwater has in many cases been misutilized or mismanaged. For example, California’s horrific droughts have resulted in crucial aquifers drying up, despite laws in place to keep this from happening....

“Being vigilant about your moles – the size, shape, color, and patterns—is the best way to catch melanoma when it’s most treatable and a cure is likely,” says Sancy Leachman, MD, Ph.D., director of the melanoma research program at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) in Portland. Melanoma is the deadliest form of skin cancer. If it’s recognized and treated in its earliest stage, the five-year survival rate of people with melanoma is 97 percent....

Today, Church and software entrepreneur Ben Lamm announced the launch of their biotech startup, Colossal, with seed funding of $15 million. The mission of the company is two-fold: to preserve endangered animals (and someday plants) with gene-editing technology, and use those animals to reshape Arctic ecosystems to fight climate change. The plan is to use CRISPR to add 60-plus genes from the extinct woolly mammoth into the cells of an embryo of an Asian elephant, which is its closest living relative....

From our perspective here on Earth, the Milky Way looks like a bright streak of stars against the night sky. But its actual shape is a more complicated spiral, with curving arms reaching out in a disk around a bulging center. The majority of the Milky Way’s stars are located in this disk and not its central bulge. Astronomers generally assumed the disk’s stars moved in a relatively boring, symmetrical manner around the galactic core, having long-since settled into a composed equilibrium in the more than 13 billion years since the galaxy was born....

The new guidance, which is aimed at the roughly 60,000 retail pharmacies across the country, breaks down how withholding certain medicines would discriminate against customers on the basis of sex or disability. These drugs include contraceptives, miscarriage treatments, and several non-abortion medications used to treat conditions like rheumatoid arthritis, ulcers, and multiple sclerosis. Experts are concerned that some pharmacists in states that have passed abortion restrictions might be unwilling to dispense common medications, even when they have been prescribed for other purposes besides reproductive healthcare....

Maybe this is a honeymoon phase. Time will tell. But I don’t think it is. To support that, and because I know no one wants to read another monolithic 3,000-word iPad review running through every feature, what follows are some assorted notes and impressions from my first weekend of using this machine and how it pertains to the future of using computers. Some may be on the fragmentary side–please jump in the comments if you feel inspired to add to the conversation or would like to hear more....

Here’s a list of everything that’s on sale right now: Jackery Portable Power Station Explorer 240, 240Wh Backup Lithium Battery $163 (Was $299)Jackery Explorer 1000 Portable Power Station $769 (Was $1,099)Jackery Solar Generator 1000, 1002Wh Capacity with 2x SolarSaga 100W Solar Panels $1,099 (Was $1,649)Jackery SolarSaga 100W Portable Solar Panel for Explorer 240/300/500/1000/1500 Power Station $209 (Was $299)Jackery SolarSaga 100X Portable Solar Panel for Explorer 240/300/500/1000/1500 Power Station $209 (Was $299)

PowerVision is headquartered in Beijing. They believe their PowerEgg will be light enough to fit in a backpack, complete with a “360° Panoramic, 4K HD Camera, 3-axis Gimbal,” according to their press release. It is also, notably, egg-shaped. Four limbs with rotors fold out of the egg-body, and the bottom slides away to reveal a camera. The presentation is sleek, but we’ve seen similar attempts at the functionality before, with Sprite, a cylindrical drone for backpackers that raised money on Kickstarter in 2015....

Back in the more naive days of May, we knew this version as Android Q, but in August we received the paradigm-shifting news that Google would call it simply Android 10. Other generations of Android had names like “Nougat,” “Oreo,” and “Pie,” but those alphabetized dessert-themed days are gone now, like so many sweet Thanksgiving scraps tossed into the garbage. Now that the latest and greatest version of Google’s mobile operating system is officially out—and more clearly named—here are some top-line features to look for....

“We’re really familiar with these things,” says Michael Dillon, an ecologist at the University of Wyoming who studies how insects respond to temperature. “Ask anybody about birds, and you’ll hear: ‘they build nests.’” As obvious as that might seem, there’s very little research on how temperature influences the way an animal engineers their dwellings—and in turn, what climate change might mean for those homes. “We tend to think about climate as something that’s external to the animal, something that impinges on the animal,” he says....

The PowerHouse 521 is a great tool to keep in your garage, basement, or closet for those unexpected interruptions, but it’s also a fantastic gadget for campers. The power station can be recharged via a solar panel, so you can use it to be totally off the grid for a week-long trip without worrying about reaching for an outlet. That scenario depends on the weather, but it’s good to have the option....

When Ann Nelson died in a tragic hiking accident in 2019, the loss went far beyond the pain felt by her many mentees in physics, myself among them. Her passing struck a blow to the entire theoretical physics community, which lost, in her, a phenomenal thinker. Nelson spent her career on the edge of particle physics, imagining what the universe might be like—and never worrying whether her questions were too weird....

iPad Mini Just as expected, pretty much! Super thin–just 7.2mm (about the thickness of a pencil)–and light, at 0.68 pounds, which Phil Schiller of Apple compares to a pad of paper. Aluminum, black and white colors, just like the iPhone 5. 7.9-inch screen, pretty close to the 7.85-inch we had assumed. Or maybe Apple’s just rounding up! Apple’s talking about total screen area, and how the wider screen will make the iPad Mini easier to use for stuff like web browsing than a 7-inch Android tablet....

This winter, I visited his white-painted, high-ceilinged studio. He led me past a gallery of folded and draped tents to his kitchen. He opened his freezer to show me dozens of freezer bags stuffed with raspberries, one of the few crops that will grow in his shady garden. He then handed me nettle, oatmeal, and raspberry leaf tea he had hand dried and blended before we settled in to talk about all he had learned— the “things your grandparents should have taught you—but didn’t,” he said....

Sandra Jeffers, a researcher at the Institute for Astrophysics at Goettingen University in Germany, is part of a team taking a more bespoke approach, searching nearby stars one by one for high-quality exoplanet targets that could someday be studied directly. Now years of analysis based on decades of data has uncovered one of the most promising targets yet, the group announced Thursday in the journal Science. Two, possibly three “super-Earths” orbit a bright but quiet red dwarf star sitting just 11 light years from Earth....

A new study published this month in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics details new observations of a 1,300-light-year-long cluster of more than 4,000 stars that have been moving together through the southern sky for about a billion years now. Distributed like a river of bright lights, a cluster like this has never been found so close to Earth, and could create some useful opportunities for learning about the structure and evolution of the galaxy....

The pieces that make up this London bus puzzle fit together so snugly, they make a ‘click’ sound when attached correctly. Ravensburger is a well trusted brand that has been making puzzles for more than a century, and that expertise shows with this 3D take on a classic jigsaw. It has 216 pieces, so it’s challenging enough, but won’t drive your kids to frustration. This robot’s name is Orpheus, and if you build it correctly, it will sing, move around, and light up....

During the past 12 months, PopSci’s DIY section has featured stories we hope have improved your lives and gotten you thinking about new ways to approach even the most mundane tasks. Now it’s time to dip into that vat of knowledge and use it to become the best version of yourself this new year. Travel more (and better) One of the most common New Year’s resolutions is to embark on more adventures....

Even after picking two of the most important decisions, poring over monitor specs can be a confusing chore. There are lots of good options, each touting impressive arrays of features, that may cost wildly different prices for reasons that aren’t immediately clear. What’s the best 1440p 144Hz monitor for you? We’ve done the research to help you pick it. Best overall: Samsung Odyssey G7Best 32-inch: Acer Predator XB323UBest 27-inch: ASUS ROG Strix XG27AQBest ultrawide: LG 34” UltraGear 34GP950G-BBest G-sync: Dell Alienware AW2721DBest budget: Monoprice Zero G 32-inch Curved Gaming Monitor How we selected the best 1440p 144Hz monitors I’ve been a tech journalist since 2015....