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For bees, the threats are numerous, including habitat loss, climate change, and intensive agriculture. As fields of flowering plants are converted to roads and row crops, sources of food for wild pollinators dwindle. And when insects forage in farms, they suffer from poor nutrition due to a lack of diverse food sources and become exposed to agricultural chemicals. Honey bees—a managed, non-native species in the US—are transported into many farms to provide pollination, but still face threats from poor nutrition, pests, and pathogens....

But beyond the essentials, experts know very little about how the placenta develops and operates. In a recent blog post, Diana W. Bianchi, a senior investigator at the National Institute of Health (NIH), wrote that the placenta is “the least understood, and least studied organ.” She then explains how developing better ultrasound and MRI imaging techniques can help doctors study the placenta during pregnancy, work that the Eastern Virginia Medical School and University of Texas Medical Branch have used to study placental vasculature, as shown above....

Pole saws can be powered by gas, an electrical outlet, or rechargeable batteries. Gas-powered tools are best for larger jobs, with longer run-times and more power for branches up to 12 inches thick. However, they’re often heavier and more expensive than their electric cousins. For smaller branches or fewer trees, consider a plug-in or battery-powered option—they’ll also save you money. When looking at pole saws, you want to pay attention to their working height, the cutting bar length (which determines the maximum diameter of the branches you can cut), the weight, and whether or not the saw is removable....

To find out what the next final frontiersmen and women will be training to do, as well as what it takes to earn a coveted spot in the astronaut corps, PopSci spoke with Duane Ross, manager of the Astronaut Selection Office at Johnson Space Center (JSC) since 1975. For more background on some of the medical requirements, PopSci also spoke with William “Bill” Tarver, medical director of the JSC clinical services branch....

Here are some of the best standalone car jump starters currently available. This tiny jump starter from NOCO delivers a whopping 1000 amps of current to your battery and can render up to 20 jump starts on a single charge. It measures at just under 36.5 cubic inches—small enough for most glove boxes—and houses an LED flashlight for dark working situations plus a 2.1-amp USB port to function as a power pack in a pinch....

A French company has a cute solution to this problem: EP Tender, a generator housed in a little two-wheeled trailer pulled by your EV. It’s just over 4 feet long and over 400 pounds, which seems like a lot for an EV to pull. (The Renault Zoe shown in the demo videos is not rated for towing, by the way.) That might seem like a heavy piece of equipment to tow behind an EV, but the idea isn’t to tow a generator behind your car all day every day....

Prime day 3D printer resin deals Start digging into the 3D printing world and you’ll find that there are several different types of machines. Resin printers, like those made by Anycubic turn liquid resin (hence the name) into three dimensional objects with the help of UV light to cure the material. You can opt for a high-end model like the ANYCUBIC Photon Mono SE 3D Printer, which is $100 off during Prime Day with a coupon available on the page....

Fight for the Future notes that Ring is currently partnered with over 2,000 police departments across the country which allows them to routinely obtain warrantless access to owners’ surveillance app footage, sometimes even bypassing the device’s Neighborhood app entirely without consumers’ knowledge. Paired with copious amounts of data supporting “smart” surveillance racial biases and the devices’ ability to stoke community paranoia, Fight for the Future contends Ring systems are also the perfect tool to advance post-Roe agendas and punish abortion seekers....

The key to this heartening alteration is, perhaps unsurprisingly, the rapid rise in renewable energy sources. The IEA notes that, were it not for “major deployments” of renewable energy tech alongside increased demand for electric vehicles (EVs), we would have likely seen almost triple that number. This even figures the ongoing geopolitical crisis in Ukraine, which has had dramatic effects on the global supply of natural gas and oil. “Even though the energy crisis sparked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has propped up global coal demand in 2022 by making natural gas far more expensive, the relatively small increase in coal emissions has been considerably outweighed by the expansion of renewables,” notes the IEA in its summary....

So here’s how it works: When we lie about our feelings, a brain element called the insula (or insular cortex) is activated. As part of the brain’s reward system, the insula activates when, say the researchers, we experience “real feelings.” The insula is believed to control both emotion and body temperature (among other things, like consciousness and pH), and the researchers found a strong negative correlation between insula activity and temperature increase....

You shouldn’t blame yourself for taking Opportunity for granted; the robot landed in 2004 with the task of searching the red planet for signs of ancient water for just over three months. Opportunity surpassed its primary mission by more than 60 times, and outlived its twin rover by eight years. Built for a sprint, Opportunity ran a marathon—and then some. (And yes, we know, it’s probably been “dead” since June—but 15 is such a nice round number an Opportunity deserves it, okay?...

Satellite images have confirmed George’s claim that his efforts have created a huge plankton boom across nearly 4,000 square miles of the northern Pacific. The idea–and George is not the first to have it–is that these plankton will absorb carbon dioxide from the air and then sink to the sea bed, lowering the amount of net carbon in the atmosphere and creating valuable carbon credits for George. Of course, in lab tests researchers have seen such “ocean fertilization” spawning algae that also pump out neurotoxins....

Also known as the ergometer or erg, the rowing machine is what experts call the “Swiss Army knife of the gym,” thanks to its versatility. It’s designed to challenge the muscles on both your upper and lower body, including your core and back, all while remaining relatively low-impact. So instead of shelling out money for a Peloton, you may want to invest in a rowing machine instead. The Apollo Pro V Reserve Indoor Rower is worth a look, and for a limited time, it’s on sale for an extra $20 off with code SPRING20....

Like its name implies, RHIC smashes heavy ions together at incredible speeds, which produces super-hot temperatures that melt the building blocks of atoms. As protons and neutrons break apart, their constituent parts, gluons and quarks, form a new state of matter called a quark-gluon plasma. This particle soup is so hot–250,000 times hotter than the center of the sun–that the unchained particles behave in very strange ways, which can give physicists clues about the way the universe coalesced after the Big Bang....

Fall is finally here, and the cooler weather is a welcome relief from the summer heat. Even as the seasons change, COVID cases continue to spread, with two new Omicron strains killing and infecting hundreds of people each week in the US. While the chillier temperatures may kickstart your craving for taking gatherings indoors, it’s still important to do what you can to stop the spread of the virus. So bundle up with a cozy scarf, stay outside when you can, and check out a few festivities that will keep you and your family and friends safe and in the fall spirit this season....

Packed with proven far-ranging resources, lifetime license to Microsoft Office Home & Business 2021 typically costs more than $300. For a limited time, you can pair two of them for the surprising price of only $74.99 (reg. $698) with specialized deals applied to use on Windows devices or Mac devices. Don’t worry about losing any of the perks of operating a Windows program without a Windows device by picking up the Mac-centric subscription....

If you’d like to take a break from watching too many shows and want to protect your online freedom at the same time, the CuriosityStream + KeepSolid VPN Unlimited Lifetime Subscription Bundle is your best bet. It provides you with lifetime access to a documentary repository and a top-rated VPN service. For a limited time, you can get it on sale for just $179 (reg. $449) for our Pre-Black Friday Doorbusters Sale....

According to multiple outlets and first spotted by The Verge, an estimated 165,000 viewers tuned into at least two fake Apple Event “livestreams” which instead played a prerecorded 2018 CNN interview with company CEO Tim Cook, as well as an old conversation held between Twitter co-founder/former CEO Jack Dorsey and Elon Musk. Banner ads like “Apple is buying 100,000 Bitcoins” on the videos then redirected visitors to sham crypto giveaway websites....

At a TED talk in 2009, when Bill Gates unleashed a swarm of the insects into a packed auditorium, the aim was to increase awareness of mosquitos and malaria, and indeed the last year and a half has seen a number of advances. Mosquitos infect up to 700 million people annually, leading to more than 2 million deaths. Malaria, dengue fever, yellow fever, and Chikungunya are all potentially lethal, cementing the mosquito’s position as the deadliest creature on the planet....