Read the latest articles from Popular Science (Page 235)

Ambient mode offers another way to watch YouTube.
Tech Hacks

YouTube has a hidden ambient mode: Here’s how to turn it on (and off)

It's a more immersive experience, on desktop or mobile—if that’s something you’re looking for.

In May 1951, Popular Science featured Aetna’s next generation simulator, the Roadometer.
Vehicles

Why don’t we use more driving simulators to teach teenage drivers?

These simulators popped in the 1950s, but there's a reason you won't see them in accredited driving schools today.

For many people, bed bugs are becoming a fact of life again.
Insects

Getting rid of bed bugs is trickier than ever

The blood-sucking insects now show up in two varieties and are resistant to many pesticides. New eradication strategies include fungal spores and nasty human odors.

Chronic wasting disease currently is known to infect only members of the cervid family—elk, deer, reindeer, caribou, and moose.
Diseases

Possibility of wildlife-to-human crossover heightens concern about chronic wasting disease

'The bottom-line message is we are quite unprepared.'

The best recliner for sleep in 2024 on a plain white background.
Home

The best recliners for sleeping

If you’re looking for great chairs for lounging, relaxing, and gathering, don’t sleep on our top picks … until you do.

SLIM lunar lander final moon photo
Moons

This may be SLIM’s farewell transmission from the moon

Japan’s lunar lander made history and defied the odds, but it may finally be down for the count.

Photo of an 18mo baby wearing a head-mounted camera
AI

How a baby with a headcam taught AI to learn words

An AI model identified objects 62% of the time after being trained on video and audio captured by a camera strapped to a toddler’s head.

Comcast Xfinity utility vehicle in parking lot
Internet

No, ’10G internet’ is not a thing

Comcast received a slap on the wrist this week for its 'misleading' Xfinity 10G Network brand campaign.

The first interstellar interloper detected passing through the Solar System, 1l/‘Oumuamua, came within 24 million miles of the Sun in 2017. It’s difficult to know exactly what ‘Oumuamua looked like, but it was probably oddly shaped and elongated, as depicted in this illustration.
Space

Why interstellar objects like ‘Oumuamua and Borisov may hold clues to exoplanets

The detection of two celestial interlopers careening through our solar system have scientists eagerly anticipating more.

Santa Cruz Heckler on a plain background in red
Outdoor Gear

The best full-suspension e-bikes

These electric bikes will tackle any terrain.

Three common clownfish with orange coloring and white stripes swimming in a sea anemone.
Fish

Can clownfish count?

These feisty anemone-dwellers might alter their behavior based on the number of white stripes on other clownfish.

In tracing signed vocabularies’ evolutions, researchers applied phylogenetic analysis typically associated with biologically inherited traits to physically conveyed communications.
Internet

Computer modeling is tracing the hidden evolution of sign languages

A new program analyzed 19 different sign languages from around the world to help understand their connections.

The new policy proposal, if accepted, would make AI-generated robocalls easier to investigate and prosecute.
AI

FCC wants to make AI-generated robocalls illegal

New AI voice-cloning tools are making already frustrating robocalls more dangerous.

‘Jaws’ portrayed sharks as monsters 50 years ago, but it also inspired a generation of shark scientists
Sharks

‘Jaws’ portrayed sharks as monsters 50 years ago, but it also inspired a generation of shark scientists

Sharks rarely bite humans. Here's how shark science is evolving over time.

The Rivian R1S marries the box-it-came-in styling of the company’s R1T pickup truck with the three-row SUV body style families need.
Electric Vehicles

Rivian R1S electric SUV review: A mixed bag for big bucks

The Rivian R1S is an impressive technical tour de force, but it needs many improvements to warrant the $106,000 price tag.

Screenshot showing shaded rendering of Doom via E. Coli bacteria display
Biology

Running ‘Doom’ on E. coli cells… very, very slowly

It would take nearly 600 years to finish playing this MIT student's iteration of the classic video game.

The constellation Orion, the Hunter as seen in the northern winter Milky Way in February 2020. The Orion Nebula is the bright, overexposed pink glow below the Belt of Orion, while the curving arc of red is Barnard’s Loop, now thought to be a supernova remnant. The bright red glow at upper left is the Rosette Nebula. Red Betelgeuse was at its minimum the night this image was taken, at about the same brightness as Bellatrix to the right—Betelgeuse is usually about as bright as blue-white Rigel at the lower right.
Space

February’s skies shine with Orion, a harmless comet, and an extra day of stargazing

Leap Day is on February 29, 2024.

As AI becomes more ubiquitous and naturalistic, many industry critics have voiced concerns about a potentially increasing number of people turning to technology instead of human relationships.
AI

13 percent of AI chat bot users in the US just want to talk

A Consumer Reports survey says many adults who used programs like ChatGPT in the summer of 2023 simply wanted to 'have a conversation with someone.'

What is 8K and should your next TV have it?
Televisions

What is 8K and should your next TV have it?

8K TVs are “the best” … but are they best for you? We look at whether the futureproof is in the pudding.

X briefly banned search results for the singer’s name on the platform.
AI

AI-generated Taylor Swift porn deepfakes ran rampant on X. Will laws catch up?

Gutted trust and safety teams and loose content moderation at X may have been to blame.