The end-of-week dispatch from PopSci's commerce editor. Vol. 55.
My job is to find cool stuff. Throughout the week I spend hours scouring the web for things that are ingenious or clever or ridiculously cheap.
Five rad and random toys I found this week
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Pennsylvania's 9/11 memorial is one of the first in the world to use sound as a tribute
After centuries of silent designs, architects are designing for the ear, too.
After centuries of silent designs, the architects of two major 9/11 memorial sites have settled on sound.
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Decades after a Nobel Prize snub, Jocelyn Bell Burnell's just won $3 million for her work
And she's giving it all away.
Around 50 years ago, Jocelyn Bell Burnell discovered pulsars—but the Nobel Prize committee awarded her male supervisor for the find. She doesn't mind.
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Hurricane Harvey's record-setting floodwaters were packed with pollution and disease
And this problem isn't unique to Texas.
A new study finds E. coli, Salmonella and other pathogens thrived in Houston floodwaters after Hurricane Harvey.
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Adding clean energy to the Sahara could make it rain (and not just figuratively)
To green or not to green?
Some see the Sahara as a potential solution to a looming energy crisis, and one that could potentially make it rain in one of the largest deserts in the world.
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Megapixels: Watch Saturn's hexagonal clouds swirl
Saturn's northern pole is home to a six-sided feature that mystifies scientists.
The planet Saturn's northern pole has a beautiful—and mysterious—weather feature: a vortex of clouds shaped like a hexagon.
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Your computer's graphics card isn't just for gaming. Here's how to upgrade it.
For everyone from amateurs to expert PC builders.
You know that improving the graphics on your computer will provide a much better picture—but you're not sure where to start. Here's everything you need to know.
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Shooting with Canon's impressive EOS R full-frame mirrorless camera
The first shots are are initial thoughts on Canon’s new mirrorless full-frame system
We’ve spent the last few days shooting with the new EOS R system, here is what we think so far.
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Cook meals in coffee makers, dishwashers, and other unexpected appliances
You don't need a full kitchen to make dinner.
You can cook a variety of unexpected meals with your dishwasher, coffee maker, and even an iron. The question remains: Is it worth the hassle?
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Remember when a glass of wine a day was good for you? Here's why that changed.
It all comes down to the way we used to study drinking.
It seems like opinions on the health benefits of booze are shifting. Suddenly moderate drinking is unhealthy. What happened?
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I became a cyborg to manage my chronic pain
Implanting a new generation of spinal stimulators.
I had a spinal cord stimulator, an electronic device used to treat chronic pain, implanted into my body. This type of therapy might help some of the other 100 million…
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You're not as good at multitasking as you think
And why you should doodle in class.
All of us multitask. But psychologists have been warning us about it for decades. Some say it’s harmful to productivity and others say you can’t do it at all.
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Last week in tech: New iPhones inbound, Twitter went to Congress, and Google turned 20
This week's round-up of technology news is pumpkin spice flavor
Don't let Apple's upcoming iPhone announcement overshadow an exciting week in the tech world.
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California is set to go carbon-free by 2045
A new bill has been fast-tracked in the midst of a climate change-fueled wildfire season.
The push to fast-track the state's clean energy trajectory coincides with real-world climate change concerns. California is experiencing longer and deadlier wildfire…
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After 11 years, NASA's asteroid-hopping spacecraft is running out of fuel
Here are some highlights from its journey
Running low on fuel, NASA’s Dawn mission is about to come to an end after 11 successful years in space.
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Hurricane Florence could stall out over the East Coast for days, bringing intense flooding
It's looking an awful lot like Harvey.
The threat posed by destructive winds and storm surge at the coast is just part of the equation. The hurricane will stall once it’s inland, leading to flooding.
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This new blood test can figure out what time it is inside your cells
There are tiny clocks inside you, and they're all out of whack.
Your body has a clock—and thanks to the travails of modern life, that clock may not line up with the timing of the outside world.
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New trackers will help scientists follow elusive critters
Researchers hope to map the path of bird flu and other pathogens.
Researchers hope to map the path of bird flu and other pathogens—not to mention birds, bats, and baby sea turtles. These little beings have historically been too small…
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Of course semi-automatic guns are deadlier. Here’s why scientists took so long to say so.
We desperately need research on firearms—but the federal government can't fund it.
Today, researchers added another scrap of knowledge to the small pile of what we know about guns in America: semi-automatic rifles allow shooters to wound and kill more…
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A running list of hacks, leaks, and vulnerabilities that have recently given up your personal information
Maybe it's time to change that password.
It's hard to keep up on all the hacks, so we're starting a list.
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