In the hunt for alternative fuels, biomass burning has become a popular way to swap out fossil fuels. Some industry leaders tout these plant-based fuels as carbon neutral, but many scientists say that’s not really the case.

This year, the US enacted a federal tax credit to provide a discount to home-owners who install wood burners to heat their homes because they are frequently seen as “clean” and renewable alternatives to fossil fuels. . One of these wood fuels that has been gaining popularity globally over the last decade is pellets made from compressed wood. Wood pellets are a type of biofuel made from compressed sawdust and wood scraps, and sometimes chopped down full trees, that can be used both to warm up a home and in a residential setting and on a large scale for electricity generation in lieu of fossil fuels like coal.

The biomass fuel industry has labeled pellets and wood a “renewable, reliable, local” fuel source, but that’s not necessarily the full story. Just last month, over 500 scientists from around the world signed on to a letter to President Biden and other world leaders warning that burning trees and forests for fuel seriously undermine climate goals because burning wood pellets considerably increases carbon emissions in the short term. While wood pellets are used for domestic home heating, only a small percentage of US homes use wood for heat. The main threat of wood pellets to carbon emissions and forests is when they are used on a massive scale to power electricity generation outside of the US.

“It’s just a physical fact that burning wood emits more carbon dioxide per unit energy than burning fossil fuels,” says Mary Booth, the director of Partnership for Policy Integrity. According to a report by the National Resource Defense Council, since wood is less dense than fossil fuel, a greater amount needs to be burned to generate the same amount of energy. This becomes a major emissions issue when wood pellets are used for large-scale electricity generation at power plants that once used coal, but have now been converted to use wood fuel because it was considered better for the climate.

Beyond just the inefficiency of trees as a fuel, we desperately need them for carbon capture purposes. The idea is that trees are renewable and can capture the carbon emitted from wood that is burned, but this only works on long timescales. The NRDC report details that it will take at least 50 years until enough carbon is captured by new trees that cumulative emissions from burning wood biomass will be reduced and could be considered carbon neutral. Add on the transport of materials and the production facilities themselves (that sometimes are powered by not-so renewable methods) and you’ve got even higher carbon emissions to contend with.

[Related: The Forest Service wants to open 9.2 million acres to potential logging. Here’s your chance to say something about it.]

“You have an accumulating carbon debt every year that you run the facility” because trees take decades to grow back to their full carbon-capturing potential, Booth says. “So this is obviously not compatible with aggressive targets to reduce emissions.”

But not all wood pellets are made equal. If the pellets powering your home or business really are waste wood scraps that would otherwise decompose, using up those scraps is significantly less ethically murky than chopping down whole trees to do the same job. Typically only premium stock is used to make products such as furniture and building products, leaving many forests of less desirable wood untouched, but because wood pellets can be made out of any quality of wood, that could change. There is the possibility whole trees that would have otherwise not been logged could be used to make wood pellets. And for pellet companies like Enviva, meeting production capacity for their facilities requires logging 50,000 acres of oftentimes native hardwood forest yearly across the southeast US.

Sam Davis, a conservation scientist focused on the international export of wood pellets at the Dogwood Alliance, a nonprofit that works to protect forests, says they are skeptical that the pile of otherwise useless wood scraps from the lumber industry is enough to support the rapidly expanding wood pellet industry. “In 2011, [the US] exported one million tons of wood pellets and in 2019, we exported seven and a half million tons...that is not coming from byproducts.” According to the Dogwood Alliance, 60,000 acres of North Carolina forests are clear cut each year by the wood pellet industry.

The US exports wood pellets that are mainly manufactured in southeastern states such as North Carolina and Georgia. Last year, the U.S. exported 7.26 million metric tons of wood pellets to destinations like the United Kingdom and European Union.

[Related: Alaska Airlines just flew across the country using wood chips.]

Countries in the EU use wood pellets for electricity generation, which is frankly a concern, Davis says, considering the most efficient way to use up wood pellets—waste wood or otherwise—is to heat a home. “When you’re using wood pellets for heat, it’s actually pretty efficient...but when you’re using them for electricity, the efficiency is very, very low.”

Partnership for Policy Integrity and others are working to get the EU to overhaul their renewable energy strategy and end subsidies for forest biomass burning. In February, the Dutch Parliament ended some subsidies for the fuel after importing over 79,000 metric tons of wood pellets from the U.S. in 2020.

Scientists and conservationists are reluctant to promote any form of fuel that involves increasing logging, even if it helps move electricity generation away from fossil fuels. While we still have a fair amount of forest left in the United States, Davis says, forestry-related activities account for 85 percent of carbon emissions in forests in the country. “The Paris Agreement, which calls for close to net climate neutrality by 2050,” Booth says. ”And we’re just not going to get there by burning wood.”

Correction 3/18/21: The U.S. exported 7.26 million metric tons of wood pellets to destinations like the United Kingdom and European Union last year, not billion.

We still don’t know what Sony has in store when it comes to virtual reality on the PS5. The old PSVR hardware will work on the PlayStation 5 with a little configuring, but players are curious what the next generation of VR gaming will look like down the line. Today, Sony brought it one step closer to reality when it announced the new PS5 VR controllers.

The biggest upgrade to the new controllers comes in the form of the adaptive trigger tech pulled directly from the PS5 DualSense controller. The triggers can adjust how much force it takes to pull them back on the fly to match in-game action. So, if you’re using the trigger to pull back the string of a bow, the level of effort required will increase as the string matches its maximum stretch. During regular PS5 gameplay, this feature goes a long way toward making the experience feel more immersive.

The new PS5 VR controllers also offer similar haptic technology to the DualSense controller. Those localized vibrations help emulate the feel of performing real tasks while you’re in VR. Haptic feedback plays a large role in creating a believable VR experience, and some companies have created gloves, vests, or entire suits with strategically placed motors that recreate in-game sensations through mechanical stimuli. It seems unlikely that we’ll get a full-on PS5 VR suit any time soon, but if the controllers have received the same upgrades as the DualSense controllers, it should be a marked improvement.

[Related: Sony’s controller makes gaming on the PS5 feel different in a good way]

For better finger tracking, the controllers will now detect a player’s thumb, index, and middle fingers without the need to press anything, which should enable more natural gesture controls that feel more intuitive.

A ring of lights on the bottom of each controller will allow the upcoming PS5 headset to accurately track the controllers in space. While we don’t know a lot about the forthcoming headset, Sony has already stated that it will have a wider field of view to enable a more convincing and engrossing effect. Unfortunately, Sony has also publicly stated that the new VR headset won’t hit the market until at least 2022.

While Sony clearly has some lofty VR ambitions, it’s still going to be some time before we start to experience them in the real world. And if the PS5 supply issues have been any indication, the PS5 VR may be hard to get even once it hits the market. That makes the current VR champ, the Oculus Quest 2, seem like an even more attractive option. It’s great on its own, but now that Facebook has refined the process by which you can connect it to a gaming PC with a single cable to supercharge its performance level, it seems like a safe purchase at the moment if you want to dive into VR without waiting for Sony to get it all figured out.

Is your head constantly spinning with outlandish, mind-burning questions? If you’ve ever wondered what the universe is made of, what would happen if you fell into a black hole, or even why not everyone can touch their toes, then you should be sure to listen and subscribe to Ask Us Anything, a brand new podcast from the editors of Popular Science. Ask Us Anything hits Apple, Anchor, Spotify, and everywhere else you listen to podcasts every Tuesday and Thursday. Each episode takes a deep dive into a single query we know you’ll want to stick around for.

Human height can vary quite a bit, with the tallest folks reaching peaks of six, seven, and even eight feet tall, and the shortest people standing at two, three, and four feet in height. But most people will fall into an average range of between five and six feet. Why did we land at that particular height—and why aren’t we taller?

Natural selection and millions of years of time helped humans land at the heights we are at today. It’s clear that early humans with certain anatomies were more likely to survive and thrive, thus pushing the Homo sapiens population to the shape it is today.

Paleontologists know that body size and height shifted upward about 2 million years ago when early Homo species evolved from their ancestors, Australopithecus. In fact, as one 2012 study published in the journal Current Anthropology points out, “body size is one of the major features that distinguish australopiths from early Homo and early Homo from Homo erectus”.

But how we reached our modern heights and why our species isn’t still growing is still fairly a mystery. We explain all this and more on this week’s episode of Ask Us Anything. Tune in here, and read the article that inspired this episode here.

Despite the increasingly digital nature of recordkeeping, many critical documents still come in hard copy and require dedicated office storage built around safety, security and ease of access. Paperwork and supplies can also contribute to workspace clutter, cutting down on productivity and mental clarity. But that doesn’t mean you have to let cabinets and storage cubes make you feel boxed in. While it’s crucial to keep essentials close at hand, you can have them out of sight by finding the best office cabinets to fit your space.

Getting things in order can sometimes feel chaotic, but there’s a system of office file cabinets and office storage cabinets for every scenario, whether you’re working in a private home office, a shared workspace, or somewhere in between. For example, users of shared workspaces or who are storing sensitive documents should have at least one locking cabinet on hand, and home office users storing tax forms, birth certificates, and other legal paperwork should consider a fireproof file cabinet to safeguard their documents. If you’re looking to store odds and ends, important paperwork, or a bit of both, here are a few of the best office cabinets on the market for users of every type.

• Best office cabinet overall: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Poppin-3-Drawer-Cabinet-Available-Colors/dp/B00FOQPVUO?&linkCode=ll1&tag=popularscience-best-office-cabinets-pcr-20&linkId=3ac7bfc2f1df0205be2d663b68362db6&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl" target=_blank>Poppin White Stow 3-Drawer File Cabinet</a>
• Best locking file cabinet: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Bisley-Drawer-Cabinet-Cardinal-FILE2-RD/dp/B01D6JXCMO?&linkCode=ll1&tag=popularscience-best-office-cabinets-pcr-20&linkId=6f0933d39d472349189094e4321eb17a&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl" target=_blank>Bisley 2-Drawer Locking File Cabinet</a>
• Best home office cabinet: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Sauder-421114-Clifford-Lateral-Walnut/dp/B07C659WC3?&linkCode=ll1&tag=popularscience-best-office-cabinets-pcr-20&linkId=db9f316fd4a8de7b2c5cab9e04b6bc3b&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl" target=_blank>Sauder Clifford Place Lateral File</a>
• Best two-drwaer file cabinet: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Lorell-14341-2-Drawer-Cabinet-Black/dp/B0033J6V3A?&linkCode=ll1&tag=popularscience-best-office-cabinets-pcr-20&linkId=e8a1f52abc9783697ba4a8a93094421d&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl" target=_blank>Lorell 2-Drawer File Cabinet</a>
• Best office wall cabinet: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Seville-Classics-UltraHD-Cabinet-Granite/dp/B01637RGEG?&linkCode=ll1&tag=popularscience-best-office-cabinets-pcr-20&linkId=4fdc919ff64581bdfc08a9fcfc0ddbdc&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl" target=_blank>Seville Classics Open Shelf Wall Cabinet</a>
• Best fireproof file cabinet: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Fire-Resistant-File-Cabinet-weight/dp/B00NV9D7F2?&linkCode=ll1&tag=popularscience-best-office-cabinets-pcr-20&linkId=695d566d7c07c837393379a520472e6d&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl" target=_blank>FireKing Fire Resistant File Cabinet</a>
• Best cheap office storage cabinet: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002IT6E60?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&linkCode=ll1&tag=popularscience-best-office-cabinets-pcr-20&linkId=15edf74688972b1d41e6a57716f7c30c&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl" target=_blank>ClosetMaid Stackable 1-Door Organizer</a>

Features to consider when shopping for the best office cabinets

The best office cabinets on the market offer ample space for office supplies and dedicated access to critical documents. And they don’t have to sacrifice form for function. Organized, easy-to-access office storage can increase productivity, and you can even get it in a dedicated office cabinet you don’t mind staring at from nine to five.

Related: More office organization advice: The best L-shaped desk for any office layout

Good office storage equals quick access

Most managers will need a bit of office storage for paper files, as well as supplies like paper clips, printer ink, pens, etc. While it’s nice to have a place for everything and everything in its place, the convenience of separate storage systems for different types of items is offset by the potential amount of space required. By choosing an integrated cabinet system that offers multiple kinds of item storage, you can maximize your space and still ensure different items remain grouped but separate.

For most workspaces, whether at home or in shared offices, the best office cabinets overall will provide multiple compartments, as well as integrated file management for paper documents. A two- or three-drawer system is the most common design you’ll encounter due to the flexibility and relative compactness it offers, with a three-drawer system being ideal for space maximization purposes. A vertical file system is less wide than a lateral file cabinet and is therefore better suited to placing alongside or underneath a desktop, which is another important thing to keep in mind.

Best office cabinets overall: Poppin White Stow 3-Drawer File Cabinet

The Poppin Stow three-drawer unit is one of the best office cabinets overall for its fun and functional design. The office storage cabinets’ exterior is made of a durable powder-coated steel alloy and it features a single lock that secures all its doors at once. The two utility drawers on top are ideal for storing office essentials and odds and ends, while the lower unit is dedicated to securing files and important documents, making this a great all-around choice for most environments.

A locking cabinet will safeguard your sensitive files from prying eyes

Users who want to store sensitive items—including medical records, tax forms, bank documents, and more—will benefit from opting for a locking file cabinet over a standard design. A locking file cabinet can be, well, the key to peace of mind in shared spaces and home offices alike and are very easy to maintain. In fact, most file cabinets come standard with a locking mechanism due to the expectation that files worthy of long-term storage are sensitive in nature, but it’s still good to confirm a model comes with locks if you plan on storing anything private.

A lock is only as good as the quality of its housing, of course, so go for a model that’s constructed from thick and rigid metal to ensure that its casing can withstand impacts and potential prying in the event of a theft attempt. It’s also important to note that many locking cabinet models have only one keyhole that locks multiple drawers at one time, which is a completely effective and normal design feature but doesn’t let you partition your more sensitive items.

Best locking file cabinets: Bisley 2-Drawer Locking File Cabinet

This Bisley locking file cabinet is made of powder-coated steel with fully welded seams to allow for maximum durability paired with stylish, minimal finishes and colors to satisfy the most discerning tastes. It’s compatible with both US letter and A4 sheets and includes two keys for locking away critical documents with ease. At 27 inches tall, these lockable office cabinets are ideal for stowing under tables and desks in a variety of workspaces.

Home office cabinets can look good

Let’s face it: Some office cabinet can be...ugly. Or just clash with the rest of your decor. If you don’t care, then no worries. But if you do, know that you can find good office storage that also complements your existing furnishings. Some of the most popular and effective designs of home office cabinets are formidable wooden pieces with classic finishes that more closely resemble a chest of drawers than a traditional file cabinet, which can make all the difference in ensuring that your den or home office remains comfortable. Choosing a lateral file cabinet design instead of a traditional vertical model is another way to assist in stylish blending for the home office, as lateral files are usually shallower from front to back and wider, giving them perfect surfaces for placing photo frames, printers, lamps, or other decorative items.

Best home office cabinets: Sauder Clifford Place Lateral File

Home office owners with a flair for interior decorating will appreciate the flexible wooden design of this lateral file cabinet from Sauder. It’s made of recyclable materials and finished with a stylish walnut veneer that allows it to blend in naturally in almost any home setup. Each drawer comes with an individual lock, allowing users to selectively secure their files as they please. These unique features combined with its sturdy construction make the Clifford Place one of the best home office cabinets available.

Low on space? Try a two-drawer cabinet

Want to keep clutter at bay but essential items close at hand? A two-drawer file cabinet paired with an office wall cabinet can make your storage dreams come true without depleting all of your free space. The best two-drawer file cabinets sport a high capacity in a relatively small footprint and allow users to compactly stack two independent drawers of hanging files, making them a good choice for home offices of large families or small offices with a high number of paper documents to store. And office wall cabinets are a perfect complement because they won’t take up more floor space while offering the perfect place for supplies. You know how frustrating life can be if you can’t find more staples or Post-it notes? The best office wall cabinets include an open shelf area that allows quick access to commonly used office supplies, as well as a closed cabinet area for larger items.

Best two-drawer file cabinet: Lorell 2-Drawer File Cabinet

This two-drawer file cabinet from Lorell boasts durable steel construction and a timeless baked enamel finish that allow it to blend into nearly any office setting. It features locking 18-inch-deep drawers with high sides that enable users to pack plenty of files into a small space. This is one of the best two-drawer file cabinets currently available for shoppers who are looking for an auxiliary filing cabinet to add to their existing setup or for users who are working with limited space.

Best office wall cabinet: Seville Classics Open Shelf Wall Cabinet

Offices with little to no space to spare can benefit from the significant storage expansion that this open shelf wall cabinet offers. It holds a weight capacity of 350 pounds—more than enough for storing office essentials—and features both an open shelf as well as a two-shelf locking compartment with doors for securing valuable items. The body of the unit is constructed of granite powder-coated steel, making it one of the best office wall cabinets with an understated and professional finish that will blend in nicely with office furniture.

Go with a fireproof file cabinet for extra peace of mind

Do you have burning concerns about your most precious documents? Fires and other potential property-related disasters are an unfortunate part of life, but there are still things you can do to prepare yourself in the event of an unforeseen accident. By protecting valuable documents like birth certificates, Social Security cards, and property deeds from accidental destruction, you’ll be saving yourself a lot of potential headache in the future. Choosing a fireproof cabinet that offers a dedicated safe area in addition to hanging file storage is also a fantastic way to store irreplaceable hard drives and other sensitive items that might otherwise suffer when exposed to high temperatures.

When shopping for the best fireproof file cabinet, keep an eye on the UL fire rating of the product in question. A good place to start for basic document protection is a UL rating of one-hour class 350, which indicates that the cabinet’s internal temperature will remain at or below 350 degrees Fahrenheit for one hour while being subjected to an external temperature of 1700 degrees Fahrenheit. Bear in mind that fireproof designs rely upon the use of very heavy construction to produce substantial protection, so these models are better suited to permanent office installations, often on ground-level concrete floors for secure mounting.

Best fireproof file cabinet: FireKing Fire Resistant File Cabinet

This fireproof file cabinet from FireKing is one of the best office file cabinets to withstand flames, offering a generous one-hour UL rating of 350 paired with free manufacturer replacement after a fire event. It sports recessed handles, a durable cam key lock, and a unique safe disguised as a drawer in the top space for storing all manner of hard drives, CDs, and other office valuables. It’s also only 22 inches deep, so it’s perfect for protecting your files in smaller offices at home and beyond.

Find the best office cabinets on a budget

No office in the world has unlimited space or an unlimited budget, so it’s important to do the most you can with what you have. Office cabinets are a unique class of item that rarely find a secondary purpose, so it’s important to tailor the product and price point to your specific needs. If you just need an extra storage cabinet to supplement your existing space or system, a less expensive option may be all that you need. When searching for the best cheap office storage cabinets, you’ll find that plywood or fiberboard designs are more affordable than metal, which can contribute somewhat to the aesthetic quality of an office cabinet. Sliding drawers are usually not found on the cheap, but it shouldn’t be hard to find a budget office storage cabinet that offers several shelves, as well as a door or other closing mechanism to cut down on the visual clutter of your space.

Best cheap office storage cabinets: ClosetMaid Stackable 1-Door Organizer

The ClosetMaid Stackable organizer is designed to work in tandem with other cabinets of the same system to create a whole storage system. This unit is one of the best cheap office storage cabinets available due to its sturdy manufactured wood construction and flexible layout of three internal shelves. Its door can be shifted from left to right depending on the needs of your particular office and it measures in at a very compact 12 inches deep and 31 inches high, making it a unique piece that’s fit for use in small spaces.

Office file cabinets FAQ: people also ask

How to choose an office cabinet?

The best office cabinets and flexible, with three compartments that together offer file management and storage for small office supplies. This design will fare well in the majority of office situations, but users who have more paperwork should consider a two-drawer unit dedicated for files, while users who need more storage for small items may fare better with an office wall cabinet.

Which holds more, lateral or vertical file cabinets?

Lateral file cabinets hold more paperwork and are generally less deep than vertical files. While vertical file cabinets store documents front-to-back, lateral file cabinets store files from side to side, which allows manufacturers to max out document storage capacity in a shallower footprint.

What can I use instead of a filing cabinet?

There’s really no functional or convenient alternative to a traditional filing cabinet for proper document storage and office organization. That being said, it’s possible to use a basic storage cabinet or even a bookshelf for temporary document storage if paperwork is contained within binders or folders; just don’t expect to have quick on-demand access to your files.

Related: Want better posture? Try a kneeling chair for your home office

A final word on shopping for the best office cabinets

The best office cabinets protect significant documents and important supplies while offering users quick access to what they need. Both lockable file cabinets and fireproof file cabinets offer an elevated level of protection, while two-drawer file cabinets and office wall cabinets are perfect for saving space. Whether you’re shopping for a cheap office cabinet or stately home office furniture, there are best office cabinets for every perfectly organized and outfitted setting.

If you want to find out who owns a website, how old it is, or even try to contact the person or company who runs it, typing the domain name into Google isn’t going to help much. Instead, turn to the specialized WhoIs lookup tool maintained by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.

When someone (a registrant) registers a domain, they have to provide the company that manages the domain (the registrar) with contact information and keep it updated. If they don’t, the website may be suspended or taken down. When you use the WhoIs search function, it returns whatever available information there is about “who is” responsible for the site, though some details, particularly contact information, may be private and won’t appear in the results for every site.

While certain pieces of data may be easy to understand, there are acronyms and items that may go beyond what the average person has experience with. We’ve broken down what to expect below.

• <b>Name:</b> This is simply the domain name for the website you looked up.
• <b>Internationalized domain name:</b> If the domain is linked to a location that doesn’t use the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_script" target=_blank>Latin characters</a> present in English and other European languages, you may see its name displayed here in Arabic, Greek, or another type of script.
• <b>Registry domain ID:</b> This is the unique name that the website’s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_name_registry" target=_blank>home registry</a> uses to identify the domain.
• <b>Domain status:</b> There are more than a dozen codes that could appear here, so we won’t explain them all. In short, these describe, well, the domain’s status. The standard is “ok,” or “active,” meaning it’s living its best life. <a href="https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/epp-status-codes-2014-06-16-en#clientTransferProhibited" target=_blank>ICANN has a page that details what each one means</a>.
• <b>Nameservers:</b> These are servers that direct users to the website, and you’ll probably see at least two listed here. They’re the reason we don’t have to memorize IP addresses. For example, if you enter “popsci.com” into your browser’s address bar, the browser notifies our nameservers, they respond with our IP address, and your browser grabs our website content from that address for you.
• <b>Dates:</b> A number of dates may appear here, including when the domain was created and when its registration expires.
• <b>Contact information: </b>You might not see anything here, but if you do, it may tell you how to reach the registrant and other people involved with the domain.
• <b>Registrar name:</b> This is just the name of the company hosting the domain name, like Namecheap, or GoDaddy.
• <b>IANA ID:</b> The <a href="https://www.iana.org/about" target=_blank>Internet Assigned Numbers Authority</a> is a department within ICANN that oversees global IP address allocation and other internet-related numbers. The number that may appear here is the one IANA uses to <a href="https://www.iana.org/assignments/registrar-ids/registrar-ids.xhtml" target=_blank>identify the registrar</a>.
• <b>Abuse contact email and phone:</b> If available, these two fields will show you how to contact the domain’s registrar if you think someone is abusing the domain name or using it for criminal activity.
• <b>Reseller name and organization:</b> <a href="https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/reseller-2013-05-03-en" target=_blank>A reseller is</a> any company that offers domain registration through a registrar. Not all of these are ICANN-accredited. If the domain was registered via one of these third-party entities, its information may appear in these two fields.
• <b>DNSSEC delegation signed:</b> The <a href="https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/dnssec-what-is-it-why-important-2019-03-05-en" target=_blank>Domain Name System Security Extensions</a> help ensure that the true version of a website—not one created by an attacker—shows up when someone visits the domain. This field tells you whether or not this security feature is enabled on the searched domain.
• <b>DS data and key data:</b> These are data fields related to any DNSSEC keys used with the domain.
• <b>Authoritative servers:</b> The information in this field will show the URL of any server that provided the information displayed in the WhoIs lookup search results. It will also show when the servers were last updated, and therefore the age of the data you’re seeing.
• <b>Raw registry and registrar RDAP responses:</b> These are minimized at the bottom of the page and contain pure code related to the <a href="https://www.icann.org/rdap" target=_blank>Registration Data Access Protocol</a>. This provides similar information to the WhoIs lookup.

If there’s anything you still don’t understand or isn’t on this list, ICANN has a glossary for all the terms you may see.

Click here to see all of PopSci’s COVID-19 coverage.

There’s been a lot of bad COVID-19 news over the last year, but luckily, thanks to vaccines, things are looking up. Here’s a round-up of some of the more positive news as we dredge through the final chapters of this pandemic.

Vaccinations may help COVID-19 survivors with long-term symptoms

It’s been shown time and time again that the impacts of COVID-19 last much longer than anyone would hope. And while we are still refining the definition of what long COVID-19 looks like, some of the symptoms include fatigue, brain fog, and flu-like symptoms. And while it’s relatively rare, it’s not uncommon; the NIH predicts that between 10 and 30 percent of people who have had a COVID-19 infection will have long-term symptoms. One small, not-yet peer-reviewed study released Monday has shown, however, that a COVID-19 vaccination can slightly help ease up, resolve, or prevent worsening of long COVID symptoms compared to a group of unvaccinated long-haulers.

“Clearly any sign of improvement in the wellbeing of those with long Covid is good news, and as such this study offers some tentative hope for those suffering,” co-founder of Long Covid Kids Frances Simpson, a professor of psychology at Coventry University in the UK, told The Independent.

[Related: How to prepare for getting the COVID-19 vaccine.]

Yale immunologist Akiko Iwasaki told The Washington Post that it isn’t particularly surprising that the vaccine could reduce the chances of reinfection and symptoms of long COVID. “Vaccines will generate good antibody and T-cell responses. They have been already shown to significantly reduce infection, both symptomatic and asymptomatic,” she told the Post.

The first baby in the US was born with COVID-19 antibodies

A baby born in South Florida came into the world already prepped to fight the COVID-19 virus with antibodies. The baby’s mother, a front-line worker, had received her first shot of the Moderna vaccine three weeks prior. Two doctors detailed the case in a pre-print, or not yet peer-reviewed study. These results, while still early and in need of further research, may make pregnant people more inclined to get vaccinated against COVID-19, especially since there is not a vaccine approved yet for children.

“This also is hopeful because it offers a level of protection to one of the most vulnerable populations, the newborn,” Neeta Ogden, a New Jersey internal medicine specialist and immunologist told CBS News.

Two other pre-print studies, out of Israel and Massachusetts, found similarly hopeful results.

[Related: Pregnant people can—and should—get vaccinated against COVID-19.]

“Maternal vaccine-generated antibodies were detected in the umbilical cord blood of all 10 babies who delivered during our study period,” Andrea Edlow, a maternal-fetal medicine specialist at Massachusetts General Hospital and co-author of the Massachusetts pre-print, told CBS. “Our data suggest that receiving both shots of the mRNA vaccine leads to improved antibody transfer to newborns.”

Just last month Pfizer started clinical trials of the vaccine in pregnant populations.

Americans are being diligent about receiving their second dose of the vaccine

Public health experts have been concerned that for those receiving Moderna’s and Pfizer’s two-shot vaccine, not everyone would return for their second dose. But new CDC data shows that nearly nine out of every 10 first-shot-vaccinated Americans went back on time for their second dose. The data was based on a sample of 40.5 million Americans who were vaccinated between December 14, 2020, and February 14, 2021, and of the folks that got their second shot, nearly all of them got it on time.

The most likely groups to miss their second dose were Native American or Alaska Native individuals, according to The New York Times. And since the sample is from the earliest group of vaccine receivers, there may be some bias since those with the most urgent need, like health-care workers, were among the first to receive the vaccine in December through February.

“Among all persons who received a second dose, the majority (95.6 percent) had done so within the recommended interval,” the authors of the CDC paper write. “These data are reassuring; however, the groups prioritized to receive the vaccine during this period were more likely to have been vaccinated at their work site or residence, including health care workers and long-term care facility residents, which might have facilitated adherence to the recommended schedule.”

Sometimes getting down on your hands and knees with soap and water just won’t do. Going low with high hopes of scrubbing grimy outdoor surfaces clean can be hard on the knees and murder on the back. The best pressure washer will sweep in to clean excess gunk without requiring any manual scrubbing or stooping down to ground level.

A pressure washer is essentially a power hose connected to a water pump powered by an electric motor or gas engine. It blasts out water at hundreds of times the pressure of the air we breathe, helping users to get both high and low surfaces as clean as possible while standing upright. It’s a garden tool, patio cleaner, and concrete cleaner rolled into one that works on lawn furniture, barbecue grills, cars, and even the outside walls of the house. Here’s how to find one that fits your needs!

• Best electric pressure washer: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Sun-Joe-SPX3000-Pressure-14-5-Amp/dp/B00CPGMUXW?crid=193RQL7XA9Q6B&dchild=1&keywords=electric+pressure+washer&qid=1615247774&sprefix=electric+pressure+washer%2Caps%2C224&sr=8-3&linkCode=ll1&tag=popularscience-best-pressure-washer-pcr-20&linkId=08999b3eea90774968d953cca309a61e&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl" target=_blank>Sun Joe Electric High Pressure Washer</a>
• Best gas pressure washer: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Simpson-MSH3125-MegaShot-Pressure-Powered/dp/B004MXKUCY?crid=31G7LVM6JY093&dchild=1&keywords=gas+pressure+washer&qid=1615248323&sprefix=gas+pressur%2Caps%2C203&sr=8-4&linkCode=ll1&tag=popularscience-best-pressure-washer-pcr-20&linkId=ecea39985aea9f665c2afcd49bf72432&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl" target=_blank>Simpson Cleaning MegaShot Gas Pressure Washer</a>
• Best cold water pressure washer: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Greenworks-1600-Pressure-Washer-GPW1602/dp/B01CA4PRBA?crid=2JKJ74W55E9JO&dchild=1&keywords=cold+water+pressure+washer&qid=1615272944&sprefix=cold+water+pressure%2Caps%2C197&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUEzQlU2VldLVlRIN1Y2JmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwMDgwNTU3MUI2Nk9YQ1o4NFZIUyZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwNzk5NTM3NjFVUTNJNVIzRkFUJndpZGdldE5hbWU9c3BfYXRmJmFjdGlvbj1jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ%3D%3D&linkCode=ll1&tag=popularscience-best-pressure-washer-pcr-20&linkId=444d879d1a0beda20d1173d7d3d67638&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl" target=_blank>GreenWorks Pressure Washer</a>
• Best hot water pressure washer: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Easy-Kleen-Professional-4000-PSI-Gas/dp/B01KYCZBQQ?dchild=1&keywords=hot+pressure+washer&pd_rd_r=950d876e-0bd8-49d4-8e8e-83a5bb84b723&pd_rd_w=yv93s&pd_rd_wg=Ol270&pf_rd_p=4fa0e97a-13a4-491b-a127-133a554b4da3&pf_rd_r=4SCWDT572AM9169F3GC0&qid=1615249672&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUEyWUpWWURXMlREVTc5JmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwNjQ0NDQ3MUo1WlJNM1I3UjJPTiZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwNjAyNDg5RkJBSEROQVlUM0JJJndpZGdldE5hbWU9c3BfYXRmJmFjdGlvbj1jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ%3D%3D&linkCode=ll1&tag=popularscience-best-pressure-washer-pcr-20&linkId=85554b1b225cc567894212ceec854c09&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl" target=_blank>Easy-Kleen Professional Pressure Washer </a>
• Best budget pressure washer: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/TOOLUCK-Electric-Pressure-Rotating-Portable/dp/B08MLGKGLS?crid=226S19MPHA4EN&dchild=1&keywords=pressure+washer&qid=1615273377&sprefix=pressure+washer%2Caps%2C241&sr=8-15&linkCode=ll1&tag=popularscience-best-pressure-washer-pcr-20&linkId=01c3dd1e8f20df4d6235b527f91d2f93&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl" target=_blank>TOOLUCK Electric Pressure Washer </a><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Greenworks-1600-Pressure-Washer-GPW1602/dp/B01CA4PRBA/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?crid=2JKJ74W55E9JO&dchild=1&keywords=cold+water+pressure+washer&qid=1615272944&sprefix=cold+water+pressure%2Caps%2C197&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUEzQlU2VldLVlRIN1Y2JmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwMDgwNTU3MUI2Nk9YQ1o4NFZIUyZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwNzk5NTM3NjFVUTNJNVIzRkFUJndpZGdldE5hbWU9c3BfYXRmJmFjdGlvbj1jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ=="> </a>

How do you choose the best pressure washer?

Now that we’ve offered a brief overview of what the best pressure washer can do, it’s time to make some big decisions. As you prepare to take the leap into the world of pressure washing, there are at least five big things to consider. First, do you want to go gas or electric? If you’ve got a bigger space to clean, a gas pressure washer may make yard maintenance easier. Second, do you want one that uses hot water or cold water? The answer might mean a hefty price difference.

Next, what are your strength requirements? Pressure washer power is measured in three ways: PSI (pounds per square inch), GPM (gallons per minute), and CU (cleaning units), which is PSI multiplied by GPM. For the record, gas models generally produce a higher PSI and GPM than electric machines, which means they’re faster and more powerful. But that can also mean the loss of paint on your car! So go a bit easier on the force for surfaces that are more vulnerable to chipping and peeling. The fourth consideration is portability. Even if you buy a larger pressure washer, if it’s easy to wheel around and can be stored without too much trouble, the size may not be an issue.

Finally, what nozzles and accessories do you need? Pressure washer accessories like turbo nozzles, trigger spray guns, lances, and detergent injectors are a few of the easy-to-install attachments that can increase the effectiveness of your machine. Once you’ve narrowed down your choices to two or three that tick all the right boxes, the best pressure washer that comes with the most attachments wins.

Should you go with an electric pressure washer?

The first step in choosing a pressure washer is deciding whether to go with a gas or electric model. The best electric pressure washer will be able to push out between 1,800 and 2,000 pounds of water per square inch (a garden hose, in contrast, produces in the neighborhood of 40 PSI), and is lightweight, portable, and low maintenance.

An electric pressure washer typically shoots out water at a volume of 1.3 to 1.5 gallons per minute (GPM). They’re great for smaller items and spaces, but they don’t last as long as gas models, and the power cord limits how far from the outlet source you can stray while they’re turned on. Using an extension cord to further the reach is highly discouraged, so you might not be able to make it far enough to give the fence a good spraying.

Best electric pressure washer: Sun Joe Electric High Pressure Washer

This is the best electric pressure washer and it’s loaded with accessories, including two removable detergent tanks, a 35-foot power cord and a garden hose adapter. This Sun Joe pressure washer generates up to 2,030 PSI and 1.76 GPM of water spray.

Does a gas pressure washer better suit your needs?

The best gas pressure washer will bring extra power to the cleaning game. They tend to have a PSI in the 2,000 to 3,000 range—sometimes more—and are ideal for more intense tasks like cleaning large decks and patios, the side of the house, boats, and utility vehicles. You’ll want one of these if you need to remove a lot of caked-on mud and dirt from a truck or ATV, but be sure to use a low-pressure nozzle to protect the paint.

Although most gas pressure washers are heavy, they often have wheels for portability, and while you must purchase gas or oil to power it, you’ll be able to use it as far away from the house as you need to go. Sure, these machines are more expensive, but depending on your cleaning needs, the extra cost might be worth it.

Best gas pressure washer: Simpson Cleaning MegaShot Gas Pressure Washer

This is the best gas pressure washer and it comes with five nozzle tips of different sizes, including a plastic soap one, as well as an ergonomic high-pressure gun and 10-inch pneumatic tires that can be maneuvered across a variety of terrains.

Is a cold water pressure washer strong enough?

When you buy a machine for home use, it will most likely be a cold water pressure washer. These are budget models compared to the hot water models, costing up to thousands of dollars less. These are the best pressure washers for cars and accomplishing other modest goals like removing dirt, loose paint, and mildew from outdoor surfaces.

Best cold water pressure washer: GreenWorks Pressure Washer

The pressure hose can extend up to 20 feet, and the 35-foot power cord is safe to use with exterior outlets. It also comes with two nozzle tips, a soap applicator, and an attachable detergent bottle for added convenience at clean-up time. This GreenWorks pressure washer blasts 1,600 PSI.

Should you go for a hot water pressure washer?

For particularly stubborn grime, a hot water pressure washer uses heat to increase its power washing game. Cold water pressure washers tend to be more portable, but hot water models are the ones to turn to for tackling massive cleaning jobs. As pressure washer surface cleaners go, they’re best reserved for materials like concrete and cement that can withstand the heat.

Commonly reserved for industrial and farm use, hot water pressure washers are considerably more expensive and are more complicated to use. The extra cleaning power means you’ll need less detergent and cleaning chemicals to do the job.

Best hot water pressure washer: Easy-Kleen Professional Pressure Washer

This hot water pressure washer will cost you, but it offers optimal cleaning power along with 13-inch pneumatic tires, five easy-to-connect nozzles, and a high-pressure hose that’s 50 feet long with a diameter of ⅜ of an inch. Powered by a Honda gas engine, it releases an ultra-powerful stream of water of 4,000 PSI at 3.5 GPM.

Best pressure washer on a budget: What you can get for under $120

Power washers cover a fairly wide price range, and if you go gas instead of electric, you’ll end up paying more for the added machine power. Meanwhile, a hot water pressure washer can come with a four-digit price tag. But don’t despair if you are on a tight budget with a lot of outdoor surfaces to clean. You may have to skimp on a few extras, but there’s no reason why you cannot get a perfectly efficient pressure washer without spending much more than $100. Here’s the best pressure washer we’ve found for less.

Best Budget Pressure Washer: TOOLUCK Electric Pressure Washer

This power washer weighs half as much as other regularly priced electric pressure washers, and it offers 3,000 PSI of cleaning power. A rotating nozzle allows you to adjust it to different cleaning situations.

Best pressure washer FAQ: people also ask

What is a good PSI for a pressure washer?

A good PSI for a pressure washer for smaller jobs around the home is between 1,300 and 1,900, with a water flow of 2 gallons per minute (GPM). Medium size jobs require a PSI between 2,000 and 2,800, with a 2 to 3 GPM. For dirtier concrete surfaces, experts suggest a PSI higher than 2,800 and a GPM of 3 to 4.

What is the safe PSI for washing a car?

A safe PSI for washing a car that shouldn’t damage the paint is between 1,200 and 2,200. If you go below that range, your car will be protected from paint loss, but you probably won’t get it properly cleaned with just a pressure washer.

How long should a pressure washer pump last?

A pressure washer pump should last at least 500 hours, which in an average household, will keep it going for around 10 years. The pump is the most important part of a power washer (a consideration that is right up there with PSI and GPM), and it will most likely fail before the engine does.

The bottom line on finding the best pressure washer

Whether you go electric or gas, hot water or cold water, the best pressure washer makes yard maintenance a lot easier. The type you choose will depend on the magnitude of your cleaning jobs (the higher the PSI and GPM, the more water power you’ll get), the pressure washer accessories, and your budget. Although prices range from the low hundreds well into the thousands, you can go lower and still get a high-quality machine. Of course, nothing this good can possibly last forever, but the best pressure washer can still clean effectively up to a decade after you buy it, maybe even longer.

Related:

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Best floor buffer: Breathe new life into your hardwood, tile and parquet floors

Scientists have documented the first known case of a baby being born with SARS-CoV-2 antibodies after their parent’s vaccination.

The mother, a south Florida frontline healthcare worker, was given the Moderna vaccine, the first dose of which she received while 36 weeks pregnant. Three weeks later, before receiving the second dose, the woman gave birth to a “vigorous, healthy, full-term girl,” according to a new pre-print study documenting the case. The mother received the second dose of the Moderna vaccine after her baby was born, per the normal 28-day vaccination timeline.

Immediately after the baby’s birth, scientists sampled and analyzed blood from the umbilical cord to test for the presence of IgG antibodies against SARS-CoV-2—the kind of antibodies that indicates some form of recovery.

The concept of COVID-19 antibodies crossing the placenta is not unheard of. Over the past year, there have been a few documented cases. One JAMA paper from March 2020 documents that six mothers with mild COVID-19 all passed down antibodies to their infants, none of whom had any symptoms of disease. In another paper from JAMA Pediatrics released this past January, out of 83 pregnant, antibody-positive women (50 of whom were completely asymptomatic), 72 gave birth to babies who tested positive for antibodies.

But this new case is the first example of immunity in a baby transferred from a vaccine alone. That said, it’s still unknown how protective these antibodies will be for this infant or how long they will last for.

Developing fetuses often receive immunity benefits from their parent during the last three months of pregnancy. But scientists know that, while antibodies for infections can be passed down from parent to baby during gestation, the level of immunity that babies receive varies. Research from 2016 shows that pregnant people are more likely to pass down measles immunity than polio immunity, for example. Vaccines like the flu shot, or the one for diphtheria, pertussis, and tetanus are even recommended during pregnancy to transfer immunity to babies.

That immunity in a newborn is also temporary—it begins to wane after a few weeks or months (the exact durations vary between antibody type). The authors write in the preprint that further studies and more documentation are needed to determine what quantity of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies transferred to a baby can be expected in the average pregnancy. Scientists will also need to study how long these antibodies last in newborns, which will inform how old babies should be when they can or should get their first COVID vaccines.

Pregnant people were excluded from initial vaccine trials, so not a lot is known. But that is beginning to change. Pfizer and BioNTech recently began a phase 2/3 trial that includes 4,000 healthy pregnant women. As these trials unfold, and more and more babies are born to vaccinated individuals, the results will help doctors and researchers figure out  how to best protect these newborns.

When we give marine life a chance to recoup, the ocean gives back. In protected ocean parks, the mass of fish is on average over 600 percent greater than nearby fished areas. Often, the fish return the favor when their shoals spill over from the protected area into commercial fishing grounds.

In a new study published in the journal Nature, a team of marine scientists analyzed how to maximize the effects of building such reciprocity with the ocean. Their findings show which areas of the oceans to prioritize for a triple benefit: increased carbon storage, biodiversity, and fish numbers.

Right now, only about 2.7 percent of the world’s oceans are completely protected from commercial fishing, mining, oil drilling, and other destructive activities.

The team mapped where protections would yield the greatest benefit to each of the three areas. They included multiple measures of biodiversity, considering not just where the highest concentrations of species were, but which areas include unique organisms. For carbon storage, they considered marine sediments that, if left undisturbed by nets trawling the seafloor, could store carbon for hundreds of years. And they looked at where adding a marine park could lead to spillover of sealife, increasing food supplies for us humans. The researchers developed an algorithm that can weigh the factors depending on which benefits people are most interested in.

To benefit all three categories, the study found that we must protect at least 30 percent of the oceans—and in the right places. Biodiversity must be a priority, says Enric Sala, the study’s lead author, a marine ecologist, and leads the Pristine Seas initiative at National Geographic. “We need biodiversity to provide all the services that we enjoy. There will be no fisheries without biodiversity,” he says. “Biodiversity should probably be the number one [priority].” The findings support the “30 by 30” goal that’s gaining momentum among conservationists—the idea that we must protect 30 percent of oceans and land by 2030 to protect life on Earth and reduce the impacts of climate change.

That protection doesn’t have to be to the detriment of other, more selfish goals. With strategic placement of marine reserves, global seafood catch can actually increase about 8 million tons, the study found. And if biodiversity is the emphasis, then up to 71 percent of the ocean could be protected without decreasing fishery yields. If implemented, the network of marine protected areas could provide sustainable seafood while ensuring that the ecosystems remain healthy and resilient.

Protecting the ocean can also help slow climate change. Currently, more than one percent of the ocean bottom is turned up every year to trawl for seafood. When the sediments are disturbed, the carbon stored in them can be released as carbon dioxide. The researchers estimated 1.47 petagrams of carbon (that’s 1.47 billion metric tons) are released annually from bottom trawling. That’s about the same as the carbon emissions from the aviation industry.

Joshua Cinner, an environmental social scientist focused on coral reef fisheries, says that the findings add to growing research (including his own) that shows marine protected areas can achieve multiple goals if located strategically. “The big lesson for marine conservation here is outcomes are substantially improved through strategic coordination among countries,” he wrote to Popular Science in an email. “By working together, countries can maximise the benefits of conservation at the lowest costs.”

[Related: Only 13 percent of the world’s oceans are still wild]

Just like addressing the climate crisis, protecting the oceans is a global effort. The vast majority of the priority areas that researchers identified are in the jurisdiction of individual countries, within 200 miles of their shores. That zone is where 96 percent of the global fish catch comes from. So to protect for a triple benefit, international cooperation will be key, the authors write: “A globally coordinated effort could be nearly twice as efficient as uncoordinated, national-level conservation planning.”

Sala says we need something like a Paris climate agreement but for biodiversity. The opportunity to enact that coordinated effort is coming soon. The study results come just ahead of the United Nations Convention of Biological Diversity, which will take place in Kunming, China, in May. There, international representatives from 190 countries will sign a biodiversity agreement. Sala hopes the treaty will include “30 by 30” as a target. “This decade is our last, best chance to restore our balance with the ocean.”

Sliding doors should glide open and closed, not grind along like a Jawa sandcrawler traversing the deserts of Tatooine, or worse—refuse to open at all. There are plenty of how-tos across the internet that immediately launch into “remove the door,” but this isn’t one of them. Your door will stay in place while you troubleshoot.

Check the door

I have not studied the design of every slider installed across the world, but it’s fair to say that most of them run on tracks. My sliding glass door, for example, straddles a single metal rib. If your door won’t move, it may have jumped off its rails. In that case, see if you can lift it back on yourself or get someone to help you.

To do so, push the door open far enough that both sides are grabbable, then pick the door straight up. You should be able to maneuver it back where it belongs.

Clean the track

Because sliding door tracks are on the floor, they often fill with dirt and other debris tracked in by people and animals passing through the doorway.

Use a small brush, like an old toothbrush, to dislodge as much grime as you can, then vacuum it all up. First deal with the portion of track the door isn’t on, then see if you can push the slider over and clear out whatever was under the door itself. Moving the door may have dropped some crud on your clean track, so repeat this process as necessary. When you’re done, you can spray the track with WD-40 or a silicone lubricant, which won’t attract dirt.

Adjust the wheel height

Look at the bottom of your slider and see if there are holes or circular plugs. Most sliding doors have adjustment screws that raise and lower the wheels that carry them, and access is often covered by a round piece of rubber or plastic for aesthetic reasons. Mine are at the bottoms of the long sides of the door, with no covering hiding Phillips-head screws.

[Related: How to repair window screens]

If yours are in stealth mode, carefully pop that plug off with your fingers, a knife, or some other tool. Then use a screwdriver to turn the screw clockwise to lift the door up and counterclockwise to bring it down. See what works best for your door.

Take a closer look at the track

If your door still feels balky, the track might be damaged. Get down and inspect the length of it, searching for any dents and other malformations. You really don’t want to replace the entire thing, so gently try to work out any kinks yourself. Many bends can be straightened with hefty pliers, and you can grind down jagged burrs with a metal file.

Resign yourself to removing the door

If these tips don’t work, you’re probably going to have to take the slider off its frame or hire someone to do so. If you want to attempt it yourself, there are plenty of sliding door repair guides out there, but I think this step-by-step from This Old House is one of the best.

Click here to see all of PopSci’s COVID-19 coverage.

Some American Indian tribes across the country have been more successful with their COVID-19 vaccination campaigns than many US states, but there’s still a long way to go. A recent infusion of cash from the American Rescue Plan, which came into effect last week, will help immeasurably, says Thomas Sequist, a member of the Taos Pueblo Tribe and chief patient experience and equity officer at Mass General Brigham in Boston. But the pandemic’s unequal impacts on Native Americans will be felt for generations to come.

Native American tribes are sovereign, which has allowed them to be much more nimble in organizing their vaccine rollouts to address community needs and concerns, CNN reports. But settler governments at the federal and state level have used that very sovereignty to deny Native American communities access to much-needed resources—for infrastructural improvements and equal access to the same opportunities for leveraging land and natural resources afforded to other communities across the country. At the same time, critics say the US has failed in its treaty obligations to provide healthcare to Native Americans.

This put Native American communities at a serious disadvantage coming into the pandemic. COVID-19 death and infection rates in this relatively small population were significantly higher than those of the general public. Analysis of COVID-19 deaths by race by APM Research Lab found that Native Americans have the highest death rate in the country: When adjusting for age, American Indians are 2.2 times more likely to have died from COVID than white and Asian Americans.

Many of the people who died were elders that carried irreplaceable knowledge. Lila Kills in Sight, a member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe in South Dakota, told NPR in February that she lost her 81-year-old mother to COVID-19 after having to take the older woman to the hospital following a painful fall. Now, she said, “I walk in the door and I don’t have nobody greeting me, nobody to talk to in Lakota. … We’ve lost so many elders, a lot of Lakota speakers and what they took with them, we’re never going to get back.”

Some of the hardest-hit communities in the country were on reservations, such as the Navajo Nation—whose land touches Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah—which lost more than 1,200 people and saw nearly 30,000 COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began.

[Related: What the first year of COVID tells us about the next]

Now, the Navajo Nation is one of the places leading the country in vaccination rates. But the pandemic still isn’t over, and communities are reckoning with catastrophic losses. “It’s easy to sort of forget about these communities, but they have been extraordinarily traumatized by this experience,” Sequist says.

While the allocation of vaccines for those living on reservations is “encouraging,” for urban Indians—a population of approximately 3 million people spread out across the country—getting vaccinated may not be so simple, according to Nicole Lurie, a strategic advisor at the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness and the former Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response at the Department of Health and Human Services. “Most Native Americans do not live on reservations,” she says, and their experiences with health systems may not be positive.

“[The allocation] doesn’t mean that people are taken care of, and I think that’s a really important thing to remember,” Lurie says. Research shows urban Indians deal with health disparities at a parallel or even higher frequency to those who live on reservations.

The recently-enacted American Rescue Plan includes total appropriations of nearly $6.1 billion for targeted COVID-19 relief through both the federal Indian Health Service agency and services geared towards urban Indians.

“This will be an incredible funding source to address the COVID pandemic by providing resources to track disease, develop a public health response, administer vaccines, and make investments in core infrastructure such as telehealth,” Sequist said in an email. But it’s also just the beginning, he says: “We need long-term solutions.”

Two companies are vying to produce the next Black Hawk for the Army. The next-gen aircraft could speed quickly into harm’s way, drop off troops, and then zoom out again. Sikorsky, which makes the current-generation Black Hawk helicopters, recently revealed their progress on a futuristic machine with two counter-rotating rotors that it calls the Defiant X. The other contender is Bell, whose fancy bird is the V-280 Valor.

While the competitive program of record hasn’t officially begun yet, Bell has been flying their prototype since 2017. It takes a very different approach from the Defiant X—it’s a type of aircraft called a tiltrotor.

Here’s what to know about this fascinating machine.

What is a tiltrotor aircraft?

A typical airplane with an engine on each wing works in a familiar way. Those engines provide thrust, the wing gives it lift, and the plane takes off and lands on a runway. Now imagine that the engines on those wings were powering big propellers that could tilt. If the prop blades were perpendicular to the ground, it would fly forward like an airplane, but if the pilot wanted to take off or land vertically, like a helicopter, all it would take is adjusting those spinning blades to be more or less parallel to the ground. It represents an aviation ideal: a best-of-both-worlds configuration that’s fast in forward flight and doesn’t need a regular runway.

“There’s nothing out there that can compete with a tiltrotor when it comes to speed and range,” says Ryan Ehinger, a vice president and the program director for the Future Long Range Assault Aircraft initiative at Bell.

In fact, it’s an old-fashioned idea that dates back to the first half of the 20th century—they were long-ago referred to as “convertiplanes,” according to Richard Whittle’s book The Dream Machine: The Untold History of the Notorious V-22 Osprey.

[Related: Check out the double-rotor helicopter that could be the US Army’s next Black Hawk]

This new craft is a successor to a famous tiltrotor from Bell called the V-22 Osprey, a bigger machine utilized by the Marines.

The V-280 has hit speeds north of 300 knots, or 345 mph. A classic Black Hawk helicopter is roughly half that fast. “We proved that we could fly very fast, and at very long ranges, because of the efficiency of wing-born flight,” Ehinger says.

But it can also pull off the neat trick of being able to take off and land like a helicopter. In a recent video, Bell demonstrated the aircraft demonstrating some sick dance moves pretty close to the deck. The V-280 is “extremely agile in every mode of flight,” says Don Grove, the chief test pilot for the V-280 Valor and a former V-22 Osprey pilot.

The differences between the Osprey and the Valor

The Valor has two engines, but unlike its larger ancestor, the Osprey, those engines don’t physically move when the rotors they power change position, giving it a simplicity bonus over the V-22. Only the rotors swivel.

With the aircraft hovering and its two rotors configured in helicopter position, it’s easy to imagine how catastrophic it would be if one of them lost power. Thankfully, the two engines on the aircraft can power either rotor, just like on the Osprey. That’s different from what happens when, for example, a commercial aircraft loses one of its jet engines—the other engine can’t magically send power over to its disabled partner.

[Related: What’s it’s like to fly an 11,500-pound experimental helicopter (with zero experience)]

With the Valor, two engines push power to a gear box system. “Those two engines theoretically could be located anywhere on the aircraft,” says Grove. “Even when they’re both operating normally, the flight control computers determine how much power is taken from each engine to feed the system of gear boxes and driveshafts.” Translation: Both engines power both rotors, and if one engine fails, both rotors still spin.

The Valor benefits from everything the industry has learned on the Osprey. It was the aircraft that acted as a vanguard for tiltrotor tech and also developed a controversial reputation when it came to safety. “You really need to look at it as a journey,” says Douglas Birkey, the executive director of the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. The Osprey program, he says, had to define “a radically different way of going about vertical flight.”

“Early in the program, yes, they did have crashes; they did have safety challenges,” Birkey says. “There was an incredibly thorough scrub done on it.” The aircraft being used operationally today, he adds, “is a very safe aircraft—understanding that you fly in some of the most demanding conditions around.”

Plus, there are additional ways of thinking about safety; speed is a way to avoid danger when dealing with hostile fire. “I would actually say the Osprey in a combat environment is probably safer than other vertical lift options,” he says. In fact, both Bell and Sikorsky tout the speed of their aircraft candidates. “Low and slow is really dangerous,” Birkey adds.

Grove, of Bell, notes: “Certainly, the 500,000-plus flying hours of the V-22 attest to the fact that the community learned from the mistakes that were made.” He says those lessons have been incorporated into the Valor and the Osprey.

Bell also touts another safety feature of the V-280. If it were to crash or land hard, “the wing and the nacelles—which is the engines, and the gear boxes, and the rotors—all that’s designed to break and shed away from the cabin,” says Ehinger. He compares that to more traditional helicopters, which have all the heft of those dynamic components right above the crew and passengers.

Plus, compared to traditional helicopters or even the Defiant X, there’s no tail rotor or tail propeller in the back, which can be a deadly hazard for people on the ground. The tail of the Valor is a simple V shape.

Ultimately, Grove, the test pilot, says that there’s a sizable difference between the Osprey and the next-gen craft that could be the Army’s future Black Hawk vehicle. “The V-22 is more like a truck,” he says. “The V-280 is more like a sports car.”

This article has been updated to fix a spelling error regarding Ryan Ehinger’s name.

Let’s be honest, unless your carpets are dark grey and constructed for what manufacturers call “heavy traffic,” i.e. a lot of wear and tear, you’re probably going to need a carpet cleaner. Whether it’s a glass of red wine, a mishap with some makeup, or a pet accident, carpet stains and messes are going to happen, and that’s where a carpet cleaner comes in.

But, if you’re reading this and thinking “not my problem, no carpets in my home,” bear in mind that the best carpet cleaner will also tackle stains on upholstery and on car interiors—so if you’ve got fabric, and you’ve got stains, keep reading.

• Best commercial carpet cleaner: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Rug-Doctor-Mighty-Commercial-Cleaner/dp/B086TRNXGK?&linkCode=ll1&tag=popularscience-best-carpet-cleaner-machine-pcr-20&linkId=77b76ac31f7245094d7b05bf3ed76457&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl" target=_blank>Rug Doctor Mighty Pro Commercial Carpet Cleaner</a>
• Best carpet cleaner for pets: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Bissell-ProHeat-Lift-Off-15651/dp/B01F4TTR2S?&linkCode=ll1&tag=popularscience-best-carpet-cleaner-machine-pcr-20&linkId=41ba01ca4f54b91b0a0006d54f5534d8&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl" target=_blank>Bissell ProHeat Lift Off Pet Carpet Cleaner</a>
• Best portable carpet cleaner: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B008DBRFBK?&linkCode=ll1&tag=popularscience-best-carpet-cleaner-machine-pcr-20&linkId=1a5ee78c13ea04da374ed86c1fcc2bbb&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl" target=_blank>Bissell Spot Clean Professional Portable Carpet Cleaner</a>
• Best cordless carpet cleaner: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07X1ZM7HC?&linkCode=ll1&tag=popularscience-best-carpet-cleaner-machine-pcr-20&linkId=c976bf0910c079300f7d2ca97cfe21e4&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl" target=_blank>Bissell Pet Stain Eraser Cordless Portable Carpet Cleaner</a>
• Best budget carpet cleaner: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01KIMOEW4?&linkCode=ll1&tag=popularscience-best-carpet-cleaner-machine-pcr-20&linkId=ab0b997ea2709263540beea5d4e2ca9b&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl" target=_blank>Hoover Spotless Portable Carpet &amp; Upholstery Spot Cleaner</a>

How to make sure you get the best carpet cleaner machine for you

There’s a dazzling array of machines on the market, so how can you work out which is the best carpet cleaner for you? If you’re two pretty careful adults living in a carpeted space, you’ve got to think about how frequently you’re likely to want to clean your carpets and weigh that up against the cost of hiring a machine on an ad hoc basis, versus the cost of buying a carpet cleaner and finding somewhere to store it year round.

But if you’ve got kids and pets, and you’ve also got carpets, or sofas, or cars… it could be a very sensible investment. We’ve got the answers to some of the most frequently asked questions which, hopefully, will help you work out the best carpet cleaner for you and your home. We’ll talk about the differences between a domestic carpet cleaner and a commercial carpet cleaner, between a portable carpet cleaner and a cordless carpet cleaner, and much more besides.

How do domestic carpet cleaners differ from commercial carpet cleaners?

There’s nothing to stop you from buying a commercial carpet cleaner rather than a domestic carpet cleaner. After all, as you might expect, they’re designed to cover large areas quickly, so, in many ways, they are more efficient than domestic machines.

But there are a few things that you should probably know before buying one. First of all, they’re pricey. You can expect to pay a lot more for a commercial carpet cleaner than you would for a domestic one. They’re also a lot bigger and heavier, so if you’re going to want to clean carpets on the top floor, you might want to think twice about storing one in the basement.

On the upside, a bigger machine usually means a bigger engine—which means more suction power. It also means bigger tanks—both for cleaning fluid, and for waste fluid—so you can clean a larger area in one go without stopping.

Best commercial carpet cleaner: Rug Doctor Mighty Pro Commercial Carpet Cleaner

This commercial carpet cleaner’s spraying system injects cleaning solution deep into the carpet, which helps begin the process of detaching dirt, stains, and odors. Next, the Rug Doctor’s triple-action vibrating brush works on all sides of each carpet fiber, before professional level suction is applied to remove dirt, odors, and solution, leaving a clean carpet that dries quickly.

Should your pet influence your choice of carpet cleaner?

Let’s be honest, one of the reasons that you’re probably thinking about getting a carpet cleaner in the first place is because you have a pet and want to be able to deal with their accidents, so yes, it makes sense to factor that in when you’re looking. That said, most carpet cleaner manufacturers know that their market is often pet-owners so a lot of that functionality is pre-packaged into a machine, even if it doesn’t specifically say it’s a carpet cleaner designed for pets.

What you might find when you buy a pet-specific carpet cleaner is that it comes with a few additional tools or features. That might include a pre-treat function, a separate tool designed to remove pet stains, hair, and mess, with a separate tank that keeps this debris out of the main tank. This makes cleaning the machine easier, and also gives the ability to spot treat, rather than treat an entire area.

Best carpet cleaner for pets: Bissell ProHeat Lift Off Pet Carpet Cleaner

When it comes to an effective carpet cleaner, pets and pet hair can make deep cleaning more difficult. This Bissell carpet cleaner has a powerbrush that has ten rows of bristles designed to loosen dirt and odors in combination with a cleaning solution, before sucking them into a waste tank. It can be converted to a portable and comes with two specialized tools to tackle tough stains and crevices.

Do you have to clean the whole carpet?

In a word, no! While you might want to clean an entire carpet as part of a regular cleaning and maintenance schedule, many carpet cleaners are designed for what’s known as spot cleaning. Either they’re an upright machine that has a lift-off section (like how a vacuum can be converted from an upright to a hand-held) or they’re designed to be handheld devices. These types of cleaners tend to be known as portable carpet cleaners, and they’re ideal for you if you don’t have a carpet, but you do have a rug, sofa, or car upholstery that you want to remove stains from at your discretion.

While an upright or commercial machine is ideal for covering large areas, a portable carpet cleaner is designed to work on smaller areas, or isolated spots. The cleaning head tends to be smaller, and some of the automated processes that you’d get with a full-size cleaner are manual—for example, rather than having automated scrubbing brushes, you have to scrub manually.

Best portable carpet cleaner: Bissell Spot Clean Professional Portable Carpet Cleaner

Weighing 13 pounds and with a 20-foot cord, this portable carpet cleaner comes with two heads, including a six-inch brush designed especially for stairs, and a trial-size bottle of cleaning solution.

What’s the difference between a portable carpet cleaner and a cordless carpet cleaner?

Simply put, while a cordless carpet cleaner is a portable carpet cleaner, a portable carpet cleaner is not necessarily a cordless carpet cleaner. There aren’t a lot of cordless cleaners on the market because using a battery to generate suction power is significantly less efficient—and less powerful—than using plugged-in power. So, broadly speaking, an outlet-powered portable cleaner is going to be the best option.

But, if you want to spot clean car upholstery, for example, and it’s not practical to run an extension cable onto the street, a cordless carpet cleaner could be what you need. Just bear in mind that they’re likely to be less powerful and less efficient, so might not be as productive when it comes to tackling tough stains on large areas.

Best cordless carpet cleaner: Bissell Pet Stain Eraser Cordless Portable Carpet Cleaner

A rechargeable lithium battery powers this cordless carpet cleaner that’s ideal for whipping out whenever a spillage happens. The ready-mixed formula is stored in the machine so it’s always ready for use. Just spray, scrub, and suction.

Best carpet cleaner on a budget: What you can get for under $125

The best carpet cleaner we could find for less manages to pack an awful lot of punch for its price and size. It’s worth bearing in mind that, if you’re on a budget, you’re better spending your money on a higher-end portable cleaner, like our pick, rather than a lower-end full-size cleaner, as you’ll get more effective cleaning from the portable option.

You might miss some of the features that the more expensive cleaners have, so no “keep warm” facility, which means that they redirect some of the heat from the motor towards the water tank to try to maintain the heat of the water (although you have to put hot water in, as very few machines actually heat the water themselves), no additional tools and tanks for cleaning up solid mess before attacking the stain, and manual rather than mechanical scrubbing (and sometimes even manual rather than mechanical spraying too.)

That said, if you do your research, you can get a very good carpet cleaner for under $200. Just try to buy one from a reputable brand and retailer, ideally with a warranty.

Best budget carpet cleaner: Hoover Spotless Portable Carpet & Upholstery Spot Cleaner

Lightweight (just 9 pounds), and compact (15 inches tall), this Hoover carpet cleaner incorporates self-cleaning technology that flushes the hose after each use to help remove dirt and bacteria, keeping the device clean and odor-free. A 5-foot hose gives a long reach and makes cleaning stairs, upholstery, and more easier.

Best Carpet Cleaner FAQ: people also ask

How often should carpet be cleaned?

Obviously, it makes sense to spot treat when there’s an accident but, in an ideal world, your carpets should be cleaned on an annual basis, just to freshen them up and undo the damage that 12 months of daily wear and tear inflicts. If you smoke in your home, or have a lot of pets, you might want to consider doing it every quarter or twice a year.

Is it better to shampoo or steam clean carpets?

None of the carpet cleaners that we’ve looked at in this piece is a steam cleaner—and that’s partly because things have moved on a bit from the choice of shampoo or steam clean. Shampooing used to mean a lot of foam and a lot of damp carpet, while steaming was seen as preferable as it didn’t leave fibers quite so sodden. But the best carpet cleaning machines now don’t churn out a lot of foam and have powerful suction to remove as much water as possible. So really it’s better to use a good carpet cleaning machine rather than a carpet shampooer or steamer.

What is the best way to get stains out of carpet?

How to get stains out of carpets you ask? The best way to get stains out of a carpet is to tackle them when they’re fresh. Use a clean cloth to absorb as much of the liquid as possible and then think about using a special stain remover to tackle the problem. You want to minimize scrubbing as much as possible as you run the risk of damaging the fibers so even if you remove the stain, the carpet may look roughed up. That’s why a machine designed to remove stains is such a good idea. The best carpet cleaners will minimize abrasion while lifting the stain from the fibers.

Related: Best robot mops: Shine your floors without lifting a finger

The last word on the best carpet cleaners out there

Hopefully working your way through these questions has helped you answer that one big question: “What’s the best carpet cleaner for my home?” Whether you’re buying a commercial carpet cleaner that can effortlessly keep acres of carpet stain-free and showroom-fresh, or you simply want a cordless carpet cleaner to spot clean the upholstery in your car, there are pros and cons to them all. This isn’t new technology—but it’s definitely technology that has been refined in recent years, so it’s still possible to get a cheap carpet cleaner that holds its own against more expensive gadgets.

Hal Whitehead, a biologist at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, has spent decades following sperm whales around on boats, trying to figure out their intricate social structures.

“About 20 years ago, it came to us that culture—in the sense of what they’re learning from each other—is very important for sperm whales,” Whitehead says. A new study by Whitehead, University of St. Andrews biologist Luke Rendell and retired NOAA scientist and whaling expert Tim Smith, published on March 17 in the journal Biology Letters, underscores this point.

Out in the deep ocean, sperm whales live in extremely social matrilineal family units that mingle in groups within a given clan, which are distinguished by particular dialects and behaviors. In the 18th and 19th centuries, these societies were confronted with the terrors of commercial whaling. Using data from centuries-old American whaling logbooks, the authors’ findings suggest that sperm whales in the North Pacific very quickly learned—from each other—how to fend off the whalers’ harpoons, whose successful “strike” rate dropped by an eyebrow-raising 58 percent in only a few years.

“Obviously this was extremely frustrating for the whalers, and somewhat good news for the whales,” says Whitehead.

The study was inspired in part by recent observations from historians. Bathsheba Demuth, an environmental historian at Brown University, was reading 19th century whalers’ logbooks on bowhead whales in the Bering Strait when she noticed a striking shift. After these whalers arrive, “they have several good years of killing bowhead whales in 1849, 1851, 1852.” Then, all of a sudden, “the logbooks start talking about these really dramatic changes in whale behavior.” They note that the bowheads, which had initially been docile, started using the sea ice to avoid harpoons.

In contrast with sustainable Indigenous whaling practices in the seas around the Bering Strait, Demuth notes, commercial whalers were after the whales’ oil to light consumers’ homes. Commercial whalers were, Whitehead says, “the Exxon of that era.” These interactions were both violent and intimate, Demuth says, with whalers’ recalling “looking into the eyes of whales as they are bleeding to death.”

The whalers’ accounts were very clear, she says, that “these are intelligent animals, they appear to be communicating with each other, we’re seeing this really dramatic change in behavior that is clearly learned in some sense.”

To test out whether something similar happened with sperm whales in the North Pacific, using recently digitized archives, Whitehead and coauthors noted the days when the whalers recorded whale sightings and looked at the rate at which the whalers caught the animals, finding a decline of nearly 60 percent within about two and a half years of the whalers’ arrival.

They analyzed a few alternate possibilities for why this happened: Maybe the first whalers to get there were especially effective, the first whales to die were particularly vulnerable, or whales learned from individual experience. But “what seems to have happened is that the whales, from their experience with the whalers, changed their behavior,” says Whitehead.

“And not only did they change it, but they changed it so fast that it implies they’re not only learning from their own experience, but they’re learning from the experience of other sperm whales” in other social units.

The sperm whales’ only previous predator had been orcas, against whom they defend themselves by crowding together at the water’s surface—a strategy that would have initially made them an easy target for harpoons, and, if changed, a more difficult one. The whalers’ observations from the time suggest that they may have also been escaping upwind or attacking the whaling boats. The authors’ model suggests that inexperienced or “naive” family units, if connected up with a family that had experience with whalers, learned from their more experienced group-mates how to protect themselves.

These findings are “the product, in a way, of many years of painstaking research” on sperm whales by these authors, says Daniel Palacios, an associate professor in the Marine Mammal Institute at Oregon State University, who was not involved in the study. The team “put it all together through a model that just fits the data fairly well.” While not a direct demonstration, “it’s a very clever way of assessing something like this.”

Running even simple experiments on such intelligent creatures can be hard, both Palacios and Whitehead say. For example, Palacios recalls, after two weeks of tailing sperm whales with underwater microphones during a research trip in the Galapagos Islands, “I think they finally had it with us.” It seemed like they realized they were being tracked acoustically, he says; one day, “all 25 of them went quiet,” and the researchers lost them.

These days, as Philip Hoare notes in an article about the study in The Guardian, whales’ recovery from centuries of commercial hunting (whose modern form was too devastating to outsmart) is threatened by other byproducts of human innovation, from noise pollution to climate change to the proliferation of plastics in the ocean.

One implication of these findings, says Whitehead, “is that [the sperm whales] can adapt their behavior, the behavior of a whole population, very quickly. In some ways that’s good news, as we threaten them with all kinds of new things.” But some things, like seismic air guns, are difficult to avoid. Other threats, like the dangers of eating plastic bags that resemble squid, might be hard for even these sophisticated mammals to infer.

In the future, Whitehead says, it’s important to focus efforts on preserving their cultural diversity.

“We have telephones and radio and legal systems and operas and all that stuff. But that doesn’t mean culture isn’t important for other animals,” he says. “We should see them as cultural beings, too.”

The study, says Demuth, “gives us perspective—particularly on sperm whales, that are these amazing social deep water creatures—that hopefully allows us to have a broader political imagination about how to relate to them.”

This article originally featured on Field & Stream.

Wisconsin’s controversial wolf season might look a lot different next year. The recent weeklong February hunt closed after just three days as hunters and trappers exceeded the harvest quota by 82 percent, prompting outrage from far beyond the state’s borders and creating national news headlines. An op-ed in yesterday’s Washington Post titled, “Wisconsin’s Brutal Wolf Hunt Shows Hunters Have Too Much Sway Over Conservation Policy,” for example, didn’t pull any punches. The result has been a black eye for the Wisconsin DNR and hunters alike.

With the Biden administration reviewing the gray wolf’s delisting under the Endangered Species Act and a lawsuit filed by EarthJustice on behalf of several environmental groups, the future of the hunt, particularly in its current form, is far from assured. There are calls to ban traps and the use of hounds (which was particularly effective in the recent hunt’s snowy conditions). There are even calls to revisit or repeal Wisconsin’s Act 169, which requires a wolf hunt to be held in any year gray wolves aren’t protected under the endangered species act.

For its part, the Wisconsin DNR is accepting applications this month for membership in a new Wolf Management Committee to make recommendations for a scientifically and socially supported management plan.

The current plan hasn’t been updated since 2007, and it sets a population target of 350 wolves, which is less than a third of the current population estimate. Members of Wisconsin-based hunting, wolf advocacy, and agricultural groups will each be allowed up to six seats on a committee that will also include representatives from the DNR and other state agencies as well as the Ojibwe tribes of northern Wisconsin, who consider wolves to be sacred. Although the new Management Committee hasn’t been chosen yet, much less met, it’s unlikely that any new season it may recommend will resemble the rushed 2020 February season.

Wisconsin held its last wolf hunt in 2014. The Obama administration had delisted the gray wolf, only to have a federal judge put it back on the endangered species list until it was delisted again in October, 2020. Following the delisting, the DNR planned for a November 2021 season in order to develop a new quota and to work with the public and with the Ojibwe. However, a lawsuit by the Kansas-based hunter’s-rights group Hunter Nation forced the weeklong February season. Since the actual delisting took effect on January 4, 2021, the suit argued that the season should commence immediately. “There is a substantial possibility that Wisconsinite’s time to hunt wolves is limited,” the lawsuit stated, pointing to the Biden administration’s executive order on climate change, which includes a review of existing regulations and policies. After a judge ruled for Hunter Nation, the season was set for the last week of February.

Aided by snow that made wolves more vulnerable, hunters, especially those using hounds, enjoyed high success rates. The DNR not only admits failing to keep on top of the harvest, it was also hamstrung by a state law requiring 24 hour notice of any season closing. As a result, hunters far exceeded the harvest quota, and the hunt attracted national attention.

Unless the new administration relists the gray wolf or Wisconsin repeals Act 169, there will be another hunt in Wisconsin next year, and the only thing we know for sure is that no matter which of the committee’s recommendations the DNR accepts, they won’t make everyone happy.

There’s nothing more beautiful than the calm after a blizzard—until you remember that you’re responsible for cleaning it up. Thankfully, it’s easy to turn an impenetrable winter wonderland into something you can actually navigate with the best snow blower. While it can be very gratifying to get out there and shovel it yourself (as long as you do it safely), in some places you’ll have no choice but to bust out the big guns.

With the right snow blower, you can avoid paying someone else to clean up a mess that you can easily handle yourself. Whether you’re in a long-term relationship with blizzards that always seem to come back as soon as you thought they were over, or a more casual but chaotic once-in-a-blue-moon entanglement, our handy guide will help you find the best snow removal equipment whatever your needs may be.

With so many snow blowers to choose from, picking the right one can feel a little overwhelming. Luckily, we’re here to take the guesswork out of snow removal.

Ready to clear a path through the snow? Check out the best snow blowers below.

• Best snow blower overall:<a href="https://www.homedepot.com/p/Toro-Power-Max-826-OAE-26-in-252cc-Two-Stage-Electric-Start-Gas-Snow-Blower-37799/306237956" target=_blank> Toro Power Max Two-Stage Electric Start Gas Snow Blower</a>
• Best gas-powered snow blower:<a href="https://www.homedepot.com/p/Ariens-Deluxe-28-in-2-Stage-Electric-Start-Gas-Snow-Blower-with-Auto-Turn-Steering-921046/207118306"> </a><a href="https://www.lowes.com/pd/Ariens-Deluxe-28-28-in-254-cc-Two-Stage-Self-Propelled-Gas-Snow-Blower-with-Push-Button-Electric-Start-Power-Steering-Headlight-s/1000102373?cm_mmc=shp-_-c-_-prd-_-sol-_-google-_-pla-_-238-_-snowblowers-_-1000102373-_-0&placeholder=null&ds_rl=1286981&gclid=Cj0KCQiA4feBBhC9ARIsABp_nbV01ygN5W8hZ-ojXxNVKIiEGIXotetyBI_Xovxf8BD5dMqsQa6FV04aArNcEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds" target=_blank>Ariens Deluxe 28 in. 2-Stage Snow Blower</a>
• Best electric snow blower:<a href="https://www.homedepot.com/p/Snow-Joe-21-in-100-Volt-Brushless-Lithium-iON-Single-Stage-Cordless-Electric-Snow-Blower-Kit-with-5-0-Ah-Battery-Charger-ION100V-21SB/308507422"> </a><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Snow-Joe-SJ625E-Electric-Thrower/dp/B00W8YAVRS?dchild=1&keywords=snow+joe+21+in.+snow+blower&qid=1614696236&sr=8-3&linkCode=ll1&tag=popularscience-best-snow-blower-pcr02-20&linkId=1d5ce1ea11439be708a57618bea8c2a6&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl" target=_blank>Snow Joe 21 in. Single Stage Electric Snow Blower</a>
• Best compact snow blower:<a href="https://www.homedepot.com/p/Troy-Bilt-Squall-21-in-208-cc-Single-Stage-Gas-Snow-Blower-with-Electric-Start-and-E-Z-Chute-Control-and-Dual-LED-Headlights-Squall-208EX/306093750?irgwc=1&cm_mmc=afl-ir-10078-456723-thespruce.com&clickid=1grXvYyMBxyLTFNwUx0Mo389UkEQRxS5uy1Dwc0" target=_blank> Troy Blitt Squall 21 in. Single Stage Gas Snow Blower</a>
• Best two-stage snow blower for heavy snow:<a href="https://www.homedepot.com/p/Troy-Bilt-34-in-420-cc-Two-Stage-Gas-Snow-Blower-with-Electric-Start-Power-Steering-and-Electric-4-Way-Chute-Control-Arctic-Storm-34/306093578" target=_blank> Troy Blitt 34 in. Two-Stage Gas Snow Blower</a>
• Best budget snow blower: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Greenworks-20-Inch-Corded-Thrower-2600502/dp/B00YYPR9F6?dchild=1&keywords=20+in.+13+amp+corded+electric+snow+blower&qid=1614695460&sr=8-3&linkCode=ll1&tag=popularscience-best-snow-blower-pcr02-20&linkId=270517fe0ecb079617b97683c09d284f&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl" target=_blank>Greenworks 13 Amp 20-Inch Corded Snow Thrower</a>

Features to consider when shopping for the best snow blower

They say that every snowflake is unique, and snow blowers are no different. Depending on your individual snow-blowing needs, you may want a fairly no-frills device or the latest in snow-blowing technology. Check out these five things to consider before buying the best snow blower, and then let the snowfall where it may.

Why you may want a snow blower with a few bells and whistles

Not all snow blowers are built equally and picking one with some extra features can save you a lot of time and frustration. For example, if you can’t wait for the sun to come out to clear a path to your car, you’ll definitely want to consider a snow blower with a built-in light. Want more control over where the snow you throw lands? Some models come equipped with remote chute control, so you don’t make another mess cleaning up the first one.

If you plan on using your snow blower frequently to handle heavy downfalls, you’ll want to spring for an option with a powerful engine and strong augers to prevent clogging. Some other factors to consider when buying a snow blower include how much area you’ll need to clear, what type of surface you’ll be working on, and how many inches of snow you’ll need to cut through. There’s nothing more frustrating than using a tool that can’t get the job done, so even if you don’t need something fancy like joy-stick control, make sure that your snow blower is up to the task at hand.

Best snow blower overall: Toro Power Max Two-Stage Electric Start Gas Snow Blower

This versatile Toro snow blower boasts several impressive features that will come in handy next time a big snowstorm blows your way. Self-propelled and easy to start, this model lets you clear 26 inches at a time, throws up to 45 feet, and works beautifully on both gravel and pavement. Plus, with this model you’ll never have to worry about replacing shear pins, so no need to run to the hardware store halfway through a clean-up.

For long driveways and big clean-ups, power your snow blower with gas

Generally speaking, gas-powered snow blowers tend to be more powerful than even the best electric models. So, if you have to clean up a long driveway or city block, you’ll probably want your snow blower to run on gas.

Gas models do have their downsides: for example, you’ll need to change the oil from time to time and make sure that you’re using the right type of gasoline. Other upkeep will include changing or cleaning the filters as needed, and occasionally replacing a burnt-out spark plug.

However, when the snow starts piling up, the maintenance a gas-powered snow blower requires will be more than worth it.

Best gas-powered snow blower: Ariens Deluxe 28 in. 2-Stage Snow Blower

Save yourself the hassle of making pass after pass after pass with this powerful Ariens snow blower. Capable of clearing a 28-inch-wide path and cutting through 21 inches of piled-up snow, this two-stage snow blower will be your new best friend if you have a lot of ground to cover. Auto-turn steering also means no tricky levers or triggers to manipulate—just press the electric push button and start carving.

For convenience and ease of use, there’s no beating an electric snow blower

In addition to being more environmentally friendly than their gas-powered counterparts, electric snow blowers are easier to use and require less upkeep. Depending on the model, all you’ll need to do is plug them in (or charge the battery) and you’ll be ready to go.

Unfortunately, electric snow blowers tend to be less powerful than gas-powered ones, so if you have a huge amount of snow to clear, you might find yourself making multiple passes or cursing when the battery runs out.

“Less powerful” doesn’t mean “not powerful,” though, and a well-made electric model might be exactly what you’re looking for provided the conditions you’ll be using it in aren’t terribly inclement.

Best electric snow blower: Snow Joe 21 in. Single Stage Electric Snow Blower

Powered with a rechargeable 100-volt, 5.0 Ah lithium-ion battery, this electric snow blower can clear a path that’s 21 inches wide and 12 inches high. This model comes with a battery and charger, but you can add an additional battery (sold separately) if thirty minutes of run time isn’t enough. And with dual 5-Watt LED lights, you’ll be able to see where you’re going even when the sun is down.

Looking for a snow blower that won’t take up too much space? Compact snow blowers to the rescue!

Short on storage? Have no fear, compact snow blowers are here! Smaller and less powerful than some of the other options on the market, the right small snow blower can still get the job done without crowding your garage.

As the saying goes: it’s not the size of the boat, it’s the motion of the ocean, and many compact snow blowers still have great features like LED lights, padded handles, and remote crank chutes.

Best compact snow blower: Troy Blitt Squall 21 in. Single Stage Gas Snow Blower

With a foldable ergonomic handle, this single-stage snow blower is a great option if you don’t have tons of extra storage space. As long as the snow hasn’t climbed above six inches, this Troy Blitt snow blower will easily cut a 21-inch-wide path. It’s equipped with dual LED headlights and a 190-degree adjustable chute.

A two-stage snow blower is the best choice for clearing large areas and really deep snow

If you live in an area that gets pummeled with snow, a one-stage snow blower just isn’t going to cut it. The difference between a one-stage and two-stage snow blower comes down to how much heavy lifting the “auger” (the part of the snow blower that sucks up the snow) is being asked to do—and in a one-stage model, it’s being asked to do everything.

Put simply, in a one-stage model, the auger sucks up the snow and spits it out, while in a two-stage model, the auger only has to suck it up while another part (the “impeller”) is responsible for blowing it somewhere else.

If you’re looking to clear more than 8 inches of snow, a two-stage model is the only type that will get the job done. Electric models are all one-stage, so if you live in a place that gets lots of snow, a gas-powered model is a must.

Best two-stage snow blower for heavy snow: Troy Blitt 34 in. Two-Stage Gas Snow Blower

So much for snow days. Big, bold, and decked out with cool features like heated handles, this 2-stage snow blower can easily tackle snowfalls that are up to 18 inches. While considerably more expensive than the other options in the article, this gas snow blower will cut through just about anything you put in its way and you give total control over where it ends up.

Best snow blower on a budget: What you can get for under $200

If you live somewhere that only sees light, sporadic snowfall, there’s absolutely no reason to shell out big money on a snow blower with features you don’t need.

As we discussed earlier, a one-stage snow blower will be pretty useless if you get hit with a giant blizzard, but to take care of just a few inches of snow, a budget option might be plenty powerful.

Best budget snow blower: Greenworks 13 Amp 20-Inch Corded Snow Thrower

This no-frills electric snow blower will clear a path that’s 20 inches wide and 10 inches deep. Since it’s AC-powered, as long as you can reach an outlet, you’ll never run out of juice. Convenient to store and easy to start, this is a great snow thrower if you don’t want to spend too much money.

Best snow blower FAQ: people also ask

Are snow blowers worth it?

Whether or not a snow blower is worth it depends on how often it snows where you live, how much snow falls when it does, and how much time and energy you want to spend cleaning it up. For some people, a simple shovel will do, for others, a powerful snow blower is a must-have.

How much should I spend on a snow blower?

How much you should spend on a snow blower depends on how much snow you’re dealing with and how much area you’ll need to clean up. There’s no need for the most powerful snow blower if it only snows a little, but if you’re caught in a blizzard, a smaller device might not cut it.

What should I look for when buying a snow blower?

When you’re buying a snow blower you should make sure that it can handle the conditions that you need to clean up. Make sure it will work on the type of surface you’ll be using it on and that it can cut through the amount of snow on the ground.

A final word on shopping for the best snow blower

Snow blowers vary widely in price, power, and performance. Depending on your needs, features like LED lighting and remote chute control can be extremely helpful or totally superfluous. Bottom line: the best snow blower is the one that’s suited to your area’s weather conditions and the amount of area you’ll need to clear. Think gas-powered and two-stage models for blizzard-prone climates, and smaller electric units for more fairweather locales.

When technology companies talk about “friction,” they’re often referring to the steps required to get thoughts and commands from your head into the computer through an interface. Right now, you’re probably tapping your phone’s touchscreen, or using your computer’s mouse and keyboard, to interface with the web. Big tech is always looking for ways to streamline that process and this week, Facebook gave us a look into its long-term plans to shorten the distance between your brain and a computer.

Facebook established its Reality Lab six years ago (it was originally called Oculus Research) in order to try to imagine the future of what human-computer relationships will look like. Last year, Facebook offered a look at its idea for smart glasses that would interpret the wearer’s surroundings in order to cancel out background noise and amplify desirable sounds in real-time; it would do that using built-in microphones and AI to make it easier for people to talk. Now, the company has expanded that preview to include its vision for wrist-based interactions that go far beyond a regular smartwatch with a touch screen.

Wrist-based computing

The early prototype takes a somewhat familiar form. The squarish computing unit is about the size of a small stack of Wheat Thin crackers and it’s attached to the wrist via a chunky band. According to Facebook, the wrist provides the optimal opportunity to install a computer interface on a human. That’s partly because the brain has many neurons dedicated to controlling the hands and wrists. Through a process called electromyography, sensors in a wearable device can analyze electrical motor nerve signals and translate them into commands for electronic devices.

Facebook demonstrates this idea by allowing users to pinch their fingers together in order to give a simple command like skipping a track playing on your device. The machinery can be extremely sensitive and measure movements as small as a single millimeter. But, Facebook says it could eventually interpret those signals, even if they don’t result in physical movements. Users wouldn’t even have to move their fingers at all.

AI to predict what you want

The other piece required to remove friction comes from the computer’s ability to anticipate what a person will need and offer it up to them before they request it. The Facebook blog post poses the following question: “What if, rather than clicking through menus to do the thing you’d like to do, the system offered that thing to you and you could confirm it with just a simple “click” gesture?” Facebook has already done massive amounts of work when it comes to learning its user’s preferences. Here, however, it would constantly learn about your habits and preferences in order to try to anticipate events in your daily life instead of which ads you might click on.”

For this to work, the computer would need to learn about the wearer, but also have information about the surrounding environment to present them with options relevant to their current situation. That’s where smart glasses with built-in cameras and audio sensors could help. In theory, the devices could also pull from sources like location data, or even your own biological data, to try to get ahead of what you might want the devices to do. So, if it sees you’re at your local coffee shop, it might ask if you want it to order your regular drink. Then, you could either confirm or deny using a small hand gesture or possibly a voice command.

[Related: Google and Levi’s built a new gesture-sensing smart jacket]

It could also learn to interpret your interactions with other objects. For instance, if it recognizes that you’re putting on your running shoes, it could offer to track your impending workout. While that’s possible with computer vision, the possibilities multiply if the computer can actually pull information from other connected devices.

Feeling the feedback

While input is important, Facebook is also working on refining the feedback process using haptics. You’ll find haptics in devices like your phone or the new Sony PlayStation 5 DualSense controller. It uses localized vibrations to simulate different sensations.

In some ways, Facebook’s use of haptics feels familiar. For instance, the wearable could have specific buzzing patterns for each person who frequently calls you so you can know who’s on the line without having to even look at your phone. Facebook is also working on “haptic emojis,” which associate vibration patterns with popular emojis.

Beyond the simple patterns, however, the company is also working on using haptic sensations to approximate more complex experiences. So, if you’re pulling back the string of a bow in VR, the device could use vibrations to approximate the actual sensation you’d feel in that situation.

Facebook has worked with some other prototypes as well that go beyond regular vibration. A prototype called Tasbi uses actuators to squeeze a wearer’s wrist in addition to the vibrations, which adds another level of flexibility.

How much do we want Facebook in our brains?

Many of these features only work if Facebook has access to tons of data about users and how their minds work. It’s certainly understandable to feel trepidation about a big tech company with a spotted security record monitoring your every action.

Facebook says it encourages developers working on its projects to publish their work so other peers can evaluate it. The lab also maintains a larger goal to evaluate the neuroethical questions that come from technology like this. That will be an increasingly important part of the conversation, especially as we encounter more of this type of integrated technology.

For now, Facebook is still a long way off from implementing any of this in the real world. But, the lab is out there doing the work. Between projects like this and Elon Musk’s Neuralink system, the future could involve a lot less typing and a lot more computer mind control.

An international team of astronomers just measured Jupiter’s raging stratospheric winds for the very first time—and they used a 27-year-old comet to do it.

Scientists had already measured wind speeds down in Jupiter’s troposphere—where the planet’s iconic stripes lie—and way up in its ionosphere. But this new study was first to take wind speed measurements of Jupiter’s stratosphere using the incredibly sensitive Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). They measured wind speeds near the equator and near the poles.

Some results weren’t too surprising—they found that speeds at the equator were roughly what models had predicted. “But what was completely unexpected is what we saw near the poles,” says study-author Thibault Cavalié, a planetary scientist at the Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Bordeaux who led the experiment. The team found 300- to 400-meter-per-second winds— roughly 700 to 900 miles per hour—whipping across the poles in unanticipated directions.

“It’s a really hard observation,” says Imke de Pater, a planetary scientist at Berkeley who has used ALMA previously but was not part of this study. She adds, “it’s a really great paper, they really show very nicely these wind profiles in the … upper atmosphere.”

Jupiter’s winds almost exclusively go eastward or westward, as we see in the planet’s trademark red and white horizontal stripes. This rule holds for the troposphere—save for vortices like Jupiter’s red eye, where winds swirl like a hurricane. In the stratospheric layer above however, the winds instead appear to follow the shape of Jupiter’s auroral rings, which, like Earth’s northern lights, result from its magnetic field steering solar winds to the poles. Those auroral rings aren’t perfectly lined up with the poles, so the wind flow doesn’t match the neat bands of the troposphere.

The unusual polar wind patterns trekking north and south instead of staying east and west are “really mind boggling,” says Glenn Orton, senior research scientist and observational astronomer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, who wasn’t involved in the study.

For decades, the easiest way to figure out planetary wind speeds was to simply take a snapshot of the planet, then another one some time later and see how far the clouds moved between the two frames, Cavalié says. But at higher altitudes this doesn’t work, because the winds are invisible. There are no clouds to track.

But ever since the Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet impact on Jupiter back in 1994, researchers have kept tabs on two compounds the object delivered there: hydrogen cyanide and carbon monoxide. Both chemicals are long-lived, and they’re still floating around in the jovian atmosphere. The team was able to trace the unique spectral fingerprints of the hydrogen cyanide and carbon monoxide. Since they could track winds using the movement of clouds, perhaps they could use these molecules to do the same.

To do so, the team first pinpointed both types of molecules by detecting their frequencies. Then, they made use of something called the doppler effect, which means those frequencies change depending on if the molecules are moving toward us, or away from us. So on Jupiter, as the molecules blew towards the telescope, they would produce slightly different spectral signals than those moving away. By measuring the difference—how much the frequencies got bumped—the team could measure the speed at which the molecules (and the wind) were moving.

In the future, Cavalié says, space telescopes may be able to learn more from the water deposited by the comet’s impact, because water is such a rare molecule on Jupiter. The study is also a stepping stone, he says, for the European Space Agency’s JUpiter ICy moons Explorer (JUICE) mission which plans to launch next year. That craft will get close looks at Jupiter and three of its moons and be the first to orbit Ganymede—the largest moon in the solar system.

Cavalié was 12 years old when the Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet hit Jupiter—a little young to be part of that observation. But he says the event nudged him towards a career in planetary science.

Years later, the comet is still making its mark.

A mortar is artillery at its most simple. A shooter angles the mortar’s tube just right, drops the bomb in, and then the round rockets out, arcing a high trajectory up and over any protective walls between the shooter and its target. The “Iron Sting,” a new kind of mortar-launched bomb made by Israel’s Elbit Systems, aims to deliver that small explosion more precisely than ever before.

Revealed March 14, the Iron Sting is billed as a triumph of the miniaturization of precision guidance systems, giving more accurate fire power to soldiers than was previously available, especially at the same scale and cost.

While mortars as a category date back centuries, the modern incarnation is generally a simple angled tubed with a stand and a firing pin in the base. The mortar is angled to launch towards a target, and the round is dropped in, triggering an explosive propellant and hurling the small bomb up and then down over whatever building, person, or vehicle its been pointed at.

Because of the angle of attack, mortars are an indirect firing weapon, one that lets the people firing the mortar hide behind cover and lob bombs at their enemy. This helps the people firing the mortar avoid return fire. It also means that they have to trust in the accuracy of the shots, and the quick calculations done to angle the weapon just right.

There’s a special kind of statistical analysis the military uses to explain how likely a bomb is to hit a given target when delivered a certain way. It’s called “circular error probable,” (CEP) and in ballistics science, it denotes the distance from the target where it’s reasonable to expect half of all fired shots from a given weapon to hit. The CEP is given in as the radius out from the target of that probability area, so a weapon with a CEP of 100 feet means that half of shots fired at a target will fall within a circle drawn 100 feet out from where it was supposed to hit. The shorter the radius, the more accurate the weapon.

In the 2000s, the US Army held that the CEP for a 120mm mortar round at maximum range was almost 450 feet. That means half of the shots fired at a target were less accurate than being 450 feet from the mark.

What Iron Sting adds to its 120mm mortar round design are two different guidance systems, each of which shrink the CEP of a mortar shot. The first is GPS. As the US Army discovered in the 2010s, putting GPS on a 120mm mortar round can shrink the CEP radius down to less than 32 feet, and with the Iron Sting that’s no different.

The second improved guidance system is an internal measurement unit and a laser-reading diode. If a person, either with a small drone or a plane or a hand-held designator, points a laser at a target—say a specific concrete bunker—the mortar’s laser diode will see that painted target, and then with internal calculations move its fins to steer towards the bunker. Using this system, Elbit boasts that Iron Sting has a CEP radius of less than 3 feet.

All of this work goes into delivering about 24 pounds of explosive at a distance of between about 0.66 miles and 7.5 miles. As a rough comparison, the mortar’s payload is about 1/10th the size of the smallest plane-dropped bombs in the US inventory. Despite that small size, the Iron Sting’s warhead is, according to the company’s brochure, capable of penetrating double reinforced concrete.

“The introduction of this laser and GPS guided munition transforms the mortar system from a statistical fire power into a precision fire system,” Yehuda Vered, General Manager of Elbit Systems Land Division, said in a release.

All else being equal, it is generally better for bombs to hit where they are targeted than not. Yet even in that calculus, only some of the error and potential for collateral damage is reduced. If the military identifies the building incorrectly, or the vehicle incorrectly, then no amount of precision on the target will make the bomb find who it is supposed to hit instead. A smaller error radius reduces error in the machine, not error in the overall targeting process.

These distinctions matter in battlefields fought by conventional militaries against one another. And they are especially important in irregular conflict, in fights against militias or non-state actors, which often take place among civilians—and which trend towards tragedy.

The US Army has a number of 120mm mortars in its inventory, and is reportedly looking into a demonstration of Iron Sting later in 2021, which could start the process of adding the weapon into the American arsenal.

The 120mm mortar used to launch Iron Sting in a video demonstration was mounted inside an armored vehicle. What the Iron Sting means, more than anything else, is that precision airstrikes once available only by aircraft could now be delivered by the kinds of armored trucks infantry units bring to the fight. It’s the power and responsibility of a tiny air force, packed into a series of deadly tubes.

Neither you nor your gadgets can escape the passage of time. But when it comes to your computer, you can at least make sure it has a long and full life by minimizing some of the creeping effects of old age.

Some regular maintenance can work wonders, so don’t just sit back and accept the gradual slowdown of your desktop or laptop.

Regularly audit your installed apps

The main difference between the bright and shiny new computer you unboxed on day one and the sluggish, wheezing beast you might find yourself with after five years, is all the applications you’ve loaded on to it.

Regularly review your list of installed programs, and keep in mind that just because you’ve installed something, it doesn’t mean it has a right to sit on your hard drive until the end of time. The only apps you should have are those you’re using frequently, so take note of what those are and get rid of the rest. Remember you can always download and reinstall a program should you change your mind.

[Related: A system slowdown isn’t something you have to settle for]

On Windows, open Settings via the cog icon on the Start menu, then choose Apps and Apps & features. You can sort programs by size, or by when they were installed, so you’ll be able to see tools you may have forgotten about. To remove an app, select it from the list and then choose Uninstall.

On macOS, open the Applications tab in Finder, then drag the app down to the Trash icon on the dock. If you downloaded the program from the Mac App Store, you can also remove it from the Launchpad window—press and hold the Option key until the icons start jiggling, then click the small x button next to the application you want to remove.

Keep an eye on free storage space

One certain way to slow down your machine is to not give it enough space to work with. Along with removing apps you don’t use, you should always make sure that there’s a good chunk of storage available on the local hard drive—around 20 percent at least, if you can manage it.

[Related: Hot computers are slow and dangerous—here’s how to cool yours down]

In File Explorer on Windows, you can click This PC on the left to see how much room is left on your local drives. On macOS, open the Apple menu and choose About This Mac, then open the Storage tab.

There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to freeing up disk space on your computer. It’s just a question of monitoring what you have on your disk and deleting what you don’t need—from old documents, to installation packages. You should also consider moving files you don’t access regularly to the cloud or an external hard drive. Just make sure you always have two copies of your most important files for backup purposes.

Don’t let programs overstep their mark

The default settings in plenty of programs allow them to do whatever they want as soon as they’re installed in your system, including running in the background whenever your computer is on. Allowing your favorite programs to do this means they can jump into action without you having to launch them manually each time. However, it’s best to keep the number of applications that do this down to a minimum, as the more apps you have running in the background, the slower your machine will become.

To see which apps are overstepping their mark on Windows, right-click on a blank part of the taskbar and choose Task Manager then More details. On macOS, use Spotlight by typing Cmd + Space and launch Activity Monitor.

If there are apps that shouldn’t be in these lists, there are two things you can do. First, check inside the applications themselves to see if there’s a setting you can disable to prevent them from running automatically. If you can’t find any, stop them from starting up with your operating system—on Windows, switch to the Start-up tab in Task Manager, and on macOS go to Users & Groups then Login items in System Preferences.

Keep your programs trim and healthy

Keeping your apps up to date will fix bugs and security vulnerabilities, but most importantly it’ll help them stay speedy. Most programs will handle this automatically for you, but it’s worth double-checking that there aren’t any outstanding updates you’ve missed.

You should also make sure that your programs aren’t collecting any bloat as well—by this we mean add-ons that you might no longer need, older versions of a software still hanging around, or installation packages that you haven’t deleted.

[Related: Five simple tricks to speed up your browser]

This is especially important for your web browser. Every once in a while check in on the extensions you’ve got installed, and remove the ones you no longer need, as having too many of these can seriously slow down this type of program.

Run a reset every now and again

Just like your programs, you should also keep Windows and macOS up to date at all times. Microsoft and Apple make this difficult to avoid, but you can make sure you’re on the latest version of your operating system through Update & Security in Windows Settings, or Software Update in macOS System Preferences.

Something else to consider is regularly resetting your computer and returning it to its factory fresh state. This process is easy, but it’ll eat up some of your time—it wipes out all but the bare bones of your operating system, so you’ll need to backup all your files and reinstall all your programs afterward. But In doing that, a full reset also clears out redundant data, gets programs back to their original state, and removes all bloat and clutter from your machine. It may sound like an extreme alternative, but it’s often worth an hour or two of inconvenience just to get a clean slate.

On your Windows computer, head to Update & Security, then Recovery. Microsoft has full instructions you can refer to if you get lost along the way. Apple also has a complete guide to help you in this process, which starts by rebooting your Mac while holding down Cmd+R, then run the Disk Utility from the list that appears.

This winter, a worrying trend emerged: although COVID-19 cases were at an all-time high, polling data indicated that many Americans were taking more risks and fewer precautions against the virus. Even as case counts rose, people seemed to care less.

The national third wave peaked at more than 300,000 cases in a single day on January 8. Yet data collected by researchers at the University of Southern California since the beginning of the pandemic shows that Americans’ perception of personal risk of contracting COVID-19 peaked in April of last year, quickly declined, and has steadily plateaued over the past 11 months.

Clearly, the amount of risk perceived by most Americans doesn’t correlate at all with fluctuations in case numbers. Personal risk perception was at its highest in April, during the smallest of the three waves so far. The percentage of Americans who reported self-quarantining peaked at 55 percent that month, just after the pandemic began, and the fraction who say they are self-quarantining and avoiding contact with others has dropped to the lowest level since last October, to just 13 percent. Cases are still high now, but a sizable portion of Americans have already begun looking forward to—and resuming—normal pre-COVID activity.

This relationship—or lack thereof—might seem perplexing. But the truth is, risk isn’t the only thing we consider when making choices in a pandemic. There are a multitude of factors that underlie how we perceive risk and then choose to act on those perceptions, many of which aren’t about hard data.

Wändi Bruine de Bruin, a professor of public policy, psychology, and behavioral science at USC and one of the researchers behind the USC survey, says that risk perception probably hit an all-time high in April of last year because we were sailing into uncharted waters.

“Perceived risk shot up in April when a lot of states were going into lockdown and hospitals were getting more full, and people were realizing, ‘oh, this is quite serious,’” Bruin explains. “Then over time, perceived risk has slowly gone down, I think partly because people are getting used to coronavirus being around and partly because people have observed that even though some people die from it, the majority does not.”

Even when cases began to climb over the summer and fall, perceived danger didn’t follow. That’s because we calculate risk with the input of two main factors: our own real-world experiences, and the information we receive from various sources.

We might consider ourselves at low risk if the people around us are not getting sick or dying from the coronavirus. On the other hand, if people with COVID are surrounding us, we will likely consider the level of risk to be a lot higher. That’s personal experience at play, says Bruine de Bruin.

With hard info, Bruine de Bruin says the way we apply information to our risk perception depends on how much we trust the people sharing it. If an expert says we should be worried about COVID-19 in our community, and we trust this expert, we are more inclined to perceive a high level of risk. If we don’t, our risk perception likely won’t change.

Our sense of threat is also shaped by where we get our information from and how much news we consume. If we are constantly bombarded by reports of high case counts and hospitalizations, we are more likely to perceive high risk than someone who avoids the news or consumes stories that downplays high case counts, for example.

Taken together, it is likely that American’s perceptions of risk are highly fragmented because our personal experiences and the information we’ve received over the past year have not converged on a common narrative.

The response to COVID-19 has varied from state to state, leading to vastly different experiences. Rampant misinformation, from former President Trump to social media and Fox News, has disrupted the exchange of accurate information between experts and the public. All of this has made it challenging for a shared understanding of risk perception—and the corresponding behavioral response—to emerge nationwide.

Ironically, it might actually be our capacity for cost-benefit analysis and adaptability—combined with the fatigue of a dragging pandemic—that’s led us to ease up on our most restrictive behaviors, even as case counts remain high.

Humans have a remarkable capacity for what researchers call cognitive control, explains David Badre, a neuroscientist at Brown University. That’s our ability to perform new tasks or behaviors quickly, without lots of training (or centuries of evolution).

[Related: How to distinguish COVID-19 symptoms from a cold]

Badre says it was this cognitive control which allowed us to implement new public health practices, like mask wearing and social distancing, and almost immediately. “The fact that we were able to do so in a matter of days or weeks at the outset of the pandemic is due to our unique capacity for cognitive control,” he explains.

Over time, however, changing conditions and shifting risk-reward tradeoffs may make it less advantageous for us to continue exerting mental effort to follow guidelines—basically, pandemic fatigue. “As time goes on, people become less and less adherent to pandemic mitigation behaviors like social distancing,” he says.

This fatigue actually stems from our cognitive control abilities. In weighing any decision or task, we compare the costs of carrying out an action with the benefits. “Cost-benefit tradeoff drives our motivation to engage in any task or behavior, including those related to COVID,” he says. “Many reasons, like the mental effort needed to constantly accommodate new rules or the opportunity costs, that might change this cost-benefit balance over time, resulting in a loss of motivation.”

Bruine de Bruin also notes that perceived benefit may be beginning to outweigh perceived risk as the pandemic drags on. “It feels like it’s becoming more and more difficult to stay at home, to have not seen your friends and family for so long,” she says. “It’s difficult to stay home that long and to miss out on new social interaction, and that’s especially difficult for younger people. People may be less willing to continue to engage in social distancing, because staying away is hard at this point.”

Even if personal risk perception is beginning to slip, all hope is not lost. While the USC survey only asks respondents about their perceived personal chances of contracting or dying from the coronavirus, Bruine de Bruin points out that it’s important to distinguish between personal risk and community risk. People do have the ability to keep our protective behaviors engaged in order to protect those we perceive as vulnerable, both in our inner circles and in our wider communities. Those who feel a low level of personal risk may still choose to be cautious out of concern for others.

“There might also be people with low risk perception who may wear masks and socially distance, if they’re concerned about others,” Bruine de Bruin says. “People don’t like having it on their conscience that they’ve spread it to others who might be vulnerable.”

With the possibility of vaccination on the horizon for most American adults, we are close to the final stretch of the pandemic. Even if we feel ready to throw caution to the wind for a night out with friends we haven’t seen in months, perhaps finding the motivation to protect our communities by protecting ourselves will allow us to cross the finish line strong.

As popular as selfies are, some people just don’t like taking pictures of themselves. But in the Work-From-Home Era, your name on the screen or a colored dot with your initials just won’t cut it. An illustrated avatar may be the perfect middle ground.

Do a quick search for “avatar generator” on Google or in your phone’s app store, and you’ll find a lot of options. The problem is that most of them have the same aesthetic, and illustrated-you will probably end up looking like a character in the Kim Kardashian: Hollywood game—big-eyed, plump-lipped, and highly fashionable. Here are four free alternatives you can try.

Get Avaaatars

This is a basic platform that allows you to build your own avatar by selecting the features that better reflect your face and overall vibe. Start by picking a hairstyle, then continue by changing it up with different colors, features, and clothes. You’ll end up with a stylish icon you can use on social media, your email account, and even Zoom calls.

Get Avaaatars’ platform is super simple, and that may also be a problem—you can’t actually see a customization option until you click on it. For example, there are 34 hairstyle options on a drop-down menu with names such as “LongHairMiaWallace,” making it difficult to visualize the ‘do even if you have seen Pulp Fiction.

[Related: How to make a legendary meme]

The range of skin colors is also quite limited on this platform, so if you’re looking for something more specific, you may want to try another.

Get Avaaatars is free and you can use it on its website or through its Google Chrome extension.

Avatoon

If you like the whole Bratz doll look, then Avatoon is for you. This platform allows you to create a character that can reflect your personality, even if it doesn’t look exactly like you. You can gear up your avatar with the latest fashion trends and accessories, choose costumes, and even set background decor, such as furniture and plants.

You can spend a lot of time putting different clothes on your avatar and “taking pictures” in special outfits and poses, many themed for special occasions. This aspect of the platform feels like more of a game (you can win or buy gold coins to purchase more outfits), but you can definitely stick to using the freebies and renovating your avatar for your profile pics.

When it comes to the physical features of your avatar, though, your options are pretty limited. You only have seven face shapes to choose from, and four types of noses (all rather tiny, by the way). And the 11 types of eyes all look pretty much the same, except for the ones that are winking.

If this sounds frustrating, you can skip this step altogether by submitting a selfie. Right after you open the app, tap on facial recognition, and take a pic. The app will identify your features and respond with the avatar version of what it thinks you look like. In my case, that was very far off from my actual… well, everything, but the app gave me a chance to fix it all manually.

Avatoon is free for Android.

Memojis

Memojis are everywhere and that’s probably why some people find them incredibly cringey. But Apple truly did a great job with this feature, and it’s one of the most comprehensive avatar generators out there.

The Memoji tool offers a complete range of skin colors, hairstyles, beauty marks, and accessories to reflect people from all cultures and backgrounds—including fantasy characters with green skin and elf-like ears. Some features, like noses and eyes, don’t have many variations, but each one comes with sliders to get colors and gradients just right. Apple’s tool also has other customizable fields you won’t find on other platforms, like age and hair highlights.

[Related: Make a Memoji that actually looks like you]

To create your Memoji on macOS, open Messages and go to Preferences. Hover over your avatar circle, click on Edit, and then click on the plus sign under Memoji. On iOS, open Messages, tap Edit, and then Edit Name and Photo. If you are not currently sharing your name and photo with contacts, select Choose Name and Photo, tap the three dots, and then hit the plus sign under Memoji. If you have already set this up, tap Edit under your avatar circle and select the plus sign under Memoji. To take full advantage of this tool, use our guide and make an icon that truly looks like you.

Memojis are built into Apple operating systems macOS, iOS, and iPadOS.

Picrew.me

When you go to the Picrew.me website, don’t get intimidated by the fact that the site is in Japanese. This might be one of the most fun and original avatar generators available.

This platform doesn’t offer just one avatar generator, but rather dozens of them created by artists all over the world. You can even make one based on your own drawings.

Unless you can read Japanese, the first thing you’ll need to do once you’re on the site is to translate everything. On Google Chrome, right-click on some empty page real estate and choose Translate to English. Remember to do this every time you go to another page. Chrome may also automatically prompt you to translate pages when you arrive. Then, pick one of the generators featured on the homepage or go to the upper right corner and click on the lightbulb to go to the Discovery page. There you can scroll through all the generators to find the one you like most—there are different styles and some even allow you to create animal characters.

When you click on one, you’ll go to the actual generator and you’ll be able to build your avatar. Use the side scroll to see all the fields you can customize, and use the grid and brush buttons in the bottom right of the image to switch between the feature you want and the color you want it to be. The number of customization options will depend on the generator, so the accuracy of your avatar will also depend on that. Most of the ones I tried, though, had a fair amount of hairstyle options, clothes, and accessories, although skin color palettes tended to be more limited.

[Related: Emojis and reaction GIFs make Slack better. Here’s how to create them.]

Once you’re done, click the green button in the bottom left corner of your image, and download your avatar to your desktop. Regardless of accuracy, you can spend hours customizing drawings on Picrew.me, so even if you don’t find a perfect resemblance, you can certainly have a lot of fun.

Picrew is available through picrew.me online.

A great leaf blower makes you want to wake up on a fall day and get to work. It makes you wish your yard was a few acres bigger so you can put your favorite power tool to more use. The wrong leaf blower can make you want to pick up a rake just to move the few leaves that fell on your front lawn. Effectiveness isn’t the only measure of a leaf blower. If you want to be a good neighbor, you’ll also want to consider just how loud your lawn equipment is, as some communities ban the use of certain kinds of leaf blowers in an effort to reduce noise pollution. Here’s how to find the best leaf blower for you.

Related: Hate raking leaves? There’s an easier method.

• Best cordless leaf blower: <a href="https://goto.walmart.com/c/2536217/565706/9383?subId1=popsci&subId2=best-leaf-blower-pcr&veh=aff&sourceid=imp_000011112222333344&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.walmart.com%2Fip%2F125-MPH-550-CFM-40-Volt-Lithium-Ion-Brushless-Cordless-Jet-Fan-Leaf-Blower-4-0-Ah-Battery-and-Charger-Included%2F677951680" target=_blank>RYOBI Brushless Cordless Jet Fan Leaf Blower</a>
• Best gas leaf blower: <a href="https://goto.walmart.com/c/2536217/565706/9383?subId1=popsci&subId2=best-leaf-blower-pcr&veh=aff&sourceid=imp_000011112222333344&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.walmart.com%2Fip%2FMakita-BHX2500CA-24-5-cc-MM4-4-Stroke-Engine-Blower%2F39109700" target=_blank>Makita 4-Stroke Engine Blower</a>
• Best backpack leaf blower: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/PB-770T-ECHO-234-Backpack-Blower/dp/B01KVS7KZI?&linkCode=ll1&tag=popularscience-best-leaf-blower-pcr-20&linkId=d6f7b4312c1cb72df67973c2e8542a84&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl" target=_blank>ECHO Gas Backpack Blower</a>
• Best electric-powered leaf blower: <a href="https://www.homedepot.com/p/DEWALT-189-MPH-409-CFM-12-Amp-Corded-Electric-Handheld-Leaf-Blower-DWBL700/302365666?source=shoppingads&locale=en-US&mtc=Shopping-B-F_D28I-G-D28I-28_32_PORTABLE-MULTI-NA-Feed-PLA-NA-NA-BASE_SHP_Leafblowers&cm_mmc=Shopping-B-F_D28I-G-D28I-28_32_PORTABLE-MULTI-NA-Feed-PLA-NA-NA-BASE_SHP_Leafblowers-71700000041074951-58700004387938472-92700036924264881&gclid=Cj0KCQiAs5eCBhCBARIsAEhk4r6Av7zD_ZwYuO29dXaQ-HThanVuo8BbnaDyct0BZJLMZc4NtKmrP6saAlX2EALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds" target=_blank>DeWalt Corded Electric Handheld Leaf Blower</a>
• Best budget leaf blower: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/BLACK-DECKER-BV6000-Performance-Mulcher/dp/B00FREQC10?&linkCode=ll1&tag=popularscience-best-leaf-blower-pcr-20&linkId=1b5a30f5e6a7a0c504a895ff04fbdf57&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl" target=_blank>BLACK+DECKER Leaf Blower &amp; Leaf Vacuum</a>

Features of the best leaf blower

When considering the best leaf blower, you’ll first need to decide between gas, electric, and battery-powered models. Gas models are generally more powerful than electric models and freedom from a cord means they can go just about anywhere. However, they are considerably noisier, heavier than electric models, and put out pollution tied to fossil fuels. Electric models are lighter than gas, and can provide the kind of power that will cover a large swath of jobs—however, their mobility is limited to about 100 feet of an outlet. Battery-powered models spare users from the maintenance required of gas blowers but have less power. The biggest mark against battery-powered leaf blowers is that batteries generally only last up to an hour. That means big jobs will take much longer, as you’ll need to recharge.

To gauge the power of a leaf blower, you’ll want to look at the cubic feet per minute (CFM) rating and promised miles per hour (MPH). The higher CFM, the more leaves you’ll be able to blow away at one time. The higher the MPH, the easier it will be to move heavier debris or wet leaves.

Once you get through that basic consideration, you might want to consider other features like vacuuming and mulching features, which store and shred yard waste. For professional-grade yard maintenance across multiple acres, you’ll want to consider backpack models that pack extra power, or even wheeled models. Keep in mind though that wheeled models come with their own drawbacks, like a lack of features and considerably high noise levels.

It’s a lot to take in while looking for a tool to move leaves, but don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. This guide will take you through the main points to consider while buying a leaf blower while offering up our leaf blower reviews.

Features to look for in the best cordless leaf blower

When it comes to convenience, cordless leaf blowers are at the top of the pack. They dispense with the need for gas and maintenance required by gas-powered blowers as well as their noisiness. A cordless blower also tends to be fairly light and allow you to go wherever you need without worrying if you’re close to an outlet. However, even the best cordless leaf blower doesn’t tend to have the same power as its gas-powered brethren and with a battery life of around one hour, you may have to charge once or twice before finishing your chores, or consider investing in a second battery.

Best cordless leaf blower: RYOBI Brushless Cordless Jet Fan Leaf Blower

This Ryobi leaf blower buzzes along at 125 MPH, and is fairly quiet at only 59 decibels. The cordless blower has a battery life approaching half an hour without using turbo mode.

How to select the best gas leaf blower

Get the best gas leaf blower to take advantage of high power and the convenience of not having a cord. However, they require regular maintenance and two-stroke engines featured in the majority of gas blowers require mixing gas and oil. Try to look for four-stroke engines instead to do away with the need for mixing gas and oil and to reduce emissions. Another drawback to gas leaf blowers is their sound level—it’s often recommended to wear hearing protection when operating them. Most models also weigh in about 10 pounds, which might be disqualifying for some users.

Best gas leaf blower: Makita 4-Stroke Engine Blower

This Makita leaf blower has a four-stroke engine that does away with the need to mix fuel and also reduces emissions and saves on gas. A large-capacity muffler tamps down the decibel levels associated with most gas engines. You’ll blow your leaves away in relative peace with a max speed of 145 MPH and a volume of 67 decibels, which is about as loud as a dishwasher.

Looking for the best backpack leaf blower?

Backpack leaf blowers arm users with power twice that of their handheld competitors. The tradeoff is the drawbacks associated with gas engines—maintenance, fuel mixing, noise pollution, and air pollution. They offer way more power than folks with a small front yard or even a sizable backyard need. But if you’re dealing with major acreage that has to be maintained meticulously and quickly, you may want to consider the best backpack leaf blower, below.

Best backpack leaf blower: ECHO Gas Backpack Blower

Power. This ECHO leaf blower blows 234 MPH and has an airflow capacity of 765 CFM, which makes it perfect for those with plenty of acres to cover. Keep in mind that it weighs 28 pounds, though, so it might be cumbersome to wear for long periods of time.

How to know if an electric leaf blower is best for you

Corded leaf blowers are ideal for backyards that provide access to outlets at 100 feet of your work zone. They provide power nearly as strong as gas-powered motors and are generally much lighter. Electric leaf blowers also offer the convenience of a button-press start, and do away with the noise and environmental pollution of gas blowers.

Best electric leaf blower: DeWalt Corded Electric Handheld Leaf Blower

This DeWalt leaf blower has 12 amps and delivers up to 189 MPH of blowing speed with professional-grade construction and convenience. An included one-inch nozzle allows you to clean out small spaces and crevices.

Best leaf blower on a budget: What you get for under $100

A budget leaf blower will give you what you need to deal with your sidewalk and moderately-sized yard. You’ll be able to find decent corded models for around $100. In some cases, you’ll find deals that get you models with useful features like mulching, and vacuuming. Just expect lower CFM rates, which means you might have to spend longer blowing. Here’s the best leaf blower we’ve found for less.

Best budget leaf blower: BLACK+DECKER Leaf Blower & Leaf Vacuum

This Black+Decker model provides leaf blowing and vacuuming as well as a bag for mulching. Twelve amps of power delivers up to 250 MPH of blowing speed. You can conveniently grind down up to 16 bags of mulch into one with this leaf blower vacuum.

Best leaf blower FAQ: people also ask

What cities have banned leaf blowers?

Over 20 cities in California have banned leaf blowers due to the noise they create, although enforcement of the ban is spotty. Some cities, including Greenwich, Connecticut, and Palm Beach, Florida, regulate the decibel volume and times of use of leaf blowers. To find your city’s rules on leaf blowers, you can check here. Your local government website may have more up-to-date information.

What is the best kind of leaf blower for gutter cleaning?

Cordless leaf blowers offer the kind of maneuverability to safely work on your roof. They are generally lighter than gas-powered models and won’t force you to deal with the noise of a gas-powered model as it ricochets off your roof and across the neighborhood. Yes, you might have to recharge your blower—but odds are your gutters aren’t going to need hours of power to get things clean.

What is the best way to use a leaf blower?

Before using your leaf blower, make sure you’ve taken your safety into account. Put on a pair of safety goggles to protect your eyes from debris and don a pair of earmuffs to protect your hearing. Check that the leaves you are blowing are mostly dry and that wind is low. Plan to blow your leaves in one direction using pulses of air while pointing the nozzle at a shallow angle toward the ground. Sweep the blower from side to side while blowing leaves into a pile.

Related: The best way to deal with fall leaves

The bottom line on finding the best leaf blower

When buying a leaf blower, your first major consideration should be the demands of the property you are tending. Do you have access to power outlets? Do you have acres or a small backyard? This will tell you whether it’s worth buying a larger gas-powered model, or if you can stick with a corded or wireless model. From there, you’ll want to consider what kind of power tool owner you are. Are you someone who likes maintaining your landscaping tools, checking the engine, and mixing gas? Or do you simply want to plug something in or charge a battery? Your environment also comes into play when considering how much power you’ll need. Are you dealing with debris other than leaves? Do you have close neighbors who will object to loud engine noise? Once you’ve reached this conclusion, you’ll want to set a price range. Remember that CFM rating will tell you how many leaves your tool can move at once, and MPH will tell you how it can handle heavier debris. Now you’re well on your way to finding the best leaf blower for your home.

Tablets have come a long way in the last decade. While portable touchscreen devices have been prototyped and produced since the 1970s, and they even enjoyed the spotlight when Type-A personalities made the PalmPilot the handheld PC du jour in the late ’90s, the tablet computer really caught on in 2010 with the introduction of the iPad. Sure, Android was there first, but Apple defined the category, and in the years since these devices have transitioned from screens just powerful enough to play movies to laptop alternatives with the potential to edit 4K video. That doesn’t make an iPad the best tablet for everyone, however. With varying sizes, operating systems, storage, and connectivity options, the right tablet can offer you as much access or ease as you like once you identify your priorities.

• Best tablet for the money:<a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08J66ZMY7?&linkCode=ll1&tag=popularscience-best-tablet-pcr-20&linkId=b879d97fb92ea55dcef93b5a2386cb24&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl" target=_blank> Apple iPad Air (4th Generation)</a>
• Best tablet for drawing:<a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0863D15R6?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&linkCode=ll1&tag=popularscience-best-tablet-pcr-20&linkId=03c91f0264c64b9121cced0c3c6df229&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl" target=_blank> Apple iPad Pro 12.9 inch (4th Generation)</a>
• Best tablet for Android:<a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08FBPRY3N?&linkCode=ll1&tag=popularscience-best-tablet-pcr-20&linkId=1f2be688b17e0e7ad579c61e1dad079b&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl" target=_blank> Samsung Galaxy Tab S7+</a>
• Best tablet for younger children:<a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07KD7K4B1?&linkCode=ll1&tag=popularscience-best-tablet-pcr-20&linkId=4251dc3c54b05cd0f1517de4ec58e3d7&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl" target=_blank> Amazon Fire HD 10 Kids Edition</a>
• Best budget tablet:<a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B083JXPDL5?&linkCode=ll1&tag=popularscience-best-tablet-pcr-20&linkId=04bfab6dee32f56b057cdc3b034885c7&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl" target=_blank> Lenovo Smart Tab M10 Plus (2nd Gen)</a>

Things to consider when shopping for the best tablet computer

The best tablet computer is more than a screen: it’s an entryway. You’re buying into an ecosystem of apps and accessories. So before you invest it’s important to ask yourself a few questions about your own habits and existing hardware. Are you looking more for a portable bookstore or a part-time babysitter? Do you need a tool to up productivity or just for downtime? Are you always on the go or just want a more portable screen around the house? Do you already have Amazon, Android, and/or Apple devices, and is this tablet replacing or complementing them?

Related: Find out if you need to replace your laptop with a tablet

Maybe you want the best tablet for gaming and using Google Workspace. Maybe you just want the best screen to surf the internet, read a bestseller, or watch 4K HDR10 blockbusters. Establishing whether you’re trying to bridge the gap or just fill a specific hole is the first step. Then, based on how heavy you want your bag and how light you want your wallet, you can decide on the size and feature set that suits you, like whether a WiFi-only model or a more expensive cellular-equipped one fits where you’ll do most of your work. So come up to the lab and see what’s on the tab. Here are our suggestions for the best tablet whether you’re a voracious reader or a power user, a creative or wrangling kids.

So, is the best tablet for me really just an iPad?

Let’s be honest, “iPad” hasn’t quite reached the level of Kleenex or Band-Aids when it comes to a brand name becoming the generic term for a product...but of all the tablets it’s the closest. There are folks, especially those who already have an iPhone and/or a MacBook, who believe tablet and iPad are already, exclusively synonymous. And iOS is undoubtedly accessible and app rich, able to cater to casual or corporate needs. So, if you’re looking for specific use cases (the best tablet for professional artists, Android users or young children, etc.), skip to the next section. Otherwise, here’s our pick for the best tablet for most users.

Best tablet for the money: Apple iPad Air (4th Generation)

The 2020 iPad Air packs flagship features into a more affordable package and is the best tablet for the money. A model honed to overperform, the iPad Air’s 10.9-inch Liquid Retina P3 HDR screen has the thin bezels and anti-reflective display of its bigger, more expensive sibling, as well as support for the Magic Keyboard and second-generation Apple Pencil (each sold separately, but the best combo for note-taking). Combine that with the Bionic A14 processor, WiFi 6 chipset, and a 7-megapixel front camera—as well as the most active app development community for tablets—and you’ve got the best work-from-anywhere or game-on-the-go platform. A fingerprint scanner in the power button adds the convenience of unlocking the tablet without having to expose your face.

What’s the best tablet for artists?

What’s the most important component of the best tablet? For artists, it is a highly sensitive, touch-responsive screen that delivers the widest array of colors. For that reason, Apple wins another category, getting the top pick when it comes to the best tablet for drawing and creatives. The iPad Air and iPad Pro’s laminated displays are bright (at 500 and 600 nits, respectively), as well as vivid, registering 102 or 123 percent of the sRGB color gamut, depending on the model. With support for Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and Premiere Rush, etc., as well as powerful, intuitive apps such as Procreate, the iPad can handle any medium. So, which one is the best iPad for drawing?

Best tablet for drawing: Apple iPad Pro 12.9 inch (4th Generation)

The iPad Air is conveniently sized without making major compromises, but if you’re a serious graphic designer with money looking for the best drawing tablet, you’ll want to spring for the 12.9-inch iPad Pro. Paying the premium gets you additional processor cores, an ultrawide camera, as well as more screen real estate with ProMotion technology for increased 120Hz refresh rates, fluid motion, and the smoothest stylus response, making it the very best iPad for drawing or as a laptop replacement.

It is important, however, to acknowledge the lack of true multitasking in iPadOS, so if you’re as much a business user as an illustrator and you’re looking to run a video chat while simultaneously sketching or editing documents, you’ll need to consider the best Windows 2-in-1 tablet, which is a laptop-class Intel i5 or i7 Microsoft Surface Pro 7. The iPad may be best for painting, but for vector art, layout tasks, and the like, full access to Windows 10 can help with a creative studio’s workflow. The Surface Pen, featuring 4096 pressure sensitivity, allows for plenty of control, though the screen’s brightness, refresh rate, and color gamut are more akin to the iPad Air than the iPad Pro.

What’s the best Android tablet?

Sure, Apple devices can feel ubiquitous at times. But there are also plentiful alternatives if you prefer the Android OS, which stands out for its configurability and seamless integration with Google apps. Because multiple hardware developers support Android—and not all devices ship with or are capable of running the most current version of Android—there’s a little more legwork involved in selecting the best Android tablet. But that’s where this guide comes in, so here’s our suggestion for the best Samsung tablet, made for Android and intended to give the iPad Pro a run for its money in terms of cameras, connectivity, and battery life.

Best Android tablet: Samsung Galaxy Tab S7+

A classic rounded aluminum slab, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S7+ doesn’t look like much—until you boot up its gorgeous 12.4-inch, 2,800 by 1,752-pixel Super AMOLED display. With a 120Hz refresh rate and a color gamut that even beats the iPad Pro 2020 (though it can’t match the iPad’s brightness), the Galaxy Tab S7+ makes you want to consume content (or game with no lag). But if you’re looking to work, as well as play, Samsung’s One UI skin and a customized DeX desktop interface (paired with an S Pen, included, for annotations and/or the optional Book Cover keyboard) helps to optimize the latest Android OS’s phone-like appearance and empower multitasking. (For games you can even pair an Xbox controller.) The device doesn’t have the processing power or streamlined system of an iPad, but it’ll stream or beam HD all day long.

Like almost every Samsung tablet, the Galaxy Tab S7+ is sold in various sizes of internal storage. However, unlike an iPad, which does not officially support expandable storage (and therefore may require more investment upfront), the Galaxy Tab S7+ has a slot for removable storage up to 1TB (via microSD card, sold separately). Cloud backups (whether it’s Google Drive or iCloud) are handy, but sometimes you want the assurance of local storage.

What’s the best tablet for kids?

Typically, shopping for electronics is about getting the most functionality for the money. But when it comes to the best tablet for kids the equation shifts, because what you’re paying for is limitations. The best kids tablet comes with parental controls engaged and uncluttered access to a wealth of content. Ninety-nine percent of the time the goal is to keep the kid(s) preoccupied, not productive (for more coordinated tweens, etc., you might as well get an entry-level iPad to help with homework, or an Amazon Kindle Kids Edition to promote reading). So here’s our suggestion for the best kids’ tablet that can grow with your child.

Best kids’ tablet: Amazon Fire HD 10 Kids Edition

The Amazon Fire HD 10 Kids Edition is a full-featured model with affordability bettered only by its durability. For under $200 you get a 10.1-inch 1080p Full HD IPS screen with 12-hour battery life encased in a colorful, drop-resistant bumper. It’s a crisp, responsive display for the age-adjustable library presented by the Kids+ carousel of apps, books, and videos (a one-year subscription to Amazon’s FreeTime Unlimited is included with purchase). While kids will love the ability to get Netflix, Minecraft, Zoom, etc. as they get older, parents will really enjoy the time limit and educational goal filters, as well as the two-year, worry-free “no questions asked” replacement guarantee.

What’s the best tablet under $200?

Judging purely on price point, it’s hard to beat the Amazon Fire HD 8 for best tablet on a budget. You’ll have access to all the content you can consume, as well as Alexa’s voice-activated assistance, without having to hit three figures. The one caveat, and it’s a big one, is the fact that Amazon’s app store is very limited in comparison to what Apple and Google Play offer. While there are ways around these garden walls, a fully-featured tablet shouldn’t require workarounds, so here’s our suggestion for the best tablet under $200.

Best budget tablet: Lenovo Smart Tab M10 Plus (2nd Gen)

Packing a 10.3-inch Full HD (1920 by 1200) IPS display, powered by an eight-core processor with 4GB RAM and 64GB storage, the latest generation of the Lenovo Smart Tab M10 Plus has a premium feel and it runs a version of Android 9 that isn’t overly bloated by third-party preinstalls. It can smoothly run a web browser or word processor, and has a productivity mode that adds a task bar (though it’s not a true desktop experience). Streaming and gaming performance is standard, though not spectacular, as are the cameras (at 8MP/5MP). But if you’re looking for the best budget tablet for Google apps and Assistant with solid battery life and a convenient charging dock for hands-free use, this is a great pick.

Picking the best tablet FAQ

How do I choose a tablet?

Ask yourself whether you want the top media player or a productivity tool. Evaluate if you already have a deep investment in a specific brand’s ecosystem (think Apple, Google or Amazon). Determine if you’re going to want to extensively accessorize. Consider whether this is a replacement or extension of a computer. These answers will determine where you sit on the casual-to-fully committed spectrum and help you choose a tablet.

Related: How to set parental controls on any phone or tablet

How many GB do I need for a tablet?

How many GB you need depends on whether your intent is to consume or create content. If it’s solely the former, you’re probably fine with the base model storage. If it’s the latter, get the most storage you can afford—especially if you’re buying an iPad, which can’t be upgraded after purchase. If you’re selecting an Android tablet, pick one with a microSD slot and you can expand storage later.

How long should a tablet last?

It used to be that each year’s new models were revolutionary, but now they’re more often evolutionary. Manufacturers are likely to support their devices for four to five years before considering them obsolete, though healthy battery life for a modern tablet is closer to three years (a number that will fluctuate depending on frequency of use and recharge). So a modern tablet should last between three to five years (the more advanced the model, the longer its software updates and support lifecycle).

A final word on shopping for the best tablet

Whether you’re a reader or an author, a filmmaker, or just getting the most out of your Netflix subscription, you’re probably going to spend a lot of time looking at your tablet. So choose wisely. As long as you clearly identify your needs, the best tablet for you will feed your hunger for media and/or expression without sinking its teeth too deeply into your wallet.

Some sea slugs can live without their bodies. Cut their heads off, and the noggins can still survive for months, scientists recently discovered. Those detached, self-propelling heads can then regenerate whole new slug-bodies for them.

Scientists don’t really know how those slugs manage it, but there are at least two species of a group called sacoglossans who can do it. They suspect the slugs’ astounding survival powers depend on a backup power source: The animals can steal the photosynthesizing powers from the algae around them.

This ability is known as kleptoplasty, and slugs aren’t the only ones that possess it. Numerous other life-forms are kleptoplastic, capable of pillaging chloroplasts—the parts of a cell that facilitate photosynthesis—from other organisms, such as algae in water. Kleptoplastic organisms can take those chloroplasts and use them as their own.

The consumed chloroplasts continue to turn sunlight into energy for their new organism, giving them a “long-lasting bonus,” says Holly Moeller, a biologist at the University of California at Santa Barbara. “Their food supply could have this whole second life.”

Those kleptoplastic sacoglossans, for instance, suck out the innards from algal cells they consume, singling out the chloroplasts and merging them into the slugs’ digestive cells. That allows the slugs to directly turn sunlight into energy of their own accord.

Kleptoplasty may seem like a magic wand for survival, but scientists don’t know if it’s quite that. Chloroplast-raiding probably doesn’t give a slug enough energy to replace eating. Rather, it’s more like a backup plan. If, for instance, the slug has been decapitated or food is scarce, the animal can rely on its pillaged chloroplasts.

Kleptoplasty in animals is far from the norm. In fact, for many years, those sacoglossans were the only animals that scientists knew were kleptoplastic. That is, until scientists in 2019 discovered kleptoplasty in rhabdocoels, a genus of flatworms.

For decades, scientists had known some freshwater rhabdocels kept living algae in their bodies, something that a few other animals, like corals and sponges, are known to do. Scientists had also found chloroplasts in several species of rhabdocels who lived in the sea, according to Niels Van Steenkiste, a biologist at the University of British Columbia.

Van Steenkiste and his fellow researchers decided to look at one of those species more closely to find out if they, too, held full algal cells. Using high-resolution microscopes and gene sequencing, they found that the flatworm species had instead taken stolen chloroplasts into themselves.

How these rhabdocels manage to actually break into the cell and raid its contents isn’t known, nor is it known if the flatworms are picky raiders. These are both open questions of research. “We want to find out if they only graze on specific species,” Van Steenkiste says, “or if they feed non-specifically.”

And the discovery doesn’t make kleptoplasty in animals any more common. Van Steenkiste says that he and his colleagues have confirmed it in two species of rhabdocels so far, but there are as many as 16 other species that they think likely also have it. That’s still a tiny fraction of the 1,800 known species of rhabdocels in the world.

Of course, there’s plenty of life on Earth that has yet to be discovered, meaning there could be more kleptoplastic animals out there. “It is not unlikely that more animals with this ability will be described in the future,” says Van Steenkiste.

But if you look past the animal kingdom, you’ll find quite a few more examples of organisms that use kleptoplasty. “There are a whole variety of protists ... that also can pull this off,” says Moeller.

Protists are single-celled organisms, and many of them can absorb chloroplasts of algae that are smaller than them. They do so in various ways: Some wrap a chloroplast into their translucent body, allowing it to keep on making energy, while others go one step further by plucking out an algae’s cell nucleus intact, using its genetic instructions to keep the chloroplast in working order.

“It’s like it stole the car and then it also stole the owner’s manual, so that you can repair the car, and maintain the car, and keep driving the car,” says Moeller.

It’s also in these protists that kleptoplasty can show scientists back in time, more than two billion years past, before plants evolved on Earth. Many scientists believe that, back then, chloroplasts, along with other parts of the cell such as mitochondria, were free-floating organisms of their very own that were integrated and “domesticated” into the organelles you know and love from high-school biology.

“If you look at all the photosynthetic organisms, chloroplasts have actually moved across lineages,” says Moeller. “They’ve sort of jumped across the branches of the tree of life.”

How exactly that happened, and how differing life-forms acquired the ability to turn light into energy, isn’t known. But by stealing chloroplasts from algae, kleptoplastic protists or animals are doing just that.

Click here to see all of PopSci’s COVID-19 coverage.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to undulate around the world, here’s what happened in the past week.

The US delivered 100 million shots in Biden’s first days

When Joe Biden was inaugurated on January 20, he promised that his administration would see 100 million shots delivered by the end of April, which would be the 100th day of his presidency. Despite supply issues in the earliest days and horrific winter weather that led to power cuts across swathes of the country, the US sailed past that goal last Friday—the 59th day. Currently, the US is delivering about 2.5 million vaccines per day, and Biden has spoken about setting a doubled goal of 200 million shots by his 100th day.

The US has been able to distribute vaccines quickly enough that the Biden administration is now sharing shots with countries like Mexico and Canada. But while the new administration has taken steps to fund vaccine-sharing schemes such as COVAX, public health experts warn that it isn’t even remotely enough to counter vaccine inequities around the world. The number of shots delivered in all of Africa so far, for instance, is less than the number the US can deliver in a week.

Researchers think they’ve identified a potential cause for the blood clots associated with AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine

Two teams of researchers independently say they’ve pinpointed the source of the blood clotting that caused numerous countries to put a temporary hold on some batches of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine—or, in the cases of Norway and Thailand, to halt their entire vaccine campaigns altogether.

Those researchers believe the vaccine can trigger an autoimmune response that activates too many platelets in a person’s bloodstream, potentially causing their blood to clot. That clotting can be fatal, but it is exceedingly rare, with less than 30 total incidents from the 20 million Europeans who had been given the shot. Not everybody is firmly convinced the vaccine has any link at all: The EU’s drug regulator, the European Medicines Agency (EMA), has said the rate of clotting isn’t any higher than in the general population, or for people getting other vaccines.

Most of the countries that had paused using the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine have resumed using it after the EMA stated last Thursday that the shot was safe. Meanwhile, data was released on a late-stage trial of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine in the US, Chile, and Peru: The shot was 79 percent effective at preventing symptomatic infection, and 100 percent effective in preventing serious COVID-19 illness. The trial also saw no incidents of blood-clotting problems. The results lay the path for regulators to approve its use within the next several months.

[Related: Moderna is now testing its COVID-19 vaccine on kids. Here’s everything you need to know.]

CDC reassesses school guidelines

Many US schools had been wary of reopening their doors to students because they didn’t have enough physical space to go along with recommendations. Previously, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had suggested students be spaced 6 feet (2 meters) apart. School buildings often don’t have that sort of space to work with, and many that had reopened were ignoring the guidelines and keeping students at much more crowded distances.

Now, the CDC has halved that recommended separation to just 3 feet (1 meter). Additionally, the CDC dropped its suggestion for schools to use physical barriers like transparent shields, which many schools were using to reinforce their distancing. The CDC revised its advice after considering research which showed a low risk of coronavirus transmission at that distance.

Public health experts say the benefits to students’ education and well-being are worth the limited risks from physically reopening.

More research suggests that having COVID-19 provides some immunity to future infections

We’ve heard it said many times that having COVID-19 once grants you immunity and stops re-infections. But for how long was anybody’s guess. It was so pervasive, especially in the early days of the pandemic, that many people pondered purposely infecting themselves just to get it over with (despite constant warnings that doing this was very bad). But over the past year, more and more data has come out to suggest that getting COVID-19 does provide some protection against reinfection.

The most recent data, which came from Denmark’s national COVID testing program, suggests fewer than 1 percent of people tested were re-infected, and for most people, one infection seemed to offer protection, at a rate similar to current COVID vaccines, for about six months. But that effectiveness dropped off dramatically for those over 65, reinforcing just how deadly COVID-19 can be for older adults. If anything, these results highlight just how important it is for everyone to keep masking up and socially distancing, even if you’ve been infected. The study also didn’t take into account COVID variants, and the rate of their reinfection remains unknown.

Dan Bromberg is an associate professor of Public Administration and Political Science at the University of New Hampshire. Étienne Charbonneau is an associate professor and Canada research chair in Comparative Public Management at the École nationale d’administration publique (ENAP). This story originally featured on The Conversation.

Many police chiefs and regular American civilians agree that officers’ body camera footage should be released to the public after police shoot someone dead.

They differ, though, on when the images should be made public. This complicates achieving accountability, which is often the reason officers wear cameras.

That’s the finding of our new research, published by Cambridge University Press. We surveyed 4,000 US residents—1,000 across the nation as a whole and 1,000 in each of three cities—Los Angeles, Seattle and Charlotte—which are often cited as having different policies for releasing body camera footage. We asked participants whether they identified themselves as white, Black, Hispanic, or Asian. We also surveyed 1,000 police chiefs across the country.

In June 2020, weeks after the death of George Floyd while in the custody of Minneapolis police, the Pew Research Center reported that “78 percent of Americans overall—but a far smaller share of black Americans (56 percent)—said they had at least a fair amount of confidence in police officers to act in the best interests of the public.”

Those findings are consistent with other research also revealing that race is a factor that influences whether Americans trust police.

We randomly showed police chiefs body camera footage and smartphone footage of a fatal shooting. We randomly showed the 4,000 people we surveyed either body camera footage of a police officer shooting a person or a reason why they could not view that footage and then asked them whether, how and when the footage should be made public.

We found very little geographical variation in citizens’ expectations for police behavior and trust in police to use force appropriately. But we found that regular people and police chiefs differed in some of their views about body camera recordings.

People from all across the country, including in the three cities we focused on, generally wanted the footage to be made public. More than 9 in 10 respondents thought so. And the vast majority of police chiefs—just under 9 in 10—agreed.

But beyond that, there were noteworthy differences in people’s views about when and how the video should be released. A plurality of every group—nationwide, and in each city, and when separated by race—was content to wait to see the raw footage until after an internal police investigation was complete.

Overall, on average 39 percent of the 4,000 citizens felt that way. Nearly half of police chiefs—48.7 percent—did. Nonwhites were less willing to wait for an internal investigation to wrap up before seeing the footage.

For citizens, the next most preferred method of seeing the footage was a release of the raw video immediately after the event, with between one-quarter and one-third of people seeking that. Only about one in five citizens preferred to see edited video that was cut and narrated to help explain to viewers what the police officers were doing. But the idea of an edited video appealed to police chiefs, who far preferred that over an immediate release of unedited footage.

If body cameras are going to help improve police accountability, then it is important that police chiefs and the public agree on how and when the footage will be released.

Whether you’re a pro on the powder or just starting out, a successful snowboarding run starts with appropriate snowboard gear, especially when it comes to your feet. Are your boots comfortable? Secure? Not too tight but also not too loose? Unlike ski boots, which are rigid and unforgiving, snowboard boots are flexible and, in general, much more comfortable—a blessing for anyone with wide feet or any podiatric issues, like bunions, corns, or hammertoes. (Think about how distracting foot pain can be. With happy toes, you can just concentrate on the ride.) Also unlike ski boots, snowboarding boots lock in sideways (not frontways) and must be released manually in the event of a fall. That can feel jarring at first, but you get used to it, promise!

The first step in assembling a snowboarding kit is to find the right pair of boots; after that, it’s the bindings and the board. To get you going, we’ve curated the best snowboard boots out there for every level, age group, gender, price point, and style preference around.

1. Best men’s snowboard boots: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Ride-Lasso-Snowboard-Boots-Smoke/dp/B08C8QHQZM?crid=11EQTT8QTG11K&dchild=1&keywords=ride+lasso+pro+snowboard+boots&qid=1615834194&sprefix=ride+lasso+pro%2Caps%2C167&sr=8-2&linkCode=ll1&tag=popularscience-best-snowboard-boots-pcr-20&linkId=a48ad047c263b0de246ea261e8becfff&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl" target=_blank>Ride Lasso Pro Mens Snowboard Boots</a>
2. Best women’s snowboard boots: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Thirty-Lashed-Double-Womens-Snowboard/dp/B08FGYNCCX?crid=1HKW8YBMILGB0&dchild=1&keywords=thirtytwo+womens+snowboard+boots&qid=1615833938&refinements=p_72%3A1248957011&rnid=1248955011&s=sporting-goods&sprefix=thirtytwo%2Csporting%2C166&sr=1-3-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUEyVUJPSFIyWFBHTFlBJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwNjQ4NDU0MlE0N1g5WlRWNUo2NyZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwMzYzNzQyMThFR0VTU1o4WUhGVyZ3aWRnZXROYW1lPXNwX2F0ZiZhY3Rpb249Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU%3D&linkCode=ll1&tag=popularscience-best-snowboard-boots-pcr-20&linkId=8822579ca9baf9eeb1baf553906c07b7&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl" target=_blank>thirtytwo Women’s Lashed Double Boa</a>
3. Best kid’s snowboard boots: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Burton-Zipline-Snowboard-Boots-Black/dp/B079RMF417?crid=VUH7D4F5Y98G&dchild=1&keywords=burton%2Bmoto%2Bboa%2Bsnowboard%2Bboots&qid=1615833813&refinements=p_72%3A1248957011&rnid=1248955011&s=sporting-goods&sprefix=burton%2Bmoto%2Bboa%2B%2Caps%2C186&sr=1-12&th=1&linkCode=ll1&tag=popularscience-best-snowboard-boots-pcr-20&linkId=8902cfffd94f17bb5b5a76270ef0207e&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl" target=_blank>Burton Boy’s Zipline Boa ’19 (Big Kid)</a>
4. Best BOA snowboard boots: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Burton-Mens-Snowboard-Boots-White/dp/B088HFZJ7Y?dchild=1&keywords=burton+ion+boa&qid=1615834094&s=sporting-goods&sr=1-1&linkCode=ll1&tag=popularscience-best-snowboard-boots-pcr-20&linkId=dc26456ad93996a996d7c6ce30211479&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl" target=_blank>Burton Ion BOA Mens Snowboard Boots</a>
5. Best beginner snowboard boots: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Vans-Hi-Standard-2019-Snowboard-Boots/dp/B07JNS5MP5?crid=18WJ6BNIHGAMM&dchild=1&keywords=vans+verse+snowboard+boots&qid=1615834355&sprefix=vans+ver%2Caps%2C229&sr=8-3&linkCode=ll1&tag=popularscience-best-snowboard-boots-pcr-20&linkId=7d9a9b03e24959e2d3ad9bbb1d569dd4&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl" target=_blank>Vans Hi-Standard Men’s Snowboard Boots</a>
6. Best all-mountain snowboard boots: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/adidas-Skateboarding-Mens-Tactical-Black/dp/B079VVJ6FH?crid=1XQTOETE1JA69&dchild=1&keywords=adidas+tactical+adv+snowboard+boots&qid=1615837197&s=sporting-goods&sprefix=adidas+tacti%2Csporting%2C153&sr=1-2&linkCode=ll1&tag=popularscience-best-snowboard-boots-pcr-20&linkId=339842979cecf74bb83ea3c12c913091&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl" target=_blank>adidas Tactical ADV Snowboard Boot Mens</a>
7. Best wide snowboard boots: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/K2-Maysis-Snowboard-Boots-Wide/dp/B08D37BY61/ref=sr_1_6?crid=2GHPB389TFUII&dchild=1&keywords=wide+snowboard+boots&qid=1615837415&refinements=p_72%3A1248957011&rnid=1248955011&s=sporting-goods&sprefix=wide+snowboard%2Csporting%2C161&sr=1-6">K2 Maysis Snowboard Boots Wide</a>
8. Best budget snowboard boots: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Symbolic-Ultra-Light-Black-Snowboard/dp/B075SMF4KK?crid=IUXZZ14OJM6H&dchild=1&keywords=rossignol%2Bsnowboard%2Bboots&qid=1615834620&refinements=p_72%3A1248957011%2Cp_36%3A1253557011&rnid=386589011&s=sporting-goods&sprefix=rossignol%2Csporting%2C178&sr=1-8-spons&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUFBRjBaSTE3OEE3R0gmZW5jcnlwdGVkSWQ9QTEwMTAyNTcyQ1lUNlhIVEwxNjIzJmVuY3J5cHRlZEFkSWQ9QTA5MjU4NDkzUEtPQlozQUtLNUhNJndpZGdldE5hbWU9c3BfbXRmJmFjdGlvbj1jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ&th=1&psc=1&linkCode=ll1&tag=popularscience-best-snowboard-boots-pcr-20&linkId=c0b5a1f1a84d3e4ce46ad32504d618ce&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl" target=_blank>Symbolic Ultra Light Black Snowboard Boots Mens</a>

How to choose the best snowboard boots

To find the best snowboard boots for you, think of yourself like Goldilocks: You want something that’s snug enough to hold your foot in place, but not so tight that it’s distractingly pinchy. You should be able to wiggle your toes comfortably, and when you lean forward, your heel should stay in place. And never, ever forget your socks. (A thin or medium-thickness pair will do.) You also need to make sure that the boots you’re buying are compatible with your board and its bindings. (That’s a whole other issue that includes figuring out the best board width for your shoe size, and how much boot overhang you should have—so if you’re a beginner, consult an expert.)

Once you have some idea of what you’re looking for, it’s time to start shopping.

Who needs snowboarding boots?

If you plan to snowboard with any regularity, buying your own pair of snowboarding boots will ultimately be cost-effective. And if you have an uncommon shoe size or any foot issues that make finding a perfectly fitting pair difficult, buying is smart because it guarantees that you’ll be comfortable during your entire day on the mountain (and not beholden to whatever the rental shop happens to have in stock). The only criteria for the best snowboard boots, whether you’re renting or buying, is that they’re comfortable.

If you’ve never snowboarded before, rent your gear for your first time on the slopes. If you get addicted (and you probably will), once you do the math you’ll likely find that buying your own boots, board, binding, and weatherproof snowboarding gear will save you dough in the long run.

Best men’s snowboard boots: Ride Lasso Pro Mens Snowboard Boots

Many men’s snowboard boots, including these, boast a BOA feature, which means that they’re an easy pull-on style sans traditional laces. These also have micro-adjustable ankles, enabling the perfect fit. Their Michelin soles made out of rubber and phylon are super lightweight.

Best women’s snowboard boots: thirtytwo Women’s Lashed Double Boa

These women’s snowboard boots have medium flexibility, a 3D molded tongue, a molded footbed with heel cradle and arch support, and a performance backstay to support your spine. Note that anyone used to a traditional lace-up or pull-on style may find it tricky to put these on at first.

Best kids’ snowboard boots: Burton Boy’s Zipline Boa ’19 (Big Kid)

Little hands can adjust these babies even with their mittens on—how cool is that? A heat-moldable imprint liner will keep their feet nice and warm, and the easy BOA dial lets them easily adjust to the perfect fit. The fabric of the boot is virtually indestructible—perfect for fall-prone kids who may not treat their boots like the treasure they are.

Get easy-lace BOA snowboarding boots

Before the new millennium, snowboarding boots were primarily lace-ups. Then BOAs came along and changed the game. Double BOA boots feature two sets of laces: one on the inside that you tighten like traditional laces, and one on the outside that you control with the turn of a knob. (Single BOAs have one knob that controls the tightness of the entire boot.) Fans of BOAs like that tightening doesn’t necessitate glove removal, while some people complain that unless a regular lacing system, tightening isn’t uniform and some parts of the foot can feel insecure. (This is much less likely with a double BOA than a single.)

Best BOA snowboard boots: Burton Ion BOA Mens Snowboard Boots

These Burton snowboard boots have a snow-proof internal gusset keeps your feet warm and dry, even after an entire day on the slopes. Something called a Tuff Cuff Lite wraps the ankle and holds your heel in place so that you get the perfect balance of stability and range of motion. Two independent lacing zones allow you to custom-fit the upper and lower portions of these BOA snowboard boots, which is particularly great for accommodating a difference in width between calves and ankles.

New to snowboarding? These snowboard boots are for you.

The best snowboard boots for someone who’s been shredding the gnar since birth may not necessarily be ideal for a newbie. In general, those just starting out should look for styles that have a soft to medium flex. Beyond that, the best beginner snowboard boots have the same specs as everyone else: The boots should be comfortable and fit right. (After all, a first-timer who spends the day in foot agony is unlikely to be interested in a second time, so choose your snowboard equipment wisely.)

Best beginner snowboard boots: Vans Hi-Standard Men’s Snowboard Boots

Made specifically for those at the beginner or intermediate level, an ultra-cushy footbed makes sure that no matter what, the new boarder in your ranks will at least be comfortable. These Vans snowboard boots also feature an instep lace lockout and internal web harness, which provide extra support—very important for newbies. And the waffle sole looks just like the slip-on surfer Vans you wear during the summer!

How do I know if I need all-mountain snowboard boots?

All-mountain boots allow you to snowboard on nearly any type of terrain, and have a medium level of flexibility and mobility. They’re the most common types of boots because of their versatility. If you’re not sure what kind of terrain you’ll be riding on the most or you want the option to try all different parts of the mountain, this is the pair for you.

Best all-mountain snowboard boots: adidas Tactical ADV Snowboard Boot Mens

A heat-moldable foam liner conforms to your feet and keeps these Adidas snowboard boots warm and comfortable, while an inner ankle harness secures your foot inside for a no-slip fit. These promise a smooth, powerful ride. They’re particularly great for anyone who’s not a fan of BOA boots.

Do you have extra-wide or pain-prone feet? Don’t fret—there’s a boot for that!

Long gone are the days when only those with narrow, symmetrical feet and perfectly unscathed toes were entitled to a comfortable day on the slopes. The widest snowboard boots were made for anyone who wants to hop on a board and just needs a little more room. Take that, tiny feet!

Best wide snowboard boots: K2 Maysis Snowboard Boots Wide

One really cool feature of this style—called Harshmellow Dampening—is impact-and-vibration absorption, which results in less foot and leg fatigue while you ride. However, these do run on the stiffer side, so if you prefer a super-flex fit, find another pair.

Best snowboard boots on a budget: What you get for under $90

Unfortunately, spending less on snowboard boots means that you get less. Maybe not much less, but the expensive pairs are expensive for a reason: They use quality materials and offer bells and whistles the cheapies don’t. (And the cheapies are only comparatively cheap—you’ll still end up shelling out close to 100 bucks.) If you can spare it and plan to have your boots for a long time, leveling up could be worth it. These are the eBay snowboard boots we’ve found to hold you over if you’re on a budget.

Best cheap snowboard boots: Symbolic Ultra Light Black Snowboard Boots Mens

You get what you pay for when it comes to snowboard boots, and what you don’t get with this pair is a liner or any major cushioning. That said, if the cost is your main concern, with these you still get a medium-stiff flex, 3D molded tongue, and some custom-molded foam for impact.

FAQ: Everything else you need to know about buying the best snowboard boots for you

What are the most comfortable snowboard boots?

Comfort is, of course, subjective, but typically you want to find a pair with ample cushioning, medium flex (not too soft, not too stiff), and, if you have a wide foot, a boot that truly fits you. Laces also give you slightly more control than BOA styles, because you can make micro-adjustments to how tight you’ve laced.

Are stiffer snowboard boots better?

Stiffer boots might be better, depending on how you plan to use them and your ability level. Flexible boots give you room to maneuver, which can be helpful for beginners but also pros who like to freestyle and jump. Stiff boots are best for intermediate and advanced riders; they give you maximum ankle support and allow you to go super fast.

Are snowboard boots worth buying?

If you play to snowboard a lot, definitely! Rates obviously vary from place to place, but let’s say you rent a pair for 20 bucks and hit the slopes just five times during the season—that’s $100, and for that much money, you could own your own pair. Not only that, owning a pair means that they’re perfectly molded to your feet and nobody else’s.

A final word on shopping for the best snowboard boots

Figuring out which are the best snowboard boots for you isn’t rocket science, but there are some key considerations. The first is deciding whether it’s cost-effective to buy a pair instead of renting (and the answer is yes if you plan to snowboard with any regularity). Beyond that, you’ll want to know whether you prefer lace-ups, single BOA models, or double BOAS; the different kinds of terrains you plan to board on; and whether you prefer a super-flexible soft boot or something a bit more rigid. There are loads of options out there with an infinite combination of features, so find your best boots, then get on out there!

Switching from a flimsy laptop keyboard to a big mechanical one feels amazing. The keys have a luxurious amount of travel and the sound is like a Tommy gun pumping out hot lead in an old-timey gangster movie as you compose your tweets. The new Razer Huntsman V2 Analog offers those same perks when it comes to feel, but the company’s clever new optical analog switches also offer some unique advantages when it comes to gaming performance.

As the name suggests, the optical analog switches rely on light for their actions. “Digital switches only see zeroes and ones,” says Marquis Tan, a global product manager at Razer. “It’s either pressed or it’s not. An analog switch gives a more granular amount of information to the PC. Instead of zero to one, it’s zero to 255.”

The stem of each switch has a triangular opening through which light travels to an optical sensor. The farther you press down the key, the more light gets through the opening. Because the light has a constant power level, the sensor and software know exactly how far you’ve pressed.

Customizability is crucial for PC peripherals, and these switches enable lots of it in the Huntsman V2 Analog. Each key has a 3.6mm stroke, but players can set the actuation point anywhere between 1.5mm and 3.6mm on an individual basis if they want. This comes in handy for players who may want to keep their movement buttons as light as possible while requiring more effort to push down buttons that trigger more complex actions. Razer marketing manager Ashe Mckeague offers an example from “World of Warcraft.” They keep their movement buttons at 1.5mm for maximum sensitivity, but set ability keys much deeper in order to prevent inadvertently triggering them and possibly losing a battle.

I spent some time playing Overwatch (for work!) with this style of modified controls and did notice fewer accidental abilities and ultimates, which comes in handy for someone with clumsy fingers.

Two key presses in one

Because the keys always know how far they’re pressed, players can map two different actions to individual points along the key’s path. So, if a game requires one button press to equip a grenade and another to actually throw it, the Huntsman can accomplish both with a single keypress. When it gets to 1.5mm, it will equip the weapon, and when it gets to 3.6mm it will throw it.

PC gamers often map several actions to a single button press to create macros, but they’re not always allowed in some games, and once they’re triggered, they often can’t be stopped. With Razer’s dual-step actuation, players can stop before pressing all the way down in order to interrupt the sequence and change their strategy on the fly.

According to Tan, this kind of switch is capable of even more granular adjustments beyond the 255 levels currently enabled, but it doesn’t make sense to go beyond that right now. “There are a hundred board switches listening at once,” he explains. “If you make it more granular, the amount of information going through might be throttled. We’re pretty much maxing out USB-3 at this time.”

Perfecting the feel

In addition to the new switches under the hood, Razer also revamped the caps. Instead of spray-painted 1mm-thick ABS plastic, the Huntsman V2 includes 1.3mm thick caps made of sturdier double-shot PBT. As a result, the keys will maintain their textured surface after extended use and make a more satisfying clack.

Razer puts a lot of research into tuning the feel and sound of a keyboard, but according to Tan, it’s mostly based specifically on feedback from players rather than precise measuring and tuning. “You have to try it and it involves a lot of prototyping,” he says. The company goes through dozens of prototypes during the tuning process.

Every part of the board affects the overall sound and feel. The caps are crucial, but it also requires careful testing of other variables like rigidity in the chassis, as well as tension in the springs that push the caps back up after a press. “With analog switches, you’d think you need a lot of force to control the granularity,” says Tan. “But, if it’s too heavy to press, it won’t be comfortable as a daily driver. We tested a ton of prototypes, sometimes with different springs in the same board.”

It’s not replacing a custom board

The rabbit hole of custom keyboard building goes absurdly deep and Razer knows it’s not going to replace that experience for true enthusiasts. The company has, however, embraced some of the custom market’s upgrades for its Huntsman V2 Analog.

Each key is lubed with dry lube to make the action on it feel smoother and more reliable over time. Plus, Tan says the company is experimenting with adding dedicated sound damping material inside the keyboard chassis specifically to tune the volume and quality of the sound it makes during typing.

So, how does it feel?

I’ve been using the Huntsman V2 for several weeks now and it’s an impressive keyboard that does everything in its power to justify its steep $250 price tag. The feel is excellent and, once you figure out your preferences for tuning specific keys, the customizability is extremely handy.

There are some drawbacks, however. It doesn’t offer any dedicated macro keys. Instead, it relies on the dual-step actuations for automation. So, if you’re used to mapping more than two things to a button press, you’re out of luck. Some games also don’t support the analog input for finer motor control, so you won’t enjoy the full benefits of the new switches.

One thing you’ll almost certainly appreciate, however, is the plush wrist rest that elevates your hands via a fake leather pad that feels impressively luxurious. The pad attaches to the board magnetically and even offers the flashy RGB lighting that’s present on the rest of the device.

Overall, it seems extremely worthy of the flagship spot in the Razer keyboard lineup. Just don’t expect to shell out all that cash to improve your overall gaming skills. It will, however, sound and feel great, even when you lose.

Click here to see all of PopSci’s COVID-19 coverage.

A fourth drug manufacturer, AstraZeneca, has announced positive results in Phase III COVID vaccine trials in the United States. The vaccine, developed in partnership with Oxford University, and with some funding from Operation Warp Speed, is in widespread use outside the US but still hasn’t been submitted for FDA review, the first step in receiving an emergency use authorization. That’s likely to happen at least a month from now.

The AstraZeneca vaccine is much easier to distribute than the mRNA variety because it can be stored for six months in regular refrigeration. However, unlike Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine, it still consists of two shots, given four weeks apart.

According to a press release from AstraZeneca, in the Phase III trial the vaccine was 79 percent effective at preventing symptomatic disease, and 100 percent effective against severe disease and hospitalization. That’s very similar to the results of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which was 66 percent effective against “moderate illness,” and 100 percent effective against hospitalization and death.

The release also specifically breaks down efficacy for those 65 and older, who made up 20 percent of trial participants. In that population, the vaccine was 80 percent effective.

However, as has been the case with nearly every COVID vaccine, the press release precedes the release of full clinical data, so it’s impossible to independently verify those results.

The announcement also contains safety results that might address concerns about the vaccine. Although the AstraZeneca shot has been approved for use in a number of countries, including the UK in January, it has hit a number of safety concerns along the way. After a British trial participant fell ill with neurological symptoms in early fall, governments around the world paused clinical trials. The US trial resumed in October after the FDA reviewed the findings and signed off.

Then, in early March, a number of European countries suspended the use of the drug, after two Austrians experienced blood clotting after vaccination, one of whom died 10 days later. Distribution resumed a week later, after the European Medicines Agency announced that “there is currently no indication that vaccination has caused [the clotting].” Studies into other blood-related side effects are ongoing, although the EMA has pointed out that COVID-19 also leads to blood clots, and the risk of developing them due to the disease is higher.

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According to the release, an independent data safety monitoring board specifically reviewed US trial data for blood clotting, and found no cases of dangerous clotting among vaccine recipients in the US trial.

Still, vaccine hesitancy in Europe, both towards AstraZeneca and other drugs, is on the rise. But more important than the safety data is how it’s communicated to the public, both in Europe and elsewhere. Writing in Slate, Shobita Parthasarathy, director of the Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program at the University of Michigan, argued, “This crisis isn’t about science at all. It’s about public trust, and scared citizens cannot be easily convinced by expertise that feels remote.”

Participants in the 32,000 person trial were recruited from across the United States. Other AstraZeneca trials have been conducted in Brazil, South Africa, and the UK. However, it’s hard to compare data from those international trials, which found lower overall efficacy, because some participants were given a half dose on their first shots. They ended up being better protected, counterintuitively. The US trial used the “correct” full two doses, but in December, AstraZeneca officials said they were in talks with regulators across the world to run trials involving the half-dose

Unlike the results from the Johnson & Johnson trial, however, the efficacy numbers for this trial weren’t broken down by country. That’s an important omission, because the efficacy of the vaccines may vary depending on the COVID variant circulating. The Johnson & Johnson trial found lower efficacy in South Africa, where a concerning variant, B.1.351 is widespread. A similar strain, P.1, is circulating in Peru.

Much like the vaccine produced by Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca uses a weakened chimpanzee adenovirus to induce an immune response. The adenovirus, from a family of viruses that normally cause mild colds, is produced without key genes that would allow it to replicate inside cells and cause disease. In place of those genes, researchers insert the genetic “recipe” for the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein.

Once the vaccine is injected, the adenovirus quickly dies, but your cells use that recipe to manufacture spike proteins, in a very similar process to the mRNA vaccines made by Moderna and Pfizer. Even though the proteins aren’t attached to a live virus, your immune system recognizes them as a threat, and learns how to neutralize them. Because the genetic recipe comes wrapped in a virus, it’s more durable than the mRNA varieties.

But by the time the FDA approves AstraZeneca’s drug in the United States, the country is likely to have enough doses from Moderna, Pfizer, and Johnson & Johnson to cover its needs. On March 3, president Joe Biden said that the US was “on track” to produce enough vaccines for the entire adult population by the end of May.

On March 18, the United States sent 2.5 million doses from its national stockpile to Mexico and 1.5 million to Canada—the first time it had exported any vaccine from its 30-million-dose stockpile. If the US does hold onto many of those stockpiled AstraZeneca doses in hopes of distributing them after FDA approval, it could prolong the pandemic worldwide, extending the already massive human toll. Though winter surges have ended here, COVID is on the rise elsewhere in the world—both India and Pakistan are experiencing massive increases in cases. Meanwhile, global vaccination rates are far behind the US, as the rest of the world waits for doses. This news of AstraZeneca’s efficacy might be more evidence that it’s time to share.