Extreme Field WorkExtreme Field WorkA series about how science gets done in Earth’s weirdest, wildest environments, from the bottom of the ocean to erupting volcanoes.Spring is looming in the northern hemisphere. It is habitually a key and busy time for environmental science fieldwork, no more so than for the select community that travel great lengths…
Sony debuts $200 headphones with powerful ANC and long battery life
Sony isn’t clear if it’s the exact same adaptive noise cancellation that the WH-1000XM3 employs, but the WH-CH719N comes with powerful ANC that should hold its own. The company says these headphones monitor your surroundings with “Dual Noise Sensor Technology” and uses it to “improve” the noise cancellation as needed. Like the WH-1000XM3, these headphones…
A One-Time Poultry Farmer Invents the Future of Refrigeration
Back in 2001, a middle-aged man made a video of his car and sent it around to a few friends. So far, so predictable—but this video featured a dilapidated Vauxhall Nova whizzing around a junk-strewn yard in a cloud of fog. At the wheel was Peter Dearman, a rumpled-looking autodidact who had spent the better…
The US Army’s Virus Research Lab Gears Up to Fight Covid-19
The cinder block hallways inside the US Army’s top virus research lab are punctuated every few feet with windows that peer into tiny offices and laboratories crammed with scientific equipment. On each doorway, orange placards with that Vulcan-looking biohazard symbol keep visitors alert. Through one window, you can just make out the heads of two…
We Can’t Tackle Climate Change Without You
One afternoon in December, I took the 4 train from my home in the South Bronx to an apartment near Union Square. I had been invited to lead a conversation with a handful of artists about the climate crisis and their place in it.What I found was an intimate gathering of six or seven people.…
The Battle Against Global Warming Is the New Cold War
The first huge renewable-energy revolution—the one that dotted the US with hydroelectric dams and ultimately made power ubiquitous in every American home—started at a bankruptcy sale. In 1877, Jacob Schoellkopf went to an auction for a waterway owned by the Niagara Falls Canal Company. A succession of entrepreneurs had tried and failed to harness the…
How We Will All Solve the Climate Crisis
Not long ago, in more innocent times, I was driving with my three sons back from trying to ski on a mountain that doesn’t really have snow anymore, and we were talking about climate change. This was before the pandemic, and before our conversations shifted to discussions of what viruses are and why soap, miraculously,…
A Truly Green Electric Grid Will Need Very Big Batteries
Sometimes the sun just shines too brightly on California. The state is such a glutton for solar energy—a million solar-paneled rooftops, hundreds of enormous solar stations—that it routinely harvests more megawatts than people can use or the grid can handle. During a couple of cloudless weeks in March 2017, California actually had to pay Arizona…
Coronavirus and sport: How sporting world changed during March
A selection of striking photographs showing how sport has been affected by the coronavirus pandemic in March. Wembley Stadium, London, 1 March: The month started with Manchester City celebrating their third League Cup win in succession – and their fourth in five years – with victory over Aston Villa at a packed Wembley (Photo by…
BBC Sport’s five things to do today
1 Apr From the section Sport Read this…As season two of Sunderland ‘Til I Die drops on Netflix, we speak to the men behind the programme:’There were tears in the edit suite’ Watch this… Media playback is not supported on this device Olympic gold medal-winning gymnast Max Whitlock’s five exercises to try at home Try…