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IT ISN’T A SECRET THAT humanity and everything around us is made of star stuff. But not all stars create elements equally. Sure, regular stars can create the basic elements: helium, carbon, neon, oxygen, silicon, and iron. But it takes the collision of two neutron stars — incredibly dense stellar corpses — to create the heavier elements like silver, gold, and platinum. Neutron stars aren’t just notable for the valuable elements they create, though. They’re also a dream come true for physicists. From their crushing gravity to the universe’s strongest magnetic fields, extremes of physics are the norm for neutron stars. And, unlike black holes, these exotic objects are observable. “It’s hard to study black holes,” says Samar Safi-Harb, the Canada research chair in supernova remanent astrophysics at the University of…

SUPERNOVAE ARE THE most spectacular fireworks in the universe. Just one such explosion can briefly outshine the rest of the stars in a galaxy combined. Astronomers have become adept at spotting these events across the cosmos, with particular attention to a specific class called type Ia supernovae. Much of modern cosmology rests on these events. That’s because thanks to their intrinsic physics, these stellar blasts should always have the same intrinsic brightness. This property makes them excellent distance indicators, which allows astronomers to obtain their distance simply by observing how dim their light appears upon reaching Earth. Ultimately, the information gleaned by mapping type Ia supernovae across the cosmos has allowed astronomers to measure the expansion of the universe itself. And yet, perhaps the most incredible thing about these particular supernovae is…

WHEN I WAS 6 YEARS OLD, my older brother helped me kick off my journey to becoming an amateur astronomer by taking me out to our backyard in southern Indiana and giving me tours of the night sky. Besides showing me the Moon, planets, and stars, he pointed out that the constellation Cassiopeia formed my initials: M and W. His passion for the cosmos is what first sparked my interest in astronomy and science in general. Later, when I was a teenager in 1961, I received my first telescope as a Christmas present from my mother: an Edmund Scientific 3-inch f/10 Newtonian reflector. The following year, I started taking photographs through that telescope using her roll-film box camera — remember those? Over the next several years, I continued taking occasional astrophotos…

At CES 2021 in January, slightly under the radar, Asus and other major motherboard makers announced their lineups of new Intel Z590 motherboards that would launch on January 27. That’s well ahead of Intel’s upcoming 11th Gen Core “Rocket Lake-S” desktop CPUs, which are slated for shelves sometime in March. Asus wasn’t the first board maker to officially acknowledge the existence of Z590 boards (that honor goes to Gigabyte). But now that Intel has pulled back the curtain on Rocket Lake, manufacturers are free to follow suit with their own corresponding announcements. But what is Z590 exactly, and what improvements does it promise over the Z490 platform (which launched a mere 10 months ago)? Is it a must-have for leading-edge gamers and content creators or just another minor upgrade for Intel,…

Q| I’VE ALWAYS UNDERSTOOD THAT, ACCORDING TO GENERAL RELATIVITY, A DISTANT OBSERVER OF SOMEONE WHO FALLS INTO A BLACK HOLE WOULD SEE THEM SLOW DOWN, THEN COME TO A VIRTUAL STOP AT THE EVENT HORIZON AND BECOME “SMEARED.” SO HOW IS IT THAT LIGO CAN RECORD TWO BLACK HOLES COMBINING IN MILLISECONDS? Kevin Hooper Calgary, Alberta A| Let’s consider GW150914, the first binary black hole merger detected via gravitational waves. The final black hole formed during the merger is 60 times the mass of the Sun, which means that its size is about 124 miles (200 kilometers) across. This is the typical size of the remnants from black hole mergers that we observe through gravitational waves with the Laser Interferometer Gravitationalwave Observatory (LIGO). Now, how is a pulse of light sent by someone falling…

Heard the one about how charging your phone overnight destroys its battery? How about this whopper: Macs can’t get viruses? There’s plenty of fake tech news floating around; each new generation of technology products and services begets even more false beliefs. A lot of those are pretty easy to discredit, but we found a few for this story that might make even our readers do a double-take! It’s possible you’re worried about something that isn’t true—or maybe something that used to be true but isn’t now, as new discoveries and updates cleared up the problem. Go through our list below and see if there’s something you thought was true but, well, isn’t. Then pass on the real deal to your friends, family, and social following, so they won’t fall prey to tech…

You’ll get plenty of sound career advice during your lifetime. Much of it will be valuable, but some of it will come at the wrong time or be the opposite of what you need to hear at that moment. Depending on your immediate needs and long-term desires, good career advice can turn out to be wrong for you. Curious to hear other people’s experiences, I asked around and collected ten pieces of career advice that don’t always hold up. 1. GO WHERE THE MONEY IS There are high-paying jobs, and then there are jobs that come with lower base pay but generous compensation packages that lead to more guaranteed money in the long term—and sometimes a happier life. The classic example: any job with a pension. If you collect a full pension for…

Many photos exist of the airplanes flown by German ace Erich Hartmann during World War II. However, there are no images of the fighter he piloted during the final days of the war in Europe. The Luftwaffe often assigned the latest equipment to its aces, so it’s probable that Hartmann’s fighter wing, JG 52, received Bf 109K-4s as the war wound down. But did Hartmann fly one? Without photographic proof, I based my paint scheme on standard factory appearances and included the black tulip, double chevrons, and Hartmann’s characteristic red heart emblazoned with Usch, his wife Ursula’s nickname. I also included the yellow identification bands used toward the end of the war and seen on other JG 52 fighters. Final Thoughts I ELIMINATED THE WHEEL COVERS, as was often done with K-4s. A…

★★★★★ OUT 30 APRIL (STAR ON DISNEY+) / CINEMAS TBC CERT 12A / 107 MINS DIRECTOR Chloé Zhao CAST Frances McDormand, David Strathairn, Linda May, Swankie PLOT After losing her job in a gypsum mine in Empire, Nevada, having worked there for many years, widowed Fern (McDormand) puts her life in a small van and travels the American West, working odd jobs and sharing experiences with fellow nomads on the fringes of conventional society. IT WOULD HAVE been a huge punt to wager that perhaps the must-see film of 2021 would centre around a 61-year-old woman who shits in a bucket. But Chloé Zhao’s film, built around a quietly stunning performance by Frances McDormand as a traveller living life on the margins, is a miracle of a movie, at once a state-of-a-nation address about a…

Since 1957 every new Harley Sportster has come from the same mould: air-cooled engine with pushrod-actuated valves; tubular steel frame; two exposed rear shocks; low price of entry. Not any more – with the 2021 bike, every one of those criteria is ditched. The new Sportster S features a water-cooled motor with a chain driven four-valve head, a frame that uses the engine as a stressed member, a monoshock rear end, and a starting price of £13,999. After the bold Pan America, it’s another brave bike from Harley. Is it really a Sportster? ‘I do wonder if originally this was going to be something other than a Sportster, because it isn’t one really,’ says Charlie Stockwell, the chief custom builder at Warr’s Harley in London. ‘It’s in the performance-muscle category like the original…

One of the units deployed to the Persian Gulf for Desert Storm was the 174th Tactical Fighter Wing based in Syracuse, N.Y., my childhood home. I had friends whose fathers went to war, and you could sense the worry, even as they tried to act as if it was no big deal. Thankfully, everyone made it back with no casualties. To commemorate the 30th anniversary of Desert Storm, I built a Hasegawa 1/48 scale F-16A in the markings of the 174th commander’s fighter, Spirit of Syracuse, as it appeared during the war. While an older kit, the Hasegawa offering can make a beautiful replica. I did add a couple aftermarket items, but for the most part, what was in the box sufficed. The ordnance loadout was based on what the 174th carried…

Bob’s recent book, Earth-Shattering (Little, Brown and Company, 2019), explores the greatest cataclysms that have shaken the universe. February is official Choose Your Favorite Constellation Month. Well, OK — maybe it’s not exactly official. I just made it up. But with the holidays over, the nights still lengthy, and the deepest cold behind us, let’s join the procession of skygazing poets, philosophers, and science lovers spanning cultures and centuries who have deemed one constellation worthier than the rest. After all, not a single one of them has ever been recorded as saying, “I like all the constellations equally,” because that would be a transparent lie. We all have favorites. Favorite political parties, favorite restaurants, favorite cars. And favorite constellations. Still, picking just one is a tall order. If you’re still deciding, a helpful…

It’s so new you might never have seen one, but now you can have an HO scale sound-equipped Siemens SC-44 Charger on your layout thanks to Bachmann. The Siemens SC-44 Charger is built in California. The first units are in Amtraksupported state and regional service. Chargers have been pulling trains in California (CalTrans, North County Transit District, and San Joaquin Regional Rail Commission), Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, Indiana, Wisconsin (IDOT), Maryland (MARC), and Washington state (WSDOT) since 2017. Amtrak has ordered 75 similar ALC-42 locomotives for its long-distance interstate trains. They’re expected to be delivered in summer 2021. Construction started in March 2020. The SC-44 locomotives are powered by 4,400 hp 16-cylinder Cummins QSK95 diesel engines designed to meet Tier 4 exhaust emissions requirements. The engine powers AC traction motors which can propel…

After leaving Venus in relative neglect for almost three decades, the U.S. and Europe are gearing up to mount a set of robotic expeditions that will give us our most comprehensive view yet of Earth’s acidic sister. On June 2, NASA administrator Bill Nelson announced the agency would send two new missions to Earth’s inner neighbor by 2030. One of them, DAVINCI+, is a probe that will fall through Venus’ atmosphere, sampling its caustic clouds and snapping closeups of its terrain. The other, VERITAS, will study the planet from orbit with state-of-the-art radar and imagers. Eight days after NASA’s statement, the European Space Agency (ESA) announced it had greenlit EnVision, another orbiter that will arrive at Venus in the early 2030s to study both its surface and its oppressive atmosphere. The news thrilled…

SCIENCE IS SUCH A FORWARD-LOOKINGendeavor that it’s all the more rewarding when long, challenging efforts finally come to fruition. And 2022 was a year with many payoffs, as researchers began unlocking the secrets of our solar system’s asteroids and received rich maps of the stars that populate the Milky Way. Excitement reigned as we moved an asteroid from 6.8 million miles (11 million kilometers) away. New and intriguing phenomena popped onto the scene, proving we still have much to understand about our universe. And two groundbreaking stories stole headlines, as we finally glimpsed the monster black hole at the heart of our galaxy and received the first stunningly sharp images from humanity’s most challenging and risky space telescope effort to date. It was also a year for reflection, as landmark missions drew…

Wi-Fi 6 is the consumer-friendly name for the latest 802.11ax wireless tech. It’s up to twice as fast as the previous 802.11ac system (now rebranded as Wi-Fi 5) and it’s been designed to share bandwidth better when multiple devices want to communicate at the same time, which means a smoother experience overall. To get the full benefit of these improvements, you’ll need not only a Wi-Fi 6 router but clients that support the new tech. That includes most laptops and phones produced in the past year, so it won’t be long before Wi-Fi 6 has a significant presence in most people’s homes. Until then, older devices will still work with a Wi-Fi 6 router. They may even get a performance boost, as many Wi-Fi 6 routers use bandwidth maximising techniques such as…

‘Our expectations are to win races… we will be one of the main contenders’ [SUPERSPORT TRIUMPH] The Daytona Returns Well, sort of. This is Triumph’s official British Supersport racer. It could hit World Supersport next year Triumph continue their re-integration into the racing world with this, the new factory-supported British Supersport bike. And if it goes well in 2021, the team will enter World Supersport next year, meaning the factory could come to dominate mid-capacity racing, as they already supply Moto2 with engines. The Supersport bike is, in essence, a mashup of that 765cc, 140bhp Moto2 motor with a standard Street Triple 765 chassis and a sprinkling of high-end components chosen by Performance Technical Racing (PTR), who are running the Dynavolt-sponsored team for Triumph. The riders are Kyle Smith (29, three-time World Supersport race winner)…

昨晚，我跟供應商談價錢，談到半夜兩點！」一位國際筆電大廠台灣分公司的採購人員一臉苦惱：「談到半夜，對方開的價錢還是很硬。」 他負責筆電各類線材的採購，近來銅價大漲，上游供應商給他的線材報價已經跟著調高，「以前，拗一下，上游會願意砍價，這一次，對方毫不鬆口。」他坦言，隨著各種零配件價格攀高，公司內部也開始有調漲產品售價的討論 早自今年一月，美國十年期公債殖利率就開始反映通膨預期一路向上，現在看來，這片烏雲的黑影不但沒有散去，反倒像是從金融市場一路擴散，慢慢地，迫近一般民生消費。 這一片黑壓壓的通膨烏雲有多沉重？場景回到美國，五月十二日，美國勞工部公布了四月分的消費者物價指數（CPI），年增率達四．二％，遠高於三月分的二．六％與市場預估的三．六％，寫下二○○八年九月以來新高。 若考慮去年同期因為封城導致的「低基期」效應，改以月增幅來看，四月CPI月增○．八％，不僅高於三月的○．六％，亦遠超出市場預估的○．二％，創下近十三年最大增幅；若扣除波動較大的「食品」與「能源」品項，月增率更是創一九八一年以來紀錄。一連串的「意料之外」，讓隔日美股開盤各類指數同步重挫。…

After what feels like a lifetime of waiting, Apple has finally unveiled its next-generation MacBook Pro line-up, bringing the power of M1 and stepping it up a gear. The new M1 Pro and M1 Max chips bring Apple’s vision for a world beyond Intel to life, no doubt sparking the interest of creatives around the world. Apple has finally put the Pro back into the MacBook. MINDBLOWING CAPABILITIES There has been much speculation about the new MacBook Pro range, and though Apple took a little longer to give its 14-inch and 16-inch models the same love as the Mac mini and iPad Pro, the wait has undoubtedly been worth it. Rather than putting the standard M1 chip into the new Pro range, Apple has taken things to a whole new level, revolutionizing…

The Windows 11 setup process is similar to that of Windows 10, but there are a few surprises when it comes to account access, privacy, security, and other features. And installing the new OS is only half the battle. Afterward, you have to go through a host of setup screens to customize and configure Windows 11 the way you want it. INITIAL SETUP First, you install Windows 11 via your preferred method—a dedicated PC, a dual-boot system, or a virtual machine. Follow the on-screen instructions to install the OS, at which point the setup screens appear. You’ll be asked to designate your country or region, followed by keyboard layout or input method. Confirm the correct ones and click Yes. The next screen asks if you want to add a second keyboard layout. If…

Bob’s recent book, Earth-Shattering (Little, Brown and Company, 2019), explores the greatest cataclysms that have shaken the universe. With everything that’s happening, we might count on the sky to give us a sense of stability. But maybe we’re asking too much. The Moon, which Shakespeare presciently called “inconstant,” moves 1½ inches (3.8 centimeters) farther from Earth each year. Not worth losing sleep over. But on Mars, the billionaire astronauts may be less sanguine. The largest martian satellite, Phobos, orbits more closely to its planet’s surface than any other moon in the solar system, just 3,700 miles (6,000 kilometers) away. It’s also moving closer at some 6 feet (1.8 meters) per century. This produces ever-increasing tidal stresses on Phobos that are creating worrisome stretch marks. Eventually, it will be torn to pieces so…

JOHNNY LEE SANG ABOUT looking for love in all the wrong places. But unlike the travails of poor Johnny, whose lifetime spent in singles bars yielded no traces of what he was dreaming of, in astronomy, searching for cosmic objects in unexpected locations is no fool’s game. After all, space is big, and a galaxy being in the “wrong place” simply means that an observer might not expect it to be there. It’s really a matter of perspective. For instance, if our Sun were located somewhere else in the Milky Way, even our galactic neighbor, the expansive Andromeda Galaxy, could be entirely hidden from our view, its light blotted out by our own galaxy’s plane of dust, gas, and stars. Galaxies are the building blocks of the cosmos, and they…

OUT 10 FEBRUARY (NETFLIX) CERT 15 / 118 MINS DIRECTOR Paul Greengrass CAST Tom Hanks, Helena Zengel, Elizabeth Marvel, Michael Angelo Covino PLOT 1870 Texas. Ex-infantryman Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd (Hanks) makes a living roaming Dallas telling assembled throngs the news stories of the day. Yet when he runs into orphan Johanna (Zengel), raised by the Kiowa tribe, he takes on the job of returning her to her surviving family in San Antonio. A WORD CLOUD describing filmmaker Paul Greengrass, director of the best Bourne flicks, United 93 and Captain Phillips, would surely include “intense”, “political”, “shakycam” and “immediate”. What you wouldn’t expect to find is “stately”. But for News Of The World, based on the novel by Paulette Giles, Greengrass has made his most stylistically conventional, aesthetically beautiful flick to date, a Western…

Bob’s recent book, Earth-Shattering (Little, Brown and Company, 2019), explores the greatest cataclysms that have shaken the universe. In 1969, Elisabeth Kübler-Ross introduced her five stages of grief experienced by people who are facing life’s tragedies. But those five now-famous stages — denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance — have been overlooked by backyard astronomers. Say you’re an observer in a typical suburban location. You’ve spent a small fortune on a telescope that looks so cool, you gaze at it like it’s a Rembrandt. Tonight, you’ve invited over an old friend you’d like to impress; you’ve heard she owns some mountaintop acreage, and you fantasize she’ll let you build an observatory there. So you aim your telescope at Saturn, arguably the universe’s greatest crowd-pleaser. But to your horror, it’s not there. In its…

How did the Big Bang make you and me possible? Are we alone, and how close are the neighbors? The vast, unexplored cosmos is fertile ground for astronomers’ imaginations. And yet, almost every important discovery came as a surprise. The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), set to launch as soon as November, will attempt to answer these questions — and the ones we don’t even know to ask yet. It will crack open the treasure chest of the magnificent infrared sky, invisible to human eyes. With its great golden 6.5-meter primary mirror and its suite of cameras and spectrometers, the Webb can sense light ranging from the middle of the visible spectrum to the mid-infrared. If there were a bumblebee hovering in space at the distance of the Moon, the Webb…

Venus achieves its greatest brilliancy, dominating the predawn sky all month with its spectacular glow. Mars and Mercury join the dawn chorus of planets, and late in the month Saturn reappears from behind the Sun. With Jupiter heading for conjunction with our star, there are five major planets spanning less than 50° along the ecliptic by the end of February. Let’s start with Jupiter, briefly visible after sunset during these early winter evenings. On Feb. 1, you’ll find the bright planet hanging 10° high in the western sky an hour after sunset. At magnitude –2, it’s bright enough to remain easily visible through the first week of February, and becomes more difficult to spot as the second week progresses. Saturn’s conjunction with the Sun occurs Feb. 4. By the end of the…

I’m a new homeowner, and recently, I ventured to the local big-box hardware store in search of the induction stove of my dreams. As I navigated a maze of gleaming home appliances, a refrigerator with a built-in display caught my eye. Putting aside my initial confusion over the need for a screen and an Alexa connection on an appliance that has only one job, I was surprised to see that the fridge displayed a security-certificate error. The error shown in the photo happens when the common name of the site’s security certificate does not match the domain exactly. For example, if a website doesn’t include a version of its name without “www” in its certificate, you get an error when you try to access the website without it. The fridge is probably…

St. Augustine said of time, “If no one asks me, I know what it is. If I wish to explain to him who asks, I don’t know.” Time is an elusive concept: We all experience it, and yet, the challenge of defining it has tested philosophers and scientists for millennia. It wasn’t until Albert Einstein that we developed a more sophisticated mathematical understanding of time and space that allowed physicists to probe deeper into the connections between them. In their endeavors, physicists also discovered that seeking the origin of time forces us to confront the origins of the universe itself. What exactly is time, and how did it come into being? Did the dimension of time exist from the moment of the Big Bang, or did time emerge as the universe evolved?…

WALLS Dining room in ‘Old White’, £52 for 2.5 litres estate emulsion, from Farrow & Ball. Background in ‘Aquamarine Deep’, £52 for 2.5 litres absolute matt emulsion, from Little Greene Paint & Paper. Forties Italian toleware wall light, £450 a pair, from Shiny Things London. Bespoke garland made from winter ivy, from £25 a metre, from Poppy Sturley. FURNITURE ‘Flora’ birch and mahogany cabinet, by Josef Frank for Svenskt Tenn, £28,000, from Modernity. ‘Ruffelen’ pine extendable dining table, £3,395, from Oka. Early-Victorian painted open arm chairs, by Bertram & Son, £8,950 for 6, from Robert Kime. 19th-century Swedish pine and tapestry fabric side chairs, £1,275 a pair, from Lorfords. ‘Ruhlmann’ oak wine table, £1,680, from Jamb. ACCESSORIES On cabinet ‘World of Wonders’ ceramic 4-pint jug, by Clive Hicks-Jenkins, £195; on dining…

Although it has received a mostly positive response, Windows 11 has also been the target of quite a few barbs—including several from PCMag. Some may disagree with the complaints listed below or consider them insignificant. Others will feel righteous indignation and outrage when they try the new operating system. Some of these qualms have gotten lots of noise, especially on social media and tech news sites. Some are personal peeves. Where appropriate, we debunk complaints that are unjustified or insignificant. But others seem like genuine gripes. Without further ado, let’s launch into our selection of the top complaints users have about Windows 11. 1. Windows 11’s Hardware Requirements Are Too High At launch, much was made of Windows 11’s demanding hardware requirements. This complaint mostly affects those who want to upgrade their…

A half-dozen companies are potentially ready to spend $80 billion for C-Band, a new set of airwaves that promise to fix the perilous state of American 5G, at an FCC auction. That’s a vast amount of money, and it shows how important C-Band is. But what is C-Band, and what does it mean for 5G? Do you need a C-Band phone? Is C-Band a new frequency? Should you be scared of C-Band? I can explain. RECOVERING THE SATELLITES According to wireless testing firm Rohde and Schwarz, the C-band is all frequencies between 4GHz and 8GHz. When US wireless geeks talk about C-Band, though, they’re talking about 3.7GHz to 4.2GHz—and specifically, in this case, the range from 3.7GHz to 3.98GHz. This frequency had been used for satellite TV since the 1970s, but as C-Band…

For years, security researchers have complained about the problems with passwords and dreamed of a better, password-free future. But that glorious dream remains elusive—this clunky, outdated technology is still the best solution we have. PROBLEMATIC PASSWORDS What has made passwords so compelling is that they solve multiple problems simultaneously. A password verifies the identity of an individual, since only the correct person would know the correct password. Requiring a password limits access to files and infrastructure, allowing multiple people with different levels of access to use the same systems. Most important, a password lives outside the computer, safely stored in someone’s head. Unfortunately, passwords have not kept pace with the number of sites and services that require them. In 2018, password manager Dashlane reported that the average person had 150 accounts that required…

Cosmologists are confident the Big Bang accurately describes the universe we see today. But they are less sure of what came before. Stephen Hawking considered this inquiry pointless, like asking “What’s south of the South Pole?” While often conflated, the Big Bang and the origin of time are distinct epochs. But what happened before the Big Bang may have laid the foundations for what came after. The Big Bang theory describes the era starting when the lightest elements were formed — called Big Bang nucleosynthesis (BBN; see “The emergence of matter,” page 18) — until today, where distant objects are receding at great velocities. BBN is currently the last epoch of certainty, the final stage in reverse cosmic history where the underlying forces of nature were similar to physics accessible to modern-day…

If ever an aircraft deserved the nickname aluminum overcast, it would be Convair’s huge B-36 Peacemaker. With a wingspan exceeding that of almost every other aircraft until the recent An-124, the six-engine behemoth went into service with the U.S. Air Force Strategic Air Command in 1948. With B-36 functioning as America’s “big stick” during the early years of the Cold War, its performance was constantly improved with progressive weight-reduction programs, electronic updates, and even the addition of four jets under the wings. Roden’s new Peacemaker, housed in a box with stunning foil-printed Northern Lights artwork is the early B-36B without the underslung jet pods. Included in the box are optional, parts that point to later versions, including a windscreen for the interesting one-off nuclear reactor NB-36H. Decals provide two marking options, but…

“BASICALLY, OUR PRODUCT PLAN IS STOLEN FROM SPACEBALLS,” Tesla CEO Elon Musk said with a smirk when unveiling the 1020-hp Model S Plaid, referring to the 1987 film parody of Star Wars. In that movie, the fastest faster-than-light speed is called ludicrous speed. When the ship Spaceball I reaches that speed, it appears plaid, leading a character to remark in wide-eyed awe, “They’ve gone to plaid.” Both Ludicrous and Plaid have been names for modes in the swiftest Model S variants. Teslas have always been quick, and the company, led by its nerd-in-chief, seems almost equally proficient at pushing inside-joke boundaries and making serious, industry-shifting moves. The Plaid is the result of both, and it absolutely delivers on taking Tesla’s performance to new ridiculous heights. It’s the first Tesla powered by…

It wouldn’t be an iPhone update without at least an incremental update to the camera system on the world’s most powerful smartphone, and this year was no exception. The introduction of the iPhone 13, 13 Pro, and 13 Pro Max unlocks significant new powers for consumers and professionals to capture incredible photography and for the first time, cinema-quality videos. PUTTING THE EYE INTO iPHONE In recent years, Apple’s leaned on its camera systems to sell more iPhones, particularly in ‘lull’ years where there are fewer significant changes and tweaks. Many might consider this year to be one of those - last year’s iPhone 12 range broke records after introducing 5G and an all-new design, and so naturally this year’s release was always going to be a quieter state of affairs. Where Apple…

With rounded corners for all windows, relocated taskbar icons, and more elegant Settings dialogs, Windows 11 is a significant visual refinement of Windows 10. It’s also a free update, which means you’re probably keen to install it on your existing PC. The good news is that if you’re planning to buy a mainstream desktop or laptop or if you’ve bought one in the past four years, it’s probably compatible with Windows 11. But the requirements for the new OS aren’t straightforward. Microsoft made things more confusing with a problematic compatibility checker tool called PC Health Check, which it withdrew just a few days after its release. The PC Health Check app is back and is significantly improve. If it detects any incompatibilities with your PC, it will list them individually. But you…

Nearly 2,500 years ago, the Greek philosopher Democritus first proposed that objects are made of countless indivisible building blocks called atoms (Greek: atomos). However, it wasn’t until about 200 years ago, with the work of English chemist and physicist John Dalton, that the modern idea of atoms was developed. Next came the challenge of learning to identify and distinguish between the various types of atoms. During the 19th century, advancements in spectroscopy — studying light by breaking it down into its constituent components — allowed scientists to discover that specific elements and molecules each have distinct spectral signatures. These signatures reveal themselves through unique combinations of emission and absorption lines (extra light and missing light, respectively) for each element. And by the mid-19th century, shortly after researchers first started classifying elements…

Walter Scott Houston was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on May 30, 1912. He developed a love for physics, optics, and astronomy at an early age. By 12, he had observed all the Messier objects and his love of astronomy had grown into one that would last a lifetime. After college, Scotty — as his countless friends knew him — moved around, teaching in Alabama, Ohio, Kansas, Missouri, and Connecticut. During those years, he landed a contributor role at Sky & Telescope magazine, taking over a column called Deep-Sky Wonders from Leland Copeland in 1946. He would spend the next 48 years educating and enthralling readers, including myself, on the magic of deep-sky observing. I’ve affectionately dubbed us “Scotty disciples.” I met Scotty several times at Stellafane conventions. He was quite the character.…

Astronomy’s experts from around the globe answer your cosmic questions. Q | WHY WILL DAVINCI JETTISON ITS PARACHUTE SO QUICKLY INTO VENUS’ ATMOSPHERE? WON’T THIS RESULT IN LESS TIME TO COLLECT DATA AND IMAGES? Steven Portalupi Newmarket, New Hampshire A | Venus and its massive atmosphere present an incredibly challenging environment for any in situ probe mission. The planet’s surface temperature is approximately 860 degrees Fahrenheit (460 degrees Celsius) thanks to the dense CO2 atmosphere, which also creates a surface pressure 90 times greater than Earth at sea level. Sulfuric acid clouds exist roughly 25 to 43 miles (40 to 70 kilometers) above the surface in a thick layer. When the DAVINCI descent sphere spacecraft (DS) jettisons its main parachute approximately 32 minutes into the descent — around 24 miles (39 km) above the…

SEEING A BRIGHT MILKY WAY flowing across the sky is an experience like no other. And observing many beautiful naked-eye deep-sky objects significantly enhances any astronomical session. Unfortunately, many astronomy clubs have to deal with ever-increasing light pollution in the cities where they live and observe, forcing them to explore alternate locations for observing. We at the Tucson Amateur Astronomy Association (TAAA) are no exception. Over the past 10 years, our club — which comprises almost 500 members — has been busy building a premiere dark-sky site called the Chiricahua Astronomy Complex (CAC). This 16-acre (6.5 hectares) facility lies in the Arizona desert, about 15 miles (24 kilometers) from the Chiricahua National Monument, situated in the plateau between the Chiricahua Mountains to the east and the Dragoon Mountains to the west. With…

MIRA ARKIN Mira er madskribent, opskriftsudvikler og madblogger. Hun bager verdens bedste citronskærekage og vi har overtalt hende til at dele opskriften med os allesammen på side 66. 1. Hvilken dessert vil du bede om til dit sidste måltid? Chokolademousse. Den franske version med æg og uden fløde. Og en ret mørk version. Måske et par virkelig gode hindbær til. Men inden da, har jeg spist verdens største portion spaghetti alle vongole, så det er ikke sikkert, jeg har plads til så stor en portion. 2. Hvem har lært dig at bage? Det har min mor. Hun elsker at bage og spise kager. Hun er meget til klassiske engelske og amerikanske kager som pie, fruit cake, brownies, men også enorme islagkager. Hun kan godt lide at tegne og designe kagernes lag, inden hun går i…

Wondering why you’re hearing a lot about Clubhouse lately? We can partially blame Elon Musk: By popping up in a Clubhouse room in February, the world’s richest man (for now) brought the service a lot of attention. Here’s what you need to know about the exclusive chat app. Okay, so what is it? Here’s the gist: Imagine you have an app on your phone that lets you listen in on other people’s live conversations. But not in a creepy way; these people want to be heard. They may even be interesting or knowledgeable (no guarantee, though). And you may be given the opportunity to join the chat. Think of it as an audio-chat social network. So there are no pictures or video? No, only profile pics for each user. What platforms are supporting the app? Clubhouse…

When I began planning my HO scale layout, one of my main objectives was not just to model a railroad and its related structures, but also to capture the atmosphere of a specific place and time. Several different railroads and regions have interested me, but how could I capture the atmosphere of a place I had never been to or a railroad I had never seen in person? The obvious solution to this dilemma was to model a railroad that I was familiar with, something close to home. I found exactly what I was looking for in the town of Truro, N.S. Truro sits on Canadian National’s main line between Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Moncton, New Brunswick. The town has a mid-size yard that is used by both a local switcher serving…

During Apple’s March launch event and keynote, the company announced a host of products and core technologies, including the Mac Studio compact desktop for content creation pros. Apple also pulled back the veil on its new Studio Display, a 5K Retina-panel monitor for content production and productivity. The key specs on this new midprice 27-inch panel include a peak rated brightness of 600 nits, an anti-glare coating (with the option for an extra-effective one!), a very high-res camera, and six spatial-audio speakers scattered around the housing. The Studio Display starts at $1,599. But note: We said “starts.” (Cue “Uh-ohs!” in the background.) THE MONITOR-STAND MONEY TRAIN Apple watchers surely remember—and many surely lust after—this monitor’s big sibling, the $4,999 Apple Pro Display XDR. It debuted a few years ago. The industry had a field…

WHILE ASTRONOMERS HAVE BEEN EXPLAINING the origin and composition of our Sun’s family of planets for hundreds of years, this story has only come together in the last 30 years or so. Before then, astronomers assumed that planets were born in the location and configuration in which we see them today. The idea of planets moving about while they are forming was only seriously considered once planets in other systems — exoplanets — had actually been found. The hot Jupiters In 1995, astronomers studying the nearby star 51 Pegasi found that it appeared to be wobbling back and forth, movement that revealed itself through a regular pattern of Doppler shifts in its spectrum. The observations suggest that the star is in orbit around a position just slightly offset from its center. By…

FOLLOWING IN THE WAKE OF an unprecedented year, 2021 was certainly filled with ups and downs. The global COVID-19 pandemic continued to challenge the way we do science, even prompting some positive changes that may be here to stay. Astronomers lost a beloved workhorse observatory, but rescued another from the clutches of a computer glitch. The three robotic missions that launched to Mars in 2020 arrived at their destination, kicking off a flurry of exciting firsts. And now, space agencies have chosen another three missions to visit a different neighbor: Venus. Commercial spaceflight companies SpaceX, Virgin Galactic, and Blue Origin continued to turn heads, while China’s space program really picked up. And astronomers have finally laid eyes on several phenomena either long theorized or rarely glimpsed before, deepening our understanding of…

Windows 11 is here. As with every previous mega-update to the desktop operating system of record over the years, the new interface has been met with dissent. It’s no surprise that Twitter is full of outrage over the redesign—and, it must be admitted, some praise, too. The record will show that I’ve never been a hater of new Windows features. I even found things to like in the disastrous Windows 8 release. I was an avid Cortana user, at least while she could still do useful things, such as shut down the PC or control music. But a significant difference is that, at least with Windows 8, Microsoft was creating something original and new. I know that software and all other forms of art borrow from others’ recent work, but the…

Visible to the naked eye Visible with binoculars Visible with a telescope The new year opens with a spectacular array of planets lined up in the western sky soon after sunset. Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn offer nightly fascination. A crescent Moon skips along this line of planets over a few nights early in the month. The inner pair of planets, Mercury and Venus, swaps places in the first week of January. Mercury remains in view through midmonth, while Jupiter and Saturn are visible all month. Uranus and Neptune can be spotted with binoculars, riding high in the southern sky after sunset. Only Mars is missing from the nightly lineup — it’s over in the morning sky, transiting the rich star clouds of the Milky Way. Four major planets crowd the evening twilight sky…

In front of me is a wristwatch. Somehow, it’s floating in the air. It’s shiny, spotless, and seemingly solid. Light reflects across the metal timepiece like it’s on display at a jewelry store, ready to be handled and bought. But then I get closer and try to touch the floating watch. My hand passes through it and feels only air. In reality, I’m staring at a wave of light that’s converging and scattering in mid-air. A display behind the watch is simply beaming the light in a way my eyes can’t help but interpret as real. I’m staring at a hologram, the first of its kind, according to San Jose-based Light Field Lab. The watch is actually an image made up of 2.5 billion pixels. All those pixels are now in…

Q Your project railroads are usually based on L-girder construction. That’s wonderful for a semi-permanent installation, but what about those of us with space considerations? I tried using L-girders with a plywood deck on a 3 x 6 N scale layout. I wanted to suspend it from the ceiling in my garage, which has a nine-foot ceiling, and hoist it up to park cars underneath when not in use. This was a workable solution for a while, but as I added scenery and other items, it became too heavy to lift. After determining that a motorized hoist was not a viable option, I abandoned the project. I’ve been considering using extruded-foam insulation board as the base for a lighter layout, but as rigid as it is, it will still sag.…

Be saw lots of new 8K TVs at CES in January, with some coming from vendors known for making affordable models, such as TCL. That means 2021 is likely to be the year we start seeing 8K TVs hit the market at prices that far more people can realistically consider—we’re talking under five digits! Don’t freak out about replacing your still-new 4K TV just yet, though. 8K AT CES TCL’s announcement that its 2021 6-Series TVs will be entirely 8K is one of the more notable pieces of news from this year’s show, as the 6-Series has long been a PCMag favorite for offering high quality at a reasonable price. That said, TCL hasn’t yet announced pricing for its 6-Series TVs, and it noted that 2020 models will still be available this…

Turn your eyes toward the night sky and you will see a bright, hazy band of light cutting across the sky. For millennia, observers speculated about the Milky Way’s true nature. The Greeks said the streak of haze in the sky was milk spurting from the breast of the goddess Hera, Egyptians thought it was cows’ milk, and some Aboriginal Australians thought it was a river flowing through the sky. Today, we know that we are looking along the plane of our spiral galaxy, consisting of at least 100 billion stars. But understanding the shape of the Milky Way proved elusive up until the 20th century. The problem is we can’t get a bird’s eye view of our galaxy because our solar system is buried within the galaxy. But with the invention…

With the Apple Watch Series 8 and the Apple Watch Ultra, Apple has introduced features designed to help women take charge of their reproductive health. Except in the United States, women are no longer in charge of their reproductive health, and there is a risk that those who now are could get hold of the data from an Apple Watch and use it against women who use these features. At the Apple Event in September, Apple introduced a feature that it said, “takes our commitment to women’s health even further.” The Apple Watch Series 8 and Apple Watch Ultra each have two temperature sensors, one on the back and one below the display. Data from these sensors is added to Apple’s existing Cycle Tracking app to indicate and track ovulation. Users…

Spend enough time online, and eventually, someone will ask you to rate something. In particular, a company might want you to rate it or the products and/or services it provides. It’s entirely likely you’ll be asked to grade these things on a scale of zero to 10, for how highly—or not—you’d recommend them. Such grades are used to create a Net Promoter Score, or NPS. (Net Promoter, Net Promoter Score, and NPS metrics are registered trademarks of NICE Satmetrix, Bain & Company, Inc., and business strategist and author Fred Reichheld.) An NPS tells a company or brand how the general public perceives it. The bigger the number, the more positive feedback the brand has received. All year, in our monthly Readers’ Choice Awards and Business Choice Awards surveys, we ask our readers…

THERE WAS A TIME, possibly before some of you reading this were born, when astroimaging was an ordeal. Imagine a world with manual guiding. You’d spend hours staring at a star centered in an illuminated reticle until your eye teared up or you passed out into the eyepiece from fatigue. The equipment was also heavy and a pain to transport. If you were using a Newtonian reflector, you would be standing on a ladder for hours watching the guide star. Often, after about 30 minutes, the eyepiece’s position would place you uncomfortably between the rungs of the ladder and you would be stuck in this death crouch, clinging to the ladder in the freezing cold, trying to keep the star centered on the crosshairs. As if this wasn’t bad enough, you also…

JANUARY 2023 Long winter nights Early winter sunsets offer nice evening views of the planets, starting with Mercury and Venus. Mercury quickly drops away, only to reappear in the morning sky before the end of the month. Venus is dazzling in the west and later in the month has a close encounter with Saturn, a stunning sight in small telescopes. Mars and Jupiter dominate the evening sky and the Red Planet is occulted by the Moon for observers in the southern U.S. Uranus and Neptune wander among fainter stars but are easy targets for binoculars or small scopes. Let’s begin on the evening of Jan. 1. Mercury is the first planet to set, within an hour of the Sun. Look with binoculars 6° due west of Venus 20 minutes after sunset for magnitude…

IN THE EARLY 1960S, THE MODERNIST MASTER Paul Rudolph, dean of Yale’s School of Architecture (and designer of its famed Brutalist home), rented a small pied-à-terre in an 1867 townhouse on Manhattan’s Beekman Place. In 1976, after the real estate market cratered, he was able to buy up the whole four-story structure, which backs up on the East River. He set about remaking it into his home and studio, a monument to a profoundly idiosyncratic vision. While Rudolph left the elegant facade intact after dressing up the rental units, at the top he cantilevered what may be the most eye-catching addition to any 19th-century building in the city: a jagged multilevel aerie that hangs out over the staid residential enclave. With Plexiglas floors, reflective steel beams, glass walls, and six terraces,…

Over the course of the past century, astronomers and physicists have produced an incredibly rich and detailed account of our universe’s history. In 13.8 billion years, our universe has expanded and transformed from the hot and dense state that we call the Big Bang into the vast cosmos that we find ourselves living in today This picture is not based on mere speculation or theorizing, but is solidly grounded in an enormous body of empirical evidence. We have directly measured how our universe has expanded and evolved over the past several billion years, as well as how galaxies and clusters of galaxies formed. Looking back even further in time, we have scrutinized the light that was released during the formation of the first atoms, only 380,000 years after the Big Bang.…

An outer-planet bonanza is in store this month. Saturn never fails to deliver and is visible in the early evening. Jupiter offers up stunning views, along with a nice series of repeating Europa and Ganymede transits. The distant giants Uranus and Neptune are easy to star-hop to for intriguing sights. And finally, there’s Mars, high in Taurus after midnight in the most favorable apparition in years for Northern Hemisphere observers. It’s closing in rapidly for an early December opposition, yet is closest to Earth on the last day of this month. The ringed planet Saturn lies low (35°) in the southern sky and is best viewed soon after dark. As November opens, Saturn stands 5° north of a First Quarter Moon, both located in eastern Capricornus the Sea Goat. A waxing…

Many amateur astronomers know the familiar thrum of small motors guiding an automated telescope under a tranquil night sky. Powered by a computer within a plastic box attached to the scope, this technology allows for the quick and accurate targeting of thousands of popular celestial objects. It’s almost like having the cosmos in a box. Although it may seem that the ability to use a computer to track the Moon, planets, and stars is a modern development, in reality, it dates back at least two millennia. In what must have been a collaboration between an astronomer-mathematician and a master craftsman, an ancient analog device was built that could track the heavens. Now known as the Antikythera mechanism, its creators designed it to capture the known cosmos in a wood and bronze…

This year marks the 11th time we have examined the universe of astronomical products to find some of the best telescopes, binoculars, and accessories available. Whether you are a veteran observer or a brand-new stargazer, you’ll doubtlessly find items of interest in our 2021 Star Products. Enjoy our preview of these 35 outstanding entries, presented in alphabetical order by manufacturer. Phil Harrington is a contributing editor of Astronomy as well as a dedicated equipment collector. 1 APM HDC XWA 13mm eyepiece From Saarbrücken, Germany, comes APM Telescopes’ new 13mm “x-treme” wide-angle eyepiece. With nine fully multicoated lens elements set in six groups, fully blackened lens edges and spacers, 13mm eye relief, and a cavernous 100° apparent field of view, the HDC XWA will whisk viewers away on a true star trek. The skirted…

You probably know that HP’s Pavilion brand is for consumer PCs priced and positioned below its upscale Envy and Spectre lines. But Pavilion is only the second-lowest rung on HP’s notebook-PC ladder. Its budget laptops have no brand at all, just a generic family name: “HP Laptop.” Take the HP Laptop 14-dq2020nr: It’s every inch an economy model, with just 4GB of RAM and a 128GB solid-state drive—half the memory and storage we consider today’s minimum—but it’s a workable introduction to Windows for those who don’t want to consider a Chromebook. PROS: Surprisingly peppy processor. Good battery life. Fingerprint reader. CONS: Skimpy storage and memory. Lackluster screen. Keyboard isn’t backlit, or overly comfortable. Wireless networking supports Wi-Fi 5, not 6. BOTTOM LINE: If you have less than $500 to spend on a new…

Good health, vibrant energy, clear thinking: That’s what I strive for every day. And I always have. My parents taught me and my siblings positive habits early on, encouraging daily exercise (we walked and rode our bikes, instead of being driven), nutritious eating (no fast food), and proper hygiene for hair and skin. I passed these practices on to my daughter, who now does the same with my grandchildren. I love that Jude and Truman eat a vegetable-forward diet (with very little sugar) and are so active, with sports, swimming, and dance. What’s more, they love it. To feel my best no matter how busy I am, I exercise each morning. Before the pandemic, I worked with a yoga teacher and a trainer, but now I do it alone—and I admit…

MANY ASTRONOMY enthusiasts live under the veil of light pollution, either from local sources like poorly aimed lights on neighboring houses or the enormous light domes enveloping large cities. It can be quite discouraging at first. But it doesn’t mean you can’t be an active observer. Anyone can enjoy wonderful views every clear evening without venturing far from home. You just need to know what telescope is best for you and your location. When it comes to buying a telescope, most people immediately consider their budget. No one wants to spend beyond their means. But for those who live in a city, there are a few other matters to ponder, as well. The most important considerations are ease of use and storage. Unless a telescope is convenient to use, it will quickly…

Visible to the naked eye Visible with binoculars Visible with a telescope Three bright planets are visible every evening in February, and two more can be spotted with binoculars. Venus, Jupiter, and Mars are strung across the western sky after sunset; the first two set earlier, while Mars remains long into the night. The scene is perfect for planetary observers with telescopes, offering plenty of features to enjoy. After Mars sets in the early hours after midnight, you’ll have to wait until the predawn hour to spot Mercury — catch it in the first week of the month for the best views, as it’s just past its greatest elongation from the Sun. We begin with Venus and Jupiter, shining brilliantly in the southwestern sky this month. Standing nearly 29° apart on Feb. 1, watch…

One of the purposes for rebuilding the Jones Island section on our HO scale Milwaukee, Racine & Troy staff layout was to add more rail-served industries. As we selected these new businesses, we realized that our rolling stock fleet was lacking in a few areas, especially tank cars. At the prototype Jones Island, tank cars are used to transport a variety of commodities, including ethanol, canola oil, biodiesel, asphalt, and tar. Though we have ethanol cars for our Wisconsin & Southern layout, they wouldn’t work for the other products shipped and received on the island. In our research, we learned that the Trinity Industries 25,500-gallon tank car was designed to handle vegetable oil, biodiesel, and asphalt, among other products. Atlas Model Railroad Co. offers the car in its Master Line. Fortunately, our…