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Media Platforms Design TeamImagine walking into a field chock full of fireflies, flashing simultaneously like synchronized Christmas lights. Scenes like this really happen every summer in the Great Smoky Mountains, home to the firefly species . Individual males fly around flashing a species-specific pattern, trying to draw response flashes from females. But what makes unique is that they flash in unison with their peers, rhythmically lighting up the entire fields. Photinus carolinusP....

Media Platforms Design TeamUntil about a decade ago, most people in the United States only knew about bedbugs through the seemingly dated phrase “Sleep tight, don’t let the bedbugs bite.” But the bloodsucking parasites, which were largely eradicated by the mid-20th century, have roared back in all 50 states, and the bugs’ evolving resistance to insecticides is part of the reason for their resurgence. A new study gives the most complete picture so far of the adaptations some bedbugs have developed to thwart exterminators’ poisons....

Media Platforms Design TeamFor years, anyone driving through Grapevine, Texas, just north of Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, has needed patience–and a knack for navigating the maze of underpasses and off-speed merging lanes that make up the city’s notorious “Grapevine funnel.” That may change over the next five years, with an influx of funding provided by the $787.2 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), which sets aside up to $135 billion for infrastructure projects....

Math is magic, according to a new YouTube video depicting the Kruskal count.Brain teasers and magic tricks help bring math to relatable real life even for the mathphobic.The Kruskal count is a probability for a deck of cards and a certainty for a clockface done in English.YouTuber Kevin Lieber (who hosts the popular Vsauce2 series) has brought a classic math magic trick back from its ‘90s heyday. In the video, Lieber walks viewers through a magic trick where they choose a number on a clock face, then trace around the clock by spelling out their numbers....

Two years ago, a group of scientists made an exciting announcement: They had discovered the first moon orbiting a planet around another star, a.k.a. the “exomoon.” Data from the Kepler Space Telescope indicated that the planet Kepler-1625b had a moon around it, and that was later backed up by observations from the Hubble telescope.At least that’s what we thought at the time. But new research by a different group of scientists indicates that perhaps this exomoon might not exist after all....

In 2009, NASA attempted to launch a weather satellite into space. Unfortunately, the rocket’s fairing failed to open and the launch failed. Now, a decade later, we finally know why: NASA says that its contractor for the fairing, Sapa Profiles, committed extensive metals fraud.Sapa Profiles was contracted to manufacture parts for the fairings on two NASA satellite launches—the one in 2009 and another failed launch in 2011. These parts needed to be made of a highly specific aluminum alloy that met rigorous standards for strength and durability, and according to a recent court plea, the company did not do that....

Alright, so you’ve done the subscription meal services, fresh fruits veggies and meats delivered straight to your door. Maybe you even get razors, toothbrushes, vinyl records, even underwear delivered at a regular clip, whether through Birchbox or Stitch Fix. But what about outdoor gear? Well Cairn is trying to fill this gap, and they’re putting together a pretty great lineup. The service delivers boxes full of useful outdoor gear to your house every month, and each box costs no more than $30....

Cadillac’s new CT6 sedan arriving later this year is a huge deal for the company. Along with replacing the awkwardly positioned XTS in the carmaker’s lineup, the full-size RWD sedan is meant to further establish Caddy’s presence in the luxury performance market by taking direct aim at its extra-large competition—specifically the BMW 7-Series, Audi A8, and Mercedes-Benz S-Class.To that end, Cadillac developed a whole new lightweight platform for the car that the company says is one of the most advanced its ever built....

Forging ahead with plans to have robots do “dull, dangerous and dirty” jobs, the U.S. Marine Corps used a 3D printer to create a barracks building out of concrete. The process, which took less than two days, created a hardened living space capable of resisting enemy fire, a real improvement over canvas and nylon tents.The U.S. Marine Corps moves around a lot, deploying worldwide, often to dusty, remote locations for months at a time....

Few people remember today, but before President Kennedy made his famous call in 1961 to land on the Moon by the end of the decade, the lunar surface wasn’t NASA’s intended destination. Instead, NASA had envisioned an Earth-orbiting space station as its first big goal. And while space station ideas can be traced back all the way to the 19th century, NASA’s Atlas Orbital System design of the late 1950s was probably the first technically sound idea based primarily on available technology....

2009 Mercedes-Benz A-ClassMedia Platforms Design TeamTo many, it’s an open question as to whether Mercedes-Benz should even be in the minicar business. And the original terribly built, terrible driving A-Class (introduced back in 1997) didn’t help make the case for such a small car. But the A-Class is updated for 2009 and it’s now the sort of car that may well make sense for a newly fuel-conscious America.While the A-Class is as boxy as other hatchbacks in its class, it manages to be distinctive because this tiniest of Benzes carries traditional Mercedes styling cues....

I have a weird idea. I want to put a Kindle in space. Not literally (or for literature)—instead, I want to take the technology of a Kindle’s E Ink screen and put it on the side of a spacecraft to help control temperature and maybe even do some basic navigation. It might be crazy. It could be brilliant. But space is tough. Satellites cost tens to hundreds of millions of dollars, have to operate for years, and must be reliable, since there’s no way to fix them in space....

WindFloat Atlantic is the world’s largest offshore wind turbine on a floating platform.The first of these wind farm units was set up on the Portuguese coast of Viana do Castelo on New Year’s Eve, when it first connected to the energy grid.Wind turbines like these are expected to better take advantage of renewable wind resources found out in the deep sea than traditional offshore wind farms.For nearly 30 years, the world has been collecting renewable wind energy by installing giant wind turbines off shorelines, anchored to the sea floor....

Make/Model: 1989 Audi 200 QuattroOwner: Darko SarićLocation: South Burlington, VermontPurchase Price: $10,000Found at: Imported Car Center Auto SportYears Owned: 23I left Bosnia in 1993, and the first car I bought in America was an Audi 4000S. I loved it, but I wanted a Quattro, which was more rare. Three years later, I found this 200.It was a great daily driver. It has a galvanized body, with a factory rubberized coating underneath....

When a massive star explodes, one of two things happens. Its core compacts into a space no bigger than a city, creating an ultra-dense object called a neutron star, or it or collapses entirely into a black hole from which nothing can escape.The star’s fate seemed like and either-or proposition. But maybe that’s wrong, according to a group of Italian researchers who just published a Physical Review Letters paper. You can thank the weird world of quantum physics....

A co-pilot on a regional Chinese flight found himself in a horrifying position. He was sucked halfway out of the airplane’s rapidly depressurizing cockpit. Fortunately he survived mostly unharmed. As reported by Chengdu Economic Daily, Captain Liu Chuanjian and the rest of the Airbus A319 were flying from the southern city of Chongqing to Tibet’s capital, Lhasa. During the flight, right as the airplane had hit its cruising altitude of 32,000 feet, a blisteringly loud noise deafened the pilots....

A new DARPA-developed contact lens acts like a sort of high-tech bifocal, allowing users to focus in on objects by winking their right eye. It can be turned off by winking their left.The device is aimed at sufferers of macular degeneration, which affects vision in the center of the eye, by using the wearer’s peripheral vision to bring objects more into focus. The super-lens allows for 2.8x magnification. A pair of liquid crystal glasses accompanies the lenses, allowing for differences in polarized light....

Germany, a major pioneer of submarine warfare, finds itself with its entire submarine fleet out of action. All six of the country’s Type 212A attack submarines are out of commission, and the reasons stretch from an underfunded defense establishment to a shortage of sailors. The total absence of any usable u-boats, a key capability as Russia continues to intimidate Germany’s NATO allies, calls into question Berlin’s commitment to defense.Germany has six Type 212A diesel electric attack submarines....

Stretching more than 2,190 miles across 14 different states, the Appalachian Trail may be the best long-distance hiking route in the entire world. Each year, three million people trek at least a portion of the trail, with just a fraction of those walking its entire length. Those “thru-hikers” learn a lot during the early days of their journey, and most will tell you there is no way to fully prepare for the challenge of walking the AT end to end other than just doing it....

There’s nothing quite like cooking food over an open flame. The techniques are simple, cleanup is easy, and grilled food tastes amazing. Use this guide as a primer to get started, and pick up some recipes from Delish when you are ready to start grilling.1. Choose a GrillGrilling purists agree charcoal provides the most flavorful meals, but the convenience and speed of gas grills has made them far and away the most popular choice for home grills....