Dogs have been trained to detect a dozen human diseases—most recently, malaria—but even these pups may ultimately find their jobs replaced by machines.
The Singular Joy of the Dumb, Fun Slasher-Movie Threequel, From ‘Halloween III’ to ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street 3’
The threequel is often the most interesting installment of a long-running horror series, an attempt to break away from its predecessors—no matter how ridiculously.
Bigger = better: Big bees fly better in hotter temps than smaller ones do
Larger tropical stingless bees fly better in hot conditions than smaller bees do and larger size may help certain species better tolerate high body temperatures. The findings run contrary to the temperature-size ‘rule,’ which suggests that insects that rely on the external environment to control their temperature are larger in cold climates and smaller in hot ones.
Drugs’ side effects in lungs ‘more widespread than thought’
A systematic review of research has revealed that the toxic effects on the lung of drugs commonly taken to treat a range of common conditions is much more widespread than thought.
Consequences-focused cognitive training may promote healthier habits
Interventions aimed at reducing unhealthy behaviors often focus on retraining people’s mental associations, but a series of studies suggests that showing people the consequences of the behaviors may be more effective.
We’ve Been Talking About Self-Driving Car Safety All Wrong
Forget miles driven and disengagements. It’s time for a new framework. We just need to figure out what that looks like.
Fallout 76 on the Nintendo Switch isn’t ‘doable’, says Bethesda
It appears that one platform Fallout 76 won’t appear on is the Nintendo Switch. The game was first announced back in June for the Xbox One, PS4, and PC, but during a panel at an Australian convention this weekend, Bethesda executive Pete Hines noted that while the studio considered the console, it just “wasn’t doable.”
During the panel, Hines said that the Switch “is part of every conversation with dev we have now about what we’re doing going forward because we consider it to be a viable platform,” but indicated that Fallout 76 wouldn’t be ported over.
The studio has thrown its weight behind the Switch, releasing ports for games like Skyrim, Doom, and Wolfenstein II. According to GameSpot, Hines indicated that “the next Wolfenstein”…
China’s first attempt to reach orbit with a private space company failed
China’s first attempt to reach orbit via a private launch company failed yesterday. On Beijing-based startup LandSpace attempted the first launch of its three-stage Zhuque-1 rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Gobi desert, and while the rocket successfully lifted off, it failed to reach orbit.
In a post to Chinese microblogging site Weibo (via The Financial Times), LandSpace says that while the launch was successful, an error occurred during the third stage, and the rocket failed to reach orbit. Despite that setback, the company hailed the flight as a success: it pointed to the fact that the first two stages performed as expected, and said that it was the first private space firm in China to obtain a rocket launch…
Midnight Scenes are the perfect Halloween weekend bite-sized games
It can be difficult to find time to finish a video game, especially if you only have a few hours a week to play. In our biweekly column Short Play we suggest video games that can be started and finished in a weekend.
Midnight Scenes is a series of short, spooky games that feels like an interactive take on The Twilight Zone. Developed by Octavi Navarro, who also made The Librarian, the games capture the feel of the TV series with the same iconic black-and-white aesthetic and similar settings and stories. More importantly, the same creepiness and tension that made The Twilight Zone so influential also permeate both games.
The first episode, called “The Highway,” was released last September. It follows Claire, a young woman driving along…
What to expect at Apple’s October hardware event
Apple may have announced a whole slew of new hardware in September, but the Cupertino company isn’t done yet: Apple has a second event on Tuesday, October 30th, where it’s expected to announce new iPad Pros, an updated MacBook Air, and more.
Here’s everything we’re expecting to see:
New iPad Pros
The main star of Tuesday’s event is expected to be a pair of new iPad Pros, which are getting completely overhauled with a new design. It’s the iPad equivalent of the jump Apple made with the iPhone X last year.
The new iPad Pros are said to get new, edge-to-edge screens similar to Apple’s newest iPhones, removing the home button / Touch ID sensor in favor of swiping gesture for navigation and a Face ID scanner. Additionally, Apple is said to…