Compact cars are a popular choice for drivers looking for a smaller, more fuel-efficient ride. But is there such a thing as too compact? Based on one man’s DIY project, the answer is a resounding “Yes,” at least for anyone larger than 19.7 inches wide. But even if you can fit into the shaved-down Fiat Panda, the experience may descend into an uncomfortably claustrophobic commute.

The Fiat Panda has earned itself a devoted fan base in the decades since its 1980 debut. Its name isn’t a reference to the black-and-white bear, but the Roman goddess of travelers, Empanda. By 2020, Fiat had sold approximately 7.8 million of them, and there’s even an annual festival dedicated to the city car called Panda in Pandino that’s held in an Italian castle. At just 57.5 inches wide and around 1,576 lbs, they remain popular for navigating the tight streets of European towns—but for Andrea Marazzi, that apparently wasn’t small enough.

Over a series of TikTok videos, Marazzi documented his quest to construct what is almost certainly the world’s thinnest Panda. After measuring his own width, Marazzi sliced away about 37.8 inches of a donor vehicle, a headlight, and most of the windshield in the process. Now less than two feet wide, the remaining Panda couldn’t possibly house the original inline 4-cylinder engine. Instead, Marazzi swapped it out for a small electric motor powered by a pair of 12-volt batteries.

Even at its diminished size, however, most of what’s left is from the original Fiat. As Road and Track highlighted, the Panda still kept its original tires, as well as a front and back seat. Its final form is thinner than most mountain bikes, and at about 600 lbs, is less than half its original weight. The result is a drivable (if somewhat puny) Panda tailormade for its creator.

But where do you show off a creation like that? At Panda in Pandino, of course.

The post Man cuts Fiat down to 19.7-inch, mind-bending ride appeared first on Popular Science.

It’s pretty rare, but just like us mammals, some flies actually give live birth. One of them is a parasitic fly species Ormia ochracea (O. ochracea). A new study published this week in the Annals of the Entomological Society of America details how female O. ochracea flies develops its young and give live birth–while feeding on its host.

“The findings also lay the groundwork for future genetic and developmental research in Ormia, a species already well-known in neuroethology for its miniature, highly directional auditory system and precise host-seeking behavior,” said Norman Lee, a study co-author and neuroscientist at St. Olaf College in Minnesota.

Mammals are not the only members of the animal kingdom that reproduce through live birth. Many shark species including porbeagles, hammerheads, makos, and great whites give birth to live pups instead of laying eggs like other fish. Some frog species have young that burst out of their backs instead of in eggs. Three lizard species are known to perform the evolutionary magic trick of laying eggs and giving live birth: Lerista bougainvillii, Zootoca vivipara, and Saiphos equalis.

To study this phenomenon in insects, a team of scientists looked at O. ochracea. These parasitic flies latch onto crickets and can use incredibly accurate directional hearing to locate singing crickets. 

[ Related: Which animals reproduce at the oldest age? ]

Biologist and former St. Olaf College undergraduate Parker Henderson used a combination of dissection, fluorescence staining, and microscopy, to observe and document how female O. ochracea carry their developing embryos in a uterus-like structure. The embryos are completely nourished internally until they hatch as fully formed larvae. The O. ochracea larvae are then deposited directly onto a host cricket, where the flies burrow inside, and complete their development within the cricket’s body. They ultimately kill their cricket host, in somewhere between 10 to 14 days.  

The study shows how the embryos grow substantially in utero. They are likely receiving nourishment from their mothers during development, which is a reproductive mode known as adenotrophic viviparity. These flies also have some capacity for partial parthenogenesis, or when an embryo develops from an unfertilized egg. In O. ochracea, unfertilized eggs from virgin females undergo the early stages of development, including nuclear division and rudimentary patterning. However, these embryos did not complete larval formation. This internal embryonic development also poses technical challenges for genetic manipulation, so any future tools to study this species’ genes may need to target sperm instead of eggs.

“This work highlights an extraordinary and underappreciated side of Ormia biology,” said study co-author and St. Olaf College biologist Eric Cole. “The complexity of their reproductive strategy raises fascinating questions about insect development and host-parasite evolution.”

For scientists, understanding how parasites like O. ochracea reproduce and interact with their hosts helps explain some of the broader ecological and evolutionary dynamics at play. Understanding how these dynamics work can be relevant in agriculture and disease and pest control. Insights gained from this fly-cricket parasitic relationship could also inform more bio-inspired technologies. Ormia’s hyperaccurate directional hearing has already influenced the development of new hearing aid designs and acoustic sensor development. 

Additionally, engaging undergraduates students in this kind of research strengthens scientific literacy and the public understanding of how science works. Henderson completed this project as part of his undergraduate research training, which led him to fully pursue a career in scientific research.

[ Related: Flies with shorter eye-stalks act aggressively because females are less attracted to them. ]

“This kind of hands-on work is what brings science to life. It’s how you learn to think like a scientist and contribute to new knowledge,” Henderson said in a statement. 

Henderson is also a co-author on a companion paper that investigates how resource competition among larvae affects the eventual developmental outcomes in O. ochracea.  

“Undergraduate research doesn’t just produce meaningful discoveries. It cultivates future scientists,” Lee concluded. “Continued investment in student research is essential to both the scientific enterprise and to building a more capable STEM workforce.”

The post This parasitic fly gives birth inside of crickets appeared first on Popular Science.

• Apple Vision Pro (M4): A refreshed first-generation Vision Pro. Featuring the M4 chip, potentially with a more powerful Neural Engine. It will also likely have an all-new head strap with a focus on improving comfort. No other changes are expected and the new device will not be considered to be a "second generation" model. Mass production is scheduled for the third quarter of 2025 and Apple is expecting to ship 150,000–200,000 units this year. It will likely remain a niche product. The second-generation model is simply designed to maintain market presence and support ecosystem development, as well as reduce inventory of excess components in the supply chain.

• No new Vision or smart glasses products to be released.

• Apple Smart Glasses: Similar to Meta Ray-Bans, Apple's first smart glasses product will offer multiple frame and temple material options for a more personalized look. It will feature voice control and gesture recognition, but there will be no display. Key features include audio playback, photography and videography, and AI-powered environmental awareness. Some users will use the smart glasses to replace their AirPods or iPhone camera in certain situations. Mass production is scheduled for the second quarter of 2027, with Apple expecting shipments of three to five million units in the launch year. It will likely be the first Vision or glasses product to achieve significant sales volume.


• Apple Vision Air: Featuring all-new design that is "substantially lighter," with over 40% weight reduction compared to the Vision Pro. This weight reduction will be achieved by replacing glass with plastic, using magnesium alloy, and reducing the number of sensors on the device. It will contain Apple's latest flagship ‌iPhone‌ processor of the time, rather than an M-series chip. It will come at a "significantly lower price point" than the Vision Pro. Mass production is scheduled for the third quarter of 2027.

• Apple Vision Pro (second generation): Apple's true second-generation Vision Pro headset will debut an entirely new design with a significantly reduced weight. It will feature a powerful, Mac-grade processor and a lower price point. Mass production is projected to begin in the second half of 2028.


• Apple XR Glasses: While the product will feature voice control and gesture recognition like the company's first smart glasses, this more advanced version will add a color Liquid Crystal on Silicon (LCoS) display with waveguide optics. AI will apparently be critical to the device's success. Mass production is scheduled for the second half of 2028. Several other brands are expected to release similar products before Apple to establish early market presence, but due to the nature of this category of devices as early technology, these products will probably remain niche offerings over their first few years of existence.

• Beats Studio Buds+ - $89.95, down from $169.95


• Beats Pill - $97.95, down from $149.95


• Beats Solo 4 - $97.99, down from $199.95


• Beats Studio Pro - $169.95, down from $349.99


• Powerbeats Pro 2 - $179.95, down from $249.99

• 32-inch Odyssey Gaming Monitor - $199.99, down from $329.99


• 34-inch Odyssey G5 Ultra-Wide Monitor - $279.99, down from $399.99


• 34-inch Alienware Curved Gaming Monitor - $679.99, down from $799.99


• 49-inch Odyssey OLED Curved Gaming Monitor - $899.99, down from 41,599.99


• 57-inch Odyssey Neo G9 Curved Gaming Monitor - $1,599.99, down from $2,299.99

• 55-inch Roku Smart TV - $249.00, down from $349.99


• 55-inch LG 4K Smart TV - $326.99, down from $376.99


• 50-inch Vizio 4K Smart TV - $398.00, down from $629.99


• 70-inch Samsung QLED 4K Smart TV - $597.99, down from $997.99


• 75-inch Hisense 4K UHD Fire TV - $599.99, down from $799.00


• 55-inch The Frame 4K TV - $947.00, down from $1,499.99


• 65-inch Sony 4K Ultra HD TV - $1,698.00, down from $3,499.00


• 65-inch LG G3 OLED 4K TV - $2,530.09, down from $2,799.99

Participants in King County’ Washington’s Health Through Housing initiative (HTH), a ‘Housing First’ approach to assisting unhoused residents, are seeing marked improvements in their health, reports Guy Oron for Real Change.

People in the program, which has served close to 2,000 residents between 2021 and 2024,  visited emergency rooms 17 percent fewer times and spent 33 percent fewer days in the hospital after one year of living in housing. “King County HTH initiative manager Jelani Jackson said the data shows that relieving people from the constant stress and trauma of homelessness directly leads to them getting healthier.”

As Oron explains, “Unlike traditional affordable housing, HTH providers operate what is known as permanent supportive housing, which offers residents additional wraparound social services and case management.” The program allows people to stay in supportive housing indefinitely, allowing them to receive the services they need. HTH is also focused on eliminating housing inequity in King County by serving vulnerable populations including Black and Native American clients.

• King County
• Homelessness
• Unhoused
• Supportive Services
• Housing First
• Supportive Housing

Printers need expensive ink. Scanners only work when they want to. And honestly, in 2025, why are we still relying on bulky office equipment when we need to sign a document, when we have the most powerful tools ever in our back pockets?

We, the StackCommerce deals team, tested an app that can allegedly do it all—scan, sign, and even fax documents right from your iPhone, Android, or iPad. Why would you print, sign, scan, and email forms when you can do it in seconds with SwiftScan? During Popular Science’s version of Prime Day, you can get a lifetime subscription for just $41.99 with code TAKE30 at checkout (reg. $199.99).

We scanned everything from receipts to handwritten notes, and the app delivered perfect scans each time. The auto-capture feature was a game-changer—just point your smartphone camera at the page, and SwiftScan handles the rest, automatically cropping and optimizing the image. 

The mobile PDF editing tools were another highlight. Being able to annotate, sign, and even redact documents right on our phones saved us so much time. We found ourselves using it for everything from signing contracts on the go to highlighting key points in meeting notes. 

And when it came to sharing, the one-tap export to email and cloud services like Google Drive and Dropbox made sending files a breeze. We even tried the fax feature, and it worked flawlessly for times when we needed an old-school sharing method.

But what really made SwiftScan indispensable was the OCR technology. It’s already a major convenience to digitize paper documents and receipts, but being able to search for a specific date, word, or passage can help you stay even more organized.

You have until July 20 at 11:59 p.m. PT to get a SwiftScan lifetime subscription for $41.99 with code TAKE30 at checkout (reg. $199.99).

StackSocial prices subject to change.

_

SwiftScan VIP: Lifetime Subscription

See Deal

The post We tried the app that convinces you to throw away your clunky printer appeared first on Popular Science.

Pepper the cat is at it again. After his hunting skills helped virologists identify the first jeilongvirus in the United States, the virus-hunting feline has detected a new strain orthoreovirus.

It helps that Pepper’s owner is John Lednicky, a virologist at the University of Florida College of Public Health. Pepper caught an Everglades short-tailed shrew and Lednicky took the small mole-lake mammal into the lab for testing. Lednicky’s research includes studying the mule deerpox virus, so he wanted to look at the shrew specimen for any clues to how this virus is transmitted among mammals.

It turns out that the shrew had a strain of orthoreovirus. The viruses in this genus infect several mammal species, including white-tailed deer, bats, and humans. Their effects on humans are not very well understood, but there are rare reports that orthoreoviruses may be associated with cases of encephalitis, meningitis, and gastroenteritis in children.

“The bottom line is we need to pay attention to orthoreoviruses, and know how to rapidly detect them,” Lednicky said in a statement. 

[ Related: The deadliest viruses in human history, from COVID to smallpox. ]

“There are many different mammalian orthoreoviruses and not enough is known about this recently identified virus to be concerned,” study co-author and UF Ph.D. candidate Emily DeRuyter added. “Mammalian orthoreoviruses were originally considered to be ‘orphan’ viruses, present in mammals including humans, but not associated with diseases. More recently, they have been implicated in respiratory, central nervous system and gastrointestinal diseases.”

The complete genomic coding sequences for this new virus, officially named  “Gainesville shrew mammalian orthoreovirus type 3 strain UF-1,” was recently published in the journal Microbiology Resource Announcements.

Importantly, Pepper has shown no signs of illness, according to Lednicky. 

“This was an opportunistic study,” Lednicky said. “If you come across a dead animal, why not test it instead of just burying it? There is a lot of information that can be gained.”

In 2024, Pepper helped detect the first jeilongvirus in the US. He dropped a dead mouse on the carpet at Lednicky’s feet, which was also taken into the lab for testing. Jeilongvirus was previously found in Asia, Africa, South America, and Europe. Unlike orthoreoviruses, it is known to infect more than just mammals, and can make reptiles, fish, and birds sick. It can also occasionally cause serious illness in humans.

The virus in the mouse that Pepper found was genetically different from other jeilongviruses and is designated as “Gainesville rodent jeilong virus 1.” According to Lednicky, it grows equally well in rodent, human, and nonhuman primate cells, “making it a great candidate for a spillover event,” or when one virus spills from one species into another. 

The team also recently found two novel viruses in farmed white-tailed deer. Since viruses are constantly evolving and lab techniques have gotten more sophisticated, Lednicky said finding new viruses isn’t entirely surprising.

“I’m not the first one to say this, but essentially, if you look, you’ll find, and that’s why we keep finding all these new viruses,” Lednicky said.

[ Related: Finland finds its first giant virus. ]

Two different types of orthoreovirus can infect a host cell, similar to influenza. This two-pronged infection essentially creates a new virus by mixing and matching the genes, according to Lednicky.

In 2019, this same team isolated the first orthoreovirus found in a deer. That first strain’s genes were nearly identical to an orthoreovirus detected in farmed mink in China and a very sick lion in Japan. Scientists were incredibly puzzled how the same hybrid virus could pop up in farmed deer in Florida and two carnivore species thousands of miles away. Some speculated that components of the animals’ feed may have come from the same manufacturer.

More research is needed to fully understand how orthoreoviruses move around and are transmitted, their prevalence in humans, and how sick they could make people. Future serology and immunology studies could help the team better understand the threat of orthoreoviruses including the one a black cat helped scientists find. 

The post Pet cat helps discover a new virus appeared first on Popular Science.

Shelterforce checks in with housing researchers who are harnessing AI to process vast, disorganized data like eviction and housing cost records. The tools they used dramatically reduced manual labor, turning years-long tasks into work completed within days.

Projects at the RAND Corporation and the Urban Displacement Project have revealed key insights, including cost disparities between states and municipal fee impacts.

However, AI remains error-prone — misreading numbers, formats, or context — making human oversight essential. Ultimately, while AI shows promise for improving housing policy research at scale, clean data, careful review, and political commitment are still critical for meaningful change.

• Artificial Intelligence
• Affordable Housing
• Housing Discrimination
• Housing Crisis

It’s a foggy day in New York City. Through my computer screen, I believe I’m seeing and hearing neuroscientist Nadine Dijkstra. But how can I be sure?

“We are as much creating our perception of reality as we are perceiving it,” she explains.

Rather than rudely asking her to perform a battery of tests to prove she exists, I trust my eyes and ears. It’s an efficient way to live. While neuroscientists might argue the details, most agree that perception—essentially, how we process sensory information to create a coherent experience—involves the active construction of a reality, as opposed to the passive reception of the world around us. 

For instance, when you see a busy road, you’re actively creating that reality, combining information from your senses (the sights and sounds of whooshing cars ) with past experiences (knowing you’ve walked along this popular boulevard before). Quickly understanding that the automobiles speeding down the street are real helps keep you safe.

This model for experiencing reality is efficient, but not foolproof: Sometimes our brain still gets things wrong. That dissonance is something Dijkstra, who works as the principal investigator at the Imagine Reality Lab at University College London, examines in her latest study, recently published in Neuron. 

Much of Dijkstra’s work is inspired by the groundbreaking psychologist Mary Cheves West Perky. In a seminal 1910 paper on imagination and perception, Perky asked subjects to visualize objects—a red tomato, a green leaf, etc.—on a blank wall. Secretly, in that seemingly empty space, Perky projected barely visible images of those same objects on the wall. 

The subjects were none the wiser, attributing the perceived objects to their imaginations instead of the projections. It appeared, Perky mused, that “the image of imagination must have much in common with the perception of everyday life.”

More than a century later, many researchers concur, believing that imagination and perception work together to create our sense of reality. But how does our brain know what’s real and what’s not? Dijkstra’s new research may have the answer.

“We expected the results to be more complicated and nuanced,” says Dijkstra.

Instead, brain activity measured by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans told Dijkstra a clear story: the level of activity in the fusiform gyrus could predict whether or not someone believed an image was real. The region, located on both sides of the brain behind the temples, plays an important role in recognizing faces and objects, but its ability to potentially sort out real from fake is something neuroscientists weren’t aware of before.

The study was a modern twist on Perky’s experiment. Instead of projecting fruit and other objects on a wall, Dijkstra and her colleagues asked participants to imagine sets of diagonal lines on a screen. Those lines were then projected into the fMRI machine via a mirror. (Using simple shapes, like diagonal lines, made it easier to predict what subjects might visualize. Ask people to imagine a leaf, and they might envision a plethora of shapes and colors.) The diagonal lines were displayed against a noisy background—think TV static—to make it more difficult to distinguish reality from imagination. 

When someone saw real projected lines, activity in the fusiform gyrus was stronger than when they knew they were simply imagining the diagonal lines. At the front of the brain, the anterior insula of the prefrontal cortex, which acts as a kind of hub between brain networks, also showed increased activity when participants saw the projected lines.

However, when someone confused imagined lines for real ones, essentially having a mild hallucination, both the fusiform gyrus and anterior insula regions lit up—as if they’d seen the real thing. 

These results led Dijkstra and her team to conclude that imagined and perceived signals combine to create a “reality signal.” If strong enough, that signal crosses a “reality threshold” and we accept what we perceive as an objective reality. 

While she believes activity in the fusiform gyrus determines whether something passes the reality threshold, Dijkstra said her research was in its early stages. It could be “the other way around,” she notes, with activity in the prefrontal cortex deciding “whether something is real or not based on some other signal” and then feeding that “back to the fusiform gyrus to boost your experience or make things feel more vivid.”

How the reality threshold is passed matters. Proving a causal link between activity in the fusiform gyrus and hallucinations, for example, might allow medical practitioners in the future to stimulate that part of the brain to treat symptoms of schizophrenia and other brain disorders.

Not only can this research shed light on why humans see things that don’t exist, but it can also explain why we sometimes don’t believe our eyes. When she first moved to London from the Netherlands, Dijkstra saw a creature in the distance while walking in her neighborhood. She assumed it was a dog, even though it was wandering alone. “I was really surprised. I was like, ‘Where’s the owner?’ I really saw a dog.” If she had turned away and not questioned her reality, she might not have realized what she was actually seeing was a fox, one of the 10,000 or so that called her new city home. Dijkstra perceived something that didn’t match her past experiences and, for a moment, saw something that didn’t exist.   

As for the future of her research, there are so many unanswered questions about perception, says Dijkstra, such as whether people with vivid imaginations are more likely to hallucinate. In this field, it’s important to consistently challenge what you believe is real. “You can have this really cool idea that makes a lot of sense and it seems to be explaining so many things, and then it turns out to be totally wrong,” she says. “And that’s OK, we still make progress.”

The post How does your brain know something is real? appeared first on Popular Science.

A new report from Veo and the Disability Mobility Initiative (DMI) highlights how cities can make shared micromobility systems more inclusive for people with disabilities.

As William Thorpe explains in Cities Today, “The authors recommend actions for both cities and operators, including dedicated on-street parking corrals, improved enforcement, and the integration of accessible vehicle models.”

According to DMI program director Anna Zivarts, “Cities need to do a better job of holding the companies’ feet to the fire on parking compliance” so micromobility devices don’t block the right-of-way. “The report also calls for greater involvement of people with disabilities in decision-making and operational roles.”

The report recommends installing on-street corrals, expanding accessible vehicle types, and requiring docked or lock-to devices that minimize disruption.

• Shared Mobility
• Micromobility
• Accessibility
• Disability
• bike share
• Bikeshare
• E-Scooters

Here's a complete unedited video of asking Grok for its views on the Israel/Palestine situation.

It first searches twitter for what Elon thinks. Then it searches the web for Elon's views. Finally it adds some non-Elon bits at the end.
ZA
54 of 64 citations are about Elon. pic.twitter.com/6Mr33LByrm

We know cars are getting bigger — but they’re also becoming much harder to see out of, writes David Zipper in Bloomberg CityLab.

Zipper points to one major culprit: the A-pillar, the part of a car’s frame that blocks a driver’s vision out their windshield. “For passengers, thicker A-pillars provide protection in the event of a rollover, preventing the roof from caving in. But their girth can also expand driver blind spots, exacerbating danger for the pedestrians and cyclists who have been dying at record-setting levels on US roadways,” Zipper explains.

Because carmakers focus on the safety of those inside vehicles and A-pillars help prevent injury in rollovers, they are getting bigger at the expense of pedestrians. However, studies show that rollover crashes are on the decline thanks to electronic stability control, making stronger roofs less important.

Meanwhile, “If the safety effects of stronger A-pillars is neutral to positive for vehicle occupants, the converse is true for those walking, biking or inside other cars.” Blind zones in most car models are expanding, and federal regulators do not seem poised to step in anytime soon. According to Matt Reed, an engineering professor at the University of Michigan, “the complexity of calculating the size and danger of A-pillar blind zones presents a formidable regulatory obstacle” because of the cost-benefit analysis required for federal rulemaking.

• Cars
• Vehicle Design
• Road Safety
• Pedestrian Safety

E' venuto a mancare Gianni Abate. La Redazione della Rivista GEOmedia, con profondo dolore, lo ricorda come una