Rural hospitals across the United States are struggling to keep their labor and delivery departments open, putting safe birth care more than an hour away for many rural women.

As Anna Claire Vollers explains in the Maine Morning Star, over 100 hospitals in 26 states have closed their L&D departments since 2020, according to a report from the Center for Healthcare Quality & Payment Reform. Today, less than 1,000 rural hospitals offer labor and delivery services.

“Staffing shortages, low Medicaid reimbursement payments and declining birth rates have contributed to the closures. Some states have responded by changing how Medicaid funds are spent, by allowing the opening of freestanding birth centers, or by encouraging urban-based obstetricians to open satellite clinics in rural areas.” This leads to women giving birth in emergency rooms, a lack of adequate prenatal care, and an increase in preterm births.

Because L&D units must have staff on call 24/7, they are “expensive and complicated”  to maintain. “In most cases, insurers don’t pay hospitals to maintain that standby capacity; they’re paid per birth. Hospitals cover their losses on obstetrics with revenue they get from more lucrative services.” For rural hospitals with low numbers of births, the cost is sometimes too much to cover.

Proposed cuts to Medicaid could make the situation worse, despite the Trump administration’s other efforts to promote higher birth rates.

• Hospitals
• Births
• Healthcare
• women
• Children
• Labor & Delivery

Drivers in Nepal are adopting electric vehicles at breakneck speed, with 65 percent of new cars sold in that country last year being electric.

As Adele Peters explains in Fast Company, the rapid growth is thanks to radically reduced import duties and excise taxes on EVs, which dropped the purchase cost for consumers. “After someone owns an EV, it’s also cheaper to operate than a gas or diesel vehicle. That’s true anywhere, but especially in Nepal, where fuel is imported and expensive.”

Electric three-wheeled vehicles known as tempos, which gained early popularity in the 1990s, are making a comeback. Kathmandu, the capital, is also investing in a fleet of electric buses, which cost around 33 times less to charge than the cost of fuel for a gas-powered bus.

The shift helps the nation achieve its Paris Agreement goal of reaching 90 percent adoption of EVs for private four-wheeled vehicles by 2030, which will help curb air pollution in Kathmandu, where the city’s mountainous geography traps pollutants.

• Nepal
• Electric Cars
• Electric Vehicles
• Climate Change
• Carbon Emissions

Washington, D.C. is removing plastic delineators and concrete barriers from a protected bike lane in Northwest Washington, citing low usage and the aesthetics of the posts, reports Rachel Weiner in The Washington Post.

For now, the poles and concrete barriers have been replaced with plastic barrels. But the city’s intention is to take those away once the rest of the two-way lane is removed and to replace it with painted bike lanes on either side of the street.

This marks the first time the city has removed protected bike lanes, causing concern among bike safety advocates that the move is a first step in a backlash to hard-won bike infrastructure. Significantly, “U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy has frozen all federal grants involving cycling, recently calling bike lanes in congested areas ‘a problem,’” Weiner notes.

Tricia Duncan, an advisory neighborhood commissioner in the area, told The Washington Post that “They are sacrificing safety for aesthetics,” noting that the plan for the lanes came out of “hundreds of hours” of community engagement and planning. “Supporters of the lanes agree they don’t get much through-traffic, but that they were suggested by DDOT in part because of a long-awaited connection to the Capital Crescent Trail that is finally moving forward.”

• Bike Lanes
• Protected Bike Lanes
• Bike Infrastructure
• Road Safety

A growing share of new housing units in U.S. cities are ‘micro-apartments’ that measure under 441 square feet, according to a report by Mary Salmonsen in Smart Cities Dive. Cities with the highest percentage of micro-apartments in the pipeline include Seattle (66 percent), Boston (56.2 percent), and Newark (49.8 percent).

The growth of micro-apartments is due in part to the housing crisis and recent zoning changes made by cities to accommodate higher density and more housing. “Seattle’s wave of new micro-housing construction coincides with zoning reforms passed in 2024 that permit micro-apartments in all areas zoned for multifamily housing, according to the StorageCafe report.”

As far as existing housing goes, San Francisco has the highest share of micro-apartments, at 14 percent of its apartment inventory. Today, 28 percent of the city’s pipeline is small units. “Out of the top 10 cities with the largest share of micro-apartments, seven are located in the West, with only one — Philadelphia — on the East Coast.”

• Micro Apartments
• Small Houses
• Small Apartments
• Housing Supply
• Density

• Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone X through iPhone 14 Pro have a stainless steel frame. The back of the devices will supposedly have a new "part-aluminum, part-glass" design.


• Rectangular camera bump: iPhone 17 Pro models are expected to have a large rectangular camera bump with rounded corners. Apple apparently plans to stick with a triangular arrangement for the rear camera lenses.


• Sky Blue finish: Like the latest MacBook Air, the iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to be available in a Sky Blue color.


• Larger battery: The iPhone 17 Pro Max is rumored to have a slightly thicker design that allows for a larger battery.


• A19 Pro chip: iPhone 17 Pro models are expected to use Apple's next-generation A19 Pro chip, which will reportedly be manufactured with TSMC's newer third-generation 3nm process. Like usual, expect modest year-over-year performance gains and power efficiency improvements compared to the current iPhones.


• Apple-designed Wi-Fi 7 chip: All four iPhone 17 models are rumored to get a Wi-Fi 7 chip designed by Apple rather than Broadcom.


• 24-megapixel front camera: All four iPhone 17 models are said to feature an upgraded 24-megapixel front-facing camera, whereas all iPhone 16 models are equipped with a 12-megapixel front-facing camera.


• 48-megapixel rear Telephoto camera: An upgraded 48-megapixel Telephoto camera is rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models, up from the 12-megapixel Telephoto camera on iPhone 16 Pro models.


• Dual video recording: According to Jon Prosser, of the YouTube channel Front Page Tech, the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max will allow users to record video with the front and rear cameras simultaneously in the Camera app.


• 8K video recording: Apple allegedly tested 8K video recording on the iPhone 16 Pro models, but such functionality is still not available. With the iPhone 17 Pro models expected to have entirely 48-megapixel rear cameras, perhaps 8K video recording will debut on those devices.


• 12GB of RAM: iPhone 17 Pro models, and even the iPhone 17 Air, are rumored to have 12GB of RAM. This upgrade should help to improve the performance of Apple Intelligence and multitasking. All four iPhone 16 models have 8GB of RAM.


• Improved cooling: All four iPhone 17 models are rumored to feature internal design changes that result in better heat dissipation. A vapor chamber cooling system has been rumored for the Pro models.

Television’s broadcast debut in 1936 unfolded like a plot made for the medium itself—complete with bitter competition, intrigue, celebration, and devastating setbacks. The story reached its climax when a fire at London’s Crystal Palace destroyed parts of television inventor John Logie Baird’s research laboratory on November 30, 1936. The timing could not have been worse. Baird was locked in a high-stakes showdown with his deep-pocketed rival, Electric and Musical Industries (EMI), who had partnered with wireless pioneer Guglielmo Marconi and the American radio giant RCA-Victor.

Long before that fateful November day, the television landscape was crowded with inventors competing for the title to the as-yet unproven but promising medium. Despite his eventual defeat, Baird deserves credit for achieving the first wireless transmission of a moving image, as Popular Science writer Newton Burke reported in June 1925. The discrepancy between Baird’s early success and later failure came down to a classic confrontation between old and new tech: Where Baird succeeded with mechanical television systems, he struggled to master the new and more efficient electronic technology.

Despite its mechanical design, Baird’s primitive television system was revolutionary for its time. Though it consisted of unwieldy components too impractical for commercial success, Burke noted that it successfully “transmitted the motions of a human face, winking and smiling, from one room of a laboratory to another, without the aid of photography or wires.” The transmitted image was so crude that Baird’s photographic evidence resembled the white hockey mask favored by serial killer Jason Voorhees in Friday the 13th films. Yet Burke recognized its significance, writing, “The fact remains that the outline of the face is plain, so are the shadows of the eye sockets and the shape of the open mouth.”

Baird’s achievement, while novel, built upon decades of previous work. His system incorporated ideas from Maurice LeBlanc, an engineer from France who published the first principles of television transmission systems in 1880’s “Etude sur la transmission électrique des impressions lumineuses,” or “Study on the electrical transmission of light impressions.” LeBlanc’s design was part of a six-volume engineering compilation devoted to the advent of electric lights, La Lumière Electrique, as reported by Popular Science in June 1882.

Baird also drew from the work of German inventor Paul Nipkow, who had developed an “electric telescope”—a pair of spinning discs capable of scanning still images and transmitting them through electric wires, which he patented in 1885. Meanwhile, Charles Jenkins, a Washington, D.C.-based contemporary, achieved the first synchronized video and audio transmission on June 13th, 1925, though his system only handled still pictures rather than motion.

Understanding Baird’s mechanical system helps explain both its breakthrough nature and ultimate limitations. His apparatus used a rapidly revolving disk equipped with lenses that focused light from the subject onto a selenium cell. This cell converted the light impulses into electrical signals suitable for radio transmission—crucial because radio waves were the only practical distribution medium available at the time. A synchronized receiving disk with a ground-glass screen then reconstructed the image.

As Burke explained, “The images received on his ground-glass screen are described as being made up of exceedingly fine lines of varying darkness.” However, the width of these lines and their flicker rate were constrained by the physical limitations of the mechanical apparatus—problems that would require electronic solutions to overcome.

While Baird perfected his mechanical approach, gradually improving display resolution from 30 to 240 lines by 1936—today’s displays are measured in pixels, 8K being the latest generation—other inventors pursued electronic television systems using cathode rays to scan and project images. This technological shift created one of the most bitter patent battles in broadcasting history. Philo Farnsworth, a farm boy from Utah, and Vladimir Zworykin, a Russian émigré who fled during the Russian Revolution, each claimed first rights.

While Farnsworth was officially awarded the first electronic television system patent in 1930, Zworykin had filed the first U.S. patent in 1923. Their rivalry sparked a long and rancorous legal showdown between Farnsworth and RCA, who had hired Zworykin to build America’s first broadcast television system, the National Broadcasting Company (NBC), which debuted at the 1939 New York World’s Fair. 

In the years before NBC’s American debut, the center of television development was London, where the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) sought to upgrade beyond Baird’s crude broadcasts that had been running for nearly a decade. Recognizing an opportunity to accelerate progress, the BBC commissioned a head-to-head competition in 1936 between rival systems.

Baird’s team collaborated with Farnsworth to create a hybrid mechanical-electronic system, while EMI partnered with Marconi for transmission technology and RCA to leverage Zworykin’s electronic innovations. (By then the patent dispute had been settled, with RCA paying royalties to Farnsworth.) Both teams would broadcast identical programming from London’s Alexandra Palace, allowing direct comparison of their capabilities.

Even before the Crystal Palace fire, Baird faced an uphill battle. His system couldn’t match EMI’s superior 405-line resolution or transmission range. The devastating fire that destroyed his laboratory equipment proved to be the final setback. Shortly afterward, Baird abandoned his television work altogether.

John Logie Baird, the first person to wirelessly broadcast moving pictures, died in 1946 without any financial stake in what would become one of the 20th century’s most profitable industries. His mechanical breakthrough had paved the way for the electronic systems that would dominate broadcasting, but the rapid pace of technological change left him behind.

The post 100 years ago, the battle for television raged appeared first on Popular Science.

Merino wool is a magical material. It’s a natural fiber that feels super soft, dries quickly, and fiercely resists stink. Unfortunately, it’s also typically very pricy. These Darn Tough socks typically cost $24 per pair, and while they’re worth it as a splurge, you can get them for less than $7 right now during REI’s clearance. If you’re going to do any running, hiking, or anything that involves spending lots of time on your feet this summer, this is worth grabbing.

Darn Tough

It’s hard to overstate how much of an upgrade merino wool socks are compared to the crummy cotton stuff you get at a big box store. Darn Tough’s Number 2 socks offer medium cushioning under your foot to augment your shoe’s sole. They’re truly seamless, so there’s no extra fabric to rub against your toes as you walk. The merino wool material naturally resists bad smells and dries exceptionally quickly. Most importantly the wool material won’t chafe against your skin like cotton or polyester will.

This is a micro crew style sock, which means it comes up the shin a bit, but not as far as a typical crew. That means it will still give you the coverage you need to wear hiking boots, but it won’t make you look like a total nerd when worn with sneakers.

If you order a pair, I recommend picking up several. They may spoil you for other socks and they’re pretty expensive when they’re full-price.

• Darn Tough Light Hiker Micro Crew Socks – Men’s $8 (was $25)
• Darn Tough Hiker Boot Sock Cushion Socks – Men’s $11.83 (was $25)
• Light Hiker Quarter Lightweight Hiking Socks – Men’s $9.83 (was $23)
• Darn Tough Heady Stripe Micro Crew Hiking Socks – Men’s $9.93 (was $20)
• Smartwool Hike Great Excursion Print Crew Socks $15.73 (was $25)
• Sunset Ridge Micro Crew Lightweight Hiking Socks – Men’s $6.83 (was $24)
• Darn Tough Van Grizzle Boot Cushion Socks – Men’s $12.93 (was $29)
• REI Norseland Merino Wool Crew Socks – Seconds – 2 Pairs $23.73 (was $33.90)
• Darn Tough Light Hiker Micro Crew Socks – Women’s $9.83 (was $21)
• REI Flash Merino Wool Lightweight Crew Socks $14 (was $20)
• Smartwool Everyday Popcorn Cable Crew Socks – Women’s $20.73 (was $28)
• Smartwool Ski Targeted Cushion Pattern Over The Calf Socks – Women’s $21.73 (was $30)
• Classic Hike Full Cushion Second Cut Socks – Women’s $16.73 (was $23)
• Darn Tough RFL Thermolite Ultralight Ski and Snowboard Socks – Men’s $17.93 (was $27)
• Smartwool Trail Run Targeted Cushion Reflections Print Crew Socks $20.73 (was $28)

The post These Darn Tough merino wool socks are usually $24, but they’re just $6.83 right now at REI appeared first on Popular Science.

Scientists have taken a major step toward the ambitious global goal of “redefining the second” by the end of this decade. A study published this week details how researchers from six different countries simultaneously compared measurements from 10 optical clocks—an advanced form of timekeeping that is up to 100 times more accurate than the best cesium clocks, which are currently used as the global standard.

The measurements amount to the largest coordinated comparison of optical clocks to date, and significantly reduced the uncertainty between measurements reported in previous studies. This also means that optical clocks are closer than ever to becoming the new standard for timekeeping, a shift that could have a massive ripple effect on everything from meteorology to our understanding of fundamental physics. 

Researchers say the findings support “the advance toward a redefinition of the second and the use of optical standards for international time scales.”

In a nutshell, optical clocks are incredibly accurate instruments that measure the frequency of atoms after they’ve been excited by lasers. The atoms are first cooled to near absolute zero, then lasers are used to detect their vibrations. Those vibrations are called frequency ratios. This precise frequency then corresponds to the “tick” of a second. Scientists believe this method yields far more accurate results than the cesium atomic clocks, which have been the global standard for the past five decades. For context, researchers say an optical clock would not gain or lose a second for billions of years. In fact, New Scientist estimates you could wait the current age of the universe four times over, and an optical clock would still be off by less than a minute. Compare that to a typical wristwatch, which can drift over just a few months.

Optical clocks are incredibly precise, but they are also highly complex. There are just around 100 of them in existence worldwide, largely because they are difficult to build, operate, and maintain—they are also susceptible to breakage. Comparing them against each other is notoriously challenging. Different clocks measure the frequencies of different types of atoms, each with its own unique frequency. This means the only way to establish a consistent, highly precise standard is to directly compare the clocks with one another. That’s where these most recent findings come in.

Researchers from Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the UK, and Japan collaborated on a European-led project called ROCIT to compare 10 different clocks. The measurements were conducted over a 45-day period in 2022. In the past, smaller-scale optical clock comparisons relied on satellite links to measure differences, but this study used both satellite links and fiber optic cables. That’s important because it allows for more accurate measurements.

“Comparing multiple clocks at the same time and using more than one type of link technology provides far more information than the mostly pairwise clock comparisons that have been carried out to date,” VTT MIKES meteorology research center senior scientist Thomas Lindvall said in a statement. 

Related: [Refining the clock’s second takes time—and lasers]

The fiber optic cables spanned thousands of miles across Europe, allowing researchers to connect the frequency outputs of the various clocks. They accounted for signal noise and other limitations of the instruments during the process. In total, the comparison produced 38 different frequency ratios measured simultaneously, four of them for the first time. The remaining ratios were measured with greater accuracy than ever before, according to the researchers.

“These measurements provide critical information about what work is still needed for optical clocks to achieve the precision and reliability required for use in international timekeeping,” Instituto Nazionale Di Ricerca Metrologica (INRiM) senior researcher Marco Pizzocaro said in a statement. “Our experiment also showed how optical clocks across Europe can be linked to measure frequency ratios with state-of-the-art precision.”

Although more comparisons are needed before optical clocks can officially become the global standard, researchers are optimistic about the future. The benefits go beyond just improved timekeeping. More precise measurements could help scientists test Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity with greater accuracy and offer new insights into the still-mysterious concept of dark matter.

At the same time, scientists are also making headway on entirely new “nuclear clocks” that might make opticals look like relics. Last year, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) said they were close to completing a nuclear clock prototype that focuses on vibrations, not from a single atom, but from a single nucleus. 

“Imagine a wristwatch that wouldn’t lose a second even if you left it running for billions of years,” NIST and JILA physicist Jun Ye said last year following news of the prototype. “While we’re not quite there yet, this research brings us closer to that level of precision.”

The post Scientists are redefining time itself, starting with the second appeared first on Popular Science.