Their winter survival trick is a months-long power-save mode--and scientists think it could help humans, too. This bear woke up like this. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. For many animals that live in cold climates, winter means low-power mode. But no creature is more tied to the image of a long, cozy winter than hibernating bears all snuggled up in their dens.

Humans aren't built for the cold, but have survived frigid temperatures in some amazing cases. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. Winter is not for the faint of heart. In New York City, skyscrapers turn Manhattan into a series of freezing wind tunnels. In Sapporo, Japan, the snowfall is almost 200 inches each winter. Even so, humans have developed plenty of clever ways to wait out the cold. But what would happen if instead of bundling up inside with a hot chocolate, you were left in the frigid cold--just how cold can humans get and recover?

In some remarkable cases, people have survived after their core temperature has plummeted into the 50s. The human body needs to maintain the same internal body temperature or else many vital systems fall apart. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. Whether you prefer sweltering summers or frigid winters, significant temperature changes mean only one thing to your body: bad news. Humans are homeotherms, meaning that our core body temperature stays roughly constant.

The gloomy arguments in favor of solar geoengineering are compelling; so are the even gloomier counter-arguments. Stardust is the name of a small startup with enormous ambitions. The company, which is based in Israel and registered in Delaware, proposes to do nothing less than dim the sun. Its business plan is modelled on volcanoes. In a major eruption, millions of tons of sulfur dioxide get thrown up into the stratosphere.

Amazon Prime Day is live. See the best deals HERE. More importantly, it could help preserve life-saving cancer medications. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. Freezer burn is bad enough when it comes to ice cream, but the tiny, jagged ice crystals pose problems for much bigger issues than ruining your dessert.

Heat pumps can save you about $370 per year and are good for the planet. Heat pumps date back to the 1850s and are more energy efficient than furnaces or boilers. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. Colder weather is quickly approaching, which means it's time for many folks to start cranking up the heat in their homes and apartments. But for many Americans, heating up their homes is a costly affair-and it's only getting more expensive.

Sign up for the Slatest to get the most insightful analysis, criticism, and advice out there, delivered to your inbox daily. Summer just started, and the first significant heat wave of the season is almost over. Some 265 million people across the Midwest and the eastern United States have experienced a week of temperatures in the 90s and triple digits, with a slew of all-time records set on Tuesday. While extreme heat waves can be caused by any number of factors, this particular one is thanks to a phenomenon called a heat dome: a ridge of atmospheric pressure that settles over a region like, well, a dome. Or, as the National Weather Service's Alex Lamers so wonderfully described it to NPR, think of it as a lid placed over a grilled cheese, which, as we all know, makes the cheese melt much faster.

The machine is designed to inspect industrial sites, respond to disasters, carry out logistics operations and support scientific research. Deep Robotics, a company from China, has unveiled a durable four-legged robot built to operate in extreme environments that humans struggle to traverse. It's called the Lynx M20, and it builds upon the agility of its predecessor, the Lynx robot dog. This versatile machine is designed to handle anything from inspecting industrial sites and responding to disasters to carrying out logistics operations and supporting scientific research. Here's what you need to know.

To keep global temperatures from rising more than 1.5 degrees Celsius, we need to cut emissions in half by 2035--even as we will likely hit another record for burning fossil fuels this year. Still, the brilliant engineering demonstrated in this year's winning projects provides hope that we can rise to the challenge. A new kind of thermal battery will allow us to decarbonize the heat that powers the industrial processes behind everything from cement to chemicals. Newly inexpensive lasers are helping turn ore into pure iron for steelmaking using renewable electricity. Food challenges have generated different types of innovation: Instead of hauling agricultural waste to decompose in the dump, why not create a harvester-style robot that can process it into carbon-sequestering, soil-enriching biochar? To fight pests, a technique called mRNA interference allows bioengineers to create a precision poison for a particularly troublesome beetle.

In 1988, we launched the Best of What's New Awards. The original list highlighted "the very things that make our lives more comfortable, more rewarding, more exciting, and more fun," to quote then-Publisher Grant A. Burnett. Now, in 2024, we continue our decades-old tradition of honoring big ideas. We even see hints of our original honorees in this year's list: Sea-Doo and Ford made both lists, 36 years apart. We're proud to bring you promising innovations--from things that make life at home easier to literal out-of-this-world explorations. This is the Best of What's New 2024. Had you asked me at the beginning of 2024 what our best gadgets list would look like, I'd have guessed it would be filled with quirky AI-driven devices like the rabbit R1 or the Humane Ai Pin. "Now with AI" is a phrase that has dominated consumer electronics in the 2020s. These devices promised unadulterated access to the power of neural networks in ways that would seamlessly integrate into our lives without relying on phones or smart fridges. Then, the devices came out. The software is slow and buggy, and the hardware is clunky. Maybe the stand-alone AI device will still have its year, and we'll look back and chuckle at these humble beginnings. In reality, 2024's big breakthrough came from Apple in the form of its long-rumored Vision Pro headset. The device has its own hurdles to clear, but after just a few minutes of using it, it was clear that it's something different, important, and honestly pretty amazing. The list also includes Sony's innovative pro-grade camera, the most accessible drone we've ever used, and a no-fun phone--no fun in a good way, of course. Credible rumors of Apple's VR bounced around the gadget blogs and tech sites for nearly a decade. It was consumer tech's sasquatch in that people claimed to have seen it, but no one knew if it even existed. Then, the Vision Pro emerged from the proverbial forest in February with a surprising design and a massive 3,500 price tag. It also came toting a new R-series chip and a dedicated OS meant for spatial computing.