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Smart technology is all over the place. Humans can ask Alexa to play a favorite song, program a robot to vacuum a room, or send a drone to deliver a package. And soon, we may be able to wear robotic clothing—shirts and pants with smart technology.

Scientists, computer programmers, and clothing designers are teaming up to create smart clothing with a variety of capabilities. The idea is that, rather than just keep us warm, clothing could help our bodies work better.

In 2018, for example, a group of scientists invented a pair of pants with electrical pumps rooted in the fabric. The technology monitors the movement of the wearer to determine when to go into action. The pumps send air into small tubes to help the wearer—possibly someone who is elderly or disabled—do things like get up from a chair.

Jonathan Rossiter, a professor of robotics at the University of Bristol in England, helped develop the technology. “We have developed [pants with] lightweight bubble artificial muscles, which could help people to stand up or to lift objects,” Rossiter told The Guardian.

In Australia, researchers recently developed another smart textile (fabric). In this case, robotic threads were knitted into regular cloth. The threads, which contain fluid-filled tubes, can be programmed to move and even lift wearers who are up to 192 times their weight. The technology has a lot of potential uses, but some scientists envision creating “smart suits” that could be worn to help improve a person’s strength and mobility. 

“Like the Iron Man suit or Spiderman suit,” said lead scientist Thanh Nho Do, comparing such a suit to costumes worn by Marvel Comics superheroes. 

These developments are only the beginning, scientists say. They expect to develop a variety of smart clothing to improve mobility, track people’s vital signs, and more.

Will smart clothing ever make superheroes out of ordinary people? Stay tuned.

A team of scientists is working to bring the Tasmanian tiger species back from the dead. The species, which is also known as the thylacine, has been extinct since the 1930s.

The Tasmanian tiger got its name from the stripes that ran across part of its back. The animal’s head looked like a dog or a wolf, and its body was roughly as large as a medium-sized dog. But while it resembled a canine, the Tasmanian tiger was actually a marsupial. The female carried a litter of young in a pouch on her body until they were about halfway to adulthood. 

Originally, the Tasmanian tiger was found in both Australia and on a nearby island called Tasmania. The species disappeared from mainland Australia at least 2,000 years ago. Scientists aren’t sure why, but they believe changes in climate affected Australia’s thylacine population. The Tasmanian tiger continued to thrive on Tasmania for hundreds of years, playing an important role as the island’s apex (top) marsupial predator. But by the 1800s, humans were blaming the Tasmanian tiger for killing their livestock. They hunted the species to extinction.  

Bringing back the Tasmanian tiger won’t be easy. Scientists will need to figure out the animal’s genome—a map of its DNA—and compare it with the genome of its closest living relative, a mouse-sized marsupial called the fat-tailed dunnart. They plan to take cells of the fat-tailed dunnart and change the DNA of these cells so that they more closely resemble thylacine cells. Scientists would then “build” a Tasmanian tiger from these cells. Because the cells would originate from a different species, the newly created Tasmanian tigers wouldn’t be exactly the same as the extinct species. 

You can never be sure exactly what’s going on under the surface. Scientists on the island of Borneo discovered this when they found a previously unknown species of pitcher plant, a type of plant that’s carnivorous (meat-eating). This newly discovered species, which is called Nepenthes pudica, captures its prey underground.

Pitcher plants have “pitchers” that are open at the top and contain sweet fluid. The fluid attracts insects and other small prey—even rodents, in some cases. These animals climb into the pitcher to get a drink but can’t climb back up its smooth, slippery surface. Instead, they fall into the fluid, where they’re digested by the plant. Most such plants grow their pitchers above ground, but Nepenthes pudica is different because its pitchers are underground. 

The scientists discovered Nepenthes pudica by accident. They noticed leaves that they recognized as belonging to a pitcher plant but didn’t see any pitchers—at first. Then they spotted what looked like a damaged pitcher sticking out of the soil. When one of the scientists moved away surrounding moss, he exposed the pitchers and realized they had been growing under the moss.

Nepenthes pudica is the first known underground pitcher plant. There are more than 700 known carnivorous plants. A few of them catch their prey underground. But those other underground meat eaters aren’t pitcher plants. Their traps are small, so their prey is tiny or even microscopic.

Nepenthes pudica’s pitchers, which are up to 4.3 inches (10.9 centimeters) long, trap larger bugs that live underground, including ants, beetles, and mites. Peering into one of the pitchers, scientists found mosquito larvae, nematodes, and a previously unknown worm species.

The U.S. Congress recently passed the most significant climate law in the nation’s history. The legislation is set to reduce U.S. carbon emissions at a time when the effects of climate change have become uncomfortably clear.

The law is called the Inflation Reduction Act. (The name comes from other parts of the legislation that aim to lower costs for health care and energy, among other things.) It will devote nearly $370 billion to reducing carbon emissions—the human-made pollution that is the biggest contributor to climate change. The goal is to get Americans to reduce their use of fossil fuels to power their homes, workplaces, and vehicles.

The law creates tax credits and rebates for companies and individuals who invest in renewable energy technology—things like solar panels, wind turbines, and electric vehicles. That means that those who switch to renewable energy will pay less in taxes. 

The law also contains other climate protection measures. For example, it devotes funding to installing energy-efficient technology at industrial sites. Money will also be used to restore forests, which help to lessen the effects of climate change. In addition, fossil fuel companies will be required to pay fees when they produce excess pollution. And communities that are being heavily impacted by pollution will receive funding for clean-up efforts.

Experts say the new law is set to reduce carbon emissions by 40 percent from their 2005 peak by the year 2030. 

Reactions to the law have been mixed. Some critics say it costs too much money, while others say it does not go far enough to address the climate crisis. But supporters say that, in a year when the effects of climate change have led to droughts, floods, and heat waves, any action is important.

“It’s so important that we do this, and the benefits are still likely to be so much larger than the costs,” Samantha Gross, director of the Energy Security and Climate Initiative at Brookings told the Associated Press. “This is still unquestionably the right thing to do.”

President Biden signed the bill into law on August 16, 2022.

Bill Russell, a basketball legend who helped the Boston Celtics win 11 National Basketball Association (NBA) titles, has died. He was 88.

Russell had an incredible career as both a player and a coach. As a student at the University of San Francisco, he led his team to 55 straight wins, won two National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) championships, and won a gold medal at the 1956 Olympics. The same year he wowed at the Olympics, Russell was drafted by the Boston Celtics. Playing as a center, he was a defensive whiz and a renowned rebounder. It’s no accident that Russell was on the team during one of the eras when the Celtics dominated the NBA. The Celts won the championship every year between 1959 and 1966. In 1966, Russell became head coach of the Celtics—the first Black head coach in any of the nation’s four major sports leagues. He continued to play until 1969, leading the team to two more championships.

Although he was a hero to many, Russell was also the target of racist attacks. When Russell began his NBA career, racial segregation was legal in the southern United States. In 1961, while in Kentucky for a game, Russell was told he wouldn’t be served at a hotel coffee shop because he was Black. He and four other players informed their coach that they would not play in that night’s game and flew home. 

But life wasn’t necessarily easier in the North. Russell’s house in Massachusetts was burglarized and repeatedly vandalized with racial slurs. 

“We’ve got to show our disapproval of this treatment or else [nothing will change],” Russell once said. “We have the same rights and privileges as anyone else and deserve to be treated accordingly.”

A vocal supporter of civil rights, Russell was in attendance when Martin Luther King, Jr., led a famous civil rights protest known as the March on Washington. He also spoke out against school segregation in Boston, which persisted into the 1970s.

Russell spent the later part of his career as a commentator, an author, and a basketball icon. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, and many other players who came after Russell have said they consider him to be a hero.

“Bill Russell was a pioneer—as a player, as a champion, as the NBA’s first Black head coach and as an activist,” Michael Jordan wrote after Russell’s death was announced. “The world has lost a legend.”

Do you ever wish you could sleep later in the morning? Some students in California will be able to hit the snooze button a few times, thanks to a new state law.

The legislation says California middle schools can’t begin the school day before 8 a.m. and high schools can’t start before 8:30 a.m. This is the first law of its kind to pass, although lawmakers in New Jersey and Massachusetts are considering similar legislation.

Why start the school day later? According to experts, teenagers need more sleep than adults do, and their bodies are wired to stay up later compared to people in other age groups. That can make it hard for teens to wake up and be alert in the early hours of the day. Experts say letting teens sleep later leads to less sleep deprivation, which can lead to better grades and improved mood. The American Academy of Pediatrics currently recommends that middle schools and high schools start at 8:30 a.m. or later. 

“It really is in those first early morning hours that children are just essentially half asleep,” said Matthew Walker, a professor of neuroscience at the University of California, Berkeley, in an interview with NPR. “They’re not absorbing information. So why are we putting them in the classroom?”

Similar laws have been proposed in other states over the years, but none of them passed. Such laws face opposition from people who argue that later school start times would disrupt scheduling for things like school buses and after-school activities. (If the school day starts later, then activities might need to run later too.) Opponents also say parents might find it difficult to make sure their kids get to school at that later time while they themselves are trying to get ready for work.

The California law will test these concerns…and whether students will benefit from snoozing a little later. It will go into effect for the 2022–2023 school year.

If you live in the Northern Hemisphere, chances are you’ve been experiencing a very hot summer. Extreme heat has gripped parts of North America, Asia, and Europe—even in places where summers are normally mild. 

One country where the temperature has soared is the United Kingdom (U.K.). In July, parts of the U.K. experienced several days with temperatures higher than 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 degrees Celsius). At the peak of the heat wave, on July 19, 2022, some areas reached just over 104 degrees Fahrenheit (40 degrees Celsius). This was the hottest temperature ever recorded in the U.K. 

Summer temperatures regularly get into the 90s and even climb above 100 degrees in parts of the U.S. and other countries. But hot weather is not the norm in the U.K., where summer high temperatures average in the 60s and 70s Fahrenheit (teens and 20s Celsius). As a result, the country’s structures aren’t built to withstand high temperatures. As the heat wave of 2022 continued, asphalt and concrete expanded and buckled, forcing officials to close roads and airport runways. 

U.K. government officials urged people to stay home, warning them that being outdoors for too long could be dangerous. But being indoors did not necessarily bring relief. Only about 5 percent of homes in the U.K. are air conditioned. Some people found refuge at shopping centers and offices, many of which are air conditioned. 

Recent heat waves have caused chaos even in places that are more accustomed to high temperatures. In Chongqing, China, for example, unusually high temperatures caused the roof of a museum to begin to melt. In Fort Worth, Texas, heat combined with a lack of rain caused the ground to shift, leading to water main breaks, which is when pipes carrying city water supplies crack. In parts of Europe, hot and dry conditions led to destructive wildfires.

Will next summer be cooler? It’s hard to say. 

While extreme heat waves used to be unusual, scientists say that’s no longer true. Climate change is changing everything. In July, the World Health Organization (WHO) said that as global temperatures rise, heat waves, along with other extreme weather, will become increasingly common. Scientists are concerned about the effect that high temperatures will have on agriculture as well as human health.

“The best solution to this will be…being very ambitious on tackling the causes of this global warming,” said Dr. María Neira, director of the Department of Public Health and Environment at the WHO.

The James Webb Space Telescope has just begun its mission, but scientists say it is already changing the way we see the universe. Webb can detect infrared light, which the human eye can’t see, so it’s capable of giving us detailed images from deep space. Recently, the telescope released its first images…showing us parts of our universe that, until recently, have been mostly a mystery. 

One of the images revealed the Southern Ring Nebula, which is 2,500 light-years away from Earth. A nebula is a cloud made up of swirling dust and gases. It’s often the result of a dying star. Webb’s image of the Southern Ring Nebula shows that star, looking relatively hazy in the center of the nebula. The image also includes a brighter star that’s at an earlier stage of its life cycle and will one day eject its own nebula. 

New stars can form in nebulae, and Webb captured what scientists call a “stellar nursery”—a place where many stars are born. The image is of a region of the Carina Nebula, located 7,600 light-years away from our planet. It shows countless twinkling lights in and around a beautiful cloud of dust. NASA calls this region the Cosmic Cliffs because the dust cloud has taken on the shape of mountains and valleys. The stars in the Carina Nebula look tiny in the image, but NASA says many of them are much larger than our Sun. 

Another image shows a group of five galaxies known as Stephan’s Quintet. Four of these galaxies, which are located 290 million light-years away, are moving (as everything in the universe does) and interacting. When galaxies interact, it can result in the formation of new stars and new galaxies. The  image from Webb is giving scientists a front-row seat to witness this “cosmic dance,” as NASA calls it.

These amazing images are just the beginning. Webb could operate for as many as 20 years, plenty of time to provide detailed views of exoplanets (planets outside our solar system) as well as some of the oldest galaxies. Scientists can’t even predict everything Webb will show them.

“The universe has [always] been out there,” said Jane Rigby, Webb operations project scientist at NASA. “We just had to build a telescope to go see what was there.” 

July 19 is the anniversary of the first day of the Seneca Falls Convention, which took place in 1848 in Seneca Falls, New York. The event, organized by activists Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott, aimed to expand women’s rights in the United States.

Although the United States was founded under the ideal that “all men are created equal,” Stanton, Mott, and other activists knew this wasn’t the reality. Only white men had guaranteed rights. Other Americans did not. This was especially true for enslaved Black Americans. The law did not even consider enslaved people to be people. White women were far better off, but they didn’t have the same rights as white men. In most states, they weren’t allowed to sign contracts or own property, and their educational opportunities were limited. And since women weren’t allowed to vote, they were unable to participate in elections for leaders who would champion their cause. The purpose of the Seneca Falls Convention was to draw attention to these inequalities and challenge the nation to live up to its ideals.

The two-day event drew more than 300 women and men. The attendees discussed whether to adopt a document called the Declaration of Sentiments. Written by Stanton and modeled after the Declaration of Independence, the document began, “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal.” It resolved that, under the ideals of the United States, women were entitled to certain rights, including property ownership, equal education, and suffrage (the right to vote). 

Only one of the resolutions in the Declaration of Sentiments turned out to be controversial—women’s suffrage. But Stanton, along with abolitionist Frederick Douglass, were eventually able to convince enough attendees to support voting rights for women. The document was ratified on July 20.

Seneca Falls was only one milestone in a long fight for women’s rights. In the decades that followed, many states would pass laws that expanded certain rights for women. In 1869, Wyoming (which wasn’t yet a state) granted women full voting rights. Some other states and territories followed. More than 50 years later, in 1920, Congress ratified the 19th Amendment, which guaranteed women in the United States the right to vote. 

You can read the Declaration of Sentiments at Britannica School.

Is it possible to tell how old someone is based on their selfie? Instagram is betting that it is.

Instagram is testing out a form of technology designed to determine someone’s age by scanning their face. Certain users will be required to take a video selfie, and then Instagram will send a still image from the video to a company called Yoti. Yoti will use an artificial intelligence (AI) tool to study the person’s facial features. 

“When a new face comes along, [the technology] does a pixel-level analysis of that face and then spits out a number—the age estimation,” Julie Dawson of Yoti told CNN.

According to Yoti, the technology “learned” to estimate ages by scanning millions of images of faces. This increased its ability to recognize what makes a person look younger or older. 

Instagram decided to use the technology to help ensure that its teen users aren’t seeing inappropriate content. The company has been criticized in the past for not doing enough to protect its young users.

Instagram (which requires users to be at least 13) does ask for users’ birthdates when they register. And it blocks certain content for users who have indicated they are under 18. Now, users will be required to use Instagram’s new age verification system if the birthdate on their account shows they are under 18 and they change it to indicate they are older than 18.

Yoti’s technology won’t always be accurate, though. According to Yoti’s own data, its age estimate was off by an average of 1.91 years for female users under 18 whose skin tone is darker. Its average error for female users under 18 with lighter skin was 1.41 years. 

Privacy may be another concern, but Yoti says the videos and still images will be deleted once they are used.

Instagram is working on other ways to verify users’ ages. One of them is a language analysis tool. It’s designed to figure out how old a user is based on how they write.