The 2018 season kicked off on Monday with the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, which this year honors two researchers for their work on cancer therapy. James P. Allison, 70, born in Alice, Texas, and now affiliated with the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy in San Francisco, splits the prize with Tasuku Honjo, 76, a professor at Kyoto University in Japan....

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, over 40 million, or about one in six, Americans wear contact lenses. It is difficult to estimate how many revelers wear costume contact lenses, but the number surely surges around Halloween. It is my experience that the demand for these lenses is highest in young people, the same demographic that is at the highest risk for experiencing infectious and inflammatory complications from their contact lenses....

More than 11,000 scientists from 153 countries signed an open letter published on Tuesday in Biosciences declaring a climate emergency that threatens “the fate of humanity.” The paper, co-authored by researchers from the University of Sydney, Oregon State University, University of Cape Town, and Tufts University, urges governments and other powerful groups to look beyond global surface temperature when measuring the severity of climate change. It also outlines six broad areas in which society must act to mitigate the worst effects....

The news follows an abysmal second financial quarter report, part of which is already being blamed on last year’s acquisition of the metaverse tech company, Hyperconnect. Match closed a $1.7 billion deal with the South Korean startup in June 2021, but has had little to show for it in the ensuing months. “Given uncertainty about the ultimate contours of the metaverse and what will or won’t work, as well as the more challenging operating environment, I’ve instructed the Hyperconnect team to iterate but not invest heavily in metaverse at this time,” Match Group CEO Bernard Kim wrote in the company’s earnings report, adding, “We’ll continue to evaluate this space carefully, and we will consider moving forward at the appropriate time when we have more clarity on the overall opportunity and feel we have a service that is well-positioned to succeed....

But it’s not something you want to go into unprepared. Trial and error might be fine in the garage, but it can be a real pain to discover that your untested conversion idea didn’t pan out once you’ve already driven out to the middle of nowhere. For those who are handy with tools, a van conversion is the ultimate DIY project. The opportunities for tinkering are endless. To that end, I’ve got a few tips that can help you on your way to building a superior overlanding rig....

My kids like exploring but are young enough that the monsters scare them, so most of our family play time has been in peaceful mode. However, once the kids go to bed, I head into the settings and enable monsters, because what’s the point of video games if you don’t get to kill zombies? That said, Minecraft can be overwhelming for anyone just starting out, adults and kids alike. There are a lot of moving pieces and no real in-game tutorial, so you have to figure everything out for yourself....

Fibonacci Day (Nov. 23) Every number in the Fibonacci sequence is the sum of the two numbers before it. If you were to add 1 and 1, you’d get 2; if you then added 1 and 2, you’d get 3, which is why Nov. 23 is the most appropriate day to celebrate the Italian mathematician Fibonacci’s titular contribution to his field. How to mark the occasion? We suggest a Fibonacci potluck: Every contribution to the meal must be quantified by the sum of the two contributions before it....

ADD OTHER MEDIA SOURCES If you subscribe to Netflix, Hulu, or other streaming services, add their mobile apps to the phone or tablet for more movie and music choices. ADD A WIRELESS GAME CONTROLLER A Wiimote or Sixaxis controller can serve as a remote for watching movies, viewing photos, or listening to music from the Android device (as well as playing games). The device must have Bluetooth, and it must be rooted....

With worsening heat comes a steady demand for air conditioning units, which are set to triple in demand by 2050. In 2016, only 8 percent of the 2.8 billion people living in the warmest parts of the world have access to AC. But that number is growing—and with increased use comes higher energy consumption, which can add up to even more stress on the climate. Thankfully, there are better options out there to efficiently cool buildings, and even save money on utilities, which is crucial for vulnerable communities that already pay a high price for energy....

That changed in 2019, however. This past March the FDA rubber-stamped two treatments that appear to target brain pathways that have only recently been connected to depression. Brexanolone, marketed by Sage Therapeutics as Zulresso, is the first drug to be approved specifically to treat postpartum depression in women who have just given birth. And esketamine, marketed by Johnson & Johnson as Spravato, is a nasal spray version of the hallucinogenic “party drug” ketamine....

“Climate change is no longer a future problem. It is a now problem,” Inger Andersen, executive director of UN Environment Programme, said in a press release. “To stand a chance of limiting global warming to 1.5 degree Celsius, we have eight years to almost halve greenhouse gas emissions, make the plans, put in place the policies, implement them, and ultimately deliver the cuts. The clock is ticking loudly.” Reports from the UN and other major groups have shown that mere tenths of a degree of warming could mean a disastrous future, especially for vulnerable populations of people....

It might sound a little out-there, but research published within the last five years suggests the gory procedure might actually have legs—specifically, some versions of the treatment have been shown to improve skin texture in people with acne scarring, and rejuvenate complexions by plumping up saggy under-eye skin and brightening sun-damaged faces. More research is needed before we consider the treatment a dermatological mainstay, of course, but the initial clinical trials are quite promising....

At the Abandon Normal Devices festival in Grizedale Forest last month, visitors were invited to put on Oculus Rift virtual reality helmets and backpacks, and experience a 360-degree view of the forest, as seen by dragonflies, frogs, and other local creatures. The helmets let participants see an imagined perspective of what the animals see, while vibrations from the backpack immersed them further in the experience. A creative collective called Marshmallow Laser Feast put the project together....

To set up music as your alarm sound the command is a bit different. Say “Alexa, wake me up at with…” followed by a song, artist, album, or music genre. Your Echo will use your default music player for the job, which you can set by tapping More, Settings, and Music & Podcasts in the Alexa app. Now that your Echo knows when to trigger the routine, you can pick Add action to choose what happens....

For scientists, though, these falls pose something of a problem. You can’t exactly predict when and where a whale or a sea lion will die, and you can’t spend all your time searching the world’s oceans for a freshly dead critter. So if you want to study the various worms, arthropods, and bacteria that opportunistically chow on a food fall, you have to drop the carcass yourself. Biologists have done this with whales to monitor which deep sea creatures show up as the body turns from fully-blubbered behemoth to skeletal monster....

Built over the course of a year, Snowstorm can carry up to about 150 pounds and can fly for up to 5 minutes. That’s not a lot as aircraft go, but pretty good in the world of personal flying machines. The hexagonal machine has 24 motors, each powering a small propeller. The whole vehicle is battery-powered. Says the National University of Singapore: Watch it (and listen to it roar) below:

Carbon dioxide is a global pollutant—every individual power plant around the world contributes to the rising concentration of the gas in the atmosphere, warming our planet. But fossil fuel-powered plants also release pollutants that harm their local environment. Fine particulate matter, an array of tiny particles less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter, and ozone gas form from the smoke rising from these plants. Both are known to be harmful to our respiratory systems....

But what are asteroids and comets, really? An asteroid is just a rock orbiting the Sun. Asteroids are smaller than planets, but some of them can be really big. The largest, NASA says, is Vesta, 329 miles around. The smallest one that scientists have ever studied is just six feet around. There are 780,290 asteroids in the solar system, but not all of them are made of the same material....

The reveal, reportedly planned originally for last year’s Space Symposium until that was canceled for pandemic reasons, was delayed this time because of the abrupt end of coordinated fighting against the Taliban. The weapon was originally supposed to be declassified as the culmination of the Space Force’s launch: not only did the Pentagon have a new branch, but it had weapons in orbit, too. With the timing now delayed a second time, three big, ominous questions remain: Why would the military want an anti-satellite weapon, why put it in orbit, and what are the dangers of such a weapon?...