Belkin's Connect Universal Pro Dock enhances a laptop's functionality and user experience. Right now, it's on sale at Amazon.

The newly released model can finally compete with Midjourney, Google's Imagen 3, and Adobe's Firefly.

Chocolate bar in silver foil in woman's palms.gettyTwo months ago, I wrote about recent research indicating that drinking coffee could be good for ones healthresulting in a statistically significant decrease in mortality. (Caveat: The health benefits occur if one drinks coffee in the mornings, as opposed to spreading it throughout the day.)I am now pleased to report that two more itemsdark chocolate and placeboscan also be good for ones health.An international group of researchers based in Boston and China studied over 190,000 people for an average of 25 years, tracking chocolate consumption and incidence of Type 2 diabetes. They discovered that after adjusting for personal, lifestyle, and dietary risk factors, participants who consumed 5 or more servings of chocolate a week had a 10% lower rate of developing Type 2 diabetes than those who consumed little or no chocolate. (For the purpose of the study, a serving was defined as 1 ounce of chocolate.)Interestingly, the benefit was restricted to those who consumed predominantly dark chocolate, who experienced whopping 21% decrease in developing Type 2 diabetes. There was no significant health benefit for those consuming milk chocolate. Furthermore, they noted that, Increased consumption of milk, but not dark, chocolate was associated with long term weight gain.The exact mechanism is not fully understood, but one likely explanation is that dark chocolate is especially high in compounds called flavonoids that have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects and might help to open blood vessels.Researchers are also gaining greater appreciation for the health benefits of the humble placebotraditionally used as a control medication in randomized clinical trials. As reported by Washington Post writer Marlene Cimons, clinicians are finding that patients with intractable pain can benefit from so-called open-label use of placebos, in which patients are fully informed that the pill they are taking is a placebo. Multiple studies have shown that placebos can help with certain conditions that dont consistently respond to more traditional therapies, including back pain, depression, irritable bowel syndrome, and menopausal hot flashes.A recent study published in 2024 showed that open-label injection of saline into the superficial soft tissues of the lower back could help patients with back pain. As part of the protocol, the patients were treated in an empathetic, supporting environment, designed to improve emotional comfort: Participants changed into a medical gown, and a subcutaneous injection described as saline with no active medication was administered at the site of the greatest back pain. The researchers found that a single saline injection led to significant improvements in pain intensity, mood, and sleep at 1 month posttreatment compared with usual care. Some patients experienced benefits lasting as long a year.Again, the exact mechanism of the pain relief caused by placebos is not fully understood. A 2024 research paper indicates that the relief is likely modulated by cells in a portion of the brain called the rostral anterior cingulate cortex (rACC). The researchers suggest that physicians can improve pain relief by targeting that particular neural pathway with selective drugs or neurostimulation.I love the fact that dark chocolate, coffee, and placebos have all been shown to help people in a measurable way. Clearly, these are all areas amenable for further research. As one possible avenue of exploration, I leave it to others to discover if placebo chocolates (or placebo coffee) can yield similar health benefits as the real thing!

The magic of space exploration and technological innovation continues to propel us forward.

Something to look forward to: Remember when Facebook used to show content from your friends? Seeing posts from people you know is becoming increasingly rare these days as the main feed gets clogged with recommended content from accounts you don't follow. But the social network is bringing back the core experience that made it so popular in the first place with the introduction of a revamped "Friends" tab. Facebook today isn't the platform it once was. Many people complain that they rarely spot posts from actual friends on their feeds, lost in an algorithmic sea of sponsored content, group posts, and other recommendations from various pages and accounts most of which elicit a "why am I being shown this crap?" response.It seems that Meta has taken notice of the complaints. "Over the years, Facebook evolved to meet changing needs and created best-in-class experiences across Groups, Video, Marketplace and more, but the magic of friends has fallen away," the company writes in a new announcement.To try to bring back its original appeal, Meta is adding several so-called "OG" Facebook experiences throughout the year. The first of these is a new Friends tab.The Friends tab is currently used to view friend requests and friend suggestions (People You May Know). The replacement will show all your friends' posts, stories, reels, and birthdays, while friend requests will continue to be found under this section.The updated Friends tab is rolling out now in the US and Canada. It can be accessed from the navigation bar on the home feed and can be found in the Bookmarks section of the app. You can also pin it to your navigation bar in the app by clicking on your profile picture in the Home feed, selecting Settings & Privacy, Settings, then Tab bar, choosing to customize the bar, clicking Friends, and pinning the tab // Related StoriesThis isn't the first dedicated friends section Facebook has introduced. Mark Zuckerberg demonstrated a dedicated feed for friends' content, shown in reverse chronological order, in 2022. It's still available in the app, though getting to it requires going through the Feeds menu.It's unclear what other "OG" experiences Facebook will be bringing back. The Poke feature was made more prominent in 2024 will Pet Society and Words with Friends make a return?

Projectors can be excellent TV replacements, especially if you can carry with them wherever you go. Whether you get a projector that costs a few hundred bucks or one that makes you some thousand dollars less rich, its imperative you buy a projector screen instead of casting the picture on the wall. If youre looking for something rather inexpensive, projector maker XGIMI has a fitting solution, one that you can even take with you when you venture outdoors.XGIMI has announced a new portable projection screen, that can be folded and carrier in a backpack. The company says it claims is ideal for outdoor viewing and pairs well with the MoGo 3 Pro portable projector it launched last year, though it can be used with any indoor or outdoor projector.XGIMIThe screen unfolds to a large 70-inch canvas that stands upright on a four-legged setup. The whole setup, including the built-in stand, weights about 3.3 lbs (about 1.5 kilos) and folds back down to just 18 inches.Recommended VideosThe frame is of an aluminum alloy, which, besides making it light, also makes it resistant to corrosion from moisture in the ground. It also comes with stakes on all four feet should you want to anchor it to the floor against wind.Please enable Javascript to view this contentThe fabric is washable, which means you can throw it into the washer to get all the dirt and stains out after an outdoor picnic or camping trip. XGIMI even says the sheet is wrinkle-free, and will unfold to a plain and even surface. It comes with a carrying pouch for easier lugging with the rest of your bags.XGIMIThe quad-pod is designed for quick unpacking and the embedded elastic cord stretches the screen out entirely without slack. According to the entire process of unfolding and setting up the stand should take only one step that wouldnt cost you more than a minute excluding the time hammering the stakes, of course.XGIMIs portable projector screen will be sold for and the brands own website, starting today.In addition, XGIMI has announced a new bundle for the MoGo 3 Pro that includes the following:the projector that usually sells for $379 alone,a waterproof carrying case thats usually $69,a creative optical filter that magnifies the screen 5x to envelop the entire room (though with a slightly blurry image); although $49, this is included as a freebie with the MoGo 3 Pro,a $45 automatically-adjusting stand,a USB-C cable for powerThe entire bundle will cost $549 and will also be available on Amazon and XGIMIs online store.

Apple is updating its popular Final Cut apps with new features, including integration with Apple Intelligence. The update to version 11.1 of Final Cut Pro for Mac will see integration with Image Playground and the ability to quickly create AI-generated images, while Final Cut Pro version 2.2 for iPad will see similar new features plus a new portrait orientation option.The Image Playground feature works by importing images into an event, which youll find under File > Import > Image Playground. Then youll have options to create an image from a concept (like a theme or place), to create an image from a description (where you type in a text prompt and it generates an images), or to create an image of a person (from your photo library). You can also click an existing photo to generate a new image, or change the style of the image to something like animation.Recommended VideosAny of these options will present you with several variations of an image, from which you can then select one to be imported into your project. Other improvements in the Mac version of the app incldude the ability to apply color corrections and effects to a range of clips at once, an audio adjustment called Quantec QRS (Quantec Room Simulator) to simulate real acoustic spaces, the ability to rename audio effects in the inspectors, and a new keyboard shortcut to show or hide the Magnetic Mask Editor.Users of Final Cut Pro for iPad will see different updates in addition to the Image Playground. Theyll find a portrait orientation mode which takes better advantage of the tall and narrow screen, additional keyboard shortcuts to make workflow more efficient, and capture from the iPad that now has a 50 fps option.There are also some small updates for Final Cut Camera for iPhone, on version 1.2. This wont get access to Image Playground but will see an option to switch to the 48mm telephoto lens or to record video in 50 fps as well.Editors Recommendations

Pollution like the smoke seen at this garbage dump in Pakistan ispart of an ongoing polycrisisARIF ALI/AFP via Getty ImagesA Climate of TruthMike Berners-Lee (Cambridge University Press UK: On sale now US: On sale from 10 April)Mike Berners-Lee admits he is worried about getting bad reviews for his new book, which criticises sections of the UK media for having editorial agendas effectively set by their owners. In the readable but dispiriting A Climate of Truth: Why we need it and how to get it, he points the finger at the BBC, Rupert Murdochs empire, the

This week, MIT Technology Review published a piece on bodyoidsliving bodies that cannot think or feel pain. In the piece, a trio of scientists argue that advances in biotechnology will soon allow us to create spare human bodies that could be used for research, or to provide organs for donation. If you find your skin crawling at this point, youre not the only one. Its a creepy idea, straight from the more horrible corners of science fiction. But bodyoids could be used for good. And if they are truly unaware and unable to think, the use of bodyoids wouldnt cross most peoples ethical lines, the authors argue. Im not so sure. Either way, theres no doubt that developments in science and biotechnology are bringing us closer to the potential reality of bodyoids. And the idea is already stirring plenty of ethical debate and controversy. One of the main arguments made for bodyoids is that they could provide spare human organs. Theres a huge shortage of organs for transplantation. More than 100,000 people in the US are waiting for a transplant, and 17 people on that waiting list die every day. Human bodyoids could serve as a new source. Scientists are working on other potential solutions to this problem. One approach is the use of gene-edited animal organs. Animal organs dont typically last inside human bodiesour immune systems will reject them as foreign. But a few companies are creating pigs with a series of gene edits that make their organs more acceptable to human bodies. A handful of living people have received gene-edited pig organs. David Bennett Sr. was the first person to get a gene-edited pig heart, in 2022, and Richard Slayman was the first to get a kidney, in early 2024. Unfortunately, both men died around two months after their surgery. But Towana Looney, the third living person to receive a gene-edited pig kidney, has been doing well. She had her transplant surgery in late November of last year. I am full of energy. I got an appetite Ive never had in eight years, she said at the time. I can put my hand on this kidney and feel it buzzing. She returned home in February. At least one company is taking more of a bodyoid-like approach. Renewal Bio, a biotech company based in Israel, hopes to grow embryo-stage versions of people for replacement organs. Their approach is based on advances in the development of synthetic embryos. (Im putting that term in quotation marks because, while its the simplest descriptor of what they are, a lot of scientists hate the term.) Embryos start with the union of an egg cell and a sperm cell. But scientists have been working on ways to make embryos using stem cells instead. Under the right conditions, these cells can divide into structures that look a lot like a typical embryo. Scientists dont know how far these embryo-like structures will be able to develop. But theyre already using them to try to get cows and monkeys pregnant. And no one really knows how to think about synthetic human embryos. Scientists dont even really know what to call them. Rules stipulate that typical human embryos may be grown in the lab for a maximum of 14 days. Should the same rules apply to synthetic ones? The very existence of synthetic embryos is throwing into question our understanding of what a human embryo even is. Is it the thing that is only generated from the fusion of a sperm and an egg? Naomi Moris, a developmental biologist at the Crick Institute in London, said to me a couple of years ago. Is it something to do with the cell types it possesses, or the [shape] of the structure? The authors of the new MIT Technology Review piece also point out that such bodyoids could also help speed scientific and medical research. At the moment, most drug research must be conducted in lab animals before clinical trials can start. But nonhuman animals may not respond the same way people do, and the vast majority of treatments that look super-promising in mice fail in humans. Such research can feel like a waste of both animal lives and time. Scientists have been working on solutions to these problems, too. Some are creating organs on chipsminiature collections of cells organized on a small piece of polymer that may resemble full-size organs and can be used to test the effects of drugs. Others are creating digital representations of human organs for the same purpose. Such digital twins can be extensively modeled, and can potentially be used to run clinical trials in silico. Both of these approaches seem somehow more palatable to me, personally, than running experiments on a human created without the capacity to think or feel pain. The idea reminds me of the recent novel Tender Is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica, in which humans are bred for consumption. In the book, their vocal cords are removed so that others do not have to hear them scream. When it comes to real-world biotechnology, though, our feelings about what is acceptable tend to shift. In vitro fertilization was demonized when it was first developed, for instance, with opponents arguing that it was unnatural, a perilous insult, and the biggest threat since the atom bomb. It is estimated that more than 12 million people have been born through IVF since Louise Brown became the first test tube baby 46 years ago. I wonder how well all feel about bodyoids 46 years from now. This article first appeared in The Checkup,MIT Technology Reviewsweekly biotech newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Thursday, and read articles like this first,sign up here.

"Adolescence," Netflix's latest hit, is a four-episode limited crime drama with each filmed in a single take.Tackling the UK's knife crime epidemic and the impact of misogynistic influencers on boys, the series follows a working-class father (Stephen Graham) who discovers his son (Owen Cooper) has murdered a girl from his school.Fans and critics have praised the series for its innovative use of filming episodes in one take and stellar performances from the cast, including Graham and Cooper. They've also praised the show for highlighting how boys are being influenced by misogynistic and sexist messaging on social media.The show, co-created by Graham and Jack Thorne, is also racking up views on Netflix.Netflix said the series received 42 million views this week, almost double the total for its premiere week.If you've already seen it, here are nine shows and documentaries similar to "Adolescence" or expand on its themes."Boiling Point"Stephen Graham also stars in "Boiling Point." Kevin Baker / BBC Stephen Graham's first foray with single takes was "Boiling Point," a 2021 film and a follow-up miniseries of the same name.Graham stars in both and became a co-creator of the series.The film and the series are like a British equivalent of the Emmy-winning show "The Bear," focusing on the intense and unhealthy working environments inside a restaurant kitchen in London. While the film is entirely one-take, the TV series has a single-take sequence at the start.The "Boiling Point" miniseries is available on Prime Video and Roku. The movie is available on Peacock."Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story"Cooper Koch plays Erik Menendez in "Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story." Miles Crist / Netflix "Monster: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story," the second miniseries in Netflix's true crime anthology created by Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan, follows the 1990s case of two siblings who killed their parents. They later admitted to the crime and said that their parents abused them.The series is far from as grounded as "Adolescence" with soap opera acting, multiple perspective shifts, and scenes of sensationalized violence.This is all stripped away in episode five, where Erik Menendez (Cooper Koch) first tells Leslie Abramson (Ari Graynor), his lawyer, about his abuse. It's the shortest episode of the season but the most powerful, with the single take focusing solely on Erik's chilling and emotional confession.Fans and critics had mixed opinions about the series, but it may be worth watching for that remarkable episode alone.The limited series is available on Netflix."Criminal: UK""Criminal: UK" has guest stars in each episode, including British stars such as Kit Harington. Colin Hutton Fans of "Adolescence" episode three might love "Criminal: UK," a Netflix crime series set only in the interrogation room of a police station, and its European spin-off."Criminal" lacks the action and adrenaline rush of usual crime shows that show the chase to find the culprit. Yet it's just as suspenseful, displaying interrogators' mind games and other tactics to get the criminal to crack and confess.The two seasons of "Criminal: UK" is available on Netflix."Defending Jacob"Chris Evans stars as a district attorney in "Defending Jacob." AppleTV+ Like "Adolescence," "Defending Jacob" is about two parents who are confused and distraught after their teenage son is arrested following the murder of a classmate.In this dark murder mystery series, Chris Evans stars as Andy Barber, a father and district attorney who tries to prove his son's innocence. Meanwhile, his wife Laurie (Michelle Dockery) has doubts about their son after his arrest.This series focuses on the parents' reaction to the accusation and what they would do to help the child, leaving it ambiguous if the son did, in fact, commit the crime.The limited series is available on Apple TV+."The Social Dilemma"Skyler Gisondo in "The Social Dilemma." Expsoure Labs / Netflix "The Social Dilemma" is a part-documentary, part-narrative drama that delves deeper into the negative impact social media can have on younger people in particular.The documentary section features interviews with former workers of social media platforms and a psychologist who discusses how these platforms affect mental health. The drama section follows a family with two social media-addicted children: a boy who is being radicalized online, and a girl who is depressed due to unrealistic beauty standards online.The docudrama is available on Netflix."I Am Andrew Tate"Andrew Tate is a former kickboxer turned influencer. DANIEL MIHAILESCU/Getty Images In recent years, Andrew Tate has become the most recognizable "manosphere" figure a term for podcasters and influencers who promote masculinity and misogyny.This documentary depicts Tate's rise and fall after the influencer and his brother, Tristan, were arrested in December 2022 in Romania. They were charged with human trafficking, rape, and forming an organized crime group. Both have denied the charges and are yet to face a trial.The documentary is available on Peacock."Social Studies""Social Studies" gives a glimpse of teens' lives in a digital age. Lauren Greenfield / INSTITUTE "Social Studies," a documentary series about growing up in the digital age, is another great series to watch for greater insight into young people's lives and how social media affects them.The series follows a group of diverse teens from Los Angeles for a year, addressing issues from vigilante justice on social media to sexual exploration.The limited series is available to stream on Hulu."Baby Reindeer"Richard Gadd in "Baby Reindeer." Ed Miller/Netflix If you somehow missed the hype around "Baby Reindeer" last year, the dark comedy focuses on a male comedian who is stalked by a woman and receives little help from the authorities due to the stigma against male victims of harassment.The show was loosely based on the experiences of the creator and lead star, Richard Gadd, though Netflix labeling the show as a true story got the streamer in legal difficulties.There's not much crossover with the key themes of "Adolescence," but "Baby Reindeer" is another British hit from Netflix that innovatively tackles a wider social issue.The limited series is available to stream on Netflix.