We reached new heights in aerospace in 2024.Image: Popular Science composite. Joby Aviation/SpaceX/NASA/Lockheed Martin/Dawn Aerospace ShareThe past year in aerospace was so full of exciting developments that we had a tough time picking a final five. From the rise in sustainable and green aviation to the overall growth in public and private space innovations, 2024 has been an inflection point for the future of flight tech. The boldest breakthroughs, though, came in the form of a flying taxi powered by hydrogen, a rocket plane that can reach outer space, commercial astronauts outside their spacecraft, the potential return of supersonic air travel, and the launch of a mission to find life beyond the asteroid belt.(Editors Note: This is a section from Popular Sciences 37th annual Best of Whats New awards. Be sure to read thefull list of the 50 greatest innovations of 2024.)Grand Award WinnerHydrogen-electric VTOL air taxi by Joby: Fly from Boston to Washington without visiting an airport and with no emissionsBetween the negative impact of carbon emissions and the headache of TSA lines, flying often feels like more hassle than its worth. But Joby Aviations hydrogen-powered air taxi might just be the breath of fresh (and clean) air weve been waiting for. By swapping out traditional batteries for a cutting-edge liquid hydrogen fuel system, Joby has supercharged the range of its electric vertical takeoff aircraft beyond its original roughly 150 miles on battery power. To prove it, they pulled off a 523-mile test flight in July, showing off what could soon redefine regional travel. As if on cue, the FAA in October introduced its first new category of civilian aircraft since the helicopter debuted in the 1940s, clearing the runway for air taxis to potentially become as common as choppers in our daily lives.Mk-II Aurora rocket-powered aircraft by Dawn Aerospace: A rapidly reusable spacecraftOne of the biggest challenges to the commercialization of space remains relatively high launch costs. Dawn Aerospaces Mk-II Aurora offers a solution to this problem by combining rocket-powered performance with the operational flexibility of an aircraft. Though still in the testing stages, the Aurora is designed to demonstrate rapid reusability, allowing it to complete multiple flights in one day. This is a key step toward making commercial space as accessible and efficient as commercial aviation. The Auroras innovative design allows it to take off from standard runways without requiring exclusive airspace, making it ideal for applications including atmospheric research, Earth observation, and microgravity experiments. As a technology demonstrator, it also serves as a foundation for development, perhaps one day proving that the sky is no longer the limit for runway-based flight.Polaris Dawn spacewalk by SpaceX: First EVA by private astronautsImagine stepping out of your cozy spacecraft into the vast, uncharted expanse of spaceno government agency holding your hand, just you, your crew, and the infinite cosmos. Thats precisely what the Polaris Dawn team achieved on September 12th with the first-ever commercial spacewalk. By venturing into the void without the usual safety net of governmental oversight, the Polaris Dawn mission has opened the door to a future where space isnt just the playground of governments. Instead, its accessible to private enterprises and, possibly someday, everyday adventurers. The Polaris Dawn spacewalk also tested SpaceXs new EVA suits to show that private companies can develop and deploy the technology needed for humans to survive in outer space.X-59 Quiet Supersonic Transport by NASA and Lockheed Martin: A return to supersonic air travelNASAs Quesst Missionboom-free supersonic travel a reality with their X-59 supersonic aircraft. Traditional supersonic planes like the Concorde were notorious for their earth-shaking sonic booms, limiting their ability to fly over land. The X-59, which made its public debut in January, is designed to eliminate the boom and replace it with a soft thump using clever engineering like a super-streamlined body and advanced aerodynamic features. If successful, the X-59 could pave the way for the resumption of supersonic passenger flights over populated areas, cutting travel times dramatically without disturbing communities. After test flights to ensure safety in 2025, NASA plans to fly the X-59 over various US cities, gathering public feedback to help rewrite aviation regulations that currently ban overland supersonic flights.Europa Clipper by NASA: Searching for lifes ingredients in Jupiters orbitJust launched in October, the Europa Clipper is NASAs newest research probe. Its set to investigate one of the solar systems most intriguing mysteries: Does Jupiters icy moon Europa have what it takes to support life? Europa is theorized to have a vast, salty ocean beneath its frozen crustan environment ripe for life as we know it. Thats where the Clipper comes in: Its equipped with cutting-edge instruments to detect evidence of water or any potential signs of life. When it reaches Europa in 2031, the spacecraft will make dozens of flybys, capturing detailed images of the moons surface and analyzing plumes of water vapor thought to erupt from cracks in its icy crust. By exploring what may lie beneath Europas surface, the Clipper could redefine our understanding of Europa and guide future missions.

Nature, Published online: 31 December 2024; doi:10.1038/d41586-024-04209-0A long-sought nuclear clock is closer than ever thanks to ultra-accurate measurements of Thorium-229.

Nature, Published online: 18 December 2024; doi:10.1038/d41586-024-04167-7Chinas low-altitude aviation economy is poised to become a trillion-yuan industry in 2025 if safety and security challenges can be overcome.

Nature, Published online: 18 December 2024; doi:10.1038/d41586-024-03983-1Laurie Barge and Arezoo Khodayari created an internship between NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory and California State University, Los Angeles to launch the careers of students from minority backgrounds.

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Video streaming platform Netflix is diving deep into the world of video games, with everything from classic hits to industry unknowns. Here's our list of the best games you can play on Netflix.

A PvE game is only as good as its enemy selection, and Helldivers 2 has proven time and again that its not lacking at all in that category. Complete with three entire enemy factions to square off against, Arrowheads unexpected smash hit has managed to keep players engaged, due in no small part to the extremely varied enemy types on offer. From the teeming hordes of insect-like terminids, to the unending battalions of Automatons, to the recently revealed Illuminate that look like something out of H.G. Wells worst nightmare, the enemies of Super Earth are all equally undemocratic. But not all of them are equally dangerous.

In the final moments of what's been a hell of a match for the Blue Lock, the Blue Lock XI's team is taken on an electrifying ride via the Blue Lock Season 2, Episode 13. This episode sees character growth, nail-biting intensity, and the thrill of the competition come together with just fifteen minutes left on the clock and keeps fans tuning in.

If you have big aspirations for 2025a big deadlift, a marathon, a change in the size of your bodyI sure hope you havent translated them into the limited, pass-fail box-checking of a SMART goal. But that doesn't mean SMART goals are useless. You really need two types of goals: Dream Goals to inspire and motivate you, and SMART goals, which are a type of process goal, to keep you on the path toward those dreams.Why SMART goals are different from Dream GoalsSMART goals have long been heralded as a goal-setting life hack, but the truth is that they were invented for managers to set quotas and such for their companies (the original A stood for assignable, as in, to an employee). Their usefulness in fitness or self-improvement is pretty limited. A SMART goal, as its talked about it the fitness world today, is Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound. Put together, this means you set a deadline by which time you expect to achieve a specific measurement of an outcome. In other words, youve turned it into a pass-fail test. And because you wouldnt want to fail that pass-fail test, creating a proper SMART goal means that you need to set the bar low. The goal has to be Attainable, remember? When you look at it that way, SMART goals are not goals in the way I would think of the word, in the sense of big dreams that inspire us to keep going.That's why you need another type of goal, which I'll call a dream goal. A dream goal is what you really want. It's the thing that inspires you, whether or not it's attainable. You might dream of deadlifting 500 pounds, or hiking the Appalachian trail, or qualifying for the Boston Marathon, or, heck, winning the Boston Marathon. We're not going to shoehorn that into the SMART goal framework. But we can set some SMART goals as benchmarks or process goals to guide our training as we work toward that big dream. How to dream big while still setting process goalsIve written before that SMART goals are overrated, but to be honest, they make a good framework for process goals. Process goals are things that are fully in our control. They are Attainable, by definition. For example, going for a run three times a week is a process goal. Eating a vegetable at every meal is a process goal. Following a program that tells you to do five sets of eight reps of deadlifts every Tuesday is a process goal. And the point of a process goal is to put you on the path to your big Dream Goal. I like to think of it this way: Your Dream Goal is a big mountain off in the distance. You know its there, but you dont know exactly how far away it is, or how tough the journey will be. Your process goals are things that will keep you on the path toward that mountain. Packing your bags. Putting one foot in front of the other. Or as Peloton instructor Tunde Oyeneyin puts it (right before telling me I better beat my score from her last burpee circuit): A goal is a wish. A standard holds us accountable. We need both.I cant emphasize how important it is that we allow ourselves to dream big. Take one minute off my 5K race time this year is attainable, but why limit yourself to that? Run a 5K in under 20 minutes is a big-as-hell dream (especially if youre around 30 minutes right now) but its very much worth working for. The path up that mountain might be a long one, but its not going to walk itself. How to write SMART goals to support your Dream GoalsSo, lets start charting that path. As with any trip up a distant mountain, you wont know quite what the road is like until you get there. So focus on whats right in front of you and what you can control. Heres an example of how you can set some SMART process goals to guide you toward a big dream that may or may not be achievable. Lets say youre a runner, and you want to be a faster runner. You might chart out a journey like this:Dream goal: Run a 5K in 20 minutes or less (someday)Process goals for winter/spring 2025: Build up my aerobic base by running a few more miles each week, until I am running 20 miles a week.Run a time trial at the track on January 25, both as a benchmark and so I can calculate my training paces.Follow the Hal Higdon Intermediate 5K Training Program as written, including the recommended Tuesday and Thursday strength training.Run the Big Local 5K in my city this March.In the week following that 5K: Congratulate myself on finishing, assess my strengths and weaknesses, and decide on a new set of process goals for summer training.See how each of these five is a SMART goal? They are all Specific enough that you know exactly what to do to fulfill those goals. (Ive given a mileage number and picked out a specific training program, but obviously you would choose your own.) They are Measurable: You hit the miles, or you check off the number of workouts programmed. On the day of the time trial and the race, you either show up or you don't. And you get a finish time for each, to more precisely measure your progress.They are Attainable: You have full control of whether or not you go out for a run, show up for a race, etc. (Obviously, if you dont have full control over this due to life circumstances, you would write a different set of goals that take those circumstances into account.)They are Relevant: They all set you on the path toward being a faster runner at the 5K distance.They are Time-bound: From this framework, you could sit down and schedule every single run on your calendar for the next three or four months. (You would work backward from the race date to find the start of the training program, and so on.) These goals define your process, and then you get to reassess. After the Big Local 5K, do you want to do more specific 5K training to get faster? Do you want to train for a marathon for the base-building opportunities and because you kind of like the idea of a side quest? Or might you find that your other goals in life conflict with this oneperhaps youd rather reduce mileage this summer so you can do more paddleboarding, and return to run training in the fall? This way, you still get to dream big, but you know youre always on the path to those big goalsat least as long as you want to be. Shoot for the moon, and if you dont make it, at least youve built a damn good rocket ship along the way.

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.If youre looking for a home security system for a smaller space and dont mind going the pre-owned route, this certified refurbished eight-piece Ring Alarm kit is a solid option at $110.99a 48% discount from its usual $214.99. Like-New Ring Alarm 8-piece kit $110.99 at Amazon $214.99 Save $104.00 Get Deal Get Deal $110.99 at Amazon $214.99 Save $104.00 Designed for single- or double-bedroom homes or apartments, this kit includes a base station, range extender, motion detector, four contact sensors, and a keypadeverything you need to get started. Setting up the system is simple: Just download the Ring app, plug in the base station, place the sensors where needed, and activate them. The system offers three security modes: Home mode keeps outdoor sensors active while ignoring indoor ones, away mode arms all sensors, and disarm mode turns everything off. Just a heads up, according to this PCMag review, when the system is in disarm mode, it doesnt send you notificationsa potential drawback if you rely on alerts.Speaking of alerts, if youre fine with handling alerts yourself, you can skip the $20 monthly fee and opt for DIY monitoring. But if youd rather not play security guard, the Ring Home Premium plan offers 24/7 professional monitoring with automatic emergency dispatch. This subscription also unlocks integration with Amazon Echo, Alexa, and other Ring devices, giving your system a bit more versatility. That said, if youre big on third-party compatibilitysay with Apple HomeKit or Google Assistantyoull find this kit lacking. For that, the Abode Iota is a solid alternative, though at $299.99 (down from $329.99), its a bigger investment.