So, it turns out that keeping plants alive is harder than keeping a toddler entertained. Enter the "automated terrarium" — the plant parent’s new best friend! Because who needs a green thumb when you can just rely on a machine to do all the work? Forgetful? No problem! This little glass box will not only keep your plants alive but also save you from the emotional trauma of yet another wilting fern. Who knew that preserving your plants could involve so much technology? Next thing you know, we’ll be having robots water our artificial succulents. Cheers to the future of plant care, where your biggest worry is whether to plug in the charger or the watering can. #AutomatedTerrarium #PlantCare #Tech

At last, physicists at the University of Liège have cracked the code: water landscapes created with 3D printing! Because why enjoy a simple drink when you can have a miniature ocean on your table? Forget about the days of just swimming in water; now we can marvel at the aesthetic pleasure of tiny, printed spines dancing on the surface. Who knew physics could be so… artistic? Next up, they'll probably figure out how to print clouds into our living rooms. Get ready for some very confused houseplants. #3DPrinting #WaterLandscapes #PhysicsArt #UniversityOfLiege #InnovativeScience

Amazon, qu'est-ce qui vous prend ? Offrir des jeux PC gratuits sans aucune raison apparente ? C'est à la fois incompréhensible et profondément frustrant ! Pourquoi ne pas utiliser votre immense pouvoir et richesse pour améliorer la plateforme et offrir un service de qualité aux utilisateurs au lieu de distribuer des jeux comme si c'était des bonbons lors d'Halloween ? Regardez les titres proposés : Tomb Raider, Saints Row... Ce ne sont pas des jeux à négliger. Mais pourquoi ces choix ? On dirait que c'est un coup marketing désespéré pour attirer plus d'utilisateurs vers votre plateforme, comme si vous n'aviez pas déjà suffisamment de clients ! C'est une stratégie pitoyable, et cela montre à quel point Amazon semble perdre le contrôle sur ses priorités. Les jeux gratuits peuvent sembler alléchants, mais cela soulève de nombreuses questions. Est-ce que vous essayez de masquer le fait que vos services sont en déclin ? Est-ce que vous pensez vraiment que quelques jeux gratuits vont réussir à faire oublier la lenteur de votre service client et les problèmes techniques récurrents sur votre plateforme ? C'est insultant pour les véritables gamers qui cherchent une expérience de jeu fluide et sans accroc. Il est temps que vous vous réveilliez, Amazon ! Les consommateurs ne sont pas dupe. On ne doit pas sacrifier la qualité et l'expérience utilisateur sur l'autel du profit ! Au lieu de donner des jeux, pourquoi ne pas investir cet argent dans l'amélioration de votre infrastructure technique pour offrir un service qui ne plante pas toutes les cinq minutes ? Cela nous permettrait d'apprécier réellement ces jeux sans les frustrations constantes que vous imposez. En plus, regardons la question de la durabilité. Offrir des jeux sans raison apparente peut sembler généreux, mais quel impact cela a-t-il sur l'industrie du jeu vidéo ? Cela dévalorise les efforts des développeurs et des studios qui travaillent dur pour créer des expériences uniques. Vous encouragez une culture de la gratuité qui peut nuire à long terme à la créativité et à l'innovation dans le secteur. En résumé, Amazon, votre initiative d'offrir des jeux PC gratuitement n'est rien d'autre qu'un coup de marketing mal pensé. Au lieu de cela, concentrez-vous sur l'amélioration de votre service et le soutien aux développeurs. Les utilisateurs méritent mieux que des solutions temporaires et des stratégies douteuses. #Amazon #JeuxGratuits #Critique #ServicesClient #IndustrieDuJeu

In the silence of my room, I find myself staring at the empty corners where dreams once blossomed. The thought of nurturing life, of watching something grow under my care, feels like a distant memory. The **Gardyn Indoor Hydroponic Garden** promised hope—a way to cultivate green even when the world outside is barren. But here I am, clutching my heart, feeling the weight of disappointment. They say even those with the blackest thumbs can become master gardeners with this ingenious creation. Yet, I can’t help but feel that the very act of reaching for this technology only magnifies my solitude. Each subscription I pay feels like a reminder of my failures, echoing through my mind like a haunting melody. The joy of growing, of watching tiny seeds transform into vibrant life, is overshadowed by an overwhelming sense of inadequacy. As I browse through the reviews, I see others thriving, their gardens bursting with color and vitality. It’s a sharp contrast to my own barren reality. I feel like an outsider looking in, my heart heavy with the knowledge that I cannot replicate their success, even with the help of AI. The world tells me that I should be able to grow something beautiful—something that reflects life and warmth. Yet, I can only muster the courage to reach out for a lifeline that just keeps slipping away. In moments of quiet despair, I question my worth. What is the point of investing in something that only serves to highlight my shortcomings? The **better growing through AI** feels like a cruel joke. It’s as if the universe is reminding me that no amount of technology can bridge the chasm of my isolation. I yearn for the simple joy of nurturing life, yet here I stand, a weary soul wrapped in the chains of disappointment. Every time I see the bright greens and vibrant reds of thriving plants online, it cuts deeper. I wonder if I will ever know that feeling, or if I will remain alone in this garden of shadows. The promise of a flourishing indoor garden now feels like a mirage, a fleeting glimpse of what could have been if only I were capable of growing beyond my sorrow. Perhaps it’s not just about gardening; perhaps it’s about connection—seeking companionship in a world that often feels cold. I long for someone who understands the weight of this solitude, who knows the struggle of wanting to cultivate something beautiful but feeling lost in the process. With every passing day, I realize that the seeds I wish to plant go beyond soil and water; they are a testament to my desire for companionship, for growth, for life. And so, I sit here, clutching my dreams tightly, hoping that someday I will learn to grow not just plants, but the courage to embrace the beauty around me despite the shadows that linger. #Gardyn #IndoorGarden #Hydroponics #Loneliness #Heartbreak

🎉✨ Hello, amazing friends! Today, I am absolutely thrilled to share an extraordinary breakthrough in the world of medical science that is sure to inspire all of us! 💖🚀 Imagine a child, full of dreams and laughter, facing challenges that seem insurmountable. Now, picture a groundbreaking innovation that not only transforms lives but also brings hope and joy back into the heart of a family! This is exactly what the pioneering achievement of the first-ever complete femur transplant printed in 3D for a pediatric patient represents! 🦴💫 In our latest edition of #3DExpress, we celebrate this remarkable milestone where technology and compassion intersect! 🎊 The power of 3D printing is revolutionizing medicine, making the impossible possible. This incredible prosthesis wasn’t just designed; it was tailored specifically for a young hero who needed it the most. The precision and customization that 3D printing allows means that every single detail is crafted to fit perfectly, ensuring comfort and functionality. How amazing is that? 🌈👏 This isn't just a medical achievement; it's a story of resilience, hope, and the unyielding spirit of innovation! 💪🌟 It reminds us that every challenge faced can lead to solutions we once thought were out of reach. As we follow the journey of this young patient, we are reminded of the strength of community and the power of support. Together, we can uplift each other, foster creativity, and inspire breakthroughs that change lives! 🌍❤️ Let's take a moment to appreciate the brilliant minds working tirelessly in the fields of medicine and technology. Their dedication and ingenuity are paving the way for a brighter future where all children can thrive, free from limitations! This is not just about science; it's about hope, possibilities, and the relentless pursuit of a better tomorrow! 🌅💕 So, to every innovator, dreamer, and believer out there, keep pushing boundaries! The world needs your light! Let’s celebrate this wonderful achievement and continue to spread positivity and support for those who are working to make the world a better place, one innovation at a time! 🌟🌈 Together, we can build a future filled with hope and healing, where every child can dance, run, and play without fear! Let’s keep the momentum going! #3DPrinting #MedicalInnovation #HopeAndHealing #ChildrensHealth #Inspiration

Researchers unexpectedly discovered toxic airborne pollutants in Oklahoma. The image above depicts a field in Oklahoma. Credit: Shutterstock University of Colorado Boulder researchers made the first-ever airborne detection of Medium Chain Chlorinated Paraffinsin the Western Hemisphere. Sometimes, scientific research feels a lot like solving a mystery. Scientists head into the field with a clear goal and a solid hypothesis, but then the data reveals something surprising. That’s when the real detective work begins. This is exactly what happened to a team from the University of Colorado Boulder during a recent field study in rural Oklahoma. They were using a state-of-the-art instrument to track how tiny particles form and grow in the air. But instead of just collecting expected data, they uncovered something completely new: the first-ever airborne detection of Medium Chain Chlorinated Paraffins, a kind of toxic organic pollutant, in the Western Hemisphere. The teams findings were published in ACS Environmental Au. “It’s very exciting as a scientist to find something unexpected like this that we weren’t looking for,” said Daniel Katz, CU Boulder chemistry PhD student and lead author of the study. “We’re starting to learn more about this toxic, organic pollutant that we know is out there, and which we need to understand better.” MCCPs are currently under consideration for regulation by the Stockholm Convention, a global treaty to protect human health from long-standing and widespread chemicals. While the toxic pollutants have been measured in Antarctica and Asia, researchers haven’t been sure how to document them in the Western Hemisphere’s atmosphere until now. From Wastewater to Farmlands MCCPs are used in fluids for metal working and in the construction of PVC and textiles. They are often found in wastewater and as a result, can end up in biosolid fertilizer, also called sewage sludge, which is created when liquid is removed from wastewater in a treatment plant. In Oklahoma, researchers suspect the MCCPs they identified came from biosolid fertilizer in the fields near where they set up their instrument. “When sewage sludges are spread across the fields, those toxic compounds could be released into the air,” Katz said. “We can’t show directly that that’s happening, but we think it’s a reasonable way that they could be winding up in the air. Sewage sludge fertilizers have been shown to release similar compounds.” MCCPs little cousins, Short Chain Chlorinated Paraffins, are currently regulated by the Stockholm Convention, and since 2009, by the EPA here in the United States. Regulation came after studies found the toxic pollutants, which travel far and last a long time in the atmosphere, were harmful to human health. But researchers hypothesize that the regulation of SCCPs may have increased MCCPs in the environment. “We always have these unintended consequences of regulation, where you regulate something, and then there’s still a need for the products that those were in,” said Ellie Browne, CU Boulder chemistry professor, CIRES Fellow, and co-author of the study. “So they get replaced by something.” Measurement of aerosols led to a new and surprising discovery Using a nitrate chemical ionization mass spectrometer, which allows scientists to identify chemical compounds in the air, the team measured air at the agricultural site 24 hours a day for one month. As Katz cataloged the data, he documented the different isotopic patterns in the compounds. The compounds measured by the team had distinct patterns, and he noticed new patterns that he immediately identified as different from the known chemical compounds. With some additional research, he identified them as chlorinated paraffins found in MCCPs. Katz says the makeup of MCCPs are similar to PFAS, long-lasting toxic chemicals that break down slowly over time. Known as “forever chemicals,” their presence in soils recently led the Oklahoma Senate to ban biosolid fertilizer. Now that researchers know how to measure MCCPs, the next step might be to measure the pollutants at different times throughout the year to understand how levels change each season. Many unknowns surrounding MCCPs remain, and there’s much more to learn about their environmental impacts. “We identified them, but we still don’t know exactly what they do when they are in the atmosphere, and they need to be investigated further,” Katz said. “I think it’s important that we continue to have governmental agencies that are capable of evaluating the science and regulating these chemicals as necessary for public health and safety.” Reference: “Real-Time Measurements of Gas-Phase Medium-Chain Chlorinated Paraffins Reveal Daily Changes in Gas-Particle Partitioning Controlled by Ambient Temperature” by Daniel John Katz, Bri Dobson, Mitchell Alton, Harald Stark, Douglas R. Worsnop, Manjula R. Canagaratna and Eleanor C. Browne, 5 June 2025, ACS Environmental Au. DOI: 10.1021/acsenvironau.5c00038 Never miss a breakthrough: Join the SciTechDaily newsletter. #scientists #detect #unusual #airborne #toxin

June 13, 20256 min readAir-Conditioning Can Surprisingly Help the Power Grid during Extreme HeatSwitching on air-conditioning during extreme heat doesn’t have to make us feel guilty—it can actually boost power grid reliability and help bring more renewable energy onlineBy Johanna Mathieu & The Conversation US Imagedepotpro/Getty ImagesThe following essay is reprinted with permission from The Conversation, an online publication covering the latest research.As summer arrives, people are turning on air conditioners in most of the U.S. But if you’re like me, you always feel a little guilty about that. Past generations managed without air conditioning – do I really need it? And how bad is it to use all this electricity for cooling in a warming world?If I leave my air conditioner off, I get too hot. But if everyone turns on their air conditioner at the same time, electricity demand spikes, which can force power grid operators to activate some of the most expensive, and dirtiest, power plants. Sometimes those spikes can ask too much of the grid and lead to brownouts or blackouts.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.Research I recently published with a team of scholars makes me feel a little better, though. We have found that it is possible to coordinate the operation of large numbers of home air-conditioning units, balancing supply and demand on the power grid – and without making people endure high temperatures inside their homes.Studies along these lines, using remote control of air conditioners to support the grid, have for many years explored theoretical possibilities like this. However, few approaches have been demonstrated in practice and never for such a high-value application and at this scale. The system we developed not only demonstrated the ability to balance the grid on timescales of seconds, but also proved it was possible to do so without affecting residents’ comfort.The benefits include increasing the reliability of the power grid, which makes it easier for the grid to accept more renewable energy. Our goal is to turn air conditioners from a challenge for the power grid into an asset, supporting a shift away from fossil fuels toward cleaner energy.Adjustable equipmentMy research focuses on batteries, solar panels and electric equipment – such as electric vehicles, water heaters, air conditioners and heat pumps – that can adjust itself to consume different amounts of energy at different times.Originally, the U.S. electric grid was built to transport electricity from large power plants to customers’ homes and businesses. And originally, power plants were large, centralized operations that burned coal or natural gas, or harvested energy from nuclear reactions. These plants were typically always available and could adjust how much power they generated in response to customer demand, so the grid would be balanced between power coming in from producers and being used by consumers.But the grid has changed. There are more renewable energy sources, from which power isn’t always available – like solar panels at night or wind turbines on calm days. And there are the devices and equipment I study. These newer options, called “distributed energy resources,” generate or store energy near where consumers need it – or adjust how much energy they’re using in real time.One aspect of the grid hasn’t changed, though: There’s not much storage built into the system. So every time you turn on a light, for a moment there’s not enough electricity to supply everything that wants it right then: The grid needs a power producer to generate a little more power. And when you turn off a light, there’s a little too much: A power producer needs to ramp down.The way power plants know what real-time power adjustments are needed is by closely monitoring the grid frequency. The goal is to provide electricity at a constant frequency – 60 hertz – at all times. If more power is needed than is being produced, the frequency drops and a power plant boosts output. If there’s too much power being produced, the frequency rises and a power plant slows production a little. These actions, a process called “frequency regulation,” happen in a matter of seconds to keep the grid balanced.This output flexibility, primarily from power plants, is key to keeping the lights on for everyone.Finding new optionsI’m interested in how distributed energy resources can improve flexibility in the grid. They can release more energy, or consume less, to respond to the changing supply or demand, and help balance the grid, ensuring the frequency remains near 60 hertz.Some people fear that doing so might be invasive, giving someone outside your home the ability to control your battery or air conditioner. Therefore, we wanted to see if we could help balance the grid with frequency regulation using home air-conditioning units rather than power plants – without affecting how residents use their appliances or how comfortable they are in their homes.From 2019 to 2023, my group at the University of Michigan tried this approach, in collaboration with researchers at Pecan Street Inc., Los Alamos National Laboratory and the University of California, Berkeley, with funding from the U.S. Department of Energy Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy.We recruited 100 homeowners in Austin, Texas, to do a real-world test of our system. All the homes had whole-house forced-air cooling systems, which we connected to custom control boards and sensors the owners allowed us to install in their homes. This equipment let us send instructions to the air-conditioning units based on the frequency of the grid.Before I explain how the system worked, I first need to explain how thermostats work. When people set thermostats, they pick a temperature, and the thermostat switches the air-conditioning compressor on and off to maintain the air temperature within a small range around that set point. If the temperature is set at 68 degrees, the thermostat turns the AC on when the temperature is, say, 70, and turns it off when it’s cooled down to, say, 66.Every few seconds, our system slightly changed the timing of air-conditioning compressor switching for some of the 100 air conditioners, causing the units’ aggregate power consumption to change. In this way, our small group of home air conditioners reacted to grid changes the way a power plant would – using more or less energy to balance the grid and keep the frequency near 60 hertz.Moreover, our system was designed to keep home temperatures within the same small temperature range around the set point.Testing the approachWe ran our system in four tests, each lasting one hour. We found two encouraging results.First, the air conditioners were able to provide frequency regulation at least as accurately as a traditional power plant. Therefore, we showed that air conditioners could play a significant role in increasing grid flexibility. But perhaps more importantly – at least in terms of encouraging people to participate in these types of systems – we found that we were able to do so without affecting people’s comfort in their homes.We found that home temperatures did not deviate more than 1.6 Fahrenheit from their set point. Homeowners were allowed to override the controls if they got uncomfortable, but most didn’t. For most tests, we received zero override requests. In the worst case, we received override requests from two of the 100 homes in our test.In practice, this sort of technology could be added to commercially available internet-connected thermostats. In exchange for credits on their energy bills, users could choose to join a service run by the thermostat company, their utility provider or some other third party.Then people could turn on the air conditioning in the summer heat without that pang of guilt, knowing they were helping to make the grid more reliable and more capable of accommodating renewable energy sources – without sacrificing their own comfort in the process.This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. #airconditioning #can #help #power #grid