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The oceans are losing their light – and with it, possibly their life. A new study reveals more than 20% of the Earth's oceans, an area larger than Asia, has darkened over the last two decades. These findings raise concerns about how this spreading shadow could reshape marine ecosystems that depend on sunlight and moonlight for survival.
Category: Environment, Science
Tags: Ocean, Marine Biology, Light, Climate Crisis
Two bioactive ingredients in cannabis have been found to have antifungal properties when applied topically, according to a groundbreaking new study. The discovery comes as the World Health Organization urgently calls for new treatments for potentially deadly fungal infections.
Category: Wellness & Healthy Living, Body & Mind
Tags: Fungal infections, Antifungal treatments, Cannabis, Cannabinoids, Macquarie University
Ancient Egyptians were not only masters of architecture – they also were the original wizards of synthetic chemistry. Around 5,000 years ago, they crafted the world’s first synthetic pigment, Egyptian blue, which exhibits a range of hues from deep blue to gray or green.
Category: Science
Tags: Color, History, Chemistry, Washington State University
In another advancement in the field of brain-computer interfaces (BCI), a new implant-based system has enabled a paralyzed person to not only talk, but also 'sing' simple melodies through a computer – with practically no delay.
Category: Medical Innovations, Body & Mind
Tags: Brain, Brain-computer interface, Paralysis, Speech, UC Davis, Artificial Intelligence
Fujifilm X-E5 | Fujifilm XF 23mm F2.8 R WR | F2.8 | 1/3200 sec | ISO 250 | Astia
Photo: Richard Butler
This week, Fujifilm announced the X-E5, a rangefinder-style mirrorless camera aimed at enthusiasts. At this point, the tech at its heart is pretty well-known. The stabilized 40MP APS-C sensor has been kicking around in cameras like the X-H2, X-T5, and X-T50, so we're not expecting any surprises when it comes to image quality; this is a system that Fujifilm's spent a lot of time dialing in.
What is new is the introduction of the company's (in?)famous film simulation dial to an enthusiast-class camera. It's sporting a new retro look, sure, but its goal remains the same: to get you to play around with the different color modes that Fujifilm is well-known for. It even builds on the concept by allowing you to fill the custom slots with film "recipes," which are groups of settings that the community has put together to get certain looks out of their JPEGs.
We spent some time using the camera and, yes, the film simulation dial to get a feel for how it performs in a variety of situations. Feel free to browse through the photos to see how it did.
Please do not reproduce any of these images on a website or any newsletter/magazine without prior permission (see our copyright page). We make the originals available for private users to download to their own machines for personal examination or printing; we do so in good faith, so please don't abuse it.
Sample galleryThis widget is not optimized for RSS feed readers. Click here to open it in a new browser window / tab.This week, Fujifilm announced a new rangefinder-style camera aimed at enthusiasts: the X-E5. It sparked a lot of discussion about what features a camera of this class should have, what the X-E line going back upmarket means for Fujifilm's lineup as a whole and especially about its pricing, which is substantially different in the US than in the rest of the world.
Some of DPReview's staff sat down to talk about the X-E5 and the community's reaction to it. You can catch our thoughts in the video below.
DJI's latest enterprise-grade drone, the Matrice 400, is seriously specced for all kinds of heavy-duty tasks. Aimed at construction crews, infrastructure planning agencies, and emergency response teams, the flagship model can fly for a whopping 59 minutes, and boasts a payload capacity of 13 lb (6 kg).
Category: Drones, Consumer Tech, Technology
Tags: DJI Innovations, Camera drone
The defining characteristic of a two-stroke engine is to fire (combust) every time the piston is at top dead center. This makes them highly power dense, but also notoriously makes two-stroke engines dirty, inefficient, and not prone to long lifespans.
Category: Automotive, Transport
Tags: Engineering, Two-stroke, Engine Technologies
When it comes to dental checkups, no one likes having their gums poked with the periodontal probe. Well, they may soon no longer have to, thanks to a gum-assessing toothbrush-shaped mini ultrasound transducer.
Category: Medical Devices, Medical Innovations, Body & Mind
Tags: UC San Diego, American Chemical Society, Teeth, Dental, Ultrasound, Medical Imaging
Spending a few minutes a day for a week doing simple things that bring joy increases well-being, decreases stress, and improves sleep, according to a new study. It shows you don’t need to invest in time-consuming well-being interventions for them to be effective.
Category: Wellness & Healthy Living, Body & Mind
Tags: Happiness, Well-being, Sleep, Stress, University of California San Francisco
Mercedes-Benz has just released a striking new model: a limited-run version of the iconic G-Class off-roader. This special edition pays homage to the very first G-Class model series, the W460, particularly recalling the 280 GE which served as the foundation for the legendary "Geländewagen."
Category: Automotive, Transport
Tags: Mercedes-Benz, Off-road, Mercedes Benz G-Class, Mercedes, SUV
Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology have demonstrated an entirely new form of magnetism in a synthesized crystalline material. They're calling it p-wave magnetism.
Tags: Magnetism, Spintronics, Electronic, MIT
On July 16, 1945, the United States conducted the world's first test of a nuclear bomb. The Trinity test sent fallout well beyond the desert of New Mexico, though, and an unlikely source discovered it. A video from YouTuber Veritasium details that incident, explaining how famous film company Kodak accidentally discovered radiation on its X-ray film. It's not a new video, and it's a story that may be familiar to some, but it's too fascinating not to share again.
As the video explains, in 1945, Eastman Kodak Company noticed fogging on its X-ray film. The company began testing and discovered unusual radioactive contamination on the strawboard material used for packaging its photo-sensitive films. The board was produced at a mill in Vincennes, Indiana on August 6, 1945, not long after the nuclear test and, coincidentally, the same day Hiroshima was bombed.
After further testing between September and December 1945, Kodak noticed the boards showed fairly strong beta-activity, which ruled out naturally radioactive materials. Eventually, Kodak determined that this radiation was consistent with the isotope Cerium-141. A paper published in Physical Review in 1949 reports Kodak's findings: "The most likely explanation seems to be that it was a wind-borne fission product derived from the atom-bomb detonation in New Mexico on July 16, 1945."
In January 1951, Kodak noticed continued problems. The company complained to the US government and threatened to sue, so the "Atomic Energy Commission agreed to give the company 'advance information on future tests,' including 'expected distribution of radioactive material in order to anticipate local contamination,'" explains the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research.
This isn't the only weird story about Kodak, either. For years, the company's film production wing was owned by the UK government's pension fund. Both are intriguing situations that are just part of Kodak's interesting history.
Soft corals produce diterpenoids, chemicals that could be used to treat human disease. Now, scientists have identified the genes that make these important chemicals, opening the door to creating a limitless supply that can be used to produce and test new drugs.
Category: Illnesses and conditions, Body & Mind
Tags: Coral, Biotherapeutics, Diterpenoids, Cancer, UC San Diego
Volkswagen has added an eight-seat option to the new Multivan lineup, turning its passenger van into an even more capable people-mover. While the eight-seat option won't be on offer in the new California camper van range, there will indeed be an eight-seat camper option. So owners will be able to shuttle around an entire starting basketball team, plus the coach and sixth man, during the week, then enjoy a properly comfy hard-wall van camping experience on weekends.
Category: Campervans, Adventure Vehicles, Outdoors
Tags: Campervan, Volkswagen, Minivan, Multi-functional, Van, RV, Modular
As unspent antibiotics pass from our bodies into the environment, they contribute to the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Scientists are addressing this problem with a new technology which causes such drugs to only become active upon exposure to green light.
Category: Infectious Diseases, Illnesses and conditions, Body & Mind
Tags: University of Groningen, Antibiotic-resistant bacteria, Light, Infections, American Chemical Society, Antibiotic
An initiative designed to significantly reduce the carbon footprint of maritime transport in the Gulf of Finland is set to have the world's largest electric passenger-car ferry among its fleet. Operator Viking Line has unveiled the first details of its upcoming Helios vessel.
We've made it to Friday, folks. That means it's time to share some firmware news. We already shared the most significant firmware news of the week: a massive update for Nikon Z8 cameras. It introduces multiple new features, but it isn't yet available for download. Nikon also released a more modest update for the Z5, though, which is available for download now. Plus, Sony is offering an update for the a6700, which brings some worthy quality-of-life updates. Let's get into it.
Sony a6700 Ver. 2.00 Image: SonyDownload page for firmware Ver. 2.00
Sony's latest firmware for the a6700 brings some helpful changes, many of which are related to file transfers. The a6700 will now let you continue shooting even when transferring files to a phone or tablet, which is especially useful when photographing events or working in fast-paced environments. Also helpful is the ability to resume transfers if they are interrupted, instead of needing to start the process over again. Plus, the update allows you to only transfer data that hasn't already been sent, preventing duplicates.
The update promises improved image quality when using LUTs, though Sony doesn't say exactly what that means. Here's all you can expect from firmware Ver. 2.00:
Download page for firmware Ver. 1.50
Nikon's update for the Z5 is much more subtle than its Z8 firmware announcement. Most notable is the added support for power zoom functionality, which the company added to the Z6 II and Z7 II last week. Here are all of the updates for the Nikon Z5:
There's a common saying in the photography world: The best camera is the one you have with you. After all, it doesn't matter how fancy of a camera you own if you don't have it when something worthy of photographs appears. These days, nearly everyone constantly has a camera with them in the form of a smartphone. If you'd like to maximize image quality from your pocket-sized camera, here are some settings you may want to adjust.
Stick to the main camera Your phone's main camera will give you the best image quality.Most smartphones feature two or three different cameras on the back and one on the front, each equipped with sensors of varying sizes. The main camera uses the largest sensor, offering the highest resolution and best light-gathering abilities. So, when image quality is crucial, you're better off using the main camera instead of the other options.
Most cameras will open the main camera by default when you launch the camera app. If you aren't sure, make sure the 1x focal length is selected. If you do want a different field of view (how much you see of a scene), stick to the preset options, such as 0.5x or 2x. Pinching to zoom relies on digital cropping and enlargement, reducing quality.
Shoot in Raw or HEIC Shooting Raw will give you more flexibility when editing your images.Some phones will allow you to use Raw file types. While most phones' Raws are still stitched together from multiple exposures, they typically preserve more image data and may apply less processing, giving you greater flexibility when editing. If you know you want to edit your phone photos before sharing them, using the Raw file type will give you more control and help you get more out of your files.
Use Manual/Pro Modes Even if your phone doesn't have a manual mode, it may provide quick controls for brightness, shadows and white balance. The Pixel 9a, for example, allows you to put those controls on the side of the app.While phones usually do a pretty good job of handling exposure, they sometimes miss the mark or don't produce what you envision. Most will offer quick exposure compensation or brightness adjustments without getting into individual settings, but that may not be enough. Many phones offer some variety of manual or Pro mode. Those modes allow you to change settings like ISO, shutter speed and white balance, giving you more creative control over your images.
ISO is a particularly useful setting to adjust, as it can significantly impact image quality. Prioritizing a low ISO when you're working with enough light will help you get a cleaner image with minimal noise, thus improving overall image quality. Just be aware that you'll need higher ISOs in low-light situations.
Explore third-party camera apps Even the ProCam X Lite app (a free version of ProCam X) offers more control over settings than most default apps provide.Lastly, some phones either don't offer manual controls at all, or they may be far too basic and limiting. Likewise, you may want to bypass the automatic image processing from your phone's native camera app. If that's the case, a third-party camera app may be helpful. There are lots of options out there, including ProCamX, OpenCamera, ProShot, ProCamera, Halide Mark II and more.
Choose the full aspect ratioChoosing a 4:3 aspect ratio will help you capture the full image without automatic cropping. The Google Pixel 9a, like many phones, defaults to that.
Phone sensors generally use a 4:3 aspect ratio, but your phone's camera app likely provides other options, such as 16:9. Those ratios result from cropping, though. Sticking with 4:3 allows you to use the full sensor, giving you more flexibility to crop after the fact and helping you get as much as you can from that small sensor.
Trust the default resolution The Nothing Phone 3a offers a 50MP setting, but it defaults to 12MP.Some smartphone companies flaunt their high-resolution cameras, but their phones don't use those resolutions unless you change the settings. The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, for example, is capable of 200MP photos. But the camera app isn't usually set to that maximum resolution by default.
While switching to that higher resolution may be tempting when trying to maximize quality, it's not always the best idea. After all, the default resolution is set that way for a reason, and you may not get better image quality from those higher resolutions. That's because most maximum megapixel modes won't benefit from the pixel binning that helps reduce noise in the lower-resolution modes, so you may not actually end up with more detail.
Final thoughtsEven though phone cameras have become quite good, they still won't match the quality of most dedicated cameras, especially in low-light situations. However, by adjusting the settings above, you may be able to tease out more quality, helping you to get the most out of your on-hand camera. Just don't forget that general photography principles apply as well.
Backcountry Containers has designed lots of different types of shipping container homes, from large residential units to smaller rural retreats. For its Luke tiny house, the firm connects a large and a small shipping container together, offering a surprisingly spacious interior layout that sleeps up to two people in comfort.
Category: Tiny Houses, Outdoors
Tags: Building and Construction, Tiny Footprint, Micro-House, Home, House, shipping containers
