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Behind the ballistics of the 'explosive' squirting cucumber

This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Squirting cucumber (Ecballium elaterium). Credit: Helen Gorges New research into the biomechanics of explosive seed dispersal in squirting cucumbers (Ecballium elaterium) reveals how these plants have adapted a suite of unique traits that help propel their high-speed seeds far and wide. Seed dispersal comes in many

I'm betting against AI agents, despite building them

Everyone says 2025 is the year of AI agents. The headlines are everywhere: "Autonomous AI will transform work," "Agents are the next frontier," "The future is agentic." Meanwhile, I've spent the last year building many different agent systems that actually work in production. And that's exactly why I'm betting against the current hype. I'm not some AI skeptic writing from the sidelines. Over the past year, I've built more than a dozen production agent systems across the entire software developm

13 of the Best Movies Peacock Has to Offer

Peacock is full of must-see movies. Sure, the streaming conversation is often focused on the top-tier platforms like Netflix, Disney Plus and Prime Video. But the NBC Universal-owned streamer deserves its flowers -- and I'm going to show you why. Let's talk about blockbusters for a second. Universal Pictures has been churning out box office hits and Oscar-winning flicks for more than a century. A large sampling of these titles can be found here, including the first-ever blockbuster, Jaws, among

How to Limit Galaxy AI to On-Device Processing—or Turn It Off Altogether

Artificial intelligence is now more pervasive than ever in the apps and gadgets we use day to day, and that of course extends to smartphones: Google Gemini on Pixels and other Android handsets, Apple Intelligence (currently still rolling out) on iPhones, and Galaxy AI on Samsung smartphones. These tools can help you refine text, generate images, and summarize documents, among other tricks, and you don't have to go far through your apps to find an AI feature ready and willing to help you with so

The Switch 2’s next killer app is already here

is a news editor covering technology, gaming, and more. He joined The Verge in 2019 after nearly two years at Techmeme. Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 90, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, hope you’re staying cool, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.) I also have for you a new Donkey Kong title, OpenAI’s next big AI agent, a customizable gamepad, and more. Let’s dive in. (As always, the best part of

I asked Alexa Plus to tackle my to-do list — it mostly failed

is a senior reviewer focused on smart home and connected tech, with over twenty years of experience. She has written previously for Wirecutter, Wired, Dwell, BBC, and US News. One of the best features of Amazon’s new Alexa Plus is that I don’t have to “speak Alexa” anymore. I’ve been testing the voice assistant for about a week now, and it understands what I say, regardless of how I say it — there’s no more need for precise phrasing to get Alexa to do what I want. This big shift underpins anoth

The Galaxy Z Fold 7 is my first foldable phone, and it totally caught me off guard

Adamya Sharma / Android Authority I’ve handled every foldable phone Samsung has ever launched. I have admired their engineering. I have watched with jealousy as people at airport lounges and hotel lobbies dramatically unfold their devices like they were unfolding a future I have purposely denied myself. But despite my curiosity and awe, I’ve stayed far, far away from foldables, especially book-style devices. Samsung’s flip phones still felt closer to home for someone like me who’s used only sla

Apple's latest iPad hit a new low price at Walmart - and it's available in every color

Maria Diaz/ZDNET An iPad can help with success in many areas, such as school, professional work, content creation, and more. With the new school year just around the corner, there's no better time to scoop up the most recent iPad model from Walmart. Also: Why I like the base iPad more than the Pro and Air - especially at this price Right now, the 11th-Gen 128GB iPad is on sale for $299, which is $50 off its original retail price of $350. If you need more storage space, the 256GB iPad is retai

This Apple Watch model is my favorite and I use it daily - right now, it's over 30% off

'ZDNET Recommends': What exactly does it mean? ZDNET's recommendations are based on many hours of testing, research, and comparison shopping. We gather data from the best available sources, including vendor and retailer listings as well as other relevant and independent reviews sites. And we pore over customer reviews to find out what matters to real people who already own and use the products and services we’re assessing. When you click through from our site to a retailer and buy a product or

A Treatise for One Network – Anonymous National Deliberation [pdf]

Authoritarian regimes thrive by systematically dividing their opposition and silencing the populace, creating a crisis where citizens feel isolated and powerless. This paper proposes a technological solution: a new, secure feature within Telegram to bridge these divisions and forge a genuine national consensus. Executive Summary "The protocol is remarkably efficient, capable of distilling the views of a population of 100 million participants down to a core group of 100 in as few as six weeks.

“Bypassing” specialization in Rust

"Bypassing" specialization in Rust or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Function Pointers I've spent nearly a year developing and refining my own FAT driver in Rust. For much of the last six months, I had to put the project on hold due to school commitments. However, I'm back now, especially since this project has become my most-starred repository on GitHub. During that journey, I (almost) learned how FAT and filesystems in general work behind-the-scenes and in my attempts to navigate the

Show HN: ggc – A terminal-based Git CLI written in Go

ggc A Go Git CLI. This logo was created by gopherize.me. Demo Overview ggc is a Git tool written in Go, offering both traditional CLI commands and an interactive interface with incremental search. You can either run subcommands like ggc add directly, or launch the interactive mode by simply typing ggc. Designed to be fast, user-friendly, and extensible. Features Traditional command-line interface (CLI): Run ggc [args] to execute specific operations directly. Interactive interface: Run gg

Async I/O on Linux in databases

I've been working on a complex multi-model database for a few weeks now, and recently I took time to simplify and test out an idea I had on a simple key-value database. I started with the basics: A hash table in memory, a simple append-only log for persistence and durability, and the classic fsync() call after every write to the log for durability. It worked, but wasn't as fast as it could be. In Kevo, that's the approach I use, but in Klay (not public yet, but will be open sourced when ready)

Why I'm Betting Against AI Agents in 2025 (Despite Building Them)

Everyone says 2025 is the year of AI agents. The headlines are everywhere: "Autonomous AI will transform work," "Agents are the next frontier," "The future is agentic." Meanwhile, I've spent the last year building many different agent systems that actually work in production. And that's exactly why I'm betting against the current hype. I'm not some AI skeptic writing from the sidelines. Over the past year, I've built more than a dozen production agent systems across the entire software developm

The bewildering phenomenon of declining quality

It’s as if the smell of burnt plastic from a dollar store has permeated the world. Things are worse: chipboard furniture, T-shirts unrecognizable after a second wash, packaged foods with more preservatives than ingredients. Airplane seats turned into backrests. Automatic restroom lights that turn off at a whim. But also newspaper articles shamelessly written with ChatGPT and its algorithmic prose. Nothing is made to be loved. Only to be bought. In a study titled The Concept and Measurement of P

Your Recession FAQs Answered: 5 Tips to Help You Prepare, Not Panic

Recession risks are down, but keep your guard up. Getty Images/Jeffrey Hazelwood/CNET Early this spring, talk of a recession swirled after President Donald Trump began his chaotic tariff campaign. The likelihood of a severe economic downturn hit 66%, according to Polymarket. As Trump deferred some of his most aggressive trade proposals, those forecasts leveled out, but the contours of a potential recession are hard to ignore. Growth in the first quarter of 2025? Down. Jobless claims? Sharply h

What Makes Cheap Earbuds a Real Value? Here's How I Find the Hidden Gems

A few months ago, Final Audio, a boutique Japanese brand, sent me its new, relatively low-priced ZE3000 SV noise-canceling earbuds to test. I was curious: Would this be a hidden gem among the dozens, even hundreds, of budget headphone options out there? Even as a full-time reviewer of these products, I can't keep up with all of them. So I did what I always do. I charged them up, then swapped out the default medium-size tips for the largest set of included ear tips and hoped I'd get a tight seal

Renewed iPad Pros pair nicely with iPadOS 26, and they’re quite affordable right now

A short while ago, I was browsing Apple deals on Amazon (as one does) – and something stuck out to me. High-end iPad Pros, particularly 12.9-inch models, are surprisingly cheap. I saw M1 models with 1TB and cellular for nearly $600. Given the recent iPadOS 26 overhaul that makes the iPad much more Mac-like, I figured these deals would be worth a share. While renewed iPad deals are the focus here because of their affordability, new iPad deals are also mentioned at the end. Renewed M1 iPad Pro d

"Bypassing" Specialization in Rust or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love F

"Bypassing" specialization in Rust or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Function Pointers I've spent nearly a year developing and refining my own FAT driver in Rust. For much of the last six months, I had to put the project on hold due to school commitments. However, I'm back now, especially since this project has become my most-starred repository on GitHub. During that journey, I (almost) learned how FAT and filesystems in general work behind-the-scenes and in my attempts to navigate the

The tech that the US Post Office gave us

is a news writer who covers the streaming wars, consumer tech, crypto, social media, and much more. Previously, she was a writer and editor at MUO. When you crack open your mailbox, it’s almost as if your letters just appear. Long before the days of speedy, overnight mail deliveries, postal service workers meticulously sorted through letters by hand and transported mail on horseback. For more than 250 years, the US Postal Service has worked behind the scenes to build a faster delivery network,

Piramidal (YC W24) is hiring a full stack engineer

We are looking for a software engineer to help us enable interactions and automations with Piramidal’s newest technologies. We value proactive, customer-centric engineers who prioritize foundational details (data models, architecture, security) to enable excellent products. In this role you will: Build and maintain the infrastructure and backend systems for our flagship platform focused on neural data. Collaborate closely with ML engineers to iterate on applying our latest models. and Work w

Today's Wordle Hints, Answer and Help for July 20, #1492

Gael Cooper CNET editor Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, a journalist and pop-culture junkie, is co-author of "Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the '70s and '80s," as well as "The Totally Sweet '90s." She's been a journalist since 1989, working at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, Twin Cities Sidewalk, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and NBC News Digital. She's Gen X in birthdate, word and deed. If Marathon candy bars ever come back, she'll be first in line.

In Court for Fatal Crash, Tesla Admits It Wasn't Even Tracking Autopilot Crashes for the First Three Years of the Program

With so many massive and well-publicized safety issues, nothing should surprise us about Tesla's internal culture — but new revelations from the country's first federal Autopilot crash trial have us shaken once again. As Law360 reports, an engineer at Elon Musk's car company revealed during a wrongful death trial this week that until 2018, the company didn't even keep records of Autopilot crashes — even though the assisted driving feature had been rolled out three years prior. In a taped depos

EA's big reveal for its next Battlefield game may already be spoiled

Looks like we can skip the drum roll for the next Battlefield title reveal. Seen in a leak of Electronic Arts' upcoming first-person shooter, the company is shipping promotional materials to content creators for Battlefield 6. The name drop may not be all that surprising, but the highly anticipated title could be a turning point for EA that follows up on Battlefield 2042, which was released in 2021 and currently sits at a Mixed review rating on Steam. In the since-deleted post, gaming YouTuber

ChatGPT"s GPT-5-reasoning-alpha model spotted ahead of launch

GPT-5 might be just a few days or weeks away, as we've spotted references to a new model called gpt-5-reasoning-alpha-2025-07-13. As spotted on X, OpenAI is testing a model called "gpt-5-reasoning-alpha-2025-07-13." This model was finalised on the 13th of July, and it appears to be the final round of testing. "Models: openai/gpt-5-reasoning-alpha-2025-07-13: reasoning_effort: high," one of the code references read. Alexander Wei, a researcher at OpenAI, recently confirmed that GPT-5 is on it

Topics: alpha gpt model o3 openai

North America's Oldest Known Pterosaur

A Smithsonian-led team of researchers have discovered North America’s oldest known pterosaur, the winged reptiles that lived alongside dinosaurs and were the first vertebrates to evolve powered flight. In a paper published today, July 7, in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers led by paleontologist Ben Kligman, a Peter Buck Postdoctoral Fellow at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, present the fossilized jawbone of the new species and describe the sea gu

Babies made using three people's DNA are born free of mitochondrial disease

Babies made using three people's DNA are born free of hereditary disease 3 days ago Share Save James Gallagher • @JamesTGallagher Health and science correspondent Share Save Watch the moment DNA from a mum and dad is injected into the egg of another woman - the critical step in the creation of a baby made from three people Eight babies have been born in the UK using genetic material from three people to prevent devastating and often fatal conditions, doctors say. The method, pioneered by UK s

Sales Tax Holidays: 17 States Are Holding Tax-Free Back-to-School Shopping Events This Summer. Here's When

State sales tax holidays usually run for one weekend, though some states offer longer exemptions. Tharon Green/CNET If you haven't already started buying back-to-school essentials, shopping during a sales tax holiday can offer some extra savings. These tax-free shopping events typically center on back-to-school items, offering discounts on clothing, school supplies, laptops and athletic gear. This year, 17 states are participating in a tax-free event, with one starting this weekend, and two m

Topics: free item items sales tax