1. Open Settings on your iPhone.


2. Tap Personal Hotspot.


3. Below the "Maximize Compatibility" toggle, tap Data Usage.

Installing wheels on a tortoise might seem like a cruel joke—but a veterinary practice in the Philippines recently did so to help out an Aldabra giant tortoise (Aldabrachelys gigantea) with troubled hind legs. 

As the name suggests, Aldabra giant tortoises are among the largest land tortoises. Also referred to as the Aldabra tortoise or giant tortoise, this reptile can weigh up to 550 pounds and can live over 150 years. Interestingly, Charles Darwin, among others, worked to protect the species. 

The tortoise in question lived at a private zoo, but its legs weren’t working properly. The zoo referred the case to Nielsen Donato, chief surgeon at Vets in Practice, a vet practice with seven locations in metro Manila. Donato and his team did X-rays on their large patient, but didn’t detect dislocations or fractures. 

“Mostly we think it could be weakness of the hind legs, could be neurological in origin,” Donato tells Popular Science. “Probably there were other companions, which sometimes when they try to hump on each other or mount on each other, this can cause trauma to the hind legs, and it took a while for it to recover.” The mounting can represent either playful or mating behavior. 

The team started treating the issue with anti-inflammatory laser therapy, but then also did something that might be surprsing—they installed four wheels on its plastron, the part of the shell beneath tortoises and turtles. A social media video features the tortoise looking rather bewildered as Donato installs its bright orange wheels on its underside. 

“We measured the height. Initially, it looked like it was too tall, but we wanted to put less pressure on the legs, and this would also allow it to have a better range of motion when it’s trying to walk,” Donato explains. As soon as they put the tortoise with its newly acquired rolling powers back on the ground, “it showed some improvements with its mobility, and we sent it home.” 

After some time the wheels were removed and the tortoise went back to walking normally.

The post Injured turtle gets a second chance on four wheels  appeared first on Popular Science.

• A large rectangular frame, reminiscent of Ray-Ban Wayfarers


• A slimmer rectangular design, similar to the glasses worn by Apple CEO Tim Cook


• Larger oval or circular frames


• A smaller, more refined oval or circular option

Your gas-powered yard tools have served you well. You’ll always have fond memories of trying to cold start that chainsaw from the ’80s while hoping you got the fuel mix just right. But, it’s time to go electric. And the Spring Black Friday sale (April 9–22) at The Home Depot has some of the best prices of the year on cordless mowers, trimmers, blowers, and chainsaws. Many of these models are just as powerful (if not more powerful) than their gas-powered counterparts. Plus, they require less maintenance and fuel costs.

Ryobi’s 18V HP combo kit gives you an Expand-It attachment-capable string trimmer and a 510 CFM leaf blower on a single 4.0Ah battery. Right now buying the kit gets you one free select tool through June 21. The free tool options include an 8-in. edger attachment ($99 value), an 18V 6-in. pruning chainsaw ($99 value), or an 18V high-performance 4.0Ah battery ($129 value). For someone building out the Ryobi ONE+ ecosystem, this is a particularly strong entry point.

Ryobi’s 40V HP mower is the brand’s most capable push mower. The brushless motor and 6.0Ah battery handle up to an acre on a full charge in ideal conditions, and it delivers consistent cutting power right through tall grass and wet conditions. The free 40V blower bundle (delivers 450 CFM and 120 mph) while supplies last is the real draw here.

A $60 discount on Ryobi’s 40V brushless chainsaw brings one of the most capable battery-powered saws in this size class to an even more approachable price. The 16-in. bar handles downed trees and large branch cleanup with ease, and the 4.0Ah battery provides enough runtime for most residential tasks. The 40V battery is also shared with the mower above, so if you’re building an ecosystem, this is a natural pairing.

This burly mower uses two M18 batteries in parallel to deliver sustained power comparable to a gas engine, and the dual-blade mulching system delivers an exceptionally clean cut. Two 12.0Ah FORGE batteries and a rapid charger are included. At $200 off, this is the lowest price we’ve seen on this kit.

Milwaukee’s updated QUIK-LOK combo kit pairs the M18 FUEL 16-in. string trimmer with the M18 FUEL blower and an 8.0Ah battery for $399. That’s a full $100 off the regular $499 price. The QUIK-LOK system means one powerhead accepts multiple attachments (edger, pole saw, hedge trimmer), making this a genuine yard-tool platform rather than just two standalone tools. Valid through April 22.

Milwaukee’s Hatchet pruning saw is the tool that converted a generation of landscapers away from gas-powered gear. It’s compact, lightweight, handles up to 6-in.-diameter branches, and can be used single-handed. This is the tool-only version, so it’s ideal for those already on M18 batteries. At $80 off, it’s at its best price of the season.

DeWalt’s 60V FLEXVOLT attachment-capable trimmer can handle the heaviest residential trimming jobs. The attachment-capable head accepts DeWalt’s full lineup of QUIK-LOK accessories, and the FLEXVOLT battery scales down to run 20V MAX tools as well. The free select tool promo (20V Max hedge trimmer, power cleaner, or reciprocating saw) makes this one of the highest-value deals in the whole sale.

• EGO 56V 21-in. Self-Propelled Mower 7.5Ah Kit $499
• EGO 56V 21-in. Select Cut Self-Propelled Mower $599
• Ryobi 40V HP 20-in. Multi-Blade Self-Propelled Mower 8.0Ah Kit $499
• Ryobi 40V HP 21-in. Multi-Blade Self-Propelled Mower (2x 6.0Ah) $599
• Ryobi 40V HP 20-in. Self-Propelled Mower 6.0Ah Kit $399

• EGO 56V 15-in. Powerload String Trimmer 2.5Ah Kit $219
• DeWalt 20V MAX 14-in. Brushless Foldable String Trimmer (Tool Only) $149
• DeWalt 20V MAX 13-in. String Trimmer Kit $129
• Ryobi ONE+ 18V 13-in. String Trimmer 2.0Ah Kit $79
• Ryobi ONE+ HP 18V Brushless Edger (Tool Only) $99
• Makita 18V LXT Brushless String Trimmer Kit $179

• Ryobi 40V HP Whisper Series 190 MPH 730 CFM Jet Fan Blower $199
• Ryobi 40V HP Whisper Series 730 CFM Backpack Blower $279
• Ryobi 40V 120 MPH 450 CFM Jet-Fan Blower (Tool Only) $99
• Milwaukee M18 FUEL 155 MPH 650 CFM Backpack Blower (Tool Only) $349
• Milwaukee M18 FUEL Dual Battery 145 MPH 600 CFM Blower (Tool Only) $199

• Ryobi 40V HP 14-in. Brushless Chainsaw 4.0Ah Kit $219
• Ryobi 40V HP 20-in. Brushless Chainsaw (Tool Only) $199
• Ryobi 40V 10-in. Pole Saw 2.0Ah Kit $149
• DeWalt FLEXVOLT 60V 16-in. Chainsaw Kit $299
• DeWalt FLEXVOLT 60V 20-in. Chainsaw Kit $449
• Milwaukee M18 FUEL 14-in. Top Handle Chainsaw (Tool Only) $299

• DeWalt 20V MAX 22-in. Hedge Trimmer Kit $159
• DeWalt 20V MAX 22-in. Pole Hedge Trimmer (Tool Only) $159
• Ryobi 40V HP Brushless 26-in. Hedge Trimmer 2.0Ah Kit $179
• Ryobi 40V 24-in. Hedge Trimmer 2.0Ah Kit $129
• Ryobi 40V 18-in. Pole Hedge Trimmer 2.0Ah Kit $149

• Ryobi 40V HP Whisper Series 1500 PSI Pressure Washer (2x 6.0Ah) $399
• Ryobi 40V 1200 PSI Pressure Washer (Tool Only) $149
• Ryobi ONE+ HP 18V EZClean 600 PSI Power Cleaner 4.0Ah Kit $149
• DeWalt 20V MAX 1600 PSI Pressure Washer Kit $349

The post The Home Depot just dropped season-low prices on battery-powered chainsaws, mowers, trimmers, and more appeared first on Popular Science.

There are some among us who can’t remember which pants they wore yesterday or whether they have plans tonight. Take that person and put them on a bicycle, however, and if they had any kind of comfort level riding in the past, odds are, they’ll have no trouble balancing and steering, even if it’s been years—or decades—since their last ride.

The axiom “like riding a bike” exists for a reason, and it’s supported by ample amounts of evidence that casts light on the weird neuroscience of memory. So why is it, exactly, that we seemingly never forget how to push the pedals and ride? 

On the surface, remembering a skill like cycling and also being able to call to mind your spouse’s birthday seem similar. After all, these are two things you learned in the past, so it stands to reason your brain would process them the same way. That, however, is not the case, explains Dr. Andrew Budson, a professor of neurology at Boston University and co-author of the book Why We Forget and How to Remember Better. 

Humans have three distinct kinds of long-term memories, he explains, each of which are processed, stored, and accessed via different pathways in the brain. 

1. Semantic memory is how we store information and facts that allows us to navigate the world: how to use objects and tools like toasters and screwdrivers or knowing the differences between cats and dogs. 
2. Episodic memory pertains to long-term memories specific to the person who lived through the experience, like a first kiss. 
3. Finally, procedural memory allows us to retain knowledge of tasks that become second nature and automatic, like playing guitar and, yes, riding a bike. (What we call muscle memory is a type of procedural memory, though the latter is a broader term. All muscle memory is procedural, but not all procedural memory is muscle memory). 

The truth is there’s nothing particularly special about bike riding—the axiom could have used many other skills, such as ice skating or swimming (in fact, swimming was the favored example of something people don’t forget how to do up until the 1940s, when cycling’s popularity exploded). 

“Riding a bicycle would certainly be a sort of a motor activity, and it depends upon some structures deep inside the brain called the basal ganglia,” says Budson, along with other regions of the brain, including the cerebellum. “Those are the key regions, and that’s very different than memory for episodes of our life, such as remembering last night’s dinner.”

Procedural memories get hardwired in, while still leaving some room for malleability. One bike isn’t the same as another—riding a mountain bike is slightly different than taking a leisurely trip across town on a fixed gear—so once a skill is stored, the basic motions are easy to access, but you can still adapt. 

“What is quite different about procedural memories is that they rely on these different brain structures that are, in general, much more resistant to change over time,” says Budson. “That’s why once you’ve learned how to touch type, you know you can still touch type, although you can certainly adapt it. When you get a new computer and they’ve moved the Escape key or something like that, you’re able to adapt to that.”

Given the popularity of the phrase, it may come as a surprise that there’s not a ton of research out there that specifically examines why we retain the memory of how to ride a bicycle. 

That’s not to say there’s nothing out there on cycling and memory: Some studies have concluded that cycling desks help improve cognitive performance. Others have found a linkage between cycling and improved long-term memory. But few scientists have directly studied biking as an example of procedural memory. 

There’s a few reasons why: first, it can be hard to scan a person’s brain while they’re riding around on a 12 speed. Second, as Dr. Elizabeth Kensinger, a psychology professor at Boston College and Budson’s co-author, explains, a subject self-reporting how good they are on a bike can be faulty and could skew results. 

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Instead, neurologists and psychologists have designed experiments to test procedural memory on entirely new skills, including having subjects draw shapes by looking at their hands in a mirror. It’s tricky at first, but over repetition, they start to get better and better.

“My best guess is that it just feels very uncontrolled versus all of the types of motor skills that scientists have been able to train people how to do,” says Kensinger. 

There are far easier, more convenient ways to examine procedural memory. In science, control over variables is essential to reliable results, and bringing a few folks who have gotten rusty on a bicycle out for a few spins around a velodrome leaves too much to chance to gain any solid data. 

Doing something once isn’t enough to generate the kind of recall associated with procedural memory. The neural pathways involved in the activity need to be beefed up. 

“It’s so much faster for you to learn something the second or the third time than it was for you to learn it the first time,” says Kensinger. “There is something that is priming those pathways to be able to become established more much more quickly.”

In other words, hopping on a bike once won’t be enough for you to be able to do it again perfectly after decades away from bicycles. Repetition is key to forming procedural memories that can be easily jogged even after extended periods of inactivity. 

“Our procedural memories do degrade, but they degrade more slowly than your episodic memories,” explains Budson. “So there’s no doubt that practice helps it to stay very active and that it comes back more quickly.”

While procedural memory activities may need repetition to get wired into our brains, the good news is we’re capable of forming these kinds of memories throughout our lives. 

“If you think about many older adults, they need to learn pretty complicated motor skills,” says  Kensinger. “They might need to learn how to use a wheelchair that might have fairly complicated mechanisms to lock and unlock the brakes. Older adults are quite capable at learning those types of procedural skills as well.”

While adapting to new limitations can be frustrating, our ability to develop new skills near-automatic is helpful as we age. Whether that’s learning how to use a walker, or even using a computer or iPad, grandma and grandpa just need some time and patience to develop new procedural memories. 

It’s easy to see why humans evolved to retain and execute skills without conscious thought. Running away from predators or searching for food shouldn’t be something that requires a ton of focus. So the next time you’re zooming along on your bike, take a second to thank your procedural memory, even if you can’t remember where exactly you’re going. 

In Ask Us Anything, Popular Science answers your most outlandish, mind-burning questions, from the everyday things you’ve always wondered to the bizarre things you never thought to ask. Have something you’ve always wanted to know? Ask us.

The post Why you never forget how to ride a bike appeared first on Popular Science.

Congratulations to Artemis II on a successful mission! You captured the wonders of space and our planet beautifully, taking iPhone photography to new heights, and we’re grateful you shared it with the world. Your work continues to inspire us all to think different. Welcome home!

Most of the tech you use each day tracks you—whether it’s to target ads at you or to make sure your smart lights come on when you walk in the front door. Smart TVs are no different.

A television set doesn’t follow you around all day like a smartphone does, but it still has intimate knowledge of you and your family, including the types of programming you like to watch. It might also know the apps you have installed, and even the types of devices you plug into the HDMI ports.

That’s most likely something you’d rather didn’t happen—and so here’s your complete guide to making sure your smart TV tracks you as little as possible.

Now obviously there are multitude of models and manufacturers on the market, and even TVs with the same brand name on the front don’t always run the same software. Trying to give specific instructions can be tricky, but the steps we’ve put below should work for the most modern TVs from each company.

If the menus you come across don’t match up with the steps below, you should be able to find the relevant options without too much trouble. A quick web search for forum posts or Reddit threads from people with your TV should uncover even more resources.

There are two main categories of data to look out for here. The first is data that builds up an advertising profile on you, so marketing can be more precisely targeted—as happens with ads on platforms like Google and Instagram. Blocking this data collection doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll see fewer ads, but advertisers will know less about you.

The second category is along similar lines, but it’s a bit more specific. It’s called Automatic Content Recognition (ACR), and as the name suggests, it means your TV is going to monitor everything that gets put up on the display, and attempt to identify it.

Once your TV knows what you like to watch, it can use that information to serve up ads and content recommendations more personalized to you. It may mean your movie recommendations improve, but it comes with a big trade-off in terms of privacy.

No matter your model of television, there’s one tip that applies universally: Disconnect it from your Wi-Fi. That will go a long way to limiting the amount of data that gets fed back to headquarters. The setting should be pretty easy to find, and this might be as straightforward as turning off a toggle switch.

Now, obviously this is going to limit you in terms of your streaming apps—but it’s something to think about doing when you’re watching physical media, or perhaps playing games that work offline. For anything that you don’t need the internet for, turn off the Wi-Fi.

There’s another approach here, which is to keep your TV connected to the web, but hook it up to a guest network on your router (it’s a feature that most routers now offer). While this means your TV can still ‘phone home’ as it were, it also means it can’t see (and report back on) the other devices you might have connected to your network.

Head to the main Settings screen on your LG TV (there should be a Settings button on your remote), and look for General > System > Additional Settings. When you reach this screen, toggle off the Live Plus option—this is the name LG gives to ACR.

From Settings, you can also pick Support > Privacy & Terms. Here you can find LG’s privacy policies, as well as a Do Not Sell My Personal Information toggle switch: Enable this to restrict what LG can do with its data.

There are yet more controls under User Agreements on the same screen. You’re able to turn off voice access, viewing information data collection, and cross-device advertising (so targeted ads follow you around different devices) from this section.

From the home screen on your Samsung TV, open up the main menu and then choose Settings > All Settings > General & Privacy > Terms & Privacy. This screen gives you a host of information about how your data is collected, as well as some options for restricting the collection of information and the targeting of ads.

Follow Privacy Choices and then select Terms & Conditions, Privacy Policy and you’ll find an option labeled Enable to make content and advertising on Smart TV more interactive which you can disable to limit targeted advertising.

On this same Terms & Conditions, Privacy Policy screen, there’s another checkbox for Viewing Information Services—this is the name Samsung gives to its ACR technology, so be sure to disable this to turn off that type of tracking.

If you’ve got a newer Sony set, then it’ll be running the Google TV software. If you open up the main Settings pane from the home screen, choose All Settings and then Samba Interactive TV underneath Privacy—this is the ACR bit. Select About to see the terms of service and to switch the feature off.

There’s also a link here to the privacy policy of Samba, which is the company handling ACR for Sony. If you follow this link you’ll get to yet another setting for ad tracking, which you can disable. On the same screen, you can reset the advertising ID to clear any profile information that may have been built up already.

Sony TVs and Google TV are a good example of setups where you can be tracked across multiple devices—so Google might use your Sony TV information for ads on Google Maps, for example. To manage the data and privacy settings for your Google account as a whole (including Google TV), head to this page in your Google account on the web.

As mentioned above, it’s impossible for a single guide to cover all of the different TV models and software versions out there. But hopefully the steps above get you close to finding the right privacy and data collection settings.

For TVs manufactured by Roku, for example, if you open Settings from the home screen and then select Privacy > Smart TV Experience, you can disable Use info from TV inputs to switch off ACR. Targeted advertising, meanwhile, is managed by selecting Advertising and resetting the tracking ID.

Be wary of signing up to or agreeing to any tracking when you set your television set up for the first time, as well. Even if you’ve opted out right at the start, or turned off the settings for your model as described above, you might see pop-up messages encouraging you to opt back in—so watch out for these too.

The post How to stop your smart TV from tracking you appeared first on Popular Science.

Few cultures exist in a vacuum, even those separated from others by hundreds of miles of open sea like the island nation of Japan. Nearly 70 years ago, archaeologists discovered an ancient suit of armor beneath one of the island nation’s most prominent historical sites. Now, researchers can finally trace the 1,400-year-old armor’s telltale artisanry back to Korea. Specifically, to the Baejke Kingdom—one of Korea’s three major empires dating back to the 18th century BCE.

Buddhism truly began to flourish in Japan beginning in the sixth century CE after monks arrived from mainland China and Korea. Few places represent this monumental cultural shift more than the Asuka-dera Temple complex, located about 23 miles southeast of Osaka. 

Asuka-Dera’s establishment near the start of the seventh century marked the first full-scale Buddhist temple on the island archipelago.

According to ancient documents including the second-oldest history of Japan, Nihon Shoki, craftsmen and monks from the Baekje Kingdom helped build the temple complex. Baekje was one of the “Three Kingdoms of Korea” that flourished between the 18th century BCE and 660 CE.

Archaeologists from the Nara National Research Institute for Cultural Properties originally located the armor fragments beneath a pagoda’s foundation during 1957 excavation work. While its construction resembled armor previously linked to Baekje royal sites in Korea, technology at the time wasn’t advanced enough to supply a definitive answer.

In 2015, however, equipment like X-ray and 3D imaging finally allowed researchers to further examine the Asuka-dera armor. They discovered that, like Baekje armor, the Japanese monastery finds were crafted by interlacing small iron plates with cords into what’s known as a lamellar structure. This approach provided wearers with solid protection without sacrificing flexibility, especially because the torso, upper arm, and shoulder segments were all connected into a single shirt-like piece of armor.

Similar armor excavated between 2011 and 2014 at Gongsanseong Fortress, a historic Baekje compound located about 50 miles southeast of Seoul, also supports this. At the fortress, researchers identified inscriptions on the plating that date to 645 CE—around the exact same era as Asuka-Dera’s construction. In 2024, archaeologist Takehiro Hasumura confirmed the overlaps after examining the Gongsanseong specimens firsthand.

By the 7th century, elite Japanese warriors began to adopt keiko-style armor. Like the Baejke design, keiko armor consists of interwoven and flexible lamellar iron scales. Keiko’s adoption—along with its design—now makes it clearer than ever that Baekje artisans, specifically armorers, traveled alongside mainland Buddhist monks and emissaries. 

With additional excavation projects, archaeologists hope to further contextualize other pivotal cultural exchanges between these and other East Asian kingdoms.

The post Armor buried under Japanese temple linked to ancient Korean kingdom appeared first on Popular Science.