You get to a certain age, and you become selective about what makes you fizz. Stuff that once made you soil yourself with adrenal joy doesn’t visit much no more. Things that made your red-eyed soul sing and howl are few and far between.
Category: Motorcycles, Transport
Tags: Cruisers, Reviews, Harley Davidson, Motorcycle, Racetrack
(Keith) Chee Y. Ooi, UNSW Sydney/The Conversation
Category: Illnesses and conditions, Body and Mind, Refractor: Science & Health
Tags: University of New South Wales, Gut health, Gastrointestinal, Lung disease, Chronic illness, Chronic pain, Disease
Six years in the making, Shanghai Grand Opera House – one of China's most ambitious cultural builds – is opening its doors. The huge complex covers 146,000 square meters (1.57 million sq ft, or 36 acres) and forms the centerpiece of the arts precinct built upon the site of Expo 2010.
Category: Architecture, Engineering
Tags: China, Snøhetta, Art, Culture, Public Space, Expo, Shanghai
Rugged phones have developed a habit of turning into spec-sheet survival kits lately. Bigger batteries, brighter lights, night-vision cameras, thermal sensors, power-bank features, laser tools, and even built-in projectors have all found their way into these chunky outdoor-focused handsets.
Category: Mobile Technology, Consumer Tech, Technology
Tags: Rugged, smartphones, Android, Projectors
General Atomics has received tax-credit funding from the state of California to design and develop a new facility in San Diego to test a key fusion reactor component that will allow the reactor to create its own fuel while generating power.
Category: Energy, Engineering
From the Airport Fire in the Santa Ana Mountains in Southern California in September, 2024.
Fujifilm GFX100 II | GF 20-35mm F4 R WR | 25mm equiv. | F5/0 | 1/20 sec | ISO 800
Photo: Stuart Palley
When Stuart Palley began photographing California wildfires in 2013, the data already pointed toward more serious wildfire problems ahead. Over the next 13 years and nearly 200 fires, he watched that prediction come true. Fire seasons grew longer, fires burned faster and more aggressively, and January 2025 brought an inferno to the hills of Los Angeles at a time of year that usually felt like a safe time.
Through all of it, Palley has been there with a camera, building a visual record of the American West's fire crisis. I had the opportunity to chat with him about his journey capturing wildfires, the toll it takes and Terra Flamma, his current ongoing series dedicated to a fresh perspective.
Fire as lightFrom the Dragon Bravo Fire on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon in July 2025.
Nikon Z8 | Nikkor Z 70-200mm F2.8 VR S | 70mm | F2.8 | 30 sec | ISO 6400
Photo: Stuart Palley
While Palley is still very focused on the journalistic side of his photography, his Terra Flamma series blends the boundaries between documentary and fine art. The project involves using long exposures to photograph fires at night, and Palley was drawn to making these images in part because of the colors they allow.
Palley explained that he frequently thinks about a quote from Vincent van Gogh, who said, "I often think that the night is more alive and more richly colored than the day." Van Gogh's paintings, like "The Starry Night," were direct inspiration for Palley's fire-lit nightscapes. "That use of color and night scenes just always stuck with me from growing up, and I just loved access to the color palette that wasn't otherwise available," he said.
Fujifilm GFX100 II | GF 500mm F5.6 R LM OIS WR | F5.6 | 60 sec | ISCO 1600The images grasp onto that idea, showcasing landscapes in a manner we don't often see. "Fire is its own light source, and it bathes everything in this warm light," Palley explained. "When you add in smoke and other geographic features, it can either be an enormous warm softbox, or it can paint everything in orange and red, and then contrast it against a more blue or purple night sky. So it creates this incredible color palette that is only available when the fires are happening."
Terra Flamma isn't just about color, though. The long exposures give you a different look at the fire's behavior, too. "You see what it's doing, you see where the smoke's going, and it sort of illuminates the scene," said Palley. The long exposures also showcase the landscape, providing a bigger view of the situation. "Ultimately, the goal of Terra Flamma is to take these landscape photos of fire and put them in the context of where they are," he said. "Is this happening in the mountains in the middle of nowhere? Is it happening near downtown LA?"
Palley doesn't only photograph wildfires. This was taken at the Lineage Logistics warehouse fire in Los Angeles, California, at the end of June 2026. He's also starting to capture drone footage (video and photo), which you can see on his YouTube channel.
Photo: Stuart Palley
Palley has also expanded the series to include stories beyond the fire itself, including firefighters, crews, communities, air quality, forestry management and more. "The fire has become part of a broader ecosystem when it comes to storytelling about climate and natural disasters here in the American West," he told me.
While Terra Flamma occupies the fine art end of his work, it represents only part of what Palley does at a fire. During the day, he's working as a photojournalist documenting firefighters, crews and affected communities with the same immediacy as any news photographer. The long-exposure landscapes come when the sun dips down.
Putting gear in the line of firePalley's longer exposures are typically shot from a safe distance from the fires, but sometimes, he's right in the mix. This image was handheld, so he could move more freely.
This image is from the Eaton fire in Altadena, California, in January 2025. You can see a video of the scene here.
Fujifilm GFX100 II | GF 55mm F1.7 R WR | F1.7 | 1/35 sec | ISO 3200
Photo: Stuart Palley
Of course, long exposures create logistical challenges that daytime images don't. Fires are dynamic and can change rapidly, and setting up for a long exposure requires time. Thankfully, most of his long exposures give him the benefit of distance as a safety buffer. "A lot of times when I'm doing these longer landscape exposures, it's from further back, looking at the fire in context across a canyon or down a hill," he said. "So, I typically have some space built in that gives me both geographic safety and the time to make these images."
That's not always the case, though. Palley remembered one image in particular where he was much closer to the fire, with a 30-second exposure capturing embers swirling around him. "I had to stand there holding my camera in the wind, getting pelted by embers," Palley said. "I've got like a hood, a helmet, goggles and all this stuff. So, I was fine. But I decided at that point that it was worth making that picture because it showed the ember cast in such a wild way that it was worth sitting there for the 30-second exposure."
From the Eaton fire in Altadena, California, in January 2025.
Fujifilm GFX100 II | GF 80mm F1.7 R WR | F7.1 | 1/160 sec | ISO 800
Photo: Stuart Palley
Thankfully, fires haven't been the direct cause of damage to Palley's gear. "I've certainly damaged and destroyed multiple cameras at these fires, but it's not necessarily from negligence," he said. He recalled one time in 2015 when he dropped his camera after getting attacked by a displaced beehive because they were attracted to his yellow Nomex suit. Another time, he melted a lens hood because it fell into burning grass.
The most common issue, he says, is smoke. "The cameras smell like ashtrays," he said. "You get smoke and ashes on it, but you get alcohol wipes, and you wipe the cameras down every day to reduce smoke exposure and things like that." He also sends them off yearly for a cleaning to maintain his gear. "But ultimately, it's a tool and tools used in challenging conditions just often need more maintenance," he explained.
Training is key A Cal Fire Boeing 747 air tanker drops flame retardant to slow the El Dorado fire in California in 2020.While Palley, of course, wants to create incredible photographs, he draws a clear line. "The key thing here is no photo is worth me getting hurt or getting in the way of firefighters," he said. He's always putting his safety and the job of firefighters first.
That focus on safety has only increased over the years, too, as fires have become more intense. "I've always been safety oriented, but I'm very, very conservative now on how I approach these fires because the fire behavior is so extreme," he said. "From having been at almost 200 wildfires at this point, the fire behavior continues to surprise me with how aggressive and rapid it is."
A Cal Fire engine crew member sprays hotspots at the Tenaja Fire in Murrieta, California, in 2019.Palley's safety record is no accident. Since early on in his career, he has devoted a lot of time to making sure he is well-trained, knowledgeable about fires and has the right gear. "When I first started photographing fires, I had basic Nomex PPE, but the boots didn't quite fit right. I didn't have the right fire shelter," he told me. "So within the first year, I went to a private wildland fire school for a week to get my general wildland firefighter training."
"When I'm at fires, I want to be there to tell the story, not become part of it"He's also careful to continually update his gear so that it meets current standards. For example, he recently purchased a $3000 radio because many agencies have updated their radios, and he needs an easy way to listen to what's going on to stay safe and out of firefighters' way. "When I'm at fires, I want to be there to tell the story, not become part of it," he said.
A home covered in fire retardant after an aircraft drop was a few hundred feet off at the Tenaja Fire in Riverside County, CA, in 2019.Palley has also started sharing his knowledge with others. He recently led a two-day wildfire media safety course for 20 Reuters staffers and freelancers. "It's a blend of some very general wildland fire behavior and training that's standardized for firefighters, but it's sort of customized in a curriculum I just developed to teach journalists," he explained. That information can then help other journalists stay safe, while producing informative coverage of these events.
That directness extends to how he talks about irresponsible coverage more broadly. Palley is a genuine believer in the democratization of media and is all for more people covering these events. But he has little patience for journalists or creators who treat dangerous situations carelessly. "When I've seen so many extreme fires, fatality fires, homes burn down, I don't have time to sugarcoat these explanations," he said. "Sometimes you have to just be direct and tell people to get their shit together. This is serious stuff happening. It needs to be taken seriously."
Building trust and the ethics of wildfire photojournalismFrom the Woolsey Fire in Los Angeles and Ventura Counties in California, in November 2018.
Photo: Stuart Palley
Trust is also a factor when photographing these fires. Palley is often working in the vicinity of firefighters, and they need to know that he's not a liability and that they can trust him to be responsible and safe. "If you're a journalist there, to a wildland firefighter, you're the X-factor," he said. "Trust is one of the biggest things, and that's the reason why I'm big on having the right gear and the training and knowing how to use it."
Trust extends beyond wildland firefighters and safety crews, too. Palley often photographs communities when people return to their homes after fires, a traumatic and emotional experience. "When you're photographing people on the worst day of their lives or the most stressful day of their lives, sometimes they don't want that to be photographed," he described.
"I want to respect the dignity that people deserve in these situations.""I want to respect the dignity that people deserve in these situations and build that trust," Palley said. Because of that, he gives people space when requested, moving on to other areas and photographs. "To me, that's more important than making that picture," he told me.
The cost of the work Smoke from the Dixie Fire in August 2024 fills the sky over the drought-impacted Lake Oroville in northern California.Palley considered conflict photography early in his career before deciding against it, in part because of the mental health toll he knew it could take. The irony is that wildfire photography has its own cost.
"Journalists deal with vicarious trauma, and if it's not treated, it essentially develops into PTSD," he said. He's clear about what the work actually demands. "When these fires happen, you're working 16, 18-hour days on assignment. It's just very intense," he said. "The human body and mind are not designed for that level of stimulation for that amount of time."
There's been a growing movement in both journalism and the firefighting world to acknowledge this, and Palley learned it firsthand. In 2023, he was feeling the burnout and stepped back from photographing fires for about a year.
Palley documenting the Palisades fire in Los Angeles County, California, in January 2025.Recovery, for him, has meant therapy, stepping away from social media during intense fire periods and making space to decompress. "When it's been a really intense fire reporting period, just kind of be present, literally touch grass, rest, get away from the digital screen," he said.
The cost of this work is real, but so is Palley's commitment to it. He returned to the fire line when the LA fires broke out in January 2025 and hasn't stepped back since. For those looking to stay informed, he recommends Watch Duty, a free nonprofit app he volunteers for that sends real-time alerts about fires and evacuations across the United States.
His parting advice, after 13 years and nearly 200 fires, is straightforward: "If you're worried about a fire and you haven't gotten an evacuation order, you don't have to wait for an evacuation order to leave. You can always leave."
You can follow along with Palley's work on his Instagram, YouTube channel and website.
Ancient pharaohs had round-the-clock guards watching their tombs. Today, some of the world’s most critical infrastructure sits on the seabed with far less attention, mostly because adequate tech doesn't exist. Researchers at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) are now developing something closer to a permanent subsea guard: an autonomous underwater robot that can live at a docking station on the seabed, leave to inspect infrastructure, return on its own, recharge, and upload data without human intervention.
Tags: Underwater drones, drones, Monitoring, Autonomous Vehicles
We're coming up on a year since Canadian upstart Beachman unveiled its beautiful '64 electric motorcycle, which was dripping in retro style. It's now set to launch the Aviator, a similar café racer with its own subtle design flair and essential quality-of-life upgrades.
Category: Motorcycles, Transport
Tags: Electric Motorcycles, Moped, ebikes
Let’s get one thing out of the way. I’m your resident science writer. Alien comets, tiny universes, and body parts are the sort of thing I’m used to telling you about.
Category: Outdoors
Tags: Solar Cell, Battery Charger, Solar Power, Camping, Electricity, Charging, Power, Portable, Reviews
Long before the brain undergoes a level of degeneration that destroys precious memories, the body could be crying for help.
Category: Brain Health, Body and Mind
Tags: Dementia, Blood, Diagnostic tools, Alzheimer's disease, Test, Aging
In April 2019, the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration made history by releasing the first-ever image of a black hole – an object that, until then, had never been directly observed by humanity.
Tags: NASA, Space exploration, Jets, Astronomy, X-ray
When packing for camping trips, it's always best if you can consolidate your gear as much as possible. The FieldSpork was designed with that fact in mind, as it combines six camp kitchen gadgets in one multi-functional device.
Category: Outdoor Cooking, Gear, Outdoors
Tags: Kickstarter, xxKickbooster, Camping, Titanium
A major battle is brewing in the world of ebikes: DJI subsidiary Avinox and components manufacturer Gobao are racing to bring powerful motors with integrated automatic gearboxes to the market – and we can't wait.
Tags: DJI Innovations, ebikes, Mountain Bikes, Pedal-assisted, urban transport, Motor, Transmission, Automation
Some tiny houses seem to prioritize portability over comfort, but the Apex takes the opposite approach. It trades mobility for a spacious single-floor layout that's closer to an apartment than a traditional tiny house.
Category: Tiny Houses, Outdoors
Tags: Building and Construction, Tiny Footprint, House, Home, Micro-House
Dutch architectural firm MVRDV has completed a green-roof residential development in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, bringing 237 new homes into the city’s historic Bergen district. Dubbed Nieuw Bergen, the project combines new construction with the repurposing of two existing buildings, adding housing while respecting the area’s established scale.
Category: Architecture, Engineering
Tags: Urban Redevelopment, Urban Planning, Urban Gardening, Green Roofs, Building and Construction, Home
Modern cars are equipped with an increasing number of safety features: blind-spot monitoring, collision warning systems, and automatic emergency braking. At the same time, bicycles seem to be left outside of this safety ecosystem. We see this tendency in real-world statistics: over the past decade, the number of drivers killed in crashes has generally declined, while the number of cyclists killed has increased. Safety has become the number one reason why people choose cars over bikes in some countries, and Canyon aims to change that.
Tags: ebikes, Canyon Bicycles, V2X
Mirrorless cameras have largely taken over from DSLRs. That transition has lead to a different kind of engineering taking the lead role.
Photo: DPReview
I have an admission: there's just something I don't love about shooting with the Nikon Z8. Pressing the shutter and hearing the speaker go "click" just isn't the same experience as hearing and, more importantly, feeling, a mechanical shutter fly open and slam closed at 1/200th of a second.
There are absolutely benefits to this approach: the e-shutter won't wear out, no matter how many times it's used, you don't have to worry about shutter shock* and the sensor never being blocked means the EVF has a constant feed of what's happening in front of the lens. Were the Z8 the only camera I shot with, I'm certain I'd grow used to it and, in time, probably come to love the experience of an e-shutter-only life.
I think, though, that this mild dissatisfaction has less to do with the Z8 specifically, and a... let's not call it an issue, but perhaps a quirk of mirrorless cameras in general and how they interact with my specific experience. They are, unquestionably, technological marvels, better in almost every way than what came before. But they aren't mechanical wonders.
None of this is meant to pick on the Z8 specifically, I've just been shooting with it a lot. While most other mirrorless cameras still have a mechanical shutter, their most ambitious modes don't use it, and they're still mechanically much more simple than even basic DSLRs.
Photo: Richard Butler
I'm approaching 30 years old, which means my entire life has taken place after the digital revolution, both in cameras and the world at large. There is no Before Computers for me; some of my earliest memories are messing around with the settings of the family desktop when I was four.
As I grew older, I turned that interest into a job, building and fixing computers and, eventually, programming them and writing about technology. As a result, I understand how they work at a pretty fundamental level. While I might describe a mirrorless camera's autofocusing and subject recognition capabilities as "magical," I know they're not. I'm familiar with how machine learning works, and could explain it in excruciating detail. I can recognize great software engineering, but I'm not astounded by it.
This isn't the case for DSLRs. While I have a decent understanding of how they do what they do, I still find it incredible that it's all possible at all. What do you mean you can use a system of mirrors, optical splitters and custom-made line sensors to let you look through the lens and autofocus at the same time? And the mirror and shutter coordinate to flip up and fire at precisely the right time to expose the sensor? 10 times a second? And they figured this out in the 90s?
A diagram of the autofocus sensor assembly for the Canon EOS 5D II. If you want to get an idea of how mechanically complex that camera is, go check out all the technical diagrams in our review.It's even truer for film, where you have a similar level of SLR complexity, but the computer part – the stuff I understand – is replaced by a strip of chemicals that physically change when exposed to light. Again, I have some knowledge of what's actually going on. I've done the reading. But every time I pull developed film out of the tank and look at the negative, it just feels like witchcraft. How could pressing a button on a mirrorless camera and kicking off the take picture function in its computer ever compare?
Until you look at the pictures and realize that the Z8 can track a subject from the very edge of the frame, and have it in focus the entire time. And that it can capture it at 20fps, with no viewfinder blackout. And sync with flash at 1/250 of a second, without a mechanical shutter. It's old news today, but versus any (D)SLR, it's revolutionary.
SLRs and their digital counterparts are like mechanical watches, full of complex moving parts. Mirrorless cameras are like a smartwatch; still a feat of engineering, but of a completely different kind.
Photo: Richard Butler
This effect extends beyond cameras, too, in our increasingly computerized world. I've pretty much exclusively worn digital watches of some form, but my coworker Richard says the obvious point of comparison is intricately made and fully mechanical watches versus computer-powered smartwatches. The silicon models are simpler, easier to understand, and more accurate than a mechanical model could ever be. But where's the soul?
For me, the more obvious point of comparison is one more familiar to me (but no less clichéd): internal combustion engine vehicles versus electric ones.** Like with mirrorless systems, I understand at a fundamental level how EVs work. And no matter how many truly excellent explainers I watch, and even how often I work on my own cars, I still can't really wrap my mind around how a combustion engine does what it does. (You expect me to believe all these precise operations can be synchronized by a belt or a chain?) But like with cameras, that complexity, beautiful as it is, comes with a cost: I know some prefer the traditional experience, but driving an EV, it's hard not to see it as the future.
I still can't really wrap my mind around how a combustion engine does what it doesWith all this said, there are still mechanical wonders around; both the kinds you'd expect, and ones that are a bit easier to overlook. As an example of the former, take Leica's M-series cameras; the rangefinder mechanisms are intricate and precise, the kind of thing an unskilled technician could take apart, but not put back together. And while the company was, at one point, only producing a few hundred of its film rangefinders a year, they've seen a surge in popularity again, indicating a demand for that mechanical, analog experience.
There's plenty of complex physical engineering to be found in the mirrorless world, too. Stabilization systems, both in-camera and in-lens, are an impressive dance between gyroscopic sensors, software and actuation mechanisms, and become even more so when coordinating together. And gimbals take this to an even higher level; seeing one in action can be so mesmerizing that you'd be forgiven for forgetting that the device that you're watching corrects for the movement it's detecting in real-time and moving a who-knows-how-heavy camera setup to match only costs $300.
I also fully realize that there will be those for whom the wonder is flipped; a mechanical engineer might be more awestruck by complex algorithms than mechanical linkages, no matter how delicate or ingenious. And some folks may be completely flummoxed by cameras new and old, alike. But whichever makes most sense with your brain, it's worth stopping to remember that cameras aren't just technology. They are, of course, impressive pieces of tech. But they're also doing something special, whether we understand how it's happening or not.
* - Which becomes an increasing concern as sensor resolution increases; there's a reason the Sony a7R series use electronic front curtain, which avoids shutter shock, by default.
** - Apologies for choosing three particularly contentious examples.
Japan's famed kei cars were born out of the country's post-war need for affordable, practical transportation. Strict limits on dimensions and engine size translated into generous tax breaks, making car ownership attainable for millions.
Category: Automotive, Transport
Tags: Honda, Kei Cars, Hot hatch, Electric Vehicles
A novel three-in-one medication known as a "polypill" has been put to the test in a trial of more than 200 heart failure patients, in an effort to find a new way to effectively treat the condition with fewer drugs and better health outcomes. The findings were just what the scientists had hoped for.
Category: Heart Disease, Illnesses and conditions, Body and Mind
Tags: UT Southwestern, Heart attack, Heart, Heart Failure, Heart health, Personalized medicine, clinical trials, Experimental, Age-Related
Naked motorcycles are probably the most fun road-going motorcycles money can buy. And when you’re talking about nakeds, KTM’s Dukes are up there with some of the best in the world. Of that entire Duke lineup, it’s the 790 that has fascinated me the most, offering the sweet spot of just enough power to be a serious everyday motorcycle, while remaining incredibly nimble.
Category: Motorcycles, Transport
Tags: KTM, Naked bike
