BioLite BaseCamp
Energy output: 5 watts
Weight: 20 pounds
Cooktop diameter: 13.25 inches (fits eight burgers)
Price: $299
Two years ago, BioLite introduced its CampStove, the first portable cooker to convert waste heat into electricity. The stove produced enough power to recharge a phone—perfect for an overnight in the woods—but lacked the juice to allow a whole campsite to go off the grid. The new BaseCamp generates more than double the electricity of its compact predecessor—enough to power strings of lights, charge GoPros, and furnish other comforts. Engineers overhauled the unit’s thermo-electric generator (TEG), incorporating a new fan design that delivers more hot air, increasing the TEG’s output. The electricity created powers the fan while charging a device plugged in via USB (or an onboard 2,200-milliampere battery). A side door lets campers feed the flame, so the lights will last as deep into the night as the campers do.
Four Ways To Supercharge A Barbecue
Bison Airlighter
With this souped-up lighter, coals will be ready five times faster—no lighter fluid needed. It’s battery-powered and jets a four-inch flame onto coals; an internal fan stokes the fire. The embers will be ready for burgers in about five minutes. $100
iGrill2
Mom wants her steak well done,Dad prefers his bloody, and the kids like theirs slightly pink? No problem. The iGrill2 lets the chef track the progress of four cuts at once. Temperature probes relay data to a smartphone app over Bluetooth, so you’ll know when your food is cooked without having to babysit it. $100
BakerStone Pizza Oven Box
Using a combination of convective, conductive, and radiant heat, the Pizza Oven Box turns a grill into a makeshift wood-fired oven. Place the cooking chamber on the grill surface, and in 15 to20 minutes, it will heat to as high as 800°F. Once at full force, the box will bake a pizza in two to four minutes. From $129
Grillbot
Scrubbing a grill isn’t nearly as appealing as cooking on one, but this robotic brush does the dirty work for you. After dinner, drop the nine-inch bot on the cooled cooktop, and set it for 10-, 20-, or 30-minute cycle, depending on how grimy the surface is. It will scurry back and forth like a Roomba until the job’s done. From $120
This article originally appeared in the August 2014 issue of Popular Science.
To cement its place as the leading purveyor of acrobatic yet physically implausible action games, Ubisoft has hired famed freerunner Michael "Frosti" Zernow as its new Chief Parkour Officer.
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It depends on how you define new. Genetically engineered plants first appeared in the lab about 30 years ago and became a commercial product in 1994. Since then, more than 1,700 peer-reviewed safety studies have been published, including five lengthy reports from the National Research Council, that focus on human health and the environment. The scientific consensus is that existing GMOs are no more or less risky than conventional crops.
So-called terminator genes, which can make seeds sterile, never made it out of the patent office in the 1990s. Seed companies do require farmers to sign agreements that prohibit replanting in order to ensure annual sales, but Kent Bradford, a plant scientist at the University of California, Davis, says large-scale commercial growers typically don't save seeds anyway. Corn is a hybrid of two lines from the same species, so its seeds won't pass on the right traits to the next generation. Cotton and soy seeds could be saved, but most farmers don't bother. "The quality deteriorates—they get weeds and so on—and it's not a profitable practice," Bradford says.
GMOs alone probably won't solve the planet's food problems. But with climate change and population growth threatening food supplies, genetically modified crops could significantly boost crop output. "GMOs are just one tool to make sure the world is food-secure when we add two billion more people by 2050," says Pedro Sanchez, director of the Agriculture and Food Security Center at Columbia University's Earth Institute. "It's not the only answer, and it is not essential, but it is certainly one good thing in our arsenal."
Many people worry that genetic engineering introduces hazardous proteins, particularly allergens and toxins, into the food chain. It's a reasonable concern: Theoretically, it's possible for a new gene to express a protein that provokes an immune response. That's why biotech companies consult with the Food and Drug Administration about potential GMO foods and perform extensive allergy and toxicity testing. Those tests are voluntary but commonplace; if they're not done, the FDA can block the products.
This simply isn't true. Over the past decade, hundreds of independent researchers have published peer-reviewed safety studies. At least a dozen medical and scientific groups worldwide, including the World Health Organization and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, have stated that the GMOs currently approved for market are safe.
This claim requires a little parsing. Two relevant GMOs dominate the market. The first enables crops to express a protein from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), which is toxic to certain insects. It's also the active ingredient in pesticides used by organic farmers. Bt crops have dramatically reduced reliance on chemical insecticides in some regions, says Bruce Tabashnik, a University of Arizona entomologist.
If farmers rely too heavily on Bt or glyphosate, then pesticide resistance is inevitable, says Tabashnik. That's evolution at work, and it's analogous to antibiotics creating hardier bacteria. It is an increasing problem and could lead to the return of harsher chemicals. The solution, he says, is to practice integrated pest management, which includes rotating crops. The same goes for any type of farming.
This has been been partly debunked. Bt insecticides attach to proteins found in some insects' guts, killing select species. For most insects, a field of Bt crops is safer than one sprayed with an insecticide that kills indiscriminately. But monarch butterflies produce the same proteins as one of Bt's target pests, and a 1999 Cornell University lab experiment showed that feeding the larvae milkweed coated in Bt corn pollen could kill them. Five studies published in 2001, however, found that monarchs aren't exposed to toxic levels of Bt pollen in the wild.
The first part could certainly be true: Plants swap genetic material all the time by way of pollen, which carries plant DNA—including any genetically engineered snippets.
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