We’ve always been interested in fluidic computers, a technique that uses moving fluids to perform logic operations. Now, Spectrum reports that researchers have developed an electronics-free contact lens that monitors glaucoma and can even help treat it.

The lens is made entirely of polymer and features a microfluidic sensor that can monitor eye pressure in real time. It also has pressure-activated drug reservoirs that dispense medicine when pressure exceeds a fixed threshold. You can see Spectrum’s video on the device below.

This isn’t the first attempt to treat glaucoma, which affects more than 80 million people, with a contact lens. In 2016, Triggerfish took a similar approach, but it used electronic components in the lens, which poses problems for manufacturing and for people wearing them.

Naturally, the device depends on 3D printed molds to create channels and reservoirs in the lens. A special silk sponge in the reservoirs can absorb up to 2,700 times its weight. One sponge holds a red fluid that is forced by pressure into a serpentine microchannel. A phone app uses a neural network to convert the image of the red fluid into a pressure reading.

Two more sponges hold drugs that release at a given pressure determined by the width of the associated microchannel. This allows the possibility of increasing the dose at a higher pressure or even delivering two drugs at different pressure levels.

It is fairly hard to hack your own contact lenses, although we’ve seen it at least once. But smart contacts are not as rare as you might think.

Even if you’re 250,000 miles from Earth, sleep is important. However, for all the life-sustaining accoutrements aboard the Orion spacecraft, the capsule lacked bedrooms, leaving the four-person Artemis II crew with a truly bizarre sleeping arrangement.

“I slept really close to an air conditioning vent. And so I’d wake up and I just see this big hunk of metal,” Glover told CNET during a video call. “And it was like, ‘Oh, I’m in space. I am weightless.’”

Sleep wasn’t just a means for the astronauts to recharge; it also grounded them during their historic journey. Glover explained, “What really resonated with me is we’re also humans. It’s like camping, and this is a very important part of this journey.”

Watch this: Artemis II’s Victor Glover Chats With CNET

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Artemis II was the first crewed mission to the moon in over 50 years. It followed Artemis I, a 2022 uncrewed mission that was the first for NASA’s new Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft. The goal for Artemis II was to have a crew test the spacecraft, life support systems, the SLS rocket and the procedures needed for future lunar missions that will involve landing on the moon and eventually building a base there.

Glover, the Orion’s pilot, along with commander Reid Wiseman and mission specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen, made up the Artemis II crew. The mission made a lot of history. It’s the first time a woman, a Black man or a Canadian has journeyed to the moon. The four Artemis II astronauts traveled 252,756 miles from Earth, farther than any other human being, surpassing the record set by the 1970 Apollo 13 mission.

This wasn’t Glover’s first time in space. In 2020, with a Falcon 9 rocket for liftoff, he piloted the Crew Dragon capsule to and from the International Space Station for NASA’s SpaceX Crew-1 mission, spending over 167 days in space. But Artemis II gave Glover the opportunity to be the first to fly the Orion, a new vehicle designed for Artemis missions. For the majority of the nearly 10-day journey, Orion was on autopilot. But Glover had several opportunities to take manual control of the spacecraft to test its handling.

“It was such a treat and a joy,” Glover said about flying the Orion. “It was a test pilot’s dream to fly a new spaceship for the first time by hand.”

Even after spending time training to fly in a simulator back on Earth, he was surprised by how responsive the Orion’s hand controller was and by the clarity of the cameras, used to maneuver the craft around the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage that holds the fuel for the upper stage of liftoff. He said the view from the cameras and monitors was like “looking out a window.”

When I asked Glover if he felt like Han Solo when piloting the Orion, he retorted, “Han Solo wants to be me when he grows up!” Throughout my interview, Glover was gracious, passionate and funny.

“I get to do stuff that’s cooler than Han Solo. I mean, just the fact that it’s real, it’s better.”

While landing on the moon wasn’t in the cards for this trip, the Orion crew traveled about 4,000 miles beyond the moon, allowing them to see parts of the moon that had never been seen before. For comparison, Apollo missions flew about 70 miles above the moon to make landings, limiting how much of it they could actually see.

The images that Glover and the crew took of the moon were stunning. Shots like the Earthset were a reminder of how beautiful our planet is and our place within the solar system. The astronauts even witnessed a total solar eclipse as they rounded the far side of the moon. But none of the photos they took compares to what they saw, according to Glover.

“I could see the curvature of the moon. Depth is just one aspect that you cannot see in the pictures. But here’s the other thing, the pictures lack scale.”

For the lunar flyby, the Orion was moving fast: 60,863 mph relative to Earth, but only 3,139 mph relative to the moon, according to NASA. The speed meant the shadows across the surface were constantly morphing into different shapes. Glover was particularly enamored with the moon’s terminator, where the light and dark sides of the moon meet. The terminator isn’t fixed and depends on the moon’s position relative to the sun. As Orion moved, it transformed into various shapes that looked like letters of the alphabet.

“People know, I fell in love with the terminator when I got to see the real one up close. I watched the terminator go from a letter C to a letter D, which means there was a point when the moon was half light, half dark. It was pointing right at me.”

Artemis II’s lunar flyby was a highlight of the journey for many of us on Earth, in part because we could watch it in real time on streaming services like Netflix. Nearly the entire mission was streamed live on NASA’s website and YouTube channel, making it feel like a reality show. One minute you’re watching the crew eat, work out, take photos of the moon; the next, there’s a random jar of Nutella floating by one of the cameras. I asked Glover whether it felt like he was on a TV show while on the Orion.

“It did not feel like a reality show on my end,” said Glover. “For you to see the science and hear us describing the moon, and to see us flying the spaceship by hand, and to see bedtime and bath time and teeth brush time, that’s what it’s like. The mission was all of those things.”

Glover was ecstatic to hear how I and others felt so connected to the crew during their mission. He said it was important to NASA to let the world in on everything it took to send four people a quarter of a million miles away.

“I think that maybe one of the really, most special things about this mission is how much you were able to see,” Glover said with a smile. “It makes me feel good that you felt like you were there.”

Watch this: Getting Personal With the Crew of Artemis II | Tech Today

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We heard all about GoPro’s new action camera series last week, but the company is now unveiling the pricing across its Mission 1, Mission 1 Pro and Mission 1 Pro ILS cameras. The entry-level Mission 1 ($600) features GoPro’s new 50-megapixel 1-inch sensor, which the company says will offer a major leap in image quality and low-light performance over the Hero 13 line. While largely looking the same as the Hero series (and still waterproof), the Mission 1 can record 8K video at 30fps and 4K at 120fps. It lacks the higher frame rates of the other Mission 1 cameras, but supports 10-bit GP-Log2 color and 32-bit float audio.

The Mission 1 Pro ($700) is the flagship fixed-lens model this year, aimed at the professional (or semi-pro) videographer. It has upgraded frame-rate capture to 8K at 60 fps and 4K at 240 fps, along with an extreme “burst” slow-motion mode that hits 960 fps at 1080p. It also captures 4:3 “Open Gate” recordings at 8K/30fps and 4K/120fps, covering the entire sensor area, enabling more versatile editing and cropping across different screen sizes, including vertical video.

Then there’s the beastly Mission 1 Pro ILS (Interchangeable Lens System). It swaps the standard GoPro lens for a Micro Four Thirds (MFT) mount lens. It otherwise shares the same 1-inch sensor and high-speed 8K/60fps video specs as the Pro model. It also matches the Pro model’s $700 price, with an additional $100 discount for GoPro subscribers. However, it won’t be launching until Q3 2026.

All of the Mission 1 Series accessories will be available on a rolling basis beginning May 28, with GoPro’s own wireless mic system (take note, Rode and DJI) priced at $160. If you preorder a Mission 1 or Mission 1 Pro directly from GoPro now, you’ll get the point-and-shoot grip bundled for free. The company still doesn’t have an official release date for the cameras.

Stop fighting a losing battle with a grease-spattered stovetop. If you’re buying high-end bacon, you want a perfect crunch without the 20-minute cleanup. The real problem with a frying pan isn’t the taste, though. It’s all that popping and the errant grease spots that mark your skin and kitchen walls. 

In an effort to find the best, cleanest way to make bacon for a Sunday brunch or BLT, I tried several methods, including the stovetop, oven and air fryer.

It turns out I’ve been doing it all wrong. 

A frying pan

• Cooking time: 10 minutes
• Hassle: 8/10
• How much bacon: 7-8 strips

This is the way I grew up cooking bacon and it’s perfectly fine. There isn’t much skill needed to fry bacon in a pan, although just about every batch I’ve ever made sends a healthy splatter over the stove. In more unfortunate instances, that infernal grease lands directly on my skin or clothes, presenting two distinct but equally aggravating problems.

Pan-fried bacon soaks up a ton of grease, which is why many turn to paper towels to drain it after cooking.  Pan-frying these strips of pork belly also tends to curl them into little bacon balls. While that has no impact on the taste, it can make for a suboptimal presentation.

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Another drawback of cooking bacon in the frying pan is its limited capacity. A 10-inch frying pan can hold only about 7 average-sized strips of bacon at a time, although you can add more as they shrink during cooking. 

Then there’s the matter of cleaning said pan after use. It’s not recommended to put most cookware in the dishwasher, so you’ll have to manage that grease-soaked surface yourself.

The oven 

• Cooking time: 18 minutes
• Hassle: 6/10
• How much bacon: 10-12 strips

While it requires more prep, oven-cooked bacon has clear advantages over pan-frying. For one, there is little concern about capacity, as a standard cookie sheet or baking tray can hold nearly a full package of bacon, making the oven ideal for cooking large quantities.

Using a baking tray and rack allows grease to drip off. That makes for crispier, less greasy results, but it does present a headache when it’s time to clean. Cookie sheets and baking trays don’t fit well in the sink, and there’s typically enough grease that you don’t want to run them through your dishwasher.

You can line the baking tray with aluminum foil, but it takes a lot of foil, and most of the time, bacon grease finds its way under or through it anyway.

Oven-cooked bacon takes longer than bacon cooked in a frying pan — about 18 minutes — but if you’re planning to cook a whole package and don’t want to tend to the stove while it cooks, your oven is the best bet.

The air fryer

• Cooking time: 7 minutes
• Hassle: 4/10
• How much bacon: 6-7 strips

There’s almost nothing I won’t try to make in the air fryer but, astoundingly, this is my first attempt at bacon. I anticipated a quick cook, because air fryers sizzle most food about 25% faster than a standard oven. 

The air fryer proved to be my favorite way to make bacon, with one big caveat (more on that later). My favorite glass-bowl air fryer cooked those strips in about 7 minutes at 375°F — faster than the oven and the frying pan. Because air fryers include a crisping rack, grease naturally drips into the vessel below, so there was no need to nestle it in a paper-towel lasagna. 

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The bacon turned out perfectly crispy and kept its shape better than when fried in a pan. 

And the mess was minimal. Because the air fryer cooking chamber fits easily in my sink, I was able to wash it in seconds with a sponge and soapy water. My glass bowl air fryer chamber is also dishwasher-safe so another option would have been to wipe the grease and stick it all in the dishwasher.

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The big caveat: Capacity

I use a modest 4-quart air fryer so I can only fit about six strips in at a time. That’s plenty for my partner and me but if I were making bacon for a group, I would have had to cook in batches or invest in a larger model.

That said…

Not having to keep watch over a sizzling, splattering pan or negotiate a grease-filled baking tray pulled from the oven is worth running it back another time to feed a group. There’s also no preheating needed, unlike with an oven, and the sheer speed and cleanliness gave the air frier the edge over the other methods I’ve tried. 

Sky has mastered all things TVs and broadband, and now it’s stepping into the world of smart home with its latest venture, Sky Smart Home — a service that could challenge rivals such as Ring and Blink.

The Smart Home Plan is Sky’s entry-level package, which unlocks advanced features including cloud storage for recordings, Smart Alerts, Activity Zones, and more. There’s also the new Smart Home Plan+ that allows you to add extra devices including the Indoor Camera, Leak Pack, or Motion Pack — taking your smart home ecosystem to the next level.

Bose’s QuietComfort Ultra 2 earbuds are the best noise-canceling earbuds you can buy. Right now, they’re $50 off, which matches the best price we tend to see outside of special events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday. If you want to wait until November, they might hit $200 again, but otherwise $250 is a very fair deal—especially since they pop back up to $300 regularly. The discounted price applies to all five color options, including Black, Deep Plum, Desert Gold, Midnight Violet, and White Smoke (another rarity, as usually only the vivid colors go on sale).

Sometimes you just need to quiet the world. Whether it’s to play 10 hours of Coconut Mall on a loop to help you lock in and meet your Friday deadlines (thanks to my colleague Julia Forbes for that suggestion); muffle the crying babies, sniffling neighbors, and mysterious, potentially concerning clunking noises on an airplane; or to help you better appreciate the mix on Space Laces’ Vaultage 004 EP, active noise cancellation makes a huge difference to your listening experience.

The Bose QuietComfort Ultra 2 earbuds also have some of the best active noise cancellation you can find. They sound great out of the box, thanks to a custom sound profile based on the shape of your ears, but you can customize the EQ by using the app. The app also allows you to tweak touch controls and spatial audio.

The battery life lasts for about six hours, or 24 with the charging case. And while the noise cancellation can’t be beaten, these also have a pass-through feature called Aware mode, which filters in outside noise but smooths the loudest bits. That means you’ll be able to hear what’s going on, but you won’t be startled. True-crime podcast listeners, this one’s for you.

In fact, just about the only drawback we can find is that these might not be ideal for folks with super-small ears. Otherwise, they’re great all around, with solid call quality, excellent sound overall, and a sleek aesthetic. We think they offer good value at full price, so an extra $50 off is especially nice.

If you’re in the market for new headphones, but these don’t exactly fit what you’re looking for, we have plenty of other recommendations. Check out our guides to the Best Wireless Earbuds, Best Headphones for Working Out, Best Noise-Canceling Headphones, and Best Open Earbuds for additional hand-tested picks.

Mbryonics has been tapped for the final leg of an ESA space communication project.

Galway space-tech Mbryonics is building out a second manufacturing facility in Shannon to keep up with a growing demand for its services.

The new 40,000 sq ft manufacturing facility called Photon-2 will produce thousands of terminals by 2027, the company said.

Mbryonics specialises in tools for space-based communication, having risen to become one of Ireland’s most notable space-techs in the 12 years since its founding.

Last September, the company opened the Photon-1 production facility in Dangan, Galway, and announced 125 new jobs to be created by 2027.

The latest expansion comes as Mbryonics continues its work with the European Space Agency (ESA) on communication-related projects – the most recent being the ‘High-throughput Digital and Optical Network (Hydron)’, which is building an advanced laser-based satellite system to extend fibre-based internet into space.

The project is divided into parts – or ‘Elements’ – with the first establishing a constellation of satellites in low Earth orbit, the second extending this capability into higher orbits, and the third, which brings industry into the network to validate the technology.

After a successful contribution to the second part of this project, Mbyronics was tapped for the final leg, in collaboration with Kepler Communications.

Specifically, the company’s optical terminal and its ground station test bed have been selected to demonstrate full interoperability with other optical terminal providers during the in-orbit demonstrations and to also verify on-ground interoperability verification.

“Hydron will serve as the world’s first multi-orbital optical communications network with a terabit per second capacity, offering resilient and efficient data transfer to address the challenges of bringing connectivity to multiple users securely, quickly and reliably,” said Laurent Jaffart, the director of resilience, navigation and connectivity at ESA.

John Mackey, the CEO of Mbryonics, added: “The internet was built by making different networks talk to each other, and that’s exactly what we’re enabling in space.

“Just as we demonstrated in DARPA Space BACN, this ESA award allows us to showcase how our laser communication technologies enable satellites from different providers to communicate seamlessly in orbit.

“We are delighted to partner with Kepler, and other ecosystem providers, on this strategic engagement with the European Space Agency.”

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