Inexpensive

At a time of unrelenting attacks on reproductive autonomy, the Food and Drug Administration’s decision on July 13 to approve a birth control pill for over-the-counter (OTC) use is an important advance toward providing people with tools to control their fertility. This includes preventing unwanted pregnancy. Having Opill, a safe, effective, easy-to-use birth control option available without a prescription is essential, because it so difficult for many people to get prescription birth control in the U.S. As researchers and…

Geoengineering isn't a quick fix for our climate crisis, and it's also expensive. Credit: University of Leeds Despite decades of warnings and international climate agreements, global carbon emissions are still rising. Carbon emissions seem like an unstoppable juggernaut as energy-hungry humans keep breeding and pursuing more affluent lifestyles. Reducing emissions won't be enough to confront the climate crisis; we need…

The Spin Clean is incredibly simple to use and can even be cleaned in your dishwasher. Jack Wallen/ZDNETWhen a dear friend first got me into vinyl years ago, I had no idea just how expensive this hobby would be. The quest for the best-sounding vinyl your budget can afford is equal parts joy and frustration. You'll find yourself not only buying new LPs but used ones as well. Why buy used? Here's one reason: Some records are out of print and used is the only option.When you buy a used record, one of the first things you…

Around 96 million American adults suffer from prediabetes – which is more than one in three – but for a vast majority it's undetected. Current diagnosis requires a clinical blood sugar test or an at-home glucometer device. With access and cost a huge factor in testing for a condition that can have no symptoms for years, it’s no surprise that 80% of sufferers aren’t diagnosed until it develops into more serious issues such as type 2 diabetes. Now, inexpensive and easy routine checking could be around the corner, with…

After water, concrete is the world’s most consumed material and is the mainstay of construction everywhere, and concrete production’s impact on the environment is significant. Researchers have discovered that introducing an inexpensive, readily available ingredient into its production may make concrete a climate solution rather than a climate villain.As a construction material, concrete has many advantages: it’s very strong, easy to manufacture, and inexpensive. But its downside is that it’s not very environmentally…

At MWC Barcelona, Lenovo has come with a bunch of new laptops. Even after announcing a slew of them at CES last month. But the one that really caught our eye was the new IdeaPad Slim 3 Chromebook. This is a Chromebook that starts at $340, and has some pretty decent specs.It comes with a 14-inch screen (there’s three options for this screen, 1366×768, or 1080p, or 1080p touchscreen). It also comes with MediaTek Kompanio 520 chipset, with with the option for 4GB or 8GB of RAM. There’s also storage options of 64GB or 128GB…

Apple's AirPods Pro at $249 is a fraction of the price of hearing aids. AppleThe experimentResearchers at Taipei Veterans General Hospital conducted an experiment involving 21 individuals who suffered from mild to moderate hearing loss -- with the objective of determining how AirPods' Live Listen feature, first introduced in 2014, would stack up against a range of medical hearing aids. (Apple does not advertise Live Listen for people with hearing loss, but on its website, it does say that it does boost hearing…

Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge: Google Nest Wifi Pro review: easy to use, inexpensive, no subscriptions, and nice design, but Ethernet limited to 1Gbps, no Assistant, and few parental options — A big upgrade over its predecessors, Google's Nest Wifi Pro adds Wi-Fi 6 and 6E, bringing faster speeds, and improved reliability. Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge: Google Nest Wifi Pro review: easy to use, inexpensive, no subscriptions, and nice design, but Ethernet limited to 1Gbps, no Assistant,…

Oops, I did it again. I bought another quirky, cheap, yet kind of awesome-looking electric vehicle on the Chinese mega-shopping site Alibaba. This time it was a five-seater electric boat. Here’s how it happened. You may or may not be familiar with my weekly tongue-in-cheek column The Awesomely Weird Alibaba Electric Vehicle of the Week. It’s a chance to take an eye-opening dumpster dive through the weirdest electric vehicles that Chinese engineers dream up and bring to life. Usually, it’s…

Researchers have created a chemically stable catalyst that is stable in the presence of moisture.A cheap and chemically durable catalyst to synthesize ammonia.The Haber-Bosch process, which is often used to synthesize ammonia (NH3)—the foundation for synthetic nitrogen fertilizers—by combining hydrogen (H2) and nitrogen (N2) over catalysts at high pressures and temperatures, is one of the most significant scientific breakthroughs that has helped enhance crop yields and raise food production worldwide.However, owing to the…