As expected, Apple has announced a mild update for the iPad family's middle child today. The new iPad Air is a lot like the old one, but it replaces the Apple M3 chip with an M4. That M4 also comes with a less-expected upgrade: a jump from 8GB of RAM to 12GB, which should be helpful for those using iPadOS 26's multi-window multitasking features.

The iPad Air still comes in 11-inch and 13-inch versions that start at $599 and $799, respectively; the only disappointment is that these entry-level models still come with 128GB of storage. A 256GB storage upgrade will run you $100, and 512GB (+$300) and 1TB (+$500) versions are also available. Preorders go live on March 4, and the tablet will be available on March 11.

The M4 iPad Air uses the same design as the M2 version from 2024 and the M3 version from last year. The M2 version of the Air was a gently tweaked version of the M1 iPad Air, but it was different enough not to be compatible with all the same accessories; most notably, the M2-and-later Airs use the Apple Pencil Pro accessory and aren’t compatible with the second-generation Pencil.

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It’s a regrettable reality that there is never enough time to cover all the interesting scientific stories we come across each month. So every month, we highlight a handful of the best stories that nearly slipped through the cracks. February’s list includes the revival of a forgotten battery design by Thomas Edison that could be ideal for renewable energy storage; a snap-on device to turn those boxers into "smart underwear" to measure how often we fart; and a dish of neurons playing Doom , among other highlights.

Reviving Edison's battery design

Credit: Maher El-Kady/UCLA

At the onset of the 20th century, electric cars powered by lead-acid batteries outnumbered gas-powered cars. The internal combustion engine ultimately won out, in part because those batteries had a range of just 30 miles. But Thomas Edison believed a nickel-iron battery could extend that range to as much as 100 miles, while also having a long life and recharging times of seven hours. An international team of scientists has revived Edison's concept of a nickel-iron battery and created their own version, according to a paper published in the journal Small.

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Apple's biggest iPhone announcements usually happen in September, but for the second year in a row the company is also bringing out a new iPhone in March. The new iPhone 17e is a new version of Apple's basic no-frills iPhone, replacing last year's iPhone 16e . The phone will be available to pre-order on March 4, and will be available on March 11 starting at $599.

The new iPhone includes an Apple A19 chip similar to the one in the more-expensive iPhone 17—both phones get six CPU cores, but the 17e only gets four GPU cores instead of five. The phone's cellular modem is also upgraded, from the original Apple C1 to an Apple C1X capable of faster speeds. Like the A18 in the iPhone 16e, the iPhone 17e also supports Apple Intelligence, implying that it has the same 8GB of RAM as the iPhone 17. Apple says the new Ceramic Shield 2 front glass (also used in the iPhone 17) will be more durable, and that the "Apple-designed coating" on the display is three times more scratch-resistant than the coating on the iPhone 16e and better at reducing reflections and glare.

But there are two more-noticeable upgrades that help close the gap between the iPhone 17e and the regular iPhone 17: the first is support for MagSafe charging, a notable omission from the iPhone 16e. The second is an upgrade from 128GB to 256GB of storage in the base model, which makes the $599 version of the phone a more attractive deal. A 512GB version of the phone is available for $799.

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A new pair of EV siblings joins the Subaru lineup this year, each using a shared skateboard chassis developed in partnership with Toyota. Compared to the original Solterra and smaller Uncharted , the new Trailseeker bears more Subaru DNA despite riding on the same electric platform. And unlike the Solterra and Uncharted, the Trailseeker will be built for the American market alongside the Forester at the company’s Lafayette, Indiana, assembly line.

Styling alone helps the Trailseeker look the most Subaru-ish of the expanding electric lineup, with plenty of the plastic cladding you'd find in the Forester and Crosstrek . An optional two-tone paint job helps accentuate the more traditional station wagon profile, which is the most important part of the Trailseeker’s brief: providing a longer and higher rear canopy that Subaru purposefully stretched to hold a full-size dog crate.

Meanwhile, the standard dual-motor powertrain sticks with all-wheel drive only (the Uncharted has a front-wheel-drive option), and a class-leading 8.5 inches (216 mm) of ground clearance emphasizes its off-road capability. It offers 281 miles (452 km) of range out of a 74.7 kWh battery, with a starting price tag of $39,995.

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A former NASA administrator says he is "encouraged" that the US Congress is considering legislation to prevent NASA from spending more than 50 percent of its launch funding on any single provider.

"America succeeds in space when American companies compete, innovate, and grow," former NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine wrote on LinkedIn . "I’m encouraged to see Congress taking meaningful steps to strengthen the industrial base that underpins both our civil and national security space missions."

Bridenstine commended the chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), and ranking member Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) on a new provision that appears in the NASA Transition Authorization Act of 2025. Cruz plans to hold a markup hearing for the legislation on Wednesday.

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In the Trump FCC's latest series of attacks on TV broadcasters, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr has been threatening to enforce the equal-time rule on daytime and late-night talk shows. The interview portions of talk shows have historically been exempt from equal-time regulations, but Carr has a habit of interpreting FCC rules in novel ways to target networks disfavored by President Trump.

Critics of Carr point out that his threats of equal-time enforcement apply unequally since he hasn't directed them at talk radio, which is predominantly conservative. Given the similarities between interviews on TV and radio shows, Carr has been asked to explain why he issued an equal-time enforcement warning to TV but not radio broadcasters.

Carr's responses to the talk radio questions have been vague, even as he tangled with Late Show host Stephen Colbert and launched an investigation into ABC's The View over its interview with Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico. In a press conference after the FCC's February 18 meeting, Deadline reporter Ted Johnson asked Carr why he has not expressed "the same concern about broadcast talk radio as broadcast TV talk shows."

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AMD has been selling "Ryzen AI"-branded laptop processors for around a year and a half at this point. In addition to including modern CPU and GPU architectures, these attempting to capitalize on the generative AI craze by offering chips with neural processing units (NPUs) suitable for running language and image-generation models locally, rather than on some company's server. But so far, AMD's desktop chips have lacked both these higher-performance NPUs and the Ryzen AI label.

That changes today, at least a little: AMD is announcing its first three Ryzen AI chips for desktops using its AM5 CPU socket. These Ryzen AI 400-series CPUs are direct replacements for the Ryzen 8000G processors , rather than the Ryzen 9000-series, and they combine Zen 5-based CPU cores, RDNA 3.5 GPU cores, and an NPU capable of 50 trillion operations per second (TOPS). This makes them AMD's first desktop chips to qualify for Microsoft's Copilot+ PC label , which enables a handful of unique Windows 11 features like Recall and Click to Do .

The six chips AMD is announcing today—the 65 W Ryzen AI 7 Pro 450G, Ryzen AI 5 Pro 440G, and Ryzen AI 5 Pro 435G, along with low-power 35 W "GE" variants—all bear AMD's "Ryzen Pro" branding as well, which means they support a handful of device management capabilities that are important for business PCs managed by IT departments. At this point, it doesn't seem as though AMD will be offering boxed versions to regular consumers; the Ryzen AI desktop chips will appear mainly in business PCs that don't need a dedicated graphics card, but which do benefit from more robust graphics than AMD offers in regular Ryzen desktop CPUs.

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In 1774, British physician-scientist Charles Blagden received an unusual invitation from a fellow physician: to spend time in a small room that was hotter, he wrote, “than it was formerly thought any living creature could bear.”

Many people may have been appalled by this offer, but Blagden was delighted by the opportunity for self-experimentation. He marveled as his own temperature remained at 98° Fahrenheit (approximately 37° Celsius), even as the temperature of the room approached 200°F (about 93°C).

Today, this ability to maintain a stable body temperature—called homeothermy—is known to exist among myriad species of mammals and birds. But there are also some notable exceptions. The body temperature of the fat-tailed dwarf lemur, for example, can fluctuate by nearly 45°F (25°C) over a single day.

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US President Donald Trump announced Friday that he was instructing every federal agency to “immediately cease” use of Anthropic’s AI tools. The move comes after Anthropic and top officials clashed for weeks over military applications of artificial intelligence.

"The Leftwing nut jobs at Anthropic have made a DISASTROUS MISTAKE trying to STRONG-ARM the Department of War,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social .

Trump said that there would be a “six month phase out period” for agencies using Anthropic, which could allow time for further negotiations between the government and the AI startup.

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