Link About It: This Week’s Picks

Award-winning iPhone photos, an uncuttable material, the future of video calls and more from around the web

An Uncuttable Material Inspired by Abalone Shells A new material called Proteus made from “ceramic spheres embedded in a cellular structure made of metallic foam” that’s believed to be uncuttable could revolutionize security. Inspired by abalone shells—which are composed of an essentially weak material that’s arranged in a manner that makes the shells super-strong—Proteus may be used in various ways, from bank vault doors to …

2020’s iPhone Photography Awards Winners

Entries in the 13th Annual iPhone Photography Awards spanned 140 countries and several generations of the device, from the iPhone 6 through the new 11 Pro. Dimpy Bhalotia (India), the talent behind the pictured “Flying Boys” shot, took the Grand Prize and Photographer of the Year awards, while first place went to Artsiom Baryshau (Belarus), second to Geli Zhao (China), and third to Saif Hussain …

First-Ever Photo of a Solar System Like Ours

Images of exoplanets are extremely uncommon, but even more rare is an image of such a planet as part of a greater solar system like ours. Astronomers, however, have just shared one such photo captured by the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope. The picture of TYC 8998-760-1, located approximately 300 light years from Earth, reveals “a Sun-like star, orbited by multiple exoplanets.” This set-up is remarkably …