We’ve all been there. It’s 2 a.m. and you hear an eardrum-piercing beep. Your first reaction is to cover your head with a pillow and pretend it never happened. Eventually the slow chirping takes ...

Your smoke alarm’s chirp can be oddly reassuring, a small sound that suggests everything is still working. Yet the device ...

Smoke alarms save lives, but if they shriek every time you sear a steak or run a hot shower, you are more likely to silence or disable them than to trust them. The real fix is not to lower your guard, ...