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Scientists used robots and replica tools to stress test ancient materials and designs used by hominins.Humans aren’t millions of years old, but toolmaking certainly is.Ancient hominins chose materials based on what worked best for the work they were doing.Archaeologists are testing ancient stone tool designs using very modern engineering. In the journal Royal Society Interface, a group of three archaeologists based in England and Spain surveyed tools found at the two-million-year-old Olduvai Gorge site and ran them through engineering tests to try and understand if ancient hominins were iterating better and better materials and designs....

In preparing for disasters, you may want to include emergency rations as part of your survival kit. They last up to five years and are packed with calories. But we were curious to know exactly what we would subsist off of if all other food sources ran out. So PM tested three 2400-calorie rations on the market to find the most palatable one. How We TestedWe performed a blind taste test, asking 20 staff members to try each bar, rate its taste and texture on a scale of 1-5, and choose their favorite....

The scars of World War II are still visible today. A new study out looks at how Nazis warped Norwegian trees with poisonous gas to mask one of the largest battleships built for the conflict.Launched in 1939, the Tirpitz was one of two Bismarck-class battleships built by the Nazi Kriegsmarine shortly before World War II began. Like many of the Nazis military projects, Bismarck-class ships were built to intimidate. With an overall length of 823 feet (251 meters), over 2,000 Nazi sailors, a main battery of 8 15-inch guns in 4 twin turrets and enough space to carry four planes, the ship was hard to miss....

If you like to spend time in the great outdoors, you should probably know how to start a fire. Wyatt Knox from the Team O’Neil Rally School put together a video showing several ways to start a fire using your car. The easiest way to start a fire from your car is the cigarette lighter. Seeing how less and less people still smoke, many new cars don’t come with 12-volt lighters....

Anyone who has ever spent a night tossing and turning in a cold house as a result of a busted heating system will never look at that particular equipment the same way again. It’s as unpleasant as being stranded on a dark and lonely road when a car quits. But it may not take outright failure to make homeowners examine how their home is heated. It might be the system’s noise or the fact that it simply doesn’t work all that well....

The Hubble Space Telescope has snapped yet another stunning image of Saturn’s rings.Images of Saturn have come a long way from Pioneer 11’s first close-up of the ringed planet. Saturn’s rings are made up of mostly dust and ice. A new image taken by the Hubble Space Telescope has provided yet another beautiful view of our solar system’s famed sixth planet. The image was taken by the telescope’s Wide Field Camera 3, according to a press release....

Leatherman recently released the final multitools from its Free collection, so you could splurge on a great new tool with its new proprietary magnetic locking system—or you could shop the brand’s sale page and score other multitools for up to 25 percent off. Either way, you can’t go wrong with the Oregon-based company’s proven designs.Leatherman LeapLeatherman LeapNow 80% Off$6 at LeathermanOf all the tools on sale, our favorite is Leatherman’s Leap due to its impressively compact design that packs in 13 tools....

The International Space Station (ISS) has three new flying robots, collectively known as the Astrobees. Built by NASA, these three bots—named Honey, Queen, and Bumble—will work alongside astronauts on future missions.“The main purpose of the Astrobee platform is to provide a zero-gravity testbed for guest scientists to try out new robotic technologies in space,” says Maria Bualat, Astrobee project manager at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley, in a press statement....

We’re bouncing straight for the edge of a cliff. My wife, Heather, is in the shotgun seat, her right foot reflexively reaching out to press her own phantom brake pedal as blue sky fills the windshield. Adrenaline, about 10 Red Bulls’ worth, courses into my system as I lean on the brakes and wrestle the steering wheel to the right, until the passenger-side mirror is nearly grazing the sheer rock wall that defines one side of the trail....

Since 2015, we’ve been awaiting the arrival of the Mission E, Porsche’s take on a powerhouse electric sedan. This week at the Geneva Motor Show, the automaker unveiled a new twist on its electric future plans: a crossover version called the Mission E Cross Turismo.PorscheLike its sedan counterpart, the “CUV” will draw more than 600 horsepower from its electric powertrain. Porsche says the Mission E Cross Turismo will do 0 to 62 mph in just 3....

Media Platforms Design TeamWere you slightly bothered a few weeks ago when (human) world chess champion Vladimir Kramnik lost 4-2 against (personal computer) Deep Fritz? If so, prepare yourself for a serious mind explosion: Machine-improved humans are beating regular folks at more than just chess.South African sprinter Oscar Pistorius ran the 100-meter dash in 11.16 seconds. It’s a respectable time—about 1.4 seconds shy of the world record set by the “fastest human alive,” Asafa Powell of Jamaica....

Here’s our first glimpse at the “apocalypse torpedo” in action. Russia’s Ministry of Defense has uploaded a new video of the country’s Poseidon strategic attack drone. Russia boasts that the high-speed drone currently under development is “unstoppable,” and can deliver a multi-megaton thermonuclear warhead to an enemy coastal target. The video shows Poseidon shot out from what appears to be an underwater ejection port:View full post on YoutubePoseidon is 70 feet long and 6....

The proposed luxury tourist hub (foreground) will closely resemble the Science and Power Module, NEM, (background) scheduled for delivery to the International Space Station around 2021Anatoly Zak/RussianSpaceWeb.comSpace tourism isn’t a new idea. SpaceX announced plans this year to send civilians skyward and Virgin Galactic is still working toward its goal of regular space flights. Just this week, Blue Origin released footage of its future space tourism ambitions. But all these plans aren’t exactly a first-class experience....

Our latest glimpse at Russia’s hit list reveals a batch of targets that’s decidedly weird. On Sunday, February 24 Russian state television broadcast a map of targets it said could be hit by the new nuclear weapons President Vladimir Putin is threatening to bring online. The report mentioned several facilities, some very small and manned by less than two dozen people, in isolated areas near U.S. coastlines. On the outside, some of them have no apparent military use, but Popular Mechanics has uncovered the role of at least one of them in American nuclear war planning....

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Gene Roddenberry is blushing a deep red.This past Friday, President Donald Trump revealed the logo for the newly minted sixth branch of the military—the U.S. Space Force. It struck more than a few people as familiar:View full post on TwitterView full post on TwitterYes, the Space Force logo and Star Trek’s famous Starfleet logo are very similar. The Space Force also cribbed a design element from NASA’s meatball logo by reversing the path of the white orbiting satellite:NASABut it’s the insignia—the triangle-y looking thing—that’s drawing so much attention....

A recycled SpaceX capsule is back at the International Space Station, just in time for Christmas.NASA astronauts used the space station’s big robot arm to grab the Dragon capsule out of orbit Sunday. It’s the second visit for this particular supply ship, which made a delivery for NASA back in 2015 as well, and only the second time a Dragon has had a repeat performance 250 miles up.“It’s a great day to see Dragon back at ISS again,” Mission Control radioed....

Media Platforms Design TeamA scandal is claiming the careers of some of the brightest officers in the Navy. The story centers on alleged bribes to Navy officers by a civilian contractor, Glenn Defense Marine Asia Ltd. (GDMA). In one instance, U.S. Navy Cmdr. Michael Vannak Khem Misiewicz is accused of giving classified information about a ship’s movements to the company and even redirecting vessels to ports that benefited the company and its CEO, Leonard Glenn Francis....

This spring Fiat Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne called out the auto industry for the staggering amount of money it wastes in the design and manufacture of cars. His solution is based on classic business principles: consolidate and eliminate redundancy. Local Motors CEO Jay Rogers perceives the same challenge, but he’s attacking it from a completely different direction. For Rogers, the problem stems not from business organization but from the fact that we still build cars the same way we did in 1915, on assembly lines with thousands of individual parts....

Disassembly Report Model: Haiku H Series Number of parts: 149 Time to disassemble: 68 minutes, 48 seconds Produced: Lexington, Kentucky A ceiling fan can’t make the air in a room cooler like an air conditioner can. But it can make it feel like the air is cooler. Here’s the basic idea: As you sit in your stifling living room, sipping an iced coffee, trying to keep sweat and condensation from smearing the pages of your magazine, your body—which is pretty hot—is off-loading heat to the air around it....

Farmers are creating more and more demand for high-quality used tractors.John Deere is eyeing technology like autonomous drones, but small farmers’ real income just can’t support these purchases.As long as farmers can find simpler machines that are easy to maintain and repair, they’ll keep buying used tractors.Minnesota’s Star Tribune reports that farmers are flocking to 40-year-old tractors at auctions. The appeal is twofold: While classic tractors are cheaper to maintain, simpler to use, and much simpler to repair, they’re still also far cheaper than comparable new tractors....