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Media Platforms Design TeamThe blast is sudden and deafening, like several sticks of dynamite exploding close by. Although there’s no crater, the shock wave pounds my chest. Immediately after the thump, a few men in beards, T-shirts, and old blue jeans laugh and high-five one another. Shortly thereafter, I hear something else: the sound of dissent. “Geez, they’re loud,” a man says to me a low voice. “Even though I’m ready for it, it still scares me....

Media Platforms Design TeamFor all the liberties that the Oscar-winning film took with orbital dynamics and the real science of space, Gravity at least strove to show that space is a sound-free vacuum. A new Blu-Ray release of the movie aims to make that eerie quiet even more haunting.The “Silent Space” edition of Gravity excises the film score entirely, providing more stark silence to the movie. The Blu-Ray release will arrive in stores on February 10....

Water guns have a long history of beautiful, simple, mechanical operation. Whether they’re dead-simple pump-to-fire pea shooters or big, hulking, Super Soakers with shoulder straps and pressurized tanks, you only need two things to get down to business: some water and your arms. Too simple for you? You’re in luck because the Spyra One has you covered.The focus of a Kickstarter campaign that has already met its funding goal, the Spyra One is the “““next generation of water guns””” and comes with a handful of snazzy features including an automatically pressurized tank, an ammo counter, burst fire operation that fires “water bullets,” a quick fill feature, and of course, a battery you have to charge....

Media Platforms Design TeamThey turned off the lights before the helicopter airframe hit the surface of the pool. In the dark, the churn of the water that tried to pull me from the four-point harness was the main indication that the helo’s cabin was rotating. When it came to rest I was upside down in the water, strapped into a seat, eyes closed, holding my breath. There was a locked window by my shoulder....

Hunting for antique American furniture is a popular pastime, but how do you really know what you’re buying is a true classic, such as a Shaker or Chippendale piece? By examining the shape and condition of the furniture nails and screws as well as the wood and finish, you can get a fairly good idea of when the furniture was built, and possibly by whom.View full post on YoutubeThe video above provides a great introduction to dating antique furniture and what areas should be examined....

NASA is going back to the moon. The agency has made their goal of a return moon mission clear over the past few years, building a new rocket to carry astronauts and planning a space station in orbit around the moon for the mid 2020s. But during a Senate hearing on Wednesday, NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine made a surprising announcement: while humans might be returning to the moon, it won’t be NASA that gets them there....

As the skies get increasingly crowded, tension sbetween airlines and drone manufacturers are heating up. A recent viral video is behind three aviation lobbyist groups demanding increased regulation on non-military drones.The video shows a drone flying astonishingly close to a passenger plane in the Las Vegas area, within 10 feet of a plane in the process of landing at McCarren International Airport. It’s spurred groups like the Air Line Pilots Association, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association and Airlines for America to issue a statement pointing out the safety weaknesses with how the FAA currently treats drones....

An upcoming Stranger Things pinball game has the first video screen to appear on a mainstream table.Pinball machines combine emerging tech with old-school mechanics like electromagnetics to create new magic.Stern leaned into Stranger Things’s ’80s aesthetic to tap into nostalgia for the golden age of pinball.Gizmodo reports that Stern Pinball is upping its game with next year’s selection of Stranger Things tables. Stern is the last major pinball company in the world, and it’s used Stranger Things’s telekinetic main character, Eleven, to bring in new technology inspired by the ‘80s setting of the show and illusory stage magic....

Radio FliersGino Cunti, Paul Je, Kevin Luong, Patrick Neelin; Toronto, OntarioMedia Platforms Design TeamLast year, four Humber College students working on their senior project became the first college students to contact the International Space Station (ISS) on a radio they built themselves—to NASA specifications. “When they first suggested doing it, I almost laughed,” says Mark Rector, an electronics engineering professor at Humber and their mentor for the project. “Maybe they could achieve nuclear fission while they were at it....

In the last two decades, few video game franchises have risen to the international acclaim like Pokémon. Over 100 games, card games, and movies have all left their mark on a generation. And that’s not just a turn of phrase, scientists say. According to a recent study from Stanford, adults who played Pokémon as children have a little wrinkle in their brain’s visual cortex that activates more in response to pictures of Pokémon characters than those who did not....

Media Platforms Design TeamPeople think hybrids are something new, but they’ve been around since the beginning of the automobile. Ferdinand Porsche built the Lohner-Porsche series hybrid car back in 1901. It used a gas engine to spin a generator that fed electricity to in-wheel motors. In 1917, the Woods Motor Vehicle Company of Chicago offered the Woods Dual Power, a series hybrid that could motor along—at speeds of less than 15 mph—solely on battery power....

This July, NASA’s New Horizons space probe blasted by Pluto and its moons, the culmination of a 9-year flight that marked humanity’s first visit to the former ninth planet and its companions. Since then, we’ve been reaping the astonishing benefits of that daring trip. Today the scientists behind the New Horizons mission just published their first overview of what they found on Pluto, in a report in the journal Science. As the full report makes clear, Pluto and its moons are far more fascinating and mysterious than anybody had imagined....

Researchers have created an aquatic robot powered by “blood” that runs through its body, similar to a human’s vascular system.The team based its design on the biology of humans and birds.This tech may provide robots with more autonomy and run time between charges in the future.Researchers at Cornell University have engineered a robotic fish that’s powered by a circulatory system that runs on “blood.” Before you get squeamish, we can confirm the robot isn’t filled with actual blood, but rather, a battery in liquid form that moves through the bot’s circulatory system....

The C-130 is an undeniably badass plane. With a history dating back to the 1950s, and four enormous turboprop engines, it’s a flying behemoth designed to carry whatever needs carrying, whether it’s a tank or 452 desperate passengers. But that’s not all: It can also do a loop. Related StoryWhy the C-130 Is Such a Badass PlaneAt the Farnborough International Airshow this past week, a LM-100J—the new civilian model of the C-130J Super Hercules—pulled exactly that stunt in an acrobatics display that’s frankly hard to even believe....

Media Platforms Design TeamPower Plastic (2005 Winner)Alan J. Heeger’s thin, affordable solar film won him not only a Breakthrough Award but also a $100,000 grant from the National Science Foundation last year. Now Power Plastic is set to be commercially available in 2008 (in the meantime, the U.S. Army and Air Force have been testing it in prototype applications). This year, Heeger worked with Kwanghee Lee and a team of scientists to create a new tandem organic solar cell that increases efficiency to 6....

Media Platforms Design TeamPrice: $100Photograph by William Brinson. Styling by Susan Brinson.Your dog keeps watch over you constantly and makes your life better, and with the Whistle Dog Activity Monitor, you can return the favor. The on-collar device monitors your pooch’s activity 24/7, including walks, play, and rest. The data is then accessible via iPhone, allowing you to track trends, set goals, and even share information with your vet. The Whistle is waterproof and boasts a 10-day battery life in addition to wireless syncing capability that allows you to upload data via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth....

The Mars Phoenix Lander has been a shining success for NASA. Not only did the craft reach Mars and land successfully, it also found ice in the martian soil and saw snow in the sky. But the Phoenix is now racing against time to complete more of its groundbreaking research before the harsh martian winter brings its death, said the project’s science leader, Peter Smith of the University of Arizona, at the first session of the Popular Mechanics Breakthrough Conference in New York today....

If you’ve tuned in to C-SPAN over the past year, chances are you’ve seen the head of some major car company testifying before Congress. Akio Toyoda, president of Toyota Motor Corp., was the latest to receive a summons to appear before a House subcommittee. However, instead of begging for bailout funds, Japan’s top automotive executive beseeched forgiveness for safety issues—namely, unintended acceleration—plaguing some of the carmaker’s most popular cars.“Thanks to all the media attention, it’s pretty hard for people not to know what’s happening,” says Bill Rinker, general manager of Toyota Santa Monica, the top Toyota Prius dealer in the country (the Prius was among the 8....

ISIS is planning to kill thousands of people by sending drones delivering radioactive material over Western cities—or so British Prime Minister David Cameron warned last week at a summit on nuclear terrorism in Washington. Rather than carrying a “dirty bomb” to disperse material with explosives, the drones would work like toxic crop sprayers—“dirty drones” perhaps—and cause thousands of casualties. The British PM urged other world leaders to consider urgently how they would counter this new threat....

Media Platforms Design TeamToxic sludge cakes the bottom of the Gowanus Canal. Snaking through Brooklyn, New York, the canal is a newly EPA-designated Superfund site. To clean the 300,000 cubic yards of mud mixed with industrial metals, coal, tar and sewage, the EPA will most likely have to dredge the waterway over the next decade. The question that remains is what to do with the muck once they dig it up....