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Media Platforms Design TeamDeveloper: ZeniMax Online Studios // Publisher: Bethesda Softworks // Release: April 4, 2014 // Systems: PC, MAC (Xbox One and PS4 coming in June) // Price: $60; $100 (for Imperial Edition)Video game consoles update, graphics improve, franchises fade, and studios shutter. But Bethesda’s The Elder Scrolls has been a rare constant. Every release is like an exclamation point that punctuates the long sentence of fantasy gaming and creates an inspired enthusiasm for the genre....

The U.S. Air Force is looking for a new armored helicopter capable of transporting security troops to nuclear missile silos. The competition has drawn three entrants, including two types of Blackhawk helicopter and a European design offered in cooperation with Boeing.The United States has 400 Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles on alert across the western United States. Sixty feet long and weighing more than 37 tons, each Minuteman III carries a 300 kiloton thermonuclear warhead and has a range of more than 8,000 miles, enough to strike any target in the Northern Hemisphere....

Researchers have discovered that composite metal foam offers greater protection than traditional armor steel plate at a third of the weight. The discovery has broad implications for armored vehicles, and could result in stronger, lighter vehicles better able to protect occupants from the impact of kinetic weapons, explosive shockwaves, and fires. Scientists at North Carolina State University and the US Army’s Aviation Applied Technology Directorate have invented what they call Composite Metal Foam (CMF)....

Scientists have discovered three vast canyons hidden below hundreds of feet of ice in the Antarctic. What’s more, the canyons could play a crucial role in the continent’s shifting future.The findings are the first fruits of a project known as PolarGAP, which started in 2015 and was funded by the European Space Agency with the goal of better understanding the South Pole’s gravity field and geography. The two-year survey used small Twin Otter planes, sensors detecting gravity and magnetism, as well as radar and laser altimeter tools....

Which household items could stop an intruder’s bullet?We hope this is a strictly theoretical question—or that you have plans to move to a better neighborhood shortly. Assuming the former (and, admittedly, there is a morbid entertainment value in fantasizing about extreme self-defense scenarios), the first thing we need to establish is what sort of bullet are we talking about here?If an ISIS terrorist, say, were to drag an AK-47 or any rifle suitable for hunting man or beast through your unsecured doggie door, you’d be pretty much out of luck....

The law of conservation of momentum says that a rocket (or anything else) can’t accelerate forward without some form of exhaust ejected backward. But in 1998, a British engineer named Roger Shawyer announced the seemingly impossible—he had built a closed system that could generate thrust.Twenty years later and many scientists still call the Shawyer’s EmDrive impossible, but that hasn’t stopped DARPA, the Defense Department agency that funds potential technological breakthroughs of all kinds, from putting serious money behind it....

The military is about to do a major audit to figure out it huge budget problems.The cost of the much-maligned F-35 fighter jet program has reached in excess of $1 trillion, far more than the Pentagon said it would cost. The Pentagon tried to build and test-fly the jet at the same time, which added costs when parts had to be replaced. It also relies on accounting with a lot of wiggle room—keep that in mind when you hear how much a weapon will cost....

Media Platforms Design TeamLast week, major news outlets reported on bullet points that accompanied the recently released from the International Energy Agency (IEA) in Paris. emphasized one of the Outlook’s predictions: that domestic U.S. oil production might exceed that of Saudi Arabia from 2020 to 2025, leaving us “all but self-sufficient” in meeting our energy needs. This seemed to be shocking news for uncritical devotees of the theory that “Peak Oil” in the United States occurred around 1970, and has already occurred or will soon arrive worldwide....

Media Platforms Design TeamBuzz Aldrin explores the lunar surface.The most remarkable thing about Apollo 11—considering the uncertainties of manned spaceflight and the mishaps that bedeviled NASA on previous and subsequent missions—was its nearly flawless execution, from liftoff to splashdown. “I had the sense that surely something would go awry sooner or later,” flight director Glynn Lunney says. “It was pretty much by the book.” Here are the critical events that had to go right, and what would have happened had they gone wrong....

Media Platforms Design TeamAs anyone who has witnessed it in a loved one knows, Alzheimer’s disease is the worst kind of thief—it slowly, inexorably, robs the sufferer of her most cherished memories, turning even family members into complete strangers. There is still no cure for Alzheimer’s. But researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, in Livermore, Calif., are developing a tiny, implantable device that, they hope, will fight memory loss by stimulating neurons in the brain....

Media Platforms Design TeamApple launched its sixth-generation iPhone today, unironically named iPhone 5…with iOS 6…which operates on 4G networks that neither the iPhone 4 or 4S could access. Wow! We’re barely getting started and the disconnect between the terminology and technology makes things confusing. The iPhone has swiftly become Apple’s most important product, and the company executives hit the stage today to launch their most impressive phone yet with the most impressive language they could muster....

The history of Las Cruces, N.M., as a Western frontier settlement is nicely preserved at the city’s Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum. On display are 19th-century pioneers’ personal effects, folk art, farming tools and, not least of all, wagons and carriages once drawn by horses.For the past six years, the museum has also served as the site of the International Symposium for Personal and Commercial Spaceflight (ISPCS), an event that concerns an entirely different type of transportation—and a frontier hundreds of miles above the museum....

There’s a new “blackest black,” and it’s making its public debut in an art exhibition being held at the New York Stock Exchange. Titled “The Redemption of Vanity,” the project coats a multi-million dollar diamond in the black material, taking away all shine and color.The project continues a debate within the art world about who is allowed to use materials with superlatives like “blackest black” or “pinkest pink.“Once scientists create the blackest black material ever seen, what do they do with it?...

Ed. note, March 17, 2015: This excellent piece from Adam Savage was originally published in 2007, but we wanted to revisit the classic film in light of the upcoming ‘Blade Runner’ sequel and this fantastic roundup of models from the making of the original film.Twenty-five years ago, the Ridley Scott film Blade Runner became an instant science fiction classic. Set in a sodden, squalid Los Angeles of 2019, the neo-noir masterpiece influenced a generation of filmmakers and video-game designers....

Ticks, bugs and other pests are spreading diseases far and wide, and we may not be great at handling it. According to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, bug-spread diseases are seriously on the rise. Between 2004 and 2016, diseases caused by mosquitos, fleas and tick bites had more than tripled. The incidence of tickborn diseases alone more than doubled. Not only are diseases on the rise, but bugs are carrying strange, new diseases that had never been documented, including Heartland and Bourbon viruses, carried by ticks....

In the arts, technological trends are just as likely to be driven by emotion as they are by the latest developments, so that might help explain why the American music industry suddenly finds in the midst of a cassette tape revival. According to media metrics firm BuzzAngle Music, cassette sales rose 136 percent from 2016 to 2017. While that might not mean a lot in terms of actual sales—BuzzAngle estimates that 99,400 cassettes sold only made up 0....

Last month, an excavator operator was working in a peat bog in southeast Poland when he stumbled on a unique find: a rusted longsword from the 14th century. The discovery has kicked off an archaeological expedition to the area in the hope of finding more artifacts from the time period.The sword itself, a 4-foot, 3.3-pound, two-handed longsword, is in remarkable condition considering it’s 600 years old. The blade is almost fully intact, and the only part of the sword missing is the hilt, which was likely made from bone or wood....

Scientists believe they’ve uncovered the meaning of some of the Moai stone monoliths found on Rapa Nui, better known as Easter Island.The scientists analyzed soil in the vicinity of two of the Moai statues and found traces of banana, taro, and sweet potato, according to research published last month in the Journal of Archaeological Science. These traces indicate the statues could have been used to celebrate the crop fertility of soils in the region....

Media Platforms Design TeamIt’s always “go” time for Jim Cantore. When hurricane warnings appear, squall lines and tornadoes threaten destruction, and blizzards bury whole towns, he’s the Weather Channel’s man on the scene. That means he always has his so-called mobile office packed, ready to go, and full of geek gadgets.The BagThe mobile office is an Osprey backpack. “It fits perfectly in the overhead compartment of almost any plane,” Cantore says....

Media Platforms Design TeamIn American culture, the words “rogue CIA mission” call to mind squads of agents ready to take out targets, run guns, and rig elections—often for agendas too unsavory to be public. But even if rogue agents were amoral, at least they were thought to be capable. Recent allegations have upset the established idea of a rogue CIA operation, and this new version is somehow more insidious: This time, it’s amateurs playing a global spy game and getting people hurt....