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Driving any new car brings a few surprises. Driving an electric car when you’re accustomed to internal combustion requires a mental reset. And driving a vehicle as intentionally futuristic as the Tesla Model 3 takes a whole lot of getting used to.After a weekend spent motoring around the San Francisco Bay Area in the Model 3 Performance Edition, here are the 10 features that required the largest mental adjustment.How the Heck You Get InLet’s start at the beginning—getting into the car itself....

.The Decade, Reviewed looks back at the 2010s and how it changed human society forever. From 2010 to 2019, our species experienced seismic shifts in science, technology, entertainment, transportation, and even the very planet we call home. This is how the past 10 years have changed us.At this time 10 years ago, the state of the superhero universe was in flux. Familiar franchises like X-Men and Spider-Man saw their first cinematic sagas end in a whimper, while Superman’s second saga never quite got off the ground....

A new report by a Washington D.C.-based think tank confirms a widely held suspicion: on average, a new U.S. tactical aircraft costs up to two and a half times more than the aircraft it replaces. The trend has far-reaching implications, from cost of the U.S. defense budget to the size of U.S. air fleets.The report, Is the U.S. Military Getting Smaller and Older? includes a chart that depicts the cost of a variety of combat aircraft purchased from 1955 to 2017....

Optical illusions often play on tricks of sight or sound. But scientists at the California Institute of Technology have built a little sensory trick that plays on both. It involves a cross, flashes of light, and some popping sounds. They call it the Rabbit Illusion.The illusion shows how stimuli that occur later can affect the perception of stimuli that have already occurred. In other words, if the senses pick up on one stimuli after another, the brain will attempt to create a narrative out of them....

Media Platforms Design TeamNASA/Wallops Mission Planning LabUpdate: The Antares rocket exploded on lift-off. For more, check out our developing story.At 6:45 Eastern tonight, a rocket will blast off from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, and if you live on the East Coast of the U.S., you might be able to see it. NASA just issued this handy map showing where the rocket will be visible, and how long after launch....

Recent news out of China suggests that the country is experiencing technical problems with its first homemade aircraft carrier. This points to an ongoing issue for countries that have elected to go the aircraft carrier route: carriers are really, really complicated and expensive things to build.HMS Hermes.Wikimedia CommonsThe first purpose-built aircraft carrier was the Royal Navy’s HMS Hermes. Laid down in 1918 and commissioned in 1926, it was the first carrier built from the ground up as a carrier and not converted from another type of ship for the aviation role....

Media Platforms Design TeamA TV used to simply display images. A game console used to just play games. But we’re reaching a point—a critical intersection of low-cost processors and streaming digital media—that is transforming the home theater into something more than a collection of discrete components, each doing a specific job: a collection of discrete components that each do every single job.The typical Blu-ray player isn’t limited to playing discs. It connects to a home network, upscales standard definition content to HD, and streams Netflix....

Media Platforms Design TeamLOS ANGELES — So how exactly do you remodel an icon? Well, if you’re Scion, you go big. The all-new Scion xB is certainly reminiscent of the original, only a little smoother around the corners—and much larger. The wheelbase is up 4 in., it’s wider by nearly 3 in. and, overall, it’s a full foot longer. That translates into a much roomier interior. The xB now feels substantial, like a car from the next class up....

Media Platforms Design TeamOn-Sale Date: August 2012 Price: $36,000 to $43,000 (est.) Competitors: Acura TL, Lincoln MKZ hybridPowertrains: 3.5-liter V-6, 268 hp, 248 lb-ft; 2.5-liter four-cylinder hybrid, 156 hp, 156 lb-ft; six-speed auto (with V-6) or planetary integrated with two motor/generators (hybrid), FWD EPA Fuel Economy (city/hwy): 21/31 for V-6, 40/39 for hybrid (est.) What’s New: Replacing one of its stalwarts, Lexus introduces the sixth-generation of the ES sedan this summer, adding a hybrid version for the first time....

The 2018 Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to Arthur Ashkin, Gérard Mourou and Donna Strickland for having “revolutionized laser physics,” as per a press release from the Nobel Committee. All three have used physics to have significant contributions to human health.The award, which along with global recognition comes with 9 million Swedish krona ($998,865), will be split, with half going to Ashkin and the other half to Mourou and Strickland....

Scientists have discovered an unlikely weapon against a disease that has been killing bats by the millions for more than a decade. Strangely enough, it’s ultraviolet light.Starting in 2006, the American bat population has been dying off in droves. Bat colonies living in caves were decimated, with an estimated 6.7 million have died due to what is known as white nose syndrome (WNS). WNS has a clear source in the white fungus known as Pseudogymnoascus destructans....

Don’t sleep on the Chinese space program. China has already launched two space stations into orbit, and according to a recently released roadmap, the country is looking to build a reusable rocket, a massive cargo rocket, and a nuclear-powered space shuttle over the next few decades.The roadmap was released by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), China’s primary space contractor. CASC is the company that builds China’s successful Long March family of rockets, and its roadmap sets the company’s goals from the end of this year all the way out to 2045....

Media Platforms Design TeamWhen asked what we can do to decrease U.S. dependance on petroleum, some simply say, “Drive a hybrid.” Okay, sure: In many cases hybrids do use less fuel than similar-sized vehicles with conventional gasoline powertrains. And they are gaining popularity—256,000 people purchased a hybrid vehicle in 2006. And this year, according to JD Power and Associates, hybrid sales are on track to increase by 35 percent, to a projected total of 345,000 vehicles....

In new research, scientists used depleted uranium to catalyze turning ethylene into ethane.Scientists are always searching for ways to safely use depleted uranium, including in warfare and in nuclear energy.The reaction works by combining ethylene with a uranium-based molecule complex with special carbon rings.Scientists at the University of Sussex have used depleted uranium, a common and problematic nuclear waste product, to help catalyze a valuable chemical reaction. Geoff Cloke, Richard Layfield, and Nikolaos Tsoureas combined depleted uranium with octatriynyl and a ligand into a complex called uranium III....

At about 4 PM yesterday afternoon a drone came a little too close to the 175-foot-tall Seattle Great Wheel, according to local KING 5 News. No one was hurt and nothing was seriously injured, but the drone’s pilot is still unknown.According to KING 5, employees heard a loud thud above them before the drone fell from the sky, crashing through a plastic table at the Great Wheel’s base. Photos from the local police show the drone to be a DJI Phantom, a very common enthusiast craft and the same kind that crash-landed on the White House lawn in January....

Right now, you could get behind the wheel of a car that burns zero fossil fuels, produces zero pollution or greenhouse gases, runs on the same chemical reaction that powers rockets, and gets twice as much mileage as a Tesla. It’s called a hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle, but unless you live in California, you may have never seen one on the road.➡ You love badass cars. We love badass cars. Let’s nerd out over them together....

The Israeli Air Force would rather buy more F-15 Eagle fighters than the latest and greatest F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. It may be an older plane, but the F-15 apparently offers Israel more flexibility, particularly when striking its mortal enemy: Iran.According to Aviation Week & Space Technology, Israel is dividing its airpower into two categories: jets that can strike targets just over the border in Lebanon and Syria, and jets that could hit distant but important targets such as Iran’s nuclear program....

Home to more than 400 species of animals, plants and birds, Louisiana’s bayou is more than just a gorgeous natural resource and major source of revenue: It serves as a natural defense against the hurricanes that already ravage the state. Even though Hurricane Katrina left another huge swath of natural habitat destroyed in its sweeping aftermath over a year ago, every 2.7 miles of the quickly disappearing wetlands can actually decrease a hurricane’s storm surge by a foot....

USS Grayback was lost in 1944, off the coast of Okinawa.A Japanese researcher discovered the coordinates of the sinking were mistranslated.The correct coordinates lead searchers to the sub’s final resting place, 75 years later.USS Grayback, a U.S. Navy submarine lost in 1944 to enemy air attack, has been found. The search was conducted by U.S. and Japanese researchers who were the first to realize that an error in translation had misplaced the location of the ship’s sinking....

As civil war rages in Libya, at least hotshot flyboys are finding ways to have a little fun. In this video, found over in the incredibly entertaining r/MilitaryGfys, a Libyan MiG-23 roars by so close to the ground it’s probably an overstatement to call it “overhead.” Just how close are we talking here? Check out this still image:Media Platforms Design TeamThe full video gives you an even better sense of the speed involved—and as a bonus, you can hear the Doppler shift of a plane coming at the camera at an ungodly rate of speed....