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Ever since the Golden Gate Bridge opened to traffic on May 27, 1937, it’s been an iconic symbol on the American landscape.By 1870, people had realized the necessity of building a bridge spanning the Golden Gate Strait to connect the city of San Francisco with Marin County. However, it was another half-century before structural engineer Joseph Strauss submitted his bridge proposal. The plans evolved, and the final project was approved as a suspension bridge that ended up taking over four years to build....

Media Platforms Design Team You can’t put lipstick on a pig. The PR spin I heard more than once: We’re gaining market share. Translation: We’re selling fewer vehicles than we did in the 1980’s, but our competitors are selling even less. Wait for the applause. In fact, more than one executive mentioned to me that zero percent overall growth in these tough automotive conditions is the new “up.” That’s depressing. But I suppose improving market share in this economy is better than the alternative....

Transitioning to renewable energy across society will require many changes, including more batteries. Energy storage is crucial for making sure that inconsistent renewable sources, like wind or solar, can stay humming even when the weather isn’t going their way. But batteries have their own problem in the form of the commonly used lithium. Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras have come up with what could be a possible replacement: a rechargeable iron ion battery that uses mild steel as the anode....

Media Platforms Design TeamWhen Israeli commandos launched their assault on ships bound for Gaza on Monday, the plan was to take them without bloodshed. It was a tall order, but after decades of conflict the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has built up a comprehensive arsenal of “less lethal” weapons, many of them developed indigenously. These cover everything from controlling large crowds to subduing individuals. However, technology has so far failed to deliver a –styled phaser that is both completely harmless and perfectly effective....

Defense contractor Lockheed Martin has signed a $490 million dollar contract to provide upgrades to Japanese and South Korean naval destroyers. Once completed, the ships will be capable of shooting down North Korean ballistic missiles. Under the contract, Lockheed Martin will provide upgrades to two Japanese and three South Korean destroyers. Currently, the destroyers are equipped with older versions of the Aegis radar system that only allow the ships to engage aerial targets....

The Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC) that astronauts used to control their journeys to the moon was an amazing device at least a decade ahead of its time when it was first developed in the 1960s. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it can’t hold a candle to the smartphone in your pocket in terms of either computing power or user-friendliness. But if you want to see what extra-terrestrial computing was really like, you can experience the awkward controls first hand with Moonjs, an online version of that historic computer....

It may still be the winter but that means you have plenty of time to build up a whole collection of DIY wooden beer koozies for warmer days. As shown off in this video by Fix This Build That, wooden koozies are a simple project that are great for newbies on the lathe because they don’t take a whole lot of skill to get right. In principle, the project is as simple as making a wooden cylinder and hollowing it out, but there are some details to consider as well....

Every spring, billions of dusty looking bogong moths travel hundreds of miles across Australia to a place they have never been. They migrate to escape the oncoming heat, and to hibernate in layers inside caves. How do they navigate this journey, which can take days to weeks each way? Scientists previously imagined that they might use the stars for help. (For instance, dung beetle uses polarized light, the moon or the Milky Way for the far less glamorous task of rolling a ball of excrement along a perfectly straight line for a few minutes at a time)....

A new GAO report shows that NASA’s James Webb Telescope, the scientific successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, will likely be delayed. Again. That would be the second such delay in recent months, as the telescope’s planned 2018 launch had already been pushed back to 2019.Not long after the Webb team requested that first delay, the report says “the project determined that several months of schedule reserve would be needed to address lessons learned from the initial folding and deployment of the observatory’s sunshield....

In 2017, South Korea suffered the second-worst earthquake in its history, and a recent investigations finds that it may have been caused by humans. According to the government-funded study, the cause of the quake was an experimental geothermal plant in the city of Pohang.Geothermal plants rely on the Earth’s internal heat to generate clean, cheap energy, which makes them attractive as a way to combat climate change. The geothermal plant in Pohang was one of a handful of experimental plants located around the world that seek to make this type of generation more efficient....

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear two cases this spring that will redefine the rights associated with owning a patent—and, some argue, the very meaning of innovation. The first case, Laboratory Corp. v. Metabolite, questions where to draw the line on patenting nature itself. Both companies dispute whether a process to test levels of amino acids in the blood is a naturally occurring phenomenon or a patentable procedure. eBay v. MercExchange weighs how much leverage a patent holder has in halting the business of a patent infringer....

The new Ducati Multistrada 1260 Enduro is a serious piece of kit, with updates to last year’s model including a new engine and better rider ergonomics. MSRP: $21,995 Engine: 1262 cc L-TwinFirst delivery date (United States): February 2019What is it?The standard (non-Enduro) Multistrada by Ducati is a big, high-horsepower adventure-tourer packed with technology. Though its looks and upright riding position conjure images of navigating remote villages, it rides more like a comfortable superbike than a grown-up dirt bike....

A foreboding cloud of black ash blocks out the sun from Europe to Asia. An outbreak of bubonic plague coincides with a piercing cold snap. Crops fail. Starvation, darkness, and squalor abound.All of these conditions were pervasive throughout the northern hemisphere in the year 536 A.D. The year was a tipping point in an era of unprecedented devastation. It was so bad that researchers are now labeling that year the worst time to be alive in the history of humankind....

The fabled Gordian Knot may have been impossible to untie, but this real-life knot has it beat when it comes to being maddeningly tight. Created by researchers at The University of Manchester, the knot you see above is 20 nanometers long, 192 atoms strong, and the tightest knot known to the human race. A knot like this is tied by carefully coaxing molecules to arrange themselves correctly around a metal ion, forming the tangled structure which contains eight overlaps in its tiny form....

One of the last year’s most hard-to-find gadgets getting another round on the shelves: the Nintendo NES Classic will be back in stores this summer with an official release date of June 29th.View full post on TwitterSince the retro console’s debut in 2016, the Japanese company has struggled to keep up with the overwhelming sales. By 2017, it had sold over 2 million units–rapidly outpacing Nintendo’s previous console, the Wii U....

The White House made headlines recently by pushing the idea of privatizing the International Space Station after federal funding runs out in 2024. But anyone who’d consider owning and operating their own outpost in orbit should know this: It’s not as easy as opening a Motel 6.For deep, detailed proof of this fact, look no further than the Deep Space Exploration Standards. Drafted in secret by representatives from Canada, Japan, Russia, the European Union, and United States, and released publicly just two weeks ago, these rules amount to an owner’s manual for a space station, outlining how to build so that all the parts connect and all the systems talk to each other....

Even if you don’t know anything about the deep web subculture of speed running, there’s a decent chance you’ve played the original Super Mario Bros. enough to know what’s special about world 4-2. This is the subterranean level with the hidden vine that leads to a warp zone, allowing players to skip directly to world 6, 7, or 8.When the game came out 30-plus years ago, this was simply a cool shortcut for players to discover....

The Air Force funded a kit that turns ordinary civilian aircraft into drones.The kit, known as ROBOpilot, first flew in August, and other robots have been similarly designed to drive cars.Thanks to ROBOpilot, thousands if not tens of thousands of civilian aircraft worldwide can be turned into temporary drones.The U.S. Air Force recently converted a civilian airplane into an ad hoc unmanned aerial vehicle, then sent the new drone on a two hour flight in the skies over Utah....

Fracking is the process of drilling into the earth and then pummeling rocks with a high-pressure mixture of water and other ingredients to released gas trapped inside, and while it’s certainly an effective way to tap natural gas deposits that may have otherwise been unreachable, it’s got its downsides, like how it could cause earthquakes, or lead to runaway leaks of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere. Of the many potential dangers, this is one of the most spectacular....

Media Platforms Design TeamThe fact that organic materials make up nearly two-thirds of municipal waste may sound like good news. After all, when you toss an apple core, it just rots away, right? But when University of Arizona anthropologist Bill Rathje drilled into landfills in the 1980s, he found a big surprise: legible 40-year-old newspapers, as well as perfectly preserved food–carrots, grapes and a few hot dogs. Even when organic material does decompose, the lack of oxygen in the landfill means that the decay produces methane, a greenhouse gas 21 times more potent than carbon dioxide....