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Airlines are more than travel providers. They’re also giant repositories of customer data—just think how much personal information you provide to book a flight. If you’re worried that the old technology that powers airlines isn’t up to the task of securing your data, well, maybe you have reason to be.Noam Rotem, a security researcher based in Israel, recently exposed a flaw in at least one online booking system called Amadeus used to facilitate arrangements between travel agents, booking sites, and upward of 200 major airlines....

Media Platforms Design TeamDNA stores the code for the structure of living things. But those As, Cs, Gs and Ts aren’t just building instructions: They can also be computer code. For years, scientists have been tinkering with DNA to use that code to control molecular and chemical reactions, even using DNA to solve logic or mathematical problems. In a study published this week in Caltech researchers Erik Winfree and Lulu Qian announced that they have figured out a way to increase the computational power of DNA computers further than ever....

Showing the transformative nature of the artistic process, a 10-year-old laptop infected with six of the most malicious computer viruses in the world has been sold at auction for $1.345 million. Titled “The Persistence of Chaos,” online artist Guo O Dong went to great lengths to create the project. Commissioned with over $10,000 by a cybersecurity firm Deep Instinct, Guo’s computer is infected with infamous viruses like WannaCry, which paralyzed hospitals in England by leaving MRI scanners and blood-storage refrigerators inoperable, and ILOVEYOU, which ended up wrecking international havoc and caused over $15 billion worth in damage....

An enormous GPS display on the surface of the Atlantic? Red Lobster specials spelled out along the Mississippi? Well, not just yet, but researchers at Japan’s Akishima Laboratories have developed a device that can display letters of the alphabet on a pool of water. The device, called AMOEBA (Advanced Multiple Organized Experimental Basin), consists of 50 water wave generators encircling a cylindrical tank 1.6 meters in diameter and 30 cm deep (about the size of a backyard kiddie pool)....

A well-meaning but uninformed gun owner accidentally committed a felony on social media in the process of “destroying” his AR-15. The weapon, which was previously a legal firearm, was made into an illegal one when its owner cut the gun barrel below the size allowed by federal law.Scott-Dani Pappalardo, in response to the recent school shooting in Florida, uploaded a video to Facebook in which he explains his decision to destroy his AR-15 rifle....

Stanford researchers have come up with a new solution that could prevent smartphones from overheating.The team used graphene and three other materials to create a four-layer insulator that’s about 10 atoms thick. This method can more effectively insulate hot spots on a cell phone than a glass sheet that’s about 100 times thicker.Have you ever left your smartphone in your black car, on your black car seats, with the moonroof open and the doors locked on an absolutely sweltering day?...

My LED Christmas lights flicker, especially the ones outside. What can I do to stop this?—TODD E., MORGANTOWN, WEST VIRGINIAOlder inexpensive LED Christmas lights flicker. There isn’t anything I’m aware of that you can do about that, other than replace them. Newer and higher-quality LED lights have a flicker- free circuitry and rectifier that converts alternating current to direct current. This causes the flicker to shift to a speed that’s too fast to be seen....

Android’s pattern lockscreen is an alternative to having a password or PIN; instead of typing something in, you just draw some lines between nodes. It’s easier to remember—and easier to enter—than pecking keys on a keyboard. But as graduate of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology Marte Løge found out, there are lazy patterns just like there are lazy passwords. They’re easy to guess, and you’re probably using one. For her masters thesis, Løge examined some 4,000 lock patterns and discovered a set of common bad practices; the pattern-lock equivalent of starting your passwords with “123....

Say what you will about the sometimes incoherent plot of the Transformers movies, or the gratuitous product placement, or the visual effects that are so overproduced as to be virtually incomprehensible, boy do they make U.S. military hardware look good. Obviously the Transformers movies feature a lot of cameos from various branches of the United States Armed Forces, but you might not have realized exactly how many. Take a look at this supercut made by YouTuber Sean Green, which features only scenes without any of the titular Transformers, and what you get is basically an ad for military....

Media Platforms Design TeamLamborghini Steals The Show With Two Stunners Lamborghini showed its Gallardo Spyder at the official press conference for the L.A. Auto Show. The Spyder has a black fabric roof that can be raised or lowered in about 20 seconds. The Gallardo’s space frame has been stiffened and reinforced in many areas, as was the windshield frame. The Spyder is equipped with a rollover protection system comprising two “pop up” hoops with airbags behind the driver and passenger....

La Jolla, Calif.—The surprisingly well-executed Equus proved Hyundai’s competence in the high-end sedan market, and their push to introduce seven new or redesigned models in 24 months has yielded several fresh-faced offerings, including the midsize Sonata. But lower price points are still the company’s bread and butter, making the all-new Elantra a crucial component of the manufacturer’s ambitious plan for new product. How does this four-door perform in the real world?...

Ten years ago today, Captain Chelsey “Sully” Sullenberger and his crew safely guided US Airways Flight 1549 to a water landing on the Hudson River in New York City after a bird strike by a flock of Canadian geese shut down the jet’s engines just after takeoff. What became known as the “Miracle on the Hudson” is one of the most heroic feats pulled off by any aviator, punctuated by quick-witted piloting and the survival of everyone on board the plane....

A Norwegian hiker uncovered an ancient arrowhead. Discoveries like these are uncommon in Norway, where harsh winters have either hidden away or destroyed many artifacts.Some archaeologists credit climate change for the discovery.A hiker traversing mountainous Norway made an astonishing find by chance: a 4.6-inch arrowhead that possibly dates back 1,000 years to the Iron Age. Hordaland County, home of the Store Ishaug mountain where the blade was uncovered, announced the discovery....

Gravity wave astronomy could confirm groundbreaking theories on massive gravity.The elusive graviton has been the subject of debate in theoretical physics for almost 100 years.One physicist has followed a groundbreaking 2011 paper with years of additional research and now, a $100,000 award.A theoretical physicist in England has won a prestigious award for her work on the theory of massive gravity, which could explain why gravity hasn’t constrained the rapid expansion of the universe....

DARPA, the Pentagon’s mad science wing, is revolutionizing how ground vehicles move across rough terrain. Its latest breakthrough: round tires that transform into triangular tank tracks in two seconds, without the vehicle needing to come to a stop.View full post on YoutubeThe three things that matter most for tanks are firepower, protection, and mobility. A combat vehicle must pack enough firepower to destroy enemies. It must have the armor to take hits and keep chugging along....

Media Platforms Design TeamIllustration of the dual cloak. Credit: Y. Ma et al.What good is a cloaking device that can shield sound but not light, or light but not heat? Over the past decades, scientists have developed ways to bend waves and build the first real invisibility cloaks, bringing your Harry Potter dreams a little closer to reality. But now they have created the first such device that can hide objects in more than one way at a time—in this case, from heat and electricity....

Media Platforms Design TeamThe most disturbing environment in Halo: Reach is one you’ll never find. It’s stark and absurd: a cavernous stone passage that seems to extend forever, flanked on one side with brackish green water, populated with disembodied air-lock doors, grounded aircraft and hot-pink bands running across the floor, walls and ceiling. In his combined office and recording studio in Bungie’s Kirkland, Wash., offices, Audio Director Marty O’Donnell taps at a keyboard and, in Matrix-esque fashion, a purple alien attack craft dumps into the virtual space....

Welcome to PM/AM, Popular Mechanics’ morning briefing on the top science and tech stories for today. Media Platforms Design TeamThe European Southern Observatory has released an absolutely stunning composite photo of two regions of star formation. The nebula NGC 3576 is on the right, and on the left is NGC 3603, a star cluster that has the highest concentration of massive stars that we know of. Although the two regions look like they’re close enough to be neighbors, NGC 3603 is actually 20,000 light-years away from Earth, while NGC 3576 is approximately 9,000 light-years away....

Reuters has an explosive report on NSA spying: Russian researchers have discovered an NSA-linked backdoor in hard drives around the world, enabling the agency to spy on computers across continents. Kaspersky Labs made the discovery, saying it has been found in computers in Middle Eastern countries like Iran, Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Yemen, as well as African countries like Mali and Algeria. China and Russia have also been affected. The NSA is also going after a multitude of targets beyond terrorism-related spying, including nuclear researchers, financial institutions, and businesses....

Scientists turned a taxidermy bird into a robot on wheels, all for the sake of research. Biologist Gail Patricelli created what she calls the “fembots” to study the mating habits of the threatened sage grouse. Apparently, it’s not very hard to entice male sage grouse to mate with a taxidermy birdbot.Male sage grouse already have a low bar for mating partners. “When there are no hens around, they often try to mate with dry cow pies,” Patricelli told Wired....