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Media Platforms Design TeamChristopher TackTo my thinking, one of the most rewarding experiences a DIYer with limited space and/or budget can have is doing more with less than you (and everyone else) thought possible. You gain the use and enjoyment of a better-than-expected finished space, and—as an added bonus—you get serious bragging rights for being a visionary genius.One thing all we visionary geniuses have in common, though, is that we know where to go to find inspiration (and get ideas)....

Media Platforms Design TeamOn-Sale Date: September 2013Base Price (est.): $17,500 to $23,000Competitors: Chevrolet Cruze, Dodge Dart, Ford Focus, Honda Civic, Hyundai Elantra, Kia Forte, Toyota Corolla, Volkswagen Golf, Volkswagen JettaPowertrains: 2.0-liter I-4, 155 hp, 150 lb-ft; 2.5-liter I-4, 184 hp, 185 lb-ft; six-speed manual or six-speed automaticEPA Fuel Economy (city/hwy, mfr. est.): 29–30/40–41 (2.0-liter); 28–29/37–40 (2.5-liter)What’s New: Where should we start? Unlike previous generations that shared a structure with Fords and Volvos, the new Mazda3 rides on the company’s Skyactiv architecture that also underpins the CX-5 and Mazda6....

Japanese designers from the Prototyping & Design Laboratory, the University of Tokyo created a set of 3D-printed critters that are hyper-realistic, complete with organic-seeming movements spurred by a tiny motor. The bio-robots are printed in one-piece, a complete body ready for motion, just like an actual living creature. The set of creatures are virtually designed using CAD, printed using Selective Laser Sintering 3D Printers, and are born nestled in chalky, nylon powder....

Media Platforms Design TeamWith the iPad, Apple is attempting to simultaneously define a new category of computer—and to dominate it. And while it may feel like Apple has the tablet market largely to itself right now, competition will surely follow. Here’s a six-step plan to compete against the iPad.Offer the obviousThe iPad’s hardware shortcomings are well-trodden territory, including few connectivity options, no Flash, no front-facing camera. Filling all of these gaps is a prerequisite for competition....

A quick-thinking Indian Air Force pilot prevented disaster after his aircraft collided with a flock of birds. The birds caused one of the Jaguar ground attack jet’s two engines to catch fire, placing the aircraft and pilot in danger. The pilot ejected all external stores on his aircraft and later successfully landed his plane.The incident took place at the India’s Ambala Air Station, north of Delhi, on June 27th. The Indian Air Force Jaguar ground attack jet was just lifting off the runway when it collided with a flock of birds....

Planes don’t always have the luxury of waiting for optimal landing conditions. Sometimes the snow doesn’t quit, or the rain doesn’t let up, or the wind stops blowing. It’s important to know how bad is so bad that you need to go through all the trouble to reroute the flight. The only way to find out is testing. Here’s what rainy-landing testing looks like. For this test, Boeing glued a bunch of foam barriers to a runway in Glasgow, Montana to create an impromptu wading pool containing some 3,000 gallons of water....

Though it might look like little more than a series of lines, NASA’s newest Martian find, announced today, could provide some of the most compelling evidence yet for liquid water on Mars.Images sent back by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have shown the presence of dark lines on the surface of Mars that appear and disappear seasonally, steadily growing during the warm season and fading as the temperatures cool. “We found a new class of active phenomena of the surface of Mars” Alfred McEwan says....

Media Platforms Design TeamSlam DunkAfter the Asiana crash, some speculated that the pilots were attempting a slam dunk–style landing. In pilot jargon, this refers to approaching the airport at a higher-than-normal altitude and then quickly descending to get into a stable position prior to landing. “It largely depends on what airport you’re going into and what the airspace is looking like, but sometimes [air traffic control] will ask you to do a higher or short approach,” says former airline captain Greg Zahornacky, an assistant professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University....

In April, scientists stunned the world when they unveiled the first-ever picture of a supermassive black hole. Months later, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) is helping fill in the picture with the first ever shot of cool, interstellar gas wrapped around a supermassive black hole’s center. The shot will give scientists a better understanding of the mysterious regions that surround black holes, their accretion disks. Black holes are regions of space with the strongest gravitational pulls in the universe....

Media Platforms Design TeamEnthusiasts may be eagerly awaiting the debut of the upcoming seventh generation Corvette, but General Motors is meanwhile boasting that sales of mini, subcompact, and compact cars have soared more than 39 percent over last year, and that December was the first month in history that the manufacturer moved 1 million vehicles stateside whose highway rating was at least 30 mpg.Though official sales figures for the last month of 2012 will be announced later this morning, GM’s excitement over eco-minded sales success was strong enough that they felt warranted to hype the news....

A good window screen lets the air flow in while keeping the insects out. But screens can tear easily if mishandled, and one little rip can spread quickly. Before replacing an entire screen, check out these do-it-yourself screen repair kits. They’re easy to use and cheap to buy.The traditional way of fixing small screen tears is by purchasing replacement screen patches that have turned down edges, which hold the patch in place after you fold them onto your screen....

The Israeli Air Force says its F-35A fighters recently participated in two separate air strikes, which would be the first use of the F-35 in combat. The IAF did not offer much detail, leaving it unclear whether the fighters fired any kind of weaponry or simply acted in some kind of support capacity. Israeli Air Force head Maj. Gen. Amikam Norkin told participants at a IAF leadership conference, “We are flying the F-35 all over the Middle East....

BURBANK, Calif. – The Green Garage is already making power. A few weeks ago, we watched as Pacwind installed a Delta II wind turbine high atop Jay Leno’s garage (click here for video). Soon, solar panels will cover that roof, too. Jay is certainly committed to making his own energy, but he’s also interested in discovering more efficiency within his existing shop.Months ago, Jay had the folks from ExxonMobil visit the garage to analyze the fluids in his shop machines and determine if there were better, more earth-friendly lubricants available....

The Mars One mission involves a one-way trip to the Red Planet. Whoever goes on such a journey will never see their family or friends again—at least in person—and will live out the remained of their days on a harsh, cold desert world.Naturally, more than 200,000 people have applied so far. But why? And what kind of person doesn’t want to live on this planet anymore?That’s exactly what The Guardian tries to figure out in this video, which features interviews with some of the Mars One applicants....

Media Platforms Design TeamLAS VEGAS — Last night, Nissan had a private unveiling of their big (and only) concept vehicle for the 2008 Detroit auto show. Unfortunately, all we can show you for now is this sketch of the Forum, since the actual photos are embargoed for another month or so. But Nissan is calling this “the next generation of family transport” (read: probably the concept version of the next Quest minivan)....

The seed bank has a buddy.Way up north in Norway, the Svalbard Global Seed Bank is a repository for the world’s most important crop seeds, stored there in case of worldwide catastrophe. A few days ago, we saw the opening of the World Arctic Archive, set up in an abandoned mineshaft. What the seed bank does for plants, this library hopes to do for information. The founders plan to store data in a sturdier analog form that they say could still be decipherable in 500 to 1,000 years....

Welcome back to Popular Mechanics’ Riddle of the Week. We are in the middle of a series of knights and knaves puzzles, which take place on an island with two types of people: knights, who always tell the truth, and knaves, who always lie. We are going to be building off previous puzzles, so be sure to check out the first and second knights and knaves riddles. On to part 3....

Just days before Elon Musk’s mighty Falcon Heavy roared into the skies, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed off on Russia’s next great rocket. Rocosomos, the country’s space agency, had been waiting years for this Kremlin decree, which gives the go-ahead for developing something known as “supertyazh.” Translated from Russian engineer jargon, that means a “really big rocket.“Without much fanfare, Roscosmos posted a small announcement Friday saying Putin had signed the document “this week” for the development of the rocket in the super-heavy class, which will be based at the nation’s brand-new Vostochny Spaceport....

It’s one of the hardest problems in fluid mechanics: If you have some liquid in a tube, how do you measure how fast it’s moving (or “flow rate”)? It’s not easy to find an answer. Perhaps you could put some sort of turbine in the tube, and the faster the liquid flows, the faster the turbine will spin. That works great for really big tubes, but what about when the tubes in question are very tiny?...

CRISPR has been a hot topic lately, and it’s not hard to see why: It’s the kind of genetic editing science fiction has predicted for years at an incredibly low cost. But to date, it hasn’t been used on human embryos. It seems that’s set to change, though, the Francis Crick Institute has won approval from the Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority in Britain to edit embryonic genes for research purposes, according to Scientific American....