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The two moons of Mars put on a show in March. During the span of two weeks, the Curiosity rover watched both objects, Phobos and Deimos, pass in front of the sun. Now the NASA Jet Propulsion Lab has released the eclipse animations to show us the robot’s point of view.Deimos, the smaller of the duo, swung by on March 17. The mini moon measures just about a mile and a half across, and looks like a wee interloper passing in front of the mighty sun....

Media Platforms Design TeamLexus took the wrapping off its all-new IS midsize sports sedan in Detroit, and if one thing’s for sure, it’s that the company is rebelling against the charges that it’s boring. The IS styling is curvaceous and exciting, with Lexus’ hourglass grille accentuated by dramatic headlights. A swooping cutline at the rear also makes for a car that’ll stand out on the street. The line comes in a few flavors at the moment: IS300h, the hybridized, civil version for lands outside of the US; IS250, the entry model; and the IS350, which is much more sporting....

Media Platforms Design TeamWhat Life NeedsRaw MaterialsAll life on Earth is composed of the same basic basic building blocks: DNA, RNA, proteins and lipids. Protein, the structure and catalyst for biochemical reactions, is made from amino acids. Lipids, which hold cells together and store energy, are made from carbon and hydrogen. Then there’s DNA and RNA, the most basic building blocks of life—and, some argue, by themselves the first forms of life—made of a sugar called ribose and of phosphates, the key player in today’s discovery....

The factory floor–as big as 16 football fields–is noisy with the clatter and grind of huge lathes and drills shaping steel plates, gears and rods for giant yellow bulldozers that will churn through major construction sites. Business is brisk, and new workers have come on board, armed with welding torches and, just as often, the controls to high-tech robotic manufacturing equipment. It takes sophistication to build the king of the dirt pile, Caterpillar’s iconic D-series track-type tractor....

If you get a call from a number you don’t recognize this month, it’s probably best just not to answer. That’s good advice anytime, but especially during the ongoing government shutdown. Thanks to the lack of funding, watchdog groups are shut down and no one is enforcing the rules that keep robocalls and telemarketers at bay, even if only barely.According to The Washington Post, the shutdown has left Americans who want fewer phone calls—which is all of us, really—with no recourse....

We’ve all come to rely on the convenience of cordless power tools. However, a cordless tool is only as reliable as its rechargeable battery. Once the battery can no longer hold a charge, it’s dead and useless. Or is it? What you may not realize is that a “dead” battery is often only partially dead, which means you might be able to resuscitate it.Here, I’ll describe two methods to jumpstart a dead tool battery....

It’s easy to be jaded by new battery news. Scientists tinker with chemical formulas, using all manner of exotic materials, only for that research to fade into the dusty annals of academia. But this breakthrough is something different. Scientists with the company Cuberg have crafted a new battery that comes with a way to scale up in the real world. The startup, with backing from Boeing, venture capitalists, and the U....

Mojo Vision, a startup in Saratoga, California, has developed a contact lens with augmented reality capabilities. The company claims that the lenses have a 14,000 ppi display.Even if the tech is sound, will people actually want these lenses?Smart contact lenses—essentially flexible displays packed with augmented reality tech—are sci-fi fodder as ubiquitous as the flying car. And like the flying car, the idea of AR-powered supervision is always on the cusp of going mainstream....

Media Platforms Design TeamIt’s often been said that you should never meet your heroes. But a few weeks ago, I couldn’t resist the call of a certain carbureted V12. The vehicle in question was a 1985 Lamborghini Countach 5000 S, whose wedge-like silhouette occupied prominent poster real estate during my car-addled adolescence. In the buff mags of the era, it seemed no amount of hyperbole could capture its explosive personality, cementing its position in my mind as the supercar to end all supercars....

Media Platforms Design TeamWe may not know yet whether life exists on Mars, but we do know that the Red Planet is alive. At a NASA news conference this afternoon, a team of scientists led by Michael Mumma of the Goddard Space Flight Center announced the discovery of plumes of methane emanating from the surface of Mars during the planet’s late spring and early summer. Methane is a key component of natural gas, and much of the Earth’s supply of the chemical comes from organisms that release it as they digest nutrients....

Over the last few years, we’ve discovered so many planets around other stars that we now know that nearly every star has a few. These exoplanets come in all kinds of different types, but the most interesting are the Earth-like ones. A new announcement from NASA’s newest planet-hunting telescope suggests it has found its first one. The most successful tool we’ve ever built to find exoplanets was the Kepler Space Telescope, which operated during the first half of this decade....

Nothing on Earth is as tough as a tardigrade. The microbial creatures, also known as water bears, can survive just about anywhere, including the vacuum of space. With the discovery of this latest species, you can add “a parking lot of an apartment building in Japan” to that list.This is the 168th tardigrade species found in Japan. Macrobiotus shonaicus, as the new species is known, shares tardigrade toughness: despite technically being a water creature it could survive for decades in the desert without a drop of water, and temperatures over 300 degrees Fahrenheit and as low as —328 degrees....

Although you might be experiencing a bit of a holiday hangover, companies are still eager to let gear go at insanely low prices before the start of the new year. So REI is discounting camping apparel and gear up to 50 percent and there are some seriously good deals to be had. Here are some of our favorites:Coats/Jackets:BUY NOWREIREI Essential Rain Jacket: $49, down from $70.REI Heliovale Insulated Jacket: $118, down from $200....

The Large Hadron Collider is the largest machine ever built, and scientists have used it to uncover all manner of secrets about the universe. But for all the time and energy that scientists have put into the LHC, plenty of the universe’s secrets are still eluding us. So CERN, the organization that runs the LHC, is planning to build a new particle accelerator that’s even bigger.The proposed accelerator has been given the name Future Circular Collider, and if it ever gets built it will dwarf the already gigantic LHC....

Footage of a giant squid was captured for the first time in the U.S. near New Orleans.Researchers were on a 15-day expedition on the Point Sur vessel when the Medusa camera system caught the clear video of the juvenile giant squid.On June 18, a team aboard the research vessel Point Sur captured footage of a giant squid, Architeuthis dux, in the wild 100 miles from the New Orleans coast. The finding is one of only two expeditions to have captured a giant squid on film in its natural habitat and the only recording of a giant squid in the U....

Media Platforms Design TeamNothing can take the place of face-to-face conversation, but the combination of high-speed Internet, webcams, and smartphones makes modern video chatting a close substitute. The technology has come a long way since it popped up as a business tool in the 1990s and evolved into consumer software in the past decade. Nearly every modern smartphone and laptop comes ready for video chatting, but that ubiquity can be tricky to navigate because features differ across software, and applications aren’t necessarily compatible with each other and with all hardware....

Media Platforms Design TeamSupernatural: The Complete Fifth Season (2009)Media Platforms Design TeamWhen the hit CW show Supernatural first began airing close to five years ago nobody expected the show to last more than three seasons, not even series creator Eric Kripke. Having successfully shepherded his original vision for Supernatural, and with the network’s decision to renew the show for a sixth season, Kripke handed over the reins. The first four seasons introduced us to the Winchester brothers, Sam and Dean (Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles), and we discovered their legacy as monster-hunters along the way....

Media Platforms Design TeamWe’ve already got tiny drones that can fly through windows and go exploring. But what about a tiny drone that can also dance and play musical instruments? Odd as it may sound, the military is calling for something like this to be built in real life. A new document published online yesterday by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) reveals that the agency intends to award a contract to KMel Robotics, a Philadelphia startup and Popular Mechanics Breakthrough Award winner....

Media Platforms Design TeamMIT student Damon Vander Lind wheels his human-powered, propeller-driven 300-rpm tricycle out for a test drive.The SilencerReader: Damon Vander LindMaterials: $500Time: Three weeksResult: Human-powered, 20-mph cruising.* See Propeller Trike Runners Up* Submit Your Own DIY Project"I spend a month a year working on a commercial fishing boat with a loud diesel engine, and the greatest sound in the world is to hear it turn off," says Damon Vander Lind, the creator of a soothingly quiet trike driven by a 7-ft....

The U-2 spy plane has flown continuously for the intelligence community and U.S. military for 64 years.As the times have changed and technology improves, the suits have gotten better at keeping pilots comfortable and alive.One company, the David Clark Company, has been the sole manufacturer of the suits since the 1960s. The U.S. Air Force is continuing to improve the pressurized flight suit used by U-2 spy plane pilots, 64 years after the airplane’s first flight....