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It’s notoriously tricky to measure the size of the Milky Way from within. Astronomer’s have trouble seeing the forest for the trees—or in this case, the galaxy for the stars. But a new study sheds some light on the size of our galaxy, suggesting that the stars at the galactic edge are about twice as far away from the center as previously thought. Astronomers from the Astrofísica de Canarias in the Canary Islands and the National Astronomical Observatories of Beijing measured the distances to stars at the edge of the galactic disk, and the findings indicate that the Milky Way stretches roughly 200,000 light-years across....

The U.S. Army is trying to forecast what biomedically enhanced technologies could be available by 2050.The tech includes electronically super hearing, muscular control, and telepathic transfer of data.The Army fully expects to equip soldiers with such technologies, but what about the society that invents them? The U.S. Army believes that a range of technologies could be available by 2050 that would effectively turn the average soldier into a cybernetically enhanced super soldier....

So far in 2018, there have been 41 mass shootings in America, killing 68 people including 17 students and teachers from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. But some engineers are trying to invent ways to circumvent the gun control debate and save lives.A bulletproof curtain, designed by Ballistic Cordon Systems, could shield would-be victims and give them a chance to escape from a gunman. What began as a capstone project for four recent Drexel University graduates has since developed a company that wants to separate innocent lives from a bad guy with a gun....

About 230 million years ago, a nine-foot, partially bipedal crocodile ruled the roost in what’s now North Carolina, making todays crocs and gators seem comparably tame. Oh, and its name translates to “butcher.” Welcome Carnufex carolinensis, an ancestor of modern-day crocs and their kin. A partial skull, spine, and arm bone were discovered by a North Carolina State University team in the Pekin Formation in Chatham County, a hotbed for ancient reptiles....

Randy Dean runs a tight shop in his home in Ignace, a town of 1700 people—many of them loggers—in Ontario. Dean’s work space is well outfitted for everything from welding to woodworking. He has always owned a miter saw, but something about it bugged him. It just sat there. Putting the saw on wheels would improve its utility—almost anything is better on wheels—and it would be easy to do. Dean started with an old barbecue cart and ended up with a rolling miter saw....

NASA’s longest-running mission will continue on. The Agency has been able to keep Voyager 2, the satellite launched in 1977, running by using its trajectory correction maneuver thrusters to control the pointing of the spacecraft. Those thrusters have not been in use since 1989, when Voyager 2 was taking pictures of Neptune. In the interest of saving power, NASA has also turned off an instrument crucial to Voyager 2’s breakthroughs.Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 have been flying through space for 42 years....

The world of Sprint Car racing has drawn a flood of attention from around the world since the tragedy this weekend in which NASCAR ace Tony Stewart fatally struck driver Kevin Ward. For most people, graphic footage of the collision was probably their first exposure to this semi-obscure form of motorsports.How might the particulars of Sprint Car racing play into the untimely demise of a rookie driver? To understand Sprint Car racing, you need to take a look at the cars, people, and science behind this singular sect of motorsports....

The ground shook, a brilliant white flash enveloped the sky, and the world changed forever. Code name “Trinity,” the bomb test at dawn on July 16, 1945 in Alamogordo, New Mexico was the first large-scale atomic weapons testing in history. Only three weeks later two atomic bombs were dropped on Japan.More than 1,900 miles away from Alamogordo, at the Rochester, NY headquarters of Eastman Kodak, a flood of complaints came in from business customers who had recently purchased sensitive X-ray film from the company....

Alberto GonzálezLocation: MiamiAge: 33Years on Job: 6 Alberto González has a checklist 100 lines long of all the animals he’d like to see. As a wildlife inspector at the Port of Miami, he’s already more than halfway through it: He has set eyes on everything from the world’s most toxic snake, the taipan, to its biggest shark, the whale shark. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service hires inspectors to stop the illegal wildlife trade—at $10 billion to $20 billion per year, it’s second only to arms and drug smuggling in the black market....

Air traffic control is a crucial, stressful, complex job that sounds simple when you sum it up: You watch the planes. But while this has traditionally been done from an on-site tower where controllers watch with their own two eyes, it doesn’t necessarily have to be. One airport in London is becoming the largest to embrace a more sci-fi solution of putting its air traffic controllers miles away. London’s City Airport is getting its high-tech upgrade in large part due to a lack of space....

The latest attempt to cash in on YouTube is the Flip Video, an easy-to-use, dirt-cheap camcorder ($150 for the 1-hour model). A modified version of Pure Digital’s previous point-and-shoot camcorders, it captures 640 x 480-resolution footage – low-res, but good enough for YouTube. We tested the Flip Video against a similarly priced but more full-featured camcorder, the DXG-506V. The clips we took were at the same muddy resolution, but the difference was clear (see video below)....

Media Platforms Design TeamMedia Platforms Design TeamVIDEO: Watch Us Rip Through the Streets of Italy in the $1.4 Million Reventon! FRANKFURT — We shouldn’t be surprised that Lamborghini’s new ultra-elite supercar shares its name with a bull—this one famous for the 1943 death of legendary matador Felix Guzman in Mexico. Despite its bloody inspiration, every 2008 Reventon has already sold out—to 20 millionaires who wish they could fly F22 Raptor fighter jets....

Media Platforms Design TeamFRANKFURT — Porsche never seems to stop adding models, constantly refining the basic design of its iconic sports car, and the new 911 GT2 that debuted here yesterday is proof positive that the hits just keep on coming.The GT2 carries an uprated 3.6-liter twin-turbo flat-six engine that makes—get ready for this—530 hp and 501 lb.-ft. of torque, coupled to a six-speed manual transmission. The engine uses a new type of expansion cooling technology and variable-turbine turbochargers to pound out the extra 50 hp....

Media Platforms Design TeamTo the surprise of absolutely nobody, Apple today unveiled a standard developer’s kit (SDK) that will allow third-party software engineers to create and distribute new iPhone applications. Although the SDK is available immediately, iPhone owners will have to wait for the June release of the iPhone’s 2.0 firmware update to enjoy its fruits. While Steve Jobs hasn’t had a free moment lately for a venting session on PM’s Tech Clinic couch, imagine for a second if the mobile gurus at Apple could bare their souls....

Never use the toothpick on your Swiss Army knife? You’re not alone. So why not replace it with something aese? A new Kickstarter offers a handy tool for anyone looking to save space on their next camping trek: a fire starter designed to fit snugly inside that toothpick holder. The Firefly, as its called, promises a cheap and compact way to start fires whenever needed.Developed by Tortoise Gear, a small company based in northern California, the Firefly throws large, long-lasting if you strike it with something metal, like your knife....

If you want to keep your phone secure, a password is generally the way you do it. It’s way harder to get through than a four-digit PIN or pattern lock. At least in theory. Unfortunately a flaw in Android Lollipop makes it possible to get through with nothing but a bunch of gibberish. Uncovered by researchers at the University of Texas at Austin, the logic behind the exploit is pretty simple....

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) predicts that Americans will eat 222.2 pounds of red meat and poultry this year, a new record. The United Nations expects global meat consumption to double by 2050, requiring an enormous number of livestock animals. A new study from Georgia Tech examines the main byproduct of all those extra animals: waste. It’s a growing problem—but one with a few potential upsides if people are resourceful and willing to get down into the filth....

We still have a few days to go until the Apple Watch drops. But if it flops, it’ll be one in a long line of wearables that went for increidble ambition, but fell just sort of success. The Smithsonian has a brief rundown on technological advances in the watch, and it includes a sometimes forgotten point: that a watch that runs on batteries (instead of a slowly releasing spring that requires winding) is a relatively new phenomenon....

Auto fans will get a good dose of variety at the New York auto show, but they’ll be hard pressed to spot definite trends in styling or vehicle type. We saw everything from three little mini concepts (as in very small cars, not BMW’s spunky funster) from Chevrolet to large luxury SUV’s like Lexus’ new LX570 SUV.So what did we dig? Well there are more than a couple of standouts worth checking out....

For the past two years, the most powerful radio telescope in the world has been located in China. Ever since the FAST telescope was completed in the province of Guizhou in 2016, China has held the world record for the largest and most powerful single-dish radio telescope. However, the FAST telescope has one significant design limitation: it can only point straight up.The FAST telescope is essentially a giant bowl built into a natural depression in a mountainside, which is what allows it to be so big....