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The Mine Countermeasures Module, designed to turn the Littoral Combat Ship into a mine-hunter, is 11 years late. But it’s making progress.The system can autonomously locate mines and then, on command, destroy them.The mine hunting system is faster, but still grants final authority to make the final decision on whether or not to destroy a suspected mine. The U.S. Navy successfully tested a new mine-hunting system that uses autonomous robots to detect, identify, and destroy sea mines....

Welcome to PM/AM, Popular Mechanics’ morning briefing on the top science and tech stories for today.Media Platforms Design TeamYesterday, Alienware, one of 13 hardware manufacturers who signed up to participate with Valve’s Steam Machine program earlier this year, announced that its machine won’t be a true Steam Machine at all—at least not for now.Known mostly for high-end PC gaming solutions, Alienware developed Alpha, which was intended to be a $500 console that brought your favorite Steam games to your television....

A photographic plate of the 1919 solar eclipse that Arthur Eddington used to validate Einstein\’s theory of relativity.Media Platforms Design TeamA retired Danish astronomer recently stumbled upon a treasure trove of astronomical observations from the late 19th century. The oldest images, taken from the Østervold Observatory telescope when it was first built in 1895, are from a time when astronomers thought the universe was 400,000 years old and had yet to discover galaxies beyond the Milky Way....

Media Platforms Design TeamMedia Platforms Design TeamHere at PM we’ve been playing with spudguns, those armaments of the starch-loving, in which a Yukon gold is blasted from a homemade cannon at hundreds of miles an hour. These are flex-fuel munitions: they use anything from Static Guard to hairspray, but Right Guard has always been a spudgunning favorite. Several versions of the spray-on the antiperspirant contain propane?or at least they did. A few days ago, however, I went to four different ammo shops (i....

Sweden has become the first country to build an electric highway, creating a short 1.2 mile stretch of road that powers hybrid and electric trucks.The road, part of the E16 highway outside the city of Gävle, was fitted with overhead power lines that Scania hybrid trucks can connect to for power. The overhead lines were built by Siemens in cooperation with Scania and Sweden’s Transport Administration. While driving on the electric highway, the trucks are completely powered by electricity and produce zero emissions, at least not directly....

Researchers are using specialized x-rays to study the microstructures of the skull in hopes of making better helmets for the military.The property they’d like to learn more about is anisotropy, or the dependency of a material’s characteristics based on its orientation. The end goal is to better train computer models that help determine the design of a helmet. To do so, the research team has collected terabytes of data on tiny bones in both fractured and intact skulls....

The U.S. Army is looking at a new vehicle to replace the M1 Abram main battle tank and warns it could look like practically anything. The service is studying a number of new options for the future and there’s only one key, non-negotiable requirement: Whatever the new vehicle is, it must be the most deadly thing on the battlefield.The M1 Abrams series of tanks entered service in 1981 to counter the Soviet T-64 and T-72 main battle tanks....

Where did the Moon come from? The most widely accepted theory is that the Moon was formed through a collision between the Earth and another planet early on in the Solar System’s history. However, a new study from the Weizmann Institute of Science suggests there wasn’t one collision, but several.The commonly accepted origin suggests that the one big collision threw up debris that eventually coalesced and formed the Moon. This theory is supported by chemical analyses of Moon samples, which show them to be pretty much identical to Earth rock....

Media Platforms Design TeamEvery March in Detroit, at the Autorama show for custom cars, one car is singled out for the prestigious Ridler Award. In the custom-car world, the Ridler is presented to the car that exceeds the standards in every detail—design, paint work and craftsmanship. Cars competing for the award are not only fully functional, but akin to unique pieces of dynamic art. Every component must be exactingly assembled and finished—including what’s beneath the bodywork....

Media Platforms Design TeamWest Point, Ga.–If anyone tries selling you a 2010 Kia Sorento, walk away, fast. There’s no such thing. Instead, Kia will move right into the 2011 model year with an all-new one utilizing a unibody chassis rather than the old model’s body-on-frame design. It goes into production in November and arrives at dealerships in January. “All-new” is an overworked expression in the car game, but this time it genuinely applies....

Independent analysts claim they have discovered a hacker attempting to sell files relating to a U.S military drone on the dark web. Speaking to The Hill, the research firm Recorded Future (RF) says it is “100 percent certain” that the documents relating to the sale are authentic. Recorded Future’s Insikt Group, “a team of veteran threat researchers that back up the intelligence analysts, engineers, and data scientists” at RF, found an English-speaking hacker who claimed to have access to documents relating to the MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)....

Every morning, Tomás Gutiérrez stirs a DIY chemical cocktail into his morning coffee. The mix is intended to inspire a specific kind of high: one that will sharpen his focus, boost his intellect and his productivity. Gutiérrez’s kitchen resembles a set from Breaking Bad: powders and containers with oils and amino acids and scales to measure substances by the gram. Gutiérrez is part of a wave of “brainhackers” optimizing their lives through nootropics, or loosely regulated “smart drugs....

Chuck Norris is a man of many skills, both real and mythical. We’re definitely sure he’s a decorated Air Force veteran, a martial arts master, an accomplished actor, and a sage philosopher. And we’re pretty sure he once beat the sun in a staring contest, punched a cyclops between the eye, uppercutted a horse and created giraffes, and counted to infinity—twice. Now we can add HISTORY host to his ever-expanding résumé....

Who doesn’t love a great smoothie? Whether you’re looking for a simple pre-workout protein shake or a more involved concoction that could potentially grace the cover of Bon Appetit, smoothies inevitably make life more enjoyable and delicious. But store-bought smoothies can quickly burn a hole in your bank account, and trying to make them with a traditional blender is a laborious and often fruitless endeavor.Enter the VAVA Professional Countertop Blender, which makes it easier than ever to quickly make an endless blend of high-quality smoothies in the comfort of your own home....

Japanese transport ministry officials raided the Tokyo headquarters of scandal-ridden Mitsubishi Motors Corp. on Friday after the government alleged the automaker cheated on mileage ratings on more models than earlier reported.The systematic inflating of mileage numbers first surfaced in April, over minicars, eK wagon and eK Space, that also were sold under the Nissan Motor Co. brand. No overseas models are affected.This week, the government said it had found similar cheating on eight more models, including an electric car, for which Mitsubishi had overstated the cruise range on a single charge....

The low-slung building on Evans Avenue with the greenhouse roof blends into the surroundings in an uninspiring stretch of Denver, all nondescript retail and pockets of ranch homes. It’s a hydroponic farm, run by partners Jake Olson and Lauren Brettschneider. The produce is all on tables at waist height, and the plumbing is subtle and minimalist. There is no soil anywhere. From the street it’s easy to miss Rebel Farm; inside, it looks like an Apple Store hosting a farmer’s market....

The Florida Everglades are teeming with snakes, but scientists conducting research in the marshy grasslands recently encountered a slithering behemoth big enough to make all the other serpents look scrawny. A female Burmese Python found on Sunday is 17-feet long and weighs 140-pounds. It was found in the Big Cypress National Preserve with 73 developing eggs inside of its belly, a foreboding sign of the gargantuan offspring set to roam the park....

The saying goes that history is written in stone, but history can also have a surprise or two up its sleeve. Take for example, the recent discovery of four copper coins by the local board of education in Okinawa, Japan. Found in the ruins of Katsuren Castle, existing from the 12th to 15th centuries, these coins bear the face of Roman emperor Constantine I, who reigned in the early 4th century AD....

A gigantic new research submarine designed by Russia will travel underneath ice floes, mapping its underwater surroundings with a pair of huge plane-like wings. The sub will help Moscow exploit its Arctic frontier as it prepares to harvest previously untouchable natural resources.The Arctic Research Submarine was designed by the famous Rubin Design Bureau, which was also responsible for the Typhoon-class missile submarines, the largest subs ever built. This vessel will weigh in at 13,280 tons, making easily the largest civilian research submersible ever built, and will be 442 feet long....

A senior Russian Navy official said that accident on the nuclear-powered submarine Losharik was nearly a “planetary catastrophe,” were it not for the fourteen sailors killed in the incident. The submarine, widely believed to be a spy sub capable of operating on the deep ocean floor, was damaged in an accident on July 1st. The Kremlin denied there was risk of such a “catastrophe.”An aid to the head of the Russian Navy, Sergei Pavlov, stated at a funeral for the sailors lost in the accident, “With their lives, they saved the lives of their colleagues, saved the vessel and prevented a planetary catastrophe....