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It’s not unusual to see a little bit of fire in an robot-fighting competition, generally in the form of a flamethrower. But the blaze you’ll catch in this middleweight match that happened at RoboGames 2016 is something different altogether. This is a battery gone bad, and the ensuing inferno is nothing to sneeze at. View full post on YoutubeWhat likely happened here is probably catastrophic failure due to puncturing. Essentially, a violent enough jolt can break the non-conductive wall that separates a battery’s anode and cathode, which causes a big, nasty short inside the system....

The U.S. Marines claim that their ability to turn amphibious ships into aircraft carriers is a major advantage on the battlefield.Amphibious ships, though not full-fledged aircraft carriers, can carry up to 20 F-35Bs.The ability to mount different types of attacks on an adversary using the same ship platform complicates the enemy’s ability to mount an effective defense.The U.S. Marines are touting the ability to quickly reconfigure an amphibious assault ship into a mini-aircraft carrier carrying up to 20 F-35B Lightning II fighters....

David Lesh, the founder of outerwear company Virtika, recorded footage of his own plane crashing on August 20.Some people are accusing Lesh of coordinating the whole thing as part of an elaborate stunt, but Lesh denies the accusations.Earlier this month, another pilot filmed his plane crash and rescue.In a wild series of events, thrill-seeking stunt lover David Lesh managed to capture the crash and sinking of his Beechcraft Bonanza into the Pacific Ocean’s Half Moon Bay on August 20....

Desalination—the process of removing the salt from salt water, making it safe for human consumption—is one of those ideas that seems to make perfect sense in theory. Being able to drink the waters of the ocean could solve countless problems across the globe: shortages, droughts, and even the chance to lower rising ocean levels. The only problem? Desalination has a dark side known as brine, an environmentally harmful byproduct. A new approach from Columbia University, however, could radically change the limits of desalination....

MORE BRAND-NEW SPACE ANALYSIS* RAND SIMBERG: Why Top Engineers Want to Rethink Future of the ISSMOJAVE, California – “At least in space they don’t have air traffic control delays.” That crack, from one of the Virgin Galactic officials here on Monday, drew muted laughter from the crowd of more than 100 would-be amateur astronauts, waiting for a first look at the craft that they hope to ride into the Earth’s thermosphere....

SLAC National Accelerator Lab’s new laser is an intense hunk of machinery. Coupled with the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) laser, it can do some powerful things. Think 200 terawatts of power. Think 2 billion pounds of force per square inch. Or think of it this way: Scientists use this thing to create miniature stars in the lab, or intense bursts of plasma that could lead to energy breakthroughs, or models of the ultra-dense core of Saturn....

Update (10/12): Facebook issued its first lengthy account of the September attack on Friday, confirming that 30 million users had their information stolen in a hack that compromised 50 million accounts.The company’s VP of Product Management, Guy Rosen, wrote in the statement: We now know that fewer people were impacted than we originally thought. Of the 50 million people whose access tokens we believed were affected, about 30 million actually had their tokens stolen....

Natural disasters occur all the time—everything from hurricanes and tsunamis to blizzards, avalanches, and floods. According to National Geographic, there are around 100,000 avalanches in the western United States annually, and the National Weather Service names flash floods specifically as the number one weather-related killer in the U.S. One of the most dangerous things about flash floods is that they occur so quickly—hence their name—and are often underestimated. By the time the alert flashes on your phone, it might be too late....

Media Platforms Design TeamIn July, Starbucks announced that all of their stores now offer free Wi-Fi to customers. With more than 11,000 franchises of the coffee megachain in the country, access to an unpaid mobile hotspot just got a lot closer. But how reliable—and fast—are these new hotspots, and how do they compare to other free Wi-Fi offerings? We hit the New York City streets near Popular Mechanics’s editorial offices to test out the Starbucks offer and to compare it to other free Wi-Fi hotspots, such as those offered at McDonald’s, by the city and by mom-and-pop coffee establishments....

Last year, Kilauea, a volcano that helped create the Hawaiian islands, began erupting. Scientists called the devastation “unprecedented,” and as the eruption lasted from May through September, became the worst volcanic eruption the United States has faced since Mount St. Helens. Now, the U.S. Geologic Survey is taking a look at the volcano’s impact. It’s found that Kilauea expanded Hawaii by around 875 acres.Volcanoes are different than most natural disasters. While they can be just as destructive as a hurricane or an earthquake, hot molten lava eventually cools into something extraordinarily useful: rich volcanic soil....

It may be possible to transplant an entire head and spine into a new body by 2030.Even outlandish medical goals can benefit others, for example those seeking limb transplants.Head and brain transplants are still mainly the realm of science fiction and body horror.The Independent reports that a head transplant—really, it’s more of a body transplant—may be possible by 2030 if surgeons include the spinal column. The bizarre fixation on head transplants has mostly been the stuff of immortality legend, but with this step into the realm of possibility, more mainstream doctors are finally joining the discussion....

Research from the United States Geologic Survey say our smartphones might be able to detect the warning signs of large earthquakes before the real shaking arrives. The scientists suggest that a fleet of users all equipped with the right app could detect the displacement before earthquakes of magnitude 7 or above via the phone’s GPS. An agency like USGS that analyzes all this data could even send back customized warnings. “Crowdsourced alerting means that the community will benefit by data generated from the community,” Sarah Minson, USGS geophysicist and lead author of the study, said in a news release....

Shoot Like the ExpertsWhat You’re Filming: Anything That Focuses on YouNatalie Alzate//YouTubeExpert: Natalie Alzate, beauty vlogger, 4 million YouTube subscribersStrategy: Setting the camera above you does make you look thinner. But for YouTube, you’re more connected with your audience when the camera is at eye level.Natural lighting is best, but that requires you to rely on the weather. I have two circle Diva Ring Light Nebulas on my left and my right, and an umbrella light right above me....

Step 1: Get prospectingTo mine an asteroid, a company like Planetary Resources first has to find one that promises a good return on investment. But asteroids don’t glitter like stars. They are small, dark, and easily obscured by the distorting effect of Earth’s atmosphere. The best way to hunt for them is with a telescope floating in space. At the Bellevue, Wash., headquarters of Planetary Resources, chief engineer and company president Chris Lewicki is assembling the components of the first privately owned space telescope, the Arkyd 100 series....

On July 24, the Ukrainian news source UAWire reported that three members of the Border Guard Service suffered retinal burns while carrying out surveillance. The cause? Laser weapons. UAWire suggests this was a deliberate attack by pro-Russian separatists using “prohibited special-purpose laser weapons.“This is the most serious incident, but far from the first. Since 2014, European observers in the area reported have noted Ukrainian border guards’ complaints of “frequent minor provocations against them from the Crimean side, such as laser pointing....

Automatic lawn irrigation systems are a wonderful luxury. In fact, they work so well that many people just forget about them, and that explains why you sometimes see these systems watering a lawn right after a rain.New irrigation controls are a better way to water. They adjust themselves or allow you to make changes to their schedule from a home computer. Although manufacturers have been experimenting with these products for the past couple of years, they are just now reaching the market....

Two years ago, NASA began a unique experiment. It put a person in space for an entire year to see what happens. The person it chose to be its guinea pig was Scott Kelly, an experienced astronaut who also happened to have a twin on Earth. When Kelly got back from his year in space, NASA scientists could compare him and his brother to find out what living long-term in space does to the human body....

This week’s riddle requires a clever bit of thinking and a little bit of math. At first it may seem impossible, but don’t give up.ProblemYou’re a thief, and you’ve managed to break into the vault of an ancient bank filled with 100 sacks of coins. One of the sacks contains gold coins, while the other 99 are filled with counterfeit gold coins. You cannot tell the difference between the gold coins and the fakes by handling the coins, looking at them, biting them, or testing them....

Media Platforms Design TeamA juvenile Cyclosa ginnaga against its decoration. Images: Min-Hui Liu et al., Scientific Reports.In a crappy new finding, scientists have discover that a spider disguises itself as bird droppings to avoid predators. Biologists led by I-Min Tso at National Chung-Hsin University in Taichung, Taiwan analyzed the masquerade of this orb-web spider, Cyclosa ginnaga.This arachnid has a silver body, and juveniles create a white disc on their webs. This type of spider is well known for hanging adornments in its webs, such as bits of old prey, to attract victims....

Nobody said living in space was going to be easy. Beyond the actual difficulty of getting there, day-to-day living won’t be a moonwalk in the park either. Even with oxygen habitats to breathe in, a new study finds, lunar dust could quickly infiltrate human lungs, leading to a host of health problems.Prolonged exposure to lunar dust could impair airway and lung function and make diseases like bronchitis commonplace in a moon community, says the new study published in GeoHealth by Stony Brook University in New York....