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A new armored vehicle designed to kill—well, everything—on the battlefield is ambitiously described by the manufacturer as the “New King of Ground Warfare.” Unveiled at the ongoing Zhuhai Air Show, the QN-506 is China’s version of the Russian ‘Terminator’ tank support vehicle. QN-506 is armed with a machine gun, grenades, a light cannon, two types of missiles, and even drones. One of the newer concepts in armored warfare is the idea of a tank support combat vehicle....

Media Platforms Design TeamTwin Drum Pistol MagazineEarly in Skyfall, James Bond faces an assassin who’s spitting a steady stream of bullets from a pistol fit with a unique magazine. It’s two magazines, actually, stored in two circular drums that sit under the grip. These are not the invention of a propmaster on set. Betaco sells 100-round twin-drum magazines for Glocks as well as for military assault rifles.These are called Century magazines, or C-Mags for short....

LAS VEGAS—Fuji unveiled four new digital cameras at CES, all pretty much in the entry-level range. But the most significant of the four has to be the A800, an 8-megapixel entry-level digicam that will be available in March. And when we say entry-level, we’re talking about the genuinely rock-bottom $180, as well as a graphic user interface that provides short descriptions of each shooting mode as you click through them. Stop on the baby mode, and it tells you that it shoots without flash, for natural skin tone....

What era are we in? Geologists have redefined the present age that human civilization is living in, deciding to call the last 4,200 years the “Meghalayan Age.” This new classification will help scientists better understand the events of the last few thousand years.Geologists break down our planet’s history into eras, periods, epochs, and ages. Our current era is the Cenozoic, which is itself broken down into three periods. We live in the most recent period, the Quaternary, which is then broken down into two epochs: the current Holocene, and the previous Pleistocene, which ended 11,700 years ago....

General Motors has announced that it will start making 3D-printed components to hit the goal of expanding its current lineup to 20 new electric and fuel cell car models in the coming five years.In partnership with design software company Autodesk, the Bay Area-Detroit collaboration is another sign that 3D printing is coming into its own on the manufacturing front. Last year, Ford said that it was the first automaker to test 3D printing capable of making any car component....

Media Platforms Design TeamWhat are these gravitational wave fingerprints, and why do we care?To understand these gravitational wave fingerprints, you first have to understand a somewhat tricky concept: Because it takes time for light to travel, looking far out in space is also looking far back in time. For example, when you look at the sun (which is 8 light minutes away) you’re seeing the light that was expelled from it 8 minutes ago....

Remodeling a home usually consists of removing and building walls. These are both jobs that a motivated DIYer can take on and save some money in the process. Building a wall starts with assembling and installing the frame, which are the 2x4-inch lumber stock that the wall is constructed from. Here’s an overview of how to frame a wall from licensed carpenter Mark Clement of MyFixItUpLife.Determine Wall LayoutThe first step in building a partition wall is to determine if the wall is running horizontal or perpendicular to your ceiling joists....

Astronomers believe they’ve spotted evidence of a “missing neutron star,” which has evaded observation for more than 30 years.A report in The Astrophysical Journal proposes that the neutron star, which should have been spotted in the wake of the supernova SN1987A, has been hidden by a super-dense cloud of gas and dust.More observations are needed to confirm that the elusive neutron star is there.For decades, a mystery has consumed the field of astronomy....

An artificial intelligence program developed by researchers at Google can predict when a hospital patient will die with up to 95 percent accuracy, according to a new paper published in the journal npj Digital Medicine. If this type of AI is implemented in hospitals, it could help these hospitals save money and more efficiently apply their resources, increasing the number of lives they could save.Google’s hospital AI uses the same technology behind many of the company’s other AI projects, like its image recognition software or DeepMind programs that can play Go and optimize server rooms....

Two researchers at the University of San Francisco have created machine learning models that attempt to predict if a song will become a hit or not.The models were tested against Billboard historical data from the last 30 years to test their accuracy.Researchers have a message for record labels: If you’re going to use algorithms to assess the likelihood that a song will become a hit, do it in a way that won’t hinder the progress of art....

Any old snake-on-a-plane story will rightly inspire horror. But the snake that managed to travel more than 9,000 miles from Australia to Scotland by burrowing in a woman’s shoe takes the genre to a realistically terrifying new level. Moira Boxall, who returned to Glasgow after vacationing in Queensland, Australia, found the serpent curled up in one of her shoes after the long trek. The nonvenomous spotted python even grew accustomed to its new high-altitude environment, shedding its skin during the flight, according to the Australian Broadcast Corporation....

You have probably seen the photo above, and you’ve probably seen it described as a shot of a sonic boom. That’s not quite the case. Atlas Obscura has a fantastic write-up on a 17 year old photo that has, for years, been believed to be a “sonic boom” but isn’t so simple to describe. David Goldenberg does a great job unpacking everything about the story. There’s the photographer, Ensign John Gay, who didn’t know until much later that it had become famous....

Just because Vise-Grips have been around for 90 years doesn’t mean an old tool can’t learn new tricks. The new Multi-Plier version of this classic hand tool is a great example.The company has taken its legendary locking plier and grafted on a folding serrated stainless steel knife blade with lock back protection. At the other end of the handle is a fold-out double ended screwdriver bit with a ball detent so you can easily swap the bit end for end....

Is there a giant iceberg heading for the coast of Newfoundland right now? A lot hinges on the answer. Cargo ships, oil tankers, and cruise ships enter and leave the island’s ports every day, and at any moment an iceberg from Greenland can drift into the same waters. Being able to predict when those icebergs will appear is so valuable that the Centre for Cold Ocean Resource Engineering (C-CORE) and Norwegian energy company Statoil are offering a $50,000 prize to anyone who can invent a better way to spot them in satellite images....

The upcoming Nintendo Labo is a Switch upgrade that’s already getting positive reviews based on its kid-friendly approach to DIY. And outside of Nintendo, Inc. there already are DIY projects available for the Switch built with Legos. Vimal Patel, an industrial designer from New Zealand, has created some functional and lovely Switch add-ons using the beloved toy blocks.View full post on YoutubeWith Lego Technic pieces at the core of his creations, Patel has made the Switch a better kickstand, mounts for the Switch’s Joy-Con controllers and even steering wheels for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe....

Who doesn’t love BB-8, the cute little ball droid from Star Wars: The Force Awakens? We’ve been wondering all week how that cute little dude works, and this intrepid designer is getting close.Christian Poulsen is on the case with this DIY prototype of a working BB-8. His solution is pretty simple: He uses the existing Sphero toy (Sphero worked with Disney on the real version in The Force Awakens) and put some magnets on the stabilization arm....

Media Platforms Design TeamIt’s 8:58 am and Erika Muhlfeld, a Los Angeles advertising executive, whips through traffic in her Volvo C30. Late for a 9 am meeting, she turns onto Coldwater Canyon–her favorite shortcut. The Volvo’s potent turbocharged engine and lithe handling get her up the sinuous road quickly. True, the sport coupe is full of zip. But she drives a Volvo because it’s safe and stylish and has a slick interior design....

Media Platforms Design TeamThe official investigation into the explosion of TWA Flight 800 in 1996, which killed 230, concluded that a fuel tank had ignited from within, but never determined what sparked the explosion. (Dozens of airplanes have suffered similar events, and the safety regulations governing fuel tanks changed in 2008.) But now, all these years later, a new documentary, , claims that a missile or bomb took down the plane—and the U....

AccuWeather, the popular private weather-forecasting company, has announced that come next hurricane season, it will use its own modeling system. Known as the RealImpact Scale, it will likely differ from the widely used Saffir-Simpson scale. Like Saffir-Simpson, the RealImpact scale will measure hurricanes on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the most strenuous. However, according to a press release, the RealImpact will be “based on a variety of diverse, contributing factors, such as flooding rain, high winds and storm surge as well as the total economic impact from the storm....

“It is a sad day for the world of physics and humanity.“So says Avi Loeb, theoretical physicist, astronomer, cosmologist, and chair of the Department of Astronomy at Harvard, of the passing of Stephen Hawking earlier today. In April 2016, Loeb hosted Hawking at his home in Lexington, MA, to share a meal in celebration of Passover.“Following this dinner, my twelve year old daughter, Lotem, prepared a special presentation to her class at school about Hawking’s life story of science and optimism,” Loeb tells Popular Mechanics....