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Download the Popular Mechanics iPad app now!Popular Mechanics has always been a DIY kind of operation, so when we decided to create an interactive special issue of the magazine for the iPad, we chose to design, edit and program it ourselves. This is no small feat. The traditional route for magazines creating iPad apps (insofar as anything is traditional on a device this new) has been to turn to an interactive consulting firm that specializes in designing and programming for mobile devices....

According to the New York Times, the U.S. has begun hacking Russia’s electrical grid. Targeting the country’s infrastructure is meant to be a demonstration of strength, the Times reports, and a pushback against Russian interference in the 2016 election.“It has gotten far, far more aggressive over the past year,” one anonymous senior tells the Times, while declining to name specifics. “We are doing things at a scale that we never contemplated a few years ago....

Media Platforms Design TeamOn Sale Date: NowPrice: $500Portable projectors have typically been part of the business traveler’s tool kit. They’re convenient for delivering presentations from the road, but many models lack the brightness and resolution to cut it as a true home theater display. Acer’s new K132 DLP portable projector, however, is a great device for those looking to host their own stay-at-home movie nights. It’s small enough to stuff into a backpack, and it produces an image bright and sharp enough to make a huge screen out of any wall in your house....

Media Platforms Design TeamVirtual reality is one of those mid-90s internet-explosion buzzwords that died right alongside cyber semantics such as interactive TV and the cashless society. Well, almost died: Researchers from the military are very interested in creating realistic virtual environments to simulate battles for training soldiers, and it hasn’t been easy. So they’ve done what every young American does in the face of difficult challenges: They started playing videogames, such asAmerica’s Army....

Media Platforms Design TeamNearly every new car seems to offer low-profile tires. I like the look, but I’ve heard folks complain about jarring rides, frequent blowouts, rim damage, and greater wear at lower mileage. Should I avoid them?Low-profile tires do seem to be popping up on a lot more cars these days, but they’re being offered for several reasons. Bigger wheels and skinnier sidewalls in a normal-size wheel well mean manufacturers can make room inside the wheel for larger brakes....

Tesla’s solar shingles are an exciting new way to power some of your home. Rather than put solar panels on top of your roof, the shingles themselves contain photovoltaic cells to harness the sun’s rays. After over a year in development, you can now buy these solar shingles directly from Tesla’s website. But if that’s not your style, there will soon be a second option: buying Tesla’s solar shingles at your local Home Depot....

SpaceX has had quite a year. Despite suffering a setback last September when one of their rockets exploded on the launchpad, delaying launches for several months, the company is set to finish 2017 with more launches than any year before. This year also marked the first time SpaceX has used a rocket that was previously launched, proving to the world that their rockets are really as reusable as they claim.SpaceNews recently ran an interview with SpaceX President and COO Gwynne Shotwell, where she laid out the company’s plans for 2018 and beyond....

Hard-shelled Yeti coolers have become an icon of summertime fun, posting up on the beach or the boat with a chest full of frosty Coronas to help you channel your inner Dom Toretto. But let’s say your scene is the campground, sitting around a fire with a high-end hoppy brew in one hand. Now Yeti has you covered for that, too. This spring, the outdoor brand rolled out the 24-ounce Rambler mug, an extension of Yeti’s line of insulated drinkware....

Recently a B-52 was photographed with what looked like “wrinkles” in its skin.The “wrinkles” are actually signs of the aircraft’s aluminum skin buckling.Both military and commercial aircraft buckle in flight, without any danger to passengers or crew.An article at The Aviationist addresses one of the least well known but apparently common facts about large airplanes—the skin does not always sit still and it isn’t meant to. As the article explains the skin of large aircraft such as the B-52 Stratofortress buckles in flight, rippling with the high speed flow of air over the surface of the aircraft....

Engineers regularly swipe nature’s best designs for machines that humans can use. Animals are the result of thousands of years of evolution, generally giving them sleek and enviable designs. But in some cases, slower is better. That’s why a group of researchers has created the SlothBot, which mimics the efficiency of one of the laziest creatures alive, the sloth.“In robotics, it seems we are always pushing for faster, more agile and more extreme robots,” says Magnus Egerstedt, an engineer at Georgia Institute of Technology and principal investigator for Slothbot, in a press statement....

A group of researchers from Stanford have managed to magnetically levitate single cells. This is a pretty tremendous feat, considering that we usually magnetically levitate much larger objects (like frogs.) But there’s more to it than that. Within a collection of cells, the researchers floated different cancer cells at different strata, such that the breast cancer cells would float to a different layer than the lung cancer cells, and red blood cells separated and sorted to a different layer than white....

Between delays and cost overruns, the ongoing development of the Pentagon’s next-gen fighter, the F-35, has been plagued by bad news. But none of those incidents were quite as jarring as what happened last June, when one of the Air Force’s shiny new jets caught on fire.The F-35A (the Air Force version of the Joint Strike Fighter) was launching from Eglin AFB in Florida as part of a two-plane training sortie....

Media Platforms Design TeamIn the early 1970s, with the Vietnam War winding down, the U.S. Navy worried about how to keep its fleet effective during the inevitable budget drawdown at war’s end. Their innovative solution: build small, fast ships that could, thanks to new technologies of the time, tackle the missions once performed by much larger ships. Related StoryHow to Make a Sailboat FlyThe Navy had studied hydrofoil ship concepts for two decades....

Fire-blocking mass timber construction could bring millions of pounds of carbon absorption to cities around the world.Wooden skyscraper designs are trendy around the world and reflect changing attitudes about wood construction.Making construction-grade timber can also cost less in carbon emissions than concrete and steel.Could fire-blocking timber construction be part of the carbon-neutral city of the future? Scientists from Germany’s Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research think so. In a new paper, they argue that timber construction could become a critical carbon sink in cities around the world, acting in much the same way that trees do....

Media Platforms Design TeamPeople are weird. So, naturally, try to bring weird things on planes. And thanks to the power of , the TSA can show us exactly what kind of bizarre stuff it confiscates from people attempting to board airplane.InstagramIt’s easy to hate on the TSA, but if this is the kind of stuff they are protecting us from, I will never complain about airport security. Okay, maybe a little....

Media Platforms Design TeamNASA’s Apollo 11 mission is nearing its 40th anniversary, but former astronaut Buzz Aldrin has made a second career of keeping his eyes on the future. Whether he’s charting a mission to Mars or getting a first look at the newest spacecraft from private industry, Aldrin isn’t afraid to go against the grain. On tour for the new 3D movie Fly Me to the Moon, Aldrin (a member of PM’s editorial board of advisers) recently stopped by the offices of Popular Mechanics to meet with editors and executives—and to take a moment to talk about life on Mars, lessons from the Russian and Chinese space programs and a lottery for space tourism....

Media Platforms Design TeamBREAKTHROUGHWHO USMC Expeditionary Energy Office (E2O),* Arlington, Va. FIELD Military TechnologyACHIEVEMENT Lightweight solar power system for Marines on patrol.When a Marine suits up for a long patrol—say, five days— batteries and drinking water account for as much as 60 of the 90-plus pounds he carries. The water is vital. The batteries are equally important, because success in battle increasingly requires fast, coordinated, and precise movements at any given moment, and that kind of mobility calls for devices that eat up battery life: night- vision goggles, radios, GPS, a laptop, and more....

One asteroid is dry as a bone. The other regularly spits out vapors like a comet. And yet they may be pieces of the same failed planetesimal that fell apart millions of years ago, sending the two space rocks on very different journeys.Another thing unites this cosmic pair: a visit from humanity. Spacecraft from Japan’s JAXA space agency and from NASA have reached the two asteroids and plan to bring back pieces of them to the Earth....

Media Platforms Design TeamNationally renowned researchers and state officials are still investigating a series of earthquakes that rippled across normally placid eastern Ohio in recent months, trying to determine for certain whether a Class II injection well—the EPA’s designation for wells designed to pump brackish, chemical-laced wastewater from gas-drilling operations—was the cause. So far, the evidence seems to indicate that it was: that the quakes were a rare but difficult to predict and perhaps unavoidable consequence of the natural gas boom that has seized the region....

China wants to manufacture 10 billion tons of rainfall on the Tibetan Plateau by building tens of thousands of chemical furnaces. The rainmakers, developed by China’s Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, will burn chemical fuel to release silver iodide into the air. The silver iodide will allow water vapor to condense, forming clouds that will draw rain. Hundreds of burners have already been set up in Tibet, a major water source for the Yellow, Yangtze, Mekong and other rivers through China and Asia....