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About 38 million people in California, Nevada, Arizona, four other states and Mexico depend on the Colorado River for their water supply. As increased usage and years of drought diminish the river’s flow, states are forming strategies to deal with what some experts call peak water–the point at which the demand exceeds the supply.The conditions already threaten Las Vegas, which draws water from the Colorado-fed Lake Mead, the nation’s largest reservoir....

Normally new iPhones show up in the fall, but rumors have consistently pointed to a new one coming up next month. Now, thanks to a report from Bloomberg Business, we have a pretty good idea of what that while will be, and it’s a basically just a shrunken down iPhone 6 in a body that’s much closer to that of the old iPhone 5. The iPhone that’s coming next month has always been rumored to be smaller than the iPhone 6 or 6S, but there’s been a little bit of debate as to the guts that would be inside....

For decades, China has been buying the world’s trash and recycling it, but last year decided to bring that process to a halt. Under China’s new National Sword policy, several types of plastic scrap are no longer allowed into the country, which means it’s an open question where it’s all going to end up.A new study published in the journal Science gives us an idea of the scale of the problem....

Dogs can drive, if they really want to. And sometimes they really want to crash into a Wal-Mart.The story goes like this. When a lady in her seventies went shopping at a Wal-Mart in West Virginia, she left her two dogs in the car—with the car running, so they could have air conditioning. Good move as a pet owner, bad move in maybe just about every other way. The car began to roll, heading directly for one poor woman who dodged, only to discover a dog at the wheel....

Media Platforms Design TeamWhen the Burj Khalifa was completed earlier this year in Dubai, it became more than just the tallest building in the world. At 2717 feet it towers above the competition—it’s more than two and a half times the size of the Chrysler tower, and while the previous top five highest buildings were all within a couple of hundred feet of each other, the 160-story Burj Khalifa beats the old world-record-holder, the Taipei 101, by some 900 feet....

Media Platforms Design TeamOverlay of the smaller Galloping Ghost on the original size of the P-51. (Original size seen in red.) Credit: NTSBMore than six months have passed since the horrific crash of September 2011 at the Reno Air Races, in which pilot Jimmy Leeward’s modified P-51 lost control and dove into the stands, killing 11 and injuring more than 70. In the intervening months the National Transportation Safety Board has been studying what went wrong, trying to make America’s biggest air races safer....

It’s been said of Tetris that “the only way to win the game is not to play.” So, why is this addicting game so, so frustrating? PBS’s fabulous Game/Show channel on YouTube dug into that question, and discovered the reason is simple math.Tetris uses seven colored blocks (a.k.a. “tetrominos”) that all fit together, so it seems that you can play the game forever and eventually win. However, when all of the tetrominos fit together, it spans eight tiles wide....

Sharks are at the top of the marine food chain for a reason. Their massive size along with a dazzling row of extra-sharp teeth make them the fiercest hunters in our oceans. But it turns out that the shark’s aquatic dominance reaches down into its very DNA, and through its mutations, sharks could teach us how to fight our most deadly affliction—cancer. This isn’t the first evidence that mutations can prove beneficial for disease resistance and long-term survival....

If you’ve ever played a marathon game of Monopoly, you know that it brings out the very worst in people—even your dear, dirty, lying, cheating friends and family. Sick of all the conniving? Then you’re going to love the latest version of the classic board game, Monopoly Voice Banking, which now comes with built-in AI to nip nefarious behavior in the bud.The biggest upgrade is the voice-activated top hat in the middle of the board, designed to keep track of all cash and property transactions, rendering actual cash—which sneaky cheaters pocket when the other players aren’t looking—moot....

For 127 years, science has held that in water, waves spread out in a triangle. this is known as a Kelvinangle.But a Norwegian physicist recently challenged the theory. He discovered when there’s a current underneath the water, the angle changes.There could be a practical application for the discovery. When fueling up ships, waves are taken into account over how much power sailing through them will consume.Anyone who has ever been on the stern (rear) of a boat has seen a familiar sight: waves rippling out in what’s called a wake....

Media Platforms Design Team LAS VEGAS—One way that this year’s CES resembles last year’s CES is the omnipresence of huge flat-screen TVs. One way in which it’s different is that the pictures on those TVs look a lot better than at last year’s CES. That’s not really because the TVs are better, though; it’s because the folks setting them up have done a better job of getting a clean signal to the sets....

No need to wait for Elon Musk to build you a hyper-intelligent indestructible smart car with a heart of gold. You can buy the Hoff’s. This month, Christie’s is auctioning a 1983 Pontiac Trans Am that starred alongside David Hasselhoff in the classic 80s show “Knight Rider,” and they’re accepting bids online.The auction is tied in with the Gimbal 3000 motor rally that runs throughout May. At various points along the route, the auction will be selling such treasures as Mike Tyson’s boxing gloves and a Tommy Lee-signed snare drum....

Russia’s nuclear-powered cruise missile, a throwback to crazy-sounding Cold War weapons tech, is back. Whether it’ll ever work is a separate issue.The Burevestnik (“Storm Petrel”) is designed to evade U.S. defenses, flying for hours or even days to exploit holes in missile defense networks that most weapons can’t reach. Russia hadn’t tested the weapon in nearly a year—until last week, that is.According to The Diplomat, the test took place on January 29 at Kapustin Yar, one of Russia’s major weapon-testing grounds....

In a strange coincidence on Tuesday, the same day as the Kentucky train derailment, the feds announced a joint government-industry effort to create a “next-generation” tank car that would be more resistant to punctures and leakage in case of an accident or terrorist attack. The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) will join with Union Pacific Railroad, Dow Chemical Co., and Union Tank Car Company in a program called the Next Generation Rail Tank Car Project, aimed at bringing new crashworthiness technology to tank car design....

Although railroads and trucks had made the log drive an anachron­ism by 1949, when this story first ran, the method was still used. In the summer and winter in Idaho’s panhandle, lumberjacks floated logs in the river. In spring, they broke up the jams that formed and collected the logs at the other end.It was a center jam—a potential man killer. Huge 16-foot saw logs, weighing up to 2,000 pounds, crunched against one another like shoestring potatoes in a crazy man’s skillet....

Update 1/31 4:57 p.m. EST: The GovSat-1 mission on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket successfully launched and deployed the satellite in a geostationary transfer orbit (GTO). You can rewatch the launch in the video above. Update 1/30 3:10 p.m. EST: SpaceX has scrubbed the GovSat-1 mission for today and will attempt to launch again Wednesday, January 31, with a window opening at 4:25 p.m. EST. Original Post:The most remarkable thing about the SpaceX Falcon 9 launch on Tuesday, January 30, with a window between 4:25 p....

Media Platforms Design TeamIf you’ve ever read a luxury car review, you’ve likely come across the word Alcantara. But what is this mystery material all about?First, a quick history lesson. In 1970, a Japanese scientist by the name of Miyoshi Okamoto developed a synthetic material for Toray Industries, the company he was working for. Two years later, Toray signed an agreement with the aniC Group (which later became an Italian company named Eni), and after Eni formed a joint venture with Toray, a commercial patent was created for the material....

The Golden Ratio exists within the human skull, says a team of researchers at Johns Hopkins University. The finding, which could help further develop evolutionary research, creates a direct link between human anatomy and the makeup of seemingly unrelated objects ranging from pinecones and seashells to galaxies and hurricanes.Researchers from Johns Hopkins University have discovered that the Golden Ratio exists within the human skull, putting it in the same category as pinecones, galaxies, and hurricanes—all of which exhibit the special number in their shape makeup....

Lithium batteries are about to get a whole lot more powerful. Or cheaper, smaller, and maybe quicker to charge—take your pick. Next year, a company called Sila Nanotechnologies is rolling out its new silicon anode batteries, which replace the graphite in today’s batteries with precisely engineered (and tiny) silicon particles. Gene Berdichevsky, Sila CEO, has been working on this project for a long time. The seventh employee at Tesla, Berdichevsky worked on the original Roadster battery but since then, he’s kept a low profile....

Media Platforms Design TeamClose Encounters of the Third KindMost sci-fi films keep everything in sharp focus to wow you with effects, but Steven Spielberg used a more impressionistic style in this 1977 ordinary-guy-meets-the-aliens saga. The backgrounds are often blurred–check out the power-plant scene–and yet they translate beautifully in hi-def. The Blu-ray release has three versions of the film: the original theatrical release, an effects-boosted special edition and the director’s cut. The Third ManMedia Platforms Design TeamIf you think only color pictures can benefit from hi-def treatment, think again: This latest version of Carol Reed’s 1949 film is breathtaking....