Media Platforms Design TeamStill slowly spreading rock salt by hand? Tsk, tsk. I designed this blaster to cover yards of icy pavement in seconds. Slice a big opening in a plastic jug. Make an impeller shaft by cutting a 14-20 thread onto a length of 1/4-in. steel rod (or buy threaded rod). Next, to fashion the impeller, cut fins into the plastic cap from a can of spray paint. Bolt the impeller to the shaft....
Where you grab the steering wheel could affect how difficult you find it to turn it, researchers have observed.The recommended neutral position at 9 and 3 distributes force evenly and is also safer for airbag deployment.This study required subjective observations from just nine participants, so hopefully future research will confirm the results.Researchers in Japan have conducted a very small, very specific study on how hand position on the steering wheel affects how our muscles work, which in turn distorts how hard we believe we have to work to turn the wheel....
After living through Hurricane Maria, which hit Puerto Rico in 2017, an IBM developer advocate created drone-based tech to save lives in natural disasters.IBM hosts the new tool, DroneAid, and it’s open source.DroneAID uses visual feeds from drones to mark areas where people immediately require emergency services.Pedro Cruz didn’t just live through the wreckage that Hurricane Maria left in its path in Puerto Rico back in 2017. He watched the commotion in his hometown of San Juan by flying his drone overhead....
Only a few hundred years ago the world’s most feared disease was smallpox. Smallpox killed millions, and no one was safe. But thanks to a global campaign to eradicate the disease, along with powerful vaccines, smallpox no longer exists. No one has suffered from smallpox since 1978, and smallpox is now one of medicine’s biggest success stories.But all that it would take to change that might be a bit of cash and some DNA....
Media Platforms Design TeamOne morning in November 2011, trucks were roaring down the Pan-American Highway, carrying loads of ore from mines in the Atacama Desert to the port town of Caldera, Chile. The trucks screamed past a young goateed American paleontologist named Nicholas Pyenson, who was standing at the side of the road, gazing at a 250-meter-long strip of sandstone that construction workers had cleared in preparation for building new lanes....
For the first time ever, two commercial spacecraft docked with each other while in orbit.One of the spacecraft, a communications satellite called Intelsat 901, had run out of fuel and been sent to the graveyard orbit.The recovery spacecraft, MEV-1 which launched in October, was designed to extend the communications satellite’s life by up to 15 years.For the first time ever, two commercial satellites have successfully dock with each other while in orbit....
NASA has bumped an astronaut off an upcoming spaceflight, a rare move for the space agency so close to launch.Astronaut Jeanette Epps was supposed to rocket away in early June, and would have been the first African-American to live on the International Space Station. Late Thursday, NASA announced it was pulling Epps off the mission but didn’t disclose why. Astronauts have been removed from missions in the past, mostly for health reasons....
Welcome to PM/AM, Popular Mechanics’ morning briefing on the top science and tech stories for today.Media Platforms Design TeamThe Golden Record carried onboard Voyager 1 and 2. Credit: NASAIn 1977, the Voyager 1 and 2 space probes were launched from Cape Canaveral. Tucked away in each vessel’s payload was a golden record with recordings of the vast sounds of life on Earth, meant to give any aliens who might find it a taste of what human life is like (or at least was in the 70s)....
Scientists want to build the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) on Mauna Kea, a sacred Hawaiian volcano. People have been protesting the plans for a month, with supporters including actors Jason Momoa and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.While astronomers have selected alternate build sites for TMT, Mauna Kea remains their first choice.Hawaiians are protesting the planned construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) atop Hawaii’s Mauna Kea, a dormant volcano considered to be “the realm of the gods” because it reaches into the clouds....
The coolest thing about the Extra EA300 is that, as soon as the six-cylinder engine purrs to life, the acrobatic aircraft wants to leap from the ground. And when it gets up there, in the hands of a mad Spaniard called Sergio Pla Merino, the airplane will perform maneuvers that will make you taste your breakfast. But I’m skipping ahead. I experienced this miraculous demonstration of physics over the commercial airfield in Linden, N....
An international team of scientists were able to create the fastest mechanical rotation known to exist in history: nanoparticles spinning around each other at a billion times per second. A joint project of scientists at Purdue, ETH Zürich, and a number of Beijing-based institutions, two teams independently created the intense spin with levitated optomechanical systems. These are systems which are extremely isolated from any outside environment and create a testing grounds of sorts for the basic fundamentals of physics....
Planted in the New Mexico desert near Albuquerque, the six solar dish engines of the Solar Thermal Test Facility at Sandia National Laboratories look a bit like giant, highly reflective satellite dishes. Each one is a mosaic of 82 mirrors that fit together to form a 38-ft-wide parabola. The mirrors’ precise curvature focuses light onto a 7-in. area. At its most intense spot, the heat is equivalent to a blistering 13,000 suns, producing a flux 13 times greater than the space shuttle experiences during re-entry....
View full post on TwitterIt’s considered impolite to interrupt the person you’re interviewing. But one could be excused if there’s suddenly a rare blue whale nearby.During a recent live broadcast of the program aptly named Big Blue Live, host Steve Backshall was talking with marine biologist Dorris Welch about the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary in California. In the clip, Welch begins to talk about taking out whale-watching tours when Backshall suddenly interrupts....
Disassembly Report Model: Facebook Portal+Produced: ChinaTime to Disassemble: 3 hours, 7 minutesNumber of Parts: 115In Infinite Jest, his prescient 1996 novel, David Foster Wallace discussed the rapid rise and fall, within the book’s world, of “videophony,” which turned out to add a kind of social pressure that telephony never did: “Good old traditional audio-only phone conversations allowed you to presume that the person on the other end was paying complete attention to you while also permitting you not to have to pay anything even close to complete attention to her....
Media Platforms Design TeamThe first rock that Curiosity’s science team chose for contact science on Mars has turned out to be an especially interesting one, researchers said during a press conference today.The big rover arrived at “Jake Matijevic,” a triangular hunk one foot wide, on September 20. Curiosity’s intention was to study the chemistry of this igneous rock for more clues about Mars’s history. Though sedimentary rocks are the best for estimating habitability, igneous rocks like Jake are “better behaved,” according to Roger Weins of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, principal investigator for Curiosity’s Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam)....
If you live in the eastern half of North America, you may have noticed that it’s cold outside, and not just because it’s winter. While much of December has been unusually warm, these past few days have seen temperatures drop to the point where hot water spontaneously turns into snow when thrown.So why is it so cold? It may seem like an easy joke to make a pun about global warming, but actually increasing temperatures are partly to blame....
Media Platforms Design TeamQ: My closets are as dark as a cave. Honestly, one of these days I expect to find a bat hanging in one. What’s the solution? All I know is that I want them to be nicely lighted. Please, don’t even suggest battery-powered closet lights. I’ve had them and got tired of changing the batteries.A: Got it. No battery-powered lights. That means you’ll be installing a 120-volt fixture....
Russia is beginning development of a new, cheaper class of nuclear-powered attack submarines designed to complement more expensive subs. Russian state press says the first Husky-class submarine will enter service in 2027. The TASS news agency further says submarines of the class will be the first to use the new Zircon hypersonic anti-ship missile.The Husky class was first reported in 2014 and was originally a company-funded design project by the St....
Media Platforms Design TeamIt’s no secret car geeks get obsessive about shooting brakes. From humpbacked Astons to swollen Jags, no luxury marque is immune from creative metalshapers who extend rooflines and turn perfectly good, three-box designs into a quirkier (and slightly more voluminous) wagon variants.The latest aftermarket stab at the genre strikes the venerable 2014 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray, and this particular shooting brake was created by the mad scientists at Callaway....
LIVERMORE, Calif. — It’s just over 100 degrees here as I unload the VW GTI from the trailer in the hotel parking lot. In the shade of the trailer, it’ll probably take me a few hours to install the graphics on the side of the car. The weather is supposed to cool off a few degrees a day over through the weekend. And for that I’m glad, because nobody likes driving a race car in triple-digit heat....
