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Media Platforms Design TeamLast Friday afternoon, in the midst of the Colorado flooding disaster, Chris Miser was at the Boulder Emergency Operations Center. Miser, the owner of Falcon UAV, was showing disaster-response officials the imagery his drone had taken during a damage-assessment flight over the flooded town of Longmont. “The GIS people who do the mapping for the area were there,” Miser says. “The transportation people were there because they wanted to know which roads were washed out....

Media Platforms Design TeamIn mid-July, a man in his 50s ran out of water while hiking in dense woods near Arroyo Grande, in Southern California. He activated his personal locator beacon—PLB—a device registered with federal search-and-rescue authorities, and by that evening a helicopter was lifting him out of the woods. On August 7, a hiker broke his leg in the woods northwest of Merritt, Washington. He used his PLB to summon rescuers, who took him to the hospital....

Welcome to PM/AM, Popular Mechanics’ morning briefing on the top science and tech stories for today.Media Platforms Design Team(Photo by JPL/NASA)After a failed launch attempt the day before, NASA launched their CO2-measuring satellite Wednesday morning. The Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 satellite, or OCO-2, will analyze Earth’s atmospheric CO2 from space and give scientists more information on how CO2 levels oscillate year-round at a regional level. In other words, it’ll measure how the Earth breathes....

Media Platforms Design TeamReknowned astrobiologist and curator of astrobiology at the Denver Museum of Science and Nature, and author of the bookLonely Planets: The Natural Philosophy of Alien LifeDavid Grinspoon Thomas D. JonesPopular MechanicsJennifer BogoBenjamin Chertoff joins me in the studio for a fascinating tour of science’s search for life in the universe. From little green men to undersea worms to the intersection of science and philosophy in our quest to understand our own origins, Grinspoon guides us through a tour of nearby planets, moons and distant, exo-gallactic planets that just might (statistically speaking) be a home for life other than our own....

Media Platforms Design TeamThe Nikkei newspaper (subs. req’d) says that a Japanese company has built a quick charge system that can take a battery from zero charge to 50% full in about 3 minutes.JFE Engineering Corp, based in Yokohama, says that the system will go on sale later this year and has the capability to charge 5 times faster than other such quick charge products. Even though one station costs about $63,000, that’s roughly 40% less than the competition....

Media Platforms Design TeamIt’s a rarely mentioned but hugely annoying problem about Google Maps: Its zooming feature is wonky. And wonky, when it comes to desktop-computer usability, means annoying. Maps zoom in and out with abandon when you’re trying to move them. This is especially true if you use an Apple trackpad or Magic Mouse; Google Maps doesn’t know what do to when you lift your two scrolling fingers off the trackpad, which often sends the map undulating....

Senior Editor Mike Allen answers readers’ car questions.Q: Can you advise me of the impact a lead additive will have on my unleaded engine? My neighbors and I suspect the local bunch of anarchists are putting lead additive in some of the neighborhood cars. We found several empty containers of lead additive at the curb side on several streets. BOBBIE WAGNERA: Genuine tetraethyl lead will contaminate the catalytic converters. I don’t believe the “lead” additives commonly available for use in cars that require leaded fuel actually contains any lead, however....

Media Platforms Design TeamOne eye on the stars is closing for good. The Herschel Space Observatory, which has spent the last four years examining the universe in infrared, has reached the end of its mission. Herschel’s minders at the European Space Agency say the telescope has run out of liquid helium coolant and won’t be able to continue taking the detailed images of deep space that it has produced since it opened its eyes in 2009....

Media Platforms Design TeamThe Milky Way is home to an estimated 22 billion rocky planets that may be capable of sustaining life. These planets orbit their stars in the habitable zone—the region around a star where it’s neither too hot nor too cold for liquid water to exist on the planet’s surface. Now scientists are suggesting that the “Goldilocks zone” could be wider than expected, which they say could mean that an additional 1....

The Roomba 980 is the latest iteration of iRobot’s circular cleaning robot. While it essentially functions in much the same way as previous Roombas, the 980 is different in one big way: it finally, actually makes a map of where it’s cleaned.View full post on YoutubeThis innovation comes courtesy of the Roomba 980’s new onboard camera, which takes rudimentary footage to keep track of objects so it knows where it’s going and where it’s been....

Tucson-based startup World View has announced the latest tech to join the commercial space race: a football-field-size helium balloon designed to take paying customers 18 miles (98,000 feet) in the air.Okay, so 98,000 feet is near space, technically. Nonetheless, it’s high enough to recognize the outline of the U.S. and for the sky to be black above you. And when World View begins flying, three years from now, it could be the ideal way to get your suborbital fix....

Maybe you’ve worried about your car’s fuel efficiency, but this new eZelleron charger brings up a more unusual question: How fuel efficient is your portable charging station? The Kickstarter for this Kraftwerk device is now just shy of $1 million in pledges from more than 7,300 pledgers. Unlike typical portable chargers, which can work a time or two on the go before they must be recharged via USB, the “portable power plant” claims to carry 11 charges on a single tank of lighter fluid....

Two men claim to have stumbled upon the find of a lifetime: an old Nazi loot train loaded up with literal tons of gold, jewels, and art. But they refuse to say where it is until they’ve promised a tenth of the find’s presumably enormous value. The two men have approached officials in the Polish city of Walbrzych (near Poland’s southwest border with the Czech Republic) about their alleged find through their lawyer, according toNBC News....

Media Platforms Design Team (Photo Credit: NASA) The Obama Administration has all but scrapped the Bush-era Constellation program, except for salvaging Orion. However, that hasn’t stopped the power of pork-barrel politics from turning out a few zombie projects from it, including a $349 million rocket launch tower that will never launch a rocket. NASA recently completed work on the Mississippi tower, which was designed for the Ares I and V rockets and the J-2X engine—none of which will ever be built, much less launched....

Media Platforms Design TeamFRANKFURT — Already in its second generation, with extra power, a refreshed design and more chassis tweaks, the Porsche Cayenne is one of the world’s quickest, fastest and most sophisticated SUVs. This week at the auto show here, however, Porsche will up the ante yet again with the debut of the ultra-high-performance GTS model.The Cayenne GTS carries a V8 with even more power than the current V8 version, paired for the first time ever with a six-speed manual transmission and permanent all-wheel drive....

Media Platforms Design Team2009 DETROIT AUTO SHOW PREVIEW:• GM: Direct-Injection Lineup Expanding• VOLVO: Volvo S60 Concept First Look• KIA: 2010 Kia Soul Concept Preview• BMW: 2009 BMW Z4 Roadster SpecsWarren, Michigan— With a new chassis, a new body, and two new engines, the 2010 Chevrolet Equinox crossover will go into production in the middle of 2009 with the fuel economy of a small sedan and the room and functionality of an SUV, “a Swiss Army Knife” in terms of versatility, according to Chevrolet general manager Ed Peper....

Media Platforms Design TeamIt typically takes just a few years before interior wooden staircases start to show signs of wear and tear. Trouble often starts on the horizontal treads, where constant foot traffic wears off the varnish topcoat, exposing bare wood. Next, the vertical risers often get battered and bruised from being repeatedly kicked. And though the handrail doesn’t receive as much physical abuse as treads or risers, it doesn’t take long before the railing is marred by caked-on dirt and smudged handprints....

You hear about them every year: gee-whiz, plug-in, battery-powered vehicles poised to change the world. Granted, they’re tiny, or expensive, or both. And if they ever make it to the United States, they’ll be downgraded from electric vehicles (EVs) to neighborhood electric vehicles (NEVs)–glorified golf carts with a top speed of 25 mph. But overseas, where getting gouged at the pump is a fact of life, EVs are a growth market....

Demolition, Removal, SalvageMedia Platforms Design TeamIn the backbreaking early stages of rubble removal, simple hand tools play a vital role in transporting and removing debris. Acquiring basic hand tools—shovels, axes and hammers—meet immediate demolition needs and then take on a long-term role once construction resumes.1. Round point and square nose shovels, preferably heavy-duty variety with extra long blade socket.2. Pick axe3. Pulaski axe4. Rig builder’s hatchet5. Axe6. Bow saw7. 24-oz. framing hammer8....

Media Platforms Design Team TORONTO — Despite the high price and limited supply of diesel these days, fans of the alternative fuel will have another reason to cheer later this year: The turbodiesel version of Audi’s popular Q7 is slated for introduction this winter, as a 2010 model. The 24-valve, 3.0-liter V6 TDi engine is rated at 221 hp, but it generates a prodigious 406 lb.-ft. of torque, eclipsing the V6 and V8 gasoline engines already available from Audi—and torque is what counts when you’re accelerating, attempting a passing maneuver or towing a trailer....