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Media Platforms Design TeamMat Schroeder, manager of the arms-sales monitoring project for the Federation of American Scientists (FAS), says the recently-released Wikileaks documents reference an attack on a U.S. helicopter executed with a shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missile built in Iran. “The Iranian Misagh-1 missile is nearly identical to a Chinese Design, the QW-1, from which the Iranian missile was copied,” Schroeder says. FAS found a video of that attack, or a similar one, posted on YouTube months ago....

Media Platforms Design TeamIs it possible to get too close to a fruit fly? Let’s say you were to zoom in 1000x on the tiny beast (that’s the limit of most optical microscopes). What would you see? I’ll tell you what you’d see: a glimpse of the segmented eyeballs of this iconic scientific specimen. To take it further, you’d need an expensive piece of equipment called a scanning electron microscope (SEM)....

Media Platforms Design TeamHow does Jaguar face an uncertain future while keeping its storied past alive? If the new XF is any indication, the historic British car company is combining sleek exterior design, innovative driver interfaces and strong performance with a luxurious interior. Yes, it’s a whole new type of cat. And we like it.Though the new Jaguar’s face lacks the retro-inspired character of the outgoing S-Type, its mid-section, C-pillar and tail are sleek and very coupe-like in proportion....

Philip FriedmanIf you’ve ever tasted a Miller Lite, you know it takes a lot of water to make beer. That water is heavy—8 pounds per gallon. Which means that there’s a huge monetary and environmental expense in transporting and distributing kegs and cases around the world. But in 2008 Pat Tatera of Pat’s Backcountry Beverages in Golden, Colorado, came up with a solution: Add the water you ship the beer.afterPrevious efforts to concentrate beer have involved removing water from full-fledged brews, taking away much of the beer’s flavor in the process....

Media Platforms Design TeamMotorcycle engine displacements are not unlike hemline indicators: When the economy soars, literbikes tend to fly off dealership lots, and absurd exercises in excess like V8-powered motorcycles seem perfectly normal. But when markets come crashing to earth– as they did in 2008– the industry responds with meek-but-innovative offerings like the pint-sized Honda CBR250R and Kawasaki Ninja 300.If you subscribe to my completely unscientific correlation between engine size and prosperity, Honda’s recent announcement of three 471cc new middleweights suggests the economy might be looking up....

Media Platforms Design Team ARLINGTON, Va. — Just who shows up for a day full of finding new technologies to fix American infrastructure? A hyper-intelligent and eclectic set, naturally, from government researchers and policy wonks to engineering students tasked with securing the next-generation of bridges, grids and more. But the Bridges to the Future conference, a joint venture between Popular Mechanics and the National Science Foundation, was held just outside Washington, D....

Heavy Metal HerbivoreHacking off limbs with a lopper can be a real pain. With the Alligator Lopper ($100), a vicious-looking hybrid of a lopper and a chain saw, you can clamp a metal jaw onto your prey and buzz right through it with the 6-in. cutting bar. Since it’s basically a mini chain saw, the Alligator can cleave branches too thick for a lopper. The nose and top of the chain are protected by a cover, because when you’re in a sap-thirsty frenzy, safety is key....

Ross Ching is a moviemaker who doesn’t use a movie camera. Instead, he used time-lapse photography to make his first short film, Eclectic, come to life. It’s composed of thousands of still images of landscapes and stars with exposure times ranging from 12 to 30 seconds. The work gives the impression of endless hours spent filming and editing. In reality, Ching only spent a couple of weekends taking pictures using his digital single-lens reflex (SLR), uploading the images to his computer, and then splicing them together using QuickTime Pro....

The Universe looks like a pretty tranquil place to live, doesn’t it? During the day the sun shines steadily, and at night the heavens are reassuring and unchanging.Dream on. The Universe is filled to the brim with dangerous, nasty things, all jostling for position to be the one to wipe us off the face of the planet. Happily for us, they’re all pretty unlikely—how many people do you know who have died by proton disintegration?...

So you’re a responsible adult who changes the sheets with regularity. But what about the mattress itself—are you cleaning that? Your mattress can quickly accumulate all manner of nasty microscopic stuff, be it dust mites or dead skin. This is why cleaning your mattress should become part of your regular household chores.As is the case with most cleaning projects, the best, first step is investing in a mattress cover. These will protect your mattress from dirt and moisture and can be easily removed and cleaned in your washing machine....

Media Platforms Design TeamBase Price: $19,170Americans are finally downsizing their vehicles. Cars like the Hyundai Elantra are outselling trucks by 33 percent and SUVs by 55 percent as of August 2012. That wasn’t the case a few short years ago. Modern compacts offer better fuel economy, power, and sophistication than their predecessors, and they do it for a great price. But of all the quality compacts currently available, most impressive is the new Elantra GT....

Media Platforms Design TeamSeoul, Republic of Korea—The 2011 Hyundai Sonata is a roomy, four-door family car that has garnered favorable reviews since it was revealed last February. Now, Hyundai has introduced a hybrid version of the Sonata that delivers excellent mileage and can be driven in zero-emissions, full-electric mode at speeds up to 62 mph.The Sonata Hybrid incorporates Hyundai’s latest Hybrid Blue Drive system. The car will the first in the U....

Media Platforms Design TeamIt’s a staple of science fiction: Saucer-shaped spacecraft flying over the surface of Mars. Now, if a group of NASA scientists have their way, that weird fiction will become a reality. And it will start with a test flight at a military facility this week.At the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Missile Range Facility in Hawaii, a flying disc called the Low Density Supersonic Decelerator will be lofted under a helium balloon the size of the Rose Bowl stadium and dropped from 120,000 feet....

UPDATE, 5:46 p.m.: The rockets fired correctly and inflated as wanted, but the parachute deployment was only partial – the cause of the error is at this time unknown. High resolution imaging and black box data will help determine the cause of the chute failure. UPDATE, 5:40 p.m.: A parachute misfire appears to have complicated the launch. A similar incident happened during the last airborne test. View full post on TwitterUPDATE, June 8: And it’s off!...

Terrorists with ties to Al Qaeda have come close to concocting explosives that could pass through airport security virtually undetected. That should come as no surprise—they’ve been chasing this goal for years. The underwear bomber nearly succeeded in December of 2009, boarding two planes en route to the U.S. before his clumsy attempts to detonate the briefs gave him away. More recently, we’ve heard that toothpaste tubes and hand-held electronic devices had become terrorists’ preferred method of concealment, prompting new rounds of inspections this year (including those new rules mandating that you power on your phone)....

Media Platforms Design TeamThe U.S. Air Force’s premier air-to-air combat aircraft was just getting back to normal flight operations following an investigation into hypoxia-like (oxygen-deprivation) symptoms among pilots when it got more bad news: The F-22 Raptor is facing new questions over its vaunted air-combat capabilities.In the latest issue of the U.K.-based Combat Aircraft Magazine, German Eurofighter Typhoon pilots recount a recent Red Flag advanced aerial-combat exercise in which they faced off against the stealthy F-22—and came away surprised by the results....

Media Platforms Design Team NEW YORK — Suzuki has always marketed vehicles in this country at the, um, more frugal end of the spectrum. The Kizashi 3 Concept, then, serves as a warning shot to more upscale automakers. It’s now clear that the introduction of a larger, more upscale Suzuki is on the way. Sharing styling cues with the Kizashi Concept estate wagon and Concept 2 crossover, the 3 model completes Suzuki’s upscale lineup....

Media Platforms Design TeamIf you’ve been thinking about getting an in-ground swimming pool, now’s the time to act. Most pool contractors offer discounts for pools purchased now for installation later this summer or very early next spring, periods when the pool business typically is slow. However, before deciding on when to buy, you must first choose what to buy. Here’s a quick look at the three most popular types of in-ground pools:ConcreteConcrete pools are the most popular—and most expensive—type of pool....

Media Platforms Design TeamDomestic surveillance isn’t limited to our phones and Internet. Law enforcement agencies are tracking the movement of our cars, too.At the heart of the surveillance program, the Wall Street Journal explains, is the Drug Enforcement Agency, which uses digital license plate surveillance to monitor drug trafficking. However, other agencies may have used the database to track movements across the country related to other possible crimes, including kidnapping, murder, and sex crimes....

Alpine SkiingCarving Turns at 50 mphOlympic skiers subject their bodies to as much as 3.5 g’s–more than space shuttle astronauts endure during launch–and to velocities that would earn them speeding tickets in most states. And when steep sections of a run flatten out, it takes a world-class athlete to stay upright despite the downward inertia. “A lot of us can leg-press 900 pounds, but that’s easy compared to this race,” says Ted Ligety, a Park City, Utah, native and reigning Olympic gold medalist in the combined skiing event, which is based on the total time from one downhill and two slalom runs....