Depending on how you look at it, the new 2011 Scion tC is either the second-generation tC or the ninth generation of the Toyota Celica. Either way, it represents 40 years of Toyota’s single-minded pursuit of the idea that straightforward, ordinary mechanical parts packaged in sporty coupe sheet metal is a compelling recipe for young buyers.If that sounds like the same formula that’s worked for more than 48 model years of the Ford Mustang, bingo....
Media Platforms Design Team SEVILLE, Spain — Talk about timing: Mere days before this city was virtually shut down by truckers protesting a rise in diesel prices, Mercedes-Benz showcased an impressive array of green technologies here late last week. While the company’s breakthrough DiesOtto concept (pictured above and at left) was the star of tech day, Benz will go a long way as a manufacturer of luxury cars—many of them heavy and extremely powerful—toward addressing environmental concerns and long-term global fuel-efficiency requirements with this latest suite of innovation....
As worldwide panic over Ebola quiets down to a murmur, researchers are hard at work trying to stop the next pandemic. Now a new vaccine may be on the way, thanks to a group of research scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Although still in the testing phase, the vaccine has proven effective when tested in monkeys and offers a stronger immune response than treatments developed in the past, a team of scientists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison reported in research published this week in the journal Science....
Media Platforms Design TeamLeft to right, Nobel winners Toshihide Maskawa, Yoichiro Nambu, and Makota Kobayashi. (Photographs by Fredrik Persson/AFP/Getty Images) Nearly thirty days after CERN’s Large Hadron Collider went live to much fanfare, and weeks after it’s premature deactivation, a topsy-turvy season for particle physics culminated today with the announcement of this year’s winners of the Nobel Prize in Physics. The prize will go to three theoretical physicists whose work has helped explain the laws of symmetry: American Yoichiro Nambu will get half the prize and Japanese scientists Makoto Kobayashi and Toshihide Maskawa will share the other half....
CargoIn the Aughts: Cargo aircraft carries unprecedented cargo long distances with a minimal crew. Next Step: Stepping up fuel efficiency via airship.Media Platforms Design TeamLockheed Martin C-130J Super HerculesThe hundredth Lockheed Martin C-130J Super Hercules rolled off the line in 2003, sealing its status as the state of the art in cargo airplanes. The C-130J brags an 8000-mile range with 42,000-pound-plus cargo capacity and automated systems allowing for a crew of just three....
Q: I just bought a Blu-ray player and am a big fan of old films. Is it possible for older movies that were shot before high-definition existed to really be HD?A: There’s no reason movies shot on 35-mm film can’t look great in HD; their native resolution is actually far higher than Blu-ray’s. (Remember: These movies were shot to fill huge theater screens.) And when films are scanned into digital, they are brought in at between 2000 and 8000 lines of horizontal resolution–far more than Blu-ray’s 1920 pixels across by 1080 pixels down....
Media Platforms Design TeamPhoto by David Malan/Getty ImagesToday, Newsweek published a story claiming to have found the elusive creator of the digital currency, Bitcoin. The article states that Satoshi Nakamoto, who legally changed his name to Dorian Prentice Satoshi Nakamoto, is a 64-year-old Japanese-American man living in southern California. Leah McGrath Goodman, the writer of the piece, speaks with Nakamoto in the story only under police supervision as local law enforcement intervened at Nakamoto’s request....
There is nothing on Earth or in the air quite like the Antonov An-225. Dwarfing a Boeing 747 and out-lifting a U.S. Air Force C-5A Galaxy, it can haul an expeditionary force into combat, or carry enough food to avert a famine. Yet, oddly, the original purpose of the An-225 was neither hostile nor humanitarian. Conceived in the chilliest years of the Cold War, the plane was designed as an airborne tow truck for the now-defunct Soviet space shuttle program....
Denver—The race to build the world’s first flying military jeep just moved a step closer to the finish line. The Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has selected two companies to proceed with the next stage of its Transformer, known as TX—a fully automated four-person vehicle that can drive like a car and then take off and fly like an aircraft to avoid roadside bombs. Lockheed Martin and AAI Corp....
From the moment MH370 disappeared more than nine months ago, the world has been asking how a jumbo jet carrying 239 people could vanish. Now, the aviation industry is grappling with another question: Where are the promised flight tracking systems that would prevent this from ever happening again?The technology would transmit in real time a multidimensional picture of an aircraft’s position, measured by longitude, latitude, altitude, and the local time as provided by satellites....
Q: I have a 2004 Honda Accord that has lost power to the radio. Is this a common occurence with this model?A: No it isn’t common. Did you check the fuse? Actually, two fuses–#5 and #32.Q: I have a 2001 PT Cruiser. This morning when I opened the hood the hood release seemed a little hard too pull. After checking the oil I shut the hood but the latch will not catch and the inside latch handle did not go back down....
Media Platforms Design TeamMeet Roy Mallady, a 68 year-old retiree who has owned everything from Porsches and Ferraris to a 700 horsepower Nissan GT-R. Mallady describes himself as a “wannabe race car driver,” and despite having dabbled in a broad array of high-end marques, Lexus is the nearest and dearest to this native Georgian’s heart. He and his wife have owned no fewer than nine LSs, four LXs, and an SC400– which tidily explains his extreme attraction towards the LFA über flagship....
Media Platforms Design TeamGreat news in the world of lightweight, open-air motoring: Today, Lotus took the roof off its Exige S Coupe and unveiled their fastest convertible yet, the Exige S Roadster.For Lotus, the conversion process from hard-top to open-top was simple: Remove the roof; replace it with a roll-up soft-top. Apart from that minor yet transformative change, the roadster is virtually identical to the coupe. Both ride on the same chassis and sport a mid-mounted, 3....
Media Platforms Design TeamSubaru has been touting the advantages of all-wheel-drive systems for years—today all of its cars come with the feature. This all-wheel-all-the-time strategy has worked for Subaru—during last year’s recession, Subaru had its best year ever. But while most American buyers think of all-wheel drive as something you need to stay safely on the road during a snowstorm, Subaru has experience with the systems in entirely other arenas. The company has generations of racing under its belt in some of the most demanding conditions on the planet....
Welcome to PM/AM, Popular Mechanics’ morning briefing on the top science and tech stories for today. Media Platforms Design TeamResearchers are developing a computer algorithm that will change photos to any season, weather condition, or time of day. (Photo Credit: Hays Lab/Brown University)The photo editing landscape is rapidly changing. Last week, researchers at Carnegie Mellon and the University of California announced their photo editing software that allows users to manipulate 3D models in a way that looks realistic in pictures....
Media Platforms Design TeamIt’s official. Following widely reported rumors, Microsoft’s new CEO has been named: 46-year-old Satya Nadella is replacing Steve Ballmer, effective immediately. Nadella has been with Microsoft for 22 years, and previously led Bing and Microsoft’s enterprise and cloud division.In an internal email to employees, Nadella, the third CEO in Microsoft’s history, praised Microsoft’s potential in an increasingly growing mobile world. “Our industry does not respect tradition—it only respects innovation....
You might think that floating in practically non-existent gravity while you’re in orbit might be less stressful on your body than living under the constant drag of Earth’s one g. In some ways it is, but the sudden lack of downward pressure does all sorts of weird stuff to your body as well. In this tidy little video by Great Big Story, astronaut Leland Melvin goes over a few of the strange things space did to his body in particular, like making him a full inch taller....
Media Platforms Design TeamThe 120 soldiers seated in the gravel at Forward Operating Base Zormat in eastern Afghanistan are all eagerly watching the sky. Early morning birdcalls give way to the steady thumping of rotors as two Chinooks slide into view, U.S. National Guardsmen seated at the controls, each helicopter’s ungainly airframe held aloft by the beating of six 30-foot-long blades. The aircraft make wide arcs around a surveillance balloon floating over the base and then slide into parallel positions close to the soldiers....
The hair dryer, that invaluable tool for anyone who’s vain (so, everyone), is no longer a just a domestic object. It’s now an artistic tool.French magician Antoine Terrieux arranged several hair dryers in a circle, their nozzles carefully slanted upwards, to send a paper airplane around in (nearly) perpetual circles. In another part of his exhibition—at the French Maison Des Jonglages (House of Juggling) in La Courneuve France—the hair dryers lie on their sides, flapping a vinyl record against the floor....
Media Platforms Design TeamOkay, it’s all over the news: The House of Representatives is officially forcing car manufacturers to build more efficient vehicles. If the bill clears the Senate and a possible White House veto, Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards will rise 40 percent by 2020, to 35 mpg–a mark that some vehicles already are more than capable of hitting. But car manufacturers will still be allowed to average their mileage across all models, from economical, shoebox-size rides to family sedans to big, thirsty SUVs....
