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Alex StupakNew York, NYAge: 29Years on Job: 4 Most chefs don’t have scientists on speed dial–but then again, most chefs aren’t Alex Stupak, who practices molecular gastronomy, or cooking with chemistry-lab-worthy techniques. At New York City’s avant-garde restaurant wd-50, Stupak starts with a traditional dish, then designs something new–such as balsamic vinegar encapsulated in vanilla ice-cream nuggets–using high-end food additives and unusual equipment. The flavor combinations and textures are intriguing, and the food tastes great–which is what Stupak and his customers really care about....

Media Platforms Design TeamThe Earth’s atmosphere is a swirling soup of organic gases and aerosols, a continuing chemical reaction that envelops the planet. With help of a 250-person crew, NASA satellites, and three outfitted aircraft, scientists hope to discover a little more about the skies above us. We’re not talking basic meteorology to help your local weatherman’s accuracy. This three-month, multimillion-dollar campaign will analyze all the moving parts of the southern United States’ atmospheric system and how they affect climate change and thunderstorm formation....

Welcome to PM/AM, Popular Mechanics’ morning briefing on the top science and tech stories for today.Media Platforms Design TeamAfter 17 years of retirement, NASA’s ISEE-3 probe is slowly getting back in action, thanks to a private group of space enthusiasts. The group raised $160,000 from crowdfunding and plan to return the 36-year-old satellite to its original mission, collecting data on solar winds. The ISEE-3 has already had quite the life. Launched in 1978, just a year after the Voyager probes, it first studied solar winds and Earth’s magnetic field....

Media Platforms Design TeamPrice: $200This powerful, 10.5-pound upright vacuum cleaner comes with a number of cool new tweaks that the manufacturer, Zenith Technologies, claims to boost cleaning power. Soniclean inventor Mark Bosses says his team engineered more efficient fluid dynamics throughout the vacuum’s air path to reduce turbulence and thus increase efficiency. And the Soniclean’s direct-air system allowed the engineers to place the motor only inches from the surface being vacuumed, which also boosts efficiency....

The FCC is set to propose new rules that will reclassify the Internet as a public utility and forbid Internet service providers from slowing down traffic to certain websites—a potentially huge win for supporters of net neutrality.The move would affect both mobile carriers and more traditional ISPs utilizing cable, fiber optic, and DSL lines. It would also reclassify ISPs as “common carrier” telecommunications firms (rather than information services), subjecting them to further regulation, including over their pricing....

Helicopter manufacturer Sikorsky passed another milestone in its effort to field an unmanned version of its iconic Blackhawk helicopter. A drone Blackhawk picked up a robotic all-terrain vehicle, flew it several kilometers by air, and delivered it to a drop-off location. Sikorsky has been working on the Manned/Unmanned Resupply Aerial Lifter (MURAL) project for more than a year. First flight of an unmanned UH-60A Blackhawk was in Spring 2014, but this was the first time the pilotless helicopter took an external payload from Point A to Point B....

View full post on VimeoArtist Mark Farid is ready to step into the future—a future that looks like equal parts Being John Malkovich and Lawnmower Man. He plans to live in virtual reality for 28 days, experiencing life as somebody else. His project “Seeing I” will involve a complete stranger equipped with a video capturing apparatus, who will move through his or her day with the device recording life in a 180-degree field of view....

Admit it: As a kid, you imagined being a Jedi, slicing your way through Stormtroopers to save the day. Maybe you even pulled a Star Wars Kid and got a little too into the daydream. Now, though, you can see exactly what it would look like to go into battle as Luke Skywalker or Obi-Wan Kenobi, thanks to this great video.Bill Parker made the clip by wearing a GoPro as he moved around a barren, rocky landscape....

Dogsled /// People-Powered QuadcycleMedia Platforms Design TeamBuilt by a local Detroit father-and-son duo who each call the other “dog,” I spotted this people-powered quadcycle pedaling its way down Woodward Avenue early in the weekend. The 500-pound machine centers on four huge-diameter wheels built out of salvaged drainage pipe, modified golf-cart wheels and chopped-up old tires. The four peddlers act as the powertrain for the giant four-seater, with all four combined to turn the right rear wheel with the left rear running on a seperate axle....

Upstate New York is already seeing near-peak color in the foliage as it prepares to fall. Did I say fall? Actually, I’m checking in about the last two days I spent riding motorcycles around New Paltz—and managing not to fall down myself while doing so. Sponsored by the Motorcycle Industry Council, the event gave East Coast-based motojournalists the chance to cram a season’s worth of motorcycle-riding impressions into a day or two....

Media Platforms Design TeamCredit: NASA / JPL-CaltechThirty-five years after it launched from the Earth, Voyager 1 can still communicate with scientists on Earth. And as we noted recently, the long-lived spacecraft is approaching the boundary of the solar system, though what it’s finding there is surprising some researchers. To scientists, the edge of our solar system is not the last planet (or dwarf planet), but rather a region called the heliopause....

On the morning of June 30, 1908, the sky exploded over a remote region of central Siberia. A fireball as powerful as hundreds of Hiroshima atomic blasts scorched through the upper atmosphere “as if there was a second sun,” according to one eyewitness. Scientists today think a small fragment of a comet or asteroid caused the “Tunguska event,” so named for the Tunguska river nearby. No one knows for certain, however, because no fragment of the meteoroid has ever been found....

A good 15 years ago, Honda invited me to travel to its engineering center and proving grounds in Japan to preview a boatload of future products, including stuff like the first four-stroke chain saws, lawnmowers and string trimmers. Then I had the chance to check out a dynamometer room with an ultra-low pollution environment. This chamber was where they tested the next generation of cars–the ones we’re driving around now, labeled Super Ultra Low Emissions Vehicles (SULEV)....

(Published in the August 2004 issue)Learn more about Lance Armstrong’s bike and workout regimen.In summer 2004, Lance Armstrong set out once again to singe the egos of the world’s top bike racers by attempting to win an unprecedented sixth consecutive Tour de France. Well, he did it. But while the French media slapped their foreheads exclaiming “mon Dieu!” in exasperation as Armstrong attempted to claim another victory, bike aficionados were taking a close look at the tools that accelerated this historic race....

Media Platforms Design TeamMedia Platforms Design TeamIt took 25 years for Buell to build a water-cooled production motorcycle. So for sportbike enthusiasts looking for an American product in the segment, the radical new 1125R is long overdue.Harley-Davidson (Buell’s parent company) was stretched thin for engine-building resources, so it tapped Rotax to develop the powerplant. The Austrian manufacturer also supplies engines for Aprilia and BMW bikes (plus BRP’s sweet new Can-Am Spyder), but its powerplant for Buell—a 72-degree DOHC V-twin—gets its 1125cc displacement independent of racing’s homologation rules....

Media Platforms Design TeamRecently I found smoke pouring out of a compact fluorescent bulb (CFL) in a basement light. I turned off the light, removed the bulb and rushed it outside. An incandescent installed in the same socket has not had a problem. I’ve also had CFLs wear out prematurely. I’m stumped by all this.I’ve experienced three types of CFL problems and, judging from our mail, it seems our readers have as well....

Stark, unupholstered wood furniture looks great, but it’s not the most comfortable thing to slump onto. Turns out there is a middle ground: wooden furniture that actually moves to fit you when you sit on it. Sitskie, the company behind the clever butt-matching tech, makes its comfy wood furniture by building it somewhat upside down. Instead of putting a cushion on top of a wooden frame, it puts wood on top of a cushion, and the sitting surface is made up of a bunch of smaller wooden blocks that are joined together by elastic, or sit inside of a solid wooden frame....

It’s been three years since Barbara Campbell first had an electrode array implanted on the back of her eye. She wears it every time she leaves the house, using it to navigate around New York City. After being blind for more than a decade, the artificial retina has partially restored Barbara’s sight, and she delights in the fact that her vision is still improving in subtle ways. The creators of the Argus II—the device that has helped Campbell to regain some sight—won a Popular Mechanics Breakthrough Award in 2010....

Media Platforms Design TeamPopular Mechanics: How did you get interested in space tourism?Christian Frei: I saw a very small article in a Swiss newspaper about a Japanese entrepreneur who wanted to pay $20 million to fly to the International Space Station in a costume inspired by his favorite superhero. And I was thinking, this is just crazy, he’s paying so much money and he wants to dress as a comic hero!...

A Federal Aviation Administration task force came up with a list of recommended drone regulations last month, including a registration process, and now the FAA has set a hard date to register your drone: February 19, 2016. A registration deadline was to be expected, but February of next year is sooner than many believed.Registration will be required for drones weighing between 0.55 pounds and 55 pounds. Anyone who purchases a drone after December 21 will be required to register before flying it outside, so grab yours this week to take advantage of the two-month grace period....