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It’s not easy to get a corned beef sandwich off the planet, as Discovery reports today on a great bit of spaceflight history.On March 23, 1965—50 years ago this week—astronaut John Young took Gemini 3 crewmate Gus Grissom by surprise by pulling out the sandwich, which he had purchased two days earlier at Wolfie’s Restaurant and Sandwich Shop in Cocoa Beach, Florida, adjacent to a Ramada Inn. Walter Schirra, another astronaut, handed it off to Young as he entered the Gemini capsule....

Media Platforms Design TeamScientists have created a sonic tractor beam. And it’s not simply an amazing proof of concept: This beam pulls with a billion times more force and can tow objects a million times larger than previous schemes for tractor beams.Tractor beams are staples of science fiction, projected from the Death Star in Star Wars and the Enterprise in Star Trek. The term was coined by sci-fi author and chemical engineer E....

Back in 1977, Goodyear introduced the Tiempo, the first tire dubbed all-season. The idea was simple and alluring: Instead of dealing with the hassle of switching between snow and summer tires as the seasons change, drivers could use one tire all the time. Sales skyrocketed and other companies quickly followed suit. These days nearly all vehicles sold in the United States are fitted with all-season tires from the factory, and 97....

Many of AT&T’s handset partners were present at their annual Developer Summit at CES in Las Vegas. There were RIM executives, sitting not too far from guys from HTC, Dell, Samsung and Motorola. Of course, not present was AT&T’s most high-profile handset maker: Apple. And while Apple traditionally steers clear of CES, the subtext of AT&T’s event was clear: It is prepping for a time when it won’t be the exclusive outlet for Apple’s iPhone....

There are many things we’ve come to expect from our computer printers: photos, letters, greeting cards, maybe even glowing wallpaper someday. But muscle and bone? You wouldn’t have gone there until this week, when scientists at Carnegie Mellon announced they have developed a printer that outputs in “bio-ink”—a format they hope will pave the way for important organization and growth of stem cells.In development for the past eight years, the printer is similar to a conventional ink jet, but with a custom-built nozzle designed toprint patterns more accurately....

Media Platforms Design TeamBosch invited a pack of power-tool journalists out to its Mount Prospect, Ill., facility on June 2 to have a look at the latest and greatest of sharp metal objects that spin. One star of the show was a new miter saw they’ve dubbed The Glide—a 12-inch dual-bevel tool with a very unusual method of pivoting and repositioning its big blade. Typical compound-miter saws slide on rails, allowing the guillotine blade to move back and forth as it crosscuts 2 x 12s and other large stock lumber....

Media Platforms Design TeamCummins built a “diesel digger” that’s driven by his son Dustin. This 240-in.-wheelbase dragster is powered by a modified 1999 5.9L Cummins that runs on Blue Sun Biodiesel, a blend of traditional fuels and vegetable oil. At Bandimere, the rail ran an 8.55 at 157 mph.MORRISON, Colo. — Ever think a diesel pickup truck could turn a nine-second quarter-mile? Well there’s a group of die-hard diesel drag racers who do pull it off just about every weekend....

Media Platforms Design TeamJeep is synonymous with rugged, manly adventures. The label instantly conjures back roads (also known as “jeep trails”) and wilderness. That unshakeable identity is one reason Chrysler has survived through two different suitors (three if you count us, the taxpayers). Despite everything its parent companies got wrong pre-bailout, Jeep continued to be a cash machine. This is still the case post-bailout, with new Jeeps like the Grand Cherokee that are just plain excellent....

Media Platforms Design TeamAfter four Americans, including an ambassador, were killed at the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, this week, the first question some have asked was: “Where were the Marines?” But that question underlies a fundamental misconception about who is actually responsible for protecting diplomats and diplomatic buildings abroad, whether embassies or consulates. When it comes to protecting the perimeter of a diplomatic building from attack, the primary responsibility falls on the host country....

Media Platforms Design TeamWorkers stack finished solar energy panels at the Solarworld plant on August 14, 2013 in Freiberg, Germany. Credit: Getty Images.Continuing its unrelenting march toward a renewable-powered future, Germany now can produce more than half of its energy from solar. The official word of this milestone comes from the Fraunhofer ISE research institute, which showed that the country produced a record 24.24 GW of solar energy during the first week of June....

• Dividing Angles • Carpenter’s Pencil Scribes Line • Planing Small Pieces • Removing A Tub SpoutGarden Hose Marks Border Laying out a flowerbed with a serpentine border can be a bit of a problem when you use string, but it’s much easier if you use a garden hose. There are several reasons. First, a string can be easily cut or moved accidentally with a shovel, while a garden hose forms a clear, substantial line....

There’s never only one reason for an accident. Rewind the narrative far enough and somehow the sesame bagel you had for breakfast last Thursday ultimately causes you to sideswipe that Lexus on I-90. So it goes for me on the day when the 2015 Audi RS 7 I’m testing saves me from myself.Here’s how it happens: My contact lenses are bothering me all the time, so I decide to get evaluated for LASIK surgery....

Media Platforms Design Team1) DecoysEven in the age of precision airstrikes and satellite imagery, fairly inexpensive decoys can fool incoming cruise missiles and aircraft-launched bombs. There are several reasons why decoys are a problem for U.S. and French war planners in Syria. One is Russian involvement in supplying Assad’s regime. The Russian company Rusbal sells inflatable tanks, antiaircraft missiles, and radar that could have been transferred to Syria. We saw such decoy systems firsthand during a trip to a Russian arms show....

Q: My Internet connection, which I get through my cable company, has been intermittently dying on me, but my television works fine. When I unplug and replug my modem, the service returns a few minutes later. How can I diagnose where the problem is?A: It’s fair to conclude that you don’t have an overall connectivity problem, since your cable Internet runs over the same coaxial (and sometimes fiberoptic) network that your TV signals use....

Media Platforms Design Team1.) Gather MaterialsRound up at least 5 feet of Type M ¾-inch copper tubing, seven eye screws, five No. 6 1-inch machine screws and nuts, nylon twine, and 1 x 6 lumber.2.) Map Pipe MountsCenter a 4½-inch-diameter circle in a 5½-inch-square cut of lumber. Mark the circle at five equidistant points. Insert eye screws at the circle’s center and at all five points.3.) Cut PythagorasCut five pieces of tubing to the lengths in the table below and deburr....

Young at heart as we are, PM jumped at the chance to check out the year’s new toys. We most enjoyed the educational offerings, like the Space Alien Test Kit, which teaches kids about pH and light magnification—with the added bonus of settling, once and for all, whether or not their little brother or sister really is an alien. The web interactive game also comes with temporary tattoos to identify alien types (we’re Maash-U-Ganah!...

Media Platforms Design TeamUpdate, 1:36 p.m.: Success! MAVEN launched right on time and is now bound for Mars.With luck, the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) mission will blast off today at 1:28 p.m. Eastern from Cape Canaveral, Florida. MAVEN will be a first-of-its-kind spacecraft, sent to the Red Planet exclusively to study the atmosphere. It will study the upper atmosphere and ionosphere to gain a sort of history of the atmosphere by studying the effects of the loss of volatiles, which are commonly-reactive chemicals that easily evaporate....

Media Platforms Design TeamYou can now use Microsoft Office for free on your mobile device, with no monthly fee. By making Word, PowerPoint and Excel free for your iOS or Android tablet, Microsoft is taking on competitors like CloudOn and Apple’s iWork.Office is still big business for Microsoft. By offering the popular programs for free on mobile, the company makes it a little less likely you’ll venture out and use the competition instead....

Media Platforms Design Team(Photo Credit: Silklab, Tufts University)New biodegradable implants can be activated wirelessly to deliver therapy and dissolve harmlessly once they finish their job, researchers say.A drawback of implantable medical devices such as pacemakers is how many eventually need further surgery to remove them once they no longer are useful. To avoid disrupting healthy tissue and risking post-surgery complications such as infection, scientists have now designed and tested a device the size of a postage stamp that degrades safely inside the body, eliminating the need for follow-up surgery....

Welcome to PM/AM, Popular Mechanics’ morning briefing on the top science and tech stories for today.Media Platforms Design TeamYesterday, RSS reader Feedly suffered a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack where criminals interrupted the service from reaching users in an attempt to extort money from the company. Feedly first reported the attack on its blog at 5:04 am ET on Wednesday, saying “the attacker is trying to extort us money to make it stop....