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Media Platforms Design Team BUTTONWILLOW, Calif. — It’s hard for many of us to see a Chevy Cobalt as a real performance car—even when it’s wearing low-profile tires, a body kit and a big rear wing. But swing the 2008 Cobalt SS into a 100-mph sweeper at the raceway here, and some of those preconceptions blow right out the window. The new SS differs from the previous supercharged SS in a number of significant ways: For 2008, the Cobalt gets a turbocharged version of the 2....

On Sale Date: April 20, 2012Price: $40,450 (FWD), $41,550 (AWD)Competitors: Acura MDX, Audi Q7, Buick Enclave, Dodge Durango, Ford Explorer, Ford Flex, GMC Acadia, Honda Pilot, Lincoln MKT, Mazda CX-9, Nissan Pathfinder, Toyota 4Runner, Volvo XC90Powertrains: 3.5-liter V6, 265 hp, 248 lb-ft; CVT, FWD or AWDEPA Fuel Economy (city/hwy): 18/23–24 What’s New: Although there are many players in the large mid-luxury sport-utility game, Infiniti hasn’t been one of them until now....

Media Platforms Design TeamSometimes the best tech is what disappears into the background. A quick look at the A3 e-tron prototype suggests Audi understands the power of understatement. While EV prototypes such as the Cadillac ELR and BMW i3 look radical inside and out, practically smacking you in the face with their futuristic feel, the Audi feels much more like a conventional A3. After some time behind the wheel, you forget you’re driving a plug-in and simply enjoy the ride....

Media Platforms Design TeamAge 1: You’re new, I get it. Just remember, if it’s hard or shiny, you’re still too tiny. If it bounces or bends, it’s all yours, my friend.Age 2: Let sleeping dads lie.Age 3: You’ll learn some of the best lessons when holding a flashlight for dad.Age 4: Don’t throw away the jelly jar. Army men, nuts and bolts, loose change, fireflies, arrowheads, cuff links. These are just a few things you can put in an empty jelly jar....

Media Platforms Design TeamChicago SpecialThe Chicago Special was a popular way to serve a grilled steak at the turn of the 20th century. While the garlic-and-olive-oil-rubbed steak is on the grill, saute the mushrooms on the side burner in a sauce made from beer, which will deliver a delectable steak topping or side.Ingredients for the Steak:• Sirloin or T-bone steak (3/4 to 1 inch thick)• 1 or more cloves of garlic, depending on taste, for each steak• Olive oil• Salt and pepperSteak Grilling Directions:1....

Media Platforms Design TeamHerbert G. Claudius thought he might have sunk a U-Boat off the coast of Louisiana in 1942. He thought so for decades, in fact, but the U.S. Navy couldn’t find evidence to back up Claudius’ claim. Now, thanks to new discoveries, Claudius’ version of events has been vindicated, and the Navy has posthumously awarded him a Legion of Merit honor.Claudius, serving aboard patrol boat PC 566, encountered German U-boat U-166 while ferrying survivors of ship attacks to New Orleans....

Media Platforms Design Team1 GROUCHO MARXPhysicists worry about what they call the Groucho Marx effect—that any universe simple enough to be understood is too simple to produce a mind capable of understanding it. The discovery of the Higgs boson right where physicists were looking for it is a great sign that the universe isn’t too complicated for us to understand after all. “It’s a new clue to the big bang,” says Neil Turok, director of Canada’s Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics....

No one was necessarily counting on the objects around KIC 8462852 being alien megastructures, but a handful of researchers weren’t necessarily ruling it out. Or, at the very least, the SETI Institute and SETI Berkeley were taking a look, just in case. But the most prevailing idea was that it was either a swarm of comets or a swarm of asteroids. Now, it seems all-but-certain that it’s just comets, as published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters....

Regensburg, Germany–Love it or love to hate it, technology is at the heart of the modern car, and it’s constantly evolving. Enthusiasts have a tendency to cringe whenever the latest computer-assisted driving aid is released, thinking that before we know it we’ll be living in some kind of twisted science-fiction movie. But the reality is that this concern is debatable at best, and some of the stuff you’ll be able to opt for on your next car is just so cool that you probably won’t be able to resist anyway....

Media Platforms Design TeamMORE NEW GREEN LIVING NEWS* PM NEWS: Fake Volcanoes and Trees Potential Weapons in Global Warming FightThe 6-ft.-high steel wellhead jutting up from a weedy field next to the R.E. Burger coal-fired power plant in eastern Ohio doesn’t look momentous. If anything, it resembles a supersize fire hydrant. Yet the wellhead and the borehole extending through a mile and a half of rock below it represent an ambitious goal: nothing short of entombing global warming....

Media Platforms Design TeamPractitioners of traditional origami can fold tiny, colorful bits of paper and make high art. But the growing group of scientists who practice DNA origami can fold genetic code itself, creating intricate nanoscopic materials with incredible properties.In a new study out this week, scientists used the technique to create tiny structures that can manipulate light by absorbing it differently depending upon how the materials form—which could someday create lenses of amazing power....

Appliances are meant to make our lives easier, which they usually do. Until, that is, they start leaking, heating imperfectly, burning toast they were supposed to brown, and generally malfunctioning. Although they may seem complicated, most home appliances work on fairly basic principles. And while there is a common sentiment these days that it’s less expensive to simply buy a new appliance than to have it repaired, many of the minor problems that plague these devices can be dealt with using a minimum of time and effort....

Media Platforms Design TeamTrimmer TypeWhile curved-shaft string trimmers may be the best tool for some users, I find that a straight-shaft tool is far easier to control and much more effective. Plus, you can get it under things like shrubs and small trees more easily than with a curved tool.Spin DirectionThe biggest thing I see people struggling with when they use a string trimmer is spin direction. Just as a circular saw needs to eject sawdust as it works, a trimmer needs to eject debris from its cut path....

Media Platforms Design TeamA piece of debris of the fuselage at the crash site of the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17. Credit: AFP/Getty Images.When anti-aircraft missiles fly, it’s a good idea to check in with Matt Schroeder, a weapons proliferation expert with the Federation of American Scientists. We spoke with him in the aftermath of the shootdown of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, in which a group of separatist rebels destroyed an airplane flying at an altitude of more than 30,000 feet....

Media Platforms Design TeamAt Ford’s Michigan Proving Grounds in rural Romeo, Michigan, a quiet revolution in vehicle testing is beginning. Engineers working at the 4,000-acre facility, in collaboration with supplier Autonomous Solutions, have developed a one-of-a-kind system that puts a robot in the driver’s seats of preproduction cars for punishing durability testing.The phrase “test driver” conjures up images of hotshots pushing sexy, high-performance cars to their absolute limits, but in reality, testing cars is often boring, backbreaking work....

President Obama has said he wouldn’t allow the controversial Keystone XL pipeline’s construction unless it does not significantly worsen carbon dioxide emissions. But now a new study in Nature Climate Change says it will, and by a lot: Keystone XL could cause greenhouse gas emissions four times worse than the U.S. government’s projections.Peter Erickson and Michael Lazarus of the Stockholm Environment Institute in Seattle calculated the project’s potential economic impact and its resulting impact on greenhouse gas emissions....

Media Platforms Design TeamWhen the remnants of Hurricane Isaac hit the Avalon Peninsula section of Newfoundland, it’s likely the inhabitants there will have to weather only rain and slightly stronger than usual winds. But not all northern hurricanes are so docile. Take, for example, the New England Hurricane of 1938, a Category 3 hurricane that hit Long Island and the Northeastern coast with such force that it killed 700 people, left 63,000 homeless, and actually reshaped the coastline....

Media Platforms Design TeamThe mineral is believed to make up 36 percent of the total volume of Earth, making it the most abundant thing on our planet. Yet it is found so deep down below the surface—410 to 1615 miles—that it’s never been seen before. Those depths are so volatile that even if we could dig down there, the samples would be destroyed before they could be studied.Now scientists have finally succeed in getting a glimpse of this stuff, which they just named bridgmanite (you can’t name a mineral until you’ve actually observed the thing)....

Media Platforms Design TeamCapt. Art “Papi” Guzman, gaze fixed forward, strides through the hangar at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego. The stoic pilot is focused on the day’s mission. His hard, square face probably wouldn’t flinch if a tennis ball bounced off his forehead. Guzman must haul 8600 pounds of high-octane aviation gasoline 100 miles north, over the peaks of the Chocolate Mountains. The trip will take 20 minutes....

Media Platforms Design TeamJed Rockwell has worked around skis and skiing his entire life. He used to help design and build racing skis for K2; he tuned skis for serial World Cup champion Bode Miller; and he has advised the ski technicians who travel with the sport’s top competitors to prep their gear before every run. The stakes are lower for recreational athletes, but, Rockwell says, waxing skis or snowboard bases once a week can make turning smoother and more fun....