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The fall was long and hard for Ceres. Declared a new planet when it was discovered in 1801, it was demoted soon thereafter and became just the biggest of a bunch of space rocks in the Asteroid Belt, unknown to most people. Until the Dawn mission, and those two bright spots that captured the public imagination.Today, a new study in Nature says those spots tell us some fascinating things about this dwarf planet, including that there’s more evidence than ever for an ocean under the surface....

Media Platforms Design TeamA pair of men—one from New Mexico, the other from Russia—have set a new record for a trans-Pacific flight by balloon, completing their journey in less than a week. Troy Bradley and Leonid Tiukhtyaev left Japan last Sunday and reached North America on Saturday, though not without a hiccup or two.The two men, who met while racing balloons in Europe, were supposed to land in Baja California, Mexico....

Back in February, Google’s image recognition software—built to tell you what’s in a photo—began to outperform humans. That’s a huge feat in AI, and it takes a pretty big artificial brain to pull that off. Well, it turns out you can do some other incredible things with Google’s artificial neural networks. They can be taught to daydream, Google says. And when they do, they come up with some pretty amazing conceptual artwork....

Like plenty of other densely populated cities, Tokyo is a little nervous about the prospect of flybys by rogue drones. But instead of just sticking to flight restrictions and all out bans, it appears that the Tokyo polices are actually getting a few anti-drone drones that can deal with unauthorized fliers. The Asahi Shimbun reports that one of these drones, which carries a 3 meter by 2 meter net beneath it, will be deployed by the Tokyo police if another drone is flying without authorization and the pilot can’t be found, or refuses to land his craft....

Clint Eastwood loves to tell tales of heroes rising to a challenge head-on, so perhaps the idea of him making a movie about Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger and the “Miracle on the Hudson” was inevitable. And given that Tom Hanks has pretty much made a career of playing those characters, the two were bound to meet somewhere in the middle. Today we learned that Hanks will portray the heroic pilot in Eastwood’s upcoming film....

Philip FriedmanMicroscope photography used to be a high-priced craft—and for high magnifications it still is. Hall Davidson, a former math teacher who works for Discovery Education, has come up with an easy project that uses an iPad or mobile-phone camera to create a 45x- or 60x-magnification device. That’s ideal for looking at details of plant and insect anatomies or at the surface of anything from rocks to computer chips. “I went to the hardware store and bought every possible thing to attach it,” Davidson says....

About 58 million homes heat their water with gas, while 42 million use electricity. But electric systems account for about 50 percent more carbon emissions, because so much power is lost in generation and transmission. To save energy, homeowners can install solar hot-water heaters or “on-demand” heaters, which have no storage tank and are 30 percent more efficient. Trimming usage is the top priority, though. Some steps are easy: New washing machines can cut hot-water consumption from 40 gal....

On Tuesday the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) unanimously urged a complete ban on drivers talking on cellphones in cars—including hands-free devices. The ruling in itself doesn’t have any teeth; it’s a suggestion that the nation take up the kinds of strict bans that states now have on the books. But to me, it’s a sign that policymakers can be just as distracted by preexisting agendas as drivers can be distracted by gadgets....

Media Platforms Design TeamIt was after the Coldplay came to a stop and CEO Tim Cook and Siri wrapped up their banter (Siri: “I am looking forward to the new Samsung . . . the refrigerator”—a not-so-subtle dig at Samsung’s new Galaxy S III) that Apple finally revealed its big hardware news: a reinvented line of MacBook Pros, complete with solid-state drives and Retina displays. Though many in the tech world anticipated the SSDs, the shift away from optical drives is still meaningful....

Canadian SAM Aircraft’s president Thierry Zibi has recently offered his entire airplane manufacturing company up for sale. The purchase will include all design drawings, construction molds, 3D debugging software, and most importantly, a completed flying aircraft all for the low asking price of only $100,000 USD.The company’s only offering is the SAM LS which is already approved in Canada as an Advanced Ultralight Aircraft (AULA) and has the green light in the United States to be built as an Experiment Amateur kit plane....

Media Platforms Design TeamYour veggie garden might look a little sad as summer draws to a close, but there’s hope: Now’s the time to plant second-season vegetables. There are plenty of varieties that not only prefer milder fall temperatures, but also taste great once the chill kicks in. Selection"Second-season crops aren’t difficult to grow," says Chelsey Fields, vegetable product manager at seed and plant purveyor W. Atlee Burpee & Co., based in Warminster, Pa....

Media Platforms Design TeamBMW has performed a number of updates for the interior and subtle facelifts outside to freshen the appearance for 2008 of its new 5-series, to be unveiled at the New York auto show. Here’s what to look for in both the sedan and wagon models:For clean air flow, the kidney grille is now flush with the new front fascia;Headlamps offer clear glass lenses surrounded by chrome rings;The air intake sweeps up at the sides and carries a horizontal bar to emphasize its width;Rocker panels are molded to add a sleeker appearance from the side view;Taillights have clear lenses, too, with LED turn signals....

Despite widespread acceptance of diesel engines in Europe (approximately 90 percent of the cars in the U.K. use diesels), Americans still shudder at the memory of General Motors’ hapless gas engine-based diesels of the 1980s, and smoky, clattery Mercedes-Benz 300SD oil burners. But there are some signs of progress. Persistent German carmakers continue to introduce new clean-burning diesel cars and SUVs, and next year, even the Japanese will enter the diesel market....

Media Platforms Design TeamSonoma, Calif.—According to Mitsubishi, the small-crossover segment will grow 480 percent by 2013. That means there will be at least half a dozen new pint-size SUVs joining the all-new Outlander Sport by then. This year alone, Mitsubishi has fresh competition from both the Kia Sportage and the Nissan Juke.The SpecsStrip away the sporty bodywork and you’ll find that the Outlander Sport is called Outlander for reasons beyond marketing efficiencies....

Media Platforms Design TeamOn Sale Date: Mid-2014Price: $26,000 (est.)Competitors: MazdaSpeed 3, Ford Focus ST, Subaru Impreza WRX, Mini Cooper SPowertrains: 2.0-liter turbo I-4, 210 or 220 hp, 258 lb-ft; 6-speed dual-clutch auto or 6-speed manual; FWDEPA Fuel Economy (city/hwy): 24/34 (est.)What’s New: Volkswagen has sold 1.9 million GTIs since the zippy hatchback debuted as a Europe-only variant in 1976. The new seventh-gen model is an evolutionary step from the previous car, but that doesn’t mean VW left well enough alone....

No matter what I do, my headphones end up tangled. Why? And how do I keep them knot-free?Blame the second law of thermodynamics, which states that everything tends toward disorder. In this case: Every pair of earbuds tends toward a tangled mess. A few years ago scientists definitively linked the problem to thermodynamics. Two researchers at the University of California, San Diego, put varying lengths of string in different-size boxes and rotated the boxes, showing that cords of a certain length necessarily become tangled....

“Every year, more children die from unsafe drinking water than HIV AIDS and malaria combined,” says Greg Allgood, director of the Children’s Safe Drinking Water Program, a nonprofit initiative sponsored by Procter & Gamble to provide widespread access to safe drinking water. The long-term solution might be the expansion of water-based infrastructure to populations in the developing world, but that could take decades. “When you have 4000 children die every day, you can’t wait for that infrastructure,” says Allgood, who was participating in one of a series of panels held today at the Popular Mechanics Breakthrough Conference, featuring this year’s winners of the magazine’s annual Breakthrough Awards....

Media Platforms Design TeamReal-life transformers may be coming to the U.S. Army, and these helicopter-cars could provide a futuristic way to provide medical care on the battlefield. California-based Advanced Tactics has proposed its Black Knight Transformer as an autonomous casualty-evacuation vehicle for the U.S. Army. It’s not the only autonomous helo coming out of research labs around the country and going into military testing. But what sets the Black Knight apart is its ability to fly to a landing zone nearby the battlefield and then transform into a ground-bound ambulance....

Thank you for taking the time, especially considering that. The Koch name today is known more for politics than industry. Does that bother you? It goes with the territory. I’ve been interested in the ideas of freedom and prosperity and stuff for over 50 years, but we really started in the political side in ‘03 when we began to build this seminar network. It was to oppose all the destructive things we thought the Bush administration was doing....

Media Platforms Design TeamBefore we get into the details of this exciting find, what has driven you to pursue art conservation?Well, Ive always been interested and enjoyed making art, but I didnt feel like I had anything to say. I went working for a field where I could use my hands. Back when I was first interested, I had a tour of the conservation labs in The National Gallery and I was just fascinated, especially by the x-ray and infrared work that theyd done and the idea of discovering how artists work....