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When Harry Potter and Voldemort face off for the last time in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, out July 15, many audiences will get to experience the epic showdown in 3D. The film wasn’t shot stereoscopically; instead, IMAX oversaw a huge post-production conversion that involved 12 visual effects companies. Hugh Murray, IMAX’s stereographer, oversaw the effort with director David Yates to ensure that the 3D enhanced the story and wasn’t gimmicky....

Nick Acosta, a San Francisco artist and graphic designer, moonlights as a huge Trekker. So when he saw the original model of the Enterprise currently undergoing restoration at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, he was struck by how effective it still was as a prop. And it gave him an idea: Finding out what it would look like if the Star Trek movies had used the original model.Acosta had grown up on Star Trek, watching it with his father....

Today, an old but impressive bit of flying from the Slovak International Air Day in Bratislava, circa 1997. A group of Su-27 “Russian Knights” (the basic equivalent of the U.S. Navy’s Blue Angels) had been putting on demo day for the crowds when one of the planes found itself to forced to do something no pilot (especially not a jet fighter pilot) wants to do: land without without any landing gear....

Media Platforms Design TeamThe Xbox 360 may have Halo 3, but good luck if you ever get a tumor. Sony’s PlayStation 3, on the other hand, may now offer another helping hand to the medical world, according to researchers at the Mayo Clinic. A chip originally created for the PS3 may be the key to greatly improving the way doctors monitor a tumor’s growth via computed tomography (CT) scans.The number of images produced from just a single CT scan can overwhelm current computers....

Update, 5:42 pm Eastern: It wasn’t quite the jubilation we saw this summer when NASA landed the Curiosity Rover on Mars, but scientists behind the GRAIL mission congratulated each other on a job well done this afternoon after the two orbiters successfully smashed into the moon. Afterward, project head Maria Zuber said NASA plans to name the impact site after the late Sally Ride. Her sister, Karen “Bear” Ride, said now “there’s a little corner of the moon that’s named for Sally....

The grape was in bad condition: split down the middle, shiny innards exposed, a stick jammed through its midsection. But after just a minute and a half of deft suturing performed by robot arms with tiny two-fingered hands, it looked (almost) well again.Those tiny arms and hands belong to a da Vinci Surgical System, a robot controlled by surgeons and used in lieu of traditional tools. A robot is not susceptible to the shaky hands that might symie a surgeon, the company says, and the arms are more flexible than human hands and arms, allowing them to fit through smaller incisions....

Media Platforms Design TeamThere’s good reason why PM editors named the Chevrolet Volt extended-range electric vehicle (EREV) a 2010 Breakthrough Award winner. It’s an attractive five-door hatchback with appeal to environmental and technology enthusiasts alike. It runs on exhaust-free grid power for 30 to 40 miles, then seamlessly switches to gasoline when needed.But to do that, the Volt has to tote around both a gas engine and an electric propulsion system (including a 435-pound lithium-ion battery pack), plus a multiclutch planetary gearset and 10 million lines of sophisticated software to marry electric and gas....

Media Platforms Design TeamThe rental yard is busy. The utility trailer you want is inexpensive, and the yard help assists you in hooking up the trailer hitch and safety chains. Now to drive home and load the trailer with the entirety of a teenager’s life, then ship her off to college several states away.Media Platforms Design TeamBut not until you hook up the lights on the trailer. The trailer dealership won’t let you leave until the lights work....

Media Platforms Design TeamWhere George Scott sees red, his clients are bleeding green. Scanning the outside of a ranch home in Longmont, Colo., recently, the energy auditor’s infrared camera registered blue and aqua in spots where heated air stayed put. That’s what the homeowner expected. “He thought he’d done everything right,” Scott says, because he had tackled obvious stuff like adding insulation. “But he was baffled by his high gas bills....

Goodbye Stratus, hello 2008 Dodge Avenger. The all-new Avenger joins its cousin Chrysler Sebring in the midsize sedan class as a replacement for the Stratus model. Built with the same chassis underpinnings, the Dodge version offers unique sheet metal, grille and rear end styling that remove it almost completely from the Sebring forebear. For proof of its relation to the Chrysler, check out the rear of the rear door as it mates with the car’s roof....

Media Platforms Design TeamNot a day goes by around here without a frantic phone call or e-mail from one or more readers. Gas is expensive, they say, and the increased costs of driving have pushed them to desperation. There must be some way to improve our mileage, right?Usually, these folks have heard about some miraculous gadget that claims to improve fuel economy. Just add this magnet to your fuel line. Connect this hydrogen generator to your intake and run your car on water....

Ants are known for their selflessness, working collectively for the greater good of the colony in order to move giant crumbs up giant anthills. That’s also the case for BionicANTs, Festo’s new group of 3D-printed robotic ants. BionicANTs (ANT stand for Autonomous Networking Technologies) act like their biological counterparts, putting group goals ahead of individual interests so they can accomplish more complex work than they could do alone.Like the industrious insects, BionicANTS can find and move objects that are bigger than their own bodies....

Media Platforms Design TeamHurricane Sandy has claimed hundreds of houses, dozens of lives, and left millions without power. In the aftermath, another victim emerged: gas stations and their customers.At stations throughout New York and New Jersey, customers have had to wait for hours for fuel—sometimes being allowed only half a tank, and sometimes not getting fuel at all. The Huffington Post reports that lines for gas stations on the New Jersey Turnpike stretched for more than two miles on Friday afternoon, and people were waiting up to six hours for fuel....

Media Platforms Design Team When they met as graduate students in the University of Southern California’s Interactive Media Division, Kellee Santiago and Jenova Chen were just another two geeks in that free-for-all gaming industry. Now, heading up thatgamecompany as software development amps up after the console war, they’re contracted to develop three next-gen, customizable titles for PlayStation 3. The first of those, flOw, just took home Best Downloadable Game at the 2008 Game Developers Conference, and we caught up with Santiago, 29, upon her return to chat about the future of gaming....

View full post on YoutubeUrban warfare demands close-quarters combat, which often begs for a more subtle approach to military machinery. Medevac helicopters, a soldier’s lifeline on the battlefield, are but hindrances in an urban setting. Narrow alleyways and wide rotors don’t mix.AirMule, an unmanned flying ambulance capable of vertical takeoff and landing in extremely close quarters, has been in development for a few years. When the Israeli firm Urban Aeronautics released its initial concept art in 2008, it was easy to dismiss those futuristic, colorful pods out of hand....

Media Platforms Design TeamThe biggest announcement at Apple’s September music event this afternoon was only marginally about music. Jobs called it his “one more hobby” reveal, a reference to his earlier comments about Apple TV as a hobby for the company. The new Apple TV that comes out in four weeks should turn the device and platform into far more than just a hobby for Apple. It is now significantly smaller than previous versions (about 1/4 the size) and drastically cheaper at only $99....

Media Platforms Design TeamOn Sale Date: NowPrice: $68,900Competitors: Mercedes C63 AMG Coupe, BMW M3, Cadillac CTS-V CoupePowertrains: 4.2-liter naturally aspirated V-8, 450 hp at 8250 rpm, 317 lb-ft of torque between 4000 and 6000 rpm; seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission with paddle shifters, AWD with torque vectoring differentialEPA Fuel Economy (city/hwy): 16/23 mpg with no gas guzzler taxWhat’s New: For its first front-engine, rear-drive-biased RS model, Audi decided to build a high-strung thoroughbred with Clydesdale proclivities....

Media Platforms Design TeamIn the aftermath of the Tupolev 154 crash which killed Poland’s president last Saturday, scrutiny initially focused on the aircraft, an obsolescent design that hard largely been retired from fleets elsewhere in the world. The implication was that here in the West, where aircraft are newer and better maintained, this accident would never have happened. But it turns out that the problem was not with the aircraft at all, but with the pilot, who broke the rules of instrument navigation while on final approach to the airport....

Media Platforms Design TeamAt 2:00 this afternoon, the Select Bipartisan Committee to Investigate the Preparation for and Response to Hurricane Katrina will release itsfinal report after more than five months of investigation. POPULAR MECHANICS obtained excerpts of a draft copy of the report last night. We’ve given the report an initial read and found it riddled with poor logic, internal contradictions and exaggerations. This is no 9/11 Commission Report. We’ll have a fuller review once we get our hands on the official copy....

Media Platforms Design TeamCree, which supplies residential LED lightbulbs exclusively to The Home Depot, this week launched a . Based on the technology of its successful 60- and 40-watt replacements released earlier this year, this offering consumes just 13.5 watts while pumping out 1100 lumens of soft white light. That’s an efficacy of 81.5 lumens per watt, which means it’s about 82 percent more efficient than the equivalent incandescent.75-watt equivalent LED bulbCree’s family of LED lightbulbs is growing just in time for the death knell of the old incandescent....