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Media Platforms Design TeamVandenberg Air Force Base, CaliforniaAir Force Intercontinental Ballistic Missile crews call practice launches from Vandenberg “a trip to the Super Bowl”—they are often the highlight of their careers. In 1963, the US launched 166 rockets from Vandenberg, but in these post–Cold War days, just three to four rockets are launched a year. But with new threats on the horizon, those at Vandenberg take their mission as seriously as ever....

Media Platforms Design TeamArtistic illustration of the bi-functional device of self-powered electrochromic window and self-rechargeable transparent battery. (Credit: Xiao Wei Sun)Smart windows that change color to provide more shade when an electrical current is applied could keep buildings cool and reduce the energy burden of using air conditioning. However, the fact that they need electricity to operate diminishes their efficiency. But now scientists have developed a smart window that can also serve as a battery: It recharges upon contact with oxygen, allowing it to power its own electrochromic activity....

Defense conferences are a lot like the Oscars–what you see outside is often more interesting than the event itself. The 20th annual Special Forces/Low Intensity Conflict Symposium, held this week in Washington, D.C., includes an exhibition hall, outside an auditorium where speakers discussed the future direction of the defense industry. The exhibits display a notable collection of weapons, robots, UAVs and gear that vendors from around the world hope will become the next must-have for the U....

GM has already announced it will close the Pontiac brand and Saturn is likely to follow if a buyer cannot be found. Saab is up for sale and is currently under bankruptcy protection. A majority portion of GM’s German subsidiary, Opel, will be sold to Canadian supplier Magna in partnership with Russian automaker GAZ, but GM will likely retain a portion of the company. Experts agree that a quick two- to three-month bankruptcy would be the healthiest scenario for the company to return to profitability....

When the heavy-duty icebreaker Polar Star pulls away from the Coast Guard pier in Seattle this month, it will mark the first time the 36-year-old ship has left port in more than six years. With rebuilt engines, a revamped propeller system, and three new cranes, the Polar Star is emerging from a $60 million renovation intended to extend its operational life by seven to 10 years. Several months will be devoted to sea trials....

Media Platforms Design TeamToyota claims the 2011 Sienna is all new, but that’s marketing hyperbole. Much of the third generation Sienna’s substance–major stampings like the floor pan, the basic suspension design and components like the V6 engine–actually carries over from the second generation Sienna that was introduced as a 2004 model. There’s no real downside to that, since the second Sienna has a well-earned reputation for toughness and comfort. After all, the Sienna has become a hugely popular New York City taxi over the past few years; beloved by cabbies for its reliability and sought out by riders for its ability to seat six passengers for the price of four....

You may have heard there’s a lot of plastic debris in the Pacific Ocean. Some have referred to the phenomenon as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, or described it as a huge floating island of trash the size of Texas. It’s true that the concentration of this debris is higher inside than outside the North Pacific Gyre, a large system of rotating ocean currents in the northern Pacific. But the reality is that the plastic pollution is more diffuse....

Media Platforms Design TeamEric E Castro/FlickrThe icon of New York City traffic enforcement, the wheel clamp or “boot”, is making a return, the New York Times reported yesterday. In an effort to cajole violators to pay up, city marshalls will be booting cars whose owners owe more than $350 in traffic fines. However, unlike other booting programs in the U.S.—where someone needs to come out and personally unlock the device—New York’s “self-releasing boot” enables drivers to remove the clamp themselves, albeit after paying the outstanding fines over the phone first....

Media Platforms Design TeamThe fires in Southern California continue to burn, already destroying more than 267,000 acres, injuring four and killing one. Forest fires represent some of the worst disaster’s in history, and Popular Mechanics wrote about one particular fire that claimed 85 lives in Idaho and Montana in 1910. Meanwhile, those looking to survive national disasters can take another look at our Survive Anything guide, published in our August issue....

THE $2,000 SETUPMedia Platforms Design TeamYour home theater dollar will go a lot further if you steer clear of the truly huge televisions. But you don’t need to skimp on quality. The WESTINGHOUSE LVM-37W3 ($1399) LCD is a midsize (37 in.) monitor that has full 1080p resolution without the 1080p price. Westinghouse keeps costs down by not including a TV tuner – most people change channels through their cable or satellite set-top box....

Football and bad weather go hand in hand, as NFL lore is replete with myths about “bear weather” and “the frozen tundra of Lambeau Field.” However, the modern NFL uses a number of tricks to keep its players warm during even the most frigid football game day. Dive deeper. ➡ Get unlimited access to the weird world of Pop Mech.Unfrozen TundraArrowhead Stadium.Icon Sportswire//Getty ImagesThe most important piece that will be heating up Arrowhead Stadium on Sunday will be invisible to the TV audience....

Opening your backyard swimming pool for the season takes more than filling it up and jumping in. Larry Biscornet, president of LBI Swimming Pools in New Rochelle, N.Y., has been in the swimming pool business for 50 years, and he knows the importance of opening a pool correctly—both for the health of the swimmers and the pool. “If a swimming pool is opened properly, you can be assured of proper operation and chemical safety,” he says....

Devon JarvisImagine never going to the gas station again. Such convenience is one of the key advantages of an electric vehicle, although it comes with two drawbacks: short range (sometimes less than 60 miles) and long charging times. Unless you can afford a $70,000 Tesla Model S, which goes up to 300 miles on a charge, there’s not much you can do about an electric vehicle’s limited range. But you can improve the charging time by installing a Level 2 (240-volt) charger at home....

Media Platforms Design TeamWhen Paul Loebach volunteered to have microscopic rings of foreign DNA injected into his body, his wife was none too pleased. That the genetic material came from the deadly Ebola virus might have had something to do with it. “My family thought I was crazy,” recalls the public health analyst from Rockville, Md. As if to prove they were right, he has since gotten several injections of West Nile virus DNA, too....

One of the longest-running shows on cable is taking its final bow. Entertainment Weekly reports that Mythbusters will end its 14-season run on Discovery this year. Cohosts Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman, occasional Popular Mechanics contributors, have been through 248 episodes, 25,000 filming hours, and 2,950 experiments, and knew the show was ending ahead of time. That means they crafted a final season knowing it would be their last. “It was my greatest fear that Mythbusters would just stop and we wouldn’t be able to do proper final episodes,” Savage said....

NASA’s Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator (a.k.a. it’s “Mars UFO”) has been stealing the spotlight for a while, but it’s not the only way NASA plans on parachuting astronauts and hardware safely to the surface of the Red Planet. There’s also Hypersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator (HIAD), a mushroom-shaped cargo lander that’s one part heat shield and one part inverted parachute.Because Mars’ atmosphere is so thin, NASA has to resort to a series of complex ways to slow down a spacecraft enough not to splat to the Martian surface....

The dire statistics are well-known, but deserve repeating: One in six people in the world live without regular access to clean water, according to the United Nations, and one in three lacks access to decent sanitation. Even countries with good water supplies—like the U.S.—will experience trouble sustaining them in the near future, as panelists discussed at the water roundtable PM hosted last fall. The United States has its share of ambitious water infrastructure—that’s how cities such as Los Angeles exploded from the desert—but it doesn’t solve the problem of vanishing supplies....

Welcome to PM/AM, Popular Mechanics’ morning briefing on the top science and tech stories for today.Media Platforms Design TeamAlan Turing. Photo credit: AFP/Getty ImagesArtificial Intelligence took a huge leap forward over the weekend as one computer program sufficiently passed the Turing Test, a method used to examine the effectiveness of AI programs. Alan Turing, a computer scientist and WWII codebreaker, developed the test in 1950. If a computer is able to fool 30 percent of users in a conversation into thinking it is a human, then that computer should be considered intelligent....

“Honey! There’s a woodpecker in the car!” she says. It’s too early in the morning for this, and far too cold for woodpeckers anyway. You politely suggest to your wife that she do two things immediately: Let you go back to sleep, and let the woodpecker fly away in his own good time. No luck, the kids have to go to hockey practice–now.As you stumble outside, you realize the absurdity of it all....

Media Platforms Design TeamEach year, about 300,000 patients in the U.S. with slow or irregular heart rates receive electronic pacemakers. Pacemakers monitor the heart rate and send an electrical jolt to force contraction when the heartbeat is delayed; they stand in for the heart’s natural pacemaker, a cluster of cells in the right atrium (the sinoatrial node) that sends out regular jolts of electricity.Soon, though, we may not longer need a mechanical implant to make this happen....