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Media Platforms Design TeamComputer scientist Rob Fergus was sitting in a dimly lit Boston bar when a sudden burst of bright light blinded him—the camera flash accompanying a friend’s photograph.While blinking away the bright light, Fergus got to thinking: Because clear photographs require a strong light source, cameras depend on an obnoxiously powerful flash in any environment with low lighting. What if we could circumvent the need for such an intense flash?...

Media Platforms Design TeamA traditional flagstone patio can be a great addition to just about anybody’s yard. The material is attractive and durable, and nicely complements a wide range of other landscaping features. Many varieties of stone are available at landscape and masonry outlets. Slate, a metamorphic rock, is one of the best-known types. Bluestone, which is cut in northeastern U.S. quarries, is what we used on this project. It’s a sedimentary rock with a very engaging color....

Every kitchen eventually reaches the point at which it looks worn-out. That’s the time to take stock of your options. Everyone is well aware that kitchen remodeling is costly and inconvenient. However, a simple and low-cost alternative is to paint the kitchen cabinets. This option is one that many people fail to consider, despite the fact that older homes often have painted carpenter-built cabinets that have stood up to decades of use....

Media Platforms Design TeamA year after we printed Sikorsky Aircraft’s claim that its stacked, double-rotor helicopter design would break rotorcraft airspeed records, the company pulled it off. On September 15, Kevin Bredenbeck, Sikorsky’s chief pilot, nudged the X2 to 250 knots (287 mph), unofficially setting the world record (it has yet to be certified). The official speed record (as recognized by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, the world’s air sports organization) was set in 1986 by a modified British military helicopter called the Westland Linx, which flew at 216 knots, or 249 mph....

WASHINGTON – It’s not your father’s space program anymore. That’s one of the clear messages here at the International Space Development Conference, where the future of exploration is being picked apart by top minds looking for the Next Big Thing–and the Next Big Power in Space.Yesterday’s panel on the Chinese space program made that modern message especially clear, demonstrating just how far exploration has come since the days when “space” meant NASA and its Soviet counterpart … and not much else....

It’s been over a week since I interviewed GM Chairman Bob Lutz for an upcoming story on plug-in electric hybrid vehicles (GM, as you may know, made news this winter with the introduction of the Volt PHEV concept car). I was pretty excited to get that interview; although I’d gotten lots of comments from other folks in the company, I knew that anything out of Lutz’s mouth would carry a bit more weight....

Media Platforms Design TeamCompact trucks are not coming back, but come next year, the long-dormant mid-size truck segment will undergo a renaissance—in that buyers will now have a choice other than the Toyota Tacoma.Announced today in auto industry’s favorite kind of image—the teaser—General Motors confirmed that a redesigned Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon will begin to roll of the company’s Wentzville, Mo. assembly lines in 2014. Reportedly based on GM’s global mid-size platform already on sale in Asia, the new Colorado and Canyon will be the first update to the U....

As the New Horizons craft exited the Pluto system, it took a long look back at the dwarf planet just as Charon passed in front. The distance was exactly right for a full eclipse with sunlight diffusing Pluto’s atmosphere giving a great look at its density and composition, and also making for a great picture.This is roughly the third iteration of this particular photo, coming down from the long trickle of data from the mission....

Welcome to PM/AM, Popular Mechanics’ morning briefing on the top science and tech stories for today.Media Platforms Design TeamAccording to the Financial Times, Apple as made a $3.2 billion acquisition deal with Beats Electronics. Along with its headphone, earbud, and speaker hardware, Apple will also gain control of Beat’s recently launched streaming service, and all senior executives will report directly to CEO Tim Cook. This would be Apple’s biggest purchase and signals a change in thinking at the company....

Welcome to PM/AM, Popular Mechanics’ morning briefing on the top science and tech stories for today.Media Platforms Design Team Credit: Wikimedia CommonsHoneybees add more than $15 billion in value to crops in the U.S. by buzzing around from flower to flower. But in the past 30 years, their numbers have plummeted, creating big worries about food security. So in June, President Barack Obama announced his plan to protect pollinators, saying, “Given the breadth, severity, and persistence of pollinator losses, it is critical to expand federal efforts and take new steps to reverse pollinator losses and help restore populations to healthy levels....

Media Platforms Design Team"It took us a good week or two to figure out how to even cut into a gas tank," says one half of the Lizana-Pogue pair, a team of contractors who ponied up $75 to buy an excavated fuel tank that eventually became the Connecticut cookout sensation known as the Grilla. The two were concerned about the incision to create a hinged lid opening causing a spark, igniting flammable fumes lingering inside....

Media Platforms Design Team(Photograph by MRBECK)The idea of canning may conjure up daunting images of Martha Stewart chopping, blending and artistically placing a red velvet bow on a mason jar–but giving the gift of apple butter doesn’t require you to enslave yourself to the stove (or perfection). With the right equipment–we suggest getting a pressure canner–you can stock your basement (or bomb shelter) in no time, making the most of fruits and vegetables when they are freshest and cheapest....

Humans have gotten pretty good at nuclear fission. But fusion, bringing two atomic nuclei together, has been much more tricky—at least for peaceful purposes. But In a new study out today in Nature, physicists from the National Ignition Facility report clearing a major hurdle toward harnessing the power of stars.“For the first time anywhere, we’ve gotten more energy out of this fuel than was put into the fuel. That’s a major turning point,” said Omar Hurricane, lead author of the new paper and a physicist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory....

Half a century ago, on Nov. 1, 1963, the Soviet Union launched the first prototype of the “killer” satellite—what we would call today an antisatellite system, or ASAT. Officially announced as Polyot-1 (or Flight-1), this highly maneuverable spacecraft was intended to test whether the Soviets could approach an “enemy” satellite and blow it in smithereens. This mission set off a decades-long race to develop and deploy offensive weapons in space that culminated in the 1980s with Ronald Reagan’s famous Star Wars program....

Media Platforms Design Team(Photo by illuminea/Flickr)One of the more dispiriting facts of consumer life is that panaceas don’t routinely live up to their promises. Sure, sometimes you get penicillin, a product that needs no introduction, but other times you get Dr. Ebeneezer Sibley’s Reanimating Solar Tincture, an elixir alleged to restore life in the event of sudden death.And then there’s WD-40, a putative fix-all that boasts uses ranging from driving moisture from a flooded motor to killing roaches to breaking in baseball gloves to reviving drowned cellphones....

Back in 1990, a Corvette cost $31,979 and the ZR-1 option added another $27,016. What that bought you, mostly, was the most fearsome engine ever bolted into an American car. Instead of the pushrod, two-valve heads used in the standard Corvette engine (and every other Corvette engine before and since), the ZR-1 had a 5.7-liter V-8 with quad overhead cams and four valves per cylinder. This allowed it to rev high and breathe deeply, spinning out 375 horsepower back when a Ferrari 348 TS made only 300....

Media Platforms Design TeamView full post on YoutubeYesterday, physicians at the Mayo Clinic announced that Stacy Erholtz, a 49-year-old woman diagnosed with a fearsome cancer called multiple myeloma, had gone into remission. But don’t buy into headlines you read that measles cure cancer. It’s a bit more complicated than that.For Erholtz, remission is a fantastic sign. Multiple myeloma is a nasty cancer, and most patients succumb after only four to five years even if their doctors catch it early....

Anyone can shoot video. But not everyone can shoot interesting video—with aerial shots and POV footage that make you close your eyes until the feeling has passed. For that you need a drone. (Or a helicopter, which can be a little more expensive.) Master a few stunts and you enter a field of videography that’s an obsession among pro-sports producers—and guys like Jeremy Moulton, a drone pilot for Sketch Pad Media in Austin, Texas....

Media Platforms Design TeamMedia Platforms Design Team For the past couple of years, Milwaukee-based bike builder Harley-Davidson has been getting back to its roots. Engineers there have been building and designing motorcycles with a minimalist look, so owners can customize bikes any way they like—as long as the end result is sufficiently bad to the bone. And the new Dark Custom bike family fits the bill—menacing, old-school two-wheelers that, surprisingly, are not meant to be ridden by gray beards....

Media Platforms Design TeamOn Sale: NowPrice: $18,220 (Coupe base) $19,170 (GT base)Fuel Economy (city/highway): 29/40 mpg (Coupe), 28/39 (GT)Competitors: Honda Civic Coupe, Kia Forte Koup, Ford Focus five-door, Mazda3, Toyota MatrixPowertrain: 1.8-liter I-4; 148 hp; 131 lb.-ft. of torqueWhat’s New: The compact car class is booming. There were more compact nameplates in the top 20 best-selling new cars of 2011 than at any time in recent memory. That includes the Elantra, whose sales increased nearly 41 percent over 2010....