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Media Platforms Design TeamMedia Platforms Design TeamWhen it was passed over in favor of SpaceX and Boeing in the race to build a replacement for the space shuttle, Sierra Nevada wasn’t happy—so much so that the company protested to the Government Accountability Office. Sierra Nevada recently lost that appeal, and now NASA is revealing exactly why it decided to pass over the Dream Chaser, Sierra Nevada’s space plane.The next-generation spacecraft needed to be ready to fly to the International Space Station by 2017; NASA said it found Dream Chaser’s timeline to be vague and inadequate to meet the goal....

Media Platforms Design TeamBendable concrete is 40 percent lighter than regular concrete and 500 times more resistant to cracking under pressure. (Photograph by ACE-MRL)Bendable ConcreteThe nickname for Engineered Cementitious Composites (ECC) is self-explanatory: bendable concrete. Specially coated microscopic polymer fibers slide past each other instead of snapping under stress, so ECC bends without breaking. The material has been used to create stretchable expansion joints for a Michigan bridge, and to allow the coupling beams in a 41-story tower in Yokohama to flex during Japan’s frequent earthquakes....

Media Platforms Design TeamOn-Sale Date: NowPrice: $25,790Competitors: Mini Cooper convertible, Fiat 500c, Ford Mustang convertible, Chevrolet Camaro convertiblePowertrains: 2.5-liter I-5, 170 hp, 177 lb-ft; 2.0-liter turbocharged I-4, 200 hp, 207 lb-ft; 2.0-liter TDI, 140 hp, 236 lb-ftFuel Economy (city/hwy): 21/27 (2.5-liter), 21/30 (turbo), 28/41 (TDI)What’s New: Last time around, ragtop fans had to wait a full five years. That’s how long it took VW to release a ragtop version of the cute and lovable New Beetle coupe introduced in 1998....

Media Platforms Design TeamLike Bejeweled, Candy Crush, and countless puzzle games before it, has eaten up hours, days, weeks of our lives. It’s not just about sliding numbered blocks into simple sums. Each 2048 session is a scrappy battle for space—a Zen meditation when clicking solo, and an all-out war when .2048playing against othersBut why can’t we stop? Judy Willis, a neurologist and adjunct faculty member at the Graduate School of Education at University of California, Santa Barbara, explains the neuroscience behind our 2048 addiction....

Media Platforms Design Team1. Only deal with limbs that are down on the ground or that you are sure you can work with safely. Never remove a limb hanging on a power line—call the pros to deal with this. Likewise, never attempt to disentangle a limb from a power line, even if the power to the line has been shut off. Remember, an improperly-installed generator can backfeed power onto the grid and energize it even though the utility has shut off power....

Media Platforms Design TeamGrowing replacement organs has been one of the “maybe someday” fantasies of doctors for a generation. Gone would be long waiting lists for transplants – along with complications arising from tissue rejection. In 2006, medical researchers led by Anthony Atala and Alan Retik announced that they had largely regrown bladders using their patients’ own cells, then implanted them. Science fiction had become fact.Media Platforms Design TeamSurgeons typically repair disease-damaged bladders using intestinal tissue from a patient’s own body, but the procedure often leads to complications, and even cancer....

Denmark is launching one of the most ambitious tunnel projects in the world: an 11 mile undersea roadway to connect it to Germany, running under the Baltic Sea between the Danish island of Fehmarn and Germany’s Lolland island. It’s been passed on first reading by the Danish parliament, but it’s far from a done deal (there is some opposition in Germany). The project is anticipated to cost $10 billion.Called the Fehmarn Belt Fixed Link, the big tunnel would connect not only Denmark but also other Scandinavian nations to mainland Europe via Denmark’s archipelagos, drastically reducing travel time....

Media Platforms Design TeamGreen Wi-Fi NodeBuilt by: Ben BalanagSan Diego, California Ben has been running a Wi-Fi system for years with his homemade green transmitter, which forms a single node in an expansive neighborhood hotspot in San Diego, Calif. The “green” title comes from the transmitter’s ability to dock with a rooftop solar mount and deliver Wi-Fi coverage without any power pulled from the grid. An internal battery even keeps users surfing for 12 hours after sunset....

Media Platforms Design TeamIn this week’s “Jacksonville,” a building damaged by one of a series of tremors occurring in Manhattan has more than just a few cracked ceiling panels. The Fringe team arrives in the city just in time to discover that something has scrambled the atoms of the building along with everything and everyone inside. It’s a gruesome scene with bodies strewn about, but it’s the fact that the dead have literally been fused together that really makes the case bizarre....

Media Platforms Design TeamIn a recent commentary in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), public health researchers warn that chemicals in the oil spilled from the Deepwater Horizon rig and the dispersants used to clean it up pose short- and long-term threats to human health, especially if they are inhaled or contact the skin. Also, certain harmful chemicals could accumulate in Gulf of Mexico fish and shellfish, posing a seafood-contamination hazard for years to come....

Ground Penetrating Radar* How It’s Done: GPR uses pulses of radio-frequency energy to see beneath the surface. In commercial use since the 1970s, it is today’s standard for detecting voids such as caves and tunnels.* Who’s Working on It: GPR is widely used in quality-testing roads, and to find unmarked graves, locate utility lines, trace subsurface geology, sweep for mines and search archaeological sites.* What the Limits Are: This method does not work well in moist mediums like clay and rarely penetrates deeper than 40 ft....

Most home computer users think of servers as the complex machines that form the backbone of corporate computer networks. But the functional definition of a server is far more flexible than that. Essentially, any computer that “serves” data to other machines on a network is a server. And as American households become populated with multiple PCs, the idea of a central hub that can be used for backup, storage and even remote access becomes reasonable, even essential....

Every NASA space shuttle launch leaves a huge cloud of exhaust in its wake, and some nasty chemicals lurk in the exhaust. Solid booster rocket fuel requires perchlorate oxidizers to provide oxygen to react with the propellant, and during a launch those reactions create great quantities of hydrochloric acid—230 tons, to be exact. Hydrochloric acid is corrosive and highly soluble in water, and high concentrations can make waterways too toxic for fish....

Media Platforms Design TeamThe Nissan Leaf electric vehicle has been rated by the EPA as achieving 99mpg. And my first impression was that if it’s electric, it doesn’t use gasoline, ipso facto, somebody is trying to pull the wool over my eyes the same way GM was trying to when they said the Volt gets 233 mpg. Or maybe they’re claiming the number is infinite, but the spreadsheet they used will only display two-digit integers, so 99 was as high as they could list....

Media Platforms Design TeamOf all the cellphone-related problems thatthe Apple iPhone promises to fixyears of attempts from every major phone-maker and service providera streak of cellphone innovation, loading and playing music is obviously high on the list. Despite , music phones are still little more than spring-loaded bear traps for foolish early adopters. But Samsung, which is on , has built the first music phone we haven’t wanted to set on fire....

There’s something bracing about a good, tense historical drama. Even when the outcome is already known, the power of a good movie can still keep us biting our fingernails about how it’ll all turn out. So does Steven Spielberg’s Cold War-thriller Bridge of Spies starring Tom Hanks deliver the goods?Bridge of Spies tells the story of Brooklyn lawyer James B. Donovan’s involvement in the negotiated release of an American CIA pilot in the aftermath of the 1960 U-2 incident, a story that shook the world at the time and has now been relegated to a historical footnote....

Media Platforms Design TeamTed Zoli, the MacArthur Genius Award–winning structural engineer, is among the nation’s foremost experts on “terror-proofing” bridges and other infrastructure. After 9/11, he developed a composite material now used in construction and bridge retrofitting to protect against damage from explosives. That’s some pretty heavy stuff (meaning the work, not the composite material). So it comes as something of a surprise that Zoli’s vision of new sustainable design is grounded in an old-fashioned material: He sees a great future in building long-lasting, rot-resistant bridges out of wood....

Media Platforms Design TeamFrom the floor of the New York International Auto Show, contributor Ken Juran files up-to-the-minute reports and photos. NEW YORK — In terms of mainstream introductions, Subaru made the final significant piece of news today (also significant: the new Suzuki XL7 and Mitsubishi Outlander SUVs). Yet another iteration of the venerable Legacy, the 2007 Subaru 2.5 GT spec.B Sedan delivers a stiffer ride on Bilstein shock absorbers. Most noteworthy, however, is the driver-adjustable throttle response dial on the center console....

The Toyota Prius is not the kind of car normally associated with words such as “super” and “hot.” Yet the waiting list for America’s favorite hybrid is longer than that of a new Ferrari or Lamborghini in some parts of the country. To date, Toyota has sold over 500,000 of them worldwide. Yeah, that’s hot. Our sources inside Toyota say an all-new Prius is due around 2008, as a 2009 model year and some are speculating it will be radical in terms of performance....

There are so many big rigs crossing the country every day that even a small improvement in saving fuel would make a huge difference. Enter the Freightliner SuperTruck, a hybrid truck that the company says could save 100,000 gallons of diesel per year.The SuperTruck’s 12.2 mpg, may not sound like much compared to your ride, but it’s a 115 percent improvement over most models and can still carry 65,000 pounds of freight....