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DARPA announced today that it had selected the final roster of teams that will put their rescue robots to the test at the Fairplex in Pomona, California this June. There they will compete in the finals of the DARPA Robotics Challenge, a challenge designed to spur the development of semi-autonomous robots that can work in disaster zones that are too dangerous for humans to enter.Along with the 11 teams that passed the DRC Trials in Florida in December 2013, DARPA has cleared 14 additional teams for the Finals....

In the Navy, you can sail the seven seas. In the Navy, you can crack these codes with ease. At least that’s what military recruiters are hoping.The Navy is using a new series of cryptography puzzles as a recruitment tool. It’s a tactic rumored to have been used by intelligence agencies for years, but Operation Sleeper Shark is the first Navy game aimed at code crackers. (Previous video games from the military have been closer to a “Call of Duty” style first person shooter....

You’re running out of time to do that spring cleaning, and now it’s all sticky outside. Here’s another round of quick tips—this time so you don’t have to wake up and smell the trash. —Roy Berendsohn___ Sweep debris onto a sheet of plastic or small tarp. With the help of a second person, pick the tarp up from the sides and dump the debris into a trashcan.___ Use a large, square-nosed shovel instead of a dust pan....

Q: Why does Windows Vista ask my permission every time I want to install software?A: Vista, like Windows XP before it, is a multiuser operating system (OS), meaning that each person using a shared PC can customize the experience. But when several people use one machine, somebody’s got to be in charge – an “administrator.” And only administrators are permitted to change OS-level settings. To beef up security, Vista’s new User Account Control (UAC) feature queries the administrator for permission when anyone wants to install or run a new piece of software....

Media Platforms Design TeamFor the last week, an airplane hangar on the south shore of New York’s Long Island was home to the world’s largest Lego model. There, a team of Lego engineers readied an 11-foot-tall model of the X-wing starfighter from Star Wars for its debut today in New York’s Times Square. After a three-day stint in the Big Apple, the model will move to Legoland California where it will reside for the remainder of the year....

Media Platforms Design TeamParis, France—The cobbled streets outside the grand, Jacques Hittorff-designed, 19th-century rail station bustle with a cosmopolitan crowd that numbers an average half a million a day. They’re a stylish and good-looking lot and, this being Paris, not likely to notice a new car. Yet the car parked outside is attracting attention and more than just sidelong glances. If you didn’t know better, you might even call this enthusiasm; perhaps they think it’s a Citroën, but in fact it’s the new Jaguar XJ....

Apple has announced it will drop $850 million in an ambitious plan to power its California operations with solar energy. Through the collaboration with First Solar, the company will use the sun to power not only its Cupertino campuses, but also some data centers and Apple Stores in the state. In other words, it’s pretty much company-wide. The company has made similar strides before, including a transition toward renewable fuel-powered data centers and backing larger solar operations in Texas....

A condenser fan is used on frost-free refrigerators that have a condenser coil in the bottom of the cabinet, inside the compressor compartment. The fan runs whenever the compressor runs, and it draws cool room air through the front grille, and circulates it through the condenser coils, over the compressor, and back out the front grille into the room. The circulating air helps cool the compressor and the refrigerant in the condenser coils....

Media Platforms Design TeamYou don’t have to be a programmer or an electrician to make your do-it-yourself projects smarter and more interactive. Arduino, the open-source microcontroller platform, was originally designed with creative laypeople in mind, and it may be just the right tool to generate some new home and garden projects.What Is Arduino?A microcontroller is a small computer, generally about 1/1000 as powerful as the average laptop, and in this case, with a USB port and a series of pin connections....

Media Platforms Design TeamWhen the Cold Atom Laboratory reaches the International Space Station in April 2016, this project will begin to change the face of physics. As the name suggests, the lab will operate at near-zero temperatures and in the microgravity of low-Earth orbit. It’ll be working with exotic particles, modeling behaviors never before seen. And it’ll be able to do so at a relatively low cost, with a setup simple enough that the astronauts aboard the ISS can make repairs and swap out parts—no specialists needed....

Builders of Seattle’s Kingdome said it was strong enough to last a millennium. Just a day shy of its 24th birthday that prediction came crashing to the ground. In a scant 16.8 seconds the world’s largest thin-shell concrete dome dissolved into a cloud of dust and debris. Although explosives got credit for erasing the obsolete sports arena, it was the relentless tug of gravity that actually did most of the work, explains Mark Loizeaux....

This isn’t really about Heaven, Hell, or any other place you go when you might die. Whether or not you have a soul, this much is true: when you die, your body is going to start rotting. And now scientists have isolated what happens when you die, at least in the chemical sense. It turns out that your body lets out a mix of compounds that only pigs and humans share in common....

Craftsman’s Hammerhead Auto HammerMedia Platforms Design TeamYou’d never guess it at first glance, but the revolutionary new Craftsman Hammerhead Auto Hammer ($99) is a nail-pounding monster. This lightweight, compact power tool drives nails without the aid of an electric cord, air hose or even elbow grease. Its power is derived from a sleek, but powerful 12-volt lithium-ion battery.Simply place a nail into its magnetic head, press the nail tip against the workpiece and squeeze the trigger....

Media Platforms Design TeamLast month, we took an in-depth look at alternative fuelsEarth’s. Among them was the Universe’s most abundant element, hydrogen. Although its future looks bright—the only by-product of a hydrogen fuel cell is water, and experts believe they can one day be used to create electricity to fuel cars—the cost and energy required to create hydrogen has taken it out of the running as a near-term energy alternative to oil....

Media Platforms Design TeamMicrosoft is upgrading its gaming stable. Today we learned that the rumors are true: Microsoft will buy Mojang, the studio best known for creating the wildly popular Minecraft, for $2.5 billion.The purchase is an obvious move and a coup for Microsoft, which brings one of the biggest franchises in gaming into the fold. Minecraft has sold more than 54 million copies since its launch in 2009. But there’s still a bit of strangeness around the acquisition....

Media Platforms Design TeamWhen future astronauts get to the moon, they may find that all the materials they need to fabricate new parts and fix broken ones are are right beneath their feet. That could be a huge boon to future missions, especially those of long duration, where the ability to take advantage of the materials in space could be the difference between success and failure.So far astronauts have spent no more than three days at a time on the moon....

Media Platforms Design TeamA stalled window-washing rig left two workers stranded this afternoon on the side of New York City’s Hearst Tower, Popular Mechanics’ home base. The two maintenance workers were inspecting the scaffold when the rig stalled next to the tower’s 44th floor. The two men were unharmed, but were stuck on the scaffold for just under two hours.To rescue the two workers, the New York City Fire Department needed knock out a window near the roof from inside the tower’s 44th floor conference room and used a hydraulic scissor lift bring them back down to safety....

Media Platforms Design TeamWith just nine days to go until the New Horizons craft encounters Pluto, something’s gone wrong – an “anomaly” caused the spacecraft to shut down, with backup computers taking over. The anomaly happened at 1:54 p.m. EDT yesterday, and the cause is not yet known. By 3:15 p.m., contact with the craft was re-established, and it began to transmit data again. Now, the team is tasked with finding a root of the problem as the craft enters the final leg of a nine-and-a-half year journey toward the icy world....

Media Platforms Design TeamIn the oil patch, the roughnecks say, it doesn’t rain and it doesn’t get dark; might as well be Vegas. I’m in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico’s Alaminos Canyon, on a giant piece of floating steel and aluminum called the Noble Clyde Boudreaux. And here, middle of the night though it may be, the Boudreaux is lit up like an interstate truck stop as it threads a straw into one of the last, great untouched accumulations of oil in the United States, so far offshore that it’s hard against Mexican territorial waters....

Media Platforms Design TeamThere’s a reason spectators of launches stand more than seven miles away from the launchpad: All that damn heat and noise would deafen and incinerate anyone too close. But for the benefit of historical records and the enjoyment of fanboys and girls like us, there’s a dedicated team that captures the awesome power of rocket launches.This is the job of Lockheed Martin video producer Leif Heimbold, who just finished shooting the launch of NASA’s Orion test flight....