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British workaholics rejoice: Free Wi-Fi is coming to all trains in England and Wales by 2017. Four main companies will deliver the service at first: Thameslink, Southern and Great Northern (TSGN); Southeastern; Chiltern; and Arriva Trains Wales. It will be paid for by a fine of $76.8 million levied against Network Rail, the owner and operator of most of Britain’s rail lines, for failing to meet the government’s “punctuality targets.” After those four install it, any potential new train companies will have to include free wi-fi as part of their service....

China says it will launch its second space station, the Tiangong-2, in 2016. It will go into orbit aboard a Long Rocket 5 and replace the nation’s current space station, the Tiangong-1, which will eventually be de-orbited. The 47-foot Tiangong-2 will be able to house a crew of three.This new project represents the second of three planned space habitations by the Chinese space agency. While Tiangong-1 is largely regarded as a prototype space station for the fledging Chinese space program, 2 is a stepping stone to Tiangong-3, planned for 2022, which will become the basis for a larger overall station....

Cisco’s TelePresence teleconferencing tech–in short, a super-powered Skype–is a product designed to impress clients and make CEOs feel like they’re in a James Bond movie. The company announced today that they are teaming with Verizon to begin tests of a home-oriented version of the product. But our question is: Why bring it home?For most in-home teleconferencing needs, Skype and iChat work just fine, and they’re completely free. Skype even announced this week that they will be building their program directly into some LG and Panasonic TVs, further facilitating users who want to see their distant loved ones on a screen than their computer monitor....

Blackberry’s keyboards are the best phone-keyboards, but the actual phones haven’t been good in years. Hardcore typists have mostly had to cling to the ancient Blackberry’s of yore or just move on. But there’s a new choice coming. This is the Blackberry Venice. It’s not officially announced yet, but rumors of its existence have been swirling for months, and now it’s shown up on video for the first time. [youtube ]https://www....

The crash of a Gulfstream jet that killed a prominent businessman and six others two weeks ago was likely caused by flight controls that weren’t working properly because they were erroneously locked in parked position, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said in a preliminary report on Friday. The agency also said that a review of the cockpit recorders and evidence reveals that the pilots failed to perform a preflight check of those flight controls, a basic precaution that would have prevented the tragedy....

There is nothing in this vast universe that meteorologist Jim Cantore loves more than thundersnow.There may, in fact, be nothing anyone in this vast universe loves more than Jim Cantore loves thundersnow—which, as the name suggests, is the simultaneous appearance of two distinct meteorological features, a phenomenon that takes place in just 0.07 percent of all storms. One video clip, captured in February in Plymouth, Massachusetts, shows Cantore’s ice-slathered face looking momentarily stunned when lightning flashes amid the snowflakes, then he begins screaming, “You gotta be kidding me!...

LAS VEGAS – It’s been nearly a year since the Apple fanboys first camped out to scoop up eBay-bound iPhones, and the biggest mobile players are still trying–and failing–to mount a serious challenge to its dominance of consumers’ hearts and minds. While Apple was a trade show no-show for the annual wireless and telecom industry showcase here, I’ve been feeling their pulse pretty much everywhere while reporting live from the trenches at the Las Vegas Convention Center....

Media Platforms Design TeamSure, air travel means arriving hours early, waiting in the bag drop line, taking off your shoes, buying crappy food, competing for a power outlet, enduring unexplained delays, and finally being crammed into a middle seat in front of a screaming baby and next to a guy who’s never heard of deodorant. But at least it’s greener than driving, right?Yes—by 57 percent, on average. In a newly published study, Michael Sivak, an expert from the University of Michigan’s Transportation Research Institute, pulled together the data comparing how energy intensive driving and flying are and have been over the last few decades, measured in BTU per person-mile (the energy needed to move one person one mile)....

The Australian Alps lie between the cities of Sydney and Melbourne and are locally known as the Victorian High Country. In winter it’s a skier’s paradise, and in summer it’s an adventure hot spot, with some of the best four-wheel-drive tracks, campsites, and fishing locations in the land.The autumn days leading up to the snowy season offer the best of both worlds, as the temperatures are still tolerable for camping and the rivers are still good for fishing, but you’ll still get plenty of snow on the ground on the higher peaks....

Media Platforms Design TeamThe most amazing telescopes under construction today are using enormous mirrors or sets of mirrors for unprecedented imaging power. But the most amazing next-generation telescopes might instead involve just a little sparkle.Rochester Institute of Technology physicist Grover Swartzlander is working on an idea to essentially send glitter up to space, throw a cloud of it in front of a space telescope, and fire a laser through it. This will simulate the heavy, expensive mirrors on board instruments such as the to-be-launched James Webb Space Telescope....

Media Platforms Design TeamIt’s a thing of beauty: A brand-new car, shiny and crisp. It makes you want to spend the whole evening walking around it. Pretty soon, the neighbors wander over to congratulate you—and to render advice.Break it in carefully, one says: “No more than 30 miles per hour until it has 1000 miles on the odo.” “No,” another says. “Drive it like you stole it, if you want it to be fast....

Media Platforms Design TeamNissan is bullishly promoting their new Altima’s highway MPGs (38), but here’s a feature that helps ensure that estimate is met.Easy Fill Tire Alert works like this: a tire pressure monitor indicates which wheel needs air via an instrument panel-mounted display. While the appropriate tire is being filled up, the car’s hazard lights flash to confirm pressure is increasing. Hit the proper pressure, and the horn chirps once....

Q: Where are the oxygens sensor(s) located on a 1999 Toyota Corolla?A: In the exhaust system, before and after the catalytic converter.Q: We just recently purchased a 1996 Ford Explorer, and it has been overheating. When we bought it we added antifreeze because someone put in water instead. I put antifreeze in it this morning and drove it to work. The gauge that tells you if it is cool or hot went to hot but than went back down....

View full post on YoutubePayPal is already the preferred method of payment across much of the Internet. Will it soon be the preferred method of payment in the next business frontier—space?With human access to space set to expand as companies including Virgin Galactic and SpaceX (led by PayPal co-founder Elon Musk) prepare to offer commercial spaceflight for anyone who can afford it, PayPal has jumped on the next important question: Just how interstellar commerce will work....

Welcome to PM/AM, Popular Mechanics’ morning briefing on the top science and tech stories for today.Media Platforms Design TeamThe all-new, Lenovo-owned Motorola feels familiar.In an image leak over the weekend of Motorola’s upcoming Moto E smartphone, a budget follow up to last year’s Moto G, the tech world got its first glance at what the post-Google Motorola handset is going to look like, and for the most part, not much has changed....

Media Platforms Design TeamJust more than a month before the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spanish handset maker Geeksphone, in partnership with encrypted communications firm Silent Circle, announced a smartphone that takes mobile security seriously. It’s called Blackphone, and it runs PrivatOS, a security-focused version of Android. The device “is a carrier- and vendor-independent smartphone giving individuals and organizations the ability to make and receive secure phone calls, exchange secure texts, transfer and store files, and video chat without compromising user privacy on the device,” according to the press release....

Media Platforms Design TeamIt’s past midnight and you should be asleep. But eyes open, you sit at your computer as the soft glow of the screen casts a bluish light across your face. You’re just not tired yet.You might be thinking: I’m just naturally a night owl. According to sleep scientist Kenneth Wright, however, that sleep rhythm might not be so natural after all. “People are now living in an environment with reduced exposure to sunlight and increased exposure to electrical light at night,” Wright says....

Media Platforms Design TeamIf you’ve ever wondered what happens to all those carbon emissions the United States puts out, here’s the answer in striking visual form.NASA’s Goddard Spaceflight Center created this simulation using a computer model called GEOS-5, which starts with the real data about greenhouse emissions and wind conditions and then extrapolates where those emissions would go based on what we know about how the Earth’s atmosphere behaves. This video compresses all the emissions of 2006 into about three minutes....

There’s never been another tornado like it. The 1925 Tri-State Tornado rode a straight-line path for 3.5 hours across 219 miles of Missouri, southern Illinois and Indiana, making it the longest single tornado track anywhere in the world. With a mile-wide diameter it looked wider than it was tall – so big it lacked the classic genie-in-the-bottle funnel. By the time it had finished its run it had obliterated whole towns, sent thousands to the hospital, and killed more than twice the number of people lost in the next deadliest tornado in U....

Media Platforms Design TeamLeft to right: Jefferson Hall, Suzanne Dodd, Ed Stone, PM Senior Technology Editor Glenn DereneThirty-five years after their launch, the Voyager probes have been awarded this year’s lifetime achievement honors at PM’s 8th annual Breakthrough Awards. In a panel discussion this afternoon, three researchers who have been integrally involved with the Voyager mission through the course of its long history waxed poetic and scientific about their pet project....