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Media Platforms Design TeamIf you’re an outdoor-sporting enthusiast, then you know that the equipment necessary for your weekend excursions can be fairly hefty. Since bikes and kayaks don’t exactly fit conveniently into the trunk of a sedan (I don’t care how spacious it is back there) you will need the right racks to carry your toys. All those automotive add-ons may sound overwhelming, but there is good news: Getting your car to be roof-rack-ready is not as daunting as it seems....

In 1983, busy at work on his novel Contact, Carl Sagan had an idea for a multimedia tie-in that could have been a fascinating addition to a fantastic novel. The idea was, essentially, that a player would step into the role of an alien trying to save Earth from itself – but first they have to make their way through a realistic recreation of our galaxy to get there. The other side of the idea, available on the Carl Sagan Archives in the Library of Congress, is to be a future human trying to find your way to a new civilization before it destroys itself....

Young K. Bae wants us to travel to the moon within hours, and to Mars within days. Rocket fuel won’t allow our spacecraft to reach those speeds—Bae wants to do it with lasers.Bae is the CEO of the Y.K. Bae Corporation, which researches space exploration and green technology with an eye toward applying high-powered photons. While many laser propulsion systems have been proposed, Bae’s particular approach centers on firing the laser into a cavity between two mirrors....

At first glance it looks like a screen protector for your smartphone. The transparent sheet is sheer and flat—and around twenty times thinner than a piece of paper. But get this odd material hot and something strange happens.The sheet expands upwards, morphing into a pre-programmed 3d shape that’s tough yet springy (like a rubber-band) and more than a hundred times thicker than before. For a study out in Science today, the material’s creators programmed it to transform into a mini quartet of mountains—and as it forms the four peaks, it lifts a slate of glass 175 times its own weight....

Media Platforms Design TeamWe all know a lot goes into building a car, but this 2015 Genesis side cutaway at Hyundai’s showstand is a great reminder of how complex the process can be. Just look how tightly everything is shoehorned into this car. From making sure the vehicle adheres to safety and crash standards to finding the most efficient layout for all the various components, every car presents its own set of challanges as a team tries to deliver the best possible product....

The Institute’s message was pretty clear (and follows the laws of physics): “In a collision involving two vehicles that differ in size and weight, the people in the smaller, lighter vehicle will be at a disadvantage. The bigger, heavier vehicle will push the smaller, lighter one backward during the impact. This means there will be less force on the occupants of the heavier vehicle and more on the people in the lighter vehicle....

Media Platforms Design TeamWhen the e-mail from Doug Cooke, head of NASA’s Constellation program, blinked onto Ross Tierney’s computer screen a few weeks ago, he bolted upright. The two men sit on opposite ends of the debate over the future of NASA’s human spaceflight program, and the outreach signaled that something peculiar was happening in Washington, D.C.Tierney, an amateur space buff, is an outspoken advocate for Jupiter Direct, a rocket designed to replace NASA’s Ares 1 and Ares V, the two launch vehicles at the heart of NASA’s Constellation program....

If I had a nickel for every motorcyclist who told me he could stop quicker than an anti-lock brake system, I’d have a small treasure in spare change. “The reality,” I usually reply, “is that you probably can’t outbrake an ABS-equipped bike during a panic situation.“Media Platforms Design TeamHonda’s 2012 CBR1000RR ABS ($14,800) leaves little argument for lockup denying luddites. The bike’s uprated stoppers (a $1,000 option) are a combined system– ie, they operate the front and rear brakes independently depending on stopping needs– and involve a complex sequence of events involving valve units, ECUs, and a motor-driven hydraulic setup that avoids the pulsing sensation in circulating type ABS systems....

Media Platforms Design TeamAiming weapons from a stealth aircraft like the F-35 is not easy. The infrared sensors used to find targets in the air and on the ground need a 360-degree view, so they must hang outside the airframe. However, the shape of any exterior hardware produces a telltale signature on enemy radar, so Lockheed Martin engineers put the targeting optics in a multifaceted sapphire structure jutting out of the fuselage under the aircraft’s nose....

Media Platforms Design TeamFor the gamer with oodles of cash and the desire to never set foot outdoors again, your perfect eBay item is here: 5,700-plus games and more than 50 classic gaming systems, all for the low, low price of $164,000.About 4,000 of the games are from Nintendo, and mostly from the 1980s and 90s. Sega, Atari, Playstation, Xbox, Sega Saturn, Dreamcast, and others are represented, too. No, seller reel....

Media Platforms Design TeamThe 280,000-square-foot studio in Playa Vista, Calif., has a curious history as a launching pad for big, risky ideas. In the 1940s, Howard Hughes used the huge wooden airplane hangar to construct the massive plywood H-4 Hercules seaplane—famously known as the Spruce Goose. Two years ago, movie director James Cameron was in the Playa Vista studio at a crucial stage in his own big, risky project. He was viewing early footage from Avatar, the sci-fi epic he had been dreaming about since his early 20s....

Lawsuits now in the works against the Boeing company and Malaysia Airlines over the presumed crash of MH370 aim to unearth key documents that could provide vital information about the jet, including maintenance practices, key avionics systems, and the contents of the cargo hold, say according to lawyers following the crash investigation.None of this data may ultimately have any connection with the disappearance of the 777-200 jetliner nearly three weeks ago....

Media Platforms Design TeamBagram Air Base—Afghanistan is hell on helicopters: Temperature swings can ruin seals and gaskets; towering mountains with low air density sap power from spinning rotor blades and engines; dusty deserts gum up hydraulics; and enemy combatants pepper the machines with rocket-propelled grenades and small-arms fire. Keeping the Army’s helicopters aloft in this hostile environment is the job of maintenance crews in bases across the war-torn country. Day in, day out, these unsung professionals do routine and emergency repairs on fleets of choppers that are the linchpin of U....

Quadcopters beware. NASA is working on something that makes ordinary drones plane in comparison. This is Greased Lightning, a 10-engine electric craft that can hover like a drone and transform into a plane. Greased Lightning (also known as the GL-10) was designed by NASA researchers first as a demonstration of how drones can be efficient and capable. With its vertical takeoff, the GL-10 can launch anywhere a quadcopter can. But with its V-22 Osprey-inspired transforming tricks, the GL-10 is much more efficient than a helo once it’s in cruise mode....

Explosive. That’s the best way to describe the Noble M400. This British supercar is one of the quickest on the planet. Nail the throttle and it leaps. The M400 weighs nearly 1000 pounds less than a Corvette yet it packs even more horsepower, with a 425-hp twin-turbo V6. The steering is slot-car quick and the suspension has absolutely no body roll. It would take a track to reach the limits of this car....

Now that anyone can buy Google Glass, you can expect the upcoming months to be filled with first-person videos of the oddest sort. But with all the unexpected uses people are sure to find with their new glasses, perhaps none will be as cool as Aki Watanabe’s.Watanabe is a paleontologist and graduate student at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. As one of the first 2000 Google Glass beta-testers, he has been testing the limits of what the device can do for paleontology, taking the glasses as far away as the Gobi Desert in Mongolia....

According to Robert Wallace, real-life spy gear isn’t anything like the showy devices we see in the movies. “The equipment is developed for clandestine use, for use that isn’t flashy, that isn’t noticed,” he says. He should know: During his 32 years at the CIA, some of them spent working undercover, Wallace served for seven as director of the Office of Technical Services (OTS), where spy gadgets are created. In his new book, SpyCraft, Wallace and co-authors H....

Media Platforms Design TeamEach year, Reddit’s annual Secret Santa exchange has beaten its own record for the largest such gift swap in the world. This year looks to be no different. The site has already smashed its goal of 200,000 participants—with the exchange registration closed, 213,177 people in 188 countries signed up. Organizers hope the 2014 event will top the 85,000 actual participants of 2013 and set the new standard.The process works much like a Secret Santa exchange at your office....

Price: $11-16Irwin has come out with a line of three new folding utility knives: The FK100, FK150 and FK250. All three feature what the company calls BladeLock Technology to keep the blade from slipping out of place while you work. And when the knives are in working position, a thin metal piece slips into place to brace the knife open. To put any these Irwins back into stowed position, push this safety piece off to the side and the knife will fold up....

Blu-Ray vs. HD-DVD. DVD vs. Div-X. Super Nintendo vs. Sega. When it came to format wars, my family was often on the wrong side of history. Just ask my dad’s 8-track player, or my Sega 32X. Then there’s the video format wars. We didn’t just buy into Betamax. We went all in. A Betamax camcorder still hides somewhere in my parent’s basement, along with a box of home movies that includes the worst interpretation of Masters of the Universe ever created....