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Media Platforms Design TeamHow did the journey to the south pole become a race?Scott happened to be the captain in charge of the first British expedition to the Antarctic, the Discovery expedition. There were scientists on this and other expeditions doing all sorts of research: paleontological, meteorological, magnetic. The idea of getting to the pole sort of grew on Scott over the course of these expeditions. He was superfluous to the science, so he was free to try for the pole....

Media Platforms Design TeamSpaceX launched its first operational mission with the Falcon 9 last night, a cargo delivery to the International Space Station. While the ISS delivery seems to be going forward on schedule, the launch was . There was an engine failure on the first stage during ascent, resulting in a slightly longer trajectory in terms of time, which may also have resulted in a slight disparity between the mission’s planned orbital plane and its actual one....

Media Platforms Design TeamAmerican divers in the South Pacific have discovered a blond, furry crustacean, so distinct from other species that scientists created a new family and genus for it. DubbedKiwa hirsuta, after the mythological Polynesian goddess of crustaceans, the creature looks like a cross between a lobster and a crab. The animal’s most unique trait is its hair-covered pincers, described as a “surprising characteristic” by scientists and responsible for its “Yeti Crab” nickname....

Media Platforms Design Team ARLINGTON, Va. — We’re settled into the webcast studio here for the mammoth expert-fest that is “Bridges to the Future,” a cross-country conference PM is hosting with the National Science Foundation as an extension of our special report, “Rebuilding America.” You can follow the action with streaming video all day right here, but there was an important question just answered at this afternoon’s first session: How do we cope with a rapid rise in demand for electricity, while avoiding potentially massive outages?...

Media Platforms Design TeamIt’s named after a deadly bull, looks like something dreamed up by a skunkworks team at Area 51 and boasts the formidable pricetag of $1.4 million. The Reventon is the rarest, most extreme modern Lamborghini to date. The concept of the Reventon began as a “What if?” conversation within Lamborghini. Amazingly, less than a year later, it premiered at the 2007 Frankfurt Motor Show. The fact that such automotive magic can be conjured on such short notice speaks to the prowess of Lamborghini’s R&D department....

Media Platforms Design TeamYou might think about hybrids and say, “Those were so 2005.” After all,as promising as hybrids arepromising automotive technology for the futurenew diesel products to test the waters, many manufacturers are turning to clean diesel as a more . The next three years will be crucial to the success of clean diesel, as the car companies roll out . Europeans have long known the benefits of diesel, and it looks like we’re about to catch up....

Media Platforms Design Team LOS ANGELES — The crossover market is hotter than ever before. When we did our category comparison of three-row ‘utes earlier this year, we never imagined that by year’s end, the number of crossover models on the road would swell to almost 23. The latest entry into the “super station wagon” fray is the all-new 2009 Nissan Murano. But unlike some of its competitors that have gone to seven- or eight-passenger configurations, this Murano remains a five-passenger model....

Support Clean DieselWhat alternative fuel could cut total consumption by the U.S. passenger vehicle fleet by up to 35 percent and slash CO2 emissions while requiring no technological breakthroughs and few changes in infrastructure? It’s not plug-in hybrids or biofuels. It certainly isn’t hydrogen. The answer is regular old diesel. Well, actually, it’s the ultra-low-sulfur diesel that has made a fresh generation of clean, ultraefficient engines possible. In a recent PM test, VW’s Jetta TDI diesel delivered more than 45 mpg on the highway....

Media Platforms Design TeamUp until late last week, 40 million users regarded RSA’s SecurID tokens as the computer security gold standard. The system consists of a small fob that generates a new code every 30 seconds, to be used in conjunction with a personal password; it creates a seemingly unhackable two-step authentication system for someone seeking remote access to a computer network. Defense companies doing top-secret business with the Pentagon and the intelligence community trust SecurID to keep their secrets....

Media Platforms Design TeamFacing the prospect of shrinking military spending and an imminent drawdown of forces in Afghanistan, you might expect the defense industry to be hunkering down for a dry spell, similar to what happened after the Vietnam War and following the breakup of the Soviet Union. But what is surprising about this year’s in Washington, D.C., which happened this week, was the sheer size of it. It covered two expansive floors of exhibit space at the Walter E....

Media Platforms Design TeamContractor Paul Conroy’s kidnappers are creative. Rather than tying up the civilian truck driver—whose convoy was ambushed as it traveled across Iraq carrying supplies—and filming a ransom video, his captors opt for a much more imaginative and horrifying option: They bury him alive somewhere in the desert in a wooden coffin under 6 feet of sand. When Conroy (Ryan Reynolds) wakes up, he finds in the coffin with him a lighter and a cellphone, which he uses to take calls from his kidnappers and place calls to his wife, 911 and the Department of Defense back in the United States as he frantically tries to ascertain where he is and how much longer he has to survive....

Media Platforms Design TeamSagging door hinges can often be rebushed in less than 10 minutes for under 10 bucks.Late, late, late for work. The clock is ticking, so you sprint from the parking lot to the office building at top speed—and hope you don’t lose your shoes. You take one last glance across the lot to check on your car, and see that your driver’s door is open. Rats. You double-time to the car and slam the door—which simply bounces back open....

Media Platforms Design TeamAt the end of each year, as most people are recovering from the holidays and fighting through the setup guides of gadgets they got for the holidays, people in the consumer electronics industry are busy setting the stage for the next holiday season’s must-have technology. And the forum they are preparing for is the Consumer Electronics Show, which happens every January in Las Vegas—this year, it officially begins on January 6....

At 6 a.m. (EDT) on Friday, April 21, a Boeing Delta II Rocket will blast off from Vanderberg Air Force Base in Central California, carrying two satellites to add to the multitude already orbiting earth. The two new arrivals, CALIPSO and CloudSat, are a pair of Earth-observing satellites that are set to orbit earth once every 99 minutes on a mission to study clouds in the Earth’s atmosphere. They will join what NASA calls the “A-Train,” a constellation of five satellites (including CloudSat and CALIPSO) dedicated to studying planet’s atmosphere....

Media Platforms Design TeamSubmarineBuilt by: David O’NeilGreenacres, Florida David O’Neil built this one-person submarine from a pressure tank. It uses a tractor prop configuration, meaning the boat is pulled from a propeller in the front rather than pushed by one in the back. The sub can also be towed, with the rudder fitted horizontally to control its up-and-down movement. Carbon dioxide is used for flotation.Media Platforms Design TeamHydroplaneBuilt by: Frank BasEde, Netherlands Frank Bas built this hydroplane using plans he found on the Internet....

BURBANK, Calif. – Recently, the Green Garage staff had a chance to see Jay’s Omegasonics Super Pro ultrasonic parts cleaning system in action. The system uses water, biodegradable soap, heat and ultrasound to remove contaminants from parts. Unlike old-school systems, there are no toxic solvents, chemical smells or skin irritation. Just drop the part into the bath and let the sound, heat and soap do their job. Jay’s system is large enough, versatile enough and safe enough to clean most any internal engine part–and some external ones, like carburetors....

I’ve had a few of Milwaukee’s V28, lithium-ion tools on long-term testing, and they’re all bears, especially the Sawzall—it’s been invaluable on the barn renovation project. But, I was baffled when I picked up a battery pack that had been on the shelf for a month or so—one that hadn’t been used much—only to find it was dead. My old NiCads would sit around for longer than this and still be ready to work....

Media Platforms Design TeamThe SpecsWhile at Harvard, ex-Marine Jay Rogers formulated a business plan to harness the creativity of the world’s underemployed car designers. The idea won the school’s annual business-plan contest and soon after, Rogers formed Local Motors to put it to the test. The company held contests wherein designers submitted sketches that were voted on by the online community. Instead of one designer giving a few options, the worldwide mob provided over 10,000 cars, and the coolest ones rose....

Don’t tell British designer Sam Pearce the wheel isn’t ripe for reinvention. He came up with Loopwheels, a shock-absorbing, spokeless wheel that’s perfect for bikes and wheelchairs. Pearce told Wired that the idea came to him when saw a woman forget to lift the front wheels of her stroller when it hit a curb and the baby fell out. “If the wheel hits the curb at the wrong angle it’s useless,” he said....

Media Platforms Design TeamIt wouldn’t be a proper science fiction future without transparent holographic projection screens. Just imagine Tony Stark designing Iron Man components or Minority Report’s PreCrime division swiping through the future without their see-through screens.Fortunately, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) published a study in Nature Communications earlier today, announcing an affordable projection screen that should satisfy all of our sci-fi needs. Although this is hardly the first time scientists have projected an image onto glass, the new MIT method is quite inexpensive—the screen in this video cost only $10 to build....