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Media Platforms Design TeamMedia Platforms Design TeamCameras instead of rear-view mirrors? Fingerprint recognition for ignition control? A removable, computerized dashboard with wireless connectivity? Sounds like mission prep for 007 at Q’s lab. After 30 years of leading silicon innovations, it isn’t too far-fetched to consider Intel as the company behind such Bond-worthy gadgetry. But who would have thought Intel would celebrate those three decades of achievement by pairing up with the infamous gang at Orange County Choppers to create a custom-made, computer-based chopper?...

The engines in Nascar Sprint Cup cars are 90-degree pushrod V8s, just like those that have powered many vehicles on American roads for more than 50 years. But today, the engine under Jimmie Johnson’s hood is a custom-made 850-hp 358-cubic-inch thoroughbred that’s optimized to run flat-out for no more than 1000 miles. Stock car racing began with slightly modified versions of street-car engines, but over the years the stock car engine has become less and less “stock” as it has used fewer and fewer production car parts....

Media Platforms Design Team(Photo Credit: © codrin / Fotolia)Researchers in Australia have created a way to make a solar panel almost as efficient as coal. The Australian Renewable Energy Agency, in partnership with the Australian-US Institute for Advanced Photovoltaics, converted 40 percent of the sunlight hitting solar panels into usable electricity, setting a new record.The average efficiency of coal-fired plants around the globe is just 33 percent. The most efficient coal-fired plants reach just 45 percent efficiency....

Welcome to PM/AM, Popular Mechanics’ morning briefing on the top science and tech stories for today.Media Platforms Design TeamNet neutrality is a volatile subject with big tech firms in favor and internet service providers against. This puts Google Fiber, which is a limited but growing business, in an interesting position—it puts Google in both categories. Although Google Fiber rests at the intersection of ISP and content provider. Google has openly voiced its opinion in favor of net neutrality, even signing a letter, along with 100 other companies earlier this month....

Media Platforms Design TeamWelcome to PM/AM, PopMech’s morning briefing on the top science and tech stories for today.Read ThisThe first Earth-based life on Mars might not be what you expect. In fact, it’s not even human. [via Space.comCould 3-D printing bring manufacturing back to U.S. cities? At least one startup thinks so. [via WiredWhat decides who will be the next fitness-tracking king will be software, not hardware. [via The New York TimesWatch ThisThe International Space Station has the world’s best view—and now NASA is sharing it with the world....

Media Platforms Design TeamInvestigators are just now beginning what will be an exhaustive reconstruction of the Yarnell Hill Fire to find out why were killed this weekend. “I’m devastated by the death of these 19 firefighters in Arizona,” says Bob Mutch, a fire management consultant whose 60 years in the fire business has included stints as a Missoula Smokejumper and at the Forest Service’s Fire Sciences Laboratory. “There isn’t a single home that’s worth the life of a firefighter or a home owner....

Q: I want to buy a battery-powered sump pump to keep my basement dry even if the power goes out. What can you tell me about these pumps?A: Battery-powered sump pumps are ideal for houses left unattended for extended periods, as well as for homes that experience frequent power outages.Media Platforms Design TeamThe Little Giant SPBS-12 battery- powered sump pump.To see an example, visit the Web site of the Little Giant Pump Co....

Media Platforms Design TeamNews cars already get smashed in the front and the back, sideways and from above, in a battery of tests that has made vehicles safer than ever. But people still die in crashes even in these very safe new cars, so the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) has cooked up another way to demolish cars to test an overlooked type of crash that catches just the front edge of a car....

Media Platforms Design TeamWhat if humans had never evolved the ability to lie? That’s the premise posed by The Invention of Lying, the new movie from Ricky Gervais, the creator and star of Extras and the original BBC version of The Office.In Lying’s alternate reality, people are ultra-literal, and incapable of even comprehending the concept of deception (they don’t even have a word for “truth”). Casinos prominently post their unfavorable odds, blockbuster movies are actually just “readers” narrating well-known stories from history (because without lies, fiction doesn’t exist), and dating is made simpler by prospective mates’ up-front pronouncements or their perceived genetic compatibility....

Until the day that snail mail is completely replaced by sending holographic messages jammed into droids, we’re stuck with stamps. Which is fine, because these Star Wars stamps are fantastic.Media Platforms Design TeamThe Royal Mail, the United Kingdom’s postal service, is set to release 18 new stamps from a galaxy far, far away on October 20. The set features nine characters from the original trilogy, three from the new movie The Force Awakens, and six stamps that feature illustrations of various Star Wars vehicles....

Here’s a map you never knew you needed: A representation of UFO sightings per capita per county, as reported to the National UFO Reporting Center. It’s a pretty simple approach, just aggregating the number of reports—be they actually mysterious or easily explained away—and dividing by the population. This means that Brown County, Nebraska gets the same statistical consideration as Los Angeles County. The map shows that UFO sightings start in earnest around the Rockies, which is directly correlated to Area 51 interesting, and perhaps says something about either the Air Force presence in the area or something or the population that lives out here....

Media Platforms Design Team… and in the case of Lamborghini, something blue.Fighting for attention at this year’s Amelia Island Concours amidst a Ford GT40 reunion and a smattering of Harry Miller’s innovative race cars will be a 50th anniversary celebration of that famously irascible Italian manufacturer, Lamborghini, along with two bookends with which to commemorate Lambo’s half century: a rare Miura Roadster which first debuted at the 1968 Brussels auto show, and the origami-like Aventador LP700-4 Roadster, which recently enjoyed its press coming out party at Miami-Homestead Speedway....

Media Platforms Design TeamBlood-clotting nanoparticles injected just after an explosion injures a soldier could dramatically reduce blood loss and increase survival rates on the battlefield. That’s according to new findings that could also one day help victims of car crashes and other emergencies.Explosions account for 79 percent of combat-related injuries and are the leading cause of battlefield deaths. Shock waves and flying shrapnel can lead the lungs, brain, and other organs to hemorrhage and bleed uncontrollably....

Light bulbs are old-school energy hogs. Adoption of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) might be able to halve lighting energy consumption and cut CO2 emissions by 258 million metric tons a year. Today, LEDs are found in accent lighting and flashlights, but they’re not white enough for general use. That may change, thanks to a chance discovery by Vanderbilt University chemists led by Sandra Rosenthal. The key ingredient: quantum dots – tiny semiconductor crystals (in this case, cadmium selenide) that absorb light and generate a charge....

Hydropower researchers at the University of Michigan are borrowing strategies from fish to maximize the energy that can be harvested from slow-moving water. For example, trout use spinning eddies that form on both sides of a stationary object, like a rock, to help conserve energy as they swim upstream. The vortexes that form alternate from one side of the rock to the other, so fish swimming upstream slalom between these whirlpools....

Media Platforms Design TeamThe Carnegie Mellon University Highly Intelligent Mobile Platform, or CHIMP, gives Optimus Prime a run for his money. The machine usually moves like a tank, but instead of two treads it has four. When it needs to free up a couple of arms to operate a valve or flick a switch, the CHIMP stands up on its hind legs and unfolds its front limbs to reveal graspers.While it looks like the stuff of a high-tech toy fair, CHIMP was built for bigger things—the DARPA Robotics Challenge, to be specific....

Media Platforms Design Team Micro projectors have garnered a lot of publicity lately, with various electronics makers touting competing ways of stuffing a lot of picture into tiny boxes. But since then, what we’ve seen has mostly been limited to prototypes, like the Texas Instruments Pico Optoma projector and Microvision’s laser projector. Although other micro projectors have been announced, none have yet hit shelves. That changes today with the release of Dell’s M109S, the first commercially available micro projector....

Media Platforms Design TeamWe’ve all yanked external disks out of computers in a hurry, skipping the step of properly ejecting them. If you have a Mac, then your machine probably nags you about it. But are you actually doing any harm? The answer is mostly yes, though it depends on the type of disk.Absolutely, definitely do not remove spinning hard drives without ejecting them first. They need to be warned that soon you’ll take away their power—and therefore their ability to spin....

Your wet/dry vac’s good for more than just sucking and blowing. With Dremel’s new VRT1 vacuum-powered tool, it can also be the animating force behind all kinds of drilling, etching, and sanding. Like other air-powered tools, the VRT1 uses a turbine to get its various bits spinning at speed, but instead of using compressed air blowing outwards, it’s powered by the suck of the vac that’s already in your workshop. The big advantage here is that the VRT1 can clean up dust and debris right from the bit as you’re sanding or cutting drywall, and while you might not have easy access to compressed air in your garage, you doubtlessly have a vacuum somewhere....

The DigAn excavator sitting on a barge reaches with a dredging claw to scoop sediment from the river bottom. The contaminated layer averages 21 inches thick; in certain spots the deposits are piled 10 feet high. Scoop by scoop, workers load the barge with the toxic sludge and head to shore.The DeliveryA second excavator moves the dirt from the barge to a facility where a dozen 32-ton filter presses, similar to those used in winemaking, squeeze water from the slurry....