Behold the Naviator, a new drone built by researchers and students at Rutgers University. As the portmanteau moniker would suggest, the bot is at home both in the water and in the air. This remotely controlled quadcopter can transition from flight to underwater mode and back seemingly with ease.The Office of Naval Research commissioned this project in the hope of creating a new vehicle capable of rapid deployment for a multitude of missions....
With a diameter just twice that of a human hair, they look more like short snips of fishing line than advanced robotic appendages. But these micro-tentacles can curl and grip. They can lasso an ant or scoop up a tiny fish egg. And they could give a robot of any size an astonishingly gentle but precise grasp. A team of three material scientists at Iowa State University have just invented this new way for robots to softly handle delicate and diminutive objects....
Media Platforms Design TeamOver the last half-century or more, Toyota has built a reputation for rock-solid cars with unbeatable long-term durability and low operating costs. The same cannot be said of its trucks. While the powertrains have always been reliable to a fault, their bodies and frames have been an ongoing flaw. Just three years ago, Toyota issued a huge 100,000-plus-vehicle recall for the long-selling Tacoma due to dangerous rust-through issues on its frame....
Media Platforms Design TeamJust a few months ago, recycled materials were moving around the globe and trading at all-time highs. But when the global economy began its death spiral in September, it took the recycling industry down with it. Now, recyclers across the country are struggling to cope with what Jerry Powell, editor of Resource Recycling magazine, estimates is a two-thirds to three-quarters drop in value for recycled materials. A litany of economic factors led to the downturn....
If you’re on the hunt for Earth-like planets that can sustain life, then your best bet might not be stars that look like our sun, but smaller, cooler stars—orange and red dwarfs. These, on average, have been found to host more Earth-sized planets, and they are far and away the most abundant. They make up more than 75 percent of the stars in our universe, and nearly every red dwarf star has at least one exoplanet....
Media Platforms Design TeamAs modders across the Internet have torn apart Grand Theft Auto V, they’ve built some impressive stuff: a working Iron Man suit, a mod that lets you live the life of a big-rig truck driver, and one that just makes every pedestrian absolutely flip out into a full-on riot.But for our money, this mod from TwoDynamic is perhaps the best yet. The obvious highlight is the chance to cruise a Star Destroyer over the skies of Los Santos, but there’s other, more subtle pleasures to be found....
Media Platforms Design Team MODENA, Italy—Unlike Porsche and Aston Martin, both of whom are making initial forays into high-performance-luxe-sedan territory, Maserati has been quietly building its Quattroporte (four-door) sporty sedans since 1964. After Ferrari took over in 1998, Maserati turned to design house Pininfarina to raise the luxury sports sedan to an art form, as evidenced by the current fifth-generation Quattroporte. Since its debut in 2003, the Quattroporte has become the best-selling Maserati ever; over 15,000 have rolled out of the historic Modena factory through 2008....
Media Platforms Design TeamIt’s Cold Everywhere!It’s hard to look at the big picture when you’re just trying to get to work without slipping on the ice—or trying to fly anywhere over the past few months. Continual heavy snowfalls and polar vortices over the Northeast, Midwest, and even the South have made it feel as though the world is in a deep freeze, which inevitably las led to the return of “It’s cold where I live, therefore, climate change isn’t real....
Media Platforms Design Team1. Get your de-icer readyDe-icers, such as rock salt and calcium chloride, are best applied before the snow falls or as soon as it starts falling. But if you plan to clear your walk and driveway in several sessions, which is possible, then wait until you’re done to apply the de-icer. There’s no sense in laying down de-icer, scraping it off when you clear snow, and applying more....
In an increasingly dangerous world, should commercial airlines equip their fleets with technology capable of thwarting a missile attack?In the wake of the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, several members of Congress are proposing they do just that. Despite the enormous expense, estimated at up to $2 million per plane, the shootdown in eastern Ukraine has put the idea on the front burner. The targeting of MH17 was likely a mistake; Russian-backed rebels in the area had already shot down several Ukrainian military jets and were probably trying to do so again....
Media Platforms Design TeamIf you’ve ever been angered by a car’s interior materials pretending to be something they’re not, you might sympathize with Chevrolet’s stance regarding their new 2013 Spark. The Korean-built four-door claims to have no pretenses regarding what it is or who it’s aimed at, and its $12,245 price tag says just about as much: the Spark competes against the likes of the Smart ForTwo and Mazda2, nestled well within the automotive subsection of smaller/cheaper/simpler hatchbacks....
Tactic No. 1: Coast to a StopMedia Platforms Design TeamBrakes are necessary (duh!), but they’re inherently wasteful: They take the kinetic energy of a moving car—energy it took pricey gasoline to generate—and turn it into heat that’s lost to the air. Everyone knows that accelerating until the last moment then braking hard to stop is less efficient than slowly coasting to a red light. But PM’s test data (illustrated below) prove what a huge difference coasting makes....
Media Platforms Design TeamIf you’ve been paying attention over the last two decades, you’ve noticed the that minivan… isn’t. Segment leaders have grown to such huge proportions that there’s nothing mini about them, while the original promise of fuel efficient people moving has dwindled. The Mazda5 sticks to the original concept, but it doesn’t sell in serious numbers. Ford has been out of the minivan market since discontinuing the Windstar/Freestar, but now the company has announced a full-throated return with the 2014 Transit Connect Wagon....
Media Platforms Design TeamToday GM revealed the fifth generation of its legendary small block V-8 at the Powertrain Development Center in Pontiac, Mich. General Motors has made more than 100 million small blocks since 1955 and this variation will be seen first in the upcoming seventh-generation Corvette, or C7, debuting in January. The all-new engine has been dubbed the LT1, and brings the architecture up to the state of the art....
At Bloomberg, Justin Bachman reports on a tech advance waiting in — or on, really — the wings of the airline industry: efficient de-icing. Already, there’s some advances waiting in the wings, like the Boeing 787’s liquid metal heating elements.But then there are the more futuristic ones, like nanotechnology, which is a few years off but a huge potential boon to the current, relatively inefficient process of spraying wings down with a glycol-water mixture before coating them with a gel....
Media Platforms Design TeamPremium MessagingOne of the most effective methods for spreading malware to mobile phones is to misuse premium SMS shortcodes—six-to-eight-digit numbers like those used to accept charitable donations or purchase content via text message. One kind of malware tells an infected smartphone to either send a message to a premium number owned by criminals or to access premium online content that users seldom see. The criminals behind the phone number or content then request payment from the victim’s mobile phone company, which usually pays right away....
Years ago, it was common for shops to have a central power source that drove all the tools through a system of belts, wheels and driveshafts. The power was routed around the work space by mechanical means. While the belts and shafts may be gone, many shops still use a mechanical system to move power around the shop. It’s based on the energy stored in air that’s under pressure, and the heart of the system is the air compressor....
Q: My 1995 Volvo 850 non-turbo (with 160,000 miles) has an oil leak at the rear main seal or RMS, probably because of crankcase pressure. When I remove the dipstick and stick a balloon over the top and rev the engine the balloon fills up with air. When I drive with the dipstick unplugged, the leak is significantly reduced.Based on my research I found that the cause for this is a blocked PCV system....
If there’s one thing all 21st century wood-workers can claim, it’s remarkably good fortune. We have the tools to make the most tedious job effortless and the trickiest joint flawless. And, anything from glue and lumber to paint and hardware is as close as the nearest home center or only a mouse click away on the Internet. But most of all, we have our legacy of woodworking–hundreds of years of design and wooden construction from which to draw inspiration and on which to base our craft....
Media Platforms Design TeamWhen Jamie Hyneman and I speak at teacher conventions, we always draw a grateful crowd. They tell us Thursday mornings are productive because students see us doing hands-on science Wednesday nights on our show MythBusters, and they want to talk about it. These teachers are so dedicated, but they have difficulty teaching for the standardized tests they’re given with the budgets they’re not given. It’s one reason the U....
