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When Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets hits theaters in 2017, expect more than a few familiar sights. The artist from the comic series the movie is based on, Jean-Claude Mézières, already collaborated with the film’s director, Luc Besson, on The Fifth Element, an expansive, far future science-fiction film pretty in line with the world of Valerian.Valerian and Laureline is a long-running French comic, usually serialized sort of like the comics in 2000 AD or Heavy Metal, with installments coming month-by-month before being collected into 21 trade paperbacks....

MORE NEW ELECTION COVERAGE* PM NEWS: Rumors of e-vote Fraud in Penn., but Voters Like MachinesIn her speech last night after claiming enough votes–electronic and otherwise–to win the Pennsylvania primary, Senator Hillary Clinton said the United States needed to “end the war on science.” Supporters roared in Philadelphia, but there’s a quieter battle floating under the political radar as the high-tech 2008 campaign presses on: space policy. With key constituencies in Florida, Texas and the Southwest, all three presidential contenders have now laid out official platforms on the next giant leap (or step back) for American space exploration–and none of them bode well for NASA’s existing plans toward the moon and beyond....

Media Platforms Design TeamI have a second-generation Prius that’s still working as advertised, and I love it, but I’m wondering when I should start worrying about replacing the battery pack.All batteries wear out over time, but several factors influence when that happensbattery chemistry, the number of charge and discharge cycles, temperature extremes, even humidity. Your Prius carries a 10-year, 150,000-mile warranty on the hybrid battery. You’ll notice two things when it’s time for a new power pack: The engine will run almost constantly, even under light acceleration, and your fuel economy will drop off significantly....

Media Platforms Design TeamPlanting, growing, and harvesting hops is just as easy as growing tomatoes but far more versatile. In addition to flavoring your , your crop can also serve as a decorative landscape element. Imagine your sunny porch shaded by 15-foot vines and their bright green leaves.home-brewed beerHow to Get StartedThese plants are grown from rhizomes, short segments of roots harvested from older plants. You can mail-order rhizomes that are dormant and ready for planting in the early spring....

Media Platforms Design TeamEvery year since 1994, the Detroit Auto Show has kicked off with a big announcement: the North American Car and Truck of the Year reveal. During the previous 12 months, a panel of 50 independent automotive journalists (including two from PM) drive and evaluate all the new cars and trucks. In late November, the jurors voted and the highest scoring three cars and trucks are singled out as finalists....

Media Platforms Design TeamView full post on YoutubeRack up a new high score by doing nothing—it certainly sounds like an enthralling gaming experience. But given our addiction to accumulating imaginary points and achievements, be they reddit karma or Candy Crush levels, perhaps we should give Samsung’s driver attention app a chance.Here’s the gist: Install the Android app Eyes on the Road (if you live in Singapore, where Samsung is test-launching the app; if not, wait)....

Media Platforms Design TeamBy next fall, James Cameron won’t just be planet Earth’s most accomplished director—he’ll be top cineophile on Mars, too. The Oscar-winning director is collaborating with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and Malin Space Science Systems to help design a stereoscopic camera rig that will travel on the Mars Science Laboratory to our red neighbor. “I’m on the team that’s building the mast cam,” Cameron tells Popular Mechanics during an interview about the theatrical rerelease of Avatar....

Japanese scientists just beamed 1.8 kw of energy through the air over the course of 170 feet. Now, that amount of juice is barely enough to run an electric kettle, but it’s an important step toward JAXA’s (the Japanese space agency) big goal: Beaming down solar energy from space.JAXA has been talking up space solar power for years now, and if you consider the potential, it’s easy to see why. There are two game-changing factors about collecting solar energy in space: The sun is always shining, and there’s room for a solar array that’s as big as you can imagine....

A drone is generally considered to be an unmanned aerial vehicle. But while this massive multicopter is technically controlled by the human being strapped into the crazy contraption, it could be argued whether there is really anyone behind the wheel. I’m not quite sure it’s any safer than than that small GoPro-toting quadcopter that keeps buzzing around my house.The Swarm, as it’s called, is equipped with 54 counter-rotation propellers, each attached to their own motor and battery....

Media Platforms Design TeamThere is a scene in last year’s first-person shooter, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, that puts you in the pressurized boots of an astronaut. While hitched to the outside of the International Space Station, you’re asked by mission control to provide visual confirmation of an ICBM arcing through low Earth orbit. The sequence ends as abruptly as it begins, with the station blown to pieces, and you, the astronaut, sent tumbling into space....

New Zealand has never sent an astronaut to the International Space Station. It doesn’t even have a space program. But thanks to Rocket Lab, a private spaceflight company, the company is set to become the home of the first commercial spaceport. Yes, we already have commercial spaceflight via companies like SpaceX. But those companies rely on NASA and military facilities (or other national spaceports abroad) to send supplies, probes, and people into space....

Media Platforms Design TeamWhile driving around a bleak cit of the future, Remy (Jude Law), the protagonist in the film Repo Men, casually explains the nature of his grisly profession. “Can’t pay for your house? The bank takes it back. Can’t pay for your car? The bank takes it back. You can’t pay for your liver? Well, that’s where I come in.“Remy, as the title of the film suggests, is a repo man....

Media Platforms Design TeamTake one jet ski, add a remote control and a sonar unit, and you have a new breed of robot warrior. While in harbor, warships make a tempting target for terrorists, because a single diver with an explosive charge can cause massive damage and loss of life. But a new robotic unmanned jet ski, known as Blackfish, may help even the odds. Developed by QinetiQ North America, in response to demand from the U....

The Oculus Rift will launch next year, but there’s a new headset coming before that. Gear VR—a phone-powered headset built by Samsung with Oculus’ help—is coming this November and it’ll only cost $100.The very first developer versions of Samsung’s Gear VR were introduced last year. This $200 “Innovator Editions” were super cool, but only worked with very specific Samsung phones. Now, the real version is launching, and not only is it cheaper, it’ll work with every one of Samsung’s current flagship phones, the Galaxy S6, S6 Edge, S6 Edge Plus, and the Note 5....

Media Platforms Design TeamThe theory goes that because the Mayan calendar ends this year—on December 21, to be exact—that so too will the world. “It’s complete and utter nonsense,” said Phil Plait, an astronomer who helms the Bad Astronomy blog. “Every step of the way it’s wrong, and all together it’s the wrongiest wrong, and yet it somehow still gets traction.“According to Plait, who gave a talk called “2012: You Bet Your Asteroid the World Won’t End,” the idea first emerged in the 1980s, when an author floated the idea that the end of the Mayan calendar signified the erasure and rebuilding of civilization....

On Feb. 9, 2013, NASA’s Curiosity rover found something on Mars that set a milestone in the search for alien life. Packed with instruments, the rover was an SUV-size speck crawling across the floor of the Gale Crater, whose distant walls climbed 15,000 feet in the thin air. The rover had been lowered to the ground six months earlier by means of a complex, jet-propelled sky crane. Now, almost 221 million miles from home but just a quarter-mile from its landing site, Curiosity was exploring a shallow depression called Yellowknife Bay....

CRESTED BUTTE, Colo. — Had a pretty easy trip out here, if one can call a 4 a.m wake-up, a 90-minute drive to the airport, three flights, and a four-hour layover in DIA “easy.” Whenever I fly, I like to get The Wall Street Journal, mostly because it makes me feel like a player to be seen reading it. Actually, it’s a really good paper that doesn’t shy away from solid reporting on energy issues....

This isn’t your local planetarium’s light show.Porta Estellar was designed to use visuals and sounds to immerse viewers in an interstellar travel experience, “from departure and takeoff to the sighting of comets, planets, galaxies, crossing nebulae and visiting alien worlds, until finally returning safe to earth.” The experience is certainly reminiscent of the interstellar travel scenes in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, though we appreciate that the designers picked some different music for their ride....

Media Platforms Design Team(Photo Credit: Jacobs School of Engineering/UC San Diego )Researchers at the University of California-San Diego are taking a cue from Bazooka Joe in their attempts to finds new ways to treat and deal with diabetes. They’ve created temporary tattoo-like sensors that analyze blood glucose levels without the need for the familiar needle prick. The sensors, no more than a couple inches across, rub onto the skin where microneedles penetrate just under the surface....

Virgin Galactic has vowed to pick up the pieces from Friday’s fatal crash of its SpaceShipTwo vehicle, which took the life of co-pilot Michael Alsbury and sent pilot Peter Siebold to the hospital. The company promises to finish a new version of the vehicle, which is already 65 percent complete, and keep flying.“While this has been a tragic setback, we are moving forward and will do so deliberately and with determination,” the commercial spaceflight company said in a statement issued Tuesday morning....