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Media Platforms Design TeamAn artist’s conception of a black hole binary in a heart of a quasar, with the data showing the periodic variability superposed. (Photo Credit: Santiago Lombeyda, Center for Data-Driven Discovery, Caltech)It’s going to be a fantastic cosmic fireworks show. Two supermassive black holes are on a collision course, their fates intertwined. When they collide, it will be like 100 million stars going supernova. The collision could destroy the distant galaxy PG 1302-102....

The commercial dishwasher outside Pain D’Avignon bakery on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, is belching out plumes of blue-tinged smoke, which is exactly what Matthew Tropeano, executive chef of the bakery’s on-premises bistro, wants. The dishwasher is a cold smoker, a machine that imbues food with smoky flavor without fully cooking it. Tropeano had been hoping to add the technique to the kitchen’s capabilities for some time. “We were already doing a lot of hot smoking … sides of bacon, whole chickens, tomatoes, you name it,” Tropeano says....

There’s something to be said for an attack helicopter commercial that fires a missile at the viewer in the first twelve seconds. The Ka-52 Alligator is the latest version of the Ka-50 series attack and scout helicopters, and Russian defense exporter Rosoboronexport has a video tell tell you all about it. Fast, speedy, and packed with weapons, the Alligator actually resembles its namesake, with a long, wide snout and a squat, reptile-like profile....

Media Platforms Design TeamRecently, Davin Coburn headed to the Pacific Northwest to learn about one company’s revolutionary new build process for their high-performance kitplane—and then to go for a test drive, to figure out what it was like 180 degrees from a midtown Manhattan office. Catch up with his journey by clicking here, then take to the skies below… The problem with venturing a long way from home is that eventually you have to get back....

It seems like Danish astronaut Andres Mogensen and Kazakhi cosmonaut Aidyn Aimbetov just arrived at the space station, but they’re leaving already. Tonight at 5:29 p.m., their Soyuz capsule will undock from the International Space Station and depart for Earth, arriving back in Baikonur at 8:51 p.m. They’re bringing back Gennady Padalka with them. Padalka has spent 168 days on the ISS this visit, and has broken a record with 879 total days on the orbital facility....

Media Platforms Design TeamIt’s the world’s biggest bootcamp for bots—and arguable the best, with projects ranging from swimming microbots driven by the flagella of living bacteria to Zöe, a prototype robotic astrobiologist whose future relatives may one day study life on Mars (enough for a 2005 PM Breakthrough Award). Now, the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon is coming off a $2 million win in November’s DARPA Urban Challenge (pictured above), and director Matthew Mason sits down with us to discuss what’s next, from the Google Lunar X Prize to super artificial intelligence....

Media Platforms Design TeamThe most frequent question I’ve received from strangers and friends in the month or so I’ve worn the Apple Watch: “What makes it useful?” I wonder that sometimes, too. But if, like me, you find yourself complaining about feats of design that didn’t exist six months ago, then this story will shake you out of tech pessimism.Molly Watt is 20 years old and has type 2a Usher Syndrome, an incurable disease that degenerates hearing and vision....

Climate Central put together this map, a constantly updated listing of wildfires in the United States. Alaska, the Western United States, and Florida are … not doing so well as of this writing, as you can see in the above pic.The map takes fire information from GeoMac Wildland Fire Support and overlays it on a Google map. Clicking on the individual fires takes you to more information about the area affected....

Media Platforms Design TeamIce in the Arctic Ocean has hit a new record low, dropping just below 1.66 million square miles in extent for the first time since 2007. The ice will continue to shrink for a few more weeks, setting additional records until it hits its minimum for 2012 sometime in September. Sea-ice extent is often cited in discussions of climate change. These days it figures into geopolitical discussions, too, as Arctic nations and private companies plan for increased oil drilling, tourism, freight traffic, and military activity in the region....

View full post on YoutubeWe know you were hoping to fly a quadcopter over the 50 yard line this Sunday to capture your own Super Bowl footage. But just don’t. The Federal Aviation Administration just released this short ad reminding fans to “leave your drone at home.” Like any with-it governmental body, they’ve even got a hashtag, #nodronezone.Maybe Chris Plainte at The Verge put it best, saying, “five years ago, (these) would have scanned as fake PSAs from alternate reality sci-fi films....

Media Platforms Design TeamCredit: flickr / flattop341Not every Amish person completley shuns modern technology. Attitudes vary from community to community, and an increasing number of Amish business owners—especially those who run factories, carpentry operations, and stores that cater to non-Amish clientele—use lights, computers, and power tools so they can make a living in a tech-centric world. But rules are rules: No Amish person will use tech powered by standard electrical grids (it has to do with not allowing outsiders to have influence over their lives and families)....

Media Platforms Design TeamScreenshot from bitcoin exchange. Price is shown in red and green, volume in blue.Consider the U.S. dollar: It can be exchanged for goods and services, holds a predictable value over time, and quantifies worth. Now consider the bitcoin: It can be exchanged for very few goods, only after much effort, and mostly online. And because it holds an unpredictable value over time, bitcoin is bad at quantifying much of anything besides demand for itself....

Media Platforms Design TeamLytro is the most exciting thing to happen to cameras since Maria Sharapova shot her first Canon commercial. Instead of forcing you to pick an aperture (the setting that determines how much light reaches the camera sensor, and therefore how many levels of an image can be in focus), Lytro cameras capture light from all angles. This means you can focus a picture after you take it. And then you can focus it again somewhere else, as many times as you want, on any point that you please....

LIVE COVERAGE OF THE LAUNCH OF SPACE SHUTTLE DISCOVERY NASA’s official overall probability risk assessment number (PRAN) for complete loss of life and vehicle for the Space Shuttle remains at the widely quoted 1/100. Theoretically, there’s a one percent chance of catastrophe. While the agency stresses that Space Shuttle flights are extremely dangerous missions—sending humans into space always is—officials worry that the risk has been overstated. According to NASA, in practice, it’s not as bad as it sounds....

Nine thousand light-years away from Earth, a planet 13 times its size is orbiting a star half the size of the sun. The planet is known as a “super earth,” and at -330° F is one of the coldest planets ever discovered outside of our solar system. The scientists who discovered the planet point to two key features that make it significant. First is its location around its star, an area typically populated by giant gaseous planets such as Jupiter and Saturn....

It’s a scientific fact: Placed in front of a mirror, an elephant will recognize itself. The thick-skinned beasts are intelligent, self-aware creatures that will cry over the dead bodies of family members, even in the wild. Perhaps that’s why a recent announcement by South African authorities that they would begin culling–or killing–herds of elephants as early as May 1 created such a public outcry. But the lead vet at the San Diego Zoo’s state-of-the-art Paul Harter Veterinary Medical Center might have the solution: a new, high-tech alternative to culling that will not only save lives, but prevent the elephant population from growing....

To hear more from the editors of Popular Mechanics, download this week’s episode of The Most Useful Podcast ever here, and be sure to subscribe and comment on iTunes!http://i.imgur.com/FztWWol.jpg><span id=If you have trouble sleeping, cross “astronaut” off your list of future careers. Residents of the International Space Station watch the sun set and then rise again every 90 minutes, meaning in one 24-hour period they experience about 16 cycles of the sun....

It was out to prove the propulsion technology needed to achieve a decades-old dream: rocket-speed flight with an air-breathing engine. But yesterday’s test by the Air Force of the X-51A unmanned hypersonic test vehicle resulted in a crash before it could start its engine.The X-51A program is a joint project of the Air Force, DARPA, and NASA, with Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne supplying the scramjet engine and Boeing providing the airframe....

Media Platforms Design TeamIt didn’t start out this way, but the low-price, no-haggle Saturn division of General Motors has effectively become the American sales arm of GM’s German Opel division. Saturn already sells a version of Opel’s GT roadster as the Saturn Sky, and a version of the Opel Antera crossover as the Saturn Vue. The latest fruit of this collaboration is the Saturn Astra family of three-door and five-door hatchbacks....

Media Platforms Design TeamOn-Sale Date: Third-quarter 2013Price: $34,060 to $46,875Competitors: Acura TL, Lincoln MKZ, Lexus ES, Chrysler 300, Toyota Avalon, Nissan MaximaPowertrains: 2.4-liter I-4 with e-Assist, 182 hp, 172 lb-ft; 3.6-liter V-6, 304 hp, 264 lb-ft; six-speed automatic transmission; FWD or AWDEPA Fuel Economy (city/hwy): 25/36 (I-4), 17–18/28 (V-6)What’s New: Buick’s full-size sedan noses into the marque’s 110th anniversary behind a prettier face with articulating headlights, a grille styling more in line with its smaller siblings the Regal and Verano, LEDs on both ends, and active aero shutters in front to eke out a bit more fuel economy....