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Building a test planet takes serious engineering. Researchers at the University of Maryland have constructed a 30-ton sphere that spins at more than 90 mph to generate magnetic fields. The 10-ft.-dia. sphere is filled with 13.5 tons of liquid sodium to mimic the Earth’s liquid-iron center core. A 3.3-ft.- dia. stainless-steel sphere inside the larger one counterrotates to approximate the motion of the planet’s solid iron inner core. The action of Earth’s inner liquid produces a magnetic field that makes compasses work, deflects harmful cosmic rays and protects the planet from solar wind....

Media Platforms Design TeamQ: We had a major rainstorm that flooded our basement–with sewage. Now that we’ve got things cleaned up and dry, I’m wondering how far to take the repairs. I’ve already removed the bottom half of the drywall. Should I replace the bottom half of the wall framing, too? I’m concerned the framing will rot otherwise.A: I’d tear out the drywall and framing and replace everything. It’s expensive to go this route, but unless you start from scratch, you may be faced with lingering odors....

Geologist Trevor Williams, of Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, will be spending six weeks at Antarctica’s McMurdo Station, taking part in a study of the sea-floor sediments beneath the Ross Ice Shelf. The results could aid our understanding of climate change. Williams will be filing reports here throughout the project. ROSS ISLAND, Antarctica – The idea that I’d soon be in Antarctica only really sunk in while I was trying on the Extreme Cold Weather gear at the clothing distribution center in Christchurch, New Zealand....

Media Platforms Design TeamBuried in The Dark Knight’s record-breaking, $155-million first three days at the box office lies another number: $11,910,000. Even with a slightly wider release for its second weekend in theaters, Journey to the Center of the Earth mustered less than 10 percent of Batman’s ticket-sale grosses to top out at just over $43 million overall.After Journey was billed as the first live-action, feature-length digital 3D movie, its performance may have been better than at first glance–or could suggest that the much ballyhooed boom in 3D filmmaking was oversold....

Media Platforms Design TeamI have been experimenting with making biodiesel for a few years now, and I am constantly watching what others in this field do as well. I monitor a forum for biodiesel users such as myself, and it’s full of practical advice as well as troubleshooting for the problems that sometimes arise. Biodiesel appeals to us because it can be made from plants grown locally and burns far cleaner then ordinary diesel fuel....

If R2-D2 had a cousin in the hospitality industry, it would look a whole lot like Botlr, a brand-new robotic bellhop currently employed at the Aloft hotel in Cupertino, Calif.Developed by the startup Savioke, the robot transports small items to hotel rooms, communicating with guests via their phones and a touchscreen attachment on the bot. It can move up to four miles per hour and comes equipped with a camera, sensors to determine whether its lid is open or shut, and wireless links to the hotel’s elevators....

Media Platforms Design Team The last Detroit Electric rolled off the production line in 1937. In 2008, former CEO of the Lotus Engineering Group Albert Lam purchased the rights to the defunct brand and set to work with his team developing a new electric car. Last night in Detroit Electric’s Fisher Building home (once occupied by the Fisher Body Company), the company unveiled its first new offering, the $135,000 SP:01, and its plans for the future....

Determined to enter New York Auto Week with a splash, Volkswagen held a party to celebrate the recent launch of their quantum-leap-forward GTI. About 600 guests poured into the hip Chelsea Metropolitan Pavilion to check out two new GTIs, two of the new hardtop convertible model Eos and a vintage GTI Rabbit from 1984. We’re not sure if the cars had a good time—true to the radical brand nostalgia that Volkswagens generate, the ‘84 GTI was occupied all night with Manhattan hipsters who just wanted to sit in it—but we sure did....

This weekend is the sweetest time of the year for workaholic night owls like yours truly. Early Sunday morning at 2:00 a.m., Americans will “fall back” into standard time, marking the end of Daylight Saving Time (DST) for 2006—and the beginning of a much-needed extra hour of sleep.If you checked out our blog on DST when we “sprang forward” in April, you know the sunlight-shifting custom has a long and controversial history....

Media Platforms Design TeamYes, that’s ketchup from our fridge…. Parents and lawmakers have been alarmed for years about the violent, lawless nature of the Grand Theft Auto series, worrying that the video game might encourage its players to commit real acts of sociopathic violence. Though we still contend that the game doesn’t have to be all about beat-downs—GTA IV has plenty of non-violence in it—we’re in the minority. You’d think that the controversy would lead developer Rockstar Games to try its hardest to show that nothing in GTA IV is going to trickle from the screen to real life....

Media Platforms Design TeamGenius inventor and mad scientist archetype Nikola Tesla was born 156 years ago, on July 10, 1856. To celebrate Tesla Day, here’s some interesting reading on the high priest of alternating current.PopMech goes all the way back to 1902, and while that’s not quite far enough for the magazine to have captured Tesla’s early work as it happened, the great man and his machines graced the pages of PM numerous times....

Want water to boil quicker? Just add a few viruses. At least, that’s what research from Drexel University shows.Scientists there took samples of the tobacco mosaic virus and coated the heating elements of a burner with them (this being the kind of kettle where the heating element is on the inside and directly touches the water). Doing so cut down on the number of bubbles formed in contact area between the heating element and the water, and tripled the efficiency of heating the water....

Tom Waits once sang, “Money’s just something you throw off the back of a train.” He could have been singing about Amtrak, everyone’s favorite unprofitable, publicly subsidized railway system.Amtrak was created during the Nixon administration to sustain passenger train travel in the United States. Up until then, U.S. passenger rail service was in decline, losing money to air travel and an ever-growing car culture. But, as Simon Van Zuylen-Wood writes for National Journal, Amtrak didn’t exactly save the dream of viable American train travel....

Media Platforms Design TeamAnything that moves makes noise. And like many household machines, the personal computer is an assemblage of whirring, spinning, vibrating parts–hard drives, optical drives, heat-sink and exhaust fans–and each of these components contributes to the overall noise of the computer. Depending on your particular machine and your sensitivity to such things, this can amount to a comforting white noise, or an irritating background drone that makes you want to kick a hole in the side of your computer to let the demons out....

Media Platforms Design Team What it is: The “I-Slate,” a solar-powered, stylus-controlled classroom aid unveiled at the IEEE’s 125th Anniversary event on Tuesday. The idea is that this LED slate will replace the chalk slates still used in much of the world, allowing students to learn basic math skills without the need for a literate teacher (something that is in demand in much of the world). The device is being created by Dr....

Media Platforms Design TeamI was always a fan of those “Wide Track” Pontiacs of the ’60s. When I was a little kid there was no sexier wheel–either in the aftermarket or in regular production–than the 8-lug Pontiac wheel. I remember first seeing them around 1962 on some of the big Bonnevilles. My mom’s Falcon had four lug nuts, the bigger cars on the road had five lug nuts–these Pontiacs had 8....

Media Platforms Design TeamIn Hollywood, it takes an army to equip one. ForRobin Hood, out May 14, designers needed to create an authentic-looking army fresh from the Crusades and outfit it with weapons. To make sure it was historically accurate, designers hit the books—and the museums, including the British Museum in London and the Royal Armories in Leeds. They even drew from unusual sources, like effigies in churches.Once the designs were drawn up and approved by director Ridley Scott, it was time to create the weaponry....

LAS VEGAS — The car-electronics folks are here, and they’re pushing all sorts of gadgets—GPS navigation systems are big, and people are starting to integrate them with other systems. (I want a radar/laser detector with GPS and a cellular data connection that will share the location of police cars with other people who own that system within, say, five or ten miles. Haven’t seen one of those yet.) But the coolest-looking stuff is the car audio and car video....

Media Platforms Design TeamView full post on VimeoPartnership Announcement from Quirky on Vimeo.Anyone can have a smart home—and anyone can design one. That’s the premise behind Wink, the new partnership between GE and Quirky.If you’ve ever bought an appliance, you know what GE is, but here’s a Quirky primer: Launched in 2009 by wunderkind Ben Kaufman (only 23 at the time), Quirky is a company that puts a new spin on crowdsourcing....

Media Platforms Design TeamFor the past seven months, Kevin Nanzer has been on the road almost nonstop, living in and out of motel rooms and corporate apartments. He’s crisscrossed the country, living for weeks at a time in cities like Austin, Texas, Oklahoma City, Okla., Raleigh, N.C., and Albany, N.Y.Nanzer, 23, is a geoimmersive data producer for Immersive Media, a Canadian company that specializes in the fast-growing world of “spherical video”—aka mapping the world for Google and beyond....