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Hodges Meteorite StrikeMedia Platforms Design Team(Photograph by Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images)On the afternoon of Nov. 30, 1954, residents of Talladega County in Alabama noticed a fiery object shooting through the sky. Some reported a large explosion as it crashed to earth. Ann Elizabeth Hodges, though, neither saw nor heard any of it. Instead, as she lay napping in her living room, an 8-pound chunk of the meteorite smashed through her roof, ricocheted off a radio and hit her on the hip....

Media Platforms Design TeamOn the eve of Harley-Davidson’s 105th anniversary, the Milwaukee-based bike manufacturer unveiled it’s new, much more radical 2008 lineup. The new bikes reflect a progressive shift in style that moves Harley a little further away from its traditional roots. Three new models—the Softail Rocker, Rocker C and the Dyna Fat Bob—offer factory nods to custom bike styling, and will probably polarize a few die-hards while also attracting some fresh blood to the world’s most prolific motorcycle brand....

Media Platforms Design Team SEOUL — In 1992, Kia arrived on U.S. shores with a value-driven (if somewhat appliance-inspired) persona. Fast forward to 2009, and the Korean brand has suddenly become more enticing, thanks to the boxy and hip Kia Soul, the crisp Kia Forte sedan and, now, the angular Forte Koup, which we recently drove in Korea. Does Kia’s latest offering have what it takes to nudge the brand further upmarket and into mainline competition with Honda and Toyota?...

Media Platforms Design TeamLa Jolla, California—Recent research by Hyundai revealed that U.S. drivers spend 58 percent of their driving time, on average, on highways. As applied to a hybrid, that news is interesting, suggesting that highway fuel mileage is at least as important as the improved city mileage on which most hybrid projects are concentrated. Hyundai also tried to balance costs in the new Sonata Hybrid, offsetting the price of high-tech batteries with sensible drivetrain specifications....

Media Platforms Design TeamLouisville, Ky.—Gasoline prices, environmental concerns, and economic recession pulled the rug out of the luxury SUV craze, which today accounts for barely one-third as many vehicle sales as in 2005. Ben Poore, Infiniti’s VP in charge of American operations, says such SUVs no longer serve as status symbols, but that the sales curve has leveled out and about 100,000 buyers a year still perceive a need for the passenger, cargo and towing capacity that only a big SUV offers....

Media Platforms Design TeamMILFORD, Mich. – Even before the tires had cooled on what is the fastest, most powerful Corvette ever to hit the streets of America–we’re talking about the 2009 Corvette ZR1 of course–we couldn’t help but wonder: How in the world are they going to top this? “We can’t comment on future product,” came the usual, deadpanned reply from the engineers on hand here at the test track. But we have other sources....

Twice now, surgeons in Australia have revived a dead heart—a heart that had stopped beating—and brought it back to life before transplanting it into a new person. It’s a huge breakthrough that could potentially save 30 percent more lives compared to ordinary heart transplants, according to the surgeons who performed this feat.At St. Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney, surgeons reactivated a heart that hadn’t been beating for almost half an hour. They put it in a new machine they called a “heart in a box,” which warmed the heart and poured fluids through it that gave the muscle nutrients to reduce tissue damage (it’s called perfusion)....

Media Platforms Design TeamSmartphones have changed the way we travel. Road warriors used to need a cellphone, radios, MP3 player, satellite audio and either paper or GPS maps to stay connected and entertained on a trip. But the advent of phones such as the iPhone, Android and Blackberry—which, in addition to making calls and storing and playing music, can be loaded with applications that dole out directions, weather maps and more—means road trippers can leave with nothing but their luggage and the phones in their pockets....

Just before 8 p.m. Wednesday evening, a resident of West, Texas (who asked not to be named) felt her body being sucked away from her chair “as if I was being drawn into a cloud.” As the air pressure equalized, she fell back through her chair and onto the ground. Less than a mile from the enormous blast at West Fertilizer Co., Evelyn Moon, who has lived in the town all 91 years of her life, woke up with shards of glass on her pillow....

Media Platforms Design TeamThanks to hi-def formats and painstaking restorations by Hollywood craftsmen, home theaters can now re-create the visual and aural glory of 35 mm film. (Photograph by Dan Saelinger)The color of money, everybody knows, is green. The color of pool table felt in Martin Scorsese’s 1986 movie The Color of Money is … blue? Wait a sec–rewind. That’s not quite right, is it? Actually, it’s wrong. The blue pool tables in The Color of Money have nagged the makers of the film since it was shot....

Last week the United States Air Force announced the latest aircraft in its series of experimental planes: the X-56A. Today, it released the first official image of this unmanned aerial vehicle. Designed by Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works division, which is famous for developing the SR-71 Blackbird, the unmanned drone will head to the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) this summer for experiment with lightweight wing design and a dangerous aerodynamic phenomenon....

Probe utility billsThey can reveal patterns of energy usage – and help homeowners track the savings from upgrades.Discover heat leaksMany homeowners pay for professional energy audits. You can perform your own evaluation using an audit tool available online from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (hes.lbl.gov). It combines details about a home with local weather records to create a full-year, hour-by-hour simulation of energy use. And it delivers a prioritized list of home improvements....

Media Platforms Design TeamJVC NX-PN7 Dual iPod Docking Station /// $150 /// Avalilable now The Promise: “The number of multi-iPod households continues to soar,” JVC says, “so to address the home playback and charging needs of these proliferating iPods, JVC now offers a dual iPod docking station … [that] accommodates two iPod players side-by-side, charging them simultaneously and offering playback from each through the dock’s speaker system.” And it comes loaded with an AM/FM tuner, alarm clock, aux input and video output....

Lockheed Martin’s secret fusion power program came out of hiding last week. This week, the Skunk Works engineer in charge of the ambitious effort met with reporters to explain just how the defense giant plans to make fusion the real deal within five to 10 years.The key to practical fusion power—which has eluded scientists trying to crack the problem for more than 60 years—is to go small. So says Tom McGuire, program manager for the compact fusion program at the Revolutionary Technology Programs group at Lockheed’s Skunk Works....

Media Platforms Design TeamPreventing spilled oil from invading the fragile Louisiana wetlands—where it would be virtually impossible to remove without severely damaging the ecosystem—is an urgent priority of relief workers in the Gulf of Mexico. A variety of defense measures have been suggested, including the use of rocks and barges to block the oil from entering the bays, and the construction of huge sand piles that would stand 6 feet taller than the Gulf’s average high-water mark and, hopefully, shield the coastline....

Media Platforms Design TeamChippewa Lake, Mich.—When winter descends and the professional racers of the Nascar and IndyCar series put away their cars for the off-season, amateur racers of the northern regions get ready for winter’s gift: ice racing. This type of car racing is regional in nature, and consequently the rules, cars and venues vary depending on where you live. But less than a few hours northwest from my home near Detroit, Mich....

Media Platforms Design TeamAfter 2 hours exploring an abandoned copper mine, emerging into the afternoon sun dialed our pupils down to pencil points. We were fascinated by the descent into upper Michigan’s underground history, but we were on a motorcycle trip and were eager to log more miles in the aboveground present. We were three days into our journey, roughing out an itinerary on the fly with nothing more than a map, a rough sense of direction and the kindness of strangers....

In the past year, we’ve seen “apps” spread from mobile phones into all sorts of consumer electronics–everything from printers (print maps without firing up your PC!) to smartpens (translate written words on the fly!). This avalanche of app stores has laid the seeds of a backlash–numerous incompatible markets are aggravating for both consumers who have to download duplicates and the software developers who need to make them.At CES, Samsung announced Samsung Apps, a new app store that may not solve the problem of the incompatible app onslaught, but is certainly a step in the right direction....

Five years after the Columbia tragedy, American space exploration is still struggling to lift off: NASA veterans are questioning the new moon plan, presidential candidates are lining up new policies, and there’s a satellite crashing toward Earth. Aerospace engineer and Transterrestrial Musings blogger Rand Simberg joins us with some new solutions for teaming up with the private space industry. Plus, Glenn Reynolds takes a DIY clinical trial of new anti-aging drugs, GM’s favorite new startup tells us how to make cheap ethanol and the geek behind the telestrator revs up for the big game–with new touchscreen interfaces....

Media Platforms Design Team(Credit: All Photos Heritage Auctions)The very first batmobile is for sale. This modified 1956 Oldsmobile 88 is a far cry from the Batmobile we’re familiar with, but the color scheme is unmistakably Batman.In 1956, DC Comics (then called National Periodical Publications) officially licensed the first Batmobile to Oldsmobile. Forrest Robinson and friend Len Perham began modifying the car in 1960. They finished their work in 1963, beating the Burt Ward / Adam West Batman series by three years....