Media Platforms Design Team(Photograph by WIN-Initiative/Getty Images)Turn Off the WaterYour plumbing system is particularly vulnerable during the winter to such things as bursting water supply hoses on your washing machine and frozen pipes during the winter. These events are bad enough when you’re home and can deal with them quickly. But when you’re away for a few days, the water can pump into your house for hours on end, causing severe damage on all fronts....
A fancy new showerhead promises to use 70 percent less water, all while turning your shower into a misty tropical heaven. And Kickstarter is going crazy. Nebia, a play on the Italian word nebbia, meaning mist, was cofounded by Carlos Gomez Andonaegui, who ran a spa in Mexico City and often felt the stress of a giant water bill. He and cofounder Philip Winter have spent the last five years developing the Nebia, and Apple’s Tim Cook and Google’s Eric Schmidt were early investors....
Media Platforms Design TeamAfter 39 trips to space over more than a quarter century, space shuttle Discovery took one last victory lap on its way into retirement today. Discovery flew out of Cape Canaveral, Fla., on the back of a 747 and made a low-altitude tour of the nation’s capital before touching down at Washington Dulles International Airport. Justin Staley at Dulles took these pictures for us.The shuttle’s new home is the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum’s annex in northern Virginia, just outside of Washington, D....
Drone-maker 3D Robotics wants you to know they’re planning to announce something big on Monday, April 13. “Dawn of Man” big, in fact. Today the company released this clever teaser for the event—a spoof of the beginning of 2001: A Space Odyssey, where this time the primates discover drones.It’s going to be a big week for drone reveals, as The Verge notes. DJI, one of 3DR’s biggest competitors, is set to launch its own new drone at a major event on Wednesday, April 8....
Media Platforms Design TeamChances are good that science fiction writer Ray Bradbury, who died today at 91 in Southern California, would not like how he’s referred to in his many flowering obituaries. Bradbury famously, and consistently, resisted the title of “science fiction writer.” Aside from his most well-known work, 1953’s , the prolific author and screenwriter claimed to have penned mostly fantasies—stories filled with impossible events. Fahrenheit 451He had a point....
A year ago, Shawn Frayne won a Breakthrough Award for his Humdinger Windbelt. When air passes over the device’s tiny ribbon-like vane, the fluttering vibration converts into a small amount of electricity. It was a novel approach to wind power, with the potential for a wider range of applications than a traditional turbine because of its compact profile. At a reception on Wednesday for the Popular Mechanics Breakthrough Awards, Frayne proved what a difference 12 months can make....
An open-source invention is lighting up neighborhoods around the world, and probably saving lives in Colombia.Built out of plastic bottles and 3-watt LED bulbs and charged by solar panels, the street lamps cost about $70. They’re enabling lighting at night in San Luis, an impoverished area of Bogota where many people fear for their safety. The fact that the tech is open-source means the instructions are posted right online, so anyone can build it and easily find out how to repair it....
Media Platforms Design TeamThere’s a major renewable energy technology that neither presidential candidate is talking about, and it happens to be the one most popular with voters: The wood-burning stove. And though I believe the future of this country lies in aggressively producing more renewable energy, any strategy here should include modern wood stoves, not exclude them. Wood stoves won’t become talking points for President Obama or Mitt Romney anytime soon....
Between the International Space Station, the space shuttle and, now, the Orion crew exploration vehicle, manned missions gobble up most of NASA’s budget. But lesser-known robotic missions produce the majority of the science–and unmanned probes can be sexy, too. Witness Hubble’s panoramic images of star birth and Cassini’s spectacular documentation of Saturn and its moons. Here are five spacecraft that will continue this vital work–plumbing the secrets of creation, exploring the corners of the solar system and even, perhaps, finding life on other worlds....
Media Platforms Design TeamIn the cold harsh light of Congressional reports, American kids aren’t doing very well in the academic areas necessary for innovating our way out of global problems. According to a 2003 assessment of 15-year-old students in 40 nations, the U.S. ranked 28th in math literacy and 24th in science literacy. It also ranks 20th in the proportion of college graduates who earn degrees in science and engineering. Compared to other nations, the proportion of degrees awarded in science, technology, engineering and math has remained stagnant....
Media Platforms Design Team(Photograph by J Muckle/Studio D) If you’re a traditionalist in the kitchen, there’s a good chance you have a few cast-iron pots. They’re the heavy black ones that transmit heat so uniformly. Cast iron is an alloy (a hardened solution) of iron, carbon and silicon. In addition to providing good thermal conductivity, the material resists wear, can be precisely machined and is stable when heated, also making it great for an engine block or large-diameter pipes....
Media Platforms Design TeamThe 2011 Mercedes-Benz E-Class Cabriolet will be on sale in May–perfect timing for a convertible. Joining the sedan and coupe in the E-Class lineup, the Cabriolet has a classic soft-top that can be automatically folded or raised in only 25 seconds. You won’t have to pull over in slow traffic either–the top operates at speeds up to 25 mph. And should you wish to motor along topless at speeds of more than 25, there are two features to help....
UPDATE: May 20, 2015: The light sail launch will take place sometime between 10:45 a.m. and 2:45 p.m. EDT today from Cape Canaveral, Florida aboard an Atlas V rocket. The weather in Florida is mostly clear. You can watch the launch here.Media Platforms Design TeamMedia Platforms Design TeamSolar power has been a common fixture in space satellites, rovers and probes for a few decades. But the Planetary Society is taking a big leap forward by testing two crafts that will utilize solar for propulsion as well....
Media Platforms Design TeamAt a recent symposium preceding the LA Auto Show, designer Ian Callum explicated the new Jaguar F-Type’s sporty styling. But as much as we enjoy geeking out over design talk, what really caught our ear was chief program engineer Russ Varney’s description of the F-Type’s retractable HVAC vents, which operate with a little bit of art and a whole lot of science.The idea behind these moveable vents is mostly aesthetic, and about as obsessive as BMW’s original intent with their iDrive system, which single-handedly sought to rid Bimmer dashboards of buttons....
Media Platforms Design TeamLast week, 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 learn how to build your own plane below…It’s known as the “51 percent rule,” and it forms the backbone of everything that happens in Glasair Aviation’s build shop....
First-person drone, or quadcopter, racing is perhaps best explained by comparing it to the Star Wars scenes where the gang races around on speeder bikes in a forest on Endor. The proximity to hazards like walls would make the stunts death-defying if there were a human riding along. Team Xhover pilot Kevin Dougherty (or StingersSwarm as he goes by) nimbly navigates his quadcopter through a series of stables in the adrelanine-inducing video below that showcases exactly this....
Here’s another in the growing legion of seven- or eight-passenger crossovers. GMC’s Acadia is nearly full-size and from behind the wheel it feels only slightly smaller than a Yukon.+ Click to enlargeMedia Platforms Design TeamPRICE RANGE: $29,990-$46,000 (Est.)Ah, but the driving experience – it has a smooth and supple ride combined with handling usually associated with German SUVs. We drove the Acadia on some of the California coast’s windiest roads and delighted in every twist....
Q:I recently helped my neighbor set up his wireless router, and when we looked at its configuration page through a Web browser, we found it has the same IP address as my router. I thought all Internet addresses were unique. How come we’re not accessing each other’s machines?A:The address you’re seeing is a “private network” address, not designed to be seen by other computers out on the Internet, and therefore able to be used on other private networks like your neighbor’s....
Media Platforms Design TeamTime really does fly when you’re driving a prototype fuel cell vehicle–and hitting the equivalent of about 40 miles per gallon … without paying for gas. So it was a sobering day recently when, exactly three months after they had delivered a limited-edition Chevy Equinox to my garage as part of a test program, GM came to pick it back up. But 3000 miles later–a considerable odometer count considering there aren’t any hydrogen fueling stations beyond a radius of 50 miles from my home–I’ve come away really impressed with the technology behind this next-gen car....
Media Platforms Design TeamDETROIT — The current Mitsubishi Evolution is one of our favorite sporty cars. Its moves are nearly telepathic on a twisty mountain road. It’s legendary 4G63 turbocharged inline four cylinder pulls with a thrust normally reserved for supercars. And the look? Well that’s pure FIA World Rally.So when Mitsubishi showed us the Concept X at the Tokyo Motor Show a couple years back, we knew the next Evo was right around the corner....
