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With sizzling summer temperatures and humidity that makes the heat feel well over 100 F, it’s unlikely that anything can keep you truly cool and comfortable while working outside. On the other hand, summer may be the season during which you have the most time to devote to outdoor DIY projects. There’s a lot you can do to manage the crushing sensation of summer’s dog days. Here are tricks of the trade that we’ve learned from working everywhere from the balmy New England coast down to the sweltering Southeast....

There’s a strange disconnect between European and American DIYers when it comes to the jigsaw. Europeans love jigsaws and use them all the time to work with metal and wood—a craftsman is not considered competent unless he or she can handle one of these power tools as well as any other machine. I often tell them that in America there’s a cultural bias toward speed and brute strength more than precision....

Media Platforms Design TeamPeter Diamandis wants to live to be 700 years old. He wants to mine asteroids and unlock the mysteries of our oceans. He wants to commercialize space and anticipates the merger of man and machine. These are a few topics covered in the X Prize founder’s panel at the 2013 Breakthrough Awards. The discussion’s moderator, PopMech’s editor-in-chief Jim Meigs, asked about the future of science and science education, space exploration and humanity itself....

Media Platforms Design TeamThe attack would come quickly, and it would be awful. Cruising far offshore, the U.S. Navy’s DD(X) destroyer launches 20 artillery shells in less than a minute. As the satellite-guided weapons fall back to Earth at 830 mph, computer algorithms alter their flight paths so that the 250-pound projectiles all strike the same patch of ground at the same time, reducing everything in the vicinity to rubble and dust....

Media Platforms Design TeamIn 2010 Jay Cross was a business major at the University of Connecticut, and he was frustrated. He needed 36 credits to complete his degree, but didn’t know when he’d finish because some of the required courses were no longer being offered—and UConn couldn’t say when the problem would be fixed. Instead of waiting it out, he went online in search of answers. After wading through a swamp of diploma-mill scams, he hit on a legitimate alternative....

Media Platforms Design TeamLast night the 3D Printshow made its New York City debut, opening with an arts gallery and fashion show that exhibited some of the industry’s most surprising creations, and Popular Mechanics was there for the event. We were treated to everything from intricate jewelry, shoes and headpieces to a band with 3D-printed instruments that performed soulful music as models made their way down the catwalk.The arts gallery was open for business first, showing off a carefully curated collection of pieces on a pristine, all-white showroom floor....

Media Platforms Design TeamThere’s a moment, as you pass the twisted trees that serve as a boundary line for Pikes Peak’s alpine tundra, when it hits you: You are climbing a mountain. And not just any mountain—a 14,115-foot peak in the Rockies that offers the longest base-to-summit climb in Colorado. When you arrive at the sweep of tundra, where it seems like you can see Kansas, you’re nearing the end of a 12....

View full post on YoutubeSpaceX has given us a preview of flights to come with this animation of the launch of a Falcon Heavy, the rocket that will take the company deeper into space than just low Earth orbit.In the video you can see the rocket’s booster stages use hydraulics after separation to push themselves into the right position for re-entry. You can also see the Falcon Heavy deploy the X-Wing fins previously announced by CEO Elon Musk....

Media Platforms Design TeamHMS Bounty, a 180-foot replica of the British warship, sank 90 miles off the coast of North Carolina this morning when it was caught in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. Fourteen of the 16 people on board have been rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard. One, Claudine Christian, was found dead, but Capt. Robin Walbridge is still missing. The family of one of the rescued sailors has released the following statement to PM:“HMS BOUNTY WRECK SURVIVOR JOHN JONES ALIVE AND WELL....

Media Platforms Design TeamTHE HEISTHackers typically harvest data directly from users via malware or through online scams (see fake antivirus software), or they infiltrate large databases (see Sony’s PlayStation Network) to steal thousands of accounts at a time.OFF TO MARKETHackers often verify stolen credit cards with small transactions, then trade them in “cc dumps”—online marketplaces frequented by “carders.” Verified active accounts fetch higher prices.PRINTING PRESSCarders who purchase complete Track 2 credit card data (both the card number and the CVV security code) can print their own magnetic-stripe cards, then hire “money mules” (often foreign students on J-1 visas) to withdraw cash from ATMs....

I’ve always been musical. My grandpa even had a nickname for me as a kid: lekio. It means radio in Hawaiian. At first it was keyboards. I always joke that, as an Asian kid raised by Asian parents, it was either violin or piano, and piano was less boring to me. I started writing music soon after, and eventually I picked up guitar. I moved to Los Angeles to be a singer–songwriter, but I was like every other female musician with an acoustic guitar....

LOS ANGELES — Armed with the noble goal of producing the world’s most affordable 300-hp car, Hyundai unveiled their Concept Genesis Coupe here today. This rear-drive 2+2 arrives on the heels of the performance-oriented Concept Genesis sedan concept, and packs the same 3.8-liter V6 powerplant that powers the four-door. Production versions will be available with a six-speed manual or six-speed automatic transmission.While its louvered carbon-fiber bodywork is strictly for show, Hyundai officials conceded that the Concept Coupe shares the same basic sheetmetal as the vehicle that will grace showrooms in spring 2009....

Media Platforms Design TeamRoadside bombs have transformed what should be a simple task—delivering food and supplies to forward bases—not one of the most dangerous missions in Afghanistan. Since December, however, the Navy and Marine Corps have been trying out a new solution to this problem: K-MAX, an unmanned helicopter that is designed to transport large amounts of cargo and help to alleviate the need for manned ground convoys.K-MAX is a type of synchropter, essentially a helicopter with intermeshing rotors that spin in different directions to optimize the amount of lift an aircraft can create....

Nearly 400 million years ago, during the Devonian geologic period, there was a mountain range scientists call the Acadians. It was thrust up where New York City now stands and then slowly washed away by ancient, nameless rivers. The eroded material settled in a vast area called the Catskill Delta, and as the eons passed, the deposits were compressed and formed bluestone, a prized material quarried in New York and Pennsylvania....

Media Platforms Design TeamIt’s probably clichéd to say that, since the dawn of time, man has looked up to the heavens in awe and with a sense of mystery. But even in a day when Wikipedia might be able to tell you the size and location of countless stars—even if you’ve graduated from elementary school—chances are your knowledge of astronomy doesn’t go much further than “Saturn has rings.“Enter the Meade mySKY, a $400 device that essentially turns the sky into a universe-size, self-guided museum tour....

NASA is ready for humans to go to Mars, though it’s got a lot to do between now and its targeted date of 2024. But there was an intriguing possibility raised today at the Humans to Mars Summit in Washington, D.C., something closely in line with a recent proposal by NASA advisers: go to Mars’ moon Phobos first. View full post on TwitterPhobos, a tiny, tiny moon, could make an intriguing way station for Mars exploration....

The secret star of last month’s Google I/O developer conference was the search giant’s self-taught robot brain. Machine learning, which is when you teach a robot how to learn instead of teaching it what it needs to know—is at the forefront of some of Google’s coolest new accomplishments like its fantastic photos service.But Google’s robot brain can do more than just recognize faces like an infant, it’s also learning to talk as detailed in a recent paper....

On Saturday night, two friends were shooting some time-lapse photography of the Golden Gate Bridge from a vantage point of Slacker Hill when a Trident II D5 missile unexpectedly leapt into the frame. The photographer, Justin Majeczky, caught the initial launch in timelapse as the missile streaked away from the horizon behind San Francisco, and then he switched to video recording to capture the missile in flight. View full post on VimeoPart of a routine test flight from the Navy’s ballistic missile submarine USS Kentucky, details about the launch were classified before it occurred, so Majeczky had no way of knowing about it when he set up his camera....

Welcome to PM/AM, Popular Mechanics’ morning briefing on the top science and tech stories for today.Media Platforms Design TeamThe tech industry is full of acquisitions that at first don’t seem to make any sense. Recent examples include the gut reaction to Facebook’s purchase of Oculus VR and the many articles that had to explain why Beats Electronics was actually a good thing for Apple. Twitch and YouTube, however, are made for each other....

As much as we like power tools, it seems some San Francisco fanatics have us beat. On Sunday afternoon at the Ace International Speedway, nearly 60 “bots” battled it out to reign supreme at the junkyard in the Power Tool Drag Races. Taking handheld power tools and modding them, participants raced their home brewed contraptions down a plywood track in weight classes such as “Super Stock,” “Awful Awful Altereds,” and “Funny Car” for an afternoon of “Massive Milwaukee” glory and “Devastating DeWalt” hilarity....