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Media Platforms Design TeamHugo Neu Recycling, once just a scrap metal recycler, has gone into the e-waste recycling. And boy is there a lot of it, as Gizmodo shows. Crates upon crates of TVs, monitors, printers, computers, and more.The video takes you inside the day-to-day operation of Hugo Neu, which includes sorting out the metals (easily reusable) from the silicon components (not as much). It starts out with the larger e-waste, with its hazardous materials removed, entering a giant shredder....

There are a number of possible answers to the Fermi Paradox, the problem that asks: If alien life is out there, why haven’t we heard from aliens? They’re too far away. We haven’t been listening long enough. We’re not listening or looking in the right places. There’s nothing out there. The aliens are out there, but aren’t intelligent or at least aren’t as technologically developed.And then there is the morbid option....

Media Platforms Design TeamWith a proven record of supplying clean, natural energy to mariners ever since they first took sails to sea, wind power is an attractive—if inconsistent—alternative to diesel engines, which consume gallons of oil. In March 1925, Popular Mechanics featured an innovation called the “rotor ship,” invented by German engineer Anton Flettner. The vessel was hailed as “the first new development in sailing ships since the earliest navigators discovered they could utilize the wind’s power....

Media Platforms Design TeamSpinal discs are the cushions between our vertebrae, carrying the load of the body. They’re one thing you don’t want to go wrong—acute and debilitating pain can result if they are damaged. And while many people recover from a slipped or herniated disc without surgery, the treatment options are fairly bleak for those who don’t: The offending disc must be removed and the adjoining vertebrae fused together, or an artificial disc made of metal or plastic can be implanted in the space....

Philip FriedmanThe Raspberry Pi is about the most minimalist computer you can buy. Made of little more than a single circuit board, the $35 computer arrives with no case, keyboard, monitor, or mouse—and, most importantly, no operating system. But a blank slate can be a fun place to start with a computer, especially when, like the Pi, it runs on Linux, an open and collaborative operating system that is receptive to tons of coding tweaks....

Media Platforms Design TeamWhen Egypt’s military wanted to send a signal to the street protesters, officers ordered American-made F-16s to roar over Cairo. Seen as a major force of stabilization or repression, Egypt’s military is in a strong position to guide the fate of the nation—and the region. The United States’ Egyptian MilitaryThe Egyptian military is essentially a U.S. creation. From tanks to missiles to radios, billions of dollars’ worth of arms and security equipment are transferred from U....

Our aversion to hatchbacks is pronounced, but not universal. Consider the popularity of crossovers, which are nothing more than tall, all-wheel-drive hatchbacks. It seems like we’re only willing to accept the sensible feature if the vehicle can be viewed as something closer to a tool than a car. Toyota has dipped its toe into the car-like hatchback pool with the 2009 Venza, a car that slides in neatly between a station wagon and a crossover....

In a select few species of ants, the familiar caste system that divides members in classes like workers or soldiers has another level: supersoldier. These huge insects fight off invading army ants, often by using their extra-large heads in a Spartan-like defense. The supersoldier caste appears in just eight species of the hyper-diverse Pheidole genus of ants. But researchers have discovered, in a new study released today in Science, that a group of more than 1000 species of ants have retained hidden ancestral genetic material to build supersoldiers—they’re just not using it....

Q: My 1999 Pontiac Sunfire coupe is doing something something I can’t easily explain. The car has 240,000 km on it and it has the stock engine, although I think I bought it with a K filter charger. While driving the temperature gauge will plummet from about 177 degrees to -7, and the engine is trying to keep up with temperature drop, because I’m getting worse fuel economy. I think it’s a mass airflow or fuel pressure problem....

Media Platforms Design TeamThreat Level I: IrritatingVictims: Anyone who uses technologyDamage: A Slow but manageable leak of personal information, behavior and geographic locationPublic CamerasLegally, public spaces are fair game for taking photographs. But these days the sheer number and sophistication of public cameras is creating an environment of constant surveillance—especially in cities. A 2006 survey by the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) found more than 4000 cameras in Lower Manhattan alone....

Media Platforms Design Team(Photo Credit: Getty Images)You don’t need to dig into the Earth to find diamonds. Just reach for the Jif. In his quest to mimic conditions deep inside the Earth, Dan Frost of the Bayerisches Geoinstitut in Germany has discovered a way to turn peanut butter and carbon dioxide into diamonds.Frost was working to replicate the crystalline structures believed to exist in the lower mantle of the Earth. During his research, he discovered an effect that might pull carbon dioxide from the crust down into deeper layers....

Media Platforms Design TeamWe’ve known Hyundai was developing a V8-powered, rear-drive premium sedan for quite some time. And now we have the first official look: Hyundai will show this Genesis Concept at the New York auto show next Wednesday. Our guess is that this concept will look a lot like the production car when it arrives in 2008. To our eyes, it looks a lot like the Lexus GS—and that’s certainly not a bad thing....

Media Platforms Design TeamThe announcement last week set off a flurry of news reports with headlines such as “Underwater volcano is Earth’s biggest” and “The Largest Volcano in the World Is Also the Shyest.” Almost as quickly, though, came cautious words from the geoscience community, saying that a lot more data was needed before the newly discovered Tamu Massif volcano, buried deep under the Pacific Ocean, could lay claim to the title of largest volcano in the world, much less be a contender for the largest in our solar system....

Media Platforms Design TeamIT’S DAY FOUR of a five-day build, and the nine-man Monster Garage team has reached its first crisis. The project being tackled is ambitious even by the audacious standards of a show that has turned a Mustang into a 50-mph lawnmower, and a school bus into a party boat. In the center of the Long Beach, Calif., shop, a number of mechanics are chipping away the shell of a partially dismantled Panoz Esperante, an exotic aluminum and carbon-fiber sports car built in Atlanta....

Media Platforms Design TeamDoes anyone really use their computer as a true media center? The only widespread configuration we can imagine, for now, is the computer as digital music hub. Which is why Logitech’s MX Air Cordless Laser Mouse may actually be filling a need, as opposed to simply being an excellent cordless mouse/pointer. And it really is excellent—probably the best pointer we’ve tried—due to a tremor cancellation feature that steadies the cursor on the screen, much like image stabilization in a camcorder....

Media Platforms Design Team GENEVA — Just a year after letting us feast our eyes on its Gran Turismo coupe with the exclusive North American unveiling, Maserati is back here with the all-new Gran Turismo S, which they’re calling the ultimate expression of the coupe’s high-performance capabilities. We say it makes an already lustworthy vehicle even more drool-enducing. Two major improvements separate the GTS from its predecessor: a 35-pony bump up to a 440-hp 4....

UPDATE: Orion successfully splashed down back on Earth right on schedule, at 11:29 a.m. Eastern time on Friday.View full post on TwitterMedia Platforms Design TeamMedia Platforms Design TeamUPDATE, Friday, Dec. 5: The Orion test vehicle lifted off without a hitch from Cape Canaveral on Friday morning at 7:05 a.m. ET. “The launch itself was just a blast to see how well the rocket did,” said Mark Guyer NASA’s program manager for Orion on NASA TV after the launch....

Just about every 20 seconds on average, someone somewhere in the United States hits a deer–a million and a half each year in collisions that cost over a billion dollars, kill more than 200 people and injure another 29,000. At an abandoned airstrip in central Montana, researchers have built the nation’s de facto proving ground for a new generation of animal detection systems, aimed at alerting oncoming cars to would-be roadkill before it ends up in their headlights (sometimes literally)....

What do you get when you combine branding behemoths Nike and Apple? We went down to New York’s Chelsea Piers sports center to find out. It turns out that Apple’s putting a little bit of iPod in your shoe. Mark Parker, CEO of Nike, and Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer, announced the Sport Kit, a $29 setup with a 2.4-GHz transceiver that plugs into your iPod Nano and a fava bean-size sensor that fits into a custom-designed hole in Nike’s new Air Zoom Moire running shoe....

Media Platforms Design TeamKirby Chambliss, five-time national aerobatic champion and Red Bull racer, performs his gut-churning air-show routine for the crowd each year at at Oshkosh, Wis. It’s a gut-churning spectacle—an aggressive, low-altitude sequence of end-over-end tumbles, tail slides, and flat spins. Having ridden along with a few aerobatic pilots in the past, my main thought while watching Chambliss has always been: .the EAA AirVenture Fly-InThank God I’m not in that planeBut a few days before this year’s show, I got an email from GoPro, one of Chambliss’s sponsors, asking me if I wanted to go along for a ride....