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Media Platforms Design TeamYou need information, you go to Wikipedia—for years the user-curated site has been the default repository for looking up facts. But the information you look up on Wikipedia also creates information about you: Scientists at Harvard have found that studying searches of the online encyclopedia can gauge how many people have the flu in the United States. These findings could lead to new ways to automatically predict flu levels and direct vaccine campaigns....

Media Platforms Design TeamPrice: $13 to $15Price Difference Relative to Similar Products: same as or $5 more Description: We say it over and over again when talking about power tools: Wear your safety goggles. Almost all mechanical work, outdoors or in the shop, requires that you protect your eyes. Although table saws, lawn mowers, and lots of other machines now come equipped with guards, they still throw stuff. Regardless of the season or the application, you need comfortable, close-fitting safety glasses that won’t easily wear out or fog up....

Noise, bulk and inconsistent winds have hampered the adoption of wind turbines by homeowners, but a new design could change that. Imad Mahawili, a chemical engineer and long-time wind-energy consultant, has reimagined the technology to take advantage of even light breezes. In a typical wind turbine, air moves the blades, which turn gears to spin a generator and produce a current. Those mechanical linkages siphon off a good deal of wind energy before it can be converted to electricity....

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — Here at the annual Concours d’Elegance car exhibit, Cadillac gives us a sneak peek at what lies beyond the full-size Escalade SUV. The Escalade has been a hit for Caddy, but with fuel efficiency on the minds of every buyer (even Cadillac buyers), the brand needs more wagons that can transport people and stuff—only with better gas mileage and a bit more poise when the road bends, too....

Media Platforms Design Team ROMEO, Mich.—It’s tough to catalog all the styling influences apparent in Lincoln’s new 2010 MKT. Its nose looks like something out of Star Wars. There’s some 1961 Continental in the tail. And the flanks are just a couple sheets of polyvinyl woodgrain short of being a total ripoff of the Family Truckster. It’s the sort of look that even Lincoln admits will be, ahem, “polarizing.” But it definitely doesn’t look like any other crossover on the road....

Media Platforms Design TeamThere are two things you have in common with Isaac Clarke, the hero of the new game Dead Space (available for PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360). Like him, you are not a space marine, which is a problem, considering the number of mutated, corpse-like horrors sprinting down the corridor at you. And second, you are scared. You might even be terrified. The weapon you’re using is not a gun, but more of a futuristic cross between a nailgun and a reciprocating saw....

SafetyStay out of your home if downed powerlines are touching it, if you smell gas, if the house appears to be leaning to one side, or if the structure has become detached from its foundation. If you suspect damage to the house’s internal wiring, shut off the main circuit breaker. If the electrical panel is covered by water, however, don’t attempt to reach it.* InsuranceGather information to file an insurance claim....

The good folks at Top Speed have cobbled together a rather interesting map that shows the most-searched car brands across the world. China loves Tesla, it seems!Media Platforms Design TeamThe specific data used was taken from Google searches over a 12-month period, April 2014 to March 2015. That’s why it doesn’t line up precisely with the 2014 Google Trends report which, for example, lists Ford as the top search for the United States rather than Toyota....

Media Platforms Design Team Oceans are dangerous wildernesses, and plying them safely has always required the right equipment. In July 1917, spurred by several high-profile tragedies at sea, including accidents and U-boat attacks, PM reported on a new design for davits, devices that lower lifeboats into the water on cables. A new system that lowered a lifeboat with metal crooks, “much as the arm of a moveable crane would,” allowed evacuation even if a ship was listing to the opposite side....

The F-15 Eagle is America’s most storied jet fighter. It has an unbeaten record in the air—104 kills and zero losses—unmatched by any other combat aircraft. It’s also getting long in the tooth—the average age of the 254F-15s serving in the U.S. Air Force service is now 28 years old. That puts it a generation behind the latest planes, from the American F-22 Raptor to the Chinese J-20. The Air Force had planned to replace the F-15 with the F-22 altogether, but stopped production of the F-22 Raptor at just 195 aircraft, as the multi-purpose F-35 Joint Strike Fighter became more politically popular....

Media Platforms Design TeamOn the stormy afternoon of May 2, 2009, 27 newly minted Dallas Cowboys were finishing a workout in the team’s indoor practice facility when the hanging lights 86 feet above them began swaying. On the sidelines of the 83,000-square-foot field house—a tent-like steel-framed building with a tensioned fabric exterior—beat writers and photographers stopped watching the minicamp and stared at the fabric walls, which were snapping like a flag in brisk winds....

Media Platforms Design TeamAll along the corridors of CES, television manufacturers are displaying a new bragging right: “Energy Star 3.0-certified.” The new standard–passed late last year by the EPA and DOE collaboration–brings to bear a slew of new specs for power consumption by televisions. On the top of the list: How efficiently sets run when they’re turned on.“Until November 2008, requirements focused on low power (or standby) modes because this was a low hanging fruit,” says Katherine Kaplan of Energy Star....

Media Platforms Design TeamThe time has finally come to prepare for the inevitable overnight transition from full house to empty nest. Don’t try to process such a big change by yourself—reach out to a few professionals and peers that can help you adjust. Here are a few experts:1) A Real Estate Agent If you’ve ever toyed around with the notion of living downtown in a hi-rise loft, now is the perfect time to put your family home on the market and consider downsizing your biggest asset....

Media Platforms Design TeamAden Crater is the most remote and best-preserved volcano in New Mexico’s . Geologists call it a shield cone, meaning that its low, broad shape consists almost entirely of cooled lava flows. Now extinct, Aden last erupted 16,000 years ago, but it remains an amazing road-trip destination.Potrillo Volcanic FieldGetting to the VolcanoYou know a trip will be fun when the directions say, “turn off the paved road.” Eighteen miles of rough dirt road lie between the highway and the narrow track that heads toward Aden Crater....

From the floor of the New York International Auto Show, contributing editor Ken Juran files up-to-the-minute reports and photos. NEW YORK, April 12—Kicking off press days here at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center this morning was the annual International Motor Press Association breakfast, co-hosted by the Greater New York Automobile Dealers Association. The engaging, cosmopolitan Carlos Ghosn, president and CEO of Nissan and its parent Renault set the tone as keynote speaker....

In anticipation of the New York International Auto Show’s public opening on Friday, Porsche today showcased its replica of the world’s first hybrid electric car: the Porsche Semper Vivus (Latin for “always alive”). Company founder Ferdinand Porsche designed and built the Semper Vivus 111 years ago. The replica, which took Porsche three years and $600,000 to produce, features two mid-mounted 1.2-liter engines and two electrical motors at the front wheels—the same general hybrid setup that Porsche uses in its current hybrids, the 918 Spyder and the Panamera S Hybrid....

Media Platforms Design TeamResidents in the towns surrounding Florida’s Lake Okeechobee received some grim news this week from the International Hurricane Research Center (IHRC). According to a new report entitled “10 Most Hurricane Vulnerable Areas,” the communities around the lake rank just below New Orleans in terms of potential devastation brought on by a hurricane.The dikes and levees surrounding New Orleans and Lake Okeechobee were the main reason they received the list’s top spots....

Armed with their greased cubes and nimble fingers, nearly 100 fierce competitors will descend upon the Exploratorium in San Francisco tomorrow to take part in a battle of speed and skill: the 2007 Winter Caltech Rubik’s Cube Competition.We all remember the frustrations caused by the Rubik’s Cube during childhood, but those participating in this strange competition have more than just learned how to solve the cube—many have mastered it. “We have 13 participants signed up who can solve the cube in under 16 seconds on average,” says Tyson Mao, the founder of the competition as well as the World Cube Association, the sport’s governing body....

Media Platforms Design TeamA new video shows a Russian military robot doing something no American machine in service can match: firing a machine gun. It’s hardly a technological triumph—the U.S. has been testing armed robots for decades. But while political and ethical caution has prevented the West from advancing with the concept, Russia seems determined to field a wide variety of combat robots.The Russians call such robots MRKs, from the Russian for Mobile Robotic Complex....

Media Platforms Design TeamPOPULAR MECHANICS contributor Ben Hewitt will keep readers updated online as he researches a series of print articles for the magazine on alternative-energy technologies–using his own home as a test lab. Hewitt and his family live off the electrical grid in northern Vermont; in the coming months they will be experimenting with ways to improve their lifestyle, while reducing their dependence on fossil fuels. – The Editors Just back from Iowa....