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Carnegie Mellon robotics researchers are using their own snake robots to learn a thing or two about how real serpents move in the wild. By observing snake behavior and trying to recreate it in the lab, they’ve created a more realistic moving snake. While studying sidewinder rattlesnakes, they found that the serpents slither in complex waves, with both horizontal and vertical motions along a sort of internal axis. By modifying the waves, scientists can gain more energy efficient control over the robotic serpents....

Media Platforms Design TeamImproved StatisticsFlood-risk statistics for the upper Mississippi River seriously understate the potential for flooding. In St. Louis and dozens of smaller cities and towns, a one-in-200-year flood may actually occur every 50 years. Correcting those risk numbers could raise flood insurance rates, curb development in high-risk areas, and ultimately reduce federal flood insurance payouts.Coastal BuffersDuring the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, mangrove trees as little as 300 feet deep blunted tsunami flow pressure by up to 90 percent....

Media Platforms Design TeamOne of the coolest, and harshest, truths about the AR.Drone remote-control quadricopter is that you fly it with an iPhone. It’s squarish—about 2 x 2 feet—and it looks like a foamy futuristic racing beetle. Its four propellers are ensconced within soft foam bumpers, and it costs $299. Basically, it’s one of the costliest and most drool-inducing pieces of hardware in the PM office—not counting the power tools, of course....

Media Platforms Design TeamEditor’s Note: Today, NASA announced contracts to support Boeing and SpaceX as they continue building spacecraft to carry American astronauts to orbit. In this story from January 31, 2014, PM contributor Joe Pappalardo analyzes NASA’s plans for private space—and points out where things could get testy.Many space nerds were smiling when they saw details of the 2014 budget: NASA’s big-ticket missions have been spared the Congressional ax. The Orion crew vehicle gets $1....

Japan’s most famous monster is now Tokyo’s most welcomed citizen, as the Japanese government recently approved the fictional character’s legal residency in an effort to promote the district’s latest attraction: a giant Godzilla head towering 171 feet above a Shinjuku entertainment complex.Normally, only the person whose name appears on the legal document can be issued proof-of-residency papers, but the district made an exception and has made available on a first-come, first served basis 3,000 copies of Godzilla’s badass ID, which looks like this:Media Platforms Design TeamWelcome to Tokyo, Godzilla....

You can’t see the real world while you’re in virtual reality, but you can touch it. And what better to be touching than this ludicrously awesome, 3D-printed cockpit of unrelenting righteousness? Nothing, that’s what. The Ocular EVA Pod, as artist and mastermind Micah Ganske calls it, is exactly what it appears to be: An enormous controller for use while in virtual reality.When you slap on your goggles and start going to town on its controls, the specially made VR simulation that goes with the controller shows your VR hands right where they are in real life....

Amid the sleepy plotline, infuriating characters, and cheesy CGI, you may have forgotten something else that the prequels ruined about Star Wars: the fonts.FontShop is gearing up for the Friday release of The Force Awakens with a look at the fonts and lettering styles that have defined the look of Star Wars since the 1977 original. It’s a deeper and more fascinating subject than you might think. For instance, Yves Peters spotted the return of ITC Serif Gothic, a typeface used for the “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…” tagline as well as the credits on the 70s poster....

Media Platforms Design Team>Instead of a single-fuselage cylinder, the D series melds two partial cylinders into a distinctive “double-bubble” shape. This adds to the lift and allows for longer, skinnier wings and a smaller tail, reducing drag.The engines sit at the top rear of the fuselage, where they draw in slower-moving air that passes over the plane, using less fuel for the same amount of thrust—a technique known as boundary layer ingestion....

Media Platforms Design TeamIn 2005, the Cassini orbiter discovered huge, 125-mile-high geysers spraying from the south pole of Enceladus, a small and icy moon that orbits Saturn. Since then, scientists have speculated where the geysers draw from—and whether that water source might be home to some form of life. The most intriguing idea was that the geysers indicated the presence of a subsurface ocean. Later, the discovery that the plumes contain water vapor, nitrogen, methane, carbon dioxide and other chemicals associated with life made the geysers even more exciting....

Just about 250 light years from Earth, there’s a most unusual and just recently discovered star system. We’ve found binary systems before – that is, two stars orbiting each other. We know of triple star systems; the Alpha / Proxima Centauri system is one such example. But the new system has five stars, which isn’t completely unknown, but is exceedingly rare. It was discovered by the SuperWASP program, which normally hunts for planets....

Media Platforms Design TeamFirst outfit your iPad with this smooth and appropriately futuristic-looking appendage. Then point your tablet in any direction and you can get a meticulous 3D model of your surroundings. The device, called the Structure Sensor, from Occipital, can map an entrance foyer or a motorcycle’s cylinder head with full measurements for every edge, all to a slim 1 percent of error for the measured distances. The possibilities are nearly limitless, and so is the enthusiasm—the , which asked for $100,000, earned nearly $1....

Late last week, we reported on the federal, congressional, and National Highway Transportation Safety Agency (NHTSA) investigation into 1.6 million General Motors cars with faulty ignitions, and the scope of the mechanical failure that can cause a car to shut off involuntarily, and in turn, switch off safety systems including power steering and airbags.On top of that, GM has announced a further round of recalls unrelated to the ignition switch problem, two of which also pertain to airbags: 1....

Ronald Mallett’s father died when he was 10. But Mallett, now 69, has never stopped trying to reconnect. Bloomberg has a feature on University of Connecticut physics professor’s quest to build a time machine that would allow him to send a message back to his father. He knows it sounds crazy, but he thinks his machine is on the verge of a breakthrough and is seeking $250,000 from investors to make it work....

Media Platforms Design TeamThe payoff for reaching air-breathing hypersonic flight—five times the speed of sound, without rockets—would be revolutionary. A hypersonic airliner could carry passengers to any place on Earth within four hours using conventional airports and infrastructure. And then there are the incredible military applications of such speed: imagine a cruise missile that could strike a target 500 miles away in just 10 minutes.The Air Force and DARPA have been partnering on the X-51A unmanned scramjet project, the most advanced hypersonic aircraft yet built....

The magic of virtual reality isn’t just that it creates a convincing digital world for you to explore, but that it does that with little more than a screen pressed up against your eyes. But that approach has its limitations, as Wired points out, including one that has plagued VR for its whole existence with no real end in sight. The issue has to do with that common feeling of VR sickness....

What do you do to waste time at work? Browse the web? Answer personal emails? At GE, engineers do something a little crazier with their down time, like making an entirely 3D-printed miniature jet engine that actually works. This itty bitty engine is built from parts made entirely through additive manufacturing, a 3D-printing technology where instead of layering plastic you layer metal powder and then melt it all together with lasers....

NEW YORK — Last week was Fleet Week here, so a few of us from Popular Mechanics walked over to Pier 88 on the Hudson River to check out some of the latest gee-whiz weaponry from the Office of Naval Research. I got an in-seat tour of the new Lightweight Stabilized M240 Weapon System, a swiveling rooftop gun mount for Humvees that’s completely computer-controlled from inside the cockpit using dual joysticks and a large resistive touchscreen display....

If you, like us, are on a bender of consuming all things Star Wars, appetite whetted by the new teaser released yesterday, then set aside 50 minutes for this 1977 documentary. George Lucas explains how Chewbacca was inspired by his malamute, Indiana, and describing the Force as “boiling down religion to a very basic concept.” You also get some awesome shots of the to-be-billionaire standing in the Tunisian desert.There are heaps of geeky facts in here....

Media Platforms Design TeamOn-Sale Date: October 2011 Price: $43,995 to $44,995Competitors: Audi Q3, BMW X1 Powertrain: 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder, 237 hp, 340 lb-ft; 6-speed automatic, AWDEPA Fuel Economy (City/Highway): 19/28What’s New: Not all Detroit Auto Show concepts make great road cars. For instance, the retro-inspired VW Beetle gained pounds and length during its journey from concept to production, as did Porsche’s original concept Boxster. But Range Rover’s new Evoque compact sports utility is virtually identical to the concept unveiled at Detroit 2008, the LRX....

Presidents often rely on slogans and catchphrases to give their policies some direction and clarity. In 2011 the Obama administration announced its most far-reaching foreign policy initiative: The Pivot to the Pacific. The stated goal is to expand the U.S. presence in the Pacific Rim to “rebalance” American priorities—and to make it plain to China that the United States and its Pacific allies have partial control over the South China Sea, a patch of water that is vital for its natural resources and strategic shipping lanes....