the score

Here at PopSci, we love when our leading-edge reporting on the seemingly unbelievable, futuristic developments in science and tech end up, well, becoming reality. We reported three and a half years ago on d3o, the elastic polymer that's flexible at rest but stiffens instantly in response to an impact, first found in a soft winter beanie that protects like a helmet. Now, it can be found in 107 products made by 22 different companies, ranging from iPod cases to polo kneepads.

Who doesn’t want firm buttocks and rock hard thighs? That’s the question men everywhere should be asking Reebok after they became the first major shoe manufacturer to bring out their own leg-toning walking shoe, marketed, just like similar shoes before it, only to the ladies. You know the footwear in question--the shoes with the lopsided soles, which force wearers to work a bit harder to walk, toning all the while.

While men should thank Reebok for helping to further tone the gams of the fairer sex, shouldn't we demand equal access in pursuit of a tighter tush?

As if a night filled with 480-foot home runs wasn’t exciting enough, ESPN introduced its much-hyped Ball Tracker technology during Monday's Home Run Derby, giving balls a digital comet trail that indicated whether or not it could clear the fences.

While superimposing graphics in post-processing has been around longer than steroids, the system unveiled last night has some truly cool tech powering it, relying on Doppler radar to instantly track and predict the ball's path in real time, just 400 milliseconds after it leaves the bat.

An investigative report, dramatically titled “Danger in the Air,” by the ESPN news program E:60 suggests that exhaust from ice resurfacing machines is putting skaters around the country at serious risk. The report faults improper ventilation or unmaintained resurfacing machines, which often run on propane or natural gas, for the hazards to skaters.

Read more, and check out the video, after the jump!

There’s an old fashioned brawl brewing in the sports drink industry. The undisputed champion, Gatorade, has filed a lawsuit accusing its perennial challenger, Powerade, of “knowingly misleading consumers and deceptively overstating the product benefits of its sports drink Powerade ION4.” The lawsuit is in response to a rash of bold Powerade ads which claim ION4 is an “upgrade” from Gatorade because the Powerade drink contains four electrolytic ingredients, whereas Gatorade contains only two, thus making Powerade a more “complete” drink.

For lower body amputees, the expression “as easy as riding a bike,” is an unfortunate idiom. But when saddled into the GlideCycle, amputees, and others with physical impairments, might make those pedaling traditional bikes look like they’re the ones working hard.

When Lance Armstrong broke his collarbone a few weeks ago, the sporting world gasped: Superman appeared to be breakable. Sure, he survived testicular cancer and broke up with Sheryl Crow, but, generally speaking, the guy has been infallible since winning his first Tour de France. But is it possible that the collarbone fracture wasn’t an anomaly, but the revealing of Lance’s kryptonite: weak bones?

Few things in sports have changed less than bowling shoes. From the color schemes to the odor spray, they’re as constant as stale bowling alley hot dogs and, um, ‘uniquely’ qualified bar staff. But, what about the balls?

While ten pounds has remained ten pounds, little else has been maintained. The impact of technology has received plenty of coverage with regard to golf, swimming and tennis, but achieving a perfect game in bowling over the past 30 years has also become less of an art and more of a science. In homage to the good old days, the Professional Bowling Association (PBA), hosted the first ever Geico Plastic Ball Championship, where competitors rolled with identical decades-old balls. We offer a brief review for those heading to the lanes next weekend and hoping to impress a date.