• Events and Promotions

    PopSci Augments Reality

    By Posted on 6.21.2009 18 Comments

    Today the July issue of Popular Science -- with a cover package on the future of energy -- officially hits newsstands, and with its release we unveil an extremely cool first-ever for the magazine biz: The first interactive 3-D "augmented reality" magazine cover.

    6.19.2009 at 02:11am - Comment by visualize

    They asked for opinions and I gave one with reasons. Keep your dick cheese to yourself.

  • Events and Promotions

    PopSci Augments Reality

    By Posted on 6.21.2009 18 Comments

    Today the July issue of Popular Science -- with a cover package on the future of energy -- officially hits newsstands, and with its release we unveil an extremely cool first-ever for the magazine biz: The first interactive 3-D "augmented reality" magazine cover.

    6.18.2009 at 05:55pm - Comment by visualize

    I would have preferred to just press a button and receive the same effect. Show the cover with a click here icon and out pop the turbines. It's no better than google sketchup except it's harder to control. If an image had come out of the magazine it would have been amazing, but having to hold something in the material world in order to see something in the virtual is not very impressive.

  • Science

    Hackers: the China Syndrome

    By Posted on 4.27.2009 26 Comments

    At 8 a.m. on May 4, 2001, anyone trying to access the White House Web site got an error message. By noon, whitehouse.gov was down entirely, the victim of a so-called distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack. Somewhere in the world, hackers were pinging White House servers with thousands of page requests per second, clogging the site. Also attacked were sites for the U.S. Navy and various other federal departments.

    4.25.2009 at 03:40am - Comment by visualize

    "People think of quantum cryptography as a distant possibility," said Chip Elliott, a principal scientist at BBN Technologies and leader of its quantum engineering team, in a statement. "But the Darpa Quantum Network is up and running today underneath Cambridge [Massachusetts]. BBN has built a set of high-speed, full-featured quantum cryptography systems and has woven them together into an extremely secure network." Quantum computing provides near-invulnerable encryption that cannot be eavesdropped upon. Encryption keys are sent via a pattern of single polarised photons and can be changed 100 times per second. The method is also spy proof, since any third-party observation of the photons changes their properties. BBN Technologies helped develop the initial backbone of the internet, Arpanet, and developed the first network email. The company is currently involved with developing quantum communications systems for satellites.

  • Gadgets

    Easy Rider

    By Berne Broudy Posted on 3.30.2009 7 Comments

    How do you make a bicycle that never needs lube, never leaves grease on your pants, and always delivers smooth pedaling? Simple: Ditch the chain. For its new Soho commuter bike, Trek replaced greasy metal links with a dry belt. Unlike other attempts at such bikes, the Soho is silky smooth to pedal. And it’s the first to offer multiple speeds, using an eight-gear transmission inside the rear-wheel hub.

    4.9.2009 at 02:02am - Comment by visualize

    The sides of the belt are open, unlike a chain, allowing the possibility of it working its way over and slipping off. Also like the article said, the teeth cannot be too long or they snag, too short and the belt would slip. Something that is in a delicate balance between the two is subject to do both at some point or another. Why were other companies so unsuccessful with their bikes? What could this company have done so differently? I am curious whether they just ignored the safety concerns and built it anyway as a gimmick. I broke my jaw riding my bike when half a link broke and the chain slipped off. While I would like to find a chain replacement, I don't think this is it.

  • Gadgets

    Associated Press Not Ready for the Digital Conversion

    By Sean Captain Posted on 4.2.2009 7 Comments

    It's no wonder that many Americans are still confused about the conversion from analog to digital TV service, which began yesterday and is due to wrap up on June 12. Even the news media is confused. For example, an AP article on the transition included the following bit of misinformation:

    In addition, many households will find that they need new antennas. Digital signals generally come in better than analog ones, but they are not received well by some older antennas.

    2.19.2009 at 03:04pm - Comment by visualize

    I much preferred the analog signal because then at least I could see something and the sound wouldn't cut in and out. I don't receive any of the major networks and am going to be forced to learn spanish because that is all I am able to pick up. I smell a conspiracy theory brewing.

  • Entertainment & Gaming

    How Not to Make a 3D movie

    By Sean Captain Posted on 4.2.2009 3 Comments

    Since it debuted half a century ago, 3D cinema has mainly been a gimmick. To date, perhaps my favorite of the all these movies is a short horror film farce by the Three Stooges, because it fully embraces the silliness of 3D, using every gag imaginable, with no pretensions of it being an art form.

    1.12.2009 at 12:38am - Comment by visualize

    They need to drop all this nonsense with the left eye seeing this and the right eye seeing that, funny glasses and special film. If they just were able to make the whole image in focus it would appear three dimensional. Think about it...everything in the world is in focus, crisp as can be but depending on what draws your attention some things go in and out of focus while you are looking at them, which creates a visible three dimensional world. In a movie if everything was in focus you could look past the actors face into the background, right now you would just see mostly unfocused blobs which end up trapping your attention on the actor for lack of being able to see anything else. True 3D comes through absolute focus so the eye has a choice of what to see.

  • GluBam Construction

    By Posted on 11.9.2008 Comments

    The bridge Yan Xiao built in Leiyang with GluBam was the town’s first. Each beam that spans the brick columns was created using Xiao’s novel process of transforming irregular bamboo into a practical building material. First he tore strips of bamboo from the stalk and arranged them in such a way as to provide the most strength. He then coated the strips with glue and compressed them in a self-built hydraulic press into beams, 33 feet long and up to three feet wide, each capable of supporting eight tons. Xiao says that the beams cost just 20 percent as much as imported lumber.

    12.9.2008 at 02:31pm - Comment by visualize

    Bamboo is the fastest growing woody plant in the world. Makes sense...

  • Science

    The First Few Minutes After Death

    By Sam Barrett Posted on 10.31.2008 23 Comments

    After countless accounts of near-death experiences, dating as far back as ancient Greece, science is now taking serious steps forward to explore the nature of the phenomenon. A new project aims to determine whether the experience is a physiological event or evidence that the human consciousness is far more complicated than we ever believed.

    11.6.2008 at 03:07pm - Comment by visualize

    Interesting study but the method of putting a picture on top of a really high shelf has too many problems. First it can only be seen from the ceiling. What if the person doesn't pin itself to the ceiling and then look side to side for pictures on shelving because the soul is too concerned with its physical death and has more important things to pay attention to? Why don't they draw a shape or put a sticker on the persons forehead since it would require a mirror to decipher the image. If the person can repeat later what was on their forehead then it would point toward an out of body experience. Afterall I would assume the out of body soul would be looking back down at its physical body and would easily be able to give an answer. The same cannot be said for some arbitrary picture on a dusty shelf.



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December 2009: Best of What's New

In our December issue, Popular Science names the 100 best innovations of the year: bombproof wallpaper, self-parking cars, the fastest helicopter, and 97 more. Plus inventor profiles and videos.

Check out the best of what's new here.

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