Ratings

Entertainment & Gaming

PopSci 5-Minute Project: Disc Doctor

By Abby Seiff Posted on 5.23.2008 11 Comments

About to chuck that busted CD? Not so fast, young grasshopper. Web editor Megan Miller demonstrates three ways to resurrect those scratched discs using stuff you probably already have sitting on your shelf.

DIY

A Car-Crushing Motorcycle

By Abby Seiff Posted on 5.21.2008 2 Comments

Stuntman Ray Baumann is accustomed to vehicles that soar through the air, vaulting over rows of cars. But the Australian’s latest ride makes its bones on the ground. It’s the Monster Motorbike from Hell, a 10-foot-tall, 15-ton beast that drags vans around racetracks and flattens sedans as if they were soda cans.

Entertainment & Gaming

Indiana Jones and the Quest for Improved Effects

By Gregory Mone Posted on 5.22.2008 0 Comments

Remember those weird ghoulish souls coming out of the Arc of the Covenant in the first Indy flick? Well, Hollywood has come a long way since then. And while Indiana Jones himself may have lost a step since he last appeared on the big screen, the effects backing him up this time promise to be a vast improvement. In Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, the fedora-wearing adventurer will encounter strange creatures, including an army of monkeys, race through some wild jungle scenery and face-down thousands of man-eating ants - thanks to Industrial Light & Magic.

Technology

The Biggest Boom in the Universe

By Abby Seiff Posted on 5.20.2008 4 Comments

Meet pair-instability supernova SN2006GY, the most extraordinary explosion in the cosmos. Unlike its smaller, regular supernova cousins, which blast off the outer layers of a star and pack what remains into a neutron core or a black hole, the pair-instability supernova is a much more violent celestial finale. These events happen only in stars that are at least 150 times as large as our sun and result in total annihilation of the star. Astrophysicists contend that this type of eruption helped seed the cosmos with heavy metals like iron, a process that ultimately allowed planets to form.

Entertainment & Gaming

Steven Spielberg: From Blockbusters to Block Busters

By John Mahoney Posted on 5.16.2008 0 Comments

In a career that spans the heartrending drama of Schindlers List, the popcorn thrills of Indiana Jones and the flat-out cartoon silliness of Animaniacs, Steven Spielberg has demonstrated a unique cross-generational ability to capture our imaginations and manipulate our emotions. Now hes applying these talents to a new medium, developing a series of innovative videogames in collaboration with Electronic Arts. The first, Boom Blox (released last month), embraces his fun-for-the-whole-family side. This action-puzzle game challenges players to destroy structures made of building blocks, using the Nintendo Wii remote control to hurl onscreen objects with a flick of the wrist.