• Entertainment & Gaming

    The Modern Twist on an Ancient Shoe

    By Abby Seiff Posted on 5.14.2008 6 Comments

    Imagine a shoe so uncomfortable you have to hammer the insole and smash it inside a door to make it tolerable. Now imagine tossing the same $70 shoe in the trash because it shredded into pieces after just 45 minutes. Welcome to the world of ballet.

  • Gadgets

    Samsung, LG Unite on Mobile Digital TV Standard

    By Sean Captain Posted on 5.14.2008 1 Comments

    Its hard enough getting digital TV from an antenna in your house. Forget about in a car. But Samsung and LG aim to change that. In a scary reminiscence of Blu-ray vs. HD DVD, the two companies had been developing similar but incompatible standards (called AVS-B and MPH) for digital TV that can be delivered on the road.

  • The Environment

    Of Locust Swarms and Cannibals

    By Matt Ransford Posted on 5.14.2008 1 Comments

    The Plagues of Egypt in the book of Exodus are horrible, fantastical events we have yet to witness on Earth: rivers running with blood, hail mixed with fire, the deaths of firstborns. Some plagues, however, we do see from time to time. For modern-day farmers, locusts are very much a real, destructive force. Swarming in groups by the billions, locusts can travel hundreds of miles, stripping vegetation bare as they go. Scientists have never entirely understood the phenomenon, although one study has suggested swarming results from a lot of banging around as a consequence of overcrowding.

  • The Environment

    Polar Bear Listed as Threatened Species

    By Dawn Stover Posted on 5.14.2008 7 Comments

    It's official: polar bears are in trouble. Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne has announced that he is accepting the recommendation of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list the polar bear as a "threatened" species under the Endangered Species Act. That means the bear is just one step from becoming "endangered," a category reserved for species on the brink of extinction.

  • Cars

    Masters of the Pit (Crew)

    By Abby Seiff Posted on 5.14.2008 2 Comments

    The race may not always be to the swift, but, like Damon Runyon said, "that's the way to bet." With auto races often decided in the space between seconds, every fraction saved during pit stops is time in the bank. That means race teams' pit crews are as much a component to winning as is a set of tires, an engine or the driver. Tomorrow, the best crews in Nascar's Sprint Cup series will square off at the Sprint Pit Crew Challenge in Charlotte, NC. Twenty-four teams will compete over the whine of air wrenches for the title of fastest pit crew in the business.

  • The Environment

    Gasoline Independence

    By Matt Ransford Posted on 5.15.2008 2 Comments

    For those looking to get themselves off the grid—or at least move toward that ideal—a number of options are currently available. You can tack solar panels onto the roof of your house. You can erect a small wind turbine in your yard. You can now even distill ethanol in your garage. The EFuel 100 MicroFueler is a device the size of two very large refrigerators which will convert 490 pounds of feedstock (sugar and yeast) into 35 gallons of ethanol over the course of a week. Plug it in to any standard outlet and it will consume 150 watts for each batch. But while the concept of manufacturing your own fuel sounds appealing on its face, I'm not entirely sure the numbers add up to make it worth it.

  • 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.

  • Gadgets

    Super-Slo-Mo Fun With the Casio EX-F1 at the Beijing Zoo

    By John Mahoney Posted on 5.16.2008 5 Comments

    Our own Theodore Gray (the man behind Gray Matter's mad science) is currently in China, and he's taken the opportunity to put his new Casio EX-F1 high-speed camera to excellent use at the Beijing Zoo. And when we say excellent we mean the majestic hawk at the Beijing zoo defecating and flapping its wings at 300 frames per second kind of excellent. And if that's not enough, he's got a dolphin leaping from beneath the water and a sparrow taking flight to boot.

  • Cars

    Big-Ticket Beaters

    By John Mahoney Posted on 5.16.2008 6 Comments

    A rust-dappled Hyundai for $3,000, a clapped-out Geo Metro for $5,000, and a censurable Ford Festiva for six grand? Welcome to upside-down world. The rising price of dinosaur champagne has already decimated the large-SUV business, and now the realities of gasoline economics are elevating what was once the lowliest segment of the used-car market into Croesus' territory.

  • The Environment

    America's Dwindling Fresh Water

    By Matt Ransford Posted on 5.15.2008 2 Comments

    The Aral Sea, located between Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, was once the fourth largest lake on the planet. Decades of irrigation works diverting water from the two rivers which fed it have left the sea today at 10 percent of the size it once was. Much of what remains is heavily polluted, devoid of fish, and surrounded by a great empty bed of salt which often blows into the surrounding areas, wrecking crops and contaminating drinking water. We might be tempted to write off the disaster as a consequence of the lumbering Soviet bureaucracy, something that could never happen in the States. But as the Plains face consecutive droughts and the Western states continue to burn, all eyes turn to the Great Lakes to fill the growing voids.

Page 1 of 2 12next ›last »



Download Our iPhone App

Stay up to date on the latest news of the future of science and technology from your iPhone with full articles, images and offline viewing



Follow Us On Twitter

Featuring every article from the magazine and website, plus links from around the Web. Also see our PopSci DIY feed



Become a Fan On Facebook

Share links with friends, comment on stories and more


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.

Popular Science Photo Pool


Share your photos in the Pop Sci pool at www.flickr.com!
tags_sprite.png
POP_embeddedForm_cover_May09.jpg