Autos Should You Warm Up Your Car When It's Cold?Popular Mechanics - By Jay Bennett and Ezra DyerIn the thick of winter, the common wisdom is that when you are gearing up to take your truck out in the cold and snow, you should step outside, start up your engine, and let it idle to warm up. But contrary
Science How One Physicist Solved a 127-Year-Old Wave RiddlePopular Mechanics - By David GrossmanAnyone who has ever been on the stern (rear) of a boat has seen a familiar sight: waves rippling out in what's called a wake. Science has long assumed that there's a uniformity to this rippling, which
Aliens Here's How Aliens Might See EarthPopular Mechanics - By Courtney LinderHumans are narcissists when it comes to space. Earth is the center of the universe because, well, we live on it. While astronauts have seen the blue planet first-hand from the vacuum of space, we still
Science Scientists Build Schrödinger's Cat on a Quantum LevelPopular Mechanics - By David GrossmanQuantum mechanics often has difficulty breaking through to the general public, which is where the importance of "Schrödinger's Cat" lies. The thought experiment captured the general imagination, with today
Play buttonCement The World's Largest Electric Vehicle Is a Dump TruckPopular Mechanics - By Courtney LinderBack before we as a society got privy to saving the environment, the scattering of Nissan Leaf owners were constantly pummeled with jokes. U.S. drivers, in particular, love that surge of adrenaline at
San Francisco State University The World's Oldest Webcam Will Finally Go OfflinePopular Mechanics - By Daisy HernandezFogCam, the world's longest running webcam, will be shut off at the end of August its creators, Jeff Schwartz and Dan Wong, announced on Twitter: FogCam has been in "near-continuous operation" for the
Military The USAF's First Certified 3D-Printed Part Is a Toilet Seat CoverPopular Mechanics - By Kyle MizokamiThe U.S. Air Force, faced with an aging aircraft fleet, is turning to 3D printing to dramatically cut down the time and cost of manufacturing spare parts. Travis Air Base, located in California, is printing
Autos 2020 Toyota Supra Spied During Filming of 'Fast 9'Popular Mechanics - By Eric StaffordAnyone who grew up watching the Fast & Furious movies knows that certain cars will always be connected to the characters who drove them, like a vehicular spirit animal, if you will. While Brian O'Conner
Oxygen Where Does the Oxygen in the Universe Come From, Exactly?Popular Mechanics - By David GrossmanThe sun doesn't just give off the heat needed for life on Earth to exist. The sun, and stars like it, also create most of the oxygen in the Universe. They create oxygen through a series of thermonuclear
Revolution How Scattering Light Could Power a Microchip RevolutionPopular Mechanics - By David GrossmanFiber optics are the world's hidden backbone, spanning oceans and connecting continents. Giant companies like Microsoft and Facebook join forces to create these cables, like the Marea subsea cable, which
Play buttonRafale Deal The Dassault Rafale Fighter Jet Demands Your AttentionPopular Mechanics - By Kyle MizokamiThe Dassault Rafale is one of the least appreciated fighter jets in the world, and from this video it’s hard to understand why. The video, taken last week at the Zigermeet Air Show in Switzerland, shows
Science Scientists Learned How to Reconstruct Long-Extinct AnimalsPopular Mechanics - By Daisy HernandezResearchers at University College Cork (UCC) in Ireland have figured out how to reconstruct the bodies of extinct vertebrates by "analyzing the chemistry of fossilized melanosomes from internal organs."
Rabbits Is This a Rabbit or Raven?Popular Mechanics - By Andrew DanielsWe’re still not done fighting over math problems and optimal sleeping temperatures, but today brings yet another tweet that’s specifically designed to stoke fierce debate. In the video below, a hand is
Space This Is the Rocket That Will Carry the Next Lander to the MoonPopular Mechanics - By David GrossmanThe Peregrine lunar lander, a private-public partnership between NASA and Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic, Inc., plans on returning an unmanned American lander to the moon in 2021. Astrobotic has just announced
Play buttonINF Treaty After Leaving Treaty, U.S. Tests Ground Launched Cruise MissilePopular Mechanics - By Kyle MizokamiThe U.S. has tested a new ground launched cruise missile just weeks after a treaty banning them expired. The new missile, previously banned under the Intermediate Range Forces Treaty (INF), was launched
Military So...Can You Actually Buy an Old Warplane?Popular Mechanics - By Kyle MizokamiA Florida company is offering a truly unique used aircraft for sale: an F-16 Fighting Falcon fighter jet available for the cool price of $8.5 million. Once a deadly predator of the skies, the aircraft
Science Why Do Prairie Dogs in Colorado Have the Plague?Popular Mechanics - By Daisy HernandezYeah, the Plague is still a thing—these Colorado prairie dogs can attest having recently contracted the deadly disease. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reports that Portions of the Rocky Mountain Arsenal
Mobile Technology This Press-On Sticker Could Someday Monitor Your HealthPopular Mechanics - By Courtney LinderYou know those trials for people suffering from sleep apnea? The ones where they hook up oodles of wonky sensors connected to wires that hang all over your face, making you look like you're caught in spider
Science Everyone Is Going Crazy Over the Best Air Conditioner Temperature. How Cool Do You Keep Your House?Popular Mechanics - By Andrew DanielsWe’re arguing about air conditioners today, because what else do you yell about with strangers when you’re all stuck in the oppressively sweaty doldrums of August? Here’s the tweet that’s riling everyone
6 Genius Ways to Trick Surveillance SystemsPopular Mechanics - By Courtney LinderToday's databases are jam-packed with, well, our data, from our license plate numbers to our fingerprints to photos of our actual faces. But that doesn't sit right with some hackers, who take issue with
UC Davis Why Hurricanes Make This Spider Even More AggressivePopular Mechanics - By John WenzHurricanes reshape terrain when they make landfall, but they could also be shaping up something else: animal behavior. In research published today in Nature, scientists from University of California Santa
Space A Neutron Star Might Have Just Collided with a Black HolePopular Mechanics - By David GrossmanScientists at the Hawaii-based Keck Observatory believe they might have an exciting find on their hands, something like a galactic playoff game: nebula star vs. black hole. The black hole wins, but capturing
Science All the States of Matter You Didn't Know ExistedPopular Mechanics - By David GrossmanBefore scientists discovered the new state of matter last week, we were basically all used to just three states of matter. After all, during our daily lives we encounter some variety of solids, liquids
Mobile Technology 7 Skyscrapers Leading the Way to a Green FuturePopular Mechanics - By David GrossmanIn many ways, skyscrapers came to define the 2oth century. Rising out of skeletons of steel, iron, and glass, they showed a new landscape and ecosystem to the world. Cities become incomplete without their
Science Looks Like We Have a New State of MatterPopular Mechanics - By David GrossmanA team of physicists from New York University, University of Buffalo, and Wayne State University have discovered a new state of matter, which they say has the potential to increase storage capabilities
Science How to Mow Your Lawn Using MathPopular Mechanics - By Dave LinkletterDedicating years of schooling to pursue higher math degrees may help solve certain problems, but does it make any difference for something as simple as cutting your grass? To find out, I spent the week
U.S. Navy The U.S. Navy Wants To Build the World's Largest Robot WarshipPopular Mechanics - By Kyle MizokamiThe U.S. Navy is calling on industry to present ideas for its Large Unmanned Surface Vehicle (LUSV) ship. The Navy wants ten LUSV ships in five years. The ships would function as scouts for the main battle
Solar Panels Three Years Later, the French Solar Road Is a Total FlopPopular Mechanics - By David GrossmanIt was a solar experiment that seemed ingenious in its simplicity: fill a road with photovoltaic panels and let them passively soak up the rays as cars drive harmlessly above. The idea has been tried few
U.S. Navy To Prevent Cyber Snooping, the U.S. Navy Is Relying on WWII-Era CommunicationsPopular Mechanics - By Kyle MizokamiThe U.S. Navy, anticipating a future when a high-tech enemy could read its electronic communications, is going back to a hack-proof means of sending messages between ships: bean bags. Weighted bags with
Play buttonScience Incredibly Gross New Species of Fish Found in AntarcticaPopular Mechanics - By Courtney LinderThat's according to scientist Andrew Stewart, who discovered the curious new species of fish shown in the photo above during the filming of "Expedition Antarctica," a documentary following researchers
