Innholdsfortegnelse for July 2014 - August 2014 i Popular Mechanics

These Suits Are Made For Walkin' The space shuttle program may be dead, but NASA's dream of sending astronauts to Mars is very much alive, tentatively scheduled for the 2030s. But before mankind makes footprints on Mars, they're going to need the proper attire. "If you look at footage from the moonwalks, the astronauts are constantly falling down," spacesuit engineer Lindsay Aitchison says. "It's not because they're clumsy, it's because we didn't allow for much mobility in the suit." While NASA's current suit is designed to stabilize spacefarers as they float around in the International Space Station, Aitchison's team is building a more flexible suit for terrestrial exploration. The new Z-2 prototype will be ready this fall for testing. Its successors will walk on other worlds. Space Fashion Showdown NASA'S…

Robots. They're the future of war—that's what the Pentagon believes, anyway. Military scientists are creating automated systems that are meant to augment or even replace American soldiers, sailors, Marines, and airmen. China fielding dangerously quiet subs? Make an unmanned sub-hunting ship to track them relentlessly. Russia selling antiaircraft radar and missile sets to hostile nations? Deploy aerial drones to jam them with electronic attacks. Roadside bombs severing supply lines? Send flocks of unmanned helicopters to deliver supplies. The robot revolution is also regarded as the way to handle looming budget cuts. While automated systems are expensive to develop, they're cheaper to support than humans—they don't need training, healthcare, or condolence letters. Not every military robot is a mobile war machine. Some are more subtle, like the automatic-aiming rifle scope on…

The warehouse doesn't look like much. It is a graying building on San Francisco's Pier 9. Low-slung, narrow. But inside, there is magic taking place. Metalsmiths and furniture makers, Burning Man veterans, chefs, and genetic tinkerers spin out creations on $100,000-plus machines that parade out over the bay, bolt by blade. These artists in residence have made 3D-printed cameras, topographic-map carpets, Rube Goldberg–style machines, recipes using insect flour, and plywood that folds like paper. They can do this because three years ago, Autodesk, a leader in computer-aided design software, bought Instructables, a website where members share plans for their DIY projects. Eric Wilhelm, a young MIT mechanical engineering Ph.D. and kite surfer, is the founder of Instructables. One thing he wanted from the Autodesk deal was a test lab for…

Every Minute of The Day, Recorded Here's a notion that will make you rethink your existence for a minute: Studies show that each act of remembering rewires the neural conduits of memory in a way that can alter recall. So every time you remember something—a fact, an event, the way you felt at a certain moment—you're actually just referencing the last time you thought about that thing. The human memory is basically like a game of telephone. Humans have always been interested in recording our most significant moments. But what of the rest of life, which goes by largely undocumented? A niche movement called lifelogging aims to fix memory's fallibility with wearable devices that capture all of life's moments, from the significant to the mundane, for later reflection. One such…

The United States Military Academy is a good ways up the Hudson River from New York City, about 60 miles north, and even in late April a chilly rain from a hopeless gray sky can make you feel dreary to the bone. But on this particular wet morning, 12 teams of cadets wearing immaculate uniforms or pristine combat fatigues file into Mahan Hall, one of the academy's solemn, Gothic Revival buildings, and their energy is bright. There are a few nervous smiles. Under their arms they carry prototypes and models and drawings of equipment they invented, which they are about to present to a panel of three high-ranking Army officers who are also academy professors. The cadets have memorized their pitches, the words they will recite to try to convince…

MAKE THIS! I built this Eames-like chair without touching a single traditional woodworking tool. No, it's not because I'm some kind of Luddite. I just love the immediacy of rendering a chair with 3D modeling software and then cutting out the parts with a CNC machine. Everything snaps together like flat-pack furniture, but without the cheesy fasteners—just mechanically sound through tenons and lap joints. The manufacturing process takes 2 hours. To build this chair, you'll need a $25,000, full-size CNC router, such as a ShopBot. Oh, don't have one? Yeah, me neither. So, like me, you'll have to borrow one. Luckily, there are hundreds of maker spaces, community workshops, and educational facilities that'll let you use their digital fabrication tools. You'll have to pay a fee or join a club,…

How the Army is destroying Syria's chemical weapons right now. p. 70 The New Arsenal: modern weaponry for a changing military. p. 78 The Cadets: At West Point they're already dreaming up tomorrow's breakthroughs. p. 82 THE PEOPLE CLOSEST TO THEPOISON GAS AS IT BURST FROM THE ROCKET SHELLS WOULD HAVE DIED ALMOST IMMEDIATELY, FIRST VIOLENTLY CONVULSING, THEN, AFTER CHOKING ON VOMIT, EXPIRING FROM RESPIRATORY FAILURE. THOSE FARTHER FROM THE BLAST MIGHT'VE STAGGERED A LITTLE WAY TOWARD HELP, NOSES RUNNING, EYES WATERING, VISION BLURRING, UNTIL THEY, TOO, COLLAPSED, EXHAUSTED, AND SLOWLY SUCCUMBED TO ASPHYXIATION. SARIN, A CLOSE CHEMICAL RELATIVE OF THE PESTICIDE MALATHION, DOES ITS DAMAGE BY INHIBITING ENZYMES THAT ALLOW MUSCLES TO REST. HENCE THE FLAILING OF LIMBS AND THE LETHAL FATIGUE OF VICTIMS TOO SPENT TO…

1. Have a drink Save the bourbons for sweater season. Or at least nighttime. Summer heat calls for something light and refreshing—like the White Dragon, an elegant, chemistry-driven take on the margarita from famous bartender Jim Meehan of PDT in New York City. It swaps in lemon juice for lime and adds an egg white for texture. 1¾ oz blanco tequila, such as Casa Dragones ¾ oz Cointreau ¾ oz fresh lemon juice 1 egg white Shake all ingredients together without ice. (This helps the egg white emulsify and foam up, and the lemon juice stabilizes that foam.) Add ice, shake again, and strain into a chilled coupe. Twist an orange peel over the glass, discard the peel, and drink. 2. GO CAMPING A FEW THINGS TO TAKE WITH YOU:…

• 1972: Controllers of the first gaming system, the Magnavox Odyssey, have one knob each for vertical and horizontal movement. Perfect for the simple and addictive game of Table Tennis. • 1974: Sears sells an at-home version of Atari's arcade game, Pong (you know, like Table Tennis), that has built-in controllers. It spawns many imitators—and a Magnavox lawsuit. • 1977: Atari 2600, the first multigame console, introduces the joystick. • 1983: America is so smitten with Nintendo and its cross-shaped D-pad two-button controller that no one cares that Mario's princess is always at least one more castle away. • 1988: Sega Genesis eases the carpal tunnel epidemic with a rounder and more ergonomic controller. • 1989: Mattel creates the Power Glove for Nintendo, forever changing Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!—and alienating lefties.…