Innholdsfortegnelse for November 2017 i Popular Mechanics

My barn (have I told you about my barn?) was built sometime after 1856, the year our house was completed. It’s a fine-looking red barn, and it was a big selling point for my wife and me. The projects we could do in there! The thing was pretty dank when we moved in, but we figured we could sweep it up and I’d be building furniture out there in no time. Or brewing beer, or whatever I thought people did in barns when we moved from the city to the country. Well. Turns out it isn’t so easy to make a dank barn not dank. The dankness was in the pores of the wood, the seams in the floor, the silt that coated everything. You’d walk out of there with…

HOW IT WORKS: HYDROPNEUMATIC SUSPENSION When the truck hits a bump, the wheel compresses a piston that sends pressure into a reservoir filled with fluid (red) and gas (green). Seeking to equalize themselves, the fluid and gas gently resist, cushioning the ride. It’s more complex and harder to repair than regular spring suspension, but comes with truck-specific advantages. By adjusting the fluids, the B1 can self-level on uneven terrain. Or tilt up a corner wheel for a jack-free tire change, like Snoop Dogg hitting the threewheel motion. We can buy battery-powered versions of mainstream vehicles (Ford Focus, VW Golf), hyper-efficent EVs (Chevy Bolt, BMW i3), even a gull-wing minivan (Tesla Model X). The one thing you can’t buy, though, is a truck. Sure, weight and aerodynamics make range an issue,…

OLIVIA PETRY IS SUFFERING. In the desert outside Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, the captain of the North Seattle College rocketeering team has all the signs of heat exhaustion: sudden chills, blurred vision, loss of balance. As she walks through the 100-degree heat, she grabs her bare shoulders as if caught in a blizzard. The terrain offers steep hills, inch-long thorns that penetrate boots, and bleached cow bones. There is no water. No one thought to take it as they set off after their rocket, which drifted away from the designated landing zone and into the part of the desert named Jornada del Muerto (Dead Man’s Trip) by Spanish settlers. Eventually, the team finds the rocket suspended in a bush, two miles from the launch site. Parched and lightheaded, four…

TIP When you batch, you can fudge. A few “oops” drops in a single cocktail may throw it off by 15%. But portioned for six, it becomes only a 2% to 3% screw-up. Why Batch? Many of Farrell’s customers think that making cocktails in quantity takes away that craft mystique. But it actually improves the quality, for three reasons. Cohesion: Like a good soup, batching in advance gives the spirits more time together. They taste better because they bond. Consistency: Not everyone has tiny measuring devices, but who doesn’t have a measuring cup? Convenience: Toiling away in front of your guests makes them uneasy and feeling like they should be doing something. Batching allows you to simply pour, serve, and do the other part of hosting: spending time with people.…

JAMES BOEHM AGE 21 AND MATT SALSAMENDI AGE 19 ENGINEERING LEADS AND COFOUNDERS OF MICROSOFT’S MIXER, A STREAMING GAMING PLATFORM WHEN JAMES BOEHM and Matt Salsamendi started their first company in 2011, a Minecraft-server-hosting service, they had 28 years between them. Not years of experience—years of living. By 2014, their company was pulling in $5 million annually. And they kept hearing that their users wanted more. They wanted a place where they could watch and interact with other people playing video games, a growing segment of the $30-billion-a-year gaming industry. The problem was participation. There were plenty of opportunities online to watch gamers, but streaming a video game requires a lot of data—so much that no app allowed you to watch a game without a substantial delay. That delay ruined…

DARMINDRA ARUMUGAM AGE 34 RESEARCH TECHNOLOGIST AND PROGRAM MANAGER, JPL THE OXYGEN TANK weighs 27 pounds. The jacket, pants, boots, radio, and hand tools add another 22. The axe, six. When a firefighter enters a burning building, he carries as much as 75 pounds of gear. There’s no room for extra bulk. Darmindra Arumugam, a research technologist and program manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, knew this when he and his team developed the Precision Outdoor and Indoor Navigation and Tracking for Emergency Responders (POINTER). The device uses magnetic fields instead of higherfrequency radio waves, such as those used in GPS, that are often blocked by building walls to track first responders. Radio waves bounce off the electrical signals given off by almost everything in our world. Relatively few things,…

Official tours are a must—some note attendance—but stopping there is like letting a usedcar salesman pilot the test drive. Here’s what to look for and ask about. Get off campus. Can you see yourself in the surrounding town? asks Andrew Belasco, CEO of College Transitions admission counseling. “And try taking public transit.” A great town won’t be a factor if you can’t get there. Go deeper into campus. If your tour doesn’t visit them, check out the places you’ll spend most of your time: dorms, dining halls, classrooms, fitness centers, libraries, computer labs (check hours), and bathrooms. Read the boards. The student newspaper is a reliable window into a school’s culture, but also note what flyers are posted to gauge what’s important: new classes, research, jobs, and clubs. Stop random…

The advice we hear from the people who build the A.I. we use on phones and smart speakers: Keep using it. Even when Alexa gets it wrong, repeat your question. Correct a mistagged photo on Apple Photos. Flag a priority email. Your annotations feed back to the software on Google’s and Amazon’s servers and help the systems improve for everyone. And if you haven’t already, make your own user profiles for services like YouTube and Spotify. You’ll get better recommendations, and when you sit down to watch Gladiator for the fiftieth time, you won’t have to scroll past Dora the Explorer episodes.…

Punch Perfect Metal Holes A funny thing happens when you use a Roper Whitney hand punch ($83). One click of its mighty handle and suddenly you feel like a metal craftsman, as you deliver an astonishing 1.2 tons of punching force with its die. The result is a flawlessly round hole without a trace of distortion or even the slightest hint of a burr around its edge. Use this tool once, and you’re hooked. You find yourself walking around the house and shop looking for metal that could be improved with a few holes in it. The American-made tool is a cast-iron beauty with hardened steel die parts in 3/32, 1/8, 5/32, 3/16, 7/32, ¼, and 9/32 inch sizes. It can reach up to 1 ¾ inches in from the…

NICK FARRELL, SPIRITS MANAGER, IRON GATE, WASHINGTON, D.C. For me, Thanksgiving was about dessert. As a kid I was always angling for a larger slice of apple pie. What you have here is my adult version of those nostalgic flavors in a glass. 3/4 cup rye whiskey 3/4 cup applejack Rye and applejack are a connection to colonial America, when distilling was a preservation method to store harvest crops in smaller spaces, like barrels. 1/4 cup Cynar Italian digestivo in the artichoke family that adds an earthy balance to the applejack’s sweetness. 1/4 cup simple syrup Handy to have around. Simmer 1 cup sugar and 1 cup water in a small saucepan over medium heat, stirring until sugar is completely dissolved. Cool to room temperature, then refrigerate. 1/2 cup water…

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been sewing buttons back onto shirts for my dad and three brothers. It used to be easy when we lived in the same house. But as us kids have grown up and moved away, it’s gotten a little ridiculous. “Merry Christmas! Can you fix this shirt?” “Happy Thanksgiving! This button fell off...” If you’re a self-sufficient adult with any talent for working with your hands, your day has come—the day when you learn to sew your own buttons, and a few other skills. Knowing basic sewing has the same perks as knowing plumbing, carpentry, or any other mechanical skill: You can fix your own stuff, and save money and time while doing it. That includes clothes, bags, outdoor gear, and car upholstery.…

Fabric glue: Comes in handy for embellishments, like when you’re attaching a patch to a jacket or shirt. Just make sure you give the article of clothing several hours to dry before wearing it. We recommend Aleene’s No-Sew Fabric Glue. Iron-on fusing web: Used to bind two pieces of fabric together. Place the webbing between two pieces of fabric, then apply heat with a clothes iron to bind together. This product is especially useful for hemming pants in a hurry. Try Stitch Witchery. Seam sealant: Keep a tear from disintegrating into a million threads by applying seam sealing liquid. We like Dritz Fray Check. THREE THINGS YOU SHOULDN’T TRY TO SEW Specialty outdoor gear. You’re better off using a waterproof patch or sealant. Your favorite suit. Leave altering important, expensive…

CYNTHIA SUNG’S ROBOTS look more like toys than the work of engineers. A tightly folded starfish, a cubic white bird, a house with legs—they’re inspired by origami that Sung’s mother taught her in the third grade. They beckon you to play with them, to push them along and bend their movable joints. But their purpose is more than art or entertainment. The concept goes like this: Rather than making robots out of rigid, heavy material such as metal or hard plastic, Sung wants to build them out of paper or thin plastic. That way, they can be shipped or stored as lightweight flat sheets. When they need to be used, fold them along the lines to create the robot, then add the motor. The idea saves money, since thin sheets…

ROBERTA ZAPPASODI AGE 36 RESEARCH SCHOLAR, MEMORIALS LOAN KETTERING CANCER CENTER THE CURRENT SITUATION in cancer research is a little strange: Suddenly, the most sought-after researchers are people who spent more time in school learning about T-cells (the immune system’s killer cells) than about tumors. Researchers like Roberta Zappasodi, who works at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. Her focus, immunotherapy, is a new type of cancer treatment that involves hacking a sick person’s immune system so that it can recognize and kill cancer the same way it would fight a cold. Though immunotherapies work so well in some cases that they can bring patients back from the brink of death, they don’t work for everyone, and doctors often spend valuable time waiting to find out which…

DANIEL GROSS AGE 26 PARTNER, Y COMBINATOR DANIEL GROSS WANTS to fund the next 1,000 great artificial intelligence startups. That’s why, earlier this year, the 26-year-old left a director job at Apple and started YC AI, an artificial intelligence group at the business accelerator Y Combinator. When he was working at Apple, Gross noticed that machine-learning projects were getting easier within big companies, but that startups were having trouble keeping up. That’s because companies like Apple, Google, and Facebook have the money to hire the best A.I. researchers, the computer power and capital to train machine-learning models, and access to huge amounts of data. Startups typically don’t. “What we try to do is give startups access to those things that previously were only accessible within large companies,” Gross says. Which…

CODY KELLY AGE 30 POST-LANDING SURVIVAL EQUIPMENT SUBSYSTEM MANAGER, NASA CODY KELLY IS THE MAN in charge of just about every facet of astronaut safety when they come back to Earth. His team created the Advanced Next-Generation Emergency Locator system, or ANGEL. It deals with the unexpected—the unfortunate moments when returning astronauts are dropped in the expanse of the Pacific Ocean, and we can’t find them. Using an increasingly vast web of satellites and a new, more durable, wavelength capable of cutting through oceanic and atmospheric interference, ANGEL relays a signal from astronauts to national rescue control centers. There, powerful computers process the information and send it out to recovery ships and helicopters. In just 30 minutes ANGEL can locate distressed astronauts to within ten feet—anywhere on the planet. “Launches…

Take Facebook University after your freshman year, and apply as early as October or November of your first semester. Sophomore year take data systems courses and apply for an internship. After your junior year, hopefully you’re looking at a full-time offer. —Genevieve Grdina, communications manager, Facebook A good school and good grades don’t differentiate you. At Ford it’s important to give back. We’re looking for students engaged in their communities, like helping a nonprofit with a creative solution. —Julie Lodge-Jarrett, chief learning officer, Ford I look for candidates with a mindset for learning. Technology is evolving so fast, it’s not important if they know a particular programming language. I want to know how they went about learning it. They need curiosity and passion that translates to their work. —Joy Chik,…

Since the mid-2000s, Watson has been the name for IBM’s artificial intelligence system, most famous for beating Jeopardy champ Ken Jennings in 2011. In the years since, IBM has built up partnerships with medical organizations like Memorial Sloan-Kettering and medical-test giant Quest Diagnostic to develop software capable of quickly and accurately diagnosing patients. But as one doctor we spoke to who worked on Watson put it, “It’s way further behind than I thought it would be.” Other people we interviewed had similar suspicions of Watson’s relevance in the face of progress made at places like Google and Facebook. To its credit, IBM has access to loads of medical data that could turn into useful systems in medicine. But we’re still waiting on convincing evidence of Watson’s usefulness.…

Cut Everything The Super Sawzall is imaginatively named, but it’s fitting. With the exception of concrete, it can saw all common building materials: lumber, lumber studded with nails and screws, sheet metal, steel bar and rod. And it cuts nasty stuff, too: tree roots, clay chimney tile, and crud-filled pipes—steel and cast iron. Milwaukee Electric Tool’s iconic Super Sawzall ($150) was the first commercially successful portable saw that cut with a reciprocating motion, like a locomotive’s drive rod powering its wheels. Since its inception in 1951 (the Super came in ’91), the saw has empowered carpenters, plumbers, and electricians to do the heavy cutting demanded in demolition and repair work. And it’s just as useful outside the construction world, whether it’s in the hands of an auto-parts salvager or a…

MATERIALS LIST • 1 plastic Easter egg• 1 piece lightweight scrap wood, about .-inch thick• 2 feet low-wattage wire, 18- to 22-gauge• 1 Adafruit ADA783 coin-cell battery pack and switch*• 2 3-volt coin-cell batteries• 1 white Uxcell 6-volt diode*• 1 mini clothespin• Wood glue• Electrical tape *Available on Amazon TOOLS • Miter saw, jigsaw, or handsaw• Coping saw• Drill• Hot-glue gun• Soldering gun 1 Crosscut the piece of .-inch wood to produce a 3-inch by 1-inch wooden base. Mark the curved sides with a pencil, and use a coping saw or jigsaw to cut the curves. 2 Use a 3⁄32-inch twist drill bit to make the two holes spaced about . inch apart near the top of the base. 3 Center the battery pack approximately . inch up from the…

BIG QUESTIONS. ANSWERS YOU CAN’T FIND ON THE INTERNET. The electronic voting machine, now used to some degree in all 50 states, is the functional equivalent of an unoccupied Lamborghini left running at midnight in the Bronx. With vanity plates that say STEALME. This summer, hobbyist hackers with no specialized expertise who attended a convention called Defcon were able to compromise four different voting machines, one in less than 30 minutes. “Unfortunately, they were much easier than, say, a home router or mobile device,” says Defcon organizer Jeff Moss. Voting machines often run on antiquated operating systems with known vulnerabilities (think Windows 2000), and are not typically updated with the latest or even basic security patches and precautions, says Lawrence Norden, deputy director of the Democracy Program at New York…

The 2011 Fisker Karma was gorgeous, and fast, two adjectives never before applied to a plug-in hybrid. Six years later—after a $139 million government loan, unexplained fires, bankruptcy, acquisition, and a name change—the Karma is back as the Karma Revero, a superficially identical reboot selling for $130,000. But in those six years, another company started building electric vehicles that beat the new Revero on every spec except exclusivity. Even if owning one of the 1,000 Reveros Karma plans to sell next year is a priority, test-drive a Tesla first. You’ll see how high the bar has been raised for polar-bear-friendly luxury and speed.…

A NEEDLE You’ll want sewing sharps, a type of needle with a pointed end that glides through fabric without damaging it. Pick up a variety pack at a craft store or in the homewares aisle of the grocery store. THREAD Polyester or all-purpose thread works for most projects. Pick up a few spools or buy an emergency sewing kit, which includes needles and miniature spools of thread. SEWING SHEARS Dull scissors make cutting fabric messy and difficult. Spring for a new, sharp pair of sewing scissors or shears, available for as little as $7 online and in craft stores. SEAM RIPPER A small, fork-shaped tool with a blade in the crux, used to remove unwanted stitches. To use, slip the pointed prong underneath a bad stitch, then pull upward to…

You’re a Craftsman, and Work Doesn’t Take Winter Off ZACHARY DETTMORE Job: Owner of Dettmore Home Improvements What keeps him outside: Framing and finish carpentry The worst he’s worked through: Two days around 5 degrees Fahrenheit, hanging siding Always in his tool belt: Cat’s paw, combo square, and Stanley FatMax tape measure What he needs in winter workwear: “Overalls to keep my back covered when I bend over, and light layers so I don’t sweat.” You’re an Adventurer, Through All Weather RAFAL RAGOZA Favorite destination: Argentine Patagonia Day job: Longshoreman at the Port of Newark Weekend job: Appalachian Mountain Club guide Winter adventures: Hiking day trips and ice climbing What he looks for in boots: “Hightop, insulated, and waterproof, in case I step through ice.” You’re a Be-Everywhere Entrepreneur— Even…

MATTHEWA. LONG AGE 21 MARINE CORPORAL AN ENEMY ROUND tears through the Marine’s Kevlar vest, passing through the Small Arms Protective Insert (SAPI)—ceramic trauma plates held against his chest, back, and sides—through a small protective cushion, through his uniform, and into his flesh. Between 2001 and 2011, nearly 1,000 U.S. troops died of potentially survivable injuries because they couldn’t get to a treatment facility in time. But this Marine is wearing his treatment facility. The layer of cushion is filled with packets of gel and a painkiller. When pierced by a bullet or shrapnel from an IED, the cushion releases the gel, which turns into a foam sealant and forces the painkiller down into the wound, staving off shock and stanching blood loss. The palliative cushion is the vision of…

KURT TERRANI AGE 32 SENIOR STAFF SCIENTIST, OAK RIDGE NATIONAL LABORATORY THE MELTDOWN AT Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in 2011 happened because of a massive earthquake. But there might have been another reason: the zirconium alloy cladding that protected the plant’s fuel rods. As the damaged reactor heated up, the cladding reacted with the water around it and generated hydrogen gas, which exploded. Although no one could have predicted the accident, Kurt Terrani, a nuclear engineer and materials scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, near Knoxville, says that it wasn’t exactly a surprise that the cladding failed in such an extreme situation. Since commercial nuclear power plants were first developed in the late ’40s, thanks to a rocky political landscape and the economics of building power plants, many…

CALL TO ACTION THE POTENTIAL OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE By Astro Teller I’ve been interested in A.I. since I was a kid. I focused my Ph.D. on it. My first novel was a parable about the dangers of being fearful of it. For over 20 years, I’ve worked to help people understand it. ¶ The field of A.I., of using computers to perform complex tasks as well as a human, is not new. People have been using deep learning with neural networks, a major subfield of A.I., for 40 years. A car used it to drive itself across the United States in 1995. But things started to change in 2010 and 2011, when a new set of academic papers identified the potential for machine learning models to become much better with…

In 2012, a team led by Stanford professor Andrew Ng built a deep-learning system that analyzed 10 million YouTube video stills and, without any human input, created a correct understanding of a cat. The experiment was a big success partly because cats are an especially difficult subject for computers to identify—they deform into different shapes, and have nuanced traits like fur patterns. Which is why, if you ask a computer scientist to explain A.I., there’s a good chance he’ll bring up cats.…