Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2018 i Popular Mechanics

A Different Kind of Travel Issue THIS ISSUE—which is mostly about discovering parts of the earth you haven’t seen, and meeting people you haven’t met—happened by accident. It was unplanned. I think it started when senior editor Jacqueline Detwiler just kind of mentioned off-hand one day that she was taking a weeklong vacation by herself to a surfing camp on the Pacific coast of Nicaragua. Around that time, field editor James Lynch said, Hey, are we gonna run that essay he wrote a while back about him and his buddy canoeing the length of the Hudson? Then along came Alex George, our technology editor, saying that he too was taking a solo vacation, to South America, where he would be in the deep Amazon, observing howler monkeys and measuring piranhas…

I was a varsity high school bowler—letter jacket– certified—and am still the proud owner of a 13-pound Storm bowling ball. When I divulge my talent, I’m always asked, “What’s the point of owning your own ball?” Aside from completing an always relevant Jeff Lebowski costume, it’s fit to my body and technique. When I bought my ball from Striking Lanes, my local pro shop, they watched my form, recommended a weight to suit my body type, and measured my hand to drill a custom grip. For a really personal touch, you can buy scented Storm balls, like Wildberry Cheesecake and Bourbon Pistachio. But I prefer the natural aroma of lane oil. Even if you can find a house ball that fits like a well-shared glove, a personal ball will have…

IT’S AMAZING THAT any of us can drive a car. Driving requires complex motor skills, finely honed inference, and the ability to act on incomplete information. Considering that nothing in human evolution prepared us to hustle across the planet at 70 mph, it’s a long shot that we ever make it from the driveway to the grocery store. But we take it for granted that we can do this, that driving is even kind of easy. An autonomous car, then, should also make driving look easy. And that, it turns out, is really hard. Cadillac’s new Super Cruise system, available in the CT6 for $71,300, can take full control of the car on divided highways with no cross streets (as in, your ultra-tedious interstates and major highways). When I first…

PEOPLE ALWAYS ASK ME, “Roy, when’s the best time to plant a tree?” For as long as I can remember, I’ve answered without needing a second to think: in the fall. That gives the tree a chance to acclimate to its surroundings, I tell them, before the stress of summer comes on. I’ve known this since boyhood. “Then why do garden centers always have an acre of great-looking trees out in the spring?” a colleague asked me recently. I thought for a second. It was true. “Because they want to sell you stuff,” I said. At his insistence—and to prove myself right—I dialed three tree experts for corroboration. It took only one call to prove me wrong. Carrie Hennessy, a horticulturist at Johnson’s Nursery, in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, at first…

“I work in a room that has 200-plus bottles of amaro in it, so picking one is like picking one of my favorite children,” says Max Green, laughing. Green is a bartender at Amor y Amargo, a bar in New York City focused entirely on bitter liquors. In the end he gave us a few worth trying: ZUCCA RABARBARO “It’s made with Chinese rhubarb, so there’s a light vegetal smoke to it, and it has undertones of chocolate, which is great for cold weather.” $32 AMARO MONTENEGRO “Monte is a great amaro for someone just starting out. Lightly bitter with juicy orange blossom and bitter orange flavors, it’s good for cocktails or sipping neat or on the rocks.” $27 RIGA BLACK BALSAM “A Latvian bitter, newly available in the U.S.,…

At most gas stations, you’re pumping fuel with a 10 percent mix of ethanol made from fermenting the sugars in corn. The biofuel blend reduces greenhouse gases, but it can slowly corrode your engine and blends poorly at higher ratios. Butanol is an ideal addition to gasoline—it’s easy on your engine and blends better— however, it’s more expensive to manufacture. But researchers at the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom have developed a catalyst, a substance that speeds up chemical reactions, that turns ethanol into butanol, using beer—also made of fermented sugars—as their model. Professor Duncan Wass says his group wanted to find a catalyst that worked with an ethanol fermentation broth, an early step in ethanol production, because it would be significantly cheaper to convert to butanol. But…

BUSTER’S SERVICE CENTER HYDE PARK, MISSOURI POPULAR MECHANICS: What’s the best piece of advice you have for someone who’s just bought a used car? WILLIE SWINNEY: They have to remember: A car is a wet thing. PM: Wet? WS: Think of it like that. Don’t let it get dry. I tell all my customers to check their fluids first. Oil, brakes, transmission. You have to stay wet. You don’t have to check fluids every day, but you might as well, especially in the first days when you get it. PM: What if nothing is changing? What if the fluids are just holding steady? WS: Well, good then. I suppose that’s something to know. You got to get to know what your car is saying. PM: Does a car talk to…

AS HER RENTED SUV loops through the rocky switchbacks outside Zahlé, the largest city in central Lebanon, Sonya Iverson looks across the wide, scarred basin of the Bekaa Valley. Decades into the worst drought in nine hundred years, scrubby cedars and shoebox apartment buildings give way to a crust of farmland so dry it looks shattered. Trucks rattle through military checkpoints in plumes of fine red dust. The smell of diesel hangs in the air, and in the hazy distance, the mountains of the Syrian border rise like a plea, or a warning. Then there are the tarps—blue and white waves of plastic tarps and razor wire that wash over the hillsides. Under those tarps live nearly four hundred thousand displaced Syrians who have fled to the Bekaa Valley since…

IS IT SAFE? Yes, but heed State Department warnings to avoid the Israeli and Syrian borders. Essential: Hire a guide. U.S.-based Authentic Asia can connect you with local experts. Do what they say. HOW TO GO Flights to Beirut, the vibrant capital, are numerous, and visas are available at the airport. Get a hotel in the city and take guided day trips to explore the country. WHAT TO DO Two days in Beirut for the Corniche and museums. See Byblos (above), possibly the world’s oldest city. And hike the stunning Cedars of God forest (also endorsed in the Bible).…

LIFE JACKET Safety first. Wear a life jacket on any body of water, but especially on the rough waters of the Hudson. A standard vest will work, but consider one specifically for paddling that has less padding around the shoulders. OUR PICK: ASTRAL YTV, $120 DRY BOX A small handy dry box to keep things like phone and wallet easily accessible will make communication and buying lunch a whole lot easier. OUR PICK: OTTERBOX 3250, $40 SUN PROTECTION Beware of the sun in all seasons. Not only does it come from above but it can burn you when it bounces off the water. OUR PICK: BLUE LIZARD AUSTRALIAN SUNSCREEN SPORT, $18 BOAT Traditional canoes work great, but new paddlers are often more comfortable in more stable kayaks, some even use…

WHY THERE? This is a chance to see the true Arctic and experience a new culture, all without a passport. Flights from Juneau are around $700. WHEN SHOULD I GO? For auroras and snow in all directions, winter, ideally March. Summer has wildlife (nesting birds, caribou, arctic foxes), temperatures from 30 to 60 degrees, and 24-hour daylight. WHAT SHOULD I DO? Book a tour through the Top of the World Hotel ($80 in winter; $170 in summer) to see the town and spot polar bears and bowhead whales. If it’s summer, plan to at least dip your toes into the Arctic Ocean. One of the nation’s most critical NOAA climate data stations is located north of town, and it occasionally takes tour requests.…

Things have changed in construction. Houses are more energy efficient than those we were building when I was a teenage carpenter’s helper wearing a canvas nail apron borrowed from my boss in the morning and returned to him at quitting time. Still, there are things I miss. When I was a kid, carpenters built, didn’t buy, their toolboxes and a lot of their day-today work aids. I admit, it’s hard to beat the store-bought tool bags and parts organizers in wide use today. Wear-resistant fabrics, plastics, and extruded aluminum are all strong and lightweight. Score one for industrial designers. On the other hand, when you make your own boxes, bins, jigs, and sawhorses, you get exactly what you want, not somebody else’s idea of efficiency—with a free T-shirt thrown in.…

DRONE PAYLOAD Depends on the drone. “The larger a drone, the more power and lift it needs to get off, and stay off, the ground,” says Aimee Vakharia, senior manager of Product and Technical Programs for Amazon’s drone delivery program, Prime Air. “Think of it like trying to jump with a heavy backpack; the heavier the backpack, the more energy you need to jump into the air.” Here are three different sizes of drones, along with their payload, or the maximum amount of weight they can carry.…

WHAT WE’RE UP TO BEYOND THESE PAGES THE PODCAST Are you reading this in a secure location? Okay, good. We’re writing to inform you that the Most Useful Podcast Ever has produced a special episode all about the art of espionage. Hosts Jacqueline Detwiler and Kevin Dupzyk interviewed CIA-veteran-turned-writer Jason Matthews, whose book was turned into the spy thriller Red Sparrow (out March 2). Meanwhile, Popular Mechanics staff has been testing spy gear and techniques to figure how to be the best office spy. Get more critical information about this and other useful topics on the Most Useful Podcast Ever. ONLINE CREMATION IS NOW more popular than burial in the United States. For the morbidly curious, writer Caren Chesler visited a crematorium to find out the science behind the process,…

We used to love smartphones. We used to wait in line for them and dress them up in pretty cases and show them off to our friends. Many of us still do, but things seem...different. People are using words like invasive, co-dependent, junkies, addiction— serious language meant to suggest our total submission. In the last six months, a backlash against smartphones has arisen from all corners of the country—from luminaries and musicians and even former tech executives. Now, for the first time, several of them have spoken to Popular Mechanics about why, exactly, they chose this moment to use their considerable power to try to stop devices from turning our society into a Mad Max hellscape. “Last year was a pivotal year in our relationship with technology,” says author Arianna…

Bitcoin millionaires don’t rely on a couple of passwords to access their funds. Many high rollers use a digital wallet, a $100 piece of hardware that you plug into a computer when you want to spend or make exchanges. These devices generate a tic-tac-toe grid of nine randomized numbers that you type into the computer to verify your identity. The most popular model is from a company called Trezor and it’s deliberately low-tech—no Wi-Fi, no Bluetooth, no way to get at your bitcoin unless it’s really you. Investors we asked about them who didn’t use one all said the same: “I don’t, but I should.”…

Quantum computers will drive the next generation of breakthroughs, developing new drugs, powering machine learning, and untangling traffic jams that flummox supercomputers. Operating on the principles of quantum mechanics instead of classical Newtonian physics, quantum computers were dreamed up in the 1980s by Richard Feynman and his colleagues, but have only just become capable of performing as well as supercomputers. Quantum computers draw their processing power from quantum entanglement and superposition. While a traditional computer is made of bits that are either ones or zeros, quantum bits (qubits) can be one, zero, or both simultaneously. That makes quantum computers exponentially more powerful and able to solve problems in minutes where the number of possibilities—like directing 10,000 cabs across Beijing—is too massive for a traditional computer to process in a lifetime.…

Mercedes-Benz Intelligent Drive The new S-Class can do hands-free lane changes. Activate your turn signal and if it’s safe, the car moves over. We found that steering assist works well on back roads, too. Tesla Autopilot Tesla’s second-generation system is called Enhanced Autopilot with Full Self- Driving Capability. It has eight cameras and 40 times the processing power of the first system. Tesla is building cars with the hardware now, promising that you’ll get the software when it’s ready. Whenever that is. Volvo Pilot Assist II The original Pilot Assist was strictly for stop-and-go traffic, requiring a car in front of you and speeds below 30 mph. Now it works at up to 80 mph and doesn’t require a lead car, but it’s still most helpful easing the grind of…

IF YOU’VE BEEN wondering about the relative lack of DIY liquor-making advice in this magazine, you may be interested to know that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives generally doesn’t appreciate folks distilling gin in their apartments. Lucky for us, some of the coolest bottles on the bar lately are so simple to make that the government needn’t know anything about it. Amaros, sweet and bitter Italian digestifs that go by names such as Fernet-Branca and Cynar, are sort of like booze teas. They’re made by soaking aromatic herbs, spices, and citrus peels in strong, flavorless liquors, then watering it down with sugar water. “It’s something you can make in your kitchen and you won’t be doing it that dissimilarly from the big amaro houses in Europe,” says…

POPULAR MECHANICS’ SENIOR HOME EDITOR SOLVES YOUR MOST PRESSING PROBLEMS. At my local garden center, an employee got a tractor stuck in the mud. Another guy came along and sprinkled white powder on its tires and the surrounding soil. The machine gained traction and became unstuck. I asked him what the stuff was and he said “Pixie dust.” What could it be? Ken B., Evansville, Indiana THE WISE GUY probably used lime. Road builders and excavation contractors also use lime to dry out and stabilize muddy soils, a process that has the approval of the National Lime Association. (Its motto: “Lime. The versatile chemical.”) To be clear, we’re talking about quicklime or hydrated lime here, not agricultural or aglime, which is pulverized limestone. Quicklime is made by baking crushed limestone…

In July 2012, the first ever satellite United States Patent and Trademark Office opened in Detroit, testimony to its importance as a center of American ingenuity. But it took more than solo efforts to fuel the city’s industrial engine. From Henry Ford’s standardized production to Berry Gordy’s assembly line of talent at Motown Records, collective craftsmanship built Detroit. Today, these three entrepreneurs support that legacy by creating products that also create jobs, reinforcing the power of citizen collaboration to produce value in a community. Graffiti Jewelry WHILE LIVING next door to a shelter, I met incredible women who were trying to transition into new lives. I wanted to help, and at first my partner and I thought we could provide skills classes. But we decided it would be more productive…

UNITED BICYCLE INSTITUTE Ashland, Oregon COURSE NAME Cromoly TIG Welding Frame Building LENGTH Two weeks COST $2,750 LEARN Frame design, TIG welding GO HOME WITH Custom bicycle frame Between the foothills of the Siskiyou and Cascade Mountains sits the cycling oasis of Ashland, Oregon, and the United Bicycle Institute. There, over the course of two weeks, you’ll build a custom bike that fits like a tailored suit and pedals like an extension of your body. The class begins with bike design, helping students lay out the angles and spacing for a frame that matches their measurements and riding style—road, touring, mountain, track, or cyclocross. Each day is filled with hours of hands-on instruction and practice in UBI’s metal shop as students learn to cut, miter, file, and TIG-weld steel. “There’s…

TRAIN In 2010, Amtrak tested a 20% beef-tallow-based biodiesel. Results showed the fuel didn’t damage the engines or make emissions worse. BOAT A $5.25 million yacht uses solar- and wind-generated electricity to split hydrogen from seawater, feeding a fuel cell that can power the boat. CAR A Toyota test car adds microorganisms to solid waste. Remove the CO2 from the resulting biogas, add water vapor, and you have hydrogen. TRACTOR At a farm co-op in France (of course), duck fat is heated to 120 degrees to boil off the water, then combined with alcohol and potassium hydroxide to create biodiesel that is mixed with diesel to run the tractor.…

Rolgear multibit screwdriver A Canadian- made beauty with a rolling ratchet mechanism with seamlessly smooth action, and seven double-ended bits. $19 Arrow pneumatic riveter Squeeze shut all common aluminum and steel rivets with a simple pull of its trigger. $50 Husky 700-lumen LED dual-beam unbreakable aluminum flashlight You know everything about this flashlight from the name, but to summarize: It’s bright, rugged, and inexpensive. $20 Ridgid’s Gen5X 18-volt shop vacuum Powered by a powerful brushless motor, the Gen5x is the ultimate shop or car cleaner, handling dry debris or liquid. $80 Earthquake XT 3/8-inch ratchet wrench This petite cordless 12-v power tool makes up for its small size with power: 60 ft-lb of tightening torque. $120 Yeti Rambler 26-oz bottle A drink container built like a tool: 18/8 stainless-steel construction,…

READER NOTE Make a Better Spreader Reader and Shop Notes devotee Ray Williams of Simonton, Texas, has a large yard and a bad leg. That makes all the walking required to spread fertilizer untenable. So he got the Scotts Wizz electronic spreader and custom-made a mount out of scrap wood to fix the spreader to the front of his zero-turn mower. With the mount holding the spreader front and center on his mower, Ray can monitor the distribution as he drives. Plus, using the ride-on has another advantage over walking the spreader around his yard: He’s able to bring the fertilizer bag with him, for refills. Bevel with a Handsaw Cutting a bevel the length of a board with a handsaw is not easy—but without a table saw, you may…

BEFORE THE THREE-DAY government shutdown in January, more than 100 business leaders signed an open letter to Congress, urging it to find a way to extend the protections for the 800,000 people who immigrated to the United States illegally as children, but who are allowed to remain and work in the country under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals legislation. Fifty-four of those signatures—including Mary Barra of GM, Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Tim Cook of Apple, and Brad Smith, president and chief legal officer of Microsoft— represent companies in the fields of science and technology. Among the group’s concerns: “The imminent termination of the DACA program is creating an impending crisis for workforces across the country.” Political opinions aside, the fact remains that without DACA’s protection, many members of the…

THE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY OF HEALTH AND WELLNESS. THE ONLY ROAD MAP scientists have to help them cure cancer looks like one of those early renderings of the Amazon River, all questionable tributaries and threatening blank spaces. The available information they have to help determine what causes the disease is even less instructive. To continue the map metaphor, it’s like a napkin sketch of Albuquerque. Drawn in crayon. By a toddler. To make sense of it, a computational biologist named Ludmil Alexandrov is sorting through tumor samples from 22 countries at the University of California, San Diego, Supercomputer Center—on a computer so enormous it has a name, Comet. The idea is to let Comet crunch thousands of genetic samples until it zeros in on the first molecular insults they have…

750-ml bottle Spirytus Rektyfikowany, Everclear, high-proof vodka, or other strong neutral spirit5 grams whole cloves2 grams cinnamon bark5 grams juniper berries5 grams gentian root5 grams cinchona bark (Gentian root and cinchona bark are bittering agents, responsible for amaro’s bitter flavor.)5 grams allspice5 grams cardamom10 grams orris root (A common ingredient in perfumes. “It’s a binding agent, so it helps with stability,” says Willis.)10 grams fresh ginger15 grams grapefruit peel5 grams fresh rosemary1 vanilla bean5 grams rhubarb root (“Rhubarb root I would highly recommend. It’s one of the things that defines amaro, but people don’t really know that they’re tasting it.”)10 grams rosebuds3 grams calendula buds3 grams yarrow (Willis: “I love yarrow, it has this almost citrusy quality, but it’s a unique aroma, which is really great for an amaro.”) 1. Using…

When construction on Seattle’s Rainier Square Tower tops out in fall 2019, it will be the city’s second-tallest building and the only one shaped like a high-heeled boot. But among builders, it’s a revolutionary proof of concept for the steel-wall core technology supporting the 58 purportedly earthquake-resistant stories. The new core construction goes up in half the time of traditional reinforced concrete and consists of two half-inch steel plates a story tall, spaced 24 inches apart, and connected with rods running between them. Concrete is then poured into the two-foot gap, with the steel acting as permanent forms. Since the 1980s, the cores that brace a building and connect floors (they surround stairwells, elevator banks, and bathrooms) have been built by pouring concrete into story-high wooden forms filled with steel…

WHAT WE PUT THEM THROUGH To establish a performance baseline, every fryer was subjected to two maximum-capacity batches of frozen french fries. Next came a round of fry-cook standards: mozzarella sticks, chicken wings, and pierogies, followed by doughnuts and state fair legends like Snickers, Oreos, and battered butter. It was a delicious week. A / Breville Smart Fryer LIKES: Comes programmed to cook six of the most common fried foods, or use the custom setting to easily manage time and temperature. The temperature of the 3.8-liter, 1,800-watt fryer rebounded quickly after repeated food additions, such as ten rounds of doughnuts. DISLIKES: The digital thermometer wouldn’t display temperature drops after food was added. But if needed, this could be checked by quickly turning the fry program off and back on (set…

This spring, finding ourselves living on a planet increasingly defined by national borders and a tightening feeling of insularity, we at Popular Mechanics have decided to look above and beyond. Above the horizon, beyond our comfort zones, far from our comfortable definitions of what a vacation can be. And in every direction, we found exceptional people, which is always the best part of traveling. We found Sonya Iverson, who started a nonprofit organization to bring the sport of slacklining—and, she hopes, a little happiness—to the lives of refugee children in some of the world’s tougher places. We found a rambunctious group of guys who wanted to see if they could drive on a frozen sea to the northernmost tip of North America. We met Ian McNanie, a 20-year-old who had…

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, DAVIS Davis, California COURSE NAME Intro to Practical Brewing LENGTH Five days COST $1,400 LEARN Brewing techniques, lab and sensory analysis GO HOME WITH Beer! Learn the science behind great beer at America’s preeminent brewing school while getting your hands dirty and palate wet. The University of California, Davis, Master Brewers Program has, since 1958, produced world-class brewers who now work the kettles at breweries such as Sierra Nevada, Heineken, and Dogfish Head. Once a quarter, the school opens its August A. Busch III Brewing Lab to amateur beer lovers thirsty for brewing knowledge. The five-day class kicks off with making a batch on a steam-jacketed, stainless-steel brewhouse that would make most craft breweries jealous. The lessons are then split between the brewing science to make tastier…

I’D NEVER SAILED BEFORE. This wasn’t a problem, however, because we were not sailing. We were hobbling. My new boat, bought for $5,000 from a man who told us only after we’d paid that we had two days to move the boat before he was kicked out of his slip, puttered out of the Alameda Channel and into San Francisco Bay. A 1974 Tartan 34C, No Bubbles fulfilled the promise of its name. At full throttle, the 14-hp Johnson outboard motor I’d lashed to the transom moved us wakelessly toward the Oyster Point Marina, ten miles across the bay. It would take six hours to get there. When I bought No Bubbles, I knew it needed work. The previous owner had taken the engine out to do repairs and left…

SIERRA MADRE, CALIFORNIA DAVE LINK Project: Replacing an electrical outlet What’s your earliest hardware store memory? Right here, Mr. Arnold’s. He used to own it, Mr. Arnold’s hardware store, and he’d give out gumballs to all the little kids. ALI and AUSTEN VAHDAT Project: Putting up a basketball hoop What’s the most satisfying thing you’ve worked on? Ali: That’s an interesting question. What do you think, Austen? Austen: I don’t know. Ali: Probably this one, the basketball hoop. Austen: But we didn’t even finish it yet. Ali: No, but it’s going to be satisfying. I have a feeling that it’s going to be great. JAN WICKERSHAM Project: Picking up a cleanser I tend to get crickets in my townhouse, and they’ve turned me on to a sticky piece, which does…

BRUCE YEANY is a science teacher at Annville-Cleona High School in Pennsylvania. To see video of this project (and more fun experiments), visit Yeany’s Homemade Science channel on YouTube. PROJECT Sand Pendulum A fun way to learn the basics of frequencies and the mathematical concept of Lissajous figures. THE SCIENCE Fun fact: Lissajous figures are patterns that result when different frequencies (or wavelengths) are applied to the same object. In this case, our object is a soda bottle that drops a line of sand as it swings in two directions at the same time. When the bottle-pendulum is suspended by a single string [Fig. A], it travels the same distance side to side as it does forward and backward. As the pendulum slowly loses energy, the sand trail spirals inward…