Innholdsfortegnelse for January 2013 i Popular Mechanics

We read all of your comments and letters. In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, we braved power outages and flooding to get this month's issue to you. And we'd gladly do it again. Our November issue included PM's eighth annual Breakthrough Awards. Next-generation award winner Katherine Bomkamp (@kbomkamp), who patented a pain-fighting prosthesis, is a big fan. "Went and bought eight more copies of PopMech," she tweeted. "When the cashier looked at me weird, my friend said, 'Don't worry … she's the centerfold.'" The issue was also flying off of the app store shelves. "Love the new digital format," wrote Greg Vincent of Hoover, Ala. "It's very intuitive and a real pleasure to read. Looking forward to the next one." Reader Bubba Lichvar of Willow, Alaska, was amazed at the…

Strapped into the carbon-fiber tub of a Porsche 918 Spyder prototype with a five-point racing harness, my heart thumps expectantly as I wait for takeoff. After all, this is the most sophisticated Porsche—and one of the most technologically ambitious cars—ever built. The 918 concept, unveiled at the 2010 Geneva Motor Show and quickly dismissed as vaporware, has rapidly evolved into a rolling laboratory for high- performance hybrid technology. I've come to the Nürburgring Nordschleife racing circuit in Germany to steal some seat time between Porsche's 918 development runs, and it's my turn in the passenger seat. The pilot applies the throttle and my ride-along on the 'Ring's neighboring roads begins—with a whisper. In full EV mode, this parallel plug-in hybrid pulls away making about as much noise as a Prius…

THE 911 TRANSCRIPT IS HORRIFYING. "Please help," a young caller pleads. "My dad just killed my 4-year-old sister. He slit her throat. She's bleeding to death. Please help!" It's August 2011 in eastern Pennsylvania, and the plea comes not from a traditional phone call, but rather AT&T's Internet Relay Service, which allows the deaf to make phone calls from a text-based interface over the Internet. The grisly scene is unfolding in East Allen Township, re sponders are told, and an address appears on their computer screens. The caller says he's 10 years old. "I'm [hiding] in the bathroom now," he says. "Help me, please—I'm going to die!" Moments later, four police cruisers race through the streets of a middle-class enclave, sirens wailing, and pull up onto the lawn of the…

1 Nanopore sequencing • Back in 2008 it took four months and nearly $1.5 million to sequence the complete genome of DNA co-discoverer James Watson. Now, with the commercialization of nanopore sequencing on the horizon, it should take only 15 minutes. Decoding a genome requires linking together several of Oxford Nanopore Technologies' $30,000 sequencers. Each sequencer pulls a strand of DNA through a 1-nanometer-wide hole—about 100,000 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair—and monitors the distinctive changes in an electric current that reveal which of the four DNA bases is passing through the opening. Oxford Nanopore Technologies is also releasing a single-use sequencer that plugs into a computer like a USB key and costs less than $900. 2 Cognitive radio • The airways are getting crowded, thanks to…

It never fails. I'm taking something apart in the1950s house I'm remodeling and a nail snaps off, or the head of a screw strips, then I waste all kinds of time dealing with it. Is it me, or does this happen to everybody? It's true, sometimes removal is more time-consuming (and more of a pain) than any other part of the job. As the years have gone by I've become more resourceful when removing stuck or broken fasteners. The result is that I'm getting more efficient at dismantling—and I'm suffering fewer skinned knuckles. By the way, a deft touch succeeds over brute force any day. One of the best and most unusual removal tools I've found in recent years is the CoBolt from Knipex (model 71 41 200). It's a…

TACTICS SOLUTIONS FOR EVERYDAY PROBLEMS Driving is fun, exhilarating, and a rite of passage. It is also perilous, especially for the inexperienced: Traffic accidents are the leading cause of death among teenagers in the U.S.—period—when someone under 20 is driving. For a kid about to take the wheel, good lessons can be life-saving. If you are the instructor, start by telling your student that [1] the hands on the wheel should be at 3 o'clock and 9 o'clock (not 2 and 10). This allows for maximum rotation with minimal exertion—meaning greater control. [2] Relaxed arms also increase control. "Why?" your pupil might ask. The answer is that relaxed muscles respond faster than tense ones. On the flip side, many factors decrease control; a chief one is distracted driving. [3] Tell…

1888: Thomas Edison has a light-bulb moment and files a claim with the U.S. Patent Office to create the Kinetoscope, which will "do for the eye what the phonograph does for the ear." 1895: Brothers Auguste and Louis Lumière patent the Cinématographe, a triple-threat motion picture film camera, projector, and developer. 1912: Bell & Howell introduces the first all-metal movie camera, the 2709 standard 35-mm, after mildew and termites destroy the wood and leather camera of husband and wife filmmakers Martin and Osa Johnson as they travel through Africa. 1927: Philo Farnsworth's video camera tube converts images into electrical signals. This later begets the boob tube—and we don't mean Cinemax. 1932: Eastman Kodak's new 8-mm film upstages 16-mm and becomes the standard for home movies. 1934: Bell & Howell creates…

MATERIALS SCIENCE Vanishing Circuitry Electronic devices can now have a preset life span. Researchers at Tufts and Northwestern universities and the University of Illinois have designed transient electronics that melt away. The circuits are made from conventional silicon semiconductors with magnesium electrodes and are encased in silk; the layers are so thin that they dissolve when exposed to water or biofluids. A prototype thermal sensor has been successfully implanted then dissolved inside a test rat. — ALEX HUTCHINSON…

For me, owning cars without driving them just isn't fun. I drive mine to work and all around L.A. But many of my old cars simply weren't built to perform in today's conditions. Modern cars have to start and stop reliably, idle in traffic, and cruise at freeway speeds. I always want to keep my cars as original-looking as possible, but when I can improve a car for safety or functional reasons, I'll do it. Fortunately, I've discovered a number of products and technologies that solve many problems common to old cars and help make them much more reliable to drive. For example, overheating can be a big issue. Most old cars have nonpressurized cooling systems, and if the car runs too hot, the coolant boils and overflows. Today's pressurized…

At first blush, rally racing—or, simply, rally—is a pretty innocuous pastime. You buy a car. You install a roll cage and safety equipment, including a fire suit and a helmet. You find a friend to ride shotgun and navigate. You drive off into the woods—and then things get exceptionally weird. Races start in the morning and last well into the night. They are staged in asphalt-melting heat or face-freezing cold. Lasting two or more days, they require driving flat-out on unfamiliar roads—many of them unpaved and rutted—guided only by your reflexes and the shouted instructions of a co-driver. Wrecks are common and can be severe: Roadside hazards include 100-foot drop-offs, Airstream-size boulders, and stout hardwoods. The course, more than 100 miles long, is completed at highway-travel speeds. If you are…

     • RECIP SAW TEST      • FREEING STUCK FASTENERS      • FREEING STUCK FASTENERS      •FIXING HEAT LEAKS ike most woodworkers, I've got more scraps in my shop than I know what to do with. Looking for a way to put them to use, other than as kindling, I came up with this rolling chest covered with cast-off blocks. The box is built from ¾-inch plywood and rides on industrial-duty casters (invisible, below—but they're there!) from a local hardware store. Pieces of fir, walnut, and oak are discreetly nailed to the surface to give the piece a rustic aesthetic. CONSTRUCT THE BOX You can build this relatively simple project with just a circular saw and drill driver, but it's even easier if you have a small table saw, a dado blade, and a…

Spectrometers fracture light into telltale patterns of colored bands that reveal the composition of just about any type of matter, whether it's a plant sample, the dark cloud spewing from a smokestack, or gases swirling in another planet's atmosphere. The devices can be found in biology and chemistry labs, hooked up to astronomical telescopes, and piggybacking on Mars landers. As I recently discovered, it's also possible to make one with a few inexpensive parts. I was inspired by Jeff Warren, co-founder of the citizen-science Public Laboratory for Open Technology and Science (PLOTS). After the Deepwater Horizon disaster of 2010, Warren sought an inexpensive way to test beach-sand samples for oil contamination. He knew that, when struck with ultraviolet light, different kinds of oils fluoresce, generating distinctive light signatures. To capture…

I have a 1997 VW Passat with a 1.8-liter four-cylinder and a five-speed manual. That manual works just fine most of the year, but as the temperatures drop in late fall and into winter, it gets really hard to shift into first and second. When the car warms up, it gets better. I love my car and am hoping this doesn't mean bad news is on the horizon. Let me quell your fears: This problem is not the end of the world … probably. Your Passat could have a couple of things going on, though. The shifter in your car is not rigidly connected to the transmission. Like most front-wheel-drive cars, it uses push–pull cables to snake around to the front of the car and control the transverse-mounted transmission. A…

HAMMERHEAD PRO XLD SLED, $350 What would the Flexible Flyer be like with a Pimp My Ride makeover? You're looking at it. The aluminum chassis, switch-out skis, and ergonomic design give riders boogie-board-like speed and control. FLEXIBLE FLYER SLED, $90 It doesn't get more classic than this birch sled with steel runners, first patented in 1889. Three lengths of sled—42, 48, and 60 inches—let you choose between flying solo or packing in the team. WINTER WONDERS You Choose, You Win It's hard to get along with winter, but technology is helping us make the best of it. Long underwear is now climate-controlled, fiberglass sleds are trying to outrace wood toboggans, and gloves work with your smartphone's touchscreen. Does higher tech necessarily mean better? We'll leave that for you to judge.…

Peter Jackson has always loved the magic of moviemaking. After watching the 1933 classic King Kong at age 9, he started shooting stop-motion films with his family's Super 8 camera. Three years later, he carved up an old fur coat that belonged to his mother and used it to create a model of the great ape. In his early 20s, the budding director was baking latex molds in his mother's oven to produce the prosthetic hands and heads for Bad Taste, the homemade horror flick that earned him a trip to Cannes in 1987. But the eclectic cast of characters in the Lord of the Rings trilogy truly put his powers of invention to the test. To make the wizard Gandalf appear a few feet taller than his onscreen colleagues,…

It's 98 F in the Mojave Desert as I cross an old tailings flat toward the waiting Robinson R44 helicopter and its pilot, Jeff Wilson. Every three weeks for the past year Wilson has made a 40-minute flight in the doorless, 1500-pound light helicopter from Las Vegas to the Mountain Pass mine, a 2200-acre site just over the California state line. An aerial photographer rides shotgun. They're freelancers, employed by the mine's owner, Molycorp, to document the rebirth and colossal expansion of what was once the largest and most profitable rare-earth mine in the world. Today, they've agreed to share their bird's-eye view. The photographer has already climbed out of the helo by the time I approach. Extreme heat degrades the aircraft's performance, Wilson tells me; we need to keep…

THERE'S NOTHING LIKE A RECIPROCATING SAW WHEN TACKLING TOUGH PROJECTS SUCH AS CUTTING NAIL-COVERED CONSTRUCTION LUMBER. BUT AS THEY SAY ON LATE-NIGHT TV, "WAIT, THERE'S MORE!" THESE TOOLS SLICE TREE ROOTS AND BRANCHES, CROSSCUT METAL BAR STOCK, AND SEVER CAST-IRON SEWER PIPE. THE CORDLESS VERSIONS ARE EASY TO TAKE INTO AN ATTIC OR OUT INTO THE YARD. WE GATHERED 12 SAWS AND TESTED THEM HEAD TO HEAD, CROSSCUTTING ONE 2 X 4 AFTER ANOTHER. HERE'S OUR REPORT. BY ROY BERENDSOHN BOSCH CRS180K RANKING Price: $300 (kit with one battery) Voltage: 18 Battery: Li-ion, 2.6 amp-hours Chuck: One-hand insert, one-hand release Weight: 7.6 lb 2 x 4 crosscuts: 74 Likes: Great saw. Handles nicely and has plenty of power. The quick insert-and-release chuck is helpful when you have to eject…

     • Gummy Stick      • Fin Spoiler      • Fin Spoiler      •Compression Testing DEGREE OF DIFFICULTY 6/10 Aominous brown stain on the fender, a bubble in the paint at the bottom of a door, suddenly soaked floors after hitting a puddle—these are signs the iron worm has been hard at work. Rust. Otherwise-good cars are regularly sent to early graves because of rust, but the problem is preventable. With iron-based metals, battling oxidation can be a Sisyphean task; in spite of the advanced coatings and alloys developed by chemists and engineers, steel's unstable chemical makeup means it will always succumb to rust in a natural environment. This doesn't mean your car is doomed. Understanding the rusting process, the problematic areas, and the ways to address trouble means your pride and joy can…

     • REMOTE DESKTOP      • MUSIC IN THE CLOUD      • ANDROID ANTAGONISTS HOW TO ENLARGE AND PRINT YOUR DIGITAL PHOTOS. The picture of your puppy looks great on your phone—so good, in fact, that it would be even better in plain view on your wall. And bigger too! Not just 4 x 6 or even 8 x 10, but really big. So how giant can you make it before the digital image starts to break down? The answer depends on how the photo was taken and how the print will be created. Variables include the camera sensor, the printer, and the photo itself. You can easily generate prints up to 13 x 19 inches using a camera with a 10-megapixel sensor to capture the image. With some practice and the right…