Popular Mechanics March 2014

Data Visualization by Ben Willers Hazardous asteroids are 10 times more likely to hit Earth than previously thought, according to new research by Peter Brown of the University of Western Ontario. The physicist crunched 20 years' worth of data on meteor airbursts instead of using only telescopic surveys and lunar-crater data to make the new assessment. He also studied videos from last year's blast in Chelyabinsk, Russia. Here's what the threat looks like. — SARAH FECHT FEB. 15, 2013 CHELYABINSK EVENT, RUSSIA Exploded in an airburst with the force of about 500 kilotons of TNT, 20 to 30 times more than that released from the atomic bomb detonated at Hiroshima. JUNE 30, 1908 TUNGUSKA EVENT, RUSSIA 80 million trees knocked down over an area of 830 square miles. 66 MILLION…

Gaming drives off the screen and into the physical world with Anki Drive ($200), which pits iPhone-controlled, artificial intelligence–enabled robotic cars against one another in a weaponized demolition derby. Designed by grads of the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, the game plays out on a portable mat encoded with digital markers. As the Hot Wheels–size racers zip around a track, the markers map the vehicles' patterns, allowing the other cars to learn the most advantageous places and moments for firing shots at opponents. A competitor senses a hit when his phone/controller vibrates. As players rack up points, they earn upgrades they can use to customize their cars—for instance, more armor and greater destructive powers. This game won over the PopMech staff but made us miss a…

Hydrogen Rising? AN ALTERNATIVE FUEL IS CAUSING A STIR—AGAIN. The basic principle behind hydrogen fuel cells is fairly simple: Hydrogen atoms are stripped of their electrons to generate electricity and then combined with oxygen to form water as a by-product. Mainstream deployment of fuel-cell vehicles, though, has proved to be complex. Compared with liquid fuels, hydrogen is tough to transport and store. And without a meaningful number of vehicles on the road, there's been no incentive to build hydrogen fuel infrastructure. Now new initiatives in California and across the U.S. are pushing for a long-awaited expansion of the refueling network. And with the debut of three promising hydrogen-fuel-cell vehicles from Honda, Hyundai, and Toyota, consumers will have new options beginning in 2014. Are we finally seeing the dawn of the…

Making movies has always been the most technology-intensive of art forms. It takes a small army of artisans to convince us that an actor in a mirrored box is tumbling through space, or that two humans with a mind-melding brain link are controlling a 250-foot-high robot. We continue PopMech's century-long coverage of the film industry's modelmakers, FX artists, and other specialists with our second annual roundup of outstanding sci-tech achievements. Our panel of experts debated the merits of contenders (very little blood was spilled), tallied the votes, and selected winners in categories that appeal to the film geek in all of us. SCI-TECH MOVIE OF THE YEAR GRAVITY Was there another choice? Alfonso Cuarón's story of two astronauts' incredible battle for survival 220 miles above Earth is intense, fresh, and…

For the past three decades cruising has been the fastest-growing segment of the travel industry. Eleven new ships were christened last year, and almost 21 million people went on a cruise. Statistically, cruising is relatively safe, but recent failures in seamanship, emergency response, and engineering should sound an alarm. Introduce bad weather or remote surroundings into the equation and an incident like the Costa Concordia shipwreck, which made international headlines two years ago, could result in hundreds of deaths. Compared with other areas where technology and human behavior impact passenger safety—notably, aviation—the cruise industry is poorly regulated. It has no clear equivalent of the Federal Aviation Administration, which has a broad mandate to ensure air safety. The U.S. Coast Guard conducts prescheduled, biannual inspections of ships that embark passengers at…

Moniker Guitars cofounder Kevin Tully builds one-of-a-kind instruments for people with a knack for self-expression. Kevin Tully was in Syracuse, N.Y., studying for the bar exam when a friend came pedaling up to his apartment on a bicycle. Not just any bicycle but a one-of-a-kind machine she herself had created on a hip, design-it-yourself website owned by Republic Bike. "She went online and picked out all the colors and parts," he says. "She was really enthusiastic about the bike because it represented her sense of style." As a lifelong guitar player, Tully identified with that sense of pride. He was no Jimi Hendrix, but the two instruments in his home ranked among his most prized possessions. How great would it be, he wondered, if they could truly reflect his personal…