The term ‘geek’ is in dire need of an upgrade. What used to be a word that described a stereotypical pasty, overweight and agoraphobic middle-aged man no longer refers to the same thing. Nowadays, pastimes and interests that relate to typical geek culture—love of movies, TV show obsession
Read more...
When we’re knee-high to a grasshopper, our dream jobs are often more impractical than we understand at the time. Doubtlessly, many of us can relate to playing the “When I grow up I wanna be…” game, with common responses often along the lines of “Hollywood movie star”, “Prime Minister”,
Read more...
With every new technological advancement intended to make our lives somehow easier it’s always fun to mark such occasions by taking a look back at the humble roots of a particular line of technology. Take the mobile phone for instance: what used to be a rather cumbersome brick that was definitely
Read more...
It wasn’t so long ago that I wrote my passionate plea to sports fans asking them all to buy into my belief that human referees, umpires and other such adjudicators should
Read more...
In 1975, French philosopher Michel Foucault coined the term ‘panopticism’ in his book, Discipline & Punish: The Birth of the Prison. The term itself is derived from the panopticon, which is a rather ingenious prison design. The panopticon is circular, with prisoners housed on the outer
Read more...
At one point or another in our lives, most of us would have had the hypothetical conversation surround which era of time we’d like to visit or have been born in. For some, living at the time of knights and fair maidens has chivalrous appeal. For others, living at a time when technology was
Read more...
It was only last week that I was looking for suggestions for science-fiction technologies that could help to advance science actual. But upon reading
Read more...
For years now I’ve been trying to come to terms with the fact that I find it hard to resist the urge to walk through the so-called ‘kids’ section of your average K-Mart, Target or Big W to check out the toys. Toys have always been of interest to me and even though I’m no longer an adolescent,
Read more...
One of my most favourite pastimes is losing myself in an engaging film. Although I enjoy a mindless Hollywood blockbuster as much as the next 18-35 year old male target demographic member, it’s the films that drag me away to a whole other world that stick with me. And that’s because my
Read more...
It wasn’t so long ago that there was rather serious talk of the end of an era: we were going to see the decline of paperback and hardcover books, and enjoy the rise of the e-book. The only problem was that it didn’t play out like that. E-books arrived in a big way, with a multitude of onscreen
Read more...
It's getting to be real crowded up there. Today, Russian aerospace authorities had to shift the orbit of the International Space Station to get it out of the way of a piece of hurtling debris.
A similar maneuver was planned just a couple of months
Read more...
The Most Advanced R/C Car LOSI 1/10 TEN-T TRUGGY RTR Top speed: 72km/h Size: 34.3 x 45 cm. Price: US$500 Get it: losi.com
This 18-inch off-roader
Read more...
In 2002, Matthew Rosen won a NASA grant to study how gravity affects the lungs. He soon found out what lung specialists already know: An MRI scanner reveals how well a lung moves air, but it only works when the patient is lying on his back. What Rosen really wanted to
Read more...
Our computer doesn?t blow up. Is this really a Microsoft product?
That?s right, Popular Science
Read more...
The Pentagon's best (and best-funded) engineers have toiled for years, only to realize the supremacy of the canine schnoz
After six years and nearly $19 billion in spending, the Pentagon task force assigned to create better ways to detect bombs has revealed
Read more...
Looking to build a time machine but nervous about the classic grandfather paradox, aka the Marty McFly conundrum, aka the idea that you might unwittingly do something that causes you to never exist in the first place? An MIT professor and a few of his quantum quoting
Read more...
Civil authorities around the world have tried all kinds of tricks to get drivers to slow down: speed bumps, rumble strips, flashing lights, the decoy police cruiser, and of course the good old-fashioned speed trap. The British Columbia Automobile Association Traffic
Read more...
Quantum cryptography is one of the most secure known means of transmitting data, due to the fact that even if a third party does intercept a quantum signal, that interference changes the encryption key, making the tampering apparent to parties at both ends. But a handful
Read more...
The Missile Defense Agency's airborne laser weapon is supposed to save us all from imminent nuclear demise, but after yesterday's botched test firing - the second failure
Read more...
Perhaps the most unsettling thing about a planet-killing asteroid is that we might never see it coming. But this infographic by Mechanicsville, Md.-based designer Zachary Vabolis helpfully visualizes which candidate
Read more...
While Toyota and Volkswagen – the world’s two biggest car makers – are locked in a battle for global sales leadership over the next decade, driven by a new generation of hybrid and electric cars, Japanese maker Honda is working on technology that may well leapfrog them both. Most big
Read more...
Imagine a gesture-based mobile device with no screen, no keyboard, and no other peripheral inputs or outputs, a mobile device that's not really a device at all. Can you see it in your mind's eye? If so, you're probably picturing something akin to a new
Read more...
With every new technological advancement intended to make our lives somehow easier it’s always fun to mark such occasions by taking a look back at the humble roots of a particular line of technology. Take the mobile phone for instance: what used to be a rather cumbersome brick that was definitely
Read more...
Microsoft's Kinect, the controller-free, gesture-based gaming platform that finally saw an official unveiling at E3 this week continues to surprise us, but not always necessarily in good ways. For instance, we think it's awesome that the non-peripheral peripheral can
Read more...
A $136 million Earth-based telescope using brand new adaptive optics just trumped Hubble's deep space image clarity three-fold, but such high tech optics aren't just reserved for high-dollar observatories. A breakthrough in deformable liquid mirror technology
Read more...
Using only two months of data, the GOCE gravity-tracking satellite has built the first-ever full map of Earth's gravitational field.
The map, called a geoid, reflects the bumps and valleys of Earth's gravitational effects. The map shows what the Earth would look
Read more...
We live, work and play in a world that seems to be perpetually stuck in fast-forward. Our cars are fast, our food is faster and any task that can’t be simplified to a few minutes is rated in terms of its validity of even performing in the first place. If someone is ever to invent the ability
Read more...
We live in an age that seems to be perpetually torn between choosing from a smörgåsbord of choice as it relates to traditional values and contemporary approaches to life. This veritable selection of seemingly opposing ideologies makes presenting oneself in varying social situations difficult
Read more...
I’m not afraid of heights but I sure do respect them. To some, being afraid of heights and vertigo are interchangeable descriptions, but for someone who suffers from vertigo when looking down from a height, I can tell you it has very little to do with some deep-seeded fear resulting from
Read more...
It wasn’t so long ago that I was researching how many iPhone/iPod touch Apps were available in the iTunes Store. At the time, the figure was an impressive 85,000 Apps and climbing; nowadays that number is over 250,000 and still climbing. It’s gotten to the point where, not only is there
Read more...
Popular Science has been a leading source of science, technology and gadget news since 1872. With up-to-the minute latest space news, insightful commentary on the new innovations and concept cars ...if it's new or future technology you'll find it at popsci.com.au.
WW Media - Popular Science © 2010
Technology - DIY - Videos
