On sale 31 October!

The Materials Issue explores the vast number of new, well, materials currently in development. Will your next car have a chassis made of super-strong, super-light artificial spider silk? Will the pounding action of your soles on concrete charge your smartphone? Will your iPad repair itself when you drop it on the bathroom tiles? All these questions answered... more or less.

We also look at the next generation of space suits and how companies around the world are rising to meet the challenge of creating something that goes beyond astronauts and is easy enough for regular, blue-collar mining types...

...because we also run the numbers on mining asteroids. How much money is up there anyway? Short answer: a lot.

Plus we find out about an Aussie company's plan to solve out orbital debris - space junk - problem... by shooting at it with giant lasers. From Canberra. Hell yes.

Also in this issue:

- Has a lone Italian con-man actually cracked the problem of cold fusion?

- Will your next super-yacht purchase (yeah right) come with its own iPad app? 

- Why burning fake firemen and electrocuting model planes are the second-best jobs in materials testing (the best job is where you shoot at plane windscreens with a chicken cannon). 

- And a round-up of all the gear you'll need for the upcoming Mayan-themed apocalypse.

Embrace materialism in the November issue of Australian Popular Science. On sale 31 October - woooooo!