Popular Science.2006.01, tech.Popular.Science
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CONTENTS
THIS MONTH’S GUIDE TO INNOVATION AND DISCOVERY
THE
FUTURE
NOW
FOUNDED IN 1872
JANUARY ’06
VOLUME 268 #1
features
Future Tech: Military
ROBOTS GO TO WAR
Autonomous ground vehicles have finally proven them-
selves capable of traversing rough terrain without human
intervention. Next destination: the battlefield.
concepts & prototypes
THREE-WHEELED RACER
Peugeot’s 20Cup concept is the lightest, most
aerodynamic ride on three wheels.
P
OP
S
CI
Predicts
2006: THE STORIES TO WATCH
IN THE YEAR TO COME
Peak oil. Warming oceans. Bird flu. Rocket-plane racing.
GPS everywhere. We predict the big science and
technology developments of the coming year.
Instant Expert
MAN-MADE BLACK HOLES
All you need to know about extra dimensions and tiny
rips in the spacetime continuum.
t-minus . . . 11 days
THE FIRST MISSION TO
THE LAST PLANET
It’s a race against time to launch the
New Horizons
probe on its journey to remote, icy Pluto. If the space-
craft is delayed, we’ll have to wait another 200 years
to get a close look at the planet.
12
52
POPULAR SCIENCE
05
ON THE WEB
CONTENTS
YOUR GUIDE TO P
OPULAR
S
CIENCE
ONLINE
Now with breaking science and technology news from CNN
75
»
INTRODUCING
P
OP
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CI
’s
ONLINE
36
PHOTO
GALLERY
Every day, find stunning
new images from science
and technology at
17
REGULARS
megapixels
GET AN EYEFUL
Mach disks and cellphone dumps.
WHAT’S NEW
GADGETS
A handheld audio recorder with archival-quality sound.
THE GOODS
A flexible vac, fob-keyed hard drive, and gloves for your feet.
AUTO TECH
Electronic brakes, no brake fluid required.
HOME TECH
Lithium-ion power tools rule the home workshop.
HEADLINES
MEDICINE
Vaccinating the country against bird flu in four weeks.
SPACE
Europe attempts to deflect an incoming asteroid.
CHEMISTRY
A new sealant makes road de-icers last longer.
BIOMETRIC TECH
Handprint-recognition unlocks the barrel to this smart gun.
HOW 2.0
YOU BUILT
WHAT
?!
Introducing the rocket-powered bicycle.
DIY
Craft a Roomba reconnaissance robot.
ASK A GEEK
Master the baffling world of music file formats.
GRAY MATTER
Making phosphorus matches from scratch.
FYI
88
YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED
Sand-castle physics, sci/tech films and pandemic fashion.
other stuff
FROM THE EDITOR
LETTERS
THE FUTURE THEN
LIVE
FROM THE
DETROIT AUTO SHOW
WEB
EXCLUSIVE
Get updates on and images of the latest concept cars
and automotive technologies from the biggest auto
show in the U.S. at
THE MIND
OF A
ROBOT
TANK
Ever wonder how
robots see the
world? We’ll take
you inside an
autonomous robot’s brain at
INSIDE THE
PLUTO PROBE
Go behind the scenes with the engineers who built
New Horizons
, the craft exploring the most distant
planet for the first time. Go to
.
THE FUTURE
Read more predictions from
science celebrities on the
big stories of the year at
STARTS
NOW
»
»
WHAT’S NEW
Tools that can chew through anything.
/whatsnew
HEADLINES
Will asteroid Apophis hit us? Find out at
/headlines
»
HOW 2.0
Build a Roomba-based robot. Instructions at
/h20
p
OP
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on the web
06
POPULAR SCIENCE
POPSCI.COM
FROM THE EDITOR
THE
FUTURE
NOW
Editorial Director
Scott Mowbray
Editor
Mark Jannot
Design Director
Sam Syed
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Emily Laber-Warren, Michael Moyer
Science Editor
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Senior Technology Editor
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Aviation & Automotive Editor
Eric Adams
Senior Editor
Kalee Thompson
Managing Editor
Jill C. Shomer
Senior Associate Editors
Nicole Dyer, Mike Haney
Copy Chief
Rina Bander
What’s New Editor
Jenny Everett
Associate Editors
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Assistant Editor
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Photo Editor
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Staff Photographer
John B.Carnett
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Chee Pearlman
Contributing Automotive Editor
Stephan Wilkinson
Contributing Editors
Cory Doctorow, Theodore Gray,
Eric Hagerman, Joseph Hooper, Preston Lerner,
Gregory Mone, Jeffrey Rothfeder, Jessica Snyder Sachs,
Rebecca Skloot, Bill Sweetman, Phillip Torrone,
James Vlahos, Charles Wardell, William Speed Weed
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Jonathan Coulton
Contributing Futurist
Andrew Zolli
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Mika Grondahl, Jason Lee, John MacNeill,
Garry Marshall, Josh McKible, Stephen Rountree, Bob Sauls
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Jen Trolio
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THE
FUTURE
NOW
FOR WELL OVER A CENTURY,
this magazine has been giving our readers a
monthly view of the cutting edge in science and technology, along with tanta-
lizing glimpses of the future. From time to time, we discover that we’ve even
had a small part in bringing that future about. And that is how I came to be
chatting with Eric Gray this morning.
Gray, 42, owns an insurance business with his father and two brothers in
Metairie, Louisiana. He also happens to be a longtime reader of P
OPULAR
S
CIENCE
,
and in March 2004 he took special notice of our article about the first Darpa
Grand Challenge off-road robotic-vehicle race. (The race was a bit of a fiasco,
with the best of the bunch traveling a mere 7.4 miles of the 142-mile course.)
Gray left the magazine out for his brother Mike to read. “A week later,” Gray
says, “Mike yelled over from the next office, ‘Eric, did you read about this race?
What do you think? Think we ought to try it?’ I said, ‘Sure, sounds like fun.’ ”
Man, I love that attitude! And I’d be proud that P
OP
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CI
helped inspire the
effort even if the Gray Team’s ’bot
never got past the starting line in last
October’s second Grand Challenge. As
it happens, the vehicle did much better
than that. It ran the entire course, com-
ing in fourth, just 37 minutes behind
the winner. Eric and Mike Gray are
now creating a company to further
develop and market the “simple, ele-
gant” software their IT department
cooked up for the race. They envision all sorts of applications: automated fire
suppression, automated search and rescue—and, of course, the military, which
is charged with making one third of all ground vehicles unmanned by 2015
[see “Robots Go to War,” page
]. “The world is so big and so full of things that
can be automated,” Eric Gray says. “My attitude is, if they can show us the
problem, we can find the solutions.”
With this issue, we debut a new design, complete with new departments
and formats, including the “Megapixels” photo gallery [page
, “Concepts &
Prototypes” [page
and “Instant Expert” [page
, which this month tells
you everything you need to know (and nothing you don’t) about man-made
black holes. The idea is to give you more of what you love in the magazine—
especially those glimpses of the future—in a clean, clear, visually dynamic
way. We don’t expect everybody to respond as actively as Eric and Mike Gray
might, but we do hope to inspire you.
“My attitude is,
if they can show
us the problem,
we can find the
solutions.”
President
Mark P. Ford
Senior Vice Presidents
James F. Else,
Victor M. Sauerhoff, Steven Shure
Editorial Director
Scott Mowbray
Director, Corporate Communications
Samara Farber Mormar
Directors, Technology
Annabelle Soper, David Yu
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Larry Corby
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MARK JANNOT
08
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