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 VOLUME 266 #4
T
APRIL 2005 CONTENTS

Pulse pounding, you hit the brakes and crank the

wheel, but it’s too late: You slam into the wall at 150.
FOUNDED IN 1872 And then? You stand up, go to the kitchen, and
grab some more cheese puffs and a soda.
tech RACE AGAINST REALITY, p. 46
13 | What’s New
Superpowerful cordless bandsaw. Cam-
eras attached to all kinds of gadgets.
Remote-controlled toys for the grown-up
kid. Jeep’s new off-road concept vehicle.
83 | How 2.0
GEEK GUIDE Mastering astrophotography.
YOU BUILT WHAT?! A teeny tiny guitar amp.
GRAY MATTER Old-school flash powder.
TECH SUPPORT Make your own mash-up.

news and views

T H I S PA G E , C L O C K W I S E F R O M T O P : J O H N B . C A R N E T T / C O U RT E S Y M I C R O S O F T G A M I N G S T U D I O S ; J O H N M A C N E I L L ; T O M S C H I E R L I T Z ; J O H N B . C A R N E T T; M I K A G R O N D A H L

29 | Headlines
SPACE TECH Satellite-hunting robots.
OCEANOGRAPHY Seafloor lab goes online.
ALTERNATIVE FUEL Willie Nelson’s biodiesel.
46
MEDICINE A new bone glue for fractures.

40 | Soapbox
PLUGGED IN Switching software can stop
spam’s scourge. By Cory Doctorow
SCIENCE FRICTION A young scientist’s un-
likely champion: cartoons. By Gregory Mone
72
stories
46 | Race Against Reality We hit the
racetrack with six hot cars, two pro drivers
and one videogame. How does Xbox’s
Forza compare to the real deal? By Joe Brown
56 | Birth of a Titan At last! Airbus rolls
O N T H E C O V E R : J O H N B . C A R N E T T / C O U RT E S Y M I C R O S O F T G A M I N G S T U D I O S .

its first A380 out of the hangar. Take a 65 13

visual tour of the world’s biggest passen-
ger aircraft. By Bill Sweetman
65 | The Low-Risk High-Rise Fire-safe
elevators, refuge areas and other innova-
tions: How safe will the Freedom Tower
be? By Laurie Goldman and Sander Goldman
72 | Astronomy’s Next Big Things Ten
telescopes to come, from Hubble’s succes-
sor to an observatory buried deep below
the Antarctic ice. By William Speed Weed

depts.
6 From the Editor 95 FYI
8 Contributors 124 Looking Back 56
10 Letters
T
FROM THE EDITOR

Editorial Director Scott Mowbray

Editor Mark Jannot

Art Director Nathalie Kirsheh
Executive Editor, Features Emily Laber-Warren
Science Editor Dawn Stover
Senior Technology Editor Suzanne Kantra Kirschner
Senior Editor, What’s New Eric Hagerman
Aviation & Automotive Editor Eric Adams
Senior Editors Michael Moyer, Kalee Thompson
Managing Editor Jill C. Shomer
Senior Associate Editor Nicole Dyer

Gentlemen,
Copy Chief Rina Bander
Associate Editors Jenny Everett, Mike Haney, Martha Harbison
Assistant Editor Rena Marie Pacella
Assistant Editor, Best of What’s New Joe Brown

Start Your Deputy Art Director Christopher Chew

Designer April Bell
Photo Editor Kristine LaManna

Physics Staff Photographer John [Link]

Editorial Assistant Barbara Caraher
Web Producer Peter Noah

Engines
Contributing Design Editor Chee Pearlman
Contributing Automotive Editor Stephan Wilkinson
Contributing Editors Cory Doctorow, Theodore Gray, Joseph
Hooper, Preston Lerner, Gregory Mone, Jeffrey Rothfeder,
Jessica Snyder Sachs, Rebecca Skloot, Bill Sweetman, Phillip
Torrone, James Vlahos, Charles Wardell, William Speed Weed
MY SEVEN-YEAR-OLD SON REX HAS FALLEN IN LOVE WITH THE Contributing Troubadour Jonathan Coulton
Contributing Futurist Andrew Zolli
video arcade at the local ESPN Zone, and so have I. Our standard drill involves Contributing Artists Mika Grondahl, Jason Lee, John
loading up a gamecard with $20 worth of credits, quickly and relentlessly MacNeill, Garry Marshall, Stephen Rountree, Bob Sauls
Editorial Intern Amanda MacMillan
squandering that recreational bounty, and (after a token show of parental
resistance) re-upping for another helping. Every machine is a sport simulator POPULAR SCIENCE PROPERTIES
of one kind or another, many with total-body engagement. There’s the clutch- Publisher Gregg R. Hano
the-bar hang glider, the fully prone street luge, the hobbyhorse Kentucky Advertising Director John Tebeau
Derby. And of course, there is every imaginable networked challenge-your-pals General Manager Robert Novick
Executive Assistant Chandra Dwhaj
racing sim, from snowmobile to hydroplane to Formula One. Northeast Advertising Office: Manager Howard S. Mittman
(212) 779-5112, Jill Schiffman (212) 779-5007,
Most of these games seem carefully designed to stave off user frustra- Mike Schoenbrun (212) 779-5148,
tion by amply rewarding incompetence, every reckless 150mph collision Mike Saperstein (212) 779-5030
Ad Assistant Christopher Graves
triggering a favorable course correction and little loss of time. Still, the phys- Midwest Advertising Office: Manager John Marquardt
icality of the play got me wondering: Is there any possibility Rex is learning (312) 832-0626, Megan Williams (312) 832-0624
Ad Assistant Sindy Sonshine
something on these machines? He’d gotten particularly adept at a skate- Los Angeles Advertising Office: Manager Dana Hess
boarding game, maintaining balance while shifting his weight side to side to (310) 268-7484, Ad Assistant Mary Infantino
Detroit Advertising Office: Manager Donna Christensen
steer. Any chance these skills would translate in the real, untethered world? (248) 988-7723, Ad Assistant Diane Pahl
San Francisco Advertising Office: Manager Amy Cacciatore
My curiosity about the blurring line between videogame simulation (415) 434-5276, Ad Assistant Carly Petrone
and reality was piqued again when POPSCI automotive editor Eric Adams Southern Regional Advertising Office: Manager Dave
Hady (404) 364-4090, Ad Assistant Christy Chapman
and assistant editor/game junkie Joe Brown mentioned the impending re- Classified Advertising Sales Joan Orth (212) 779-5555
lease of Microsoft’s Forza Motorsport. This game has a sophisticated physics Direct Response Sales Marie Isabelle (800) 280-2069
Business Manager Jacqueline L. Pappas
engine that subjects its virtual supercars to real-world racing conditions with Director of Brand & Business Development
hyperrealistic fidelity. I wondered: By the time Rex turns 16, will we be L. Dennett Robertson

BEN BAKER/REDUX; GROOMING BY MICHELLE CEGLIA FOR iGROUP;

Sales Development Managers Daniel Vaughan
sending him straight from the sim to the highway—or, better yet, to the Senior Manager, Events and Promotions
Christy Chapin Ellinger
American Le Mans course at Road Atlanta? Creative Services Designer Mary McGann
Eric and Joe proposed an audacious test. We’d gather two high-end Marketing Coordinator Eshonda Caraway
Advertising Coordinator Evelyn Negron
STYLING BY NAILA RUECHEL FOR STOCKLAND MARTEL

gaming rigs, two expert drivers, one racetrack, and six hot real-world cars Consumer Marketing Director Barbara Venturelli
that also exist in Forza’s virtual reality, and we’d see just how well the game Senior Planning Manager Margerita Catwell
Consumer Marketing Managers Adam Feifer, Kristen Shue
replicates the actual racing experience. It is a tribute to the duo’s resourcefulness Senior Production Director Laurel Kurnides
(not to mention the blind faith of Porsche Carrera GT owner Preston Henn) Production Assistant Shawn Glenn
Prepress Director Robyn Koeppel
that the two-day challenge came off. As you’ll discover when you turn to Joe’s Prepress Manager José Medina
Publicity Manager Hallie Deaktor
breakneck account of the adventure on page 46, that line between virtual
and reality has indeed become impressively thin. Will sims ultimately supplant
driver’s ed? Probably not. As for Rex, despite his videogame “training,” he
still falls off his skateboard just like any other kid starting out. I’m certainly President Mark P. Ford
Senior Vice Presidents James F. Else,
not climbing into a car with him until he gets some real-world experience. Victor M. Sauerhoff, Steven Shure
Editorial Director Scott Mowbray
Director, Corporate Communications Samara Farber Mormar
MARK JANNOT CUSTOMER SERVICE AND SUBSCRIPTIONS
[Link]@[Link] For 24/7 service, please use our Web site: [Link]/
customerservice You can also call: 800-289-9399 or write to:
Popular Science P.O. Box 62456 Tampa, FL 33662-4568

6 POPULAR SCIENCE APRIL 2005

T
CONTRIBUTORS YOUR GUIDE TO THIS
MONTH’S POPSCI
From “astrophotography” to “zaps”
ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY PAGE 83
BANDSAW, CORDLESS 13
BELUGA JETS 59
BENNY GOODMAN 83
CARS, PLASTIC 124
CHEESE PUFFS 48
CHERENKOV LIGHT 79
CYBERCOPS, OVERTAXED 40
DIABESITY 96
DIAGRID STRUCTURE 65
ECLIPSE, HYBRID 32
Carving through the hype surrounding the Freedom Tower, the new skyscraper earmarked ELEVATORS, FIRE SAFE 66
for the World Trade Center site, required the crafty bad-cop/good-cop approach of reporter
FIRST-CLASS DOUBLE BEDS 58
LAURIE GOLDMAN [left] and her dad, SANDER [center], a New York City–based construction
consultant. Together they made the rounds with architects and engineers, teasing out the tech- FRICTION COEFFICIENTS 48
nical details of what proponents have called “the safest building in the world.” (Guess what? GEORGE CARLIN 58
It’s not.) “It’s a gift to work with your father on a project,” says the younger Goldman. “Peo-
ple would let down their guard and talk to my dad, one construction veteran to another.” GRAVITATIONAL WAVES 73
Taking the architectural drawings and making them informative was a breeze for POPSCI con- HOLY HEISENBERG! 44
tributing artist MIKA GRONDAHL [right], who is finishing a master’s degree in architecture.
HYDROPHONE 31
“It is interesting trying to guess in the design of the Freedom Tower where Daniel Libeskind’s
influence ends and David Childs’s takes over,” he says. See “Low-Risk High-Rise,” page 65. INTERFEROMETER 78
LABORATORY, UNDERWATER 30
LAGRANGE POINT 2 75

LAURIE GOLDMAN PHOTOGRAPHED BY JENNIFER LEVESQUE; BILL SWEETMAN PHOTOGRAPHED BY JOHN B. CARNETT
Photographer TOM SCHIERLITZ builds wood furniture as
M51, WHIRLPOOL GALAXY 84
a hobby, so he knew a thing or two about saws before he shot
the cordless bandsaw featured on page 13. Schierlitz likens MAGNESIUM POWDER 90
his photography day job to furniture design. “It’s mostly about MASS, DISTRIBUTION OF 98
geometry and patience,” he explains. “You look at the item you
need to photograph—or pick up a couple pieces of wood— NEUTRINOS, COSMIC 79
and then you create something with it.” OFF-ROAD SEGWAY 25
PARASITIC SATELLITES 30
POPSCI assistant editor JOE BROWN’s fascination with cars started
early—he was reprimanded for constantly doodling them in 6th PERFORMANCES, DISMAL 38
grade, and indulged in illegal street racing as a college student. PORSCHE CARRERA GT 48
This month, he writes about two racing aficionados—a pro racecar
driver and an expert import-customizer—who test Microsoft’s QUIET DISHWASHER 16
ultrarealistic Forza videogame against the real deal (superhot RAYLEIGH WAVES 102
Porsche included) at the Road Atlanta track [page 46].
REFUGE ROOM 67
Artist ROB KELLY, who has made portraits of our columnists [pages SEISMOMETER, AFFORDABLE 101
40 and 42], as well as our Headlines from the Future gurus [page
SPAM-FIGHTERS, AMATEUR 40
38], got the portraiture bug a decade ago when he made a cut-
paper image of Orson Welles. “The cut paper gave a look I’d never SPECTRA, ABSORPTION 77
seen before. When I woke up the next morning and looked at it THE ESSES 51
again, I thought ‘Wow!’” Kelly created this year’s NBA All-Star
TITANIUM SHEETS, MOLDED 62
Game poster. His work has appeared in The American Prospect.
‘TOON-WATCHING BINGE 44
What was the first thing that popped into contributing editor
TUBE GUITAR AMP, TINY 86
BILL SWEETMAN’s head on seeing Airbus’s latest aircraft, the
mammoth A380? “Moby Dick!” he says. “It’s not just the aircraft VERTICAL AXIS 20
that’s big. Everything on it—from the engines to the landing gear— VIBRATION TESTS 59
is huge.” Sweetman traveled with POPSCI staff photographer John B.
Carnett to Toulouse, France, to chronicle the unveiling of the 550-
VITRIFICATION 34
plus-seater, complete with a fold-out cocktail bar [see page 56]. ZAPS 54

8 POPULAR SCIENCE APRIL 2005

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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR LETTERS@[Link]

Daaa-DUM . . . Daaa-DUM
Director James Cameron thinks NASA needs a
marketing overhaul [“Director of PR,” Soapbox,
February]? Well, he’s not the only one. But there’s
one idea you overlooked in your article—a killer
theme song! Star Wars, Jaws, Raiders of the Lost
Ark and numerous other films have moving and
memorable scores that have stuck in the American
consciousness. Let’s get John Williams cracking.
Robert Haag
Atlanta

So Fast It Slipped by Us ing. While we’re dreaming, how about a “appalled by the lack of any real ethical
Your article on the world’s fastest things permanent cartridge intended from the debate on the issue.” I offer for his con-
[“Maximum Velocity,” Feb.] was fascinat- get-go to be easily refilled by the user? sideration that many of us, through our
ing. But there’s another very fast thing Could it be that printer manufacturers own system of ethical and religious
that I’d like to call to your attention: sell the printers cheaply and make their values, have pondered and resolved the
The professional top-fuel dragster is the profits from these ridiculously over- issue of embryonic-stem-cell research.
fastest-accelerating vehicle in the world, priced cartridges? Perish the thought. Hopefully, Mr. Lupo is smart enough
going from 0 to the 330mph range in Edward D. Christman to realize that people of goodwill may
a quarter of a mile. A quarter-mile race Elmhurst, N.Y. not share his beliefs, and recognizes
takes about four and a half seconds. that these issues are private and per-
The dragster is nearly finished with its No Anger, No Bombs sonal and are best addressed through
race by the time the roller coaster you Michael Crowley made the standard
mentioned reaches its top speed. conservative assumption that there is
Carl Ramsey only one basic way to prevent terrorists POPULAR SCIENCE ONLINE
Visit our Web site at
Frederick, Md. from going nuclear against us [“Can [Link], or check us out
on AOL at keyword: popsci
Terrorists Build the Bomb?” Feb.]. In
Prints Charming addition to the physical things your arti- HOW TO CONTACT US
Address: 2 Park Ave.,
NEW SUBSCRIPTIONS
To subscribe to POPULAR
After reading your article about inkjet- cle covered, however, we should also be 9th Floor SCIENCE, please contact
New York, NY 10016 Phone: 800-289-9399
style printers [“There’s a Hero on Your adjusting our foreign and energy poli- Fax: 212-779-5103 Web: [Link]/
Desktop,” Feb.], I wondered why engi- cies to reduce the anger those policies LETTERS
subscribe

neers can’t—or won’t—devote some of generate against us. Can’t people under- Comments may be edited SUBSCRIPTION INQUIRIES
for space and clarity. For subscription or delivery
this marvelous ingenuity to perfecting stand that the best way to end terrorism Please include your problems, or to report
the original application of this technol- is to take away its reason for existence? address and a daytime a change of address,
phone number. We regret please contact
ogy: printing. Am I the only one who Russell W. Agreen that we cannot answer POPULAR SCIENCE
is tired of having to pay outrageous Denton, Md. unpublished letters. P.O. Box 60001
E-mail: letters@[Link] Tampa, FL 33660-0001
prices to replace cartridges that still Phone: 800-289-9399
QUESTIONS FOR FYI
contain plenty of ink but whose jets are The Stem Cell Debate Continues We answer your science
Web: [Link]/
manage
clogged, merely because the printer has I just read one of your letters to the questions in our FYI section.
We regret that only letters INTERNATIONAL EDITIONS
been idle for a few days? Surely they editor regarding embryonic stem cells considered for publication For inquiries regarding
can be answered. international licensing or
could find a way to seal the nozzle [“Debating Stem Cells,” Letters, Feb.]. E-mail FYI questions to syndication, please contact
openings off from air when not print- The writer, Mr. Lupo, states that he is fyi@[Link] syndication@[Link]

10 POPULAR SCIENCE APRIL 2005

 T
WHAT’SNEW
POPULAR
scıence

INSIDE PICTURE-PERFECT COMBO DEVICES 14 • JEEP’S PIROUETTING PRODIGY 20 • REMOTE-CONTROLLED TOYS GROW UP 22

Cordless Cuts Loose

The first 28-volt tool battery
dramatically boosts the power at
hand. Now, be careful with it

» THE CRUEL IRONY OF

cordless power tools is
that although they afford
untethered freedom to drill, cut,
or otherwise ruin things you
thought you could fix, they tend
to wimp out mid-job. Thank the
rechargeable nickel-cadmium
battery and its steep discharge
curve. Milwaukee switched to
lithium-ion, which allowed it to
create cordless tools that have
never existed because of their
heavy power demands. To wit:
The 19-pound V28 bandsaw
[at right] is as fast as the com-
pany’s corded bandsaw (up to
350 surface-feet per minute),
and it’ll cut 213 one-inch steel
conduits on a single charge—
a good day’s work. Milwaukee
([Link]) worked for
four years with Canada’s E-One
Moli Energy to coax more life
out of a lithium-manganese-
dioxide concoction that already
delivered great power. The V28
has seven four-volt, three-amp
cells, so it’ll last up to twice as
long as an 18-volt, 2.4-amp
NiCad, yet it weighs an ounce
less. The V28 is also more pow-
erful. Besides redesigning the
cells (in a manner they won’t
reveal), Milwaukee’s engineers
built in a diagnostic circuit to
guard against damaging over-
heating and draining. It should
last about 750 charge cycles.
The price of freedom? $800 for
the saw, battery, charger and REVERSE ANGLE Milwaukee’s V28 bandsaw is one of
carrying case.—ERIC HAGERMAN
TOM SCHIERLITZ

six new cordless tools with a robust lithium-ion

battery, including a circular saw, reciprocating saw,
impact wrench, hammer-drill and flashlight.

POPULAR SCIENCE APRIL 2005 13

T
WHAT’S NEW | GADGETS

The Near-Perfect Combos

This crop of multifunction portables delivers stand-alone camera quality

» THE NOVELTY OF HAVING A CAMERA SHOEHORNED into every device you owned was just about to wear off—but this year, engineers
have upped photographic quality by using higher-resolution sensors, better lens assemblies, and more sophisticated post-shot processing.
Now you can do things like make an 8x10 print from your binoculars, or a poster from your camcorder.—DAVID CARNOY

THE COMBO THE CAMERA

WI-FI CARD + CAMERA RESOLUTION 4 MP

Pop in the EasyShare-One’s optional ZOOM 3x optical, 36mm–
802.11b SD Wi-Fi card, and you can e-mail 108mm (35mm equivalent)
your photos to friends and family from any SIZE 2.5 x 4.1 x 1 inches
hotspot. You can also manage your online WEIGHT 7.9 ounces
images, view slideshows, and order prints FEATURES 256MB internal
directly from the three-inch touchscreen LCD. memory, 3-inch touch-
Available in June. $600 » [Link] screen LCD
» Kodak EasyShare-One

F R O M T O P : C O U RT E S Y K O D A K ; I N S E T: M A R K J O H N S O N / C O R B I S ; C O U RT E S Y M I N O X ; C O U RT E S Y S A M S U N G ( 2 ) ; I N S E T: J O H N B . C A R N E T T; C O U RT E S Y M A G P I X
CAMCORDER + FLASHLIGHT + VOICE RESOLUTION 2 MP
RECORDER + MP3 PLAYER + CAMERA (interpolates up to 4MP)
Making use of its powerful processor, the ZOOM 4x digital
MobiDV takes info from its two-megapixel SIZE 4 x 2.4 x 0.6 inches
CMOS sensor and interpolates it up to four. A WEIGHT 3.07 ounces
230-degree rotating lens captures stills and FEATURES Charges via USB;
MPEG-4 video. And the LED flash/video light 128MB SD card included
doubles as a flashlight. $300 » [Link]
» Minox MobiDV

DIGITAL CAMCORDER + CAMERA RESOLUTION 5 MP

For its third-gen DuoCam—a true hybrid, with ZOOM 3x optical, 46mm–
dedicated lenses and sensors for video and 138mm (35mm equivalent)
stills—Samsung upped the megapixel count SIZE 3 x 2.4 x 4.9 inches
from four to five while shrinking the chassis by WEIGHT 15.8 ounces
40 percent. The camcorder boasts a 10x opti- FEATURES Memory Stick or
cal zoom lens and can record MPEG-4 video. SD cards, PictBridge direct
Available in June. $700 » [Link] photo printing
» Samsung SC-D6550 DuoCam

PHONE + CAMERA RESOLUTION 2 MP

Behold, the first two-megapixel camera cell- ZOOM 2.5x digital zoom
phone in the U.S. To get this quality, SIZE 3.9 x 1.9 x 0.9 inches
Samsung added a dedicated imaging WEIGHT 4.3 ounces
processor. It doesn’t only handle the extra FEATURES 240x320-pixel
pixels, though; it also delivers video-out to a LCD, TransFlash memory
TV and support for PictBridge direct photo card, CDMA network
printing. $250 » [Link]
» Samsung A800

BINOCULARS + CAMERA RESOLUTION 3.14 MP

The 3 in SX3 refers to its upgraded 3.14- ZOOM 10x optical, 330mm
megapixel sensor. Otherwise, this 10x25 (35mm equivalent)
BinoCam has the features it should: power SIZE 5 x 4 x 2 inches
and shutter-release buttons, a small mono- WEIGHT 9.6 ounces
chrome LCD, and an SD slot for adding FEATURES 16MB internal
memory cards. $150 » [Link] memory, SD-expandable

» Magpix SX3
14 POPULAR SCIENCE APRIL 2005
T
WHAT’S NEW | HOME TECH

Grime Stoppers USE IT TO: Rid tile of gunk

This 17.5-pound super-Cinderella’s set of unique attach-
Six high-tech ways to purify your pad ments—a swivel nozzle for scouring shower doors and a
grout tool for tile—will go where you’d rather not. It’ll also

» GETTING MOTIVATED TO SIT, Bud in hand, on the couch

watching ESPN all winter was no problem; getting motivated
vacuum, wash, and dry hard floors at the turn of a dial.
Fill a one-quart tank with water and cleaning solution, and
to clean up the mud, slush and Tostitos detritus mashed into the floor- brushes spin at 350 rpm to massage the solution into a
boards is another story. But it’s time. Scour everything from your 15-inch-wide swath of floor. Switch modes to retract the
porch to your salsa-stained sweatshirt with the lineup of powerful, brushes and squeegee, pulling water through a suction
idiot-proof new machines on this and the next page.—ALAN J. HEAVENS canal into the recovery tank. $230 » [Link]

HOOVER FLOORMATE
SPINSCRUB 800

EUREKA
OPTIMA BAGLESS

USE IT TO: De-grime carpeting and wood floors

This 11-pound upright is a powerful, full-featured ergo-
nomic vac. The 12-amp machine has two motors: one for
suction and another to drive the brush roller used on car-
pets—and that can be shut off before catching a rug’s
fringes. The unique height-adjustable loop handle has
360 degrees of gripping surface, so you can maintain a

I L L U S T R AT I O N : J A S O N L E E ; P H O T O G R A P H S : M I C H A E L K R A U S
natural wrist position. Best of all, the clear body lets you
admire your mess before dumping it. $70 » [Link]

BOSCH INTEGRA
VISION DISHWASHER

»
USE IT TO: Clean dishes without the racket
The 44-decibel Integra Vision is so quiet (like whispering in a library) that it shines
a red LED beam on the floor to indicate that it’s running. The soundproof secret:
MORE
The motor, instead of being bolted to the base of the dishwasher, sits on two
CLEAN
MACHINES,
vibration-absorbing rubber hammocks. This allows the base, from which 75 NEXT PAGE
percent of a dishwasher’s noise emanates, to be completely sealed. And instead
of one beast of a pump, it has two smaller ones that efficiently separate the duties
of circulating and draining water. $1,700 » [Link]

16 POPULAR SCIENCE APRIL 2005

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WHAT’S NEW | HOME TECH (CONTINUED)

USE IT TO: Prevent your threads from wearing out

T-shirts holier than thou? Blame your washing machine. At high drum speeds, clothing pene-
trates water exit holes, damaging the fabric. Miele’s new drum, however, is designed with 80
percent fewer crannies, making it the gentlest on the market. A network of channels in the
drum’s honeycomb-textured walls creates a film of water that cushions your duds and keeps
them out of recessed exit holes. The drum itself is controlled by software that monitors loads to
determine the amount of water needed. $1,800 » [Link]

MIELE TOUCHTRONIC
WASHING MACHINE

A DIFFERENT DRUM The

honeycomb design prevents
duds from getting caught
in water exit holes.

SELF-PROPELLED DR
TRIMMER/MOWER

USE IT TO: Make people think

you slaved over your yard
Getting this 88-pound self-
propelled electric trimmer-
mower up a steep hill is no
sweat. Pull on a lever, and
RYOBI PREMIUM
PRESSURE WASHER the 6.75hp engine and
USE IT TO: Blast dirt off patio bricks geared transmission drive
Pressure washers see only 10 to 15 hours of the wheels forward at a
use a year, so you want one that’s both strong walking pace. All you have
and easy to store. Built around a Subaru to do is guide the machine.
engine that can deliver 2.7 gallons of water a Nylon cords underneath
minute at 3,000 psi, Ryobi’s new model pro- the key-start lawn-trotter
duces more than double the force of most whip around to chop the
consumer washers. And it still stores discreetly. grass. Use the trimmer to
An automatic injection system allows users to clean up a small area,
apply a gallon of detergent at low pressure or take advantage of the
directly from a container. $500 power and wheels to
» [Link] tackle an entire field
of waist-high weeds.
$850 » [Link]
C O U RT E S Y M I E L E ( 2 ) ; M I C H A E L K R A U S ; C O U RT E S Y RY O B I ( 2 )
I L L U S T R AT I O N : J A S O N L E E ; P H O T O G R A P H S , F R O M T O P L E F T:

SEE YA NEXT SPRING The

upper bin folds over the
base to form a compact
22-by-23.5-by-23-inch cube.

18 POPULAR SCIENCE APRIL 2005

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WHAT’S NEW | AUTOMOTIVE TECH

One Tough Ballerina JEEP

Jeep’s pirouetting concept car takes all-terrain SPECS HURRICANE
innovation in unexpected new directions 0 – 60 MPH LESS THAN 5 SEC.

» ONE LOOK AT THE JEEP HURRICANE, unveiled at this year’s North TOP SPEED 120 MPH
American International Auto Show in Detroit, and you’ll be rubbing ENGINES TWO 5.7-LITER HEMI V8s
your chin—and then drooling. It has twin 5.7-liter Hemi V8 engines, one in
MAX POWER 670 HP
front of the passenger compartment and one behind it, and a turning radius
of zero. The Hemis’ combined output amounts to a whopping 670 horse- WEIGHT 3,850 LBS.
power and 740 pound-feet of torque; fortunately, their multi-displacement CHANCES OF SLIM (SORRY)
systems can each shut down four cylinders—or an entire engine—when less BEING MADE
than maximum grunt is required. Two five-speed automatic transmissions
manage 335 horses apiece, sending power to all four wheels via a
mechanically controlled four-wheel torque-apportioning system. Also
noteworthy: its 14.3 inches of ground clearance (five inches more than the
Wrangler); its ability to navigate near-vertical slopes—64 degrees heading
uphill and 86.7 degrees coming down; and the fact that it can articulate
all four wheels 180 degrees.—MATTHEW PHENIX

Front

Transmission
HOW IT WORKS
Like its meteorological namesake, the Hurricane can
spin around its vertical axis. To accomplish this, the

I L L U S T R AT I O N : S T E P H E N R O U N T R E E ; P H O T O G R A P H : C O U RT E S Y D A I M L E R C H RY S L E R
Brake
front wheels pigeon-toe inward as the rear wheels
T-Box splay outward, and then the left-side wheels rotate in
opposition to the right ones. The action is masterminded
by a patented transfer case dubbed the T-Box. In exist-
ing 4x4 vehicles, power routes horizontally from the
engine to the wheels across the front and/or rear
axles. The Hurricane’s two transmissions, however,
Prop shaft
meet in the T-Box, transferring the Hemis’ combined
muscle through brake-controlled prop shafts to inde-
Transmission Axle
pendently sprung side axles. The T-Box directs the
wheels to spin forward or backward, while the steering
system articulates them left or right, moving the vehicle
forward or in reverse, or letting it turn in place. Its four-
wheel steering has two modes. One steers the front
wheels in opposition to the rear ones, tightening the
turning radius, and a second mode steers the front and
rear wheels in the same direction, allowing the
Hurricane to skitter laterally, like a beach crab.

20 POPULAR SCIENCE APRIL 2005

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WHAT’S NEW | RECREATION

Remote Possibilities
Three new radio-controlled rovers are steering tech toward toy land

» YOU’RE NOT FOOLING ANYONE by “borrowing” a kid’s toy—least of all the kid himself. Please, grow up and get your own. There’s
certainly no shame in playing with this fleet of innovative remote-controlled toys. Engineered with serious technology from the con-
sumer electronics and automotive industries, these unmanned vehicles are guaranteed to bring out the child in anyone.—RACHEL A. COHEN

1
DRAGANFLYER V TI PRO
Why is this 30-by-30-inch carbon-fiber
whirlybird so easy to fly? Gyros sense if
it’s off-kilter, and four sensors measure
ground-to-air temperature differences
to know which propellers are dipping.
A chip allocates power to the four motors
based on this data. A 2.4-gigahertz
wireless video camera and a receiver
that plugs into any TV allow for real-
time viewing. $1,600 » [Link]

TOP SPEED 30 mph

RANGE One mile
BATTERY Lithium-polymer; one-hour
charge for 14 to 19
minutes of fly time

2 SPIN MASTER R/C WALL RACER

Suction works. When this SWAT car
begins to climb a wall, fans switch on
to pull air through vents under the front
and rear of the vehicle and push it out
through the passenger compartment. The
size and shape of these gaps control air
speed and create a pocket of low pres-
sure under the car, sucking it to the wall.
Available this fall. $60 » [Link]

TOP SPEED 2.7 mph

RANGE 30 ft. (wall); 60 ft. (floor)
BATTERY 7.2-volt nickel-cadmium;
four-hour charge for up to
10 minutes of hang time

3 INTERACTIVE TOY CONCEPTS

ADVENTURE CAM
This ATV uses a 2.4-gigahertz receiver/
transmitter and an energy-efficient sensor
to stream live video from a 300,000-
pixel camera to a 1.8-inch color LCD in
the handheld controller. Use its mic to
communicate through the vehicle’s speak-
ers, and then pan the camera 90 degrees
left or right. LED headlights. $200 »
[Link]

TOP SPEED 10 mph

RANGE 200 ft.
LUIS BRUNO

BATTERY 9.6-volt nickel-cadmium;

four-hour charge for 15
minutes of spy time

22 POPULAR SCIENCE APRIL 2005

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WHAT’S NEW

THE GOODS [
20 SERIOUSLY HOT
PRODUCTS THAT (ALMOST)
SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES

Syncopation School
Roland RMP-3 Rhythm Coach » Can’t keep the beat? This
drum pad has a metronome and an impact sensor;
match what you hear, and it ups the tempo as your
skills improve. $160 » [Link]

Mobile
Media Master
Dual XNAV 9525 » Here’s a novel
hard-drive in-car nav system. Half
of its 20 gigs can be filled with
Cubs’ Computer music (via USB or Ethernet).
Hip-E Node » The first all- Jacks into A/V systems.
in-one computer for teens $1,200 » [Link]
has a removable 512-meg
MP3 Flash player, boom-
box and prepaid cell-
phone. 17-inch LCD, 1.6-
gigahertz processor, up to
two gigs of RAM. $1,900 »
[Link]

Docile Doser
Funhaler » Attach this to Junior’s
inhaler and he might not throw a
fit when it’s time for his asthma
medicine. As he breathes in, a
wheel spins and a whistle blows.
May induce parental headaches.
Low Rider Price not set » [Link]
LandRoller »
Large wheels Speakeasy
are smooth, but Samsung P207 »
they raise the Trick Card
SanDisk Ultra II SD Plus This phone is the
center of gravity. LandRoller’s solution: first to do speech
Mount the wheels on the outside edge of the » Fold this SD card in half to
reveal a USB 2.0 plug—no to text. Using a
skate and angle them inward, keeping the vocabulary of
skate low and stable. $250 » [Link] external reader required. 512-
meg and one-gigabyte sizes. around 40,000
Price not set » [Link] words, it tran-
scribes unknown
verbiage by recog-
nizing sounds
and piecing them
together. Price not
set » [Link]

Strong
Rx Ready Silent Type
Ryders Coiler » The ductile Goodyear Fortera
plastic gaskets that secure Silent-Armor » Kevlar
interchangeable lenses reinforcement provides
in these wraparound stability and abrasion
frames take flat prescrip- resistance. The protec-
tion lenses too, so you tion lies beneath a layer
don’t have to spring for of soft rubber that quiets
custom-curved glass. $70 road noise. $150–
» [Link] $260 » [Link]

24 POPULAR SCIENCE APRIL 2005

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GOODS | WHAT’S NEW

Technicolor Co-pilot Med Minder

Navman Pilot 3380 » Forget SIMpill » Remove the cap on this pill bottle, and its
grayscale screens; this nautical embedded GSM phone sends a message to a central
autopilot has a 3.8-inch color monitoring system that you took your meds. Miss a dose,
screen that turns red, for exam- and it’ll text-message you. $25 » [Link]
ple, if your boat is being blown
off-course. $1,900 » [Link]

Know Your Limits

AlcoHawk Elite » Cold temperatures can
skew a breathalyzer’s reading lower; hot
vice-versa. This tester uses a thermometer
to gauge whether results will be funky
Buzz Kill and, if so, informs the user on the LCD.
Bosch Large Angle Grinder $100 » [Link]
» The first industrial grinder with vibration
dampening has solid rubber rings in front of
the gripping surfaces that cut the shakes by
60 percent. 4.5hp. $190 » [Link]
Picture Perfecter
Datacolor SpyderTV » Seven silicon sensors
tuned to different sections of the light spec-
trum determine how to adjust your set for
Don’t Just Sit There Up against the best picture. Suction it to a TV screen
D-BOX Quest » Two electromagnetic motors in the Wall and follow the
back and a pivot up front allow this lounger to Zircon ProScanner prompts on your
pitch and roll quick enough to generate two Gs. OneStep » It auto- computer. $250
It syncs movement with over 400 movies. Plug it matically boosts » [Link]
into your network to download more. $5,800 scan intensity if it
» [Link] detects that the
studs are buried
deep. $60
» [Link]

Backcountry
Balance
Segway XT » Segway
outfitted its gyro-scooter
with a powerful lithium-
phosphate battery that
Protected Prints delivers a 10-mile range
Epson Stylus Photo R1800 Printer » Pigment-based inks for a shelf over rough terrain and
life of up to 200 years and a gloss cartridge for a waterproof decreased the wheel
finish—all on 13-by-19-inch papers. $550 » [Link] diameter to 10 inches
to accommodate knobby,
shock-absorbing tires.
$5,000 » [Link]

Shoo File
Memsen Click n’
Share » Using ultra-
A Picture Worth wideband, this 128-
260 Songs meg flash drive
Samsung YP-T7 » The world’s small- wirelessly sends
est combination picture viewer and files to its siblings
MP3 player has a 1.1-inch 65,000- at up to 55 mbps.
color LCD. Shown at actual size. USB 2.0. $100 for
$200 for a gig » [Link] two » [Link]

POPULAR SCIENCE APRIL 2005 25

T
WHAT’S NEW | GADGETS

A Matter of Seconds A spinning sphere is the secret to precise time

» A SPRING, RATHER THAN A BATTERY, powers manual mechanical watches. These traditional tickers must be wound daily, though, and
can lose or gain seconds as you gesticulate. But if that’s money you’re waving around, check out the $325,000 Jaeger-LeCoultre
Gyrotourbillon. It needs to be wound only once every eight days and is the first that will keep good time in any position—even when it’s flat on
a dresser. The key is a dual-axis rotating sphere in the face of the watch, which acts like a gyroscope to counteract the effects of gravity on
the balance wheel. Can’t picture it? Here’s a color-coded breakdown of how the .336-gram postage-stamp-size engine works.—JOHN BIGGS

Spherical cage
Escape
wheel

Tourbillon 1

Tourbillon 2

PRECIOUS TIME Only 75

Gyrotourbillons exist. Claim
yours at [Link].
Or see below for more-modest
marvels of engineering.

Track
Winding the watch tightens a spring
1 that turns the drive wheel.
Balance wheel
The spherical cage, turned by the drive Drive wheel
2 wheel, moves around the track.

I L L U S T R AT I O N : J A S O N L E E ; P H O T O G R A P H S , C L O C K W I S E F R O M T O P : C O U RT E S Y J A E G E R - L E C O U LT R E ; L U I S B R U N O ( 3 )
Inner assembly
As the cage circles, Tourbillon 1 rotates the inner
3 assembly 360 degrees 2.5 times every minute.

Tourbillon 2 scavenges power from Tourbillon

4 1’s motion to gradually turn the escape wheel.

The escape wheel transfers this

5 power to the balance wheel.
The spring-loaded balance wheel moves back and forth like a
6 pendulum, regardless of wrist orientation, to propel the second hand.

THREE HIGH-TECH TIMEPIECES THAT WON’T BREAK THE BANK

YES ZULU FOSSIL WRIST PDA FX2008 SUUNTO N6HR

With its single hour This PDA wristwatch keeps personal information Better to not check
hand that circles close at hand. It includes eight megabytes of movie listings while
once in 24 hours, memory and runs Palm OS 4.1 on a one-inch running, but at least
the titanium Zulu is 160x160 grayscale touchscreen. Use the tiny you have the option.
more of a celestial stylus from the buckle holster to browse your The n6HR features a
calendar. The dark synced Palm heart-rate monitor
area of the LCD Desktop calen- and stopwatch, along
slices time between dar. Download with Microsoft’s MSN
sunset and sunrise games and other Direct service, a.k.a.
into 15-minute cool apps. SPOT, which beams
increments; the dark news, sports and
outer ring does the such to your watch
same for the moon. via FM radio signals.
$695 » [Link] $250 » [Link] $400 » [Link]

26 POPULAR SCIENCE APRIL 2005

 T POPULAR

HEADLINES
DISCOVERIES, ADVANCES & DEBATES IN SCIENCE AND THE WORLD
APRIL 2005
scıence

INSIDE THE UNDERWATER LAB 30 • MELTING NUKE WASTE 34 • WILLIE NELSON, OILMAN? 36 • DARPA ROBOT RACE PREVIEW 38

[SPACE TECH]

RENDEZVOUS ROBOT (DART)

Spy in
the Sky?
Space robots are perfect
for satellite repair, cargo
transport and . .. espionage

T
ODAY, WHEN SATELLITES BREAK IN
space, there’s nothing to be done
but wave buh-bye. A new genera-
tion of spacecraft that could diagnose
and repair ailing satellites is on the hori-
NAVIGATION LASER
zon, though. Both NASA and the U.S. Air
Force will soon launch experimental
craft designed to autonomously hunt
down another object in space and circle
around it while snapping pictures. Next
year, the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced
Research Projects Agency will go a step
further by launching a craft that will find
a satellite and then dock to it.
Low-cost, self-directing robots that
could haul cargo to the moon, for
SATELLITE instance, or make repairs to instruments
in orbit, such as the Hubble Space Tele-
scope, are essential to the future of space
exploration. But some experts warn of
ulterior motives: Sidling up to another
craft would also allow you to spy on it,
and possibly even destroy it. “These mis-
sions offer the ability to modify, inspect,
and refuel other satellites,” says arms-
control and space policy expert Jeffrey
Lewis of the University of Maryland.
“It’s very clear that they also offer the
ability to attack foreign satellites.”
NASA’s Demonstration for Auto-
nomous Rendezvous Technology mis-
sion, known as DART, is slated to launch
this month. According to project man-
ager Jim Snoddy, DART will use GPS
receivers to track down its target object,
ORBITAL STALKER
a retired communications satellite. Closer
NASA’s $95-million craft, set to
launch this month, uses GPS,
in, DART’s Advanced Video Guidance
guidance lasers and navigation Sensor will identify the satellite and help
software to home in on satellites, the computerized guidance system to fire
without help from humans. the appropriate thrusters, bringing the
craft within five meters of its target.
NASA

TICKER /// 01.14.05 ALARMINGLY HOT MODELS OXFORD UNIVERSITY’S [Link], A DISTRIBUTED-COMPUTING PROJECT THAT USES DESKTOP PCS TO RUN CLIMATE

POPULAR SCIENCE APRIL 2005 29

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HEADLINES

[SPACE TECH] CONTINUED [OCEANOGRAPHY]

Snoddy points out that DART can’t be
used offensively because it needs a coop-
erative target: The retired communication
satellite was fitted with easy-to-spot reflec-
Wiring the Briny Deep
tors before launch. Scientists get high-speed Internet and a
The Air Force’s Experimental Satellite power hookup—3,000 feet below sea level
System mission (XSS-11), also due for
launch this spring, is attempting some-
thing more ambitious. It will spend a year » If only we knew as much about the world beneath the sea
as we do about the world above it. We have clearer pic-
in space, carrying out navigational tests tures of Saturn’s moon Titan than of the benthic realm of Earth’s
around several targets—many of them oceans, where volcanic eruptions go unnoticed and exotic life- MAINLAND
CABLE
derelict rockets. To home in, XSS-11 will forms await discovery. Trouble is, it’s no easy task to install a lab-
use a combination of a laser-scanning sys- oratory underwater—wireless networks don’t work, batteries
tem. Although the Air Force emphasizes die, and extreme conditions keep scientists at bay.
the peaceful uses of this technology, the This fall, the depths may finally give up some of their secrets
XSS project was born of the old “Star when a team of researchers at the Monterey Bay Aquarium
Wars” missile-defense program. Research Institute (MBARI) in Moss Landing, California, installs
the Monterey Accelerated Research System, or MARS. The under-

“It ’s clear that repair water laboratory will be a power and data hub capable
of hosting seismometers, robotic crawlers and other gear on a
robots offer the ridge more than 3,000 feet below the surface of Monterey Bay.

ability to attack Connected to the coastal institute by a 30-mile-long fiber-optic

cable that’s designed for 25 years of operation, and funded
foreign satellites.” chiefly by a $7-million National Science Foundation grant, MARS LAB-IN-A-CAN
will be a test bed for a more ambitious deep-sea science play- The eight-foot-tall
Meanwhile, civilian satellite builders ground called Project NEPTUNE (North-East Pacific Time-Series sample processor
are also getting into the game. Surrey Undersea Networked Experiments). will suck in and
Satellite Technology in the U.K. built the Modeled after MARS, NEPTUNE will be a 1,900-mile-long depressurize sea-
6.5-kilogram SNAP-1 as an exercise in sensor network that will rim the Juan de Fuca tectonic plate off water to scrutinize its
living contents. Using
miniaturization. Launched in 2000, SNAP-1 the coast of Washington in 2007, recording the area’s frequent
DNA chip technol-
crept to within nine meters of the satellite offshore quakes and bolstering the Pacific coast’s tsunami warn-
ogy developed at
Tsinghua-1 and then took pictures. Surrey ing system. MARS chief engineer James Bellingham calls this MBARI, the device
is now working on an even smaller shut- new approach to seafaring science “the plugs in the ocean pro- will analyze the
terbug, dubbed PalmSat. gram,” adding, “It lets us work with equipment at the bottom genetic makeup of
Like the Air Force, Surrey insists that of the ocean like it was next door.”—JOSHUA TOMPKINS local microbes.
its craft are for peaceful uses only,
although its collaboration with the
Chinese government on the 2000 mission
has raised a few eyebrows among U.S. MONTEREY BAY SEAFLOOR OBSERVATORY
military officials, prompting some to
speculate on whether China is secretly
Proposed cable route
developing “parasitic satellites” as space
weapons. Of course, China may be won-
dering the same thing about the U.S.
While the 1967 Outer Space Treaty
MBARI,
bans weapons of mass destruction in Moss Landing,
orbit, there are no international laws gov- Monterey Canyon California
erning the use of robots in space, and Central power node
Lewis believes it’s time to establish some
ground rules. Simple measures—such as DEPTH LEGEND
G A R RY M A R S H A L L

making public any experiments carried < 500 m

500 –1,100 m
out in space—would make a big differ- 1,100 –1,700 m
ence, he says. “Just having a discussion 5 miles > 1,700 m
would be a big step forward.”
—DANIEL CLERY

MODELS, FINDS THAT GLOBAL TEMPERATURES COULD RISE BY AS MUCH AS 19.8˚F, TWICE THE LEVEL SUGGESTED BY PREVIOUS MODELS /// 01.17.05 STELLAR BABY PICTURES THE

30 POPULAR SCIENCE APRIL 2005

 THE UNDERWATER
LABORATORY

RUMBLE METER
Encased in titanium, which is rustproof, this
instrument consists of a hydrophone for lis-
tening to earthquakes and a pressure sensor OCEAN-CURRENT SENSOR
for detecting volcanic activity and tsunamis.

SOUND STATION
Mounted on a 2,600-foot
steel cable held taut by a float,
BUOY hydrophones will listen to
SEAFLOOR whales, acoustically tagged
POWER OUTLET fish, and shipping traffic. At the
The laboratory’s main power top of the cable, another instru-
source is this 9-by-12-foot box, ment will use sound beams to
called the central power node. measure currents at various
Connected to the mainland by an water depths.
inch-thick fiber-optic cable, the
node will provide eight power and DEPTH SENSOR
data ports capable of routing infor-
mation at 100 megabits per sec-
DOCKING STATION
ond to and from a collection of
science instruments.
HYDROPHONE
AUV
ROBOTIC CRAWLERS
Roaming 164 feet on a tether
attached to a central lander,
three knee-high crawlers
THE JUICE BAR will roll on bulldozer-like
At the AUV docking station, still under treads. The vehicles will tote
design, robot subs will recharge their lithium- cameras for live Internet feeds
ion batteries (fuel cells are in the works) CENTRAL LANDER as they perform experiments
between sojourns lasting up to 12 hours. Cabled to the central and monitor oxygen and
power node, this tri- methane levels.
pod provides power
and data to and from
each crawler. It’s also
equipped with a
webcam for monitor-
ROBOTIC SENTRIES ing the crawlers.
Two autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs),
each roughly the size of a canoe, will be
equipped with cameras, sonar mapping gear
and sensors for measuring temperature,
salinity, and other water properties. They’ll
also map the bay’s canyon, where rocks the
AUV
size of cottages often crash to the seafloor.

SEISMOMETER
Housed in a titanium
cylinder and buried a
foot below the seafloor,
CANYON ROCKS this instrument will
detect earthquakes and
other tectonic activity.

TICKERTELESCOPE
X-RAY /// 1.10.03
ONVIRAL
BOARDANNIVERSARY
NASA’S SWIFTTHE COMPUTER
SATELLITE, VIRUS CELEBRATES
LAUNCHED ITS 20-YEAR
LAST NOVEMBER, ANNIVERSARY;
CAPTURES FORMER
THE FIRST-EVER UNIVERSITY
IMAGE OF SOUTHERN
OF A GAMMA-RAY CALIFORNIA
BURST GRAD
IN ACTION, STUDENT
POSSIBLE FRED
EVIDENCE

POPULAR SCIENCE APRIL 2005 31

T
HEADLINES

[ASTRONOMY] SHRINKAGE
DEPT. Research updates on
Field Trip, Anyone? the quest to make really tiny things

Pack your bags if you want to see the moon’s coolest

trick in 18 years. Don’t forget your paper shades
BONE
GLUE
» NEED AN EXCUSE TO SNEAK DOWN
to the sunny Central Pacific this month?
shorter, the shadow grows larger [see illustra-
tion]. For local observers, the moon will appear
WHEN NEW
England Patri-
Try this one: a chance to witness a rare astro- big enough to cover the sun, turning an annular ot’s All-Pro cor-
nomical event. On April 8, a hybrid solar eclipse into a total eclipse. About three hours nerback Ty Law
eclipse will sweep across the Pacific Ocean. later, the shadow grows smaller as the moon broke his foot
Solar eclipses happen at least twice a year, moves toward South America, where the total last December,
but triple eclipses—in which total and near- eclipse turns back into an annular one. The the injury nixed
total eclipses occur within 24 hours of each show ends 18 minutes later, when the eclipse his chance to
other—take place just once every 18 years. fades away over Venezuela. play in the
On the big day, stargazers a few hundred If seeing it on paper isn’t enough for you, Super Bowl.
miles east of New Zealand will see the moon Discovery World Cruises will float you to an Now there’s a way to fix fractures fast,
traverse the sun shortly after sunrise, creating oceanic region near Polynesia (23º 42’ south lat- and it could help gridiron players—and
a thin solar ring visible around the moon. (Pic- itude, 130º 40’ west longitude, to be specific), the rest of us—get back in the action
ture a black dime stacked on top of a yellow where for $3,870 you’ll have the best vantage within days, instead of months.
nickel.) This phenomenon is known as an point to watch the total eclipse. Brian Genge, a biochemist at the
annular eclipse. As the moon’s shadow traces Miss this sky show and you’re out of luck University of South Carolina, has
Earth’s curvature toward the equator, and the until 2023, when the next hybrid eclipse will devised a novel treatment for fractures:
distance between Earth and the moon gets thrill Indonesia.—PATRICK DI JUSTO a toothpaste-like cement that’s injected

I L L U S T R AT I O N : G A R RY M A R S H A L L ; P H O T O G R A P H S , F R O M T O P : C M S P ; C O U RT E S Y B R I A N G E N G E , U N I V E R S I T Y O F S O U T H C A R O L I N A
into the cavity created by the break. In
Annular shadow 15 minutes, the bone is strong enough
THE HYBRID
ECLIPSE to bear weight.
1
Bone cements aren’t new, but those in
use today can inflame surrounding tis-
2
sue. Genge’s concoction works like mor-
tar for a brick wall: Just add water. Its
3
key ingredient is a nanoparticle resem-
Venezuela Total shadow bling calcium phosphate, the mineral
3
that gives bones their hardness. The tiny
MOONSHADOW size of the particle increases the surface
2
A solar eclipse occurs area, allowing more room for water,
when the moon passes which speeds up the chemical reaction
in front of the sun, cast- that hardens the paste. The result is an
ing a shadow on Earth. epoxy that is twice as strong as current
A total eclipse results bone cements. And because it’s mold-
New Zealand when the darkest part of able, the glue could also replace surgical
1 the shadow touches hardware such as screws and plates.
Earth, blocking the sun Competitive Technologies, a Fair-
entirely [2]. When Earth field, Connecticut–based company,
is farther away, the hopes to bring bone glue to market
shadow grows dimmer, by 2007.—KEVIN KELLEHER
causing viewers to see a
1 2 3
solar ring around the MOLDY TOAST?
moon instead of total Yum, but no. This is a
darkness [1,3]. cross-section of a bro-
ken vertebra patched
with bone paste [white].
The paste solidifies into
a bone-like cement.
ANNULAR TOTAL ANNULAR

OF A NEWLY BORN BLACK HOLE /// 01.21.05 POSTCARDS FROM TITAN AFTER SAFELY LANDING ON SATURN'S MOON TITAN, THE EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY’S HUYGENS PROBE

32 POPULAR SCIENCE APRIL 2005

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HEADLINES

[NUCLEAR WASTE]

The Glass
Sealing
The nation’s most toxic
nuke dump hopes to melt
away its cleanup woes

» IT’S A SLOW-MOTION HORROR

movie: Nuclear waste leaks from
underground storage shafts and seeps toward
a river, where it contaminates drinking water
used by millions of people. That’s exactly the
scenario unfolding at the Hanford Nuclear
Reservation in rural Washington State.
The solution, too, sounds like a page
ripped from a Hollywood screenplay: Insert
two industrial-strength electrodes deep into
the ground, and melt the soil—along with
everything around it—into solid glass, trap-
ping the toxic waste for thousands of years.
The U.S. Department of Energy is now test-
ing the melting process—known as subsur-
face planar vitrification, or SPV—at Hanford
on waste that threatens to leach into the
Columbia River. The problem stems from
144 leaky disposal shafts, which were used
in the 1950s and ’60s to store paint-can-size
barrels of nuclear waste.
Although SPV was invented in the 1990s,
a British company, AMEC, recently pioneered
the most efficient and commercially viable
approach. With a $4-million contract from the
DOE, AMEC plans to melt the first Hanford
shaft by late this summer. For seven to 10
days, the graphite electrodes will heat the
ground to temperatures of 1,700ºC, melting,
or vitrifying, the waste and surrounding soil
into a viscous mass. When cooled, the mixture
will harden into black glass [see illustration,
right]. Eventually this material will be dug up,
packaged, and sent to a government waste
site near Carlsbad, New Mexico, for perma-
nent storage. AMEC says the glass is extremely
stable and a million times as resistant to
leaching as cement. If the project works,
AMEC could end up melting the other 143
plutonium-contaminated tunnels on the site.
“The process either destroys the contami-
nants or locks them into the glass,” says
AMEC’s Leo Thompson, who is the project’s
division manager. “They can’t go anywhere,
so they can’t hurt anybody.”—DAVID KOHN

SENDS HOME IMAGES REVEALING EVIDENCE OF RIVERS

 HOW THE MELTING 3 Containment
PROCESS WORKS hood

Two solid-
1 graphite
electrodes, each
about 30 feet long, 1
are inserted into
the ground. These
devices deliver up to
Electrode 1
four megawatts of
electricity, depend-
ing on how much Waste
shaft
melting is needed.

Engineers
2 pressure-
inject a four-foot-
tall sheet of
graphite flake
between the elec-
trodes. The super-
heated flake melts 2 Heated
the waste and its graphite flake
surroundings.

Situated above
3 the waste-
filled shaft, a con-
tainment hood keeps
the electrodes from
moving once the melt
begins, and channels ROCK-SOLID
radioactive fumes SAFETY
Leach-proof vitrified
into a filtering sys-
soil from the
tem, which removes Hanford Nuclear
toxic elements. Reservation in
Washington State
4
After seven to
4 10 days of
1,700˚C heat, the
C O U RT E S Y A M E C E A RT H & E N V I R O N M E N TA L , I N C .
I L L U S T R AT I O N : G A R RY M A R S H A L L ; P H O T O G R A P H :

area around the shaft

becomes a molten
mass. Once the elec-
tricity is turned off,
this gel-like goo cools
into solid glass, en-
casing any remaining
waste for tens of
thousands of years.

AND LAKEBEDS, PERHAPS ONCE FILLED WITH LIQUID METHANE/// 02.07.05 HUBBLE R.I.P. NASA SCRAPS A COSTLY
T
HEADLINES [THE POPSCI POLL]
BASED ON 4,627 VOTES
STATISTICALLY SPEAKING. . . POSTED TO [Link]

Painkillers, or Just Plain Killers?

The recent brouhaha over the safety of blockbuster drugs Vioxx and LAST MONTH’S
Celebrex has turned up some distressing facts.
QUESTION:
Percent increase in risk of heart attack and stroke found in a 2004
WOULD YOU
100 Merck-sponsored study of 2,586 patients taking the painkiller Vioxx WOULD YOU
88,000– Estimated cases of serious coronary heart disease in the U.S. caused by FAVOR EFFORTS
140,000 Vioxx since its launch in 1999, according to an FDA study TO REDUCE
Number of Americans with Vioxx prescriptions when it was GREENHOUSE-
1.2 million voluntarily recalled last September GAS EMISSIONS
100,000 Number of patients who switched from Vioxx to Celebrex, a prescription EVEN IF THEY
painkiller in the same class, the week after the recall COULD HURT THE
150 Percent increase in risk of heart attack and stroke in a National Cancer ECONOMY?
Institute study of 2,000-plus Celebrex patients last December
Percent more effective Vioxx and Celebrex are at relieving pain compared
0 with traditional pain relievers such as aspirin and ibuprofen

F R O M L E F T: J E F F H AY N E S / A F P / G E T T Y I M A G E S ; T H I N K S T O C K / G E T T Y I M A G E S ; J E N S L U C K I N G / G E T T Y I M A G E S ; B I O P H O T O A S S O C I AT E S / P H O T O R E S E A R C H E R S
Estimated number of Americans who die every year because of adverse
100,000 reactions to prescription drugs

SOURCES: MD Anderson Cancer Center, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, NDCHealth, Verispan, National Cancer Institute,
Stanford University Medical Center, University of Toronto

[THE EQUATION]

[ ][ ][ ][ WILLIE NELSON ]
+
[ VEGETABLE OIL ]
=
[ BIOWILLIE DIESEL ]
YES NO
47% 53%
THIS MONTH’S
QUESTION:
GENTLEMEN,
THE OTHER SLICK WILLIE WOULD YOU
The country legend’s newest venture is a love song to vegetable oil
TAKE A BIRTH-
CONTROL PILL?
» AS A LONGTIME ADVOCATE FOR AMERI-
can farmers, Willie Nelson bought in early
can safely power any diesel engine. And the fuel
is expected to become even more popular now
to the promise of homegrown fuel alternatives, that a recently approved federal tax incentive for
filling his tour buses with emission-reducing producers could push the price down to match
“biodiesel” made from soybeans and vegetable that of traditional diesel.
oil, including fast-food grease. This winter, he took B20, the most popular blend and one of two
his commitment a giant step further, founding, with types sold by Nelson, is a mixture of four parts
entrepreneur Peter Bell, Willie Nelson’s Biodiesel in petro-diesel and one part biodiesel. It’s less toxic
Carl’s Corner, Texas. A Carl’s Corner truck stop is and flammable than regular diesel, so it’s safer
the first to stock “BioWillie,” and several other sta- to store. It also reduces sulfur dioxide emis-
tions in Texas and Oklahoma plan to sell it soon. sions—all notable advantages, Bell believes, and
Biodiesel is still rare on the roadways, but its all the more appealing with a celebrity mug • YES NO
use is on the rise. Last year 30 million gallons attached. “Willie is well-known in the farming
were sold, up from 15 million in 2002. More than and trucker communities,” Bell says. “He’s a
VOTE AT [Link]
300 U.S. gas stations now serve the fuel, which legend on the highway.”—KALEE THOMPSON

PLAN TO RESCUE THE HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE, WHICH, IF NOT SERVICED, IS LIKELY TO FAIL BY 2008 /// 04.01.05 FREE-CYCLE YOUR OLD GADGETS TO CELEBRATE EARTH DAY

36 POPULAR SCIENCE APRIL 2005

T
HEADLINES

[ROBOTICS]

The Ugliest Robot Race Ever, Part II

DARPA’s first competition for autonomous vehicles was brutal. This year? It’s pure evil

» IT SURE SOUNDED EXHILARATING.

Last March, 15 robotic vehicles—no
terrain; they fell victim to all manner of
mishaps, including on-board fires, break-
And as before, contestants won’t know the
race route until two hours before the start.
drivers, no remote controls—set off on a downs and computer malfunctions. Many of the old teams will return for
142-mile race across the Mojave Desert. The But such dismal performances didn’t dis- more abuse. All of them say they’ve made
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency courage DARPA, which devised the competi- major improvements, such as new naviga-
(DARPA), which sponsored the inaugural tion to spur development of unmanned mili- tion systems that use more detailed data on
Grand Challenge race, offered a $1-million tary transport. In fact, the agency has the Mojave’s topography, and innovative
prize to the winner. announced a second race, to take place in the mechanisms for sensing obstacles.
Alas, the Grand Challenge was not partic- Mojave on October 8. This year the stakes This time, in other words, the race has a
ularly grand, and it turned out to be a bit too are even higher: The prize money has been much better chance of living up to its name.
challenging. None of the entries made it far- doubled, and so has the race’s degree of diffi- Here’s a look at last year’s top four finishers
ther than seven and a half miles. The vehicles culty. The course is only three miles longer and what they’re cooking up for round two.

I L L U S T R AT I O N : R O B K E L LY; P H O T O G R A P H S , F R O M T O P : C O U RT E S Y S A M H A R B A U G H ; C O U RT E S Y PA U L G U N T H N E R ; C O U RT E S Y D A R PA ; C O U RT E S Y J O S H A R S E N B E R G
couldn’t handle the difficult, dusty Mojave but will have far more turns and obstacles. —DAVID KOHN

THE TEAM THE VEHICLE THE 2004 DOWNFALL THE FIX CONFIDENCE
Red Team, Navigation system not Overhauled navigation
Carnegie Two entries: a 1986 precise enough. On hair- software; added new “This year we have think-
Mellon Univ., Hummer and an pin turn at mile 7.4, terrain data; increased ing machines, not blind
led by Red all-but-new H1 vehicle drove off road number of sensors from navigators.”—Red Whittaker
Whittaker and got stuck one to seven

Sciautonics II, Tomcar, an Israeli off- Car lost contact with GPS Vehicle no longer
“The vehicle is 25 to 30 per-
led by road vehicle that satellite, drove up the relies on satellite system;
cent better than last year.
engineer Paul resembles a side of an embankment, instead uses video
We’ve worked on it night
Gunthner dune buggy and crashed into some cameras, laser, radar
and day.”—Paul Gunthner
boulders at mile 6.7 and ultrasound

Team DAD
2003 Toyota Tundra Truck was stuck in sand Vehicle equipped with
(Digital Auto “I feel better than 50-50 that
pickup truck pit at mile 6.0; it didn’t option to allow for extra
Drive), led by we’ll finish. We understand
with custom have enough power to acceleration; includes
engineer the problem.”—Dave Hall
navigation motors accelerate out 100 navigation lasers
Dave Hall

Golem Group, Like team DAD, Golem

Two potential vehicles: Truck’s acceleration soft- “Instead of having four things
led by Rand ran into acceleration
a 1994 Ford F150 pick- ware reworked to allow that kind of work, we have
Corporation’s trouble—truck didn’t
up and a 2005 Dodge for more power; stream- one or two that work well.”
Richard have enough power to
Ram 2500 pickup lined navigation system —Richard Mason
Mason climb hill at mile 5.2

HEADLINE FROM THE FUTURE JAMES R. BAKER

2025 ALWAYS ON-CALL: NASA’S NANODOCS DIAGNOSE NEW FLU STRAIN

April 15—Tiny medical sensors administered to millions of Americans prevent an outbreak of a nasty
new flu strain. Once injected into the bloodstream, these nanoscopic virus hunters combine high tech-
nology and old-fashioned immunology. The body’s inflammatory enzymes, formed in response to the
virus, attach to the sensors, and cause them to glow. The patient pops a hearing-aid-size monitor into
his ear for a daily checkup. A laser scans his blood vessels for glowing sensors, and the monitor
beams the data to a central supercomputer. The most recent analysis threw up a red flag: Dozens of
people in the Southeast were carrying a novel influenza bug. The infected were duly warned.
James R. Baker heads the Center for Biologic Nanotechnology at the University of Michigan. He is designing nanoscopic sensors
to monitor astronaut health during future NASA missions.

ON APRIL 22, CALIFORNIA-BASED BCS ([Link]) WILL RECYCLE YOUR ELECTRONIC JUNK—COMPUTERS, PDAS, CELLPHONES—FREE OF CHARGE FOR THE ENTIRE MONTH

38 POPULAR SCIENCE APRIL 2005

 T
SOAPBOX
POPULAR
scıence

Because, it turns out, today’s overtaxed

PLUGGED IN cybercops and district attorneys are ill-
YOUR PERSONAL-TECH ADVOCATE equipped to chase down and identify
spammers, who work very hard to hide
BY CORY DOCTOROW
themselves online. In the grand scheme
of things, the problem just doesn’t com-
mand a lot of law-enforcement mind-
share. This is terribly frustrating for the
legions of amateur volunteer spam-
fighters who devote endless hours to
tracking down creep spammers.
Lawrence Lessig, a Stanford professor
and author of such landmark books as
Free Culture and Code and Other Laws of
Cyberspace, has proposed a solution:
Offer part of the money seized from a
spammer to the vigilante geeks who
build a case against him. “There is energy
and talent enough in the community of
the Net to root out those who would
destroy that community,” Lessig says.
Representative Zoe Lofgren of California
has introduced a bill supporting Lessig’s
plan, but it’s slow work convincing Con-

C O L U M N I S T I L L U S T R AT I O N : R O B K E L LY; C O L U M N I S T P H O T O G R A P H : J O N AT H A N W O RT H ; P H O T O I L L U S T R AT I O N : D AV I D P L U N K E RT
gress that effective, community-based
spam solutions are needed. There’s little
pork or glory in cleaning up your inbox.
That’s a shame, because the mission is
critical. Stopping spam isn’t just about
sparing you the fake-Viagra pitches.
Much of the crud filling up your Junk
box is the output of worms, viruses and
trojans, malicious software that spreads
by hitching a ride on innocent-looking
e-mail. This “malware” typically exploits
vulnerabilities in Windows, Internet
Explorer and Outlook to secretly install
itself and then attack other PCs, steal
your sensitive data, or use your machine
to send the next round of spam (which is
another reason tracking down the source
is difficult; 50 percent of all spam is
routed through so-called zombie PCs).

Spam and Punishment

A decade ago, Microsoft made a
critical flaw in its technology design by
allowing its products to read executable
Until we figure out how to lock up the spammers, ditching instructions (the code that makes up
Outlook can protect you from the worst they have to send applications and viruses) hidden within
documents that should contain only data

A
S MUCH AS I WOULD LOVE TO GET RICH QUICK, INCREASE MY STAMINA, (say, text documents or photos)—some-
and receive that pesky degree that I never got (I dropped out of four univer- thing practically every security expert
sities in two years), I have never bought a single item as a result of an agrees is a bad idea. The effect is that
unsolicited e-mail. Have you? Fact is, most spam is inherently fraudulent. It pretends viruses and other malware can run when
to be from your friends or bank, and it peddles goods that are either illegal or rip-offs, you open that seemingly harmless WMA
like quack pharmaceuticals. So why can’t we prosecute the people responsible for it? audio or PowerPoint file you just got.

40 POPULAR SCIENCE APRIL 2005

T
SOAPBOX
When there is a rigid separation of
executable code and data, computers SCIENCE FRICTION
need only scan programs for potential THE MARKETING AND MANGLING
danger and can handle plain old docu- OF SCIENCE IN POPULAR CULTURE
ments without any special precaution. BY GREGORY MONE
Because they lack that separation,
Microsoft operating systems and appli-
cations are practically impossible to
secure. “Microsoft has two problems,”
says cybersecurity expert Bruce Schneier,
whose Applied Cryptography is the bible
of the tech-security field. “One, the com-
pany has consistently designed its prod-
ucts to put features ahead of security.
And two, its monopolistic position
makes it the most attractive target out
there. If I were a criminal or a hacker,
I would target Outlook.”
So until we get all the spammers
behind bars, the best thing you can do
to protect yourself from this scourge is
to just get away from Microsoft prod-
ucts. The safest route is to switch to a
Mac or GNU/Linux OS, but if that’s too
drastic, at least stop using Outlook and
Explorer with Windows. Instead try
Thunderbird and Firefox, an e-mail
client and browser from the nonprofit
Mozilla Foundation ([Link]), which

C O L U M N I S T I L L U S T R AT I O N : R O B K E L LY; C O L U M N I S T P H O T O G R A P H : H E N RY P E R E Z ; P H O T O G R A P H : J O H N B . C A R N E T T
exists solely to oversee the production
and distribution of these free and rock-
solid programs. Both are safe against
virtually all cyber attacks, are updated
almost immediately when new threats
are discovered, and are available for
Windows, Linux and Mac OS X.
These apps not only correct Micro-
soft’s tactical error of commingling data
and code, but because they’re “free soft-
ware”—also called “open source”—
anyone can examine and improve them.
As experts like Schneier will tell you, the
best methodology for testing a product’s
security is to disclose its inner workings
to the largest possible pool of experts to
see what fresh eyes can detect and fix.
We’re not likely to ever get that kind of
disclosure from Microsoft, which, pro-
tecting its profit first, is ideologically
Cartoons That Animate
committed to keeping its code secret. Shows like Dexter’s Laboratory and Jimmy Neutron are
Every complex ecosystem has its par- turning the electronic babysitter into a science cheerleader
asites, but they don’t have to rule the

A
land. With the right combination of FEW MONTHS AGO I GOT A VOICEMAIL FROM MY SEVEN-YEAR-OLD NEPHEW
tools, laws and homebrew ingenuity— informing me that he needed help building a satellite communication
even in the face of a monopoly—I’m device. He had most of the necessary parts, he assured me, including
confident that we can create an e-mail aluminum foil, some wires and cables, and AA batteries. All we needed to get
system wherein the worst thing in your started was a radio or remote control.
inbox is a bad joke. ■ Nothing came of our project, but the imaginative reach of his idea made me

42 POPULAR SCIENCE APRIL 2005

T
SOAPBOX |SCIENCE FRICTION
wonder: Where did this itch for inven- high/ Cindy is unable to express these town, Retroville, he insists on investigat-
tion come from? Was my sister sprin- values in angstrom units/ Cause she’s ing and finds that his father has been
kling something in his cereal? Reading not as smart as I”—doesn’t measure dumping toxic sludge from Jimmy’s own
him Arthur C. Clarke at bedtime? When up to his rival’s, so he pops artificial- lab, which caused a pet turtle to mutate
I got around to asking her, she attributed intelligence chips into a pair of nanobots into a beast. Realistic? Of course not. But
it to The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: and tells them to correct his verse. Jimmy’s skeptical approach is a nod to
Boy Genius, a cartoon about a 10-year-old For children, so often subjected to the the scientific method.
kid who builds satellites out of toasters. whims of adults, power is a compelling In any case, true accuracy isn’t the
Hold on. Could television be boosting form of fantasy. In these shows, it’s sci- point. It’s not a cartoon’s job to teach
kids’ interest in science? Could cartoons ence that provides that clout, to those kids that if Jimmy really did take his
be doing . . . good? Under the tutelage of who know how to manipulate it for their friends miniature golfing on Mercury
my nieces and nephews and a certain own ends. Sometimes, of course, schemes they would, due to temperature swings
editor-in-chief who watches far too many backfire. In one episode, Dexter makes a of 500°C, be either frozen or fried. Still,
cartoons with his own seven-year-old, I device that he plans to use as a micro- since Jimmy has got everyone’s atten-
decided to find out. Thus began a ’toon-
watching binge that had me up at 7 a.m.
on Saturday for the first time in 20 years. It’s not a cartoon’s job to teach kids
What I found surprised me. The Car- that if Jimmy did take his friends
toon Network and Nickelodeon are ram-
pant with child scientists, miniature Edi-
miniature golfing on Mercury,
sons who run around exclaiming “Holy they’d be either frozen or fried.
tion, it’s tempting to ask why he couldn’t
just morph into a miniature version of
Bill Nye the Science Guy every now and
then to edify viewers.
I know what Jimmy’s creators would
say. In one episode Jimmy launches his
own public TV program, but it’s so bor-
ing that the school principal forces him
to cede partial control to his nemesis,
Cindy Vortex. The show is quickly
renamed—from Science with Jimmy to
PLAYTIME REDEFINED A typical afternoon for Neutron: zooming in space with his homebuilt robotic dog, Funky Jam Dance Party (with Some Sci-

F R O M L E F T: PA R A M O U N T / N E A L P E T E R S C O L L E C T I O N ; H A N N A - B A R B E R A / N E A L P E T E R S C O L L E C T I O N
Goddard, made from junkyard scrap. Miniature mad scientist Dexter exults in his inventive powers. ence)—and Jimmy barely gets in a word
about electron valence orbits before his
Heisenberg!” and “Einstein’s Ghost!” scope but agrees to let his sister sell it co-stars steal the spotlight with their new
When children aren’t donning lab coats, as a hat after she tells him it will be a theme song: “Do you want to be my
they often have scientist parents, such as moneymaker. Her customers grow gar- beaker?/ Do you want to mix some
Mrs. Wakeman, the wild-eyed mother gantuan heads. And Jimmy’s nanobots chemicals?/ I’ll be your test tube baby/
of Jenny the android on My Life as a misinterpret their poetry assignment On the funky jam dance party.”
Teenage Robot, or Professor Utonium, and start, um, deleting all humanity. “The When I ask my sister what she thinks
who uses his science know-how to help lesson is that things can go wrong in the of Jimmy Neutron, she says she’s glad her
his tiny crime-fighting daughters save hands of a 10-year-old—or anyone with a son is learning something, then corrects
the day on The Powerpuff Girls. very short attention span,” says John herself: “We like that it’s inspiring him.”
The pint-size hero of Dexter’s Labo- Davis, Jimmy Neutron’s creator. Jimmy is always building stuff from
ratory cobbles together reactors and Meanwhile, pseudoscience prevails in items around the house, and that’s what
asteroid-blasting robots; in his downtime Danny Phantom, a show about a kid who has my nephew convinced he can make
he reads books like Quantum Science for accidentally turns himself into a ghost in a satellite from scraps. Ultimately, science
Fun. Jimmy Neutron, meanwhile, has a his parents’ lab. But the tendency on TV education happens in the classroom, but
tech solution to every problem, whether for the paranormal to trump the rational kids must be interested first, which
it’s striking out in baseball or getting (which had Oxford geneticist Richard is where Jimmy, Dexter and even the
beat up by a bully. In one episode he’s Dawkins railing against The X-Files in its middle-aged Professor of The Powerpuff
upset because his poem—“Roses have heyday) doesn’t always hold. When a Girls succeed. They make science familiar
low spectral wavelengths/ Violets have lake monster starts terrorizing Jimmy’s and exciting. To echo the vow of young
Mr. Neutron: “By the spirit of Enrico
Get on your own soapbox! Write to pluggedin@[Link] or sciencefriction@[Link]. Fermi, may science never take a backseat
to mindless pop culture again!” ■

44 POPULAR SCIENCE APRIL 2005

EVERY
VIDEOGAME
STARTS
WITH A
WARNING:
DON’T
DRIVE LIKE
THIS IN
REAL LIFE.
LIFE..
WE DID.

RACE AGAINST
BY JOE BROWN
PHOTOGRAPHS BY
JOHN B. CARNETT

46 POPULAR SCIENCE APRIL 2005

 HEAD TO HEAD
Veteran gamer RJ DeVera
and professional race driver
Gunnar Jeannette test Forza
Motorsport, the new racing
game for Xbox, against the
world it imitates.

REALITY
PHOTO CREDIT TK

POPULAR SCIENCE APRIL 2005 47

 YOU’RE PUSHING 185 MPH. THE TREES TO YOUR LEFT HAVE MELTED INTO A
GREEN BLUR, THE TACHOMETER NEEDLE SHAKES FRENETICALLY AS IT NEARS THE END
OF ITS ASCENT, AND THE ENGINE IS SCREAMING. A CONCRETE BARRIER, HARBINGER
OF THE HARD RIGHT AHEAD, IS QUICKLY FILLING YOUR FIELD OF VISION.

Pulse pounding, you hit the brakes and performance—into a physics model that digital surrogates for our analog reality?
crank the wheel, but it’s too late: The car predicts how that particular collection of The laboratory for our experiment:
can’t overcome its own momentum, and parts would slice through the air and Road Atlanta, in Braselton, Georgia, 55
you slam into the wall at 150. And then? grab the road. (Forza’s main competitor, miles north of Atlanta. The cars: half
You stand up, go to the kitchen, and grab Sony PlayStation 2’s Gran Turismo 4, a dozen beauties, from a scary-fast
some more cheese puffs and a soda. can’t match its power—GT4’s physics Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution MR to
No matter how sensational a racing engine recalculates 60 times a second, a mind-blowing 205mph Porsche
game’s look and feel, it’s easier to scrape Forza’s runs four times as fast, at 240.) Carrera GT. The players: American Le
yourself off the couch than the pave- How realistic is Forza? We decided to Mans pro Gunnar Jeannette and Los
ment. But Microsoft Game Studios’s find out with a head-to-head compari- Angeles–based RJ DeVera, who makes
Forza Motorsport, due out for Xbox son—but not against another game. his living transforming mundane Japan-
on May 3, aims to leave you physically Instead we put it up against reality itself, ese imports into hot-rods—“tuners,” as
shaken by the experience of a virtual calling on the insight of a professional they’re called—and whose videogame
collision—and to eclipse other racing racecar driver and a professional car nut expertise made him the ideal counterpart
games as the most realistic ever pro- weaned on videogames. We wanted to to Jeannette. (Forza’s designers also
duced. The software giant devoted more know whether Forza’s attention to minu- found DeVera’s combination of skills
than two and a half years and the expert- tiae raises it in status from videogame to irresistible; he consulted on the game’s
ise of 150 employees to build Forza, digi- bona fide simulator. Could someone use menu of aftermarket modifications.) The
tally describing gravity, surface tempera- it to train for a race, and would that result? Two days of tire-smoking, wheel-
tures, friction coefficients and thousands training make him a better driver? gripping, computer-frying madness.
of other factors that mimic the cause and Would it challenge nonprofessional driv-
effect of reality. Rather than simply using ers enough to convey what it actually OVER THE PAST NINE YEARS, BRASELTON
0–60 times, top speeds and the standard takes to succeed under real race condi- has been transformed into a resort by
slate of statistics available from automak- tions? Would it distinguish between Don Panoz, whose company developed
ers, the designers entered each car’s phys- gaming skills and driving skills? And the nicotine patch. He built his own win-
ical attributes— finally, is Forza an ery and luxury hotel, founded the Amer-
the ingredients of advance guard of ican Le Mans league, created his own
TRACK CARS
7
Road Atlanta
6
8
LOCATION
Braselton, Georgia
VIRTUAL
MAIN SERIES
American Le Mans 605 HP 400 HP
REALITY
LENGTH 5
2.54 miles

NUMBER The Esses

9
OF TURNS
12
Porsche Carrera GT ‘04 Chevrolet Corvette ‘05
LONGEST STRAIGHT
4 TRACK PRICE: $440,000 PRICE: $45,000
0.67 mile TURNS
3 PERFORMANCE: 0–60 in 3.9 PERFORMANCE: 0–60 in 4.3
TRACK WIDTH 10a
seconds; top speed 205 mph seconds; top speed 186 mph
40 feet 2 DEVERA SAYS: “In the game, JEANNETTE SAYS: “The sound
10b you’re like: Man, this car’s fast. and its acceleration were very
SPECTATOR In real life it’s just really intimi- close, but the brakes in the real
CAPACITY 11
dating, especially when it’s car were worn and the tires so
100,000 12 someone else’s half-a-million- used up that you couldn’t get a
1 dollar car.” feel for the way it handled.”

48 POPULAR SCIENCE APRIL 2005

 PLAYERS
GUNNAR RJ
1 JEANNETTE
AGE: 22
OCCUPATION:
2 DEVERA
AGE: 28
OCCUPATION:
Professional race driver Import-car customizer;
HOME: West Palm veteran racing-simula-
Beach, Florida tor expert
PERSONAL RIDE: 2002 HOME: Los Angeles
Volkswagen GTI PERSONAL RIDE: Modi-
DEBUT: At 18, Jeannette fied 1991 Acura NSX
made his professional DEBUT: DeVera made
race debut at the 24 his film debut in The
Hours of Daytona, as Fast and the Furious, as
part of the team with the a videogamer playing
oldest and youngest Gran Turismo 3. He also
driver. His teammate: built the movie’s nitrous-
Paul Newman. boosted Honda S2000.

DEVERA HAS A BACKGROUND

ing engine. “How many horsepower?”
“Two ninety,” DeVera replies. Perhaps
out of modesty, he adds, “I think.” But the
IN A DIFFERENT, LESS-THAN-
SCREEN SHOTS BY MICROSOFT GAMING STUDIOS

28-year-old knows. He owns a highly

modified 1991 NSX and he obsessed
LEGAL SORT OF RACING. over the mid-engine super-Acura well
before he could drive. “You know how a
Camaro is symbolic of ’60s American
team, and bought the local racetrack, ing lot talking cars, admiring the Acura muscle?” he asks. “That’s how I feel about
which is reproduced down to the square NSX that they’ll race tomorrow. Jean- the NSX and the ’90s—it was the first of
inch in Forza. (It’s one of eight real tracks nette is a wiry 22-year-old who moves the really fast Japanese imports.”
in the game, plus 39 fictional courses.) with a deliberate economy of motion. He Inside the garage, thick and glossy
One hundred yards up the hill from sights down the rear fender line, copping gray paint coats a concrete slab floor, and
the track squats a row of steel industrial a feel from the left quarter panel. “It 20-foot walls meet a corrugated steel ceil-
garages. It’s 9 a.m., and Jeannette and looks hot,” he says, his voice barely audi- ing. Three hydraulic lifts hulk along one
DeVera have just met; they’re in the park- ble over the pings and pops of the cool- side; on the other, a mid-’80s Porsche 911

290 HP 276 HP 240 HP 190 HP

Acura NSX ‘04 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution MR‘05 Volkswagen Golf R32 ‘04 Lotus Elise ‘05
PRICE: $89,000 PRICE: $35,000 PRICE: $29,000 PRICE: $43,000
PERFORMANCE: 0–60 in 4.9 PERFORMANCE: 0–60 in 4.7 PERFORMANCE: 0–60 in 6.4 PERFORMANCE: 0–60 in 4.9
seconds; top speed 167 mph seconds; top speed 152 mph seconds; top speed 130 mph seconds; top speed 150 mph
DEVERA SAYS: “The NSX’s mid- JEANNETTE SAYS: “The sound DEVERA SAYS: “I felt that it was DEVERA SAYS: “In Forza I want-
engine balance makes it tricky. was amazing—spot on, espe- the easiest to take your game ed to use my own weight to
It’ll get sideways at 100 mph cially when the turbo spools up. experience and apply it. It did- carry it around the turns—like
and you’ll freak out, but in the The redline and shift points n’t get going as fast as the oth- in a go-kart—but in real life it
game, you just use that quality were all correct; it was as much ers, so it was easy to push more has plenty of power. It carried
to carry more speed.” fun in the game as in real life.” and not screw up.” me through the corners.”

POPULAR SCIENCE APRIL 2005 49

sits idle in full race livery. Conspicuously Forza’s architect, has been playing the At the moment, he’s using his own
out of place at center stage are two gam- game longer than anyone. “It’s unreal!” strategy for warming up, informed by
ing rigs, both mounted with a racecar Yes, but it does make perfect sense. countless hours of gaming. He’s doing
seat, steering wheel, pedals and sur- As a driver for the Panoz team, Jean- laps in a Volkswagen Golf R32, which,
round-sound speakers. Each rig sits nette knows the track well; the undu- though fast, is the furthest from race-
before a 50-inch plasma TV. lating 2.54-mile road course is his home ready of the six cars he’ll test tomorrow.
“Are you kidding me?” Jeannette field. And he’s not as green as his age “A lot of people like to start out in the
exclaims when he sees the setup. DeVera would suggest: At 18, he became the fastest car, but I like to get acclimated
just shakes his head, grinning, as they youngest person to ever finish the 24 with something a little easier to handle,”
climb into their seats. Dan Greenawalt, hours of Le Mans, the annual French he says. “It lets me understand how much
Forza’s lead game designer, sets the driv- endurance race that is among the most I can get away with.” He’s making slow
ers up on the pre-release copies he’s chap- grueling in all of motor sports. Three laps, jerking the wheel back and forth to

THROWING REALITY A CURVE

VIRTUAL

REALITY

12

JEANNETTE SHOULDN’T BE
eroning, and they dive into our duel
between virtual and reality.
Jeannette selects a digital avatar of
the prototype-class racer his team drove
two seasons ago. He holds the wheel
THIS GOOD THIS SOON .. .
lightly and jams down the gas. The car
gets squirrelly around the first turn, and years later, he came in third in his class. gauge the car’s handling limits. “This is
he pauses the screen. “How do I switch DeVera has a background in racing as tight,” he says, opening it up a little. “The
to first-person perspective?” he asks. well, but of a different, less-than-legal graphics, sound, everything, but espe-
“I’m more used to seeing it that way.” sort. He started out drag racing late at cially the feel. I’m noticing that I can’t let
Greenawalt tells him how, and he roars night on the streets of L.A., but, after my inputs be too videogamey. My first
off again. DeVera glances over and blowing more engines than he could couple laps, I was just mashing the throt-
makes the same change. afford, shifted his efforts to building tle—all-out all the time—but you really
Within five minutes, Jeannette logs a competition show cars and limited his have to modulate your controls, because
time of 1:16 and change—just four sec- racing to videogames. Now he soups up the computer knows the difference.”
onds slower than his fastest lap at Road cars for big-budget movies such as The Depending on the type of car and its
Atlanta in the real car. “That’s better than Fast and the Furious and anyone else number of parts, anywhere from 3,750
my best time,” says Greenawalt, who, as who can afford his hefty fees. to 9,375 variables influence the way it

50 POPULAR SCIENCE APRIL 2005

 drives. Tire adhesion is modeled on val- Meanwhile, DeVera is hot-lapping the DeVera had the same hierarchy of times
ues for temperature and wear. Not only Lotus Elise, and he’s frustrated with the in Forza, recording their fastest lap in the
the wheels but every piece of the engine computer’s model. “When you go into a Carrera GT and their slowest in the Golf
that spins carries its own inertia and turn and you let up on the engine, it’s R32. The question is, how will this com-
resists forward acceleration in propor- hard to get back going, because the car pare with their times on the track?
tion to its size, weight and rotational has no torque under 4,500 rpm,” he The first anomaly soon emerges. “That
speed. Each car also has its own drag complains. “It’s kind of a dog.” car is beat,” Jeannette pronounces, hop-
coefficient, and a major dent will change By 10 p.m., after 13 hours of high- ping out of a yellow Corvette C6 and
the way air moves over its body, affect- definition eyestrain, both DeVera and backing away from it. He’s just clocked a
ing handling. And don’t think you’ll be Jeannette are very clearly done. “I’m as 144.96 lap—inconsistent with his times
back to peak performance for your next sore as if I were actually racing all day,” in the virtual C6. “The brakes are toast,
up: You have to spend winnings fixing DeVera says. Jeannette simply removes and the tires are in no shape for hard
corners. It’s not really a fair comparison
to the game, where you’re driving a car in
peak condition.” Apparently, he’s the
only driver in Braselton who hasn’t had
a turn in the ’Vette, which happens to be
Road Atlanta’s official pace car.
The drivers are taking turns with our
fleet of six cars, their instructions being

PICTURE IMPERFECT Pro driver Jeannette

The Esses had only two complaints about Microsoft’s
version of Road Atlanta: that the drop in
elevation after turn 12 [far left] in the game
VIRTUAL does not do justice to the nerve-wracking,
high-speed descent, and that the Esses—the
REALITY dangerous, winding curves after the first
straight—are tighter in reality [left]. At cen-
ter, three members of our automotive posse
stretch their legs coming out of turn 12.

to discern how much the real-life and

simulated experiences differ. Right now,
DeVera is pulling onto the track in the
Lotus Elise, the dog in which he scored
his second-slowest time yesterday. It
whines like a go-kart as he comes past
and snaps the back end around turn two.
He parks it and extracts himself from the
tight cockpit, nodding in approval. The
any damage you inflict on your ride. his glasses and rubs his eyes. You have low-end torque problems? “None at all,”
So far, Jeannette hasn’t had to shell to wonder how they’ll feel by the end of he says. “It’s so light that the engine pulls
out a penny. He shouldn’t be this good a full day’s racing tomorrow. it back up to speed in no time.”
this soon, and his success hints at Jeannette is similarly impressed with
Forza’s realism. Although Jeannette is a IN FORZA, THE WEATHER IS ALWAYS PERFECT. the Elise. “Now that was fun,” he gushes
SCREEN SHOTS BY MICROSOFT GAMING STUDIOS

far less experienced gamer, his times are Road Atlanta, for example, is constantly after a few laps. “That car is just glued to
consistently better than DeVera’s. If it 70 degrees and sunny. But this is a gen- the road. Every time I come out of a cor-
were a mere arcade game, the racer uine December morning, and it’s too cold ner, I’m like, ‘I could have come into that
would have had to learn to play it; to race. Jeannette doesn’t want anybody faster.’ And then the next time, I do, and
instead he’s just driving. out there until the surface temperature I come out thinking the same thing. I
And he’s starting to see small incon- of the track reaches 55 degrees and the drove it the same way here as I did yes-
gruities. “The Esses are tighter,” he says tires can better grip the asphalt. “It’s just terday, not braking so much as just toss-
about the section of track from turn three not safe,” he says, and disappears into the ing it into a corner and letting the skid
to five. “But the speed is spot-on. I’d be garage for a few more laps on the game. scrub off extra speed, but it definitely
coming out at about 125 mph in fifth He returns around 11, after clocking a feels faster on the track.”
gear. Wow—I brake exactly where I 1:12—tying his best time in real life— It’s beginning to look like Forza’s
really do just before turn six. But five isn’t and declares the asphalt ready for action. physics modeling wasn’t so hot after all.
blind in real life.” Despite their difference in skill, he and But no: Later we’ll figure out the actual

POPULAR SCIENCE APRIL 2005 51

 YOU CAN’T BE FRIGHTENED
source of the discrepancy. The game
uses the U.K. version of the Elise, which
comes outfitted with a 156hp engine; we
used the 190hp U.S. version.
DeVera takes out the Mitsubishi
OF MAKING A MISTAKE
Lancer Evolution, which sounds like a jet
when he flies by. When he shoots out of WHEN THERE ARE NO
sight, we hear his tires screeching but
don’t think anything of it. As it turns out, TANGIBLE CONSEQUENCES.
he’s nearly eaten concrete. DeVera got
sideways after the Esses but reined in the than see it. The silver blur rockets past us get so much information about what the
back end to keep it out of the wall. “Just once, twice, three times before he eases car is doing from how it sounds. It is
like in the game, it’s really fast, and the the pride of Stuttgart off the track. “That much more of a guide in real life.”
solid feel of the all-wheel drive can make is one hell of an automobile!” he says. DeVera takes a single lap in the GT (it
you a little overconfident,” he says after- “My only complaint about it in the game was loaned from a private owner, Preston
ward. Then he chuckles. “I should have is the sound of the exhaust. It sounds Henn, and we chose to let the pro do most
paid more attention yesterday.” cool for sure, but it doesn’t do the car jus- of the driving) and begins comparing his
Jeannette is already back out there, tice. When you are pushing that thing day’s times with his scores from yester-
screaming around the asphalt in the around the track, that beautiful engine day. In Forza, his fastest times for each car
Carrera GT. We can hear the car more roar consumes your senses, and you can spanned a range of 16.1 seconds, reflect-
ing the difference in theoretical power.
Today, despite the same range in real
power, his times are all within just over a
second of one another—from the 240hp
Golf R32 to the 605hp Carrera GT. The
likely explanation: “In a game, there’s no
‘Oh, s--t’ factor. When I’m coming up on
4 a real turn, on a real track, in a real car
2a
going more than 100 actual miles per
hour, my foot will brake at a certain point

3
TUNNEL
VISION Lead
designer Dan
1 Greenawalt
was always a
car lover, but
not a motor-
2b
sports fan. To
get up to speed,
he watched five
years’ worth
START YOUR ENGINES Speedster ForceShock of Formula 1
tapes while
wheel improvises deftly.
Using the rumble channel working on
Our test of Forza Motorsport featured the Forza.
hottest hardware available. The only thing that makes your control
pad shake when you go
missing from these rigs are seatbelts
over a bump, the wheel’s whether or not my brain thinks I can
1/// The drivers sit in real channel surround sound motors are able to simulate squeeze out a couple extra yards before I
Sparco Pro2000 race seats [2a] and a ButtKicker force feedback. No other slow down. In the game, I’ll find my drop-
mounted on custom tube amp [2b] that translates Xbox wheel has this feature. dead brake point with trial and error. And
frames built by Virtual bass (or bumps in the $150; [Link] I’ll walk away from it every time.”
Racer X (VRX), whose road) into seat rumbling. 4/// Pioneer’s new flagship
bespoke rigs are tailored to 3/// Although Xbox’s lack 50-inch Elite Plasma, YOU CAN’T BE FRIGHTENED OF MAKING
each customer’s whim of USB ports makes it which boasts a 20 percent a mistake if there are no consequences.
regarding seat type, paint unable to support force- better contrast ratio than Team Forza tried to solve this by having
job and components of feedback—in which the its previous marquee players pay—with winnings—for the
choice. [Link] game tells motors built into flat panel, stands in for damage they incur. Perhaps not surpris-
2/// Our $2,500 models the steering wheel to push windshields. $13,500; ingly, this doesn’t incite the same kind of
come outfitted with 5.1- back—the new Fanatec [Link] fear that the threat of paralysis will. The
military has a clever way of dealing with

52 POPULAR SCIENCE APRIL 2005 See more about Forza’s ultrarealistic physics at [Link]/forza.
 GREEN FLAG For head-to-head action like
this, Forza players will be able to compete
against “intelligent” simulated drivers—
which develop their own race styles (and
learn yours)—or real people, using net-
worked consoles or in online racing leagues.

ity. Jeannette already knew the Braselton

course well, but DeVera had never laid
eyes on it, and he fared well for someone
who doesn’t race for a living. “It was a
huge help to have a full day in different
cars, getting used to the track—even if it
was a videogame,” he says. “It was real
enough that it helped me find my apexes
and braking points and kept me from
getting surprised.”
While certainly there exist more
REALITY robust ways of replicating reality, Forza
makes excellent use of the techno-
VIRTUAL logies you can actually bring home: high-
definition video and surround sound.
Eventually, predicts Ferris, “We’re just
going to tap into the brain, and the whole
simulation will occur there—no screens,
no speakers.” Until then, if you’re dying
for a simulated experience more gripping
than Forza, you could always join the Air
Force and ask for Threat-Fire detail. But
before you enlist, it’s worth appreciating
the things you can do in games that you
can’t get away with in reality.
On that first day at Road Atlanta, Jean-
nette conducted a little virtual experi-
ment of his own. Spinning the wheel to
the right, he dropped the prototype racer
into first gear and started massaging the
pedal. Rendered smoke poured off the
tires and clouded the plasma screen as he
cranked out digital doughnuts. “Couldn’t
this problem in its combat simulators: game is the physical sense of motion, do this in real life!” the young racer
pain. VirTra Systems, which designs and most notably from G-forces. A race driver exclaimed. “Well,” he considered,“I could.
builds training devices for the U.S. mili- can experience up to four times the force But I might get fired.” ■
tary, incorporates something called of gravity. Try turning your head when it
Threat-Fire, a belt that zaps the “player” feels like it weighs 60 pounds. POPULAR SCIENCE assistant editor Joe
with 80,000 volts of electricity when he You’re not actually moving in Forza, Brown has a tuner rocket of his own: a
screws up. “The idea is to implement of course, but training on the “sim” 1981 VW Rabbit with a 350hp engine
psychological stress,” clearly has a bearing on real- and 260,000 miles on it. It’s not in Forza.
SCREEN SHOTS BY MICROSOFT GAMING STUDIOS

says Bob Ferris, pres-

ident of VirTra Sys-
tems. “It’s not the
LAP TIMES
same as the threat of
death, but knowl-
GUNNAR JEANNETTE A NATURAL, BY
THE NUMBERS RJ D VERA
E
SIM SAVVY GENERATES
COMMENDABLE TRACK TIMES

edge of a conse- CAR GAME TRACK CAR GAME TRACK

quence he wishes to R32 •••••••••••• 1:41.86••••••••••• 1:50.29 R32•••••••••••• 1:46.63••••••••••• 1:55.28
avoid does affect the EVO•••••••••••• 1:36.61••••••••••• 1:42.92 EVO•••••••••••• 1:41.90••••••••••• 1:54.36
way a person han- CORVETTE••••••••1:33.52••••••••••• 1:44.96 CORVETTE••••••••1:38.68••••••••••• 1:55.38
NSX•••••••••••• 1:38.30••••••••••• 1:45.10 NSX•••••••••••• 1:42.87••••••••••• 1:55.35
dles himself.” ELISE••••••••••••1:41.65••••••••••• 1:44.28 ELISE••••••••••••1:45.47••••••••••• 1:54.57
Another key ele- CARRERA GT ••••• 1:25.98••••••••••• 1:38.80 CARRERA GT ••••• 1:30.52••••••••••• N/A
ment of realism ab- AVERAGE ••••••••1:36.32••••••••••• 1:44.39 AVERAGE ••••••••1:41.01••••••••••• 1:54.99
sent from any racing

54 POPULAR SCIENCE APRIL 2005

 ➤ ➤
➤ ➤
➤ ➤
➤
A
➤ ➤ ➤ ➤ BIRTH OF
➤ ➤
➤ ➤
➤ ➤
➤ ➤
➤ ➤

56 POPULAR SCIENCE APRIL 2005

 ➤ ➤
➤ ➤
➤ ➤
➤ ➤
➤ ➤

TITAN
➤ ➤
➤ ➤

➤ ➤
➤ ➤
➤ ➤
➤ ➤
iner
e m o s t m assive jetl was an equally
is th on e
The A380 uilt, and getting it dlusive look at
e v e r b ,a n e x c mble
u n d e r ta king. Here f Airbus’s giant ga
huge ing o
the unveil John B. Carnett n
hs b y l Sweetma
Photograp Text by Bil

➤
➤
GRANDE DAME The immense Airbus
A380 was unveiled in Toulouse, France,
on January 18 at a ceremony attended
by dignitaries including French president
Jacques Chirac, British prime minister
Tony Blair, German chancellor Gerhard
Schroeder and 14 airline CEOs.
➤
➤
POPULAR SCIENCE APRIL 2005 00
➤➤
THERE WERE ACROBATS FROM THE
Cirque du Soleil, a mechanical
objet d’art that looked like a mad
inventor’s spaceship, and a voluble
computer-generated wizard that
bore a disturbing resemblance to a
bathrobe-clad George Carlin—the
ceremony in Toulouse, France, that
marked the completion of Airbus’s
first A380 was nothing if not pomp-
filled. But when four kids finally
tugged on a huge tasseled cord and
the curtain fell to reveal the largest
jetliner ever built, the spectacle was
just beginning.
The A380’s wings span 262 feet,
50 feet more than a 747, the biggest
commercial jet flying today. Fully
loaded, the plane will weigh 1.25
million pounds, carrying one third
more passengers than a 747 in
1.5 times the floor space but making
only half as much noise. And the
A380 burns 12 percent less fuel per
seat than a 747—80 passenger miles
per gallon, about as much gas per
passenger, per mile, as a Ford Taurus
with three people on board.
The airline CEOs who turned out
to welcome the A380 have signed
contracts to buy a total of 149 of
the giants, worth $40 billion. The
plane seats 535 passengers in the
usual intercontinental three-class [1] [2]
mix, while giving passengers more
room to stretch. Virgin Atlantic chair
Richard Branson, whose airline
has ordered half a dozen, joked at
the ceremony that with a casino
and first-class double beds, “there’ll
be two ways to get lucky on a
Virgin A380.”
A380 No. 001 is the product of
a colossal decade-long industrial
and technological effort that has
spanned the world and will
probably cost more than $15 billion
before Singapore Airlines, the first
customer in the delivery queue,
receives an airplane. The new final-
assembly buildings at Toulouse are
designed to produce about one
A380 a week by 2008.
Airbus is clearly banking on the
A380’s high-domed forehead and
knitted-brow expression becoming
ubiquitous at megahub airports.
Boeing, which has dismissively
predicted that Airbus will sell only
400 of its new heavyweights,
has a different vision: Its new
223-passenger 787 is designed to
bypass huge hubs, instead linking
midsize cities. The first A380s will
enter service in mid-2006; the plane
should first reach JFK, in Air France
➤
➤ colors, in the summer of 2007.

98 POPULAR SCIENCE NOVEMBER 2003

 ➤
➤

DESTINATION: TOULOUSE
Airbus assembles the
A380 in Toulouse, France, Russia
from large, almost-
finished sections that
are built in the U.K., 2 MOSTYN 6 YEKATERINBURG
Germany, Spain and
France—and many
smaller pieces from U.K.
1 HAMBURG
around the world. For
its older planes, the Germany
company ships the main 3 ST. NAZAIRE
parts in bulbous-bodied
PAUILLAC France
Beluga jets, but the A380
4 BORDEAUX
wing and body are too
big for that. Instead,
Airbus is moving A380 5 TOULOUSE
pieces by land and water, Spain

in an intricate dance of
specially constructed
boats, trucks and barges. CADIZ

1 2 3 4 5 6
HAMBURG, GERMANY MOSTYN, WALES ST. NAZAIRE, FRANCE BORDEAUX, FRANCE ROAD TO TOULOUSE RUSSIA TO CLEVELAND
Airbus Germany The ship sails on to The Ville de Napoleon wasn’t The 150-mile The main landing-
rolls out the North Wales and Bordeaux stops to thinking about the overland trek to gear beam is
barrels—front loads up a pair collect the A380’s A380 when he Toulouse takes three perhaps the A380’s
and rear body of wings, each nose and the commissioned the nights using trailers best-traveled part.
sections 24 feet in 130 feet long, that 10-ton, carbon-fiber Pont de Pierre, the towed by silenced Forged from red-
diameter—and have been built at center box that landmark bridge 600-horsepower hot titanium in
loads them onto the the world’s biggest holds the wings to over the River Mercedes tractors. Yekaterinburg,
505-foot Ville de wing factory and the body. In Garonne. Airbus’s The road is closed Russia, it’s cycled
Bordeaux, a floated down the Pauillac, the ship specially built to oncoming traffic through Goodrich
custom-built River Dee on docks to a 1,000- barges can be partly one section at a plants in Tennessee,
roll-on/roll-off a barge. ton pontoon to un- flooded to pass time. Gravel tracks Ohio and Canada
cargo ship. load parts before through the arches purpose-built to before being sent to
making a run to at high tide. bypass villages can Toulouse.
Cadiz, Spain, to get be used as bike
the tailplane. paths in daylight.

[3]
THE MAKING OF A MEGAPLANE
1. WIGGLE ROOM Balanced on jacks and
wired to a battery of test instruments,
the second A380 undergoes vibration
tests to clear the way for its sister craft’s
maiden flight.
2. ASSEMBLY SHRINE An intricate system of
docks, platforms and elevators puts
workers, tools and parts within easy
reach of the under-construction A380.
3. AIRBUS’S X-MAN Philippe Jarry skipped
class at the University of Paris to
watch the first Boeing 747 land at the
1969 Paris air show. A quarter of a
century later, as the marketing director
for what was then called the A3XX,
his job was to persuade airlines to take
a pass on Boeing’s offer of a stretched
747 and wait for Airbus’s new bird.
“All we had was a pile of brochures,”
he says today, standing before the
completed plane.
➤
ILLUSTRATION BY JASON LEE POPULAR SCIENCE APRIL 2005 59
➤ ➤
WHALE OF A TAIL: The
A380’s wing curvature
raises the engines clear of
the ground while placing
the body close to the
runway, allowing for
shorter and lighter land-
ing gear. The area of the
horizontal stabilizer is
equal to the wing area of
the 220-seat A310.
➤
➤
➤➤

[1] [2] [3] [4] [5]

SOME ASSEMBLY A380 cabin. The bar is competitors. Cynics predict the box is designed to help this flow and make the
REQUIRED built into what Tim Clark of that the common spaces with the overall efficiency of wings more efficient.
1. READY FOR LANDING The Emirates Airlines calls will get swallowed up by the building process. 5. QUIET GIANT The first A380
A380’s landing-gear parts “revenue-dead” space— more seats once the plane 4. TIP-TOP WINGS An airplane has Rolls-Royce Trent 900
are machined out of solid areas such as doors and is in service (it can hold flies because the air under engines, but buyers can
high-strength metal alloys; cross-aisles that can’t be more than 800 seats), the wing is at a higher also choose the GP7200,
the multiwheel “trucks” in filled with seats. Most early although airline bosses pressure than the air jointly designed and built
the main gear originate A380 operators plan to deny that will happen. above it. Inevitably, the air by General Electric and
in Russia as forged blocks carry 500 seats or fewer, 3. ERECTOR SET The parts tends to flow upward Pratt & Whitney. The
of titanium. allowing plenty of room for needed for each stage of around the tip, reducing complex, curved blades
2. MADE TO ORDER Airbus chief bars, casinos and duty-free A380 construction are lift and increasing drag. of the 116-inch-diameter
commercial officer John stores, but the airlines are transported to the assembly Eight-foot-high winglike fan, made from molded
Leahy demonstrates a fold- keeping details of their new line in Toulouse in special “fences” [shown here] titanium sheets, make the
out bar in the upper deck of interior amenities to them- containers like this one. The mounted vertically on the engine quieter and more
➤
➤ Airbus’s mock-up of the selves, so as not to tip off foolproof organization of A380’s wing tips block fuel-efficient. ■

62 POPULAR SCIENCE APRIL 2005

See outtakes from the reveal at [Link]/A380.
 DESIGNERS OF THE
FREEDOM TOWER, SOON
TO RISE AT GROUND ZERO,
SAY CUTTING-EDGE
ENGINEERING WILL
MAKE OCCUPANTS SAFER.
WILL THEY BE SAFE ENOUGH?
BY LAURIE GOLDMAN
AND SANDER GOLDMAN

THE LOW-RISK
HIGH-RISE
IMMEDIATELY AFTER 9/11, it looked like the age of the high-rise trophy building
was over. But at the politically symbolic height of 1,776 feet (designated by master
planner Daniel Libeskind), the World Trade Center’s replacement will be among the
three tallest buildings in the world upon its completion in 2008. The $1.2-billion
Freedom Tower will also “probably be the safest building in the world,” lead architect
David Childs has said—a bit of hyperbole later downplayed by his colleagues into
assurances that it would be the safest commercial building in the U.S.

The design does integrate a number of important, if not exactly innovative, safety
measures. But detractors have nicknamed this building the “Bring It On Tower” for the ▼
implicit dare it embodies, rising so high in a location that makes it an automatic target.
And although the Freedom Tower will serve as a soaring icon of national resilience,
on the inside it will be a workaday office building. The stockbrokers and lawyers, sec- TURN PAGE
retaries and busboys who will work there, on the site of our collective nightmares, FOR FOLDOUT
deserve the best safety measures available. On the following pages, our assessment.

ILLUSTRATIONS BY MIKA GRONDAHL

POPULAR SCIENCE APRIL 2005 65
 FREEDOM TOWER TAKE THE ELEVATOR?!
WE EXAMINED THE STATE OF THE ART FIRE PROTECTION AND SENSORS TO GIRD
WISH LIST IN HIGH-RISE SAFETY. IF MONEY LIFTS SO THAT PEOPLE CAN EXIT FAST
WERE NO OBJECT, HERE’S WHAT THE
ULTIMATE SKYSCRAPER WOULD HAVE
THE FREEDOM TOWER’S DESIGNERS had to contemplate the whole horsemen-of-the-apocalypse spectrum of possibili-
ties: explosives big and small; fire; chemical, biological and nuclear attack. But the most obvious goal of the design
team—headed by the architectural firm of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill—was to create a structure robust enough to
avoid a reprise of the twin towers’ fate: catastrophic failure as the buildings buckled under their own weight, 110 sto-
ries pancaking down in 10 to 15 seconds. To make the Freedom Tower structurally stronger and more fire-resistant, its
designers are fortifying the building’s core with a thick concrete-and-steel wall and have chosen a web-like structure FIRE-SAFE
for the exterior that should help redistribute weight if some support columns are damaged. Only the first 70 or so ELEVATORS
floors will be occupied; SOM architects acknowledge it might be hard to find businesses willing to rent any higher.
The Freedom Tower’s developer has promised to go beyond the safety measures required for a New York City high-
rise. The building will have biological and chemical filters and two sprinkler systems (to provide a backup if one is
destroyed). But what passes for innovation in the U.S. is often old-hat when compared with high-rise design in Asia,
Israel and the U.K., places long accustomed to earthquakes and terrorism threats. The Freedom Tower will include
some measures common abroad, such as upgraded elevators for use by emergency responders. But there are numer- OCCUPANTS
ous other features—such as fire-resistant steel, which can endure temperatures up to 800°C, and fortified refuge CAN DESCEND
rooms where occupants can safely await rescue—that the developer, Larry Silverstein, like most of the rest of the U.S.
building industry, may not be willing or financially able to take advantage of.
Meanwhile, safety experts see innovations on the horizon. Novel materials are in the works: high-performance con- FIREFIGHTERS
cretes and glass that crumbles instead of shattering. Investigators are testing new biological- and chemical-weapons CAN ASCEND
detectors that work faster and identify more agents than existing devices do. And someday sensors seeded through a
building—in floors, walls and air-supply ducts—will report continuously on conditions. But experts warn that even the
most advanced tech will never be foolproof. “It’s not feasible to design any building, of any height at least, that will If the World Trade Center attack had occurred at a busier
resist anything that might happen in the future,” says structural engineer W. Gene Corley, who headed the Federal time, it would have taken occupants four hours to get down
Emergency Management Agency investigation into the twin towers’ collapse. “Whatever you do to provide resistance the stairs—hours they didn’t have. The solution: emergency
in a building, there’s somebody that will come up with a way to bring it down if they get a hold of the materials.” elevators. Surprising? They exist in the U.S. only in Las
Vegas’s Stratosphere Tower, but experts expect they’ll eventu-

‡
ally be a skyscraper requirement. To make elevators fire-safe,
shafts are sheathed in concrete, studded with heat sensors,
‡

ELEVATOR SHAFTS

‡
(design may change to and pressurized to keep out smoke. Cars have heat- and
SPIRE AND single shaft) water-resistant electronics. Not in the plans: The Freedom
CABLE-TV ANTENNA Tower won’t have truly fire-safe elevators, but there will be lifts
for rescuers and disabled occupants to use in an emergency.
 SAFE HAVENS

‡
SPIDERY REFUGE AREAS TO OFFER SHELTER

‡
UNTIL IT’S SAFE TO EVACUATE
STRENGTH
A “DIAGRID” OFFERS SCROLLING MESSAGE SPRINKLERS

‡
WEB-LIKE SUPPORT BOARD TWO-WAY
VIDEO
REST AREA MONITOR
(planned
for Freedom THE WAY DOWN
Tower) Few people on the
floors above where
the planes hit the
twin towers sur-
vived, in part be-
Diagonal columns wrap cause the stairs,
around the Freedom sheathed only in
Tower. Connected to the drywall, were
INDEPENDENT severely damaged.
central core by the VENTILATION
floors, they share the job VIDEO In the Freedom
CAMERA Tower, stairs will be
of supporting the build-
housed in concrete
ing’s weight.
enclosures within the
central core, creating
REFUGE what SOM architect
ROOM Carl Galioto calls “a
(not planned core within the
FIREPROOFING STEEL for Freedom core.” The stairs will
A federal investigation of the Tower)
be pressurized to
World Trade Center disaster push out smoke.

‡
found that a key culprit in the When evacuation is inappropriate, such as during a Photoluminescent
buildings’ collapse was spray- chemical or biological attack, occupants can congregate strips will function in
on fireproofing. The planes’ in protected spaces known as refuge areas. In Israel, a power failure, and
impact dislodged this material refuge areas are mandated by law in all buildings erected each stairway will
from the towers’ steel columns since 1992, even private homes, and in Asia, entire floors branch into two
and, unprotected from the of high-rises must be set aside for the purpose. Refuge street-level and two
searing heat, the columns areas vary widely in size, design and sophistication. The underground exits.
buckled. Freedom Tower archi- most advanced ones are independent units with their own Not in the plans:
tects promise a better grade ventilation systems and sprinklers, as well as extra fire- Experts suggest that
of fireproofing, but fire safety proofing, structural reinforcement and blast-resistant doors additional staircases
expert Glenn Corbett notes, and windows. Not in the plans: The Freedom Tower’s be located near the
“That’s like saying you’ll use a refuge areas will be extremely limited: Stairwell landings building’s perimeter
better grade of Dixie cup.” will be enlarged to allow people to wait for assistance. to provide alterna-
Not in the plans: In Europe tive escape routes.
and Asia, builders use fire-
resistant steel. Made with
alloys such as molybdenum
‡

END OF OCCUPIED
and chromium, it withstands FLOOR SPACE ! NOT RECOMMENDED
(approx. 70th floor)
100°C to 200°C more heat.


 ‡
! WINDOWS

FROM TURNING LETHAL
GLASS, DE-FANGED KEEPING
WIDE-OPEN Up to 85 percent of injuries in bomb attacks are caused by flying glass—“knives and
daggers,” in the words of blast engineer Tod Rittenhouse. But thanks to commercial
WALLS KEEP FIRE
CONTAINED—IF pressure for views and a graceful exterior, the Freedom Tower’s skin will be mostly

‡
THEY ARE THERE glass. Designers will use safety glass, but have not provided details. There are two
ways to pacify glass: tinker with it chemically or keep it from traveling [see below].

CENTRAL SAFETY GLASS PHYSICAL RESTRAINTS

FLOOR SPACE CORE
(planned for (not planned for
Freedom Tower) Freedom Tower)

‡
‡

‡
INNER CABLE

‡
CORRIDOR
SANCTUM
A TOWER WITHIN A
Firefighters have trouble TOWER: EXTRA
battling blazes in areas CLADDING IN THE MIDDLE
larger than 7,500
square feet. But the
Freedom Tower will have BREAKING
GLASS GLASS
the open plan favored
by corporate tenants: POLYMER WINDOW FRAME
35,000 to 52,000 High manufacturing Grills on a build-
square feet (depending temperatures make ing’s exterior catch
on the floor), broken blast-resistant glass glass fragments as
only by a central corri- FIREPROOF strong but too heavy they explode out;
dor [above]. Designers STAIRS for an entire build- heavy drapes shield
in China have an inno- ing. Laminated glass occupants within.
vative solution to this MULTIPLE [above] consists of Shown here: a so-
conflict between safety EXITS glass layers sand- called cable catch
and the flexibility busi- wiched around plas- system. When lami-
nesses require: fireproof tic; upon breaking, nated glass balloons
partitions housed in the glass fragments stick out after a blast, it
ceiling that lower auto- to the plastic. A hits a cable fastened
matically in case of fire. Running up the center of the futuristic solution: to the window
building is a fortresslike tower glass that’s been frame. The frame
whose walls, made of two-to- chemically treated absorbs most of the
three-foot-thick reinforced so that it cracks impact, reducing
! concrete and steel, will provide from below the sur- the energy available
structural support for the build-

face into sand-like to turn glass shards

‡
DANGER UNDERGROUND ing and fire protection for the grains, not shards. into projectiles.
Primers on high-security build- infrastructure it contains: eleva-
ing design warn against base- tors, stairways and utilities such
ment garages. It’s a lesson as the pipes that carry water
learned from bitter experience: to the sprinklers.
the 1993 truck bomb that ex-
ploded below the World Trade
Center, killing six. But parking is
a key commercial asset, and a
 large underground facility is
planned for the Freedom Tower.
!
Designers promise that vehicles

‡
will be screened and that blast- TRAFFIC MENACE
resistant materials will be used. High-risk buildings should be situated far
from streets to foil car bombings. The

‡
Freedom Tower will be set back at least 25
feet—10 strides—from crowded thorough-
fares, with barriers for protection.

‡
THE CENTRAL BRAIN
ALL DATA FLOWS TO THE INFORMATION HQ

Experts suggest placing the main emergency-ops center on

‡ ‡

‡ ‡
‡ ‡
‡ ‡
// THE CYBERBUILDING // AIR FOR OCCUPANTS // WATER WORKS // UNCONVENTIONAL- the ground floor, in a fortified room linked to fire-safe stairs.
Someday, sensors embedded in In a skyscraper with a tradi- The Freedom Tower will have WEAPONS THREAT At least one other command center
walls, floors, elevator shafts, tional ventilation system, an air- two sprinkler systems operating When a harmful agent is should be located off-site,
ventilation and mechanical sys- borne agent released in a sin- on each floor, both housed found in a building, experts in case the main
tems—even in bricks, steel and gle location could infect the within concrete structures for say, managers should shut one is destroyed.
concrete—will take the pulse of entire building in about 20 min- fire protection. down the ventilation system, Freedom Tower
a building, monitoring every- utes. The solution: small, inde- Not in the plans: Security release stored, purified air, designers are not
thing from temperature to struc- pendent heating, ventilation experts laud such redundancy and evacuate if necessary. revealing the
tural integrity and streaming and air-conditioning systems. but suggest an added layer of But detection tech is still not centers’ locations.
that information to the com- The Freedom Tower is to have defense: self-contained water- advanced enough to make
mand center. Sensor data could two such units on every floor. In mist units—sprinklers that a skyscraper completely
also be invaluable to emergency an emergency they will take in release an intense fog of water immune to attacks by chem-
workers. The Sensor-Driven Fire air rather than blowing it out, droplets. Because these units ical and biological weapons or a dirty bomb. Here, some of the most cutting-edge current solutions:
Model, a prototype being devel- to contain the threat. require minimal water, they can RADIATION: Detectors made of zinc sulfide and silver send an alert when levels of alpha radiation
oped by the National Institute of be fitted with their own tanks, to (the most dangerous kind) register at more than 10 times the background level.
Standards and Technology, uses // AIR FOR RESCUERS ensure that the failure of one CHEMICAL WEAPONS: Ion mobility spectroscopy sniffs out sarin, mustard gas and other chemical
signals from embedded heat, Firefighters carry 70 pounds of system won’t affect the others. agents within 15 seconds by giving the air samples an electrical charge; suspect contaminants are

‡
smoke and gas sensors to pre- gear, and they feel it when hik- then identified based on the rate at which they travel through an electromagnetic field. The units are
dict the size and growth pattern ing up hundreds of stairs. Then costly ($35,000 or more) and not yet capable of spotting all potentially harmful chemicals.
of a fire and streams that infor- 30 minutes later they have to GERM WEAPONS: Ultraviolet lamps are used in hospitals to irradiate and kill microorganisms, but
mation to firefighters so they head down to refill their tanks. they aren’t strong enough to eliminate a large quantity of germs introduced all at once, so skyscraper
can anticipate conditions and Not in the plans: The Rescue engineers rely on detection. One state-of-the-art technology is a fluorescent particle counter. A laser
the projected path of the blaze. Air System, a pipe that runs ver- shines on air samples; if particles fluoresce, that indicates that living organisms may be present. The
Other sensors in floors, doors tically through a building, pro- organisms are quickly filtered out, but determining whether they are harmful takes 30 minutes or
and stairways could relay the vides stations where responders more—too long for those at risk.
location of trapped occupants. can get compressed air. The Freedom Tower’s designers say they will put biological and chemical filters in the ventilation

‡
units on each floor but have not been specific about which variety they plan to use.
‡
 AS
TRO
NO
MY
’S

N
EXT BIG

JITTER FREE The three satellites of the LISA

mission ride the gravitational waves created
by colliding black holes (see page 79).
A test mass inside each satellite must stay
in place to an accuracy of half a billionth
of an inch for the experiment to work.
 THE
UN SE
10
DER TE
STA UST LESC
J
EVE COS ND REV OP
RYT MO ING OLU ES
HI S, T OF TIO WO
A T NG WHEY’L THE NIZE N'T
ELE L OU
SCOE THI CHA
N
PE C K NG R
AN E
BE

TH
ING
ILLU BY W
S
S
IL
BY TRAT LIAM
JOH ION SPE
NM S ED
AC WE
NE ED
ILL

POPULAR SCIENCE APRIL 2005 73

 (WE’VE NEVER KNOWN
more about the universe than we do right
now—and that’s precisely the problem.
Every significant astronomical discovery of
the past 50 years—afterglow from the
big bang, evidence of dark matter,
(1 )
JAMES WEBB
planets circling distant stars, just to name a SPACE TELESCOPE
UNDISPUTED KING OF THE NIGHT SKY
few—has helped to create an ever-larger
SPONSOR ) NASA, Space Telescope Science Institute
and more perplexing set of cosmic questions:
LOCATION ) In orbit, one million miles from Earth
Is there life on those faraway planets? How
COST ) $2.5 billion
did the first stars form after the big bang? SCHEDULED COMPLETION ) 2011
Is the universe filled with an antigravitational URL ) [Link]
force, and, if so, what the heck is it? And
most intriguingly: What else are we missing?
Answers to questions like these do not come
from idle reflection. They come from building
really good telescopes. Over the next decade,
the first generation of telescopes conceived, Earth
Moon
designed, and built with the help of computers
will open their eyes to the heavens, each
with the power to rock our fundamental
JWST
understanding of the cosmos. Some of these
telescopes—such as the trio of satellites riding Earth
Lagrange
gravitational waves on the preceding point 2
pages—don’t look like traditional telescopes Sun JWST
at all, but each has the ability to reach
out into the universe and uncover its FAR-OUT To protect
JWST’s sensitive infra-
idiosyncrasies, its wonderful strangeness.
red detectors from
Earth’s heat, research-
On the following pages we profile 10 ers will orbit it around
of the most important, audacious and Lagrange point 2—four
powerful of these instruments, including a times as far from Earth
space telescope so large it must be folded to as the moon.

fit in the rocket, an orbiting laser system

that can detect ripples in spacetime
from colliding black holes, and an Antarctic TELESCOPE ORIGAMI
JWST’s primary mirror is far too large
neutrino detector that uses the mass of the to fit in any existing rockets, so engi-
Earth as a protective shield. What secrets of neers designed it from 18 hexagonal
the universe will they reveal in the coming segments mounted on two large hinges.
The folded mirror will squeeze into an
decades? The answer to that question may Ariane rocket fairing [1], and will unfurl
provide the greatest mystery of all. once in orbit [2–4]; 126 motorized
actuators will then adjust the segments
into focus, 10 nanometers at a time.

74 POPULAR SCIENCE APRIL 2005

 IN AUGUST 2011, MOST LIKELY atop an Ariane scopes that soldiers use to spot enemies in the dark, but incomparably more sensitive. (JWST
rocket rising from a launchpad in French project scientist John Mather calls his detectors “miraculously good” and “nearly perfect.”) Any
Guyana, a 6.5-meter beryllium-and-gold mir- heat near the telescope will show up as noise—hence the million-miles-from-Earth orbit, sun-
ror will sit folded into thirds like an elegant shade, and onboard cryogenics that will cool the optics down to just 37 Celsius degrees above
drop-leaf table, enduring the hellish forces of absolute zero (–393°F). The telescope, says Mather proudly, will be so sensitive in the infrared
liftoff. The James Webb Space Telescope’s pri- that it will find stars and galaxies that send out only a few photons per hour.
mary mirror is as big as a two-car garage, and What stars and galaxies might be so stingy with their infrared photons? Ones that are extraor-
there isn’t a roomy enough rocket fairing to dinarily far away in space and time. And that’s the big headliner. Ever since Edwin Hubble proved
carry it unfolded. in 1929 that galaxies are flying away from one another, the telescope race has been about peering
Once in space, the biggest telescope ever deeper into space in order to see further back in time. Because it’s so big, and so cold, and so sen-
launched will unfold its mirror and unfurl a sitive, Mather says, JWST should be able to find “the first luminous objects that formed after the big
2,400-square-foot sunshade as it drifts into bang.” If JWST accomplishes its goal, we’ll have reached, in a sense, the end of the line. No tele-
orbit around Lagrange point 2, a spot one scope of the future will help us see stars more distant in space or time, because there aren’t any.
million miles away from Earth where net gravi- Before it was named after NASA’s second administrator, the JWST was called the Next Genera-
tational forces are very weak. Why place it so tion Space Telescope, and mission planners don’t take that appellation lightly. Thanks to increased
far away, out of reach of any repair or up- computing power, improved materials and precision tooling, the technologies available to them today
grade mission? Because out there, the infrared are simply incredible—among them, detectors that sense a single photon that’s traveled billions of
telescope won’t feel Earth’s heat. The JWST, light-years and a mirror that can correct its shape just 10 nanometers at a time using 126 motorized
you see, will be looking out at the cosmos with actuators. JWST’s mirror is being sculpted of beryllium, a very hard metal that’s notoriously difficult
an infrared camera, somewhat like the night- to machine, but it’s so light that the 6.5-meter mirror will be one third the weight of the 2.4-meter

IT WILL BE THE PREMIER

INSTRUMENT OF ITS AGE, THE
Secondary mirror CENTER POLE
Primary mirror OF THE ASTRONOMY TENT.

Sunshield

Hubble
mirror

Camera and
SIZE MATTERS JWST’s 6.5-
meter-wide mirror will give
onboard electronics JWST
it seven times the light-
collecting power of Hubble. mirror

1 2 3 4

POPULAR SCIENCE APRIL 2005 75

 IT STANDS A GOOD
CHANCE OF BEING THE
FIRST TELESCOPE TO
IMAGE A PLANET Secondary mirror

AROUND ANOTHER STAR.

Telescope enclosure

AUTO-FOCUS Computer-
controlled pistons will
continuously adjust the
alignment of each of
the 1,000 segments that
make up the TMT’s primary
mirror. This adaptive optics
system will correct for
distortions caused by the
turbulent atmosphere.

76 POPULAR SCIENCE APRIL 2005

 glass mirror on the Hubble—the most important telescope ever created. It will be covered in a
single-micron coating of pure gold, an excellent reflector of infrared light. “Twenty-five years ago,”
Mather explains, “we were designing with what seemed like the dark ages of tools, and we had to
guess a lot on Hubble. Hubble was designed for the shuttle to repair it. Now we can analyze and
plan for everything ahead of time.” Although JWST, at about $2.5 billion, is the most expensive item
on this list, such dramatic improvements are typical of the whole cohort of new telescopes.
Like the Hubble, the JWST is available to every astronomer with a good idea. In addition to cap-
turing the earliest objects, JWST will image regions where baby solar systems are forming, seek out
evidence of dark matter and dark energy, and snap amazing pictures of Neptune and Uranus. It will
be the premier instrument of its age, the center pole of the astronomy tent. Astronomers have one
clear expectation for it: “It’s going to surprise us,” Mather says. “One half to two thirds of what we
got out of Hubble was not what we expected. We’ll find something that will not be what we pre-
dicted about the universe,” raising new questions for the next next generation of telescopes to solve.

(2 )
THIRTY METER TELESCOPE AN 18-HEXAGON MIRROR the size
A GIANT SCRUTINIZING THE BIRTH OF THE UNIVERSE of a garage? Ho-hum. Freed
from the requirements of rockets
SPONSOR ) Research-university consortium
and of space travel, the next
LOCATION ) On Earth, place to be determined
giant ground-based telescope
COST ) $700 million (est.)
will have a primary mirror the
SCHEDULED COMPLETION ) 2014 size of a 20-lane bowling alley.
URL ) [Link]/observatories/tmt Put it on its edge and the pro-
posed Thirty Meter Telescope will
stand as tall as a seven-story
building. Fill it with water and you’ve got a pool big enough for 50 kids to swim in.
The research-university consortium that’s designing the TMT won’t be filling it with water,
of course, but with light—more light than astronomers have ever collected in one mirror. This
telescope will have more light-collecting power than the 10 largest telescopes in the world
today combined. The designers hope to build it, says TMT project manager Gary Sanders,
“in the JWST time frame,” meaning about a decade.
Tertiary mirror John Mather of JWST is very eager that both projects succeed, because the orbiting Hubble
and the Keck telescopes atop Mauna Kea in Hawaii proved that ground- and space-based tele-
scopes are complementary. What they can do together outruns the sum of their individual con-
Primary mirror tributions. In the darkness of space where contrast between black void and starlight is strongest,
a telescope like JWST can find very faint objects that no one has ever seen before. Once the
JWST locates one of these objects, the TMT will train its giant eye on it for hours, creating a
sharper image and testing to see what it’s made of.
The process is not unlike a biologist going out into the field to grab an interesting speci-
men and then taking it back to the lab for detailed study with a microscope. Here, our spec-
imens are the first stars in the universe, and our microscope—the TMT—should reveal how
these stars created heavier elements such as carbon and iron in their fusing nuclear cores.
Astronomers will use a process called spectroscopy to track the formation of these elements
T E L E S C O P E P H O T O G R A P H S C O U RT E S Y T H I RT Y M E T E R T E L E S C O P E

as the universe aged. The TMT will separate light from the earliest stars into its various wave-

THE SHARPEST EYE The Hubble captures amazing images of the distant universe [left], but
individual objects can be pixelated and blurry [center]. In contrast, the TMT’s shots of the same
objects will be astonishingly sharper, as seen in this simulated image [right].

POPULAR SCIENCE APRIL 2005 77

 (3 )
lengths. Elements within these stars absorb light of specific frequencies. That means that
by tracking the dimmest frequencies in the stars’s spectra, astronomers can uncover what
elements compose the stars and how much of each element the star contains.
Even better—at least for the pretty pictures—TMT’s large diameter will make it the
sharpest single telescope ever. It will resolve crystalline images, piecing out the individ-
ual stars in the ancient galaxies that the JWST might discover only as a fuzzy blur. Like
JWST, the TMT will be very flexible and used for all sorts of astronomical purposes.
Because of its huge size, it stands a good chance of being the first telescope ever to pro-
duce an image of a planet around another star.
Yet first the behemoth must be built, and therein lies a surprisingly pedestrian chal- ICE CUBE
SEEING THE INVISIBLE WHILE
lenge. The problem isn’t technological but logistical and budgetary. The TMT group BURIED IN A GLACIER
knows how to build this telescope, but it doesn’t have Hercules NASA behind it. The con-
SPONSOR ) University of Wisconsin
sortium—Caltech, the University of California, the Association of Universities for Research
in Astronomy, and the Association of Canadian Universities for Research in Astronomy— LOCATION ) Buried in Antarctic ice
relies on the National Science Foundation, private foundations, and the kindness of COST ) $272 million
strangers. Much of TMT’s design challenge is simply making it cheap enough. Take, for SCHEDULED COMPLETION ) 2010
example, the mirror segments. Though similar to the three dozen handmade hexagons URL ) [Link]
that make up the decade-old Keck telescopes, those of the TMT could number as many
as 1,000. “We can’t make each one by hand,” Sanders says. “We need to scale up the LIKE ALL HUMANS, scientists are capable of the
basic mirror-making technology so that we can crank these out like Fords.” Perhaps as seemingly absurd and futile. Consider the
an incentive to potential funders, he adds, “Once we can automate it, we’ve laid the construction, ongoing, of the Ice Cube tele-
groundwork for building even much larger telescopes in the future. The challenges we scope. Using a five-megawatt jet of hot
solve for the TMT will be solved for a 100-meter telescope.” water, technicians are melting two-foot-wide
Another challenge: Once you’re ready to build the largest telescope ever, where on holes 1.5 miles into the Antarctic ice near the
earth are you going to put it? Sanders and his team have identified several potential sites Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. Before
in Mexico, Hawaii and Chile (they don’t want land speculators to scoop up the real estate the water refreezes, they insert a cable strung
from under them, so they’re tight-lipped about the specific locations). The place would like a set of Christmas-tree lights with globu-
have to pass a number of tests. For one, it must be remote enough that light from nearby lar camera housings. By the time the techni-
populations wouldn’t interfere. It must be dry, because water vapor causes atmospheric cians are done in 2010, Ice Cube’s 80 verti-
distortions. Low wind speeds are a priority, because such a mammoth structure would cal strings will adorn a cubic kilometer of ice
shake like a skyscraper in the wind, blurring the images. And, of course, they’re look- from a depth of 1.4 kilometers down to 2.4
ing for somewhere without too many cloudy nights. “It’s going to be the best telescope kilometers. In other words, it’s an instrument
ever built,” Sanders declares. “We need the best site.” of 4,800 cameras looking at solid black ice.
On the scientific absurdity scale, this ranks up
there with studying egret promiscuity, no?

6 MORE SEARCHERS TO THE UNKNOWN >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Very Large Telescope Laser Interferometry Large Synoptic Survey Supernova Acceleration
Interferometer 2005 Space Antenna 2012 Telescope 2013 Probe 2015 (est.)
EIGHT ’SCOPES ACT AS ONE RIDING SPACETIME’S WAVES TIME-LAPSE MOVIES OF THE SKY DARK ENERGY CAN’T HIDE

A telescope’s ability to distinguish LISA, shown on pages 72 and The LSST is designed to make In 1998, cosmologists
tiny features is based on its dis- 73, is perhaps the most auda- cosmic cartography into celes- announced that some unknown
tance from edge to edge. This cious program on this list. As tial cinematography, says prin- force was pushing the universe
leads to a trick: If you combine three satellites fly in formation cipal investigator Anthony apart. But not only don’t we
the light from several separated around the sun, separated Tyson of the University of Cali- know what this “dark energy”
telescopes so that they act like from one another by three mil- fornia at Davis. It will make is, we don’t even know if it’s a
one, you can achieve an lion miles, lasers will measure time-lapse movies of the visible constant force or if it’s chang-
extremely fine resolution. That’s the distance between them to cosmos to see what’s changing ing. To answer that question,
the idea behind the VLTI, a net- an accuracy of half a billionth out there. It will find, track, cosmologists need a better his-
work of four 8.2-meter tele- of an inch. If it works, the satel- and keep tabs on all nearby tory of cosmic expansion. Enter
scopes and four 1.8-meter tele- lites will detect the stretching of Earth-threatening asteroids the SNAP satellite, which will
scopes atop Cerro Paranal in the spacetime between them, more than 130 meters wide. measure thousands of explod-
Chile. Their combined light will tracking the ripples caused by Tyson is most excited about ing white dwarf stars—a.k.a.
produce images as sharp as binary stars or colliding black studying some recently discov- supernovae—to trace how the
those from a single 100-meter- holes in distant galaxies. ered blue flashing objects of universe has been expanding
wide ’scope. [Link] [Link] unknown origin. [Link] over time. [Link]

78 POPULAR SCIENCE APRIL 2005

 [2] Amundsen-Scott
Muon Glacial South Pole Station

THE BIG KAHUNA

ice Snow layer

IS A WINDOW INTO

1.4 kilometers
DARK MATTER. Cherenkov Fiber-optic and
light electrical cables
[3]
[4]
Camera
Oxygen nucleus

1 kilometer
Light detectors
[1]

LIGHT-SENSITIVE Every one in a million cosmic

neutrinos passing through the ice will strike 1 kilometer
the nucleus of an oxygen atom [1]. The colli-
sion will knock loose a particle called a muon
[2], which will travel in the same direction as BLACK HOLES ON ICE Ice Cube will
Cosmic neutrino the neutrino. This muon will create a trailing be built from 4,800 ultrasensitive
glow called Cherenkov light [3], akin to a cameras buried 1.4 kilometers
shock wave that forms behind a supersonic inside the glacier covering the
jet. Cameras in the ice will pick up this glow South Pole. Its task: to track neutri-
[4] and trace the original neutrino’s direction. nos coming from black-hole colli-
sions and other cosmic cataclysms.

No. Admittedly one of the weirdest machines sailing through your body, through this magazine, through your house, and right through the Earth
on this list, Ice Cube is also potentially the most itself. For all the gazillions of them that will pass through you in your lifetime, most likely not a sin-
revolutionary, because it’s going after an astro- gle one will interact in any way with your body.
nomical quarry that’s never been studied Neutrinos are so antisocial, so rarely interacting with ordinary matter such as protons and neu-
before: cosmic neutrinos. trons and atoms, that scientists have only recently gotten good at detecting them at all. Those they
As you read this, trillions of neutrinos are have been able to detect come from the sun and our own atmosphere, sources of most of the neu-
trinos flying around at any given moment. But there are higher-
energy neutrinos coming straight from gamma-ray bursts, quasars,
black holes and, possibly, from annihilations of dark matter, that
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> mysterious weighty stuff that holds the universe together. Ice Cube
will be the first “telescope” for these cosmic neutrinos, a window
into the world of the high-energy universe.
Terrestrial Constellation X One in a million neutrinos passing near Ice Cube’s photomulti-
Planet Finder 2016 2017 plier cameras will—just by chance—smash head-on into an atomic
DISTANT PLANETS UNCOVERED PRYING OPEN BLACK HOLES nucleus within the ice and produce a muon particle that will give off
a blue glow called Cherenkov light. Unlike the ice in your freezer,
Antarctic ice is stunningly clear, and the blue light travels more than
Pop the champagne, boys, this This fleet of four orbiting 1.6-
100 meters in the dark ice. Each muon’s glow will be picked up by
is it! NASA calls an end to all meter x-ray telescopes will
this indirect detection of extra- explore dark matter and other several cameras, and its position and direction triangulated. Each
solar planets (like Kepler, page mysteries, but “the poster-boy camera has a computer chip connecting it to computers at the South
81). This machine promises target for Constellation X,” says Pole station. From there, the data is relayed to the science team in
images of Earth-size planets or- Harvey Tananbaum, the mis- their warmer North American offices.
biting our neighbor stars. A giant sion’s science team chair, “is Triangulation is the key to turning Ice Cube from a neutrino
8-by-3.5-meter spaceborne tel- iron falling into supermassive detector into a neutrino telescope. The glowing muon moves in the
escope will use a special black holes at the center of same direction as the original neutrino, so Ice Cube will be able
mask to block the host star’s galaxies.” Combining x-rays to trace the neutrino back to its source in the heavens. Oh, and
light from reaching (and over- from the telescopes, Tanan-
lest we forget an important weirdness about this telescope, we mean
whelming) the telescope detec- baum and his colleagues will
the Northern sky. Even though it’s at the South Pole, Ice Cube will
tor. TPF should reveal whether be able to make a sensitive
these planets have water vapor, map of the fearsomely warped be taking most of its neutrino measurements of the Northern celes-
oxygen and ozone. spacetime around black holes. tial hemisphere. That’s because most of the neutrinos coming from
[Link] [Link] the Southern hemisphere will be noisy atmospheric neutrinos that
don’t tell us anything about the distant heavens. Ice Cube takes

POPULAR SCIENCE APRIL 2005 79

 KEPLER WILL TELL US
HOW RARE OR COMMON
EARTH-LIKE PLANETS ARE.
Star finders

Sunshade

Solar array

Antenna

Thruster

POSTCARDS FROM THE EDGE

Kepler will find planets by searching for
the tiny dip in brightness that occurs
when they pass in front of their host star.

advantage of the Earth itself as a neutrino shield that blocks out atmospheric neutrinos but lets bonus for the low, low price of $272 million.
the high-energy cosmic neutrinos sail right through. We’ve never looked at cosmic neutrinos, so
University of Wisconsin physicist Francis Halzen, the project leader, expects Ice Cube to shed we don’t know what they have to tell us about
light on quasars and the active nuclei of galaxies, on black holes and gamma-ray bursts, all of the universe. “And that,” says Halzen, “is the
which produce high-energy neutrinos. Neutrinos are better probes than photons into these phe- most exciting part.”
nomena because of their antisocial behavior. Some of the neutrinos Ice Cube picks up will have Adds Berkeley astrophysicist Christopher
come from the very center of a quasar, whereas any photon from a quasar is coming only from McKee, who co-chaired the recent National
its outermost shell. Research Council study Astronomy and
The big kahuna—or at least the big kahuna we can anticipate—is a window into dark mat- Astrophysics in the New Millennium, “You
ter. We know from watching the gravitational behavior of galaxies that the universe is filled with always have significant discovery potential
matter we can’t see and whose nature we do not know. Neutrinos may be produced when and when you look in a completely different
if some of this dark matter is annihilated out in space. If they are, Ice Cube should spot them, giv- regime, just as x-ray astronomy led to the
ing us our best look at this mysterious, invisible substance that pervades the universe. first discovery of a black hole. Ice Cube is
But wait, there’s more! What more is there? Well, we don’t know yet. It’ll be a quirky cosmic really going into the unknown.”

80 POPULAR SCIENCE APRIL 2005 Watch videos of the telescopes in action at [Link]/telescopes.
 KEPLER
WAITING FOR THE WINK OF
A FARAWAY WORLD
SPONSOR ) NASA
LOCATION ) Earth-trailing orbit around the sun
COST ) $467 million
SCHEDULED COMPLETION ) 2007
URL ) [Link]
(4 )
NEXT TIME YOU LOOK UP AT THE STARS, ask yourself that age-old question, set
indelibly to music by Pink Floyd: Is there anybody out there?
Wouldn’t it be nice if, in answer, some neighborly alien would simply wave
back and say, “Yoo-hoo! Over here!” Trouble is, we’re nowhere near building
a telescope that could see the waving alien. We can’t even build a telescope that
can see a planet around another star. The best we can do is infer the existence
of planets from their gravitational pull on the parent star, and that technique,
called radial velocity, is limited to giant gas planets the size of Neptune or much
larger. So far, we’ve found 150-odd gas balls. Or, perhaps, 150 gas oddballs.
We may only be seeing the weird anomalies we have the capacity to see. We
can’t yet see anything in the Earth-like category. Nothing solid enough for our
kind alien to sit upon. Alas, we’ll never see her wave in our direction.
But maybe we can see her wink.
Imagine that our friendly alien is sitting on a planet that orbits its parent star
“edge-on”: From our point of view, the planet ducks behind the star and then
crosses, or transits, the face of the star as it cycles around. When the planet
transits the face of the star, it will block a tiny fraction of that star’s light. The
star will seem to dim—in essence, to wink. If we can see that dimming, we
won’t know if our alien’s there. But we’ll know she’s got a rock to sit on.
This is the impetus behind the Kepler mission, to be launched in October 2007.
Kepler is the brainchild of NASA Ames Research Center space scientist William
Borucki, who began looking into the planet-detecting potential of transits in 1984,
11 years before any exoplanets had been discovered. Early on, he recognized
how difficult it would be to detect transiting Earth-size planets. If every star in the
sky has an Earth-size planet around it, from our point of view, only about one in
200 will be lined up edge-on and transit the face of the star. Moreover, because
rocky planets are so small, Borucki needed detectors that could distinguish a tiny
fraction of dimming in a star’s brightness—just one part in 100,000. The task is
akin to detecting a grain of sand flying in front of a distant lightbulb.
To overcome the one-in-200 problem (or worse, as it’s likely that not all stars
PLANETARY LINEUP Kepler will find only planets
have Earth-size planets), Kepler will have to look at a lot of stars. The 0.95-meter
oriented head-on to us [below left]. Stars whose plan-
telescope will point down one of the spiral arms of the Milky Way and capture a
ets orbit at an angle [below center] will look the same
giant field of view: more than 100 square degrees of sky, 20 moon-diameters in
as stars that have no planets at all [below right].
each direction. And then it will wait. Unlike most telescopes, which search around
the heavens for various interesting objects, Kepler will fix its gaze on the same
100,000 sunlike stars constantly for four years without moving. “If we’re look-
ing for a star to wink, we can’t blink,” Borucki says. “Kepler will be a giant cam-
corder on the sky. If any one of those stars dims just a bit, we’ll see it.”
In general, rocky planets are small and gaseous planets are big (otherwise
they’d just dissipate). Since Kepler will be able to determine a planet’s size to
within 7 percent, it will be able to tell which of the planets it finds are made of
rock. In addition, it will gauge orbits to see which planets are in the habitable
zone where temperatures are right for liquid water and, thus, friendly aliens.
BRIGHTNESS

But here’s the most important thing: Kepler will look at a huge sample of stars.
It is the first exoplanetary search that isn’t one-here, one-there. It will produce
I L L U S T R AT I O N : J A S O N L E E

statistics. As a result, its conclusions will tell us much more than whether Earth-
like planets exist. It will tell us how rare or common they are. “We’ll get a cen-
sus of how many Earths there are on average,” Borucki says. “If we find a lot of
Earths, there’s lots of life out there. If we don’t, well then, there’s no Star Trek.” ■
TIME
William Speed Weed wrote about the worst jobs in science in November 2004.

POPULAR SCIENCE APRIL 2005 81

 T POPULAR

HOW 2.0
HACKS, UPGRADES, PROJECTS, GRIPES, TIPS & TRICKS
scıence

INSIDE FINDING WI-FI 84 • INHALED ALCOHOL 86 • TINY TUBE GUITAR AMP 88 • MAGNESIUM EXPLOSIONS 90 • MAKING MASH-UPS 93

5 THINGS...
YOU NEVER KNEW YOU
COULD FIND FREE ON THE WEB
1 CLASSIC RADIO
Whether or not you remember
Abbott and Costello, The
Avenger or Benny Goodman,
check out [Link],
which has episodes of more
than 200 programs from radio’s
golden era downloadable as
free MP3 files.

2 EBOOKS
Project Gutenberg (gutenberg
.org) offers more than 13,000
free eBooks that you can down-
load in various formats (.html,
.txt, .pdf) for your computer or
PDA. Classic titles such as Alice
in Wonderland and Dracula
make up most of the collection,
and, unlike some eBooks, all of
them may be printed.

3 LIVE MUSIC
The Live Music Archive (archive
.org/audio) has 19,000-plus
live concerts, many from well-
known bands, including Rusted
Root, the Grateful Dead and
Maroon 5. All recordings are in
DEPT: GEEK GUIDE INVESTIGATOR: ERIC ADAMS TECH: Amateur
astrophotography a “lossless” format for highest

Shoot the Stars COST: $178–$300 for

the camera; $500+ for
quality and are unrestricted, so
they can be burned to CD.
a tracking telescope
With inexpensive equipment—and a lot of patience— 4 HISTORIC SCENES
you can take stunning photos of galaxies and planets DABBLER MASTER If you’ve never seen the 1960
Nixon-Kennedy debates,
you can now at the History
The real thrill of amateur astronomy is seeing incomprehensibly far-away things firsthand—Saturn
Channel’s site (historychannel
floating crisply in the blackness of space, distant galaxies colliding. Capturing those scenes, however, has .com/broadband), along with
long been the domain of only the most well-heeled amateurs. Taking photos in the excruciatingly low light hundreds of other streaming-
of the night sky required highly sensitive and expensive cameras mounted on equally high-end telescopes. video and -audio clips of memo-
But two new digital astrophotography cameras can produce breathtaking images from affordable rable moments past, from
backyard scopes. Celestron’s NexImage Solar System Imager and Meade’s Deep Sky Imager are Gehrig’s farewell to Gandhi’s
call for Indian independence.
intended for different celestial targets—neighboring planets versus star clusters and galaxies—but both
claim that even novice astrophotographers can take amazing shots almost immediately.
5 SHORT FILMS . . .
Eager to capitalize on my well-earned rank of novice, I attached each camera to the back of my . . . as well as interviews, trail-
eight-inch-aperture, computer-controlled Celestron Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope and ran cables to my ers, Super Bowl ads and music
laptop in the garage. After three long, bone-chilling nights under the stars, it was clear that novices have videos on [Link]. Watch the
no chance of capturing a single recognizable image of anything without advanced degrees in “settings.” first eight minutes of recent
COURTESY MEADE

movies, or indulge in “Viral

Don’t get me wrong: The equipment is capable of spectacular photos—including the one above and
Videos,” a collection of the sort
those on the next page, taken with a setup similar to mine—but it requires plenty of patience and practice of clips you’ll forward to your
to master the cameras’ complex and often unintuitive software. Turn the page for more on my vexed early friends (think Jon Stewart on
efforts with each camera, and see [Link]/h20 for a gallery of my eventual successes. >> Crossfire).—KATE ASHFORD

POPULAR SCIENCE APRIL 2005 83

T
HOW2.0|GEEK GUIDE
H2.0 ON
TWO WAYS TO CAPTURE THE HEAVENS
THE ROAD
Tech for the Traveling Life

I chose Saturn as my target, produce images that appear Driving around Seattle,
mostly because it’s cool, but also streaky and out of focus. anxious to check my e-mail,
because it was there (Jupiter The software allows you to I press the single button on
didn’t rise until well past mid- adjust multiple settings, includ- my Digital Hotspotter. In a
night, and Mars was busy being ing brightness, frame rate, and few seconds, the names of
on the other side of the sun). The the length of video captured. all nearby Wi-Fi networks
first problem: focus. Looking Misjudging any of these, as I start scrolling by the LCD.
through the scope, it’s there in did, will reduce the quality and
bright, crystalline perfection; but leave little for Registax to work
through the camera’s capture with. Once I did manage a few
software on my laptop’s screen, usable shots, Registax aligned
NEARBY PLANETS the image is dim and pixelated. them automatically into a single
1 Celestron’s NexImage In astrophotography, focusing image. In my case, however, it
camera ($178; [Link]) appears to be about finding the looked like a smudged icon of
uses a 640-by-480-pixel color least fuzzy spot on the scale, Saturn, devoid of any detail
CCD chip that captures video and trusting that the camera is beyond the presence of rings
files instead of single images. seeing enough detail over time circling a gaseous yellow CANARY WIRELESS
The idea is that the included to produce a sharper image sphere. But the shot from Cele- DIGITAL
application, Registax, will than what you see live. Atmo- stron [left] is closer to what I got HOTSPOTTER
“stack” the sharpest frames into sphere further complicates the after a few more nights learning $50; [Link]
TECH: Wi-Fi finder
an increasingly lifelike shot to matter—any turbulence between the software’s intricacies and ROADWORTHY: A must-
reveal color and surface details. you and the stratosphere will shooting through stable skies. have for road warriors
in search of wireless

planets and require longer a fuzzy blob that may or may The Hotspotter scratches
exposure times. The camera not be M51. Again, the setup an itch that had no name
employs a Sony Super HAD is simple, but the capture-and- before the first detectors
color CCD image sensor that processing software is a complex appeared: How do you
minimizes “noise,” the visual mess. I got hung up trying to sniff out the nearest unad-
static created by temperature configure the settings so that the vertised wireless network
shifts in the camera. It even uses exposure would be sufficiently before you unpack the
convection cooling to help regu- long to gather enough light and, laptop? Early devices just lit

C L O C K W I S E F R O M T O P L E F T: C O U R T E S Y C E L E S T R O N ; J O H N B . C A R N E T T; C O U R T E S Y M E A D E
late the chip temperature. thus, detail in the galaxy. (My LEDs to show the presence
My subject this time was the exposures were too short, and of 2.4Ghz electromagnetic
famous Whirlpool galaxy, M51, the brightness and contrast set- radiation—so you knew
DISTANT GALAXIES because it’s the astronomical tings off.) The software has even you were either near a
2 Meade’s Deep Sky equivalent of low-hanging more options than NexImage, hotspot … or a microwave
Imager ($300; [Link]) is fruit—prominent, reasonably which means it’ll take many oven. The Hotspotter’s
substantially more sophisticated bright, and something Meade’s more nights to get shots as gor- screen adds details such as
than the NexImage—it has to be DSI should make quick work of. geous as the one shown here the network name and
to photograph celestial objects Well, with someone else at the and on the previous page. But whether or not it’s open.
like galaxies and nebulae, helm, anyway. My initial results just knowing that it’s possible is Near a café in Belltown, I
which are much dimmer than here were equally unimpressive: incentive enough to keep trying. locate four networks, two of
which are unlocked. Inside, I
look for a seat at which the

[ Simple Night Shots ] Before you invest in one of the systems above, you can dabble
in astrophotography by simply pointing your conventional digital
device reports a full four
bars of signal strength.
camera at the sky. You’d be amazed at the shots you can get if you follow a few simple tips. The Hotspotter isn’t per-
• Mount the camera on a stable tripod, set the focus at “infinity,” and choose your target—a fect. The LCD scrolls slowly,
constellation such as Orion, say, or the crescent moon at dusk. there’s no backlight, and
• Fast exposures, in the hundredths of a second, will work best on the bright moon; for dimmer it doesn’t show a signal’s
star clusters or nebulae, use exposures of up to 30 seconds. direction. But for getting
• Some cameras, including the Nikon Coolpix 5700, allow for exposures of up to five minutes, which online in a strange land, it’s
is useful if you have a telescope that can track objects as they move across the sky. You can mount it a lot better than knowing
either on top of the telescope or, with an adapter, behind the eyepiece for high-magnification shots. where the nearest micro-
wave is.—GLENN FLEISHMAN

84 POPULAR SCIENCE APRIL 2005

T
HOW2.0

YOU 2.0 At the Intersection of

Technology and the Body

All my adult life I’ve taken it at face value that drinking was the best way
to appreciate liquor. But a new contraption called AWOL, or Alcohol
Without Liquid, aims to shake such dearly held assumptions.
AWOL is a briefcase-size apparatus that turns alcohol into a mist you
inhale rather than drink. It works like a nebulizer—an oxygen generator
pumps O2 through a tube to a handheld vaporizer that holds about half a
shot. Turn it on, and a smoky 80-proof haze tumbles out of the inhaler.
Although at first the mist from the whiskey I used made me cough, I
enjoyed the aroma of the boozy fog, as did everyone else within a 30-foot

ALCOHOL WITHOUT LIQUID (AWOL) $300; [Link]

TECH: Vaporizer turns booze into mist that can be inhaled
DOES IT WORK? Yes, but don’t plan on getting a quick buzz from it

radius. It may be possible to get a buzz from the machine, but I couldn’t
stick with it long enough—half a shot takes 20 minutes to vaporize—
distracted as I was by the sputtering compressor and frustrated by watch-
ing so much of the brown stuff go up in smoke between puffs.

JOHN B. CARNETT
The idea, say the AWOL folks, is simply to offer an alternative to drinking.
And all it will take to become a trend, of course, is for some hip bar to start
selling AWOL shots. Until then, I’ll take my spirits on the rocks.—ERIC HAGERMAN
T
HOW2.0| YOU BUILT WHAT ?!

DEPT: YOU BUILT WHAT ?! INVESTIGATOR: MIKE HANEY TECH: Tiny guitar amp that’s more pleasing to the ear.
COST: Around $425 But tubes require a huge
Half a Watt of Pure Rock TIME: 6 days amount of voltage, so Vex had
to design a circuit that could
Zachary Vex’s tiny vacuum-tube guitar amp delivers safely crank up a 12-volt input
classic-rock crunch without deafening the neighbors PRACTICAL POPCORN to as much as 230 volts inside
his tiny case.
Setting aside the pure aesthetic appeal of Zachary Vex’s handcrafted Nano Head vacuum-tube guitar Each amp is manually
amp, why would anyone want a palm-size box that puts out half a watt at maximum power? Isn’t rock assembled and painted in
’n’ roll about kicking out the jams and rattling the windows? Minneapolis, where Vex lives,
On the stage, sure. But not when you’re recording in a studio, or practicing in the basement while and sells for around $425 at
your wife sleeps. To achieve what Vex calls “that sweaty, crunchy sound a guitar is supposed to have,” guitar shops in the U.S.,
a traditional amp has to be turned up so loud that it’s difficult to mic and impossible to snooze Europe and Asia. Vex’s next
through. Vex knows—he spent 10 years as a recording engineer and producer before starting his own project, currently in develop-
guitar-accessories company, [Link] Effects, 10 years ago. He designed the Nano Head to produce ment, is a tube stereo amp
authentic-sounding distortion at around 20 decibels less than a common 50-watt Marshall amp. about the size of an iPod
He did it by using vacuum tubes—an electronic component left over from the first half of the 20th cen- [below]. See more photos of
tury, before solid-state transistors were invented. Tubes are still found in audiophile gear and guitar amps the Nano Head and other
because they produce a more harmonic sound at the ends of the sonic spectrum, and guitar distortion [Link] things at [Link].

B
THE iMP is what Vex is calling his
next product, a one-watt amp
that will give tube-quality sound
Dimensions: 3 x 4.75 x 2.4 inches to any stereo or MP3 player.
C
Weight: 1.2 pounds
D
[ Taking Apart the Tiny Amp ]
A) The audio-output transformer works like a gearbox, converting the high-voltage signal
from the tubes to a low-voltage, high-current signal that can drive an external speaker.
E B) The tubes are military surplus. The U.S. government was once a large purchaser of
tubes, in part because of their ability to survive an electromagnetic pulse from an atomic
explosion. Although Vex’s tubes have an estimated life of around 100,000 hours, he built
gold-plated sockets for them to sit in so that they can be replaced by the user.
G C) The two high-voltage capacitors work sort of like batteries, storing power that I L L U S T R AT I O N : M C K I B I L L O ; P H O T O G R A P H S : J A S O N M Y R O L D ( 2 )
F drives the dual-triode tubes. One powers the first three stages the sound signal passes
through, in which the voltage is ratcheted up to achieve the distorted sound. The sec-
ond powers the final stage: output to the speaker, via the transformer.
H D) The nickel-plated brass roll bars, custom-made for Vex, protect the exposed electronics.
E) The enclosure is cast-aluminum, hand-painted in two stages with automotive epoxy to
give it a glossy, almost gooey, finish. Vex’s painter fires the cases in a toaster oven.
F) The one-inch-square fan cools the internal components.
G) Front-panel controls [from left to right]: mellow (treble), thickness (bass), volume,
brightness (adds sparkle at low volumes) and the guitar input. Speaker output and
power input are on the back panel [not shown].
I H) The circuit board is mounted upside down so that the tubes stick out the top of
the case. The entire high-voltage circuit uses just 18 components.
I) The built-in, downward-facing speaker is, Vex says, a lark. “It’s cute that you can
use it without an external speaker, but it kind of sounds like a fly buzzing.”

88 POPULAR SCIENCE APRIL 2005

T
HOW2.0| GRAY MATTER

DEPT: GRAY MATTER INVESTIGATOR: THEODORE GRAY ELEMENT: Magnesium A man in a 19th-century
EXPERIMENT: Flash-powder cowboy outfit and safety
The Original Photo Flash photography
COST: $40
glasses points a toy rifle at a
Tiki-type yard torch. Absurdist
Magnesium is great for shiny wheels and really bright art at its absurdest? No, it’s
explosions perfect for lighting old-time photographs DABBLER MASTER a scientific investigation of the
effect of surface area on the
flammability of magnesium—
or to put it another way, how to
take a photograph using a mag-
nesium fireball as a flash, the
way people did 100 years ago.
(Also a slightly less scientific
investigation of how great I look
in a cowboy outfit.)
I first saw the mystery of
magnesium when my high-
school chemistry teacher lit a
ribbon of it with a match. It
burned brilliantly, slowly, with
an unnatural light, whiter than
white. We all carry ancient

CHARLES SHOTWELL (2)

memories of fire as protector,
as destroyer, as warmth. This
FLASH BANG! Gray fires
was a different kind of fire.
magnesium powder at
a torch. The resulting Until I started studying ele-
fireball lights the photo. ments seriously a few years
ago, I was confused about
magnesium products: “mag MAGNESIUM MANIA Solid,
ribbon, flaked and powdered
wheels” on racecars, light- magnesium, illuminated by an
weight laptops, bike frames. antique magnesium-ribbon flash
How could people ride around
on something so flammable? powder has a huge surface
First, it turns out that many of area, allowing it to burn explo-
those items are in fact made of sively and providing a moment
an aluminum alloy with just a of superbright light.
bit of magnesium. Second, I re-created that effect to
sometimes things do catch fire. light the photo on the facing
In 1955, 82 people were killed page by loading my son’s toy
at Le Mans when a racecar flew cork rifle with a plug of fine
into the stands and the burning magnesium powder and shoot-
fuel ignited its magnesium body. ing it into a waiting torch
Third, even pure magnesium is flame, resulting in the fireball
hard to light in solid-bulk form you see. What you don’t see is
because it has very little surface the mushroom cloud of smoke
area in contact with oxygen solid cylinder of magnesium material to dissipate the heat. In that prompted photographers
and because the solid metal before it finally caught fire and 1913, Kodak made what I of the day to dash off before
conducts heat away, cooling the burned brightly. would call the world’s slowest their subjects could complain.
surface. I once spent 20 minutes A thin ribbon has a much flashbulb: a magnesium ribbon
holding a propane torch to a larger surface area and less holder. Photographers calculated ! ACHTUNG!
exposure in terms of inches of Theodore Gray is trained in
MELTING POINT: 649°C
ribbon—about three seconds of lab-safety procedures. If you

Mg BOILING POINT: 1,090°C

DISCOVERED: 1808, by Sir Humphry Davy
NAMED FOR: Magnesia, a district of Greek Thessaly
light per inch. Around the same
time, they were starting to use
try this on your own, you do so
at your own risk. Find more
on Gray’s scientific pursuits at
Magnesium magnesium powder for faster
12 USES: Flares, campfire starters, wheels, aircraft parts [Link].
exposures. Mixed with air, the
 T
HOW2.0

YOUR GEAR
TECH SUPPORT For the past year, my Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T1 camera has never
HEY, READERS: Contribute to this page by sending your favorite tips, left my pocket. But now I have a new object of lust. The new
gear suggestions, and questions for the Geek Chorus to h20@[Link]. DSC-T33 has all the features that make the T1 brilliant: 5.1 mega-
pixels, internal 3X optical zoom lens, superfast capture and great
color reproduction. The T33, however, is even slimmer—only half
an inch thick. Ironically, although red-, white- and blue-colored
ASK A GEEK DJ RESET versions are available in Asia, the States only get silver ($450;
[Link]).—Josh Rubin, editor of the blog [Link]

THE TIP SHEET

SEND HUGE FILES
Q: Can I make my own mash-up? Instead of trying to e-mail large files to friends, use
[Link]. Upload your file (up to one gigabyte),
enter the recipient’s e-mail address, and the site will
A: A mash-up is simply a hybrid of two or more songs. For exam-
ple, I made my tune “Frontin’ on Debra” by combining Beck’s
“Debra” with The Neptunes’ “Frontin’” and adding my own live drums
send a message with a link to download it. Files expire
after seven days so you never have to delete them.
and beatbox sounds. A new album called Collision Course is one big —Steve Morgenstern, Brightwaters, N.Y.
mash-up of Jay-Z and Linkin Park. These creations can take anywhere
DESIGN THINGS FOR FREE
from a few hours to a few months to craft, but the beauty is that anyone
Creating ads or brochures in Word is a pain. Instead,
with a computer can make their own. Here are the keys to the city:
download RagTime Solo ([Link]), a free
• Ingredients: You can search the Web for a capellas and instrumentals,
and easy-to-use page-layout program that has almost
but I just hit independent record stores that sell vinyl singles and LPs.
all the functionality of high-cost programs such as
Record companies usually release vinyl-only versions of new songs with
QuarkXPress and Adobe InDesign. The only features
the a capella or “beatapella” (vocal plus drums) track.
missing are typography tools such as tracking and
I L L U S T R AT I O N : D A N PA G E ; P H O T O G R A P H : C O U RT E S Y S O N Y

• Hardware: Any computer will work. If you’re using tracks from

kerning. Available for Windows and Mac OS8, OS9
vinyl and your computer doesn’t have a line-in or mic jack for importing
and OS X.—Nigel Powell, London
them, just add an inexpensive sound card or external USB mic such as
Griffin’s iMic ($40; [Link]).

T THIS IS BROKEN
• Software: There are plenty of free apps for beginners that let you
import, adjust, and export your audio. Try downloading Pro Tools Free
([Link]) or Garageband ([Link]) for Macs, or Audacity
FROM AOL MUSIC, A RATING YOU CAN REALLY TRUST
([Link]) for Windows and Linux.
• Process: Your goal is to make all of the elements of your mash-up
perfectly in tune by separately adjusting the key of each using your audio
software’s “transpose” function. When it happens, you’ll hear it. That’s
when I celebrate by taking myself to the movies.

DJ RESET lives in Brooklyn and has studied with jazz drummer Max Roach. His track
“Frontin’ on Debra” is available at the iTunes Music Store. His site is [Link]. See more examples of things broken at [Link].

POPULAR SCIENCE APRIL 2005 93

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POPULAR
scıence

A COMPENDIUM OF FACTS, ANSWERS, ODDITIES & ENTERTAINMENTS FOR A WHOLE MONTH OF SCIENCE

[UNCOMMON KNOWLEDGE]

Fast Track to Fat

BREAKING NEWS: IN JANUARY, THE
University of Minnesota together with
Children’s Hospital in Boston reported
that noshing fast food just twice a week
can make you fat. But although at first
glance the study’s results seem obvious,
they illustrate something vital: Food
bought at fast-food joints is far more
unhealthy than food bought at a typical
restaurant. These are important findings
in a society that is wringing its hands
over an “obesity epidemic.”
In a 15-year study of nearly 3,000 Amer-
icans, frequenters of fast-food restaurants
JOHN B. CARNETT

gained about 10 pounds more than those

WHO KNEW? A new
who indulged an average of once a week
study shows that eating or less. They also had twice the increase
fast food will make you fat. in insulin resistance, a prominent factor
 T
FYI

in type-2 diabetes, known colloquially

as “diabesity.”
Whereas previous studies looked at
overall consumption of various types
of food—“burgers” or “fried potatoes,”
regardless of where consumers bought
them—the Minnesota-Boston study
was the first in which participants
specifically recorded their number of
visits to fast-food restaurants, says
Mark Pereira, the study’s lead author.
The results highlight the disparity of
a fast-food burger and its counterpart
from an average sit-down restaurant.
The fast-food burger contains up to
70 grams of fat compared with about
15 grams for a regular burger.
The results, which Pereira described
as “nothing too surprising,” confirm
what Jeannette Jordan, a diabetes edu-
cator with the American Dietetic Asso-
ciation, has been arguing for years. But
although Jordan believes we can pre-
serve our backsides by opting for rela-
tively healthy options at fast-food
joints, Pereira warns that healthier
foods will sell only if companies put
the effort into making healthy options
taste good. In fact, he predicts that fast-
food purchases will continue in just
the opposite direction. “People don’t
want healthy food when they go to
these places,” he says.—AMANDA MACMILLAN

[EVOLUTION UPDATE]
“Just a Theory”
Stickers Declared
Unconstitutional
CHALK ONE UP FOR DARWINISTS.
On January 13, U.S. District Court judge
Clarence Cooper declared that the
evolution-disclaimer stickers (which
we reported on in February) added to
biology textbooks by the department
of education in Cobb County, Georgia,
are unconstitutional and must be
removed. “While evolution is subject
to criticism, particularly with respect to
the mechanism by which it occurred,”
Cooper states, “the sticker misleads
students regarding the significance
and value of evolution in the scientific
community.” Cobb County is appealing
the verdict.—MARTHA HARBISON

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[EARTH SCIENCE] destitute, and billions of dollars in Moment Tensor database to describe
damaged infrastructure. It also cur- exactly how much, and how fast, the
The Now-Shortened tailed the length of each day—by three Indian and Sumatran plates moved
millionths of a second—by increasing during the quake, and then modeled
Days of Our Lives the rate of Earth’s rotation. the elastic deformation of the Earth.
THE MASSIVE EARTHQUAKE LAST Jet Propulsion Laboratory geophysi- They found that after so much rock
December 26 wrought unthinkable cist Richard Gross and his NASA dove into the mantle, the Earth—
destruction throughout the Indian Goddard Space Flight Center colleague which normally bulges around the
Ocean basin: more than 290,000 dead Benjamin Fong Chao used seismo- equator—got thinner, becoming more
or missing, one million homeless and logical data from the Harvard Centroid of a true sphere than it was on Decem-
ber 25. This slight change moved the
Earth’s distribution of mass closer
to its core, and, like a kid in a swivel
chair pulling in his arms during a
spin, the planet’s rate of rotation
increased. The scientists are now
combing through GPS, laser range-
finding and radioastronomical data
to find evidence of this permanent
change in the Earth’s spin.
But proving the theory won’t be easy.
“My colleagues are very enthusiastic,
but I’m a little pessimistic that we’ll
find the effect,” Gross admits. Many
other mundane phenomena—spring
tides, wind patterns, ocean currents—
can affect the rate of Earth’s rotation
by thousandths of a second in the short
term, masking the effects of the earth-
quake. Finding a three-millionths-of-
a-second needle in that haystack is a
daunting proposition.—M.H.

[URBAN LEGENDS]
The Mysterious
Case of the
Nonfoaming Beer
Reader Amy Butler writes: I watched
a bartender shake a can of beer, rub a
quarter around on the bottom of the
can, and then open it without the beer
foaming all over the place. Is there a
scientific explanation to this?

Before attempting to test the trick,

we sought counsel from Louis Bloom-
field, a physicist at the University of
Virginia and the author of How Things
Work: The Physics of Everyday Life.
Bloomfield replies: I’m not sure I
believe it, but if it’s possible at all, then it
has to do with clearing out all the tiny
bubbles distributed throughout the beer
during the shaking. A can of beer con-

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tains a small volume of gas, and shaking trick on 12 cans of Budweiser. We

the can distributes the gas throughout the shook a pair of cans with equal vigor
beer in the form of tiny bubbles. While and, variously rubbing, tapping, or
the can is sealed, those bubbles can’t rolling a quarter on the bottom of one
grow, so they tend to float slowly to the of the cans, opened them at the same
surface and pop. When you open the can, time, at the same rate. The results
the pressure inside drops, so the bubbles confirmed Bloomfield’s initial suspi-
expand as they float to the surface. They cions: The quarter had no effect. In fact,
act as seeds for larger bubbles, which neither beer in each of our simultane-
foam up and out of the opened can. ous trials foamed much at all, a phe-
Usually you just have to wait for all nomenon that is perhaps the kernel of
the distributed bubbles to meander up this particular story. In the end, our
and out of the beer before you open the office kitchen reeked like a frat house,
can. So I can’t see how tinkering with the but if we can help dispel a nascent
can from the outside could speed up that urban legend, it was in the service of
process or stop the sudden growth and the common good.—GREGORY MONE
foaming that occurs when you open the
can fully. Tapping the can may dislodge [THE INVENTION] TECH ON THE CHEAP A simple pendulum is at
the heart of this $200 seismometer.
tiny bubbles that are stuck to the can’s
COURTESY MERCER UNIVERSITY

interior surface, but I don’t know how the An Affordable

quarter would make a difference. the quake and subsequent tsunami.
If I saw this trick in action, with a Earthquake Detector Had coastal towns been equipped with
control can (one handled identically but WHEN THE SUMATRAN QUAKE ROCKED earthquake observatories, along with
without any quarter), I might feel it was South Asia, hundreds of advanced seis- the communications infrastructure
worth investigating carefully. Sounds mometers around the world detected needed to distribute the information,
like you all need a six-pack—or a case. the rumblings. Yet only two were sta- thousands of lives may have been
We compromised, testing the quarter tioned in the regions hit hardest by saved from the tsunami.
T
FYI

The problem, in a word, is money. Simply put, a seismometer measures Sure, it’s not terribly precise, but this
Seismic technology doesn’t come cheap. vibrations traveling through the earth. bare-bones setup works and is cheap.
Today’s most sophisticated detectors A crude one consists of nothing more More complex devices deliver superior
cost as much as $60,000—far out of than some type of mass on a string sensitivity—the best can detect ground
range of poor rural villages. Enter Ran- and a recording device. When the movement as small as a nanometer—
dall Peters, a physicist at Mercer Univer- ground shakes, the mass oscillates rela- but they also require an array of
sity who has invented what he calls “a tive to the ground, and the recording sensors and precision parts that jack
detector for the masses,” a rudimentary device—a pen and paper, for instance up manufacturing costs, nixing the
but ultrasensitive seismometer that —jots down the data. The more the potential for mass production.
could be manufactured for about $200. mass moves, the stronger the quake. Peters’s device contains only half
the number of components of the
fancier seismometers yet boasts a sen-
sitivity nearly as precise—at least for
the advance detection of Rayleigh
waves, those slow and powerful sur-
face movements that typically cause
most of the damage in an earthquake.
Originally designed to test a gravity
theory for a researcher at the Jet Propul-
sion Laboratory, Peters’s seismometer is
essentially a pendulum that swings only
in response to seismic waves. The key
to the machine’s sensitivity, and cost-
savings, is its patented sensor. Most
conventional ultrasensitive seismome-
ters rely on expensive electronics that
hold a central mass in place; a measure
of the amount of force it takes to keep
the mass still determines the size of the
earthquake. In Peters’s device, the cen-
tral mass, which is coated with sensors,
swings freely like a pendulum between
two parallel capacitive plates. The elec-
trically charged plates measure the
amount of their surface area left un-
blocked by the central mass as the mass
swings by them. It then generates a
corresponding electrical signal that
serves as a simple but sensitive mea-
surement of horizontal ground motion.
Of course, Peters’s unorthodox setup
wouldn’t pass muster with the U.S. Geo-
logical Survey, which monitors more
than just Rayleigh waves and therefore
requires extra bells and whistles. But it
might give people living off the seis-
mological grid a better chance to pre-
pare themselves for natural disasters.
It could also provide high schools and
colleges with an affordable way to
study seismology. Jim Fowler, a pro-
gram manager at the Incorporated
Research Institutions for Seismology
in Washington, D.C., agrees: “If he can
make a seismometer for $200, there
would be a lot of people standing in
line to buy it.”—NICOLE DYER

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[THE REAL WORLD: ISS]

Keystone
Kosmonauts
AH, BITTERSWEET ENDINGS. APRIL
marks the conclusion of the six-month
stint of the two astronauts—one Russ-
ian and one American—on board the
International Space Station. Orbital
habitation has never been easy, but
with the large-payload U.S. space shut-
tle still grounded, life on the space
station has become downright rough.
This particular low-Earth-orbit jaunt, SPACE CHOW
dubbed Expedition 10, proved extra- Astronauts Chiao [left],
Sharipov [center]
sweet—mostly because astronauts and Soyuz pilot Yuri
Salizhan Sharipov and Leroy Chiao Shargin on the ISS
were forced to eat a lot of desserts and
candy when a resupply Soyuz was
delayed a month and the crew discov- cably over the past few months. A relinquish their ISS housekeeping
ered that the emergency-provisions January spacewalk yielded a clue to duties to the Expedition 11 crew, who
pantry had been raided by a previous the cause of its malfunction: a brown- will continue to ready the ISS for the
mission. The crew encountered other ish residue glommed onto the outside return of the space shuttle later this
challenges, such as having to fix the of the space station around the Elek- year—supported, one hopes, by a
balky Elektron Oxygen Generator that tron’s exhaust vent. After a final space- pantry stocked with plenty of chicken

NASA
has shut down repeatedly and inexpli- walk in March, Sharipov and Chiao will teriyaki and salmon.—M.H.
 POPULAR
T
LOOKINGBACK
scıence

FROM THE POPULAR SCIENCE ARCHIVES

OCTOBER1981 OTHER NEWS FROM THE OCTOBER 1981 ISSUE

Supersize Stargazing
Topping the titanic five-meter telescopes of the ‘70s demanded
new technologies for building cheaper, lighter mirrors
Still vying for space-race bragging rights, the U.S. and the Soviet Union spent the 1970s
and early 1980s competing for “world’s largest telescope” honors. Giant scopes, we wrote,
“should lead to breaching the unseen—perhaps unimagined—barriers in our under-
standing of the universe.” The huge mirrors that such scopes required, however, proved
increasingly costly to build. Following the Soviet debut of the six-meter Bol’shoi Teleskop
Azimultal’nyi in 1976, U.S. researchers responded with a more affordable technology:
segmented mirrors. Their design of 36 connected potato-chip-shaped hexagons eventually
became the 10-meter Keck telescopes atop Mauna Kea, Hawaii, which last year spotted the BIRTH OF AN
most distant galaxy to date, more than 13 billion light-years away. The segmented approach EXERCISE LEGEND
has recently been used in plans for telescopes up to 30 meters in diameter that would make “Slip your feet into the skis, grab the rope ends,
the behemoths of 1981 seem like backyard binoculars [see page 72].—AMANDA MACMILLAN and you’re off on a simulated cross-country ski
trip,” we wrote of the new NordicTrack, which
manufacturer PSI promised would provide a
workout that was as good as jogging.

PLASTIC CAR PARTS

BREAK THE MOLD
Plastic cars were “on the verge of a boomlet,”
we wrote when Pontiac proposed an all-plastic
body, but we wondered about production
and material costs. The body eventually
appeared as the Pontiac Fiero, an under-
powered and short-lived model.

NEXT BIG NAME

IN COMPUTERS
We predicted that Xerox’s personal computer,
compatible with more than 2,000 industry-
standard programs, would launch a “computer
explosion.” With 64K of memory and two
5 1/4-inch floppy drives, it was priced compara-
bly to other personal computers—$3,000—
but looked, we said, “totally professional.”

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124 POPULAR SCIENCE APRIL 2005