Popular Science – April 2015

84 Pages·2016·19.52 MB·Romanian

by  Popular Science USA

HOW IT WORKS
10TH ANNUAL ISSUE
YOUR WORLD,
DISSECTED
1 PAGE
34
FEATURING: APRIL 2015
A THREE-
2 INSIDE THE
WHEELED DARK WEB
SUPERCAR
A CAUTIONARY TOUR PG. 20
REVERSING
DISEASE
Virtual Reality
Death by Black Hole How science is fighting
Hydrogen Fuel Cell five notorious illnesses
Selfie Drone
CAN YOU BE
Google's Project Loon
ALLERGIC
Cyborg Roach
TO TECHNOLOGY?
Large Hadron Collider
And...a Baseball We visit a small town in
West Virginia to find out
3
The Polaris
Slingshot,
a new
breed of
machine
PLUS!
GIANT TVs, JIMMY CARTER,
AND AN INDESTRUCTIBLE COFFEEMAKER
©
2015 Energizer WorldMags.net
WorldMags.netAPRIL 2015 •FEED
For daily updates: facebook.com/popsci Volume 286 No.4
04
Featuring
CONTENTS
Reversing Disease
How It Works
Novel treatments are poised to turn back 15
the clock on five devastating illnesses, Curious about the world? Us too. In
including Alzheimer’s and blindness. our 10th annual celebration of geeky
CASSANDRA WILLYARD insights, we dissect everything from the
PAGE 50 Large Hadron Collider to a virtual reality
headset and a hydrogen car.
PAGE 34
Counter Piracy
Brute force hasn’t eliminated pirate
attacks. But clever new technology from
a handful of start-ups very well could.
ERIK SOFGE
PAGE 44
Greetings From
the Quiet Zone
Green Bank, West Virginia, doesn’t have
cell service, Wi-Fi, or radio frequencies—
and that’s why people are moving there.
STEVE FEATHERSTONE
PAGE 54
Departments
Feed
04 From the Editor
06 A Bit About Us
08 Peer Review
Now
11 A speaker system that reads your mood
12 A Corvette to compete with
luxury supercars
14 Ten things we love this month
17 An orchestra that fits in your pocket
18 Brighter, sharper, cheaper 4K TVs
19 An arm-saving sleeve for baseball
pitchers
20 We dipped our toes into the Dark Web
(so you don’t have to)
Next
22 The view from China’s tallest building
24 Jimmy Carter on how to rid the world
of guinea worm
26 Wind-powered public transit
28 A birder’s guide to the future
30 The race for fusion energy
32 Your DNA is for sale. Discuss.
Manual
63 An umbrella stand that predicts the
weather
66 Three ways to radically repurpose
a printer
68 Take a fish for a walk. No, really!
70 From missileer to flower engineer
72 A hobbit sword for detecting
N unprotected Wi-Fi networks
A
L
P End Matter
A
K
M 75 Ask Us Anything: Why don’t electric
SA eels electrocute themselves?
Y 86 From the Archives
B
H
P
A
R
G
O
OT ON THE COVER
PH Illustration by Panicdtw.com

POPULAR SCIENCE /03
FEED•APRIL 2015WorldMags.net
From the Editor
The Power of WE RIP APART SOME
OF THE WORLD’S
COOLEST AND
Understanding
MOST IMPORTANT
L
STUFF TO SEE WHAT
MAKES IT TICK.”
risk of sounding clichéd, I think
ike many people, I have been
that often we fear what we don’t
watching the recent measles outbreak with understand. Gain a little insight and
fear slips away. Plus, understanding
mounting dismay. As of press time, there were things is fun. I mean, how else will Plus is free to print subscribers, so
more than 120 reported cases and climbing. you lord your towering intellect if you own an iPad and haven’t yet
over your friends? signed up for it, well, you should—
This, for a disease the Centers for Disease It’s with this spirit that we because it’s awesome. Download the
Control and Prevention (CDC) declared eradi- undertake our 10th annual How app, go to “My Account,” fi ll in the
It Works issue. In it, we rip apart credentials, and you’re all set.
cated in the U.S. 15 years ago. That more some of the world’s coolest and If you’re already a Popular
most important stuff to see what Science Plus reader, the change
people are at risk today than a de- On the other side, there’s science. makes it tick. This year, we dig into going forward won’t mean a whole
cade ago is sad. We should be moving Study after study has shown vac- a cutting-edge cancer treatment, lot—other than faster download
forward, not backward. But how we cines to be safe. The CDC estimates virtual reality, black holes, a drone times, which are always nice. All you
got here is perhaps even sadder. they will save 732,000 lives and that follows its pilot, and much need to do is update the app. The
As someone who makes a living prevent 21 million hospital visits more. One item we consciously left How It Works issue will be there
communicating science, I can’t help among children born in the past 20 off the list: vaccines. That’s because waiting for you.
but notice an extraordinary discon- years. Also, there is no documented there’s so much credible informa-
nect on the issue of vaccines. On one connection between vaccines and tion out there already, if you’re
side, there are those who believe a the anti-vaxxers’ central concern, curious enough to look.
discredited and de-licensed doctor, autism. Even Autism Speaks, the In line with explaining how
Andrew Wakefi eld, as well as various world’s largest autism science and things work, I’d also like to shed Enjoy the magazine.
celebrity anti-vaxxers. Politicians advocacy organization, comes down some light into our operation. This
who can’t seem to decide where they strongly in favor of immunization. month, we’re switching our iPad Cliff Ransom
stand only make things worse. So why the dissonance? At the edition platform. Popular Science Editor in Chief
Contributors
S
R
O
T
U
B
RI
T
N
O
C
Y
S
E
Cassandra Willyard Steve Featherstone Heather Hansman Will Styer T
R
Whether reporting on New York’s Like most of us, writer Steve Feather- The idea of public data banks for When he’s not playing chess or biking U
O
dirtiest stretch of water or on circum- stone is gadget-dependent. So when our DNA is an ethical minefield to in Brooklyn, photographer Will Styer C
cision to prevent HIV in Uganda, he visited a region in West Virginia many of us. But when writer Heather lives behind his lens. To shoot the GE;
writer Cassandra Willyard has an eye where electromagnetic waves from Hansman looked into it, she says, objects in this month’s Now section, UG
for science and public impact. While cellphones and Wi-Fi are forbidden, “I was surprised by how unworried including an 88-inch Samsung S B
researching “Yes, You Can Reverse it was disorienting. “I couldn’t text, the people who worked directly in the TV (page 18), he looks for “little U
Disease” (page 50), she was amazed email, or call to set up meetings,” field were about privacy.” Her report, moments of shapes, colors, textures, ARI
bpyro tghree spsa.c “eO oftfe rne cine nmt emdeicdinicea, ly ou see hthee s Qayusie. tH Ziso nseto” r(yp, a“gGer e5e4t)in, fgosl lForwosm “YSohuor uDlNd AY?o”u (Tpraugset 3B2ig) ,P ehnadremda u wp ith abnecda suhsaed tohwesy. ”a TreV sd easrieg nae cdh taoll been ge OM: M
incremental advances,” she says, electrosensitives—people who claim piquing her curiosity. She now wants unobtrusive. It’s also tough to lug a NS
“but these are big, bold efforts.” such waves harm them. to examine her own genetic makeup. 6-foot-tall box up the studio’s stairs. RA

04 / POPULAR SCIENCE
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A Bit About Us Follow us on twitter @popsci
EDITOR IN CHIEF Cliff Ransom
Design Director Todd Detwiler
Executive Editor Jennifer Bogo
EDITORIAL
Managing Editor Jill C. Shomer
ARCHITECTURE, QUANTIFIED
Editorial Production Manager Felicia Pardo
Articles Editor Kevin Gray
Information Editor Katie Peek, Ph.D.
When completed later this year, Shanghai Tower [page 22] will be the second Technology Editor Michael Nuñez
tallest building in China. It also represents a new design-intensive approach to Projects Editor Sophie Bushwick
Associate Editors Lois Parshley, Jen Schwartz
architecture that stands in contrast to older methods. Assistant Editors Breanna Draxler, Lindsey Kratochwill
Editorial Assistant Mac Irvine
Copy Editors Lisa Ferber, Joe Mejia, Leah Zibulsky
40
Researchers Shannon Palus, Erika Villani
Editorial Intern Junnie Kwon
Number of architectural
drawings used to design ART AND PHOTOGRAPHY
Photo Director Thomas Payne
Chicago’s Sears Tower (now Digital Associate Art Director Michael Moreno
known as the Willis Tower)
POPULARSCIENCE.COM
Online Director Dave Mosher
5,000 Senior Editor Paul Adams
Assistant Editors Sarah Fecht, Loren Grush
Contributing Writers Eric Adams, Kelsey D. Atherton, Francie Diep,
Number of drawings used to
Mary Beth Griggs, Dan Moren
design the Shanghai Tower Web Intern Lydia Ramsey
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
Brooke Borel, Tom Clynes, Matthew de Paula, Clay Dillow, Nicole Dyer,
Daniel Engber, Tom Foster, Hackett, Mike Haney, Joseph Hooper, Corinne Iozzio,
AN EARLY LOOK AT VIRTUAL REALITY Gregory Mone, Adam Piore, P.W. Singer, Erik Sofge
BONNIER TECHNOLOGY GROUP
In June 1993, Popular Science tested Group Editorial Director Anthony Licata
Group Publisher Gregory D. Gatto
virtual reality headsets. The technology Chief Marketing Officer Elizabeth Burnham Murphy
was much less mature than it is today Associate Publisher, Marketing Mike Gallic
Financial Director Tara Bisciello
[page 37], but the experience was no less Eastern Sales Director Jeff Timm
eye-opening: Northeast Advertising Office Margaret Kalaher, Matt Levy, Amanda Smyth
Midwest Managers Carl Benson, Doug Leipprandt
Ad Assistant Lindsay Kuhlmann
“As I put on a belt the joystick moves me West Coast Account Managers Stacey Lakind, Sara Laird O’Shaughnessy
Ad Assistant Michelle Rodriguez
pack, an attendant forward in the picture. Detroit Advertising Director Jeff Roberge
tightens the visor I can also turn around Detroit Manager Ed Bartley
over my glasses like 180 degrees, look up Ad Assistant Diane Pahl
a blindfold. I’m given over my shoulder, or Direct Response Sales Shawn Lindeman, Frank McCaffrey, Chip Parham
about a minute to squat down, and the Advertising Coordinator Irene Reyes Coles
Digital Campaign Managers Amanda Alimo, Wilber Perez
orient myself in a view adjusts accord-
Digital Campaign CoordinatorJustin Ziccardi
cartoonlike world. The ingly. ‘Insert credits,’ Digital Marketing Producer Joey Stern
resolution is noticeably booms a disembodied Group Sales Development Director Alex Garcia
lower than the pic- voice from within the Senior Sales Development Manager Amanda Gastelum
tures on the monitors. helmet. The game Sales Development Managers Kate Gregory, Charlotte Grima
Creative Services Director Ingrid M. Reslmaier
Pushing a button on begins.”
Marketing Design Directors Jonathan Berger, Gabe Ramirez
Marketing Design Manager Sarah Hughes
Digital Design Manager Steve Gianaca
MISSION Group Events & Promotion Director Beth Hetrick
Promotions Managers Eshonda Caraway-Evans, Lynsey White
WHAT WE’D MISS Consumer Marketing Director Bob Cohn
REPORT
Public Relations Manager Molly Battles
Human Resources Director Kim Putman
IF WE LIVED IN THE NATIONAL Production Manager Erika Hernandez
In early March, NASA’s Dawn RADIO QUIET ZONE Corp. Production Director Jeff Cassell
spacecraft began to orbit the Group Production Director Laurel Kurnides
dwarf planet Ceres—the largest “Spark plugs. I used to observe at
unexplored object that lies be- Green Bank radio observatory, and we
tween the sun and Pluto. Dawn’s
had to drive back to the telescope in
data could help explain the birth a 1980s stick shift Volvo because the Chairman Tomas Franzén
of our solar system. Needless Chief Executive Officer Dave Freygang
to say, we’re excited, and we’re spark plugs in modern vehicles cause Executive Vice President Eric Zinczenko
covering the mission’s every step, too much radio-frequency interfer- Chief Content Officer David Ritchie
Chief Financial Officer Todd DeBoer
including the findings, detailed ence. Actually, I liked that Volvo. So Chief Operating Officer Lisa Earlywine
imagery, and the ion thrusters that maybe I wouldn’t miss spark plugs.” Chief Marketing Officer Elizabeth Burnham Murphy WS
made the awe-inspiring journey Chief Digital Revenue Officer Sean Holzman E
possible, at popsci.com/ceres. –Katie Peek, Information Editor VViiccee PPrreessiiddeenntt,, ICnotnesguramteedr MSaalrekse tJionhgn J Gorhann Reyeese RS N
Vice President, Digital Audience Development Jennifer Anderson TE
Vice President, Digital Operations David Butler CA
Vice President, Public Relations Perri Dorset V/
For reprints, e-mail: [email protected]. General Counsel Jeremy Thompson RO
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Peer Review
EMAIL SIGNATURE OF THE MONTH
Sent from my Hyperloop
cruiser at the fringes
of a sparsely inhabited
parallel universe.
LIFE’S EXTREME POSSIBILITIES MISPLACED FEAR
When giant tube worms were first In the February 2015 article titled
discovered around deep ocean “Striving for the Perfect Diet Is
SLIPPERIER TRUTHS vents, some thriving at hundreds Making Us Sick,” you note that
of degrees Fahrenheit for hundreds anorexia is driven by a fear of being
Many of you voiced additional of years, we realized life was more fat. This really misrepresents the
diverse and resourceful than we had disease. Someone who has anorexia
concerns about the Keystone XL
believed possible [“Have We Found has much more than a fear of eating.
pipeline in response to the five we Alien Life?” February 2015]. We He or she has an inaccurate picture of
investigated in “Slippery Truths” always assumed that life at least his or her body and a disease-driven
[February 2015]. Information relied on the same chemistries. But desire to make the body more
what if there is a totally different “culturally acceptable.”
editor Katie Peek responds to a
chemistry at work deep in the Earth Robert R. Fluck Jr.
few of them. or Mercury or even the Sun that North Syracuse, N.Y.
does not rely on atoms with electron
shells? What if there are creatures
Darell Potter: I would have liked to see how
whose “metabolism” is based on HAVE A COMMENT?
many miles the Keystone XL pipeline would add
bare ions, immense temperatures Write to us at letters@
to the existing lines transporting oil and the total
and pressures, or even the kinds of popsci.com or to
miles of all pipelines.
crushing forces in neutron stars and Popular Science
KP: There are something like 50,000 miles of
black holes? 2 Park Ave. 9th floor
crude-oil pipeline in the U.S. today, and the new
Bill Dale, Los Angeles New York City, N.Y.
Keystone XL segment would add about 800. WORST 10016
Martin H. Crowe: If it costs $8 billion to build JOB
the pipeline, what does it cost to build a refinery AWARD
closer to the source? Or along existing pipelines?
It is likely less than $8 billion and would avoid all
the increased environmental risk. SHOW
KP: To manage the oil otherwise carried by the
pipeline, a local refinery would need to process
about 500,000 barrels daily. Andrew Leach, an & TELL
energy policy expert at the University of Alberta,
says $8 billion would only cover the cost of a re-
finery capable of handling about 150,000 barrels
a day. He points out that you’d still need pipelines
We asked about your worst jobs. Ben Coats of Ventura, California,
to transport the refined product to market.
wrote: “When I was 27, I got a job at a record company dialing Total
Request Live on MTV (pressing redial over and over again, all day
Richard Payne: One point of concern to the
long) to request its big song. If you got through without a busy signal,
environmental community is the widespread
which happened two to three times a week, you had to request the
damage being done to the wilderness areas
song ‘Punk Rock Girl’ by the Dead Milkmen [above] and keep redial-
where the mining is taking place.
ing. The fi rst time I got through, I gave an enthusiastic request. Then
KP: According to a 2014 report from the Alberta
(hours later) the guy next to me gave a monotone ‘Punk Rock Girl,
Biodiversity Monitoring Institute, 14 percent of
Dead Milkmen.’ I quit after a week.”
the province’s oil-sands region has been visibly
affected by development. About a sixth of that
impact comes from energy operations. In the
area where oil-sands mining is digging up topsoil, SEND US
Show & Tell: Electronics can have a fine life as intended, but it’s
the institute found almost no intact biodiversity. more fun to give them a new calling. This month, we explore three
PICS!
ways to modify printers [page 66]. Send your favorite example of re-
purposed tech to secondwindtech@popsci .com and include a picture!

08 / POPULAR SCIENCE
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