popular mechanics 2009 - 03

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47
e
Human Machine
T
wenty medical advances that
push bioloy to its limits—and
beyond.
By
melinda wenner
68
B
asement Replacement
HGTV’s Rip & Renew cr
ew pulls
off a total underround overhaul.
By
Harry SawyerS
72

e
Backyard Blacksmith
PM’s senior home editor spends
an aernoon buildin a fore, then
learns the ae-old cr
a of workin
hot eel.
By
roy BerendSoHn
78
S
moke on the Water
When spec ops teams need to
move by river
, they hitch a ride
with elite unboat crews.
By
erik
Sofge
54
S
omething in the Sky
Strane lihts
above Stephenville, Texas, prompted a UFO
frenzy. Is there a simpler explanation?
By
p
Hil patton
On the cOver
We r

e-create a com-
mon source of UFO
reports—flares used by
military jets to evade
missiles (see page 58).
Photo illustration by
Oliver Wasow; addi-
tional manipulation by
Anthony Verducci.
P
OPULARMECHANICS.COM | MARCH 2009
3P HOTOGRAPH BY Br
ad p a riS
PM Features /// March 2009
vol
u m e 1 8 6 n o. 3
Tech Watch

13
Co
smic Point-and-
Shoot
e world’s lare
diital camer
a monitors the
universe for science and
defense. Plus: Remodelin
the space ation; creatin
blood on demand.
Upgr

ade

23
G
ame-Frame
Computer
HP’s ultimate
portable amin PC.

Plus: We pit du tape
aain other multiuse
tapes; a voltae deteor
with an adjuable rane;
a Duracell battery that
does it all.
New Cars

31
Zi
p Drive
Nissan’s
370Z packs tons of tor
que—
and turns heads. Plus: e
intelliently desined Toyota
iQ; Pontiac’s new muscle
sedan; the A 170 Baby Benz.
Columns
3
8

Ja
y Leno’s Garae
Jay r
eminisces about the
days of endurance racer Ab
Jenkins, when men raced
not for money, but for love
of the sport.
42
A
merica’s To-Do
Li
PM’s editor-in-chief
James B. Meis outlines
five urent policy chanes
for the new adminir
ation,
from clean diesel to NASA.
DIY
Home

85
S
hop, Reborn
Use
our uide to r
evamp your
cluttered work area with
diamond-plate peboard,
rollin tool orae and a

urdy workbench.
9
0

Homeowners
Clinic
How to squeeze
mor
e hot water from your
water heater.
Plus: Removin ains
from your concrete drive-
way; cuttin down counter-
tops; usin rideboard in a
freeandin arae.

Auto

95
S
aturday Mechanic
Get your classic car back on
the r
oad by rebuildin the
brake calipers.
9
8
C
ar Clinic
e riht

way to take a compr
ession
te. Plus: Knowin when
your ABS syem is workin
properly; removin lon-life
spark plus aer they’ve
seized; determinin what
causes fuel-aue failure.
T
echnology

105
M
ake Your PC
Boot Faer
Use PM’s
special r
eimen of five
OS tweaks to boo slow
artup speeds.

108
D
iital Clinic
Five
ways to play MP3s thr
ouh
your car ereo. Plus: Why
your iPhone home button
fails; tailatin with your

LCD TV.
> New Tools > Cars > Home > H ow-To
/// P
M deP a rtM e nts
26
98
16
29
93
24
34
L
ISTED ON THE COVER:
85 Ultimate Workshop
/// 32 55-MPG Solution
/// 54 UFO Myths ///
78 Special Ops Boat Crew
/// 26 Duct Tape ///
68 Basement Upgrade ///
72 Backyard Blacksmiths
Monthly
HO
W TO RE ACH US 6
LE TTERS 8
THIS IS MY JOB 116
4 M
ARCH 2009 | POPULARMECHANICS.COM
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H OT OG RA P H S B Y J M UC KL E/ ST UD IO D ( DU CT TA PE , P LI E R S) , K Y OK O H AM AD A ( H P C OM PU TE R) ; I LL US TR ATI ON B Y B RA DL EY R . H UG HE S (S PA R K P LU G)

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OF ADVISERS
POPULAR MECHANICS
is
gr
ateful to these
scientists, innovators and
leaders, who help ensure
we cover the most
important stories in the
most authoritative way.
buzz Aldrin
Apollo 11 astr
onaut;
colonel, U.S. Air Force
(Ret.)
shAWn
c A rlsO n
Executive dir
ector of
the Society for
Amateur Scientists;
MacArthur Fellow
d
A vid e . cOle
Chairman, Center for
Automotive Resear

ch
s
A ul griffith
Pr
esident and chief
scientist, Makani Power;
MacArthur Fellow
thOMAs
d . jOnes
Space shuttle astr
onaut;
author of Sky Walking
g
A vin A. schM idt
Climate modeler
,
NASA Goddard Institute
for Space Studies
AMy b . sMith
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er;
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d A niel h . WilsOn
Roboticist; author of Mad
Scientist Hall of F
ame
WM. A. Wulf
Pr
esident emeritus,
National Academy of

Enineerin
WHAT
THEY’RE DOING
DR. KEN KAMLER
Sureon, author of
Surviving the Extr
emes
Ken Kamler travels
hih and low to do
medical research. One
current project is a U.S.
Army–sponsored
expedition to Mount
Kilimanjaro to identify
predictors of altitude
sickness. e research
will be used to identify
soldiers who are
predisposed to the
condition before
sendin troops into
the mountains of
Afhanistan.
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Vice Chairman & Chief Executive Officer
Geore R. Hearst, Jr.
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PM Letters
Why would people pur
chase a
diesel vehicle and pay more for
its fuel than can be offset by
improved mileae?
CHA RLES D. HENDRICK SON
FOREST LAKE, MN
E DITOR’S R ESPONSE:

We agr
ee that diesel fuel is
overpriced in the U.S. See
“America’s To-Do List,” page 42.
Signal Boost
January’s “Impr
ovin In-Home
Wi-Fi” hit on ood ways to
boo a wireless router’s sinal
renth, but what about wire-
less devices like laptops and
ame syems? Once you’ve
booed your router sinal, you
can do the same for other wire-
less devices. Laptop adapters
may have a power-save feature
that you can disable to maxi-
mize wireless performance.
And some adapters even have
an external antenna.
M
IKE KRUMMREY
ADA, MI
Digital Snoops
Y
our January ory “Who’s
Trackin You,” on privacy con-
cerns, could have included more
on GPS trackin devices. ere
should be a federal law reri-

in their use [in autos] without
the reiered vehicle owner’s
written consent. GPS equip-
ment that [tracks] the owner’s
location is bein sold across the
country. Geore Orwell would
say, “I warned you!”
M
A LCOLM JOHN SON
SEMINOLE, FL
Y
our ory about the late
diital threats to privacy was
enlihtenin. It’s too bad so
many efforts are required to
fiht back. Our la Conress
let us down by passin a law
rantin retroaive immu-
nity to [telecom companies]
that had illeally spied on us.
Hopefully the next adminira-
tion will demonrate a hiher
appreciation for our rihts.
T
OM CI CCATERI
ALBUQUERQUE, NM
Diesel Dilemma
I always find your auto r
eviews
informative. But I mu take

issue with the idea (New Cars,
Jan. ’09) that more diesel
autos should be in our future to
reduce our dependence on oil
throuh their improved mileae.
I have a diesel pickup purchased
in 2002, primarily for its tow-
in capabilities, but at that
time diesel was also the lea
expensive fuel. at chaned in
about 2003, and since then it
has been the hihe priced fuel.
Readers
responded to
our technology
privacy report,
hybrid vs. diesel
comparison and
tips to boo
wireless range.
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P
OPULARMECHANICS.COM | MAR CH 2009
13
Cosmic Point-
and-Shoot
THE WORLD’S LARGEST DIGITAL
CAMERA IS CURRENTLY AT WORK
MONITORING THE UNIVERSE FOR
SCIENCE —AND SELF DEFENSE.
BY
JOE PAPPALARDO
news
+
trends
+
breakthr
oughs
+ A quartet of the
world’s large
digital camer
as will
catalog up to a
billion galaxies
outside the Milky
Way. e images
will be 38,000 by
38,000 pixels in

size—roughly 150
times larger than
resolutions of
point-and-shoot
digital cameras.
Each camera will
have 1.4 billion
pixels. Using
one camera,
a prototype
telescope took its
fir usable image
in late 2008.
Interellar
Photography
Ar
onomers in Hawaii have
built a workin prototype of a
syem that uses the world’s bie
diital camera to keep an eye on the
universe. e University of Hawaii’s
mountaintop Panoramic Survey
Telescope and Rapid Response
Syem uses a small mirror to refle
imaes to the iapixel camera.
e prototype only has one mirror–
camera pair; the proposed finished
version will have four pairs. Pan-
STARRS’ main task is detein
danerous aeroids: Every niht

the telescope takes a thousand
photos of the sky; an automated
syem scans the resultant black-
and-white imaes for any movement
that could indicate a planet killer.
e telescope will also produce
ultra-hih-resolution color imaes to
create the mo-comprehensive-ever
survey of the universe.
Giapixel Camera M51 and Its Companion Galaxy, NGC 5195
t
e c h w a t c h
NEWSBRIEFS
Reports
From the Edge of Science
Compiled by
Alex Hutchinson
FLIPPER’S
SECRET
POWER
+
Scientis have
lon
wondered how
dolphins can swim
as fa as 25 mph,
iven the thickness
of their tail
muscles and the
density of water.

But researchers
in Troy, N.Y., were
shocked to see
the animal’s power
when they tracked
the movement
of tiny air bubbles
in the water
around swimmin
dolphins. Each tail
flip enerates
about 200 pounds
of thru—
triple Michael
Phelps’s be.
BIG MOTORS FOR
MINI TOOLS
+ Enineers in
Switzerland are
producin a
miniature eleric
motor that they
say is the fir to
achieve a speed of
one million
revolutions per
minute, four times
faer than the
previous spin
maer. e

matchbox-size,
100-watt motor
interates mini ball
bearins and
elerical
components in a
special titanium
shell that can
withand the
extreme centrifu-
al forces created
by the record-
breakin speed.
e syem may be
used in drills and
millin machines
desined for small
eleronics.
E-MAIL FROM
MAJOR TOM
+

This summer
,
astronauts on
the International
Space Station
will test a new
“Interplanetary
Internet” scheme

that last year
swapped
information with a
spacecraft more
than 20 million
miles from Earth.
The system relies
on relays, with
each node storing
information until it
can be forwarded
safely. This
safeguards data
despite interrup-
tions by solar wind
or planets.
Boeing’s new 787 Dreamliner is revolutionary because it uses carbon
composite materials in more ruural parts than any previous
commercial jetliner. But how tough is this new material? To find out,
company engineers shattered a 50- long, 55,000-pound ruure
called the wing box, which connes the wings to the fuselage. e te
showed that the box could withand more than 1.5 times the highe
aerodynamic load the jet could ever experience. Aer delays, the fir
Dreamliners are currently scheduled for delivery in early 2010.
Perfe Recipe for Antimatter
+ Physicis at Lawrence Livermore
National Laboratory have developed a
cheap way to produce copious amounts
of elusive antimatter. By shootin short,
powerful laser burs at a small old

taret, they are able to enerate
positrons, the antimatter version of
elerons. Similar methods have been
explored before, but by usin a thicker
piece of old, the physicis created an
eimated 100 billion short-lived
positrons. e researchers will use the
method to udy black holes and
other natural antimatter creators.
Time Tweak Saves Enery
+ Since 2007, dayliht savin time has
arted three weeks earlier (in March) and
ended one week later (in November) each
year, in a overnmental bid to save
enery. e fir-year results are now
in—and it worked. Accordin to the
Department of Enery, the measure
reduced U.S. enery consumption by 17
trillion Btu, enouh to power 175,000
households for a year. Mo savins
resulted from slihtly lower elericity use
in the early evenin. Southern ates saw
lesser savins, possibly because they
were offset by more air-conditioner use.
14 MA
R C H 2009 | POPULAR M E C HANI C S . COM
P
H OT OG RA P H B Y GE TT Y IM AG ES ( DO LP HI N)
O
N THE W EB

>
Follow breaking
science and technology news daily
at popularmechanics.com.
Y
ou Can’t Make an
Airplane Without
Breakin Some Wins
Galley
Orbital Renovation
Resistive Exer
ciser Bathroom Water Recycler
16 M
AR C H 2009 | POPULA R MEC HANIC S . C OM
Makin the Space
Station a
Home
PREPPING THE INTERNATIONAL
SPACE STATION FO R A LA RG ER
CREW IS THE ULTIMAT E IN
HIGH-END HOME REMODELING.
BY JOE PAPPALARDO
Kitchen
e cr
ew’s alley
has to be
expanded; new
items include
suitcase-shape

warmers that
ently close around
as many as 12
metallic foil bas
holdin prepared
foods. e sink,
based on the space
shuttle’s, has its
own hot-water
heater for bas of
ew or cups of
inant coffee.
Exercise
Equipment
e Advanced
Resiive Exercise
Device uses
vacuum caniers
and ropes to create
resiance that
mimics weihts.
e ARED provides
the equivalent of
600 pounds of
weihts that can
be used for dozens
of exercises.
Aronauts’
muscles and
nerves can

It takes some plannin to prepare a small space for new roommates, especially
if the apartment is 220 miles above the planet. NASA enineers have been
developin space-ready versions of familiar fixtures to prepare for an expansion of
the International Space Station’s crew, which this year will double to six. Enineers
mu build household items that balance space, power consumption, weiht and
repairability. “ose tradeoffs were made at the very beinnin [of the ear’s
desin],” says Marybeth Edeen, who heads vehicle hardware development for
NASA’s ISS proram. e syems that rely on chemiry and fluid dynamics, such as
plumbin, are touher to develop than a new bedroom. “In microravity, solids don‘t
o down and as bubbles don’t o up,” she says. “Everythin ju oes where it
wants.” ese pieces of orbital home desin, mo delivered in a sinle space shuttle
trip late la year, provide a realiic limpse of what it‘s like to live in space.
WHAT IT TAKES TO LIVE
IN THE ISS, PER PERSON
t e c h w a t c h
deteriorate if they
don’t work out.
Bedroom
ISS residents
each have individual
3 x 3.5 x 6–
quarters with
laptop conneions.
“ey’re livin in
a closet,” Edeen
says. “And it’s
not a walk-in.”
Aronauts have
ju enouh space

to dress.
Bathroom
e ISS received a
new toilet that
NASA purchased
from Russia. A
entle vacuum pulls
wae into a funnel
that leads to a
solid–liquid
separator. Urine
ets converted into
clean water in a
recyclin syem.
Water quality is
teed in space and
on the round.
●

O
2
:
2 pounds daily
●
Water tO make Oxygen:
0.26 al daily
●
Water fOr hygiene and drinking:
0.8 al daily

t
e c h w a t c h
PHOTOGRAP H BY TOM SCHIERLIT Z18 M
ARCH 2009 | POPULA R MEC HANIC S . C OM
P
H OT OG RA P H S BY G ET TY I MA G E S

Our bodies manufaur
e
l
ots of
blood—about 1.5 ounces of red
blood cells daily—but the nation’s
hospitals remain in desperately short
supply. e need for blood for soldiers
in war zones is even more dire, as
donated blood airlied from the U.S.
can take more than three weeks to et
to the front lines. To address this
shortfall, the Defense Department’s
advanced proje aency, DARPA, has
commissioned a medical company to
build a fully automated machine able to
make new blood on-site—which would
also be a welcome develop-
ment for civilian hospitals.
Cleveland-based Arteriocyte
received nearly $2 million to
perfe a “blood pharmin”
syem that rows red blood

cells in a three-dimensional
matrix of nanofibers that
replicates bone marrow.
Company researchers tryin to row
em cells noticed that, by tweakin
the temperature and concentration of
oxyen and carbon dioxide that is
pumped throuh the culture, they
could also create early versions of red
blood cells. e proposed syem, the
size of a few household refrierators,
would weekly churn out about 100
units (7.5 ounces each) of universal-
donor type O-neative blood.
Secur
e a Safe
Supply
+ Contraing
disease is a
conant concern
for recipients of
blood transfu-
sions, but
Colorado-based
CaridianBCT has
arted clinical
trials for a syem
that uses
ultraviolet light
and vitamin B-2 to

zap viruses,
baeria and
parasites in
donated blood.
Make Donatin
Less Painful
+ Memphis-based
Luminetx’s
VeinViewer could
make taking blood
and inserting IVs
easier by finding
veins with infrared
light. When the
$30,000 syem
shines IR light on
an arm, tissue
refles the light
while veins do not.
An image of the
veins is then
projeed onto the
donor’s arm.
More Tech to Ease
the Blood-Supply Crisis
Every Dr
op
Counts
+ e U.S. govern-
ment has created

a laser syem that
can dete a single
blood-borne virus
or other antigen
amid a quadrillion
other molecules.
e syem
locates antigens
by exposing them
to antibodies,
which bond to the
bugs and change
their reaion to
eleric fields
created by lasers.
DARPA wants its
blood pharming
tech to get FDA
approval in three
years.
T
ime
Machine
J ULY
1967
Today’s special oper
ations boats owe their leacy to small unboats of the pa.
In 1967, PM illuminated the experiences of Vietnam Swi boat skippers with a
fir-person account from Lt. J.G. Jim Stephens. For days at a time, his crew spent
hours “patrollin down the coaline, checkin out 30- Vietnamese fishin boats” and

enain in firefihts with enemies on shore. Today’s black-op boats (see “Smoke on the
Water,” pae 78) do not patrol but inead deliver and extra Special Forces. Com-
manders say the crews in Iraq have been involved in the lare riverine unfihts since
Vietnam, and some taics and weapons are holdovers from that war. Every year,
special ops boat crews ho a reunion for their Vietnam-era trailblazers. — Allie Haake
Sanuine Science
AS D O NOR S UPPL IES REMAIN CRITIC A L,
NEW “P H ARMING” TEC H NOLOGIES C O ULD CREATE
BLOOD ON D EMAND . BY MICHAEL MILSTEIN
techwatch
20 M
ARCH 2009 | POPUL
A
RM
EC
HA
NICS
.
COM
PHOTOGRAPH BY REDUX PICTURES (GREEN ROOF)
THE C
OLO
RS
OF C
LE
AN
P
OWER
A

new uprade for
photovoltaic cells
could make solar
power a cheaper
enery alternative.
By
am
Ber
fields

Today’s solar concentrators turn to track the sun; tomorrow’s could fit in a window.
Fluid Situation
A PM PANEL HIGHLIGHTS THE
C
H
A L
L E N G E S
A
T H I R S T Y N
AT
I O N
MUST FACE.
➜ An American home uses three times as much water to
enerate elericity as it sends down its drains, said William
Horak, who leads Brookhaven National Laboratory’s enery–
water research initiative. Water-cooled power plants withdraw
up to 50,000 al for each meawatt-hour produced. Air-cooled
power plants are far more water-efficient, usin only around
600 al per meawatt-hour.
➜ Climate models predi more intense orms, said paneli

Joan Rose, the co-direor of the Center for Water Sciences at
Michian State University. Heavy precipitation can overload
drainae and sewae syems. Researchers eimate that up
to 20 percent more untreated sewae will enter the Great
Lakes as the climate warms. Steps such as porous concrete,
reen roofs and improved sewer desin can help.

➜ Desalination takes a hue amount of enery, but so does
transportin fresh water, said Mark Shannon, the direor of
the Center of Advanced Materials for Purification of Water
with Syems. Desalination is usually for coaal reions. But
El Paso, Texas, now runs the world’s bie inland desalina-
tion plant to treat brackish supplies. In Florida, risin sea levels
could contaminate roundwater, also requirin desalination.
Within a decade, windows may pr
ovide more than ju a
view
—
they could generate elericity. A group of MIT researchers
has formed a company to market color-coated glass or plaic
plates with solar cells around the edges that they say could
increase the efficiency of exiing solar panels by as much as 50
percent. e Organic Solar Concentrator prevents light from
being waed by guiding photons with organic-dye-tinted plates,
layered so that each subsequent plate absorbs a longer
wavelength. e dyes dire some photons to solar cells at the
edges, while light at longer wavelengths continues to the next
pane. e company, Covalent Solar, hopes to sell the panels
within three years, but has to perfe dyes that remain able for
more than a few months. If it succeeds, and-alone panels could

be
passé—and your living r
oom skylight might pay for itself.

As the new pr
esident takes office
promisin hundreds of billions in
infraruure spendin, water syems
should be a priority, accordin to a
panel on conservation convened by
P
o
p u l a r
Me
c h a n i c s

in
Nov
ember.
Sm
art
policies require accurate information:
He
re are insihts leaned from the
discussion. (
Fo
r
PM
’s sueions for
the new adminiration, see “America’s

To
-Do
Li
,” pae 42.)
On The Web
> For mor
e details about the water panel
and other P
M confer
ences, go to popularmechanics.com.
Tech that saves
water includes an
inland desaliniza-
tion plant in Texas
(above), a green
roof in Chicago and
front-loading
washing machines.
1
I
t’s an energy
problem.
2
Global warming
isn’t ju about
droughts in the
Southwe.
3

We may need

desalination.
e side of the
case swings
open for easy
access to
upgr
adable
components.
Gear
+
T
ools
+
Toys
P
OPULARMECHANICS.COM | MARCH 2009
23PHOTOGRAP H BY kyoko hamada
Game-Fr
ame Computer
G
amers who want turbochared machines are used to makin
tradeoffs—power typically comes at the expense of price and portability.
e HP Firebird with VoodooDNA, which arts at $1799, is small
enouh to tote to LAN parties (its chassis is about a quarter the size of its
predecessor’s), but powerful enouh for fa-paced frain (three raphics
cards ensure rapid-fire renderin). e secret: a creative mixture of
desktop and hih-powered laptop-size components.
— SETH PORGES

Liquid
cooling
r
eplaces
noisy fans.
A laptop-like
external
power supply
saves space
and prevents
overheating.