<![CDATA[Gizmodo: popular science]]> http://tags.gizmodo.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/gizmodo.com.png <![CDATA[Gizmodo: popular science]]> http://gizmodo.com/tag/popularscience http://gizmodo.com/tag/popularscience <![CDATA[Absurd Liquid-Cooled Desk Computer Is a Tribute to Mod Excess]]> One year ago, some Popular Mechanics editors set out with the broad goal of building the most ridiculously extravagant PC mod they could. This is what they came up with.

PopMech's quad-core beast is loaded with just the kind of pricey hardware you'd expect from such a flamboyant mod—4 GB of Kingston HyperX DDR3 RAM, a GeForce GTX 280 graphics card, two 300GB, 10,000RPM VelociRaptor HDDs, and an Antex kilowatt power supply—all centered around an 3.0-GHz Intel Core 2 Quad processor. It's the case, though, that's the star of the show.

The main structure of the desk is made up of two massive panels of acrylic, bolted to a custom-built aluminum frame. A glycol liquid cooling system snakes through the whole of the machine, stopping off to suck heat away from both the main processor and the graphics card. Built into the top is a custom-built Synaptics touchpad—a mostly useless but nonetheless cool design flourish.

PopMech has included a short how-to with their story, but it's less of an instructional guide than a point-by-point summary of why you can't build one of these yourself. [PopMech]

]]> http://gizmodo.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5262385&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[According to Popular Science Magazine, We Should All Drive Humongous Wheels By Now]]> Scouring the recently-posted PopSci archives on Google Books, reader Wesley Treat has put together a collection documenting the magazine's odd, decades-long obsession with the idea of a personal monowheel.

Just as vague questions of cosmology and consciousness make up just about every other cover of New Scientist today, fantastical futurist gadgets were at one point the safe default for the covers of Popular Science and Popular Mechanics. Like lots of the other cover staples, the monowheel has to some degree come to pass, but hardly to the extent that you might have been led to believe it might in 1917. Or 1923. Or 1938. You get the idea. [RoadsideResort]

]]> http://gizmodo.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5114005&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Browse the PopSci and PopMech Archives On Google Books' New Magazine Search]]> Google has added the complete archives of several magazines, including Popular Science (est. 1872) and Popular Mechanics (est. 1905), to its books search—complete with advertisements and illustrations. It's awesome.

There really is nothing quite like geeking out on the past's vision of the future, and PopSci and PopMech are among the best for that, from the fantastic covers to the equally fantastic cigarette ads. Google's growing magazine collection also features New York Magazine, Ebony, the Bulletin of Atomic Sciences and more. Each page has its own URL, so it's a blogger's paradise. Say goodbye to doing work for the rest of the afternoon. [Official Google Blog]

]]> http://gizmodo.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5105776&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[James Bond's Weird World of Inventions Chronicles 007 in 1966]]> The James Bond series has always had gushing reviews of their gadgety goodness, even before Jesus' take on Quantum of Solace. This January 1966 article, “James Bond's Weird World of Inventions” look backs to the time when Sean Connery was filling 007's shoes. Remember the Disco Volante, the110-foot hydrofoil floating fortress? How about the Bell jet-pack Bond uses in the opening scenes of Thunderball?

Most of the infernal devices never existed in the original Ian Fleming stories. “Our only excuse for using them” says screenwriter Richard Maibaum, “is that such devices are available and cry out to be buckled onto James Bond’s back.”

Interestingly enough, while most of the tech found in Quantum of Solace can possibly be made, Thunderball's $500,000 budget imagined up a whole slew of inventions that had never been seen before. Have movie goers become addicted to portrayals of Bond more rooted in reality, or are our gadgets so advanced now that we don't have to make them up? [Modern Mechanix via Neatorama]

]]> http://gizmodo.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5094022&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[PopSci Shows You How To Make Glass On A Grill, Begs You Not To Do It]]> Did you know you could make glass on a regular charcoal grill? Sure it's incredibly flamey and pretty dangerous, but according to the folks at Pop Sci, it's possible! All you need to do is add washing soda, lime or borax to white-silica beach sand and a grill overclocked to reach temperatures of 2000°F. Check out Theodore Gray feeding a concoction of silica and washing room regulars into a cast-iron pot over a flaming grill and getting two pretty medallions out of it. Try to resist doing this at home afterwards. [Popsci]

]]> http://gizmodo.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5085065&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Popular Science Names 100 "Best of What's New" Technologies]]> Just last week, Time announced what they considered the 50 most important technological breakthroughs of 2008. Not to be outdone, today Popular Science has named their 100 "Best of What's New." Unlike Time, PopSci has categorized their awards into achievements in Automotive, Aviation & Space, Computing, Engineering, Gadgets (of course!), Green Tech, Home Entertainment, Home Tech, Health, Recreation and Security. But you've had enough of a tease; you just want to see the winners:

Automotive


Aviation & Space


Computing


Engineering


Gadgets


Green Technology


Home Entertainment


Home Technology

  • Honeywell Specialty Materials Storm-a-Rest
  • Craftsman VibraFree Sander
  • Home Comfort Zones MyTemp
  • Festool Lapex Miter Saw
  • Remington PowerMower
  • Gorilla Super Glue
  • FreshAire Paint
  • PF WaterWorks PermaFLOW


Personal Health

  • Recellularized Heart
  • CellScope
  • SensAble
  • Toshiba Aquilion One CT
  • Fraunhofer Institute’s Magnet-Controlled Gut Camera
  • BioXcell INVOcell Fertility Assist Device
  • Pro-Neck-Tor
  • Nintendo Wii Fit
  • Electronic Taste Chip
  • Hewlett Packard Smart Drug Delivery


Recreation



Security

  • Thruvision T5000 Camera
  • Noblepeak Vision Triwave
  • Rotundus GroundBot
  • Ingenia Technology Laser Surface Authentication System
  • Lumidigm Venus Series Sensors
  • Raytheon Controlled Impact Rescue Tool (CIRT)
  • Landshark IED Robot
  • RedX Spray-On Bomb Detector
  • ARA Safety FIT-5
  • The Streetlab Mobile


So what do you think? Was PopSci dead on or dead wrong? Lay it out in the comments. We were personally affronted that disemvowling didn't make this particular list. [PopSci]

]]> http://gizmodo.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5077252&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Retromodo: 'Sun Lamp Held In Hand Brands Babies']]> Modern Mechanix found this 1938 issue of Popular Science with a really, really fun baby branding gadget designed to make sure hospital mixups were a thing of the past. Did it work? Oh, I'm sure it did. Did it eliminate hospital baby mixups? No, because somebody somewhere along the line though it was a bad idea. We say bring this back! I don't want to raise some dirty stranger's baby for five years before I discover that he or she is not mine. [Modern Mechanix via Medgadget]

]]> http://gizmodo.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5033932&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[PopSci Culinary Gadgets Put the "Chen" Back In "Kitchen"]]> We never knew that the gear in pro kitchens had enough tech to be so—dare I say?—pantsworthy. Take for instance the Heidolph VV Micro Evaporator, that $3,000 kitchen distiller above. Recognizable food goes in one end, and a powerfully flavored goo comes out the other. (How very... soylent?) Below in the gallery, there are four more unbelievable food processors, and sh'loads more at PopSci's kitchen gadget round-up. If you want to know what kind of mind it takes to dream up and use all of this stuff, read the accompanying feature about kitchen crazyman Dave Arnold. [PopSci]

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