Posts

May 15, 2013

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3:30 PM | Now Live: The June 2013 Issue Of Popular Science Magazine

Energy: Water Teaser Nick Kaloterakis Editor-in-Chief Jacob Ward on how the Kardashev Scale is an elegant way of describing our dreams In the early 1960s, a Soviet astrophysicist, Nikolai Kardashev, was contemplating mysterious radio signals coming from a recently discovered quasar and theorized that they might be evidence of extraterrestrial beings. In 1964, Kardashev debuted a system for categorizing alien civilizations. Kardashev didn't make it a question of weaponry or space travel. […]

April 16, 2013

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3:00 PM | Now Live: The May 2013 Issue Of Popular Science Magazine

Synergy Aircraft Nick Kaloterakis In 2007, my first year of working at Popular Science, we launched the Invention Awards, a celebration of dogged innovators everywhere, and gave one of the first to Leonard Duffy. His success until then had been limited to a cookbook stand, which sold for a time on QVC. Then, from his workshop in Vermont, he took a stab at updating the product that everyone wishes he or she had thought up: Velcro. His version, unflatteringly named the slidingly engaging […]

March 14, 2013

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6:00 PM | Now Live: The April 2013 Issue Of Popular Science Magazine

The SpaceX Falcon Heavy Nick Kaloterakis On the last Sunday before this issue went to press, the lights went out at the Super Bowl. I sat there, gaping, with a drink in my hand, as the ads, the field, Phil Simms, and one of the biggest televised events went dark in front of 108 million viewers. And then I put down the drink and got on the phone. The editors immediately went to work sorting things out. Was this a failure of Entergy, the local utility? Had the incredible power demands of the […]

March 01, 2013

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7:30 PM | I Didn't Like TED. Then I Got It

TED welcome party TED Conference This was my first year at the cultural cartoon, crossroad of power, and factory of influence that is TED. I've spent my career following the rich and freewheeling through high-minded gatherings in the Bay Area, Aspen, New York, but this event, an invite-only affair lubricated by free artisanal coffee, a tasteful and jam-packed gift bag, and other high-value production details, plays by different rules. Here are the broad strokes of TED. It launched in 1984 as a […]

February 15, 2013

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2:00 PM | Now Live: The March 2013 Issue Of Popular Science Magazine

Brain Power Medi-MationJacob Ward, editor-in-chief of Popular Science, wonders why we can't get into the same funding spirit for science as we do for supertall skyscrapers. Why do we build incredibly tall buildings? What is it in the human psyche that requires us to go higher? Is it a masculinity problem? A desire to touch God? An unholy need to see all of the Earth at once? The early-Modernist architect Le Corbusier designed, in 1922, a "Contemporary City" for three million people. Decades […]

January 15, 2013

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5:00 PM | Now Live: The February 2013 Issue Of Popular Science Magazine

Jacob Ward, editor-in-chief of Popular Science, has some questions about humanoid rescue robots. In 2010, I had the pleasure of writing our cover story about CHARLI-L, the first bipedal, self-contained robot built in the United States. It was rickety, cheap, and extraordinary. Engineering such a thing is incredibly hard. Dennis Hong and his team at Virginia Tech were working from the premise that the best way to […]

January 09, 2013

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7:10 PM | The Secret Side Of CES

An international glimpse into the future. Away from the glitz and flash of the show floor, the place to get the best glimpse of what's next is at the International Gateway, where Asian manufacturers show off their ability to make pretty much anything. Editor-in-Chief Jacob Ward visits the best place to see the future in prototype.

December 18, 2012

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4:00 PM | Now Live: The January 2013 Issue Of Popular Science Magazine

Jacob Ward, editor-in-chief of Popular Science, explains why he's excited for 2013. I believe 2013 will be a grand year. Big things are coming. First of all, astronomers expect a cloud of gas roughly three times the mass of Earth to begin falling into a supermassive black hole in September. It's not just going to be amazing (blasts of x-rays and radio waves!), it will be the first time such a thing happens within […]