Every Fourth, Perfectly Timed Pyrotechnics Make Grucci Family America’s Fireworks Gurus: Time Machine (July 1997)

Nearly a decade ago, PM reported on the crafting and history of fireworks with a profile of the Grucci family, who insisted that, while the technology goes back to China before Marco Polo arrived, the real art of fireworks is in the timing.

• TECH WATCH: Researchers Developing Eco-Friendly Fireworks

Could One Email Have Stopped a $1.4B Stealth Bomber Crash?

The B-2’s computerized fly-by-wire wizardry is a supreme technical achievement, but the Guam crash underlines the vulnerability of even sophisticated computer systems to mundane glitches.

• TECH WATCH: Priciest Stealth Plane Will Be VTOL
• ANALYSIS: Lessons From the Accidental U.S. Nuke Flyby

Burning Salt Water on YouTube, Inventor Waits for Prime Time

We checked in with the inventor and some critics to see how this technique has progressed, or if it's just another example of Web-propelled junk science.

• PODCAST: YouTube Brings Back B-List Hollywood Stars
• MYTHBUSTER: Lost Finale and the Chemistry of C4

10 Gonzo Machines From Rogue Inventor Buckminster Fuller

From super-efficient cars to encapsulated cities, Buckminster Fuller's works made Frank Lloyd Wright look positively normal, and his prescient engineering foreshadowed the current movement toward green design and prefabricated housing.

• NEW VIDEO: NYC's Mega-Engineered Waterfalls

13 Tough Questions for the Army Corps of Engineers' Flood Reconstruction Chief

We spoke with Eric Halpin, the Special Assistant for Dam and Levee Safety for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, about flood response lessons learned, and the state of the nation's levees.

• PLUS: Flood Waters Rise, and Geeks Map Midwest in 3D
• WILDFIRE SPECIAL: On the Front Lines & in the Air

As Flood Waters Rise, Geeks Aim to Save Midwest With 3D Rig

As the Mississippi continues to pound levees, a team of St. Louis environmental scientists have strung together high-end DLP projectors, strapped on their 3D glasses and set out to tell Americans where not to risk it next time.

• PLUS: Tips & Gear Ideas to Avoid Natural Disasters

As Phoenix Lander Finds Ice on Mars, Could a Real E.T. Be Next?

In a breakthrough that likely provides scientists with their best opportunity ever to investigate extraterrestrial life, NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander has apparently spotted liquid ice on Mars.

• ANALYSIS: So What If Phoenix Found Ice on Mars?
• LIVE FROM MISSION CONTROL: Next Steps for Phoenix

7 Expert Answers for How Big Business Will Spend Cash in Space

Of all the tons of fuel that drives modern space flight, cash is the most critical. Rocket scientists to hedge-fund managers crunched the numbers at Wednesday's first-ever Space Business Forum.

• ANALYSIS: More Rich Geeks Head into Space

Paleontologists Dig Up 150-Million-Year-Old Dinosaur, but What Does It Take to Find Fossils?

Scientists in Utah have excavated "a major dinosaur fossil discovery" of well-preserved bones and trees from the late Jurassic period. Another high-tech paleontologist breaks down the gear it takes to make Jurassic Park real.

• EARLIER: Dinosaur Discovery Just Heating Up

High-Speed Storm Radars to Track Tornadoes, Fend Off Tragedy

As a deadly EF-4 tornado whipped through Little Sioux, Iowa, with 145-mph-plus winds last Wednesday night, federal climate scientists and a group of university researchers were in the early phases of testing high-tech replacements for an aging Doppler radar system.

• SURVIVAL GUIDE: Tips, Gear Ideas, Heroes and More!

NASA Jumps at Patent for Plasma-Powered UFO Technology

Recently, a patent application was submitted for an aircraft in the shape of a flying saucer. Dubbed a “winged electromagnetic air vehicle,” the battery-powered prototype has already got NASA and the Air Force interested.

• PLUS: New Alien Video Shines Light on UFO Hoaxers
• VIDEO: Length-Morphing Rotor for Chopper Versatility

ICON A5 Folding Plane Looks Like Sportscar, Costs as Much as Maserati

Loaded with features like folding wings (so you can keep it in your garage) and seat belt-like parachutes (so you can ease the whole thing down to the ground), ICON Aircraft’s new light sport airplane (LSA), dubbed the A5, might just be the ultimate joyride.

• FLIGHT TEST: Planes for $30,000 in Backyard Revolution

5 Reasons Why Researchers Say The Happening Is Junk Science

In the global warming-tinged new film from M. Night Shyamalan, plants—yes, plants—are the enemy, releasing neurotoxins on the level of a massive terrorist attack. But could this horror fantasy ever really go down? Our experts all agree: absolutely not.

• SCI-FI VS. REALITY: Expert Checks on New Movies & TV

Google Exec's ISS Trip Sends Yet Another Rich Geek to Space

The latest headlines in the "New Space" race reflect the same story: Hooked-up investors are finishing first. In a day-after analysis, PM's resident private-space geek reminds us why it's still going to be a while before the everyman gets a cheaper ticket.

• PODCAST: Private-Space Gurus Discuss Future

How the PS3 Helped Build the World's Fastest Supercomputer

The military isn’t the only branch of U.S. government that relies on gaming companies for its R&D. Pentagon geeks may use Xbox 360 controllers, but government-funded scientists went straight for the hardware.

• TECH WATCH: 5 Supercomputer Science Projects for '08

New Solar Thermal Rig Makes Clean Energy Easy as Boiling Water

Ausra has built a prototype that will become the largest solar thermal energy facility in the U.S. The core of this system is an array of flat mirrors that reflect sunlight to boil water in an elevated tube, producing steam that drives turbines to generate electricity.

• PM NEWS: Photovoltaic Costs Dropping Fast

Hacking Earth Against Warming, Scientists Favor Fake Volcanoes

Could cannons, balloons and high-wire planes send sulfur back into the atmosphere and save the planet? As the Senate debates a controversial climate-change bill, meteorologists and economists alike say geoengineering solutions aren’t so far-out anymore.

• PLUS: Progress for Carbon Sequestration's Global Warming Fix

Phoenix Lander May Have Found Ice on Mars. So What?

If those mysterious chunks turn out to be ice, will NASA’s star research robot—already surprising its human overseers with power output—have unlocked an extraterrestrial mystery in its first week? Here’s how the new solid-state findings fit into the puzzle.

• CONTROL ROOM: What’s Next for Phoenix?
• GALLERY: First Robotic Pix From Mars!

Fallout From Universal Studios Blaze Centers on Fake City's Grid

With water pressure mysteriously low, a bizarre movie set provides ideal kindling for a massive fire—again. Could "Doc" Brown's Back to the Future clocktower have been saved with building codes, fire lanes and no Hollywood camera trickery? Investigators seem to think so.

• TECH WATCH: 5 High-Tech Firefighting Tools

VC Cash in Tow, Space Tourist Biz Moves Beyond Early Adopters

Reporting once again from the 2008 International Space Development Conference, PM columnist and Instapundit blogger Glenn Reynolds analyzes the influx of money into suborbital flight—and what that could mean for your vacation to the moon.

• PM NEWS: NASA Opens Arms to Private Space Industry

Is China's Space Program Armed for Apollo 2.0? Live @ ISDC 2008

At a next-gen conference on the future of exploration, PM columnist and Instapundit blogger Glenn Reynolds looks at how little we still know about the Chinese antisatellite test—but how far the country's out-of-this-world activity has come.

• PLUS: How Chinese Missiles Could Target U.S. Satellites

Lost for Dummies: Your Must-Have Science Glossary on New Island Mysteries!

To help you navigate tonight's two-hour, physics-packed finale of Lost, we followed up a season's worth of debunking with more TiVo and experts on hand for a recap on all the science we could find.

• PLUS: Complete PM Coverage of Lost Season 4!

After 'Hole-in-One' Landing, Phoenix Mission Control Digs Ahead

Embedded with the geeks who will oversee the rest of the Phoenix Mars Lander's breakthrough trip to the Red Planet, PM's man on the ground scouts the plan, from an open-source data center to the Martian robot's eye on climate change back home.

• GALLERY: First Photos of Martian Surface From Phoenix
• EARLIER: Phoenix Heads to Mars Seeking Microbial E.T.

The Next 5 Extreme Research Machines You Need to Know

Forget the Large Hadron Collider: Whether they’re tracking Martian robots, simulating hurricanes or fending off the supernova apocalypse, these supersize science projects don’t just look cool—they’re hunting some of the world’s biggest unsolved mysteries.

• HOW IT WORKS: Inside the Large Hadron Collider

Phoenix Lander Doesn’t Crash, Snaps Pix of Mars (With Gallery!)

After the threat of a rocky landing, NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander successfully touched down on Sunday night in an unexplored region near the Martian north pole, then sent back its first images of the planet's surface.

• EARLIER: Phoenix Seeking Mars Microbial E.T.
• HOW IT WORKS: Inside NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander

NASA's Phoenix Spacecraft Heads for Mars Seeking Microbial E.T.

The robotic spacecraft has a simple mission, but it’s being conducted in a very challenging corner of the solar system. If all goes well (and we’re on hand if it doesn’t), Phoenix will analyze ice and soil for signs of life.

• HOW IT WORKS: Inside NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander
• SPECIAL REPORT: Can Astronauts Survive on Mars?

4 Ways Sci-Fi Indy 4 Fails Dr. Jones—and the Trilogy's Legacy

With aliens, mushroom clouds and man-eating insects, Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull might be more heavy on the science fiction than any films in the classic franchise. The Huffington Post's Hollywood geek says that's a bad thing.

• PLUS: Extreme Jungle Machine Is Indy 4 in Real Life