Featured Story

Efficient Centrifuge Enriches Nuclear Power Future: How It Works

America's only domestic supplier of nuclear fuel has created an advanced centrifuge that officials say is the world's fastest and largest, able to produce enriched uranium using just 5 percent of the electricity required by the company's previous design.

Previous Extreme Machines Stories

Onboard High-Tech Oil Rig, U.S. Answers to Rising Prices Ever-increasing fossil fuel demand has companies going farther and digging deeper for oil than ever before. We visit America's most promising patch. (Published in the April 2008 issue)
Dubai's Mile-Long Super Bridge Set for March Construction Leave it to Dubai to build it way harder, faster and stronger—or, at least in the case of this newly approved design, way cooler. The as-yet-unnamed span will be the world's largest arch bridge, with 2000 vehicles set to cross its 12 lanes by 2012.
Big-Money Race for World's Tallest Ferris Wheels Heats Up There is a global race to create the biggest Ferris wheel, and while these attractions are built for fun, the stakes are serious. The larger these monstrous rides become, the greater their capacity and potential profit. (Published in the March 2008 issue)
Secret Test at Air Force Base Aims to Break Land Speed Record Engineers at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico will try to break a land speed record, blasting a rail-mounted rocket sled at Mach 8.9 during a test of a classified Navy system. The test is scheduled to occur Jan. 30, officials there tell PM.
Four Engineering Breakthroughs Changing the Skyscraper Race As the world's tallest buildings reach toward the 3000 ft. mark and beyond, the pursuit of height might give way to practicality. But they are also beginning to install new technology that will increase safety in skyscrapers currently on the rise.
Plasma Plaything Warms Up for Sun-Level Work on Fusion Fusion reactors—the near-mythic energy sources that have been on the horizon for half a century—may be coming one step closer. The DoE has begun building a machine to perfect the magnetic fields needed to control the thermonuclear activity involved. (Published in the February 2008 issue)
Lasers of the Hidden Temple: Cosmos CAT Scan Digs for Ruins A professor's novel idea harnesses the forces of the cosmos to locate temples, vaults and other long-hidden structures. His method could stop the hype over a 12-year-old's plan for a muon detector to guard the U.S.-Mexican border.
Science of Boomerangs: How to Make & Throw the Aussie Magic There's plenty of materials science going into the handcrafting of a perfect boomerang. But as inventor Eric Darnell explains, it also requires a touch of magic. Learn about the peculiar physics of boomerang flight (and how to throw the darn thing) inside. (Published in the August 2007 issue)
Open Ocean Lab FLIP Vessel: How it Works Shaped like a giant baseball bat, the 700-ton FLIP, or Floating Instrument Platform, is a Navy barge operated by Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Once towed to a site, the vessel flips to vertical. Forty-five years later, it's still one of a kind (see animation inside). (Published in the August 2007 issue)
World's Largest Cruise Ship Pulls 360s with Joystick Royal Caribbean is set to raise the stakes of the cruise-ship slugfest yet again with the 220,000-ton Genesis, slated to launch in 2009 from a shipyard in Finland. Inside, the final chapter of our Mega Engineering series, full with a comparison of the biggest boats. (Published in the June 2007 issue)
View Full Science: Extreme Machines Archive

Military & Law Enforcement

The New Cold War

PM maps the arms race between Russia and the U.S., with six hotspots and a snapshot of weapons deals.

Worst-Case Scenarios

NYC Crain Collapse: Was It Predicted?

After a major collapse in March, causes of the new crash are more obscure. If the crane did meet all city safety regulations, what went wrong?

PLUS: How to Fix U.S. Infrastructure

Future of Space

First Pix From Mars!

NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander didn't blow up—it shot these breathtaking images of the Martian arctic surface.

Drive Green

10 Quick MPG Tips

Our guest MPG geek breaks down the vehicle mods, driving habits and common-sense fixes you need to know to max out your tank.

Research

MIT Week

At the breakthrough university, PM's resident geek finds a window into new research, from robotics to race cars.

NEW: Car Batteries 2.0

Technology

iPhone 2.0 Countdown

On Monday morning, Apple CEO Steve Jobs will unveil a 3G-enabled iPhone. But are other functions more important?

Drive Green

Algae's Big Moment

After years of hype as the mucky green grail of the oil crunch, algae is finally taking on its "impossible" hurdles to move from test tubes to barrels.

Extreme Machines

Beyond the LHC

Forget the Large Hadron Collider: These five supersize science projects don’t just look cool—they’re hunting big mysteries.

PLUS: Real-Life Indy 4 Machine!

Technology

Turn Your PS3 Into a PC

With a little effort and expense, we turned a PS3 into a Linux computer—without losing any of its gaming goodness. And we're giving it away.

Technology

Microhoo: What Would've Been

Yahoo played hard-to-get, and Microsoft walked away, but what would a merger have looked like? Engadget's legal geek weighs in.

PLUS: As Spring Preps, Lessons on WiMAX Rollout

Drive Green

Top 10 X Prize Cars

The most comprehensive, up-to-date scouting report on the field for the 100-mpg car of tomorrow.

Digital Hollywood

Debunking Lost's Science

As the show returns, its creators reveal the making of high-tech mythology—and let slip a few secrets about the island’s future.

Special Report

Rebuilding America

PM's report on fixing U.S. infrastructure examines new plans for bridges and beyond.

Health & Medicine

10 High-Tech Health Breakthroughs Coming Soon to Your Body

Health care has come a long way since whole-body bloodletting. But medicine of the future will make even today's broad-based therapies obsolete. Breakthroughs such as cancer-hunting nanoparticles, virus-busting lasers and featherweight heart monitors have begun to usher in a new era of targeted treatment.

Election News

Geek the Vote '08

The presidential race hangs in the balance, and PM compiles the candidates' science and tech proposals.

SPACE: Obama vs. Clinton

Air & Space

Best of PM Aviation

From new personal jets and flying adventures to airport woes and high-tech airliners, take to the skies with us.

PLUS: 10 Ways to Fix Air Travel

Election News

Primary Sci/Tech Issues

The Democratic race winds down as Hillary Clinton tries to hang on against Barack Obama. Get behind their policies—and John McCain's—with PM's Geek the Vote '08 guide.

My Popular Mechanics

Join PM's User-Powered Motorcycle Community!

Rev up with myBike to upload rides from your garage, rate others, make biker buddies and chat on message boards!

• PLUS: How to Ride a Motorcycle
• VIDEO: Pick the Right Bike for You
• REVIEW: Test-Driving New Gear

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• myBike, PM's New User-Powered Motorcycle Community, Brought to You by Kawasaki

Current Issue

Google X Prize, Mythbusters & More!

Want to take $20 million off Google's hands? Our DIY guide to building a lunar rover could make you the next X Prize winner—really.

Reviews

Future Warfare: New DVD

PM's four-hour, two-disc set deploys battle footage, CG animation, live-action weapons testing and expert interviews to examine everything from robot warriors to UAVs.