Crunching the Numbers on Alternative Fuels
Prairie power: The East Kansas Agri-Energy plant in Garnett, Kan., turns corn into ethanol. But will this clean-burning, environmentally friendly fuel really help reduce America's dependence on oil? PM examines the promise and the reality of ... [... more]
Popular Mechanics |
Global Timber Smugglers-and How You Can Stop Them
After all, trafficking a rain forest wood such as ramin through Singapore can be just as profitable as running heroin, but it doesn't carry the mandatory punishment of death. The unwitting star of the video, Frankie Chua, managed an import/export ... [... more]
Popular Mechanics |
Avalanche Forecaster: This Is My Job
There's no such thing as total avalanche safety in Bridger-Teton National Forest, but Chris McCollister does what he can to improve the odds for the area's skiers, snowboarders and snowmobilers. The 37-year-old geographical information system ... [... more]
Popular Mechanics |
Pond-Powered Biofuels: Turning Algae into America's New ...
Just three years ago, Colorado-based inventor Jim Sears shuttered himself in his garage and began tinkering with a design to mass-produce biofuel. His reactor (plastic bags) and his feedstock (algae) may have struck soybean farmers as a laughable ... [... more]
Popular Mechanics |
New Belgium Brewing's Green Beer: In Good Taste
Co-owners Kim Jordan and Jeff Lebesch donate $1 for every barrel of beer sold to causes in New Belgium's distribution territory - a total of more than $2 million, so far. (Photograph by Chad Hunt) The only thing "lite" about the full-bodied [... more]
Popular Mechanics |
The Best of Green Design: Overview
The Haworth Zody chair made our list by proving eco-friendly products can offer superb functionality. "Green design" may be a relatively new term for describing ideas that are environmentally sensitive, but the concept is timeless - [... more]
Popular Mechanics |
Underwater Wind Turbines Tap River Energy
Tidal turbines placed in New York City's East River will pivot with the shifting current, which can flow as fast as 4 knots. The turbines (artist's rendition, right) appear to be safe for fish because the rotors are slow-turning and blunt-edged. ... [... more]
Popular Mechanics |
Las Vegas Tries to Prevent a Water Shortage
When a well pumps water from an aquifer, it lowers the water table in a "depression cone." In severe cases this can deplete streams on the surface. Monitoring wells can track the depression cone as it expands. (Illustration by ... [... more]
Popular Mechanics |
Nuke Watch: How Scientists Sniffed Out N. Korea
When North Korea announced that it had completed its first successful nuclear test, confirmation came swiftly from monitoring centers in Colorado, Vienna, Russia and elsewhere around the world, pinpointing the location and estimating the size of ... [... more]
Popular Mechanics |
Are You Disaster-Proof?
Earth is one rough place. Even the most devastating storms of recent years pale in sheer destructive power against outsize natural disasters of the past, such as continent-smothering ice sheets, ocean-raising floods, super volcanoes and the ... [... more]
Popular Mechanics |
Debunking the Myths of Hurricane Katrina: Special Report
Two blocks from the levee break, this house came to rest on a pickup truck in the Lower Ninth Ward. Not the federal agencies tasked with preparing for catastrophes. Not the local officials responsible for aging levees and vulnerable populations. ... [... more]
Popular Mechanics |
Nuclear Energy Provides Practical Baseload Power
Download the Popular Mechanics Show Podcast, The Nuclear Option Nuclear energy has been a controversial topic ever since the first reactor powered four 200-watt light bulbs in the Idaho desert in 1951. Today, the United States is gearing up for ... [... more]
Popular Mechanics |
