The Best Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs: PM Lab Test
The compact fluorescent light bulb revolution nearly occurred back in the early 1990s. When CFLs first hit the market in force, consumers bought them in large numbers - but they hated them. The bulbs were too big for many fixtures, expensive (up ... [... more]
Popular Mechanics |
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 |
Podcast: Crunching the Numbers on Alternative Fuels
Popular Mechanics senior automotive editor Mike Allen joins me for a fascinating journey through world of alternative fuel sources, from ethanol to methanol to biodiesel and hydrogen - a must listen for anyone tired of watching the meter whir at ... [... more]
Popular Mechanics |
BMW Hydrogen-Powered 7-Series: New York Auto Show Test Drive
Traffic outside the Javits Center, site of the New York International Auto Show, is heavy-even by Big Apple standards. That means that you probably could walk across 11th Avenue from the roof of one taxicab to another without seeing asphalt. The ... [... more]
Popular Mechanics |
Switch Your Light Bulb and Save $30 on the Power Bill
The ultra-efficient Quantum dot LED lights that earned one of our 2006 Breakthrough Awards aren't widely available yet, but you can still save energy - and help the environment in the process - by participating in Energy Star's "Change a Light, ... [... more]
Popular Mechanics |
Two New Innovations to Curb the Wood Wars
While most of the world's timber trade deals in legitimate lumber, at least 32 million acres of forest are lost to illegal logging each year-and much of that wood ends up in the U.S. As detailed in Simon Cooper's special report for PM, pockets of ... [... more]
Popular Mechanics |
Going for Green-Office Gold: Live from GreenBuild Expo
I got into the spirit of the GreenBuild conference yesterday by donning a hard hat and actually going out to see a green building under construction. When it's finished in December, the regional headquarters of the Environmental Protection Agency ... [... more]
Popular Mechanics |
NASA Mission Statement Q & A;: Eyes on Earth
In a report released this week, a committee appointed by the Council's Space Studies Board warns that a number of measurements providing critical information about Earth processes will cease to be made over the next few years. By 2010, it says, ... [... more]
Popular Mechanics |
Measuring Ice from Inside the Earth: Antarctic Drill Log
Downhole logging is not a glamorous occupation. To the naked eye, it hardly looks like you are doing any work at all. One logger operates a winch that plays out cable into the borehole. Another may be watching some numbers on a computer screen. ... [... 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 |
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 |
