Popular Science (February 2005)

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COMPUTERS INVADE THE LIVING ROOM! HOW TO BUY A MEDIA CENTER PC WHAT’S NEW HOT ➤

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PRODUCTS

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RR HYPERSONIC JET RR MISSILE RR ELECTRIC CAR RR ROLLER COASTER RR TECTONIC PLATE RR LEVITATING TRAIN MORE WE ♥ INKJETS

THE AMAZING UNTOLD STORY OF THE PRINTER THAT’S REMAKING THE WORLD

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PAGING DR. FRANKENSTEIN THE RACE TO CREATE NEW LIFE IN THE LAB

RECORD SETTERS US $3.99 CAN $4.99

FEBRUARY 2005

POPSCI.COM

VOLUME 266 #2

CONTENTS

FEBRUARY 2005

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“He’s willing to stick his neck out. Once in a while it gets chopped off, but he just picks it back up and screws it on again.”

FOUNDED IN 1872

LIFE BUILT TO ORDER p. 64

tech 17 | What’s New

Volvo’s eco-friendly concept car. High-tech hydraulics. Slimmed-down cathode-ray-tube TVs. Biometric sensors that secure your gadgets. 79 | How 2.0

GEEK GUIDE Put your digital pics online. DIY Build a home-theater PC. GRAY MATTER Make spoons that dissolve. TECH LESSON Draw with GPS devices.

news and views 31 | Headlines

ENERGY Solar power captured in a dish. SPACE Sailing into space with microwaves. MEDICINE Do stem cells fuel tumors? PREDICTION Personal germ detectors.

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42 | Soapbox

Buy a smartphone, and stop getting bilked. By Cory Doctorow SCIENCE FRICTION James Cameron’s recipe for selling science. By Gregory Mone

O N T H E C O V E R : L E T T E R I N G B Y C H R I S T O P H N I E M A N N ; I N S E T: D AV I D D E W H U R S T. T H I S PA G E , C L O C K W I S E F R O M T O P : D AV I D B A R RY; C H A R L E S M A S T E R S ; C O U RT E S Y S I X F L A G S G R E AT A D V E N T U R E ; D AV I D D E W H U R S T; L A M B E RT / G E T T Y I M A G E S

PLUGGED IN

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stories 46 | Maximum Velocity The world’s fastest planes, people, particles and tectonic plates. By Gabriel Sherman 53 | There’s a Hero on Your Desktop

The inkjet printer’s offspring will build houses, organs and more. By Jason Daley

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58 | Can Terrorists Build the Bomb?

How to prevent our worst fear: a nuclear attack on U.S. soil. By Michael Crowley 64 | Life Built to Order A rebel scientist

plans to create an artificial life-form in his Los Alamos lab. By Michael Stroh

72 | The POPSCI Buyer’s Guide: Media Center PCs Meet your new

remote-controlled PC. By Steve Morgenstern

depts.

8 From the Editor 10 Contributors 12 Letters

88 FYI 112 Looking Back

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POPULAR SCIENCE FEBRUARY 2005

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FROM THE EDITOR Editorial Director Scott Mowbray

“I FEEL THE SAME JOY TODAY IN THESE EXPLORATORY TRIUMPHS THAT

I did when Sputnik 1 first circumnavigated Earth, when our expectations of what technology could do for us were nearly boundless.” That’s a quote from a 1987 essay by Carl Sagan. I happened upon it while doing a little Sagan-oriented Web research, a surfing expedition that was inspired, in turn, by a nifty bit of recognition that recently came our way: In early December, the Council of Scientific Society Presidents bestowed its annual Sagan Award (“for outstanding achievement in improving the public understanding and appreciation of science”) on none other than POPULAR SCIENCE. It’s a true honor when the presidents past and present of some 60 scientific organizations choose to laud your work for “stellar and enduring achievements in building the appreciation of seven million diverse readers about the excitement, importance and significance of science, discovery and research.” I’ll happily embrace that as a resonant description of what the editors of POPULAR SCIENCE have always tried to do, though it must be said that the magazine’s balance of the pure and applied sciences has gone through dramatic swings over the years. When Edward L. Youmans founded this magazine in 1872, he did so in part as a reaction against a prevailing attitude that Alexis de Tocqueville had observed several decades prior: “Americans were naturally inclined to require nothing of science but its special applications to the useful arts and the means of rendering life comfortable.” To which a reader today might legitimately reply: “And what, exactly, is wrong with that?” After all, we like to say that the sweet spot for this magazine is that place where science and technology meet in the lives of our readers; those “special applications” of science are a fundamental part of what POPULAR SCIENCE is about. Still, we do require more of science, and I think our readers require more of us. That’s why I’m proud to publish articles like “Can Terrorists Build the Bomb?” [page 58], a sober accounting of what would have to happen for our worst nightmare to be realized, and what is being done to prevent it. Which brings us back to Carl Sagan, the greatest popularizer of science in the second half of the 20th century. Just a bit later in that same essay, he championed the importance of an unflinching examination of the dark. “The visions we present to our children shape the future,” he wrote. “It matters what those visions are. . . . I do not think it irresponsible to portray even the direst futures; if we are to avoid them, we must understand that they are possible.” MARK JANNOT [email protected]

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POPULAR SCIENCE FEBRUARY 2005

POPULAR SCIENCE PROPERTIES Publisher Gregg R. Hano Advertising Director John Tebeau General Manager Robert Novick Executive Assistant Chandra Dwhaj Northeast Advertising Office: Manager Howard S. Mittman (212) 779-5112, Jill Schiffman (212) 779-5007, Mike Schoenbrun (212) 779-5148, Missy Dye Radin (212) 779-5030 Ad Assistant Christopher Graves Midwest Advertising Office: Manager John Marquardt (312) 832-0626, Megan Williams (312) 832-0624 Ad Assistant Sindy Sonshine Los Angeles Advertising Office: Manager Dana Hess (310) 268-7484, Ad Assistant Mary Infantino Detroit Advertising Office: Manager Donna Christensen (248) 988-7723, Ad Assistant Diane Pahl San Francisco Advertising Office: Manager Amy Cacciatore (415) 434-5276, Ad Assistant Carly Petrone Southern Regional Advertising Office: Manager Dave Hady (404) 364-4090, Ad Assistant Christy Chapman Classified Advertising Sales Joan Orth (212) 779-5555 Direct Response Sales Marie Isabelle (800) 280-2069 Business Manager Jacqueline L. Pappas Director of Brand & Business Development L. Dennett Robertson Sales Development Managers Mike Saperstein, Daniel Vaughan Senior Manager, Events and Promotions Christy Chapin Ellinger Creative Services Designer Mary McGann Marketing Coordinator Eshonda Caraway Advertising Coordinator Evelyn Negron Consumer Marketing Director Barbara Venturelli Senior Planning Manager Margerita Catwell Consumer Marketing Managers James Cahn, Sara O’Connor Senior Production Director Laurel Kurnides Production Assistant Shawn Glenn Prepress Director Robyn Koeppel Prepress Manager José Medina Publicity Manager Hallie Deaktor

President Mark P. Ford Senior Vice Presidents James F. Else, Victor M. Sauerhoff, Steven Shure Editorial Director Scott Mowbray Director, Corporate Communications Samara Farber Mormar CUSTOMER SERVICE AND SUBSCRIPTIONS For 24/7 service, please use our Web site: popsci.com/ customerservice You can also call: 800-289-9399 or write to: Popular Science P.O. Box 62456 Tampa, FL 33662-4568

BEN BAKER/REDUX; GROOMING BY MICHELLE CEGLIA FOR iGROUP; STYLING BY NAILA RUECHEL FOR STOCKLAND MARTEL

A Sweet Spot, Indeed

Editor Mark Jannot Art Director Nathalie Kirsheh Executive Editor, Features Emily Laber-Warren Science Editor Dawn Stover Senior Technology Editor Suzanne Kantra Kirschner Senior Editor, What’s New Eric Hagerman Aviation & Automotive Editor Eric Adams Senior Editors Michael Moyer, Kalee Thompson Managing Editor Jill C. Shomer Senior Associate Editor Nicole Dyer Copy Chief Rina Bander Associate Editors Jenny Everett, Mike Haney, Gregory Mone Assistant Editor Martha Harbison Assistant Editor, Best of What’s New Joe Brown Designer April Bell Photo Editor Kristine LaManna Staff Photographer John B.Carnett Editorial Assistant Barbara Caraher Web Producer Peter Noah Contributing Design Editor Chee Pearlman Contributing Automotive Editor Stephan Wilkinson Contributing Editors Theodore Gray, Joseph Hooper, Preston Lerner, Jeffrey Rothfeder, Jessica Snyder Sachs, Rebecca Skloot, Bill Sweetman, Phillip Torrone, James Vlahos, Charles Wardell, William Speed Weed Contributing Troubadour Jonathan Coulton Contributing Futurist Andrew Zolli Contributing Artists Mika Grondahl, Jason Lee, John MacNeill, Garry Marshall, Stephen Rountree, Bob Sauls Editorial Intern Sarah Goforth Art Intern Dana Stratton

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CONTRIBUTORS

“It’s alive! It’s alive!!” shrieked Dr. Frankenstein—words that theorist Steen Rasmussen hopes to utter himself someday. Rasmussen is trying to build, from spare molecular parts, a brand-new life-form. MICHAEL STROH [left] visited Rasmussen at his lab in Los Alamos, New Mexico, to report “Life Built to Order” [page 64]. Stroh, a science writer for the Baltimore Sun, thinks Rasmussen’s physics background serves the quest well. “There is a long tradition of physicists breaking into biology and making significant discoveries by coming at it in a different way—more of an engineering approach,” he says. To accompany our story, Texas-based artist HOLLY LINDEM [right] crafted her own vision of manmade life: a patched-together egg. Like Rasmussen’s project, Lindem’s required patience and improvisation. “I wanted to use plastic, but I couldn’t find the right kind. So I had to change to latex,” says Lindem, who painstakingly applied liquid latex to Plexiglas, affixed the latex sheets to an egg-shaped form with tacks, and then spray-painted the resultant Franken-egg before photographing it in her studio. As a skier and marathon runner, writer GABRIEL SHERMAN has long been obsessed with pushing his own speed limits. So it’s only natural that he would want to explore speed in a larger arena, examining such fleet objects as the world’s fastest aircraft, supercomputer and roller coaster, the latter being the Kingda Ka at Six Flags, New Jersey, set to open this spring [see “Maximum Velocity,” page 46]. “I’ve already scheduled a trip,” Sherman says. “It’s a matter of being a problem solver,” says photographer MICHAEL KRAUS of the logistic and creative challenge of making great images of inanimate objects, like the group of accessories featured in the POPSCI Buyer’s Guide to media PCs [page 77]. “Color matching—what’s on the screen versus what comes out of the printer—is the hardest to manage.” Kraus also shot the scratch-built computer featured in How 2.0 [page 82]. A bulldog stares out from pictures in an online album, on a T-shirt and on a mug in DAN PAGE’s illustrations for How 2.0’s tips on choosing among the myriad online and peer-to-peer photosharing applications [page 79]. “I had a cat on there first,” says Page. “But I was informed that cats weren’t ‘manly’ enough for POPULAR SCIENCE, so I went out and found the manliest dog I could.” His work has also appeared in Forbes and in Time Canada. MICHAEL CROWLEY has been fascinated by nuclear weapons since he first saw Stanley Kubrick’s 1964 film, Dr. Strangelove, as a kid. “I watched it when I was much too young to really understand it,” he says. “It’s the ‘Rosebud’ of my life.” In “Can Terrorists Build the Bomb?” [page 58], Crowley, an editor at The New Republic who writes often about nuclear policy, examines the likelihood that terrorists could detonate a fissile nuclear weapon on American soil.

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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

[email protected]

Bravo to “Best Of”

Your “Best of What’s New” section [December 2004] was ne plus excellent. It epitomizes what POPULAR SCIENCE should be about: timely, colorful, and featuring products that combine cuttingedge technology with style and utility. Please keep up the good work. Edward J. Pyatt Hampton, Va. I was disheartened to see that you would even consider any product that utilizes any form of digital rights management (DRM) when compiling a top-100 list. Giving such a product the Grand Award [“Best of What’s New: Gadgets,” Microsoft Windows Media DRM 10] takes the cake. DRM restricts the rights that everyone should be entitled to when it comes to digital media. If I buy a DVD or CD, I have every legal right to copy it for my personal use, and I can do so an infinite number of times. I don’t have to pay a monthly fee or anything of the sort, aside from the initial cost, to do so. DRM, on the other hand, usually restricts how, when and if a file can be duplicated, even if the would-be dupe would be entirely legal. Also, such files have restrictions as to what devices they can be played on. And you had the nerve not only to praise this technology but tout it as the best new technology of the year! Scot Halverson Sauk Centre, Minn.

When I saw the Triumph motorcycle on your December cover, I immediately went looking for it inside. I fi12

POPULAR SCIENCE FEBRUARY 2005

nally found it—in the “Recreation” section. Speaking as someone who has commuted on a motorcycle daily for the past 12 years, year-round, rain or shine, and who puts more yearly mileage on his bike than on his car, I’d like to humbly suggest that motorcycles deserve to be considered more than mere toys. Maybe next year you should create a new category, “Transportation,” and put motorcycles in there with the cars, trucks, trains and planes. Then other people would come to realize that bikes aren’t just for weekends anymore. Steve Jordan Germantown, Md.

It never ceases to amaze me whenever a shoe company comes out with another extremely high-tech running shoe like the Adidas 1 [Grand Award Winner, “Recreation”]. Runners know that the soles on even a great pair of shoes wear out after a couple months. Having a shoe with a regulating motor inside won’t do much good when the sole is as hard as a board. Who is this product marketed for, anyway? Serious runners could never afford to continually replace them. Perhaps an article should

be written about “What Happens when Engineers Don’t Do Market Research.” Oliver Hoopes Ithaca, N.Y.

Debating Stem Cells I just read your article on stem cells, “Banking on Biotechnology” [Headlines, December], and I was appalled by the lack of any real ethical debate on the issue. You seem to be treating ethics as POPULAR SCIENCE ONLINE

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YOUR GUIDE TO THIS MONTH’S POPSCI

From “artificial life” to “zillions” ARTIFICIAL LIFE

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ATOMIZER

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CELL-SPITTING ROBOTS

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DIRTY BOMB

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DUAL-FLUSH TOILET

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EVOLUTION DISCLAIMER

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FINGERPRINT SCANNERS

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FRANKENSTEIN

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FRANK LANDS ON MARS!

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FUSION REACTOR

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GALINSTAN

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GIGAPASCALS, 600

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HOMES, PRINTED

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HOME-THEATER PC DIY

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HOWITZER

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HYDRAULIC LAWNMOWER

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INDIUM

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LINDEN DOLLARS

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LITTLE BOY

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MACH 10

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MEDIA CENTER PC

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MICELLES

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MICRONOZZLES

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MYCOPLASMA GENITALIUM

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NASCAR

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PHI X

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PHOTO-ADORNED SWAG

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PRANK SPOONS

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QORI KALIS

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SOLAR SAIL

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SPOUSAL APPROVAL FACTOR

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STIRLING ENGINE, SOLAR

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SYNTHETIC BUG

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TELEPHONE, ILLEGAL

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TELEPORTATION REPORT

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THRUST SSC

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TRIBUTYL PHOSPHATE

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URANIUM, HIGHLY ENRICHED

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UR-GENE

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VOLVO’S ECO CAR

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“WE ARE NOT CRAZY”

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WORLD'S FASTEST TURTLE

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ZILLIONS

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merely a stumbling block. Any mention of debate appeared to be limited to one sentence that said, “The government ban—established in 2001 over ethical concerns about destroying embryos— limits federal funding to research involving about 60 human stem-cell colonies created before 2001.” The only other significant dissenting discussion involved the critics who charged “that such measures siphon money away from equally deserving fields into a relatively unproven area. The stem-cell panacea, they contend, is overhyped.” This article did not give a voice to those who ethically oppose embryonicstem-cell research, and I am responding to help remedy this. Life should be respected at all stages. There are alternatives, such as adult stem cells, and, possibly, cells from umbilical cords, which offer promise without crossing this ethical boundary. Following ethical principles has brought much justice to our world, and we daily benefit from that. Please, in the future, present a more balanced debate on this and other issues. Mike Lupo Huntsville, Ala.

Headlines editor Nicole Dyer responds: We agree that stem cells derived from adult tissues and umbilical cords hold remarkable medical potential and should be researched thoroughly. The vast majority of scientific groups, however, including the National Academy of Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Medical Association, contend that embryonic stem cells hold greater promise. The primary reason is that stem cells derived from embryos possess astonishing versatility—they can potentially form any tissue type in the body. Current research shows that adult and cord cells are less plastic and that their ability to regenerate damaged tissue is limited.

Rah Rah for Recumbents In “In Praise of the Bespoke Bicycle” [Man & Machine, December] Stephan Wilkinson states, in describing the diamond-frame racing bicycle, “The world hasn’t come up with a more efficient human-powered vehicle.” It certainly has: the recumbent racing bicycle, which was invented in the late 19th century. In 1938 Marcel Berthet

_FROM THE BLOGS Last month, more than 650 Web logs linked to popsci.com. A sample:

Best of What’s New_ All I want for Christmas . . . is this awesome pogo stick [December]. Yeah, I want a pogo stick. But this isn’t any old pogo stick—it’s a pogo stick that can send you eight feet into the air. It’s called the Flybar 1200. It’s only $300, so feel free to buy me one. (Broken bones and concussions at no extra charge.) This is seriously one of the coolest toy improvements in recent history. Did I mention that you can get it to produce 1,200 pounds of thrust? That is just insane. posted by Jack Zucker, Sunlight Is the Best Disinfectant sunlightdisinfectant.blogspot.com

Man & Machine_ Two factors to consider: I lived in Saratoga Springs, New York, from 1976 to 1978, and I’ve been an avid bicyclist since I was old enough to ride one. Hence, when the December POPULAR SCIENCE mentioned that the best-engineered highperformance bicycles in the world are manufactured in Saratoga Springs by the local company Serotta, I expressed many thanks that my wife would pop me in the head with a cricket bat if I thought about buying one of these bikes unless all of the bills were paid and we had a few hundred thousand dollars in the bank. Otherwise, the temptation to pick up a bicycle of this caliber and spend the rest of my days flipping the bird at Dallas’s notoriously bicycle-unfriendly drivers would just be too much. posted by Paul Riddell, The Esoteric Science Resource Center livejournal.com/users/sclerotic_rings

set a one-hour record of 50 kilometers on a recumbent that remained unbroken until 1984, when Francesco Moser rode for 51.1 kilometers on a “wedgie” bike. The superior efficiency of the recumbent is clearly shown by the fact that it took 46 years for the wedgie to catch up. All absolute human-powered speed records are held by recumbents. Why don’t we see more of them? I attribute it to two factors: the outlawing of the better bike for competition, and the human desire to fit in. When I ride my recumbent, people look at me as if I am some kind of alien creature. But I can ride farther, faster, have better visibility and much more comfort than I ever did on a diamond-frame bike. Gene Bennett Everett, Wash.

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WHAT’SNEW

INSIDE

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POPULAR

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MOBILE GADGETS GET FINGERPRINT SECURITY 18 • TUBE TVs SLIM DOWN 24 • THE FIRST BLUETOOTH HEADSET WITH AN LCD 28

Evergreen Machine

Volvo’s new eco-friendly concept coupe promises to make obsolescence obsolete

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MAYBE YOU’RE UNIMPRESSED by the Volvo 3CC’s top speed of 85 mph and 0–60 time of less than 10 seconds. Before turning up your nose, consider that it runs on 3,000 lithium-ion batteries—not unlike those found in most laptops. They send 400 volts to an 80-kilowatt electric motor that drives the front wheels. Consider, too, that the 3CC’s Formula One–style horizontal front suspension earned it top slalom marks at last October’s Michelin Challenge Bibendum, the world’s largest environmental-vehicle expo, in Shanghai, China. But batteries are just one way of powering what Volvo engineers are calling a future-proof platform. They wanted a car that could easily house any propulsion system conceivable, from gas to diesel to fuel cell and beyond. So instead of building the frame for a specific engine, they designed it around the space requirements for any smallcar power plant. As for the carbon-fiber body, the rear end is tapered so dramatically that it allows for only one backseat, but the design reduces drag by 12 percent. Yes, it’s a three-seater, but there’s enough room in back for two child car seats. The driver pushes a button to make his seat, steering wheel and pedals slide forward six inches so he doesn’t have to get out to let a hitchhiker climb in. Hey, that’s still safe in Sweden.—JOE BROWN

SWITCHBLADE Scissor doors prevent parking-lot dings and cyclist trauma.

DASH BORG Buttons are triggered when your finger comes within 5 mm.

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