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 Feed
Editors Letter
Issue #92, JULY 2016

EDITORIAL
Editor Anthony Fordham afordham@nextmedia.com.au
Contributors Brooke Borel, Tom Clynes, Clay Dillow, Nicole Dyer,
Daniel Engber, Tom Foster, William Gurstelle, Mike Haney,
Lindsay Handmer, Joseph Hooper, Corinne Iozzio, Gregory Mone,
Adam Piore, P.W. Singer, Erik Sofge, Kalee Thompson,
James Vlahos, Jacob Ward

DESIGN

Because Its There

Group Art Director Malcolm Campbell
Art Director Tim Frawley

ADVERTISING
Divisional Manager
Jim Preece jpreece@nextmedia.com.au
ph: 02 9901 6150
Even though Ive said this before, its worth repeating. One day, the history
National Advertising Sales Manager
Lewis Preece lpreece@nextmedia.com.au
books will view the Mercury/Gemini/Apollo programs (and the Soviet equivalent)
ph: 02 9901 6175 as a bizarre too early exercise by humans to get to space, motivated by the Cold
Production Manager Peter Ryman
Circulation Director Carole Jones
War and a mutual obsession with an objectively meaningless propaganda victory.
US EDITION
Articles Editor Kevin Gray
The whole thing was insane, if you think a mix of howling disapproval and howling
Managing Editor Jill C. Shomer
Senior Editor Sophie Bushwick
about it. Humans went to the Moon in indierence from their national leaders.
Technology Editor Xavier Harding 1969 when computers were little more Here, at last, we are at a point in our
Assistant Editors Dave Gershgorn, Matt Giles
Editorial Assistant Grennan Milliken than gloried calculators. Cameras were technological evolution where we have the
Copy Chief Cindy Martin
Researchers Ambrose Martos, Erika Villani low-resolution. The machines were all built systems and materials to build amazing
Editorial Intern Annabel Edwards
by hand, to designs drawn by hand. Like spacecraft that can take us anywhere... but
ART AND PHOTOGRAPHY
Acting Design Director Chris Mueller
with a pencil. We drew our rst spaceships because theres no great enemy to race to
Photo Director Thomas Payne
Digital Associate Art Director Michael Moreno
in pencil. Madness. Its a wonder that the Mars, the process remains laughably slow.
Associate Art Director Russ Smith whole crazy enterprise worked at all. We need space, because only space can
Acting Production Manager Paul Catalano
It worked because Apollo had the give us the global perspective we need to
POPSCI.COM
Online Director Carl Franzen backing of an entire nation. The American stop our own self-destruction. Without
Senior Editor Paul Adams
Assistant Editors Sarah Fecht, Claire Maldarelli people wanted, needed, to see their space, people start believing all kind
Contributing Writers Kelsey D. Atherton,
Mary Beth Griggs,Alexandra Ossola
astronauts walk on the Moon rst, to of crazy stu. Like the Earth is at. Or
BONNIERS TECHNOLOGY GROUP
reinforce American exceptionalism. That climate change doesnt matter. Or theres
Group Editorial Director Anthony Licata alone was enough to make that bootstrap plenty more sh in the sea, literally. None
Group Publisher Gregory D Gatto
operation work, and as soon as the people of which, youll note, are true.
BONNIER
Chairman Tomas Franzen got bored with moonwalks - round about Those handful of astronauts on the
Chief Executive Officer Eric Zinczenko
Chief Content Officer David Ritchie Apollo 14 - the support collapsed. International Space Station keep us real, by
Chief Operating Officer Lisa Earlywine
Senior Vice President, Digital Bruno Sousa
Since then, human space exploration sending down their impressions of a fragile
Vice President, Consumer Marketing John Reese has been low budget, a series of bitter blue world, protected by the merest sliver
compromises, a diplomatic quagmire. Oh of an atmosphere.
sure, the Shuttle cost billions, and the Down here, the Earth feels big and
various interplanetary probes billions indestructible. But it isnt. For our entire
Chief Executive Officer David Gardiner
Commercial Director Bruce Duncan
more. But when it comes to space, billions is evolution, weve been on an unstoppable
peanuts. A space program should command quest to colonise the whole planet. That
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nextmedia Pty Ltd ACN: 128 805 970 trillions of dollars. The money is there, job is done. Its time to turn our minds and
Building A, 207 Pacific Highway
St Leonards, NSW 2065 make no mistake. We just spend it on war. hearts to the next great adventure. Out
Under license from Bonnier International Magazines. 2014 Bonnier Anyway, it is what it is. Orion is no there are stranger and more wonderful
Corporation and nextmedia Pty Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction in
whole or part without written permission is prohibited. Popular Science is
doubt a marvellous machine, but NASAs things than any scientist or science ction
a trademark of Bonnier Corporation and is used under limited license. latest crew-rated capsule is being built in author has ever imagined. We need to
The Australian edition contains material originally published in the US
edition reprinted with permission of Bonnier Corporation. Articles express a political environment where its worst experience more, to understand more. In
the opinions of the authors and are not necessarily those of the Publish-
er, Editor or nextmedia Pty Ltd. ISSN 1835-9876. enemies think its a waste of money and order to understand ourselves.
Privacy Notice irrelevant, and its best friends seem You might think Orion is an indulgence,
We value the integrity of your personal information. If you provide personal
information through your participation in any competitions, surveys or resigned to constant budget cuts and a wasteful project undertaken by a country
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To subscribe, call 1300 361 146 hard on their dream, despite what must be afordham@nextmedia.com.au
or visit www.mymagazines.com.au

P OP S C I . C O M. AU 3
 1ST ANNUAL
INSANE IDEAS
( WITH SIMON PEGG )
6 Contents

From the
Archives
76
SPACE WARS!
Back in 1961 we loved the
idea of battle satellites.
Heres the ridiculous stuff
we said about them.

Featuring
14
BIONIC VISION
Videogame tech is being re-purposed
for the noblest of causes.

28
EARTH IMAXED
TO THE MAX
An amazing film, shot in orbit,
30 years in the making.

58 HERE AND ON
INSIDE ORION THE COVER
Our exclusive images of the next F. Scott Schafer
crewed space capsule. photographed
Simon Pegg, who
stars in this months
72 Star Trek Beyond.
KIT FROM COMPUTEX Insane Ideas
Taiwans tech event targets type designed by
makers... at last!. Mikey Burton.

4 POPUL A R S CI E NCE PH OTO G RA PH BY F. Scott Schafer

J U LY 2 0 1 6
16 26
30 38
58 72
Departments NEXT
Sci-tech news that matters
NOW 30 Weirdest drone ever?
Your guide to everything 32 Science of curved screens
34 Rethink: Tesla P60
08 Travel tech 36 amuse.bouche: graphics
16 Superpowered ears 38 Theme park for the insane
18 Samsungs surface 40 Say hi to Li-Fi
20 Ultimate photog rig 41 Solar cell breakthough
22 Sous vide at home 42 Heels that dont hurt
24 Coffee with Bluetooth 43 Hypersonic Aussie rocket!
26 Crazy watercraft 44 Project Goa
45 What is HDR TV?
For daily updates: www.popsci.com.au
42
75
MANUAL
Build the future
68 Build Thors hammer!
70 Wear your office
71 Water-cooled videocard
74 Surreal musical instruments
74 Augmented reality drones
75 Ghostbuster proton packs
75 A magnetic mini-car
THE OTHER BITS
03 A word from the editor // 06 Launchpad
78 Ask anything: Skunks and kangaroos
80 Retro invention: early VR // 82 Lab Rats
POPSCI.COM 5
Launchpad J ULY 201 6

Dispatch from the Future

A robot offers some

acorns to a squirrel,
and a connection
emerges between two
life-formsone artificial,
one authentic. Empathy
is part of an ongoing
series by science-fiction
artist Donato Giancola
that centres on sentient
robots that see the world
with naivet. Giancola
likes the robots because,
he says, they become a
really broad representa-
tion of humanity and our
technology, though he
concedes that artificial
intelligence probably isnt
going to be embodied
inside a walking, talking
robot. Nevertheless, the
scene conjures a future in
which AI is so advanced,
it includes sophisticated
emotionlike empathy
for a hungry squirrel.

by
KAT I E
P EEK

Dispatch from the Future

D O N ATO G I A N C O L A

is a series that imagines

through images and
wordshow humanity will
live in the decades and
centuries to come.

6 PO PUL A R S CI E NCE
 one of the fathers of the personal computer

August 23 / Auckland, ASB Theatre

August 24 / Perth, HBF Stadium
August 26 / Brisbane, BCEC
August 27 / Melbourne, Margaret Court Arena
August 28 / Sydney, Australian Technology Park

Tickets available now / www.thinkinc.org.au

 JU LY 201 6

1. BLUESMART CARRY-ON
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8 PO PUL A R S CI E NCE P HOTOG R AP HY BY Sam Kaplan

 WELCOME TO A NEW DECADE
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arket still dominated by square cabinet speakers,
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Now
First Look
2. VENTEV GLOBAL
CHARGING HUB
$55
Electrical adapters get the Swiss
Army knife treatment with Ventevs
adapter. It packs four AC prongsca-
pable of mating with sockets of 150
different countriesinto a single,
stylish adapter. Plugging in lets you
charge two devices via USB and one
through an AC plug.
3.KINDLE OASIS
$449
Amazons latest e-reader is
ultra-compact and comes with a
magnetic cover that houses its own
batteryextending power from
weeks to months. Storage of 4GB
means you can stock up on a Smith-
sonians worth of novelsto distract
from the brain-melting price.
10 PO PUL A R S CI E NCE
4. KARMA GO HOTSPOT $129
Karma puts connectivity in your pocket
by pulling in mobile signals and
spitting out Wi-Fi. Eight users can
simultaneously browse, download, and
share using fast 4G LTE speeds. And
no yearly contract means sneaking
back onto the grid at your leisure.
5. SAMSUNG GEAR VR 3
$1590
Tune out over-sharing travellers
by slipping into virtual reality.
The Gear VR lets you watch immersive
360-degree video, load up
a VR game, or train for the Rio
Olympics (see next issue). Just
be ready for the stares youll get
after leaving the Matrix.
P R O P STY L I N G BY M I C H EL L E LO N G O
6. SCOTTEVEST
RFID $185
Most gear-stashing travel vests look
flagrantly dorky. Not so for ScotteVest.
The light, machine- washable vest
has 26 pockets and blocks RFID
signals, meaning clever crooks cant
wirelessly copy your credit card or
passport data.
Now
First Look
8. EMIE RADIO
SPEAKER $50
A holiday is always improved by the
right tunes. Emies vintage-looking, 160-
gram powerhouse offers six straight
hours of Bluetooth DJing. Its not much
for booming bass but is perfect for
tossing in a beach bag. Be ready to belt
aloud your favorite OS jams.
9. BOBBLE WATER
7. HERSCHEL PACKABLE BOTTLE $20
BAG $80 Hydration is critical, but not all tap
Sure, Herschel is trendybut for good water is created equal. If the output
reason. This lightweight, stuffable duffle from the local spigot is safe to drink
is no exception. The ultra-packable bag but tastes off, a Bobble bottle fixes
folds up tiny and neat, taking up minor that with a self-activated charcoal
space in your luggage. It unfurls on filter. The replaceable filter pours
arrival for day trips to the beach (snacks about 300 servings before needing
and swimmers) and for nights out on the a change. At the cost of about two
town (leave it empty, for souvenirs). throwaway bottles, its worth it.
10.TENS FILTER
SUNGLASSES $160
Dont just filter those Instagram photos
to look retro; filter your entire life in real
time. Tens sunglasses enhance your
visuals with a summery tint, offering the
effect of instant nostalgia. UV-blocking
makes them practical too.
11. SANDLESS BEACH MAT $70
TO $120
When in Bali and sand collects on your
towel, theres no removing it, and you
must resign yourself to a day of sand-
paper butt. In Bali. Designed originally
for military use, this multilayered,
woven polyurethane beach mat filters
errant dust, dirt, and more through its
tiny holes but not back up. More grains
of sand than stars in the Milky Way?
Not on this mat. Or in Bali.
Now
You 2.0
COULD VIDEOGAME
TECH HELP THE BLIND
(AND ROBOTS) SEE?
by NVIDIA is a household name among
ANTHON Y serious gamers. The company builds
FORDHAM
graphics processing units, or GPUs, and
integrates them onto videocards. The result
is a sort of mini-computer with its own
CPU and RAM, that handles the demanding
graphics of the latest games.
But scientists and researchers have
come to realise these GPUs, if built into
the right configurations, can also be used
170
to crunch massive data sets at higher
speed and lower cost than the more
traditional central processing unit, or CPU.
Essentially, institutions and corporations
Performance, alike are looking to NVIDIA for low-cost,
in trillions of DIY supercomputers.
floating point After several years of building
operations mainframes around its Tesla and Titan
per second GPUs, NVIDIA has now created what it calls
(teraFLOPS), of a supercomputer in a box the . What it
t he NV ID IA D GX-1 does best is crunch very large sets of well-
14 P O P U L A R S CI E NCE
ordered data. And even better, it can learn from the data
its operators feed it. Which makes it ideal if youre, say,
trying to teach robots how to understand what they can
see, and restore sight to blind humans too.
Professor Tom Drummond of the Centre of
Excellence for Robotic Vision at Monash, says GPUs
have allowed his research to leap ahead.
For most of my career I worked with CPUs, and
Moores Law has been my friend, he says, referencing
the well-known fact that computing power more-or-less
doubles every 18 months with no increase in cost. But
when we switched to GPU code, we technically got a
100-fold increase in processing speed, which is important
when youre working in real time.
One area of Professor Drummonds research is in
bionic vision. Recent advances in implant technology
now make it possible to generate a grid of grey pixels
in the visual centres of a blind patients brain, allowing
them a limited form of sight.
It is very basic, but its also the difference between
total blindness and opening up many more opportunities
 J U LY 201 6

for these patients, says Drummond.

NVIDIA doesnt just play a role in crunching the
numbers either. The companys Tegra mobile processor
is involved in processing real time data from sensors.
Because we can have this powerful processor in a
portable module, its possible to send data wirelessly.
The bandwidth limitations now are only really between
the implant and the brain itself.
While its easy enough for a computer to convert
a signal from a camera into a grid of coloured pixels,
further reducing that to a handful of meaningful grey This alternate approach by Bionic
pixels is more difficult. Vision Australia doesn' t use a BIONIC EYES?
Its not enough for the computer to see the scene, deep learning computer system, This type of bionic vision isnt
it has to understand the scene, says Professor but only works for patients with a really vision. A few hundred
Drummond. It needs to analyse the scene and say, well functioning retinal nerve pathway. grey pixels appear in a patients
here are the doorways, here are the flat table surfaces visual centres, hopefully
in the room, here at the people. arranged by computers into a
Armed with this knowledge, the computer can meaningful pattern that helps
create an image that has semantic meaning, and can be the patient navigate the world.
actually helpful to the patient. We are a long way from true
Professor Drummond also works on robot vision. bionic vision, says Professor
This is an easier problem because theres no bandwidth Drummond. One of the
limitation between the vision and the robots brain. big challenges is in heat
He says Google has now created computer systems dissipation. The more
that are superhuman in their ability to quickly and calculations you do, the
accurately recognise objects. Deep learning and AI isnt more heat is generated.
a sci-fi dream, its starting to emerge right now. And in an implant buried
So what of NVIDIAs DGX-1 supercomputer in a box? in your actual brain, thats
Most of this work was made possible thanks to a landmark something to be avoided.
paper about four years ago, which showed us that robotic Memory bandwidth is
vision is a generic problem, Professor Drummond says. also a huge limiting factor,
So rather than hand-engineering everything, we can let says Professor Drummond.
the computer itself learn as it goes.
The DGX-1 then is (relatively) low cost, and
compact. It comes with all the software a
researcher needs, and takes minutes not The system
weeks to set up. Which makes it supported
the right sized tool for the job. by NVIDIA
Not bad, for a consumer simulates the
technology originally designed brain directly,
to play games. creating a
basic image.

A TWO-WAY STREET
Professor Drummond says NVIDIA has been an enormous
supporter of his research. Much of this equipment, and huge
software libraries, were given to us for free, he says. As he
and his colleagues work through a project, they send data and
suggestions back to NVIDIA HQ.
NVIDIA listens when we say, these are the kinds of things
we need in the next generation of hardware, says Professor
Drummond. Theyve been very kind to research labs. Theres
a lot of science that wouldnt have happened otherwise.

P OPS C I . C O M 15
 J U LY 201 6
Now
Standout

GIVE
YOUR
EARS
SUPER-
POWERS
Behold, tiny mixing boards
for your ears. With the help of
a smartphone app, the Here
Active Listening System can
boost the mids or highs at
a live concert, dampen the
noise of an aeroplane cabin,
or re-create the reverb of
Abbey Road Studios while you
attempt Hey Jude at karaoke.
These arent headphones.
Theyre an entirely new
way of hearinga way to
custom-sculpt your auditory
experience in real time.
Originally made for musicians
and audiophilescomposer
Hans Zimmer endorses them
they are now being deployed
for more practical purposes,
like blocking out the world to
get some work done.
The app has three tabs:
a simple volume knob, an
SPEED OF SOUND equaliser, and a group of lters
that enhances or eliminates
noise. The buds batteries last
Here Active Listening
up to six hours, and the case
System processes sound doubles as a charging station. It
more than 6,000 times faster by holds two extra charges, so you
DAVE
than the blink of an eye. can hit Coachella and then catch
GERSHGORN
a few Zs on the plane home.

Out There

A WRISTBAND THAT REPELS SHARKS

CO U RT ESY S HA R K BAN Z

Sharks lurk in shallow waters and are drawn to activitylike the ailing of and Sharkbanz scrambles this sense
warm-blooded bodies. To ward off attacks, California brothers Nathan and with annoying interferencealmost
David Garrison developed Sharkbanz, a wrist strap that re- like shining a bright light in its eyes.
pels sharks by deploying a weak electric eld. Sharks rely by The band wont harm the shark and is
on electrically sensitive sacks in their snouts to navigate, BERNE BROUDY only a deterrentso no guarantees.

16 POPSCI . CO M . AU P HOTOG R AP H BY Sam Kaplan

 The screens of the Future are available today!

Screen Innovations has worked with NASA to
develop a one-of-a-kind, ambient-light-rejecting,
zero-gravity screen to be installed in the Interna-
tional Space Station
Until now, astronauts on the International Space
Station communicated with Mission Control and
their families back home on tablet-sized 13-inch
displays. Now they will have a large roll-out screen
from Screen Innovations, together with a laser pro-
jector that should last more than 30,000 hours of
use thats a movie a day for more than 40 years.
The criteria for a screen in space were unique, from
the obvious need for extreme lightness and easy
storage to trickier requirements such as screen
rigidity in zero gravity and the ability to reject the
bits of food and other detritus that have a habit of

Although the theatre in your home resides in
a more-worldly environment with picture quality
taking a front row seat its nice to know that Screen
Innovations also delivers the best down-to-earth
solution around.

Network Audio Visual Pty Ltd

02 9949 9349 sales@networkav.com.au www.networkav.com

Now
Geek Chic
Perhaps inevitably, Samsung now joins the
gang of manufacturers oering an ultra-thin
tablet PC similar to Microsofts Surface. The
TabPro S is a 12-inch device like the Surface
Pro 4, but diers in a few subtle ways.
The Surface Pro 4 is available in several
variants all the way up to an i7 with 16GB
of RAM and 512GB of storage (for nearly
$3000) but Samsung has stuck with the
ultraportable, and fanless Core M3 only.
At rst glance it looks more expensive
than the equivalent Surface 4 Pro, but thats
because the keyboard cover is included. Once
you add in Microsofts $199 Type Cover, its
more or less the same price.
Speaking of equivalence, the TabPro
has the same 4GB of RAM and 128GB of
storage as the Surface, but unlike Microsofts
machine, the unit we tested also packs 4G
mobile data and - crucially - GPS.
This makes it incredibly attractive for
anyone who needs a powerful mapping and
note-taking device for eldwork in Australias
remote areas. Yes, the TabPro isnt as tough as
a ruggedised tablet, but its also half the cost.
18 POPUL A R S CI E NCE
J U LY 201 6
A HYBRID WITH
MORE BENEATH
THE SURFACE
by A N T H O N Y FO RD H A M
SAMSUNG TABPRO S
Size: 12
CPU: Core M3 2.2GHz
RAM: 4GB
Storage: 128GB + SD card expansion
Con n e c t iv i ty : Wi F i , 4 G, G PS
Di s p l ay : Super AMOLED, 2160x1440
P r i ce : $1799 (tested)
www. s a m su n g .co m
Denuded of its keyboard cover, the TabPro THE FUSSINESS
is considerably thinner than the Surface 4 O F AMO L E D
Pro, and weighs 693g to its rivals 766g. But
The TabPro uses an AMOLED
because the Surfaces TypeCover doesnt
display, more like a smartphone
wrap around, once you attach the keyboards, than a regular PC. The problem
both devices are essentially the same with that is Windows largely
thickness and weight. static interface, with the
Windows button in the bottom
Also, the TabPro has just two tilt angles. left corner 24/7. This can cause
The serious-desktop-time angle is a little burn in, or a permanent
upright for my taste, and at rst the tilted- ghostly image. To mitigate
this, Samsung has tweaked
back-fun-time angle seems odd.
the install of Windows 10 to
But when you slouch back on the sofa and throw up a distinctly old-
put your feet up on the coee table, your legs school rotating 3D text
are at the perfect angle for this conguration screensaver every
10 minutes. It goes
to make sense. Its a super-comfy way to away as soon as you
mess about on Imgur or Facebook, or watch a touch any control,
little catch-up TV. but its still a little
disconcerting to see
Overall the Surface 4 Pro is still the
this reminder of
fancier device with its light-up keyboard the 1990s on such
and magnesium body. But the inclusion of a next-gen piece
4G and GPS gives the TabPro a exibility of electronics...
edge that could make all the dierence.
One things for sure though. If you go out
and buy a regular 12-inch notebook these
days, youre crazy.

Now
Ask an Expert
SOUZAS
BEST TIP
Alwaysprepyourcamerasettings,
evenifyourenotplanningtotake
photos.AsIwalkoutofAirForce
One,Imlookingoutsideand
estimatingthecorrectexposure.
20 PO PUL A R S CI E NCE
J U LY 201 6
CANON 5D MARK III FUJIFILM X100T
Canons agship In his downtime,
camera body is a Souza prefers the
photojournalism compact Fujifilm
standard. Souza X100S (Fujis since
carries two, and updated to the
almost always uses faster-focusing
them in silent mode X100T). It has the
to reduce shutter same large DSLR
sound during sensor but housed in
sensitive moments. a slimmer body.
CANON 135 F/2.0 L CANON 24-70
AND 35 F/1.4 L F/2.8 L II
These lenses dont Souza didnt trust
zoom, but they take Canons rst 24-70
advantage of more lens. But the second
available light. The generation of the lens
35mm is for up close, adds three low-dis-
and the 135mm is for tortion internal glass
when Souza needs to elements, and is now
keep his distance. his primary shooter.
Your Instagram will never be as cool as
Pete Souzas. He travels the world with the
I NS ET : M I C H A EL K AP P EL E R /A FP / G E TT Y I MAG ES
US Presidentshooting candids of Angela
Merkel (in virtual-reality goggles) and
Steph Curry (cringing in board-game
defeat as Obama cheers). His globe-trotting
job is 24/7. For the ever-shifting circum-
stances, he has the ultimate stripped-
PHOTOG down kit, shown above, to perform in
every condition. Even
IN CHIEF by
DAVE
if youre not POTUS-
worthy, you would do
well to shoot with these.
(FEATURING PETE SOUZA) G ER S H G O R N
P HOTOG R AP H BY Sam Kaplan
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Donate to the Foundation for the Advancement of Astronomy

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Now
Gastrofuture
SOUS VIDE
AT HOME
MADE EASY
by DAN IE L W IL K S
Cooking meat, for the most part, is about
applying high external temperature to a chunk
of esh to achieve two outcomes improving the
avour of the food through the Maillard reaction
(caramelising surface sugars) and bringing the core
temperature high enough to kill o any undesirable
microorganisms. And you know, cysts.
The problem with applying high external heat
is that it can lead to a crapshoot when it comes to
external and internal temperature, and the balance of
doneness, dryness and tenderness gets really dicult
to control. And cooking is all about control - otherwise
you might as well just hurl it on the campre.
Sous vide, or the cooking of food in a low-
temperature water bath, isnt a new technique.
It was rst described way back in 1799 by Count
Rumford, an American-born British physicist. Until
recently sous vide (literally under vacuum) was the
domain of ne dining thanks largely to the price of
professional sous vide machines.
ANOVA P R ECIS IO N CO O K E R
TEMPERATURE RANGE: 2 5 - 99
(0.1 increments )
CONTROL : Scroll wh eel, iOS &
Android apps
PR ICE : $239 (Bluetooth only),
$259 (WiFi & B luetooth)
a u.a novac ul i n ary.co m
for 90 minutes for 60 minutes
will deliver a near for a tender juicy
perfect rare steak pork chop
22 PO PUL A R S CI E NCE
J U LY 201 6
Now theres a much cheaper
alternative that brings this
unique cooking method to your
kitchen. Rather than a large tub
of water with a nely controllable
heating element and some form
of agitator to keep the water
moving to ensure there are no
cold or hot spots, a home sous
vide machine is an all-in-one
unit. Most feature a controllable
element and a small agitator
in an enclosure - the whole kit
resembles a large pepper grinder.
Its designed to be suspended in
any regular large pot.
No matter the form factor,
sous vide machines all operate
in the same manner:
keeping a body of water
at a constant low
temperature.
Simply leave a
vacuum-sealed or
otherwise bagged
meat in a water bath -
ziplock bags pegged
to the side of the
container work well, as
water pressure will drive most
air out of the bag. This allows
the core temperature of the food
to be brought up to a cooked
temperature without having to
guess the level of doneness.
Its science! A steak immersed
in 56 degree water for an hour
will have a core and outside
temperature of 56 degrees, and
for 90 minutes will only need a quick sear to get
for perfectly cooked some caramelisation before its
chicken dark meat ready to eat. Delicious.
Now
The Bigger Fix

ORDER YOU
MORNING
ESPRESSO
BLUETOOT
by AN T H
JUR A Z6
PU M P : 15 bar
GRINDER : steel
CPU: 50Hz
S ENS OR S: 4
TEMP R ANG E : 88 - 92 C
EXTRA S: Active bean
monitoring, Bluetooth
module, thermoblock
h eatin g system, JURA
f ine foam milk tech, 12
default recipes
PRI C E: $3750
w w w.j ura .com

T H E ART O F
ESPRESSO but dont have the time of a morning to has Bluetooth, want to know if this means
meticulously craft a traditional espresso they can order coffee from bed. Technically
Milanese coffee machine using the kind of manual coffee machine its possible, if your house isnt too big (this
maker La Pavoni draws
no distinction between
that gets its own exhibit in the Museum module has a range of about 10m). But the
art and f nctionalit of Modern Art (see left), then you need a Z6 has to be switched on, and a cup has to
The Pro tic espresso maker. be placed under the outlet. Really, the app
is consi The JURA Z6. A Swiss- is for accessing additional features and all
a classi
industri ee supercomputer, it that extra baristological functionality.
a perma or coffee styles a mere So hows the coffee? Like many super-
the Mus y. Dump in some fresh automatic machines, the Z6 cant quite
Art in N
in the ca
tank (which has its own manage a really oily, dense espresso, but
behind g s the rest. everything else it handles with aplomb. Its
Lobster shows six products, milk foaming system is excellent, even if the
an espr swapped out for a silicon-tube-and-milk-jug arrangement isnt
Profess
a consid rather fiddly jog-wheel exactly streamlined.
the wat the machine... With four sensors scattered around the
Then its the JURA app on a machine, the Z6 will tell you when its drip
raising t
mmunicate with the Z6 tray needs to be emptied, its coffee grounds
right in
lowering mart Connect module is thrown out, and the milk system cleaned.
infuse a s into a standard socket The hipster single-origin barista collective
fancy co achines. Using the down on the corner will always make the
words. G
crema, fees or custom brews best espresso. But for everything else, albeit
burns, a 5ml increments are via a fairly large and expensive package, the
yours fo gle tap. Z6 will deliver your morning fix, day after day.

OR MACCHIATO, OR RISTRETTO, OR LATTE, OR CAPPUCCINO ETC.

24 PO PUL A R S CI E NCE
 10 vs. Sony RX100 IV
ONE-INCH WONDERS Panasonic TZ1
JULY/AUGUST 2016 $8.99 NZ $10.99

AUSTRALIAS ONLY
TIPA MEMBER

PICTURES
FROM
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IN THE
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ACTIONCAMS IN ACTI
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ALL THE WINNERS ACTIONCAM GROUP TEST
ON SALE NOW at your news agent
or on subscription in PRINT
or digital at mymagazines.com.au
Now
Toybox

2 Bladerider
Is normal boating too boring?
The Bladerider ups the ante,
with a high performance
hydrofoil sailing dinghy.
Thanks to the super low
drag of the foils, this little
sailboat can exceeds speeds
of 25 knots (46 km/h)
without using a drop of fuel.
Its built from carbon fibre,
and all up weighs in at just
2 40kg. It also uses an eight
metre X-Ply and Dacron sail
to maximise the amount of
wind it can catch.
Price: From $16,000
www.bladerider.com.au

THE LIFE 1

AQUATIC
Australia is girt by sea, or so we're
told. So it stands to reason we have
access to more than the usual number
of weird and wonderful watercraft.
Here's a selection of the latest.
by
LINDSAY
H ANDMER
1 Quickboat Adventurer
For those who need a boat, but dont
want to give up storage space or buy a
trailer, the Australian-built Quickboat is
a unique answer. Unlike its traditionally
rigid brethren, the boat actually folds
flat, and packs away in a bag about the
size of a surfboard. It comes in a range
of sizes, from 2.5m up to 3.7m, and
weighs as little as 22kg. The Quickboat
can be set up in just 60 seconds, thanks
to the flexible panel design. The largest
model can carry up to 360 kg, and a
10hp outboard, and hit speeds of up to
42 km/h! Not bad for origami. Integrated bench seats help
Price: $4375 brace the Quickboat once it
www.quickboats.com.au has been unfolded.

26 POPUL A R S CI E NCE

3
3 Penguin 2.0 Semi-Submersible
Shown off at the Sydney International Boat
Show, this odd little Korean-built watercraft
makes it easy to enjoy life both above and
below the waves. The stubby boat has
underwater windows, and is designed for
checking out sea life. Despite the name,
the Penguin doesn't actually submerge, and
is designed for use in calm water only.
Its powered by twin electric motors, and is
built to be easy to drive. There's no
local reseller yet, but it can be bought
directly from the manufacturer.
Price: $110,000
gocean.co.kr
4 Flyboard
The latest craze in bizarre fun, the Flyboard
lifts the pilot into the sky. Technically, its still
a boat, because the water for propulsion is
delivered via a long hose to a dedicated pump
or Jet Ski. That means you are not limited to
a small area of travel - the jetpack can move
beyond the length of the hose alone. Buying
one from overseas will set you pack at about
$12,000 (www.flyboardx.com), but there is
an easier option. At various location around
Australia, Jetpack Adventures will let you go
for a flight, starting from $109.
Price: From $109
Remember, if you can
actualy SEE the Great
White, it means she isn' t
attacking you.
www.jetpackadventures.com.au
5 Flying Fish Hovercraft
Traditional boats are all well and good, but
there are times when it's more fun to skim
across the surface of the water than
plough through it. Flying Fish
has built hovercraft for over 15
years and is one of the bigger
names in Australia. Models
range from the little single
seat Snapper to massive
six seater models with twin
engines and air conditioning.
The best part is that in Australia,
hovercraft are registered as a boat,
and there is no exotic licencing needed.
Price: From $15,000
www.flyingfishhovercraft.com.au
6 Superyacht Tango
While not strictly for sale, there is something
special about the biggest superyacht
available for hire down under. The Tango
is a massive 140 (43m) boat that can
accommodate up to 70 guests, has two six-
metre tenders and three kayaks. For those
who want to arrive in style, it also has the
very important helipad on the rear deck. The
J U LY 201 6
4
Tango is based in Sydney Harbour, but is also
available for hire in the Whitsundays over
winter. What's that? On a budget? Well, the
superyacht costs a staggering $5,250 an hour
to hire, with a minimum of four hours.
Sydney Harbour Exclusive
Price: $5250 per hour
www.sydneyharbour
exclusive.com
7 Marinekart 338
Want a Go-Kart like
experience on the water? The
Marinekart 338 is a sleek little
boat designed for having fun,
without needing a massive engine.
The 338 measures in at just 3.4m
long, 1.36m wide and can carry four people.
Its built light enough to carry on roof racks,
and weighs 57 kg. The little boat can handle
up to a 10HP outboard (or optional, we think
more civilised electric motor), and includes
buoyancy foam to make it "unsinkable".
Go-Kart-like steering and handling is achieved
thanks to a unique planing catamaran tunnel
hull that keeps the boat zipping across the
surface of the water at up to 50km/h.
MarineKart
Price: $3800
www.marinekart.com.au
P OPS C I . C O M 27
Now
Passion Project
A VISION OF
EARTH, 30 YEARS
IN THE MAKING
You sit in a vast theatre, seats arranged
by in such steep rows it feels like leaning
ANT HONY
forward will send you plummeting. A
FORDHAM
multi-storey screen stretches around you
in an elegant curve. The movie starts,
and youre soaring high above the Earth,
crossing continents in mere seconds,
marvelling at the aurora and watching
lightning storms flicker.
Marvellous as all this is, its a pretty
standard IMAX experience. Near-Earth has
been one of the go-to topics for the mega-
format for nearly 30 years. The first IMAX
film I ever saw, back in 1990, was Blue
Planet. That was shot in orbit, from
250,000
the Space Shuttle, directed
by Canadian filmmaker
Toni Myers, and
co-ordinated by
astronaut Marsha Ivins.
It was the beginning Frames of footage
of a 26-year quest (digital equivalent)
to create the perfect captures by
vision of our planet, as astronau ts aboard the
seen from low orbit. I S S for A B eau t i f u l
In the Space Shuttle Planet 3D.
days we had to shoot with
film cameras, says Ivins, who is still
the filmmakers NASA liaison even after
retirement from active flight duty. We went
up with a specific amount of film, and once
it was gone it was gone. Subjects we wanted
to capture might have been under cloud the
whole time, and that was just bad luck.
This latest film is shot on digital, and
because principle filming took place on the
ISS, we used multiple crews to get hundreds
of hours of footage.
There are shots in this film that Toni
has been trying to get for almost 30 years,
like Everest and a cloudless shot of New
Zealand. It's a heck of an achievement.
Remarkably, it was the ISS crew
28 POPUL A R S CI E NCE
themselves who did the filming, after a few
lessons in cinematography on Earth, before
their expedition. The cameras were regular,
off-the-shelf Canon models. Top of the
line, sure, but they required only minimal
modification for use in space.
We also used the Nikon D5 on the ISS,
says Ivins. And all we had to do was change
the lens lubrication to prevent off-gassing,
and also disable a gravity-sensing switch
which obviously does not work in orbit.
Its a far cry from the first films, which
used cameras custom-built for space.
Ivins shot IMAX film on three of her
Shuttle flights in the 1990s. She says
getting the cameras aboard
was the same as any payload.
[The production company]
had a Space Act Agreement
with NASA and the cameras
had to be certified for use in
space, just like any other
piece of equipment.
For A Beautiful Planet,
Ivins was the person in
Houston communicating with
astronauts about the shoot.
While many of the shots in the film
are things youve probably seen before
online via Google Earth the lights of
cities on the night side of the planet, the
contrasting darkness of North Korea
against the blazing modernity of the south,
the seemingly endless expanse of the
Himalayas, and lightning from above the
clouds youve never seen them like this.
The scale alone is humbling.
This is unlikely to be the last film shot in
space. As digital cameras become smaller,
tougher and can capture in even better
quality, these amazing images will reach
more and more people.
And that can only be a good thing.

THE LEGACY
OF THE
SHUTTLE
Marsha Ivins joined
NASA right at the end of
the Apollo program as an
engineer, so was around
during the development
of the Space Shuttle. She
says the Space Transport
System, as it was ocially
known, was a revelation.
You have to remember
that the Apollo capsule was
tiny, everything was packed
in there. When we nally
got aboard the Shuttle it
was this huge space, with
living quarters and working
spaces and more.
It was so superbly
built. There were so many
redundancies and safety
systems, it was massively
over-engineered. And I just
dont think you are going
to see the same reliability
and factors of safety in a
modern spacecraft.
After I hasten to assure
Ivins that Popular Science
is a very pro-Shuttle
publication, and that we
view the USAs rst reusable
spacecraft with great
fondness and respect, she
says, in a voice tinged with
sadness, disappointment
and maybe even a hint of
anger: And you know we
dont have it anymore.
J U LY 201 6
A B E AU T IFU L
PLANET: A REVIEW
Australian Popular Science
was treated to a preview
screening of A Beautiful
Planet 3D at the Sydney
IMAX. On that epic multi-
storey screen, and in
3D, the film is at times
positively vertiginous. The
scenes inside the ISS are
fascinating, especially the
moments when new crew
arrive via Soyuz.
The best sequence has
some of the most basic
cinematography: during
a spacewalk outside the
station, astronauts carry
consumer-grade cameras
and shoot as best they can
in bulky spacesuits. The
result is disorienting,
even a bit terrifying.
Less compelling are
the long flyover shots of
Looks like Google Earth? Maybe... but the different parts of the world.
detail is unprecedented. Below, oranges in Among these are Everest
free -fall are surprisingly entertaining, like and other geological
trying to boil a live octopus. landmarks that filmmaker
Toni Myers apparently
spent 30 years trying to
capture. Yet in this age of
Google Earth, they are less
revelatory than they might
have been in the 1980s.
Also, Jennifer Lawrence
is a strange choice as
narrator, lacking the precise
diction and gravitas such a
subject surely deserves.
For space enthusiasts,
A Beautiful Planet will
entertain, if not surprise.
For everyone else, it could
be a real wake-up call.
P OP S C I . C O M 29
 EDITED BY MATT G I LES

Rescue workers trying to reach a

fallen climber in a 30-metre crevasse
face perilous conditions. Elios,
a rescue drone made by the Swiss
flying-robotics company Flyability,
tries to minimise these threats.
Roughly a 380-mm sphere, Elios
draws inspiration from houseflies,
which bounce off a surface and keep
flying; it is equipped with a freely
rotating carbon-fibre exoskeleton
that spins on a separate axis from
the drone avionics inside it. When
Elios hits a wall, the cage continues
spinning and absorbs the energy of
the collision, while the propellers
inside keep spinning and the HD
camera and lighting system remain
stabilized. It can navigate such
extreme environments as collapsed
buildings, chemical spill sites, and

20
even glaciersjust about any break
in case of emergency scenarios.

time, in minutes,
taken by Elios
to n av igate t h e
by
Ze r m att G l ac i e r,
GRENNAN
M I L L I KE N which had
prev iously been
i n access i b l e to
other drones

C O U RT ESY FLYA B I L I TY ( 2 )

30 PO P U L A R S CI E NCE
 JULY 201 6

The Elios beat out 800

other entries to win a
$1 million prize in the rst
ever Drones for Good
competition in 2015.

P OP SC I . C O M. AU 31
Next
Tech Update

Entertainment in
Front of the Curve
by The latest trend in TVs and computer monitors is a screen that
LINDSAY curves around the viewer. Tech for techs sake? Nay nay - this form
H A N DM ER
factor could reduce eye strain, and give a more immersive viewing
experience. But is this marketing masterstroke supported by science?
Or is a curved screen just more spin?

THE SCIENCE
Compared to VR or 3D or even ultra-high resolutions, a curved display
isnt exactly paradigm-shattering, but it does offer some real world
advantages. Researchers from the Harvard Medical School recently
tested and confirmed that curved screens are easier on the eyes.
This isnt really surprising when you consider the physics of the
situation. When sitting in front of a flat TV or computer monitor, the
centre of the screen is closest to your eyes. If you measured a line from
your eyes to the edges, the
distance is actually longer.
Unlike a at Its not a very noticeable
difference, but the flat screen
screen, a curved looks smaller towards the
edges. LCDs can also look
TV or monitor, brighter or dimmer, and give
different colours, depending on
however, puts the the angle the screen is viewed.
entire display an A curved TV or monitor,
however, puts the entire
equal distance screen an equal distance from
your eyes. As a result, the
from your eyes. screen looks very uniform,
with better colour accuracy
and contrast levels.
The curved screen also
makes it seem as if there is a larger field of view, and because of the
wrap-around feel, it can also boost immersion. It also allows the
viewers eye to more easily keep the entire screen in focus.
The ideal curvature depends on your viewing distance from the
device. Ideally, the screen should have a curvature that means it
always seems the same distance away, but most screens have less
curvature than this. For computer monitors (and gaming), curved
screens work well together for multi monitor setups, because this
enhances the curvature.
The Harvard Medical School team found that all these advantages
mean that curved screens reduce eye strain for viewers, and can allow
them to track movement faster. Another study from the University of
Toronto tracked users brains in an MRI and found that curved screens
more strongly triggered the cingulate cortex - the region of the brain
associated with reward and emotion.

IN USE
Talking up the science behind curved screens is all well and good, but
how do they perform in the real world? The first time you sit down in

32 PO PUL A R S CI E NCE
 J U LY 201 6

Samsung 27 CF591 front of a curved display - especially a

A competent all-rounder, this
Samsung monitor has a 19 degree
curve - giving an 1800R curvature
radius. It has a 1920 x 1080 resolution,
HDMI, DisplayPort and VGA inputs,
5ms GTG and comes in silver and
white. The screen uses Vertical
Alignment (VA) panel technology
PRICE: $549.95
www.samsung.com
Samsung 34 Ultra Wide S34E790C
For those craving a multi-monitor experience
from one screen, the Samsung 34 is ideal. It has
a 21:9 aspect ratio, a fully adjustable ergonomic
stand and a massive 3440 x 1440 resolution.
Plus of course a 3000R curvature radius.
PRICE: $1499
www.samsung.com
PC monitor thats close to your eyes
rather than a TV on the other side of
the room - the edges of the screen
seem too close. But you get used to
it quickly. In fact, going back to a flat
screen is more jarring, and it seems
distant and lifeless in comparison.
While curved screens do aid
immersion, they also have a few
downsides. Reflections can be a bit of
an issue, as the curved surface tends
to bend and group them in weird, often
distracting ways. Curved screens are
not well suited to extreme side viewing
angles, as the near-side curvature
reduces how well you can see. This
tech cant really be wall mounted
either, and is only really effective at
larger sizes. Naturally, a curve costs
more than a flat display of the same
vertical resolution, but some ultra-
wide versions offer more horizontal
resolution thanks to a 21:9 aspect ratio.

LG 55EG960T
This gorgeous 55 TV has an excellent
4K resolution (3840 x 2160) and uses
an OLED panel. Its also gently curved,
to give a more immersive viewing
experience. The TV uses LGs smart
WebOS 2.0, and supports 3D.
PRICE: $4500
www.lg.com
WHATS IN AN R?
Brands are struggling to explain how
much curve any given product has,
and have settled on this: if you had
enough monitors set edge-to-edge to
curve all the way around and form a
circle, it would have a radius of 2000
millimetres. Or 1800 etc. So when it
comes to curve, a lower R rating is
curvier... except it also depends on the
SIZE of the monitor. When shopping,
dont match R values across different
sizes, just choose the lowest R for the
size you want. That is, assuming you
want more curve...

A DIFFERENT METRIC
Curved monitors can seem low resolution in this age
of 4K displays, which can make choosing the perfect
screen tricky. Take BenQs XR3501 gaming monitor. Its a
35-inch 21:9 display with resolution of just 2560 x 1080.
Sure, it has a lower pixel density than some cheaper at
monitors, but it also has a massive 144Hz refresh rate
(most displays are 60Hz). That means ultra-slick and
ultra-smooth gaming performance. Also, this monitor
has a 2000R curve. Usually at this size the curve is
3000R. So this monitor has a tighter radius, which BenQ XR3501
SIZE: 35 (88.9cm)
means the edges are even closer to you, which means RESOLUTION: 2560 x 1080
even better peripheral vision. In action, its an amazing ASPECT RATION: 21:9
monitor that really draws you into the game. BenQ REFRESH RATE: 144Hz
CURVE TYPE: 2000R
claims the XR3501 is like watching an IMAX movie at PRICE: $1399
home. That might be an exaggeration... but not a big one. www.benq.com.au

Next
Rethink
You Bought It...
Now Buy It Again!
ast issue I talked about the concept of
L
a post-scarcity economy, as it applied
to digital distribution of TV programs.
While the specics of certain deals
might be perceived as unfair, I think
most people agree it makes sense
that you have to pay for a TV show, even though its
creators can duplicate it and distribute it virtually
for free.
But what if digital distribution applied to your
next car? What if your car maker charged you for an
upgrade... but all they did was enable features that
were already on the car?
This month, Telsa announced the new Model
S P60. At around $100,000 even, its considerably
cheaper than the P90 because it only has a 60kWh
battery. Or does it? Because included in the press
release was the note that owners could later upgrade
their battery to 75kWh with a software update (and
an additional payment of course).
To put this in petrol car terms, its like getting a
car with an 80 litre fuel tank but there some kind of
insert so it only holds 70 litres unless you pay Holden
another $2000.
Similarly, Teslas cars come with all the sensors
and hardware for Autopilot to work, but you dont
get the auto-drive cruise control unless you pay for
a software upgrade (you do get Autopilots auto-
braking feature for free though).
The infamous Ludicrous Mode is also available
to P90D owners as a $15,000 upgrade - and while it
does involve changing a couple of components in the
battery pack, the drive units (the electric engines)
are not changed. The engine could already go that
fast. You just have to pay for permission.
The progression from this seems pretty obvious.
One day soon, all iPhones will be physically identical.
But if you want the top model, you will have to
pay more to unlock 256GB of storage, or the extra
processing power of the S version.
Its going to take a bit of consumer education.
ACtually, that might be an understatement,
because right now people are outraged that it costs
Apple something like $250 to make a smartphone,
but then they charge $1000 for it. Consumers
already dont want to pay for packaging, shipping,
stocking, marketing, R&D or anything beyond raw
34 POP U L A R S CI E NCE
JU LY 201 6
by
A N T H O NY
FO R DH A M
CONSUMERS ALREADY DONT
WANT TO PAY FOR PACKAGING,
SHIPPING, STOCKING, MARKETING,
R&D OR ANYTHING BEYOND
RAW COMPONENTS. THEY
ACCUSE APPLE OF GOUGING
CUSTOMERS. AS IF PROFIT IS EVIL.
components. They accuse Apple (and everyone else) of
gouging customers. As if prot is evil.
Its going to get worse. Today, Tesla customers seem to
understand how it works. The novelty of the all-electric
platform means people arent really worrying about how
their car has all the cameras and radar kit for autodrive
to work, but they have to pay $4500 extra to get it (as an
upgrade - if you buy it with the car its only $3800).
Model S buyers arent penny-pinchers. But the
average motorist? Very much so. Consider two physically
identical hatchbacks, one costing $45,000, the other just
$30,000. I, the histrionic customer who is always right,
demand all those features be unlocked for free.
I suppose it will give salesmen something to work
with. The customer who demands auto-drive for half
price can get it, without the dealer having to order in a
whole dierent vehicle.
So whats the endgame? The ultimate expression of Anthony
this? I think its called Smart Matter. One day, maybe Fo rdham i s
the editor of
100 years in the future, maybe less, you wont buy a
Austra lia n
specic thing. Youll just buy a black cube of smart
Popular Science.
matter. Then you say to the cube, be a MacBook Pro, W h e n he was
the cube will go online to get the cost and the blueprints young, he paid
from Apple, will charge your account, and then reform $50 for a piece
itself into a sleek MacBook. You paid for the design, the o f so f tware t hat
human ingenuity, not a xed pile of magnesium, plastic did nothing but
and fancied-up sand. add digitised
And when the MacBook gets superseded? Simply speech to his
pay for a new set of designs, and the smart matter favourite game.
will recongure accordingly. No more waste. No more
transport. Just cool stu.
The moral of this story? Dont get oended by
being charged for features you think are already on
your device. At the end of the day, its no worse than
spending money on extra metal and plastic.

Next
amuse.bouche
War Never Changes
h yes, the wars. The console wars.
A
The format wars. The graphics
wars. So many wars. In the world
of technology in general, and in PC
gaming technology in particular,
competition between two market
leads is usually, excitingly, referred to as a war. The
latest and greatest PC component war, however is
truly interesting, as both sides of the ght appear to
have dened winning dierently.
This is a good thing for gamers.
The number-one GPU manufacturer in the world
by market share, NVIDIA, recently unveiled its new
Pascal chipset in two videocards: the premium GTX
1080 and the budget GTX 1070.
Rather than being a slight iterative upgrade from
last years agships - the GTX Titan X and GTX 980
Ti - benchmarking shows that the 1080 is anywhere
between 15% and 33% faster than the fastest cards
of the last generation.
This makes the 1080 capable of smooth single-
card 4K gaming with everything set to max.
Similarly, the budget version of the Pascal chipset,
the 1070, has benchmarks putting it on par with the
most expensive cards on the market last generation.
Of course, this power comes at a price, with the
cheapest GTX 1080 cards coming in at around $1139
and the GTX 1070 around $890 good value when
compared to the GTX Titan X which still retails for
around $1395 and the GTX 980 Ti at $870, but still a
big ask for most gamers.
NVIDIAs largest - and indeed, only serious -
competitor, AMD has also launched its own family
of new GPUs, starting with the recently announced
36 PO PUL A R S CI E NCE
JU LY 201 6
by
EVEN THE CHEAPEST OF THE DA N I EL
W I L KS
NEXT GENERATION OFFERINGS
WILL HAVE THE POWER OF A
TOP-TIER MODERN GRAPHICS
CARD. MEANWHILE, ONE TOP-
TIER GRAPHICS CARD WILL
HAVE THE POWER OF TWO LAST
GENERATION CARDS.
RX480. Instead of choosing to ght a power battle
against NVIDIA, AMD has picked a battleeld on
which they can already claim victory.
The new card as roughly comparable to AMDs last
generation R9 390 but will retail in the US for just $199
(the RRP is expected to be around $350 in Australia).
Along with the RX480, AMD will release RX470
and RX460 cards, eectively sewing up the budget to
mid-range PC gaming market before NVIDIA stops
messing about with supercomputers (see page 14)
long enough to even look in that direction.
This new war, waged on two dierent fronts,
should have great dividends for gamers, as even the
cheapest of next generation oerings will have the
power of a top-tier modern graphics card. Meanwhile,
one top-tier graphics card will have the power of two
last generation cards.
Last issue, our editor said $3,000 was good value Daniel Wilks
for a 4K-capable gaming machine. When the price of is the editor of
the 1080 stabilises in a month or two you will still be PC PowerPlay,
paying $3,000 for a 4K gaming machine, but youll Austral i as
most likely be able to include the cost of a #1 gam i ng
magazine.
monitor in that gure as well. On the
He continues
lower end of the spectrum, gamers will
his quest for
be able to play the latest games with t h e ul t i m ate
high framerates without having to PC: as much
compromise on quality. This is a war performance as
that everybody wins. he can get for a
budget of $0.
A third-par ty manufacturers version of NVIDIAs
new GTX 1080 videocard, costing around $1200.
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 Next
Concepts & Prototypes

RISK THEME PARK

Height: 80 metres
Death-defying scenes: 9
Proposed site: Daegu, South Korea

1.
4.

A THEME PARK FOR

DISASTER JUNKIES
TEST YOUR SURVIVAL SKILLS
by
CO R I N N E
I OZZ I O
S OON - MI N H O NG

Few of us face death by choice, and weve become comfortable relying

on fire-fighters, cops, and others to do the death-facing for us. That, argues Soon-
Min Hong, has bred in us a cavalier attitude toward these vocations. The collective
lack of understanding inspired Hong, a student architect at Londons Royal College
of Art, to design the Risk Theme Park, a conceptual high-rise that lets us tap into
our inner Bruce Willis. Fire-fighters guide groups of 20 through nine death-defying
disaster scenarios. The goal of the exercise, which will be built in Daegu, South
Korea, is to teach people to value and appreciate through experience. And the
park offers visitors both perspective and adrenaline spikes. Safely, of course.

38 PO U L A R S CI E NCE
 J U LY 201 6

1. 2. 3.
PERILOUS SAFETY FIRST SMART
DESCENT The theme park sits EVACUATION
The journey begins atop a real re and After briey resting
on the ninth oor police station, and on a pool level, guests
a remembrance is staed by rst can continue to
garden honours responders. Adults descend by crossing a
fallen re-ghters. use narrow ladders to walkway to the top of
One level down, connect all nine levels, a simulated high-rise
guests can bungee while children 5 and up facade. Evacuees use
jump toward the rely on slides. Should a net or a climbing
mountainside below any of the levels wall to rappel down
from a platform controlled blazes get the building to safety,
that extends several out of hand, three which mirrors how
metres past the water towers oer South Koreans escape
structures side. immediate relief. burning high-rises.

4. 5.
UNSTEADY WILDERNESS
FOOTING RESCUE
Visitors descend a Another way out leads
staircase to the next to an engineered,
level, which is pitched scaled-down moun-
at a 10-degree angle to taintop that connects
mimic Daegus uneven the pool to the parks
2. terrain. Monkey bars base. Manufactured
and an adult-size rainstorms make a
hamster ball (to roll guests hike down
to the next disaster) treacherous. Clumsy
oer a playground when wet? Ropes
vibe, but the most and ying-foxes
daring can high-dive provide additional
to the pool below. options for escape.

6.
3. TRAPPED
UNDERGROUND
Inspired by a 2003
Daegu arson that
killed 192 people
during a morning
rush hour, visitors
5. must survive a
subway re. There
are two options to
reach safety: Drop
out a train door
through a chute,
or snake across the
6. tracks as if theyre
balance beams.
 J U LY 201 6
Next
Rubicon

SAY HI TO LI-FI
THE FUTURE OF WIRELESS COMMUNICATION IS BRIGHT
Whenever you use Wi-Fi to text
or download a Serial podcast, the
data travels over radio waves. The
trouble is that these waves occupy
such a narrow pathway along the
electromagnetic spectrum, which
limits the available bandwidth for
smartphones and other devices.You
can never create more spectrum,
says Harald Haas, a lead mobile
communications researcher at the
University of Edinburgh.
If radio waves are like a crowded
single-lane road, visible lightwaves
are like a wide-open freeway. The
by swath through
AL L IS ON LED bulbs.
WIL L IAMS When modified
with a signal
processor, the
bulbs function as
semiconductors, embedding digital
information within lightwaves.
Light fidelity, or Li-Fi, promises
to stream data to wireless devices
in the form of LED flashes. They
change intensity fast enough to
transmit data at superspeeds
a million cycles per second, or
one megahertz (without a visual
Li-Fi in the early 2000s, and it reached
speeds of only around 10 megabits per
secondenough for Internet browsing
but not for intense HD streaming. Then, in
2003, he managed to split the data across
frequencies, upping the speed to 100
gigabits per second, or about 15 times
faster than the fastest Wi-Fi.
Li-Fi is more secure too. Light cant travel
through walls, so the signal cant either. The
big drawback is the lights need to be on for
the Internet to work. But an Indian startup
Velmenni recently unveiled a Li-Fi-enabled
LED that dims to a barely visible 10 per cent
of its full power and still transmits data.

solution for faster downloads is
to take advantage of this larger
4
strobe effect). The techs impact could be greatest
Haas began working on in regions without existing Internet
infrastructure. A single LED-outfitted
street lamp could serve as an Internet
hotspot for homes and villages in a People
developing areaall it needs is a receiver worldwide,
to embed the data in the flashes. It took in billions,
15 years for everyone to get Wi-Fi, Haas who lack
says. With Li-Fi, I believe it will take five Internet
years, and the clock started last year. access

40 PO P U L A R S CI E NCE IL LU ST R AT ION BY Harry Campbell

 Next
Aussie Innovation

PRISMS BOOST
SOLAR EFFICIENCY 15%
AND AUSSIE ENGINEERS BREAK A PHOTOVOLTAIC RECORD Ave rage
e ff ic ie nc y
by A N T H O N Y FO R DH A M
of high- end
sola r pa ne ls
Engineers at the University of New South Of course, this is a highly experimental currently o n
Wales have achieved a solar cell conversion system that is yet to be scaled up to a useful t he m a rket
efficiency rate of 34.5%, making their cell size. Its also made of exotic and expensive for hom e
currently the best in the world. materials that will probably never make it onto insta llat ion.
The key innovation was to use a prism with our rooftops.
an embedded four-junction mini-module to But experiments like these do give
split incoming rays into four bands, and extract engineers invaluable data, and as designs
maximum energy improve and costs come down, elements of
So far the lead scientists - Dr Mark Keevers this tech will trickle out to the market.
and Professor Martin Green - have achieved The practical result will be solar
these results with a module surface area systems that take up less space on the
of just 28 cm^2. This is 44% better than the roof, generate more electricity, and last
previous record holder, the 24% efficient much longer.
module by Alta Devices - although this tech In a press release, CEO of the
has already been scaled up to 800 cm2. Australian Renewable Energy
One of the limiting factors in regular Agency Ivor Frischkenecht says
solar panels is that the materials in each Australia already punches well
photovoltaic cell extract energy most above its weight in solar R&D
efficiently only at specific wavelengths. In other and is recognised as a world
words, most of the sunlight isnt converted to leader in solar innovation.
energy as effectively as possible. These early stage foundations
UNSWs mini-module uses a triple-junction are increasingly making it
cell that targets bands of sunlight. There possible for Australia to
are three layers: indium-gallium-phosphide; return solar dividends here
indium-gallium-arsenide; and germanium. at home and in export
Energy is extracted at each layer at its most markets - and theres no
efficient wavelength while unused light passes reason to believe
through to the next layer. the same results
Eventually all thats left is infra-red, which is cant be achieved
bounced off a mirror, up to the modules silicon with this record-
cell, where a final sip of energy is extracted. breaking technology.

94,000
Area, in square kilometres,
of solar panels required
to supply the USAs entire
projected electricity
demand by 2030.
COURTESY UNSW

Co-incidentally the same

approximate area currently
covered by its interstate
highway network.

P OPS C I . C O M 41
 J U LY 201 6
Next
FYI

ROCKET SCIENCE
As SpaceXs former director of
recruiting, Dolly Singh had a problem:
My high heels sucked. She would
walk up to six kilometres a day in the

MEETS RUNWAY
unforgiving shoes, and couldnt find a
fashionable alternative. Theres been no
innovation within the high-heel market in
almost a century, says Singh.
So she founded Thesis Couture
staffing it with a rocket scientist, an
astronaut, and a mechanical engineer

RE-ENGINEERING HIGH HEELS
by ANNABEL EDWARDS
and set out to design a stiletto that was
not only comfortable, but would also
better absorb shock, offer extra arch
support, and distribute body weight more
evenly across the foot.
In a standard pair of heels, 80 per cent
of your weight is on the balls of your feet.
Our goal is to shift that to 50 per cent,
Singh says. Thesis Couture will release
1,500 pairs of the limited-edition stiletto,
which retails for US$925, this year.

123,355
P H OTO G R A P H BY C H A R L I E L A N G E L L A

Number of ER
injuri es i n the US
linked to high heels
from 2002-2012

42 PO PUL A R S CI E NCE
J ULY 2 0 1 6
AUSSIE ROCKET HELPS
PIONEER HYPERSONIC FLIGHT
You know the old saying: you cant
revolutionise international air travel
and open up new ways to access space,
without first shooting off a bunch of
experimental rockets in the Australian
desert. That... thats a saying, isnt it?
The Hypersonic International Flight
Research Experimentation Program -
neatly acronymned as HIFiRE - launched
the HIFire 5b rocket from the Woomera
Test Range in May. The unmanned vehicle
reached a height of 278 km, which isnt
remarkably high, but at a speed of Mach
7.5, which is remarkably fast. Thats 9261
km/h, a truly monumental speed.
While the specifics of the launch
remain cloaked in secrecy and security,
the general aim is flight testing at
hypersonic speeds. One of the biggest
challenges for engineers is designing
an airframe that works at such high
velocities. DARPAs HTV-2 drone famously
burned off its own skin as it passed
Next
Superlatives
by A N T H O N Y FO RDH A M
through Mach 20, such was the heat from
compression. The Space Shuttle itself
used to hit Mach 25 on re-entry, but was
of course protected by a complex array of
thermal tiles.
16,250
While the Shuttle was technically a
hypersonic vehicle, during re-entry it had
very limited control - every landing was
with engines switched off. The quest for
a hypersonic aircraft as easy to fly as as
Speed, in km/h, of Boeing 747 continues.
t he Spa ce S hu ttl es Challenges include keeping engines
re - entry, wh ich feed with oxygen, not burning up due
is a ctua l ly sl ow to compression of the air ahead of the
by spacecraft aircraft, weird ionisation and chemical
s ta nd a rd s. I ts reactions, and even basic control.
thermal tiles were The HIFiRE program has numerous
designed to survive test flights scheduled over the coming
re - entry. The years, and universities and the military
Apollo modules alike remain on the lookout for promising
heat s hie ld wa s post-graduate students to help them
designed to ablate, realise the ultimate dream: Sydney to
o r burn o ff. London in five hours or better.
HYPERSONIC
Supersonic is of course any
speed in excess of 1236 km/h
at sea level, or Mach 1, and
military jets still routinely travel
at this speed. But above Mach 5,
physical changes in the airflow
including molecular dissociation
and ionisation become increasing
apparent - and increasingly
disruptive to traditional
airframe designs. Thats right: a
hypersonic plane goes so fast,
it tears air molecules apart.
Beyond Mach 10 (12,300 km/h),
engineers start talking about
high hypersonic and its all
about thermal control. At these
speeds, even if an aircraft is
protected by thermal tiles, free-
atomic oxygen can chemically
eat away at the vehicles skin.
P OP S C I . C O M 43
 J U LY 201 6
Next
Form Factor

POSITION-TRACKING VR
POWERED BY... YOUR SMARTPHONE?
While gamers and technophiles announced the reference design front buffer latency.
are abuzz about virtual reality for its Daydream VR platform. Goa will be released to developers within
headsets like the Oculus Rift, As with all of these newly the next few months, and eventually, will
HTC Vive and Gear VR, these launched virtual reality systems, come to the market at a more affordable
devices fall into two categories: though, Goa faces issues with price point of a few hundred dollars.
either casual, low-quality the lack of content specifically The important part is getting it into
experiences on smartphones, designed for their experience. peoples hands, says Elangovan. Thats
or high-end gaming that usually On the technology side, we what will spark the VR revolution. Until that
relies on expensive hardware. Could a VR device like
havent gotten to the point happens, its going to be a niche product. As
Project Goa, led by Google this one day be a where we know the equivalent we reach the inflection point, thats when it
veteran Anush Elangovan, wants common sight at real of 24 frames per second, says will take off like a rocketship.
to nail high-quality virtual reality estate offices, hotels, Elangovan, drawing a parallel to
museums and more?
for the average consumer, by the cinematography standard.
making the smartphone-based Theres not a standard that
experience better. Nod, the tech you can build on top ofin VR
startup developing Goa, hopes to right now, there are 360-degree
tap into the enthusiasm around videos on one end, and intense
VR to expand past gaming into gameplay on the other. That
applications like real estate, nexus hasnt been defined or
medicine, museums, and tourism. understood yet.
Goa is a self-contained Vision tracking, depth
system that doesnt require cameras, and smartphone
mounted cameras or cables. The hardware also have a ways
console is a central base station to go before the technology
with a tracking camera and a can successfully support Positional tracking
processor to wirelessly assist large interactive programs; is key to making
smartphones in particular would Goa much more
your smartphone. Two wireless
than just a gimmicky
controllers detach from the need to be able to handle 60 Gear VR alternative.
station to provide hand tracking by H AN IYA R AE frames per second and reduce
and freedom of movement, much
like the HTCs Vives controllers.
A smartphone fits into a slot on a
visor, which then attaches to the
headset of your choice.
The console allows for full
movement up to nine feet, and
can be used with Oculus Rift or
Google Cardboard or Gear VR...
and of course your smartphone.
Goa is meant to bring the
virtual reality experience to
anyone who has a smartphone,
says Nods CEO Anush
Elangovan. You can leave the
station on a coffee table and a
family could sit around it.
For now, Nod wont make
a proprietary headset that
market is already covered,
especially since Google

44 PO P U L A R S CI E NCE
J ULY 2 0 1 6
480
Lines of ver tical
resolution on
Philips 42-inch
plasma TV, released
in 1997 and one of
th e f irs t on t he
m arket . It cos t
US$14,9 99, and had
1/36th the pixels of
a 4 K display.
WHAT THE HECK IS...
HDR TV?
Another sales quarter, another new TV tech, deployed
in a (we think) increasingly vain attempt to get you to
throw out your perfectly good 55-inch TV and replace it
with a 60-inch TV.
Late last year it was quantum dots, this time its
high dynamic range.
Since their introduction at the turn of the century,
LCD TVs have struggled to produce an image that is
simultaneously super-bright and also perfectly black -
depending on what the TV is showing.
Before HDR, your choice was between the latest LCDs
(very bright, blacks dark charcoal rather than true black)
and OLED (not as bright, but real blacks). Now, a new
standard called Ultra HD Premium defines a minimum
spec that wants to take new TVs to the next level.
HDR is a term that should be familiar to
photographers. An HDR photo is basically a combination
of a number of identical shots, each taken at different
shutter speeds. When merged using Photoshop, the
result (when done properly) is an intense image that can
more accurately evoke the feeling of being there.
HDR TV aims to do the same thing, albeit with a different
method. First up, an HDR TV must have a higher colour
depth (10-bit vs the 8-bit of most good TVs) and be able
to display 90% of the colours in the P3 colour space.
This is an US film industry standard for digital movie
projection, and means the TV can generate billions of
by
ANTHONY
FO RD H A M
its very output setting, and darkest. In
practical terms it means dazzling whites
T H E R E Q U IR E ME N TS
RESOLUTION: 3840 x 2160
COLOUR-DEPTH: 10 bit
COLOUR SPACE: 90% of P3
DYNANIMC RANGE: 1000 nits
bright to 0.05 nits black (LCD),
540 nits bright, 0.0005 nits
black (OLED).
much more lifelike and engaging. Yes, HDR
Next
Phrasebook
colours, rather than the mere 16 million or
so on non-HDR TVs.
Also, an HDR TV must have an extreme
contrast ratio. Thats the difference between
and proper, inky blacks.
OLED TVs of course cant match the
brightness of LCD, though this newer tech
has superior blackness - so theres a second
UHD Premium contrast ratio standard that
requires less brightness, but demands much
much lower blackness.
Like all new TV technology (full HD, 4K,
Blu-ray etc), HDR only works properly with
content created especially for it. Some films
and a few new TV shows (Netflixs Marco
Polo is an example) are shot to be HDR
compliant, but more will come.
The upshot of all of this is an image that is
sounds like marketing guff but it makes a
substantial difference. As big as the shift
from PAL to full HD? Maybe not.
But if you havent upgraded your TV for
10 years, you might as well get one with the
fancy new logo.
P OP S C I . C O M 45
 STARRING

I NS ET P H OTO : SAM K A P L AN ; T Y PO G RA P H Y BY M I K E Y B U RTO N

A S S C O T T Y, C H I E F E N G I N E E R O F T H E E N T E R P R I S E

PLUS

Rockets That Foil Comets, Facial Transplants,

a Russian Billionaires Space Bots, Artificial Wombs,
AND EVEN MORE...

P h o t o g r a p h y b y F. S C O T T S C H A F E R

46
SE T DESI G N E R: P ETE R GA R GAG L I A NO ; P RO DU C ER : DE B O R A H B U R C H FO R S NOG PROD U CT I ONS .COM ;
G R O O ME R : M IR A C H AI H YD E FO R R E V IV E S K I NCA R E A ND S H U U EM UR A H AI R AT T HE WAL L GROU P; RE TOU CHI NG BY CATCHL I GHT D I GTAL
 Interview
THIS YEAR, AS IN OTHER YEARS, the crew of the
Enterprise nds itself in yet another interstellar pickle.
Who will hit the warp drive on the funny? Our
cover lad, Simon Pegg, of course. The England-
T born actor returns as chief engineer Montgomery
Scotty Scott in this years franchise continu-boot,
Star Trek Beyond. And it happens to coincide with the
50th anniversary of Gene Roddenberrys iconic (and
lets be honest, campy) TV show.
Yeah, Pegg has heard all the Beam me up, Scotty
catcalls he can take. Even his mother wont stop. Still,
the man is a comedian. Hes also (per his Twitter bio) a zombie killer,
supercop, alien buster, diesel weasel, and onetime owner of the
Millennium Falcon. So we gured the twisted mind that brought us
Shaun of the Dead, broke Ethan Hunt out of a Russian prison (as
Benji in Mission: Impossible), slipped on a fat suit to play Unkar Plutt
in last years Star Wars, and co-wrote this years Star Trek would be
the best spokesperson for our Insane Ideas issue. Just how does this
intergalactic polymath do it? By giving her all shes got, Captain!
PS: DO ANY OF THOSE BUTTONS
ON THE ENTERPRISE SET DO ANYTHING?
Q SP: One calls for pizza, but were not sure which one it
is. Occasionally pizzas just turn up and we know that
&
someones pressed it, but it isnt clear. They actually all work.
If you press things, they light up. But nothing causes the
spaceship to y.
a
PS: DOES IT FEEL AS REALISTIC AS IT
LOOKS TO US FANBOYS AND FANGIRLS?
SP: The sheer attention to detail on the set design is
extraordinary. All the controls on the Enterprise are
touchscreen sensitive, and every button has a function.
And theres a way to steer the ship with various joysticks
and dials. You might never see a close-up of that in the
lm, but as an actor, it makes you feel like youre in a
totally real environment.
PS: I SUPPOSE THAT MAKES IT EASIER TO
PRETEND YOURE ON A STARSHIP.
SP: These sets are so fully realised, and it was a fairly
monumental shoot, this one. For the rst time, the bridge
was built on a gimbal so that it shook and we didnt have
to pretend the ship was being rocked around, which
is one of the most beloved Star Trek traditions: The
camera shakes and the actors go LEFT! and RIGHT!
There was a faint ennui about it: Oh, we dont have to
pretend anymore?
PS: WHATS YOUR FAVOURITE GADGET ON SET?
SP: My Scotty watch. Ive worn it in every lm, but I dont
think anyones seen it. If you press it, it goes all blue and
ashy. I like to press it sometimes when Im bored. Ive tried
to put it in the shot, but it never got in. So its an unseen,
beautiful thing.
PS: STAR TREK HAS BEEN AROUND FOR HALF A
CENTURY. WHATS CHANGED SINCE IT BEGAN?
SP: Whats kept the series going is this idea of hope
48 PO P U L A R S CI NECE
the idea that we actually manage to not only live on,
but we work together and go out into the universe and
we explore. In this one, we tried to slightly question the
strengths of Roddenberrys original vision. If the villain
is opposed to what the Federation is all about, we wanted
to make the audience wonder if the villain is right and
the crew is just assimilating the universe, rather than
their Federalist ideal to go out, make alliances, and build
a huge community. We wanted to take stock of that
and ask: Is that the right thing to do? Or are you just
colonizing the galaxy?
PS: I HEAR YOURE A MUSICIAN.
SP: I play the drums a little bit. And then lately I have played
harmonica with Coldplay a few times, and thats always
been extraordinary because for a few minutes, without any
qualications or any work to get there, Im standing in front
of 80,000 people playing harmonica!
PS: HOW DID YOU GET THAT GIG?
SP: Chris [Martin] and I go back a long way. We became
friends when they were a shoegazing indie band that
nobodyd ever heard of. They did a gig in 2001 at a festival,
and they werent even on the main stage, but I got up and
played harmonica with them. And every now and then Ill
go to see them, and Chris will be like, Come on up and play!
and Ill go, I dont want to; I just want to enjoy the show
and not feel nervous! But he says, You gotta! So I end up
sh*tting myself for the entire show until I do my bit, and
then I feel like a rock star for the rest of the night.
PS: DOES THE STAR TREK ENTOURAGE
EVER HANG OUT IN REAL LIFE?
SP: Weve all known each other for a long time, and we get
on very, very well. In Vancouver, where we shot this one,
youd often walk into a nightclub or a restaurant and see
the entire crew of the Enterprise. We went into one club
and sat at this big horseshoe tableme, Chris [Pine], Zach
[Quinto], John [Cho], Anton [Yelchin], and Deep [Roy]and
on the screen above this table, they put Star Trek on, and
we were like: What the hell, man?! We dont really want to
say, Hey, were here!
PS: DO YOU THINK SCOTTYS A LITTLE JEALOUS
OF THE KIRK-AND-SPOCK BROMANCE?
SP: I dont think he cares. I kind of feel like he lives in his
own world, Scotty. I think he likes being in the guts of the
ship xing stu. And obviously in this iteration, hes got
his little pal, Keenser, whos like this little oyster or bivalve
creature. Now hes a regular xture as Scottys right-hand
manor right-hand bivalve. So hes ne.
PS: DID YOU MEET YOUR PREDECESSOR, JAMES
DOOHAN, BEFORE HE PASSED AWAY IN 2005?
SP: Weirdly, I met him at an SFX [Science Fiction Expo]
convention years before. He was guest of honour. It was
very much the endhe was in a wheelchair and he was very
frail, but I got to meet him. It always strikes me as so strange
that that was in my future, and I didnt know and would not
be able to tell him. So I consider that to be an extraordinary,
fortuitous thing that I got to meet him, even though it was a
good three years before Id play him. I was like, Wow, thats
the universe opening up.
EDITED AND CONDENSED BY IAN DALY
 Watch Pegg answer
even crazier questions
at popsci.com/pegg.

P OP SC I . C O M. AU 49
50 PO P U L A R S CI E NCE

Absurd. Foolhardy. Impossible.
Thats what they say about big
ideasuntil they change the world.
Here are this years best.
I l l u s t r a t i o n s b y N AT H A N F O X
WEAPONS
Comet-Busting Rockets
Really big space rocks (1.5 km
or wider across) crash into Earth
about once every 500,000 years.
Thats rare, but we might not spot the
next one until its too late for existing
technology to stop itespecially if its
a comet. Because comets can travel
twice as fast as an asteroid, wed need
something 20 times more powerful
than anything in our arsenal to fend it
off. Whats humanity to do? One scien-
tist has an answer: fusion rockets.
Glen Wurden, a plasma physicist at
Los Alamos National Laboratory by
day and an amateur astronomer by
night, has conceived a comet-buster
that would work like this: Harnessing
the tremendous energy of fusion, the
process in which two atomic nuclei
collide to form a new nucleus, could
propel a rocket to more than 100 kilo-
metres per second. Thats 100 times
faster than the fastest cruise missile.
The science of controlling the reaction
on boardin a plasma surrounded by
a magnetic ringhas already been
proved possible in labs. Once the
rocket approaches the comet, the idea
isnt to score a direct hit, but rather to
set off a nuclear bomb close enough
to boil away surface material, chang-
ing the comets mass and trajectory.
Wurden thinks itd be worth spending
up to $40 billion over 40 years to build
it. Sure beats becoming a fossil record.
Sarah Fecht
3-D MEDICINE
RESTORING
FERTILITY
BY PRINTER
WEVE BECOME PRETTY good
at treating certain types of can-
cerparticularly in kids. Eighty
per cent of children under 18 are
now beating their various malig-
nancies for at least the rst ve
years, compared with less than
10 per cent in the 1950s.
But female survivors often
face a common problem when
they grow up: Their harsh can-
cer treatments have left their
ovaries inactive. So reproductive
biologist Monica Laronda and
biomedical engineer Alexandra
Rutz of Northwestern Univer-
sity set out to build them new
ones. They designed a 3D-print-
ed prosthetic ovary that can
grow healthy eggs. Their secret
is scaolding, which is made of
3D-printed gelatin, and holds
ovarian follicles that secrete
hormones and contain the struc-
tures that develop into eggs.
The ovary needs to be rigid
enough to be transplanted, and
roomy enough for eggs to ma-
ture. Researchers tested the de-
vice by replacing the 1.5-millime-
tre-wide ovaries of a few dozen
mice with the prosthetics. At the
Endocrine Society meeting in
April, Laronda announced that
some of those mice later gave
birth to healthy ospring.
Of course, human eggs
grow larger and take longer to
mature, so scaling up to pigs is
the next step. And researchers
have already begun preserving
and studying ovarian tissue
samples from pediatric cancer
patients. Children being treat-
ed today could have new hope
when the time comes to make
children of their own.
Alexandra Ossola
P OP SC I . C O M. AU 51
P E R S O N A L I Z E D H E A LT H CA R E

LABS ON DEMAND
A full third of patients never
through with their doctors re
to get blood drawn for impor
tests. What if, instead of schl
to the lab, the lab came to yo
Thats the idea behind Richm
Virginia-based Iggbo, a startu
aims to make drawing blood
medical tests as easy as ord
car service. Like an Uber for
Iggbo lets doctors order bloo
at the touch of a smartphone
patient then schedules a con
at-home appointment online
phlebotomist gets dispatche
Iggbo, compliance rates skyr
98.2 per cent. That means m
could receive better long-ter
But it also means something
the future of healthcare: Tho
of samples could be used to
insights into the identification
treatment of disease. If you
democratise accessnot onl
patients but to science, says
co-founder Shaival Kapadia,
look at patterns and offer far
preventative care. Lets just
theres no surge pricing. Ian

ENERGY AS THE GLOBAL Justin Lewis-Weber, Once out there, they Except that Lewis-
headcount nears 8 and to me, thats just could convert that Weber estimates that
A Robot billion, our thirst for
kilowatts is growing by
not feasible. This past
March, Lewis-Weber,
solar radiation into
electricity (just as
building and launching
thousands of tonnes of
Army the minute. How will
we keep the lights on
a then-high school
senior in California,
existing solar panels
do) and then into
solar panels and other
equipment into space
to Build without overheating came up with a plan: microwave beams will be outrageously
the planet in fossil-fuel self-replicating solar (using the same expensive, in the range
Solar exhaust? Alternative panelson the moon. principle as your of hundreds of trillions
energy is the obvious Heres the gist: kitchen appliance). of dollars.
Panels choice, but scaling up is When solar panels Those microwaves Instead, he
hard. It would take an are orbiting Earth, then get beamed suggested, why not
(On the area the size of Nevada they enjoy 24 hours of back to Earth, where make them on the
Moon) covered in solar panels
to get enough energy to
unltered sunshine
every day, upping
receivers convert them
back into electricity to
moon? Land a single
robot on the lunar
power the planet, says their productivity. power the grid. Simple! surface, and then

52 PO PUL A R S CI E NCE

RECYCLING
SEWAGE THAT
SOLVES OUR
ENERGY CRISIS
BEWARE OF reading this
if you just nished eating.
We dont just contribute
excrement to our
sewage systems. We also
contribute vegetable oils
and animal fats from food
scraps and washed dishes.
That residue, known as
brown grease, congeals
in sewer pipes and in
traps at wastewater
treatment plants.
Turns out, this grease is
valuable. Lawrence Pratt,
a chemistry professor at
New York Citys Medgar
Evers College, wants to
use pyrolysiswhich
breaks compounds into
smaller molecules by
heating them without
oxygen, thus avoiding
burningto transform
grease into fuel. We want
to turn brown grease into
a commodity, says Pratt,
whose grease plans are
backed by the National
Science Foundation.
Pyrolysis will melt
the grease and distill
its vapours, making it
similar to gasoline, and
compatible with internal-
program it to mine thats where the combustion engines.
raw materials, moons weak A single, midsize
construct solar gravity and non- wastewater plant can
panels, and make a existent atmosphere collect 15,000 tons of
copy of itself. The come in handy, brown grease per year.
process would repeat requiring far less Converted, it would
until an army of energy for the panels produce 9.4 million litres
self-replicating lunar to escape. It might be of fuel, enough to heat
robots has churned a moonshot, but the 7,000 homes. Considering
out thousands of technology to pull there are 16,000 such
solar panels. it o isnt far away. facilities in the US, thats a
Youd still have How does that lot of homesand a lot of
to get those panels stack up to your repurposed meals.
to orbit Earth so a high school Luba Ostashevsky
steady beam could science project?
reach the surface; Sarah Fecht
F LY I N G CA R S
Commute by
Passenger Drone
Traffic jams
and overcrowded
meant to be a
replacement for
highways dont fit
with any Utopian
other methods
of air travel, it is
vision of the future. intended to relieve
So Derrick Xiong, the stress on our
co-founder of Chi- increasingly prob-
na- based consum- lematic transpor-
er and commercial tation infrastruc-
drone company turea system
EHang, had an that could cost as
insight: The only much as $3 billion
way out is the sky. to fix in the US
Xiongs four-armed, alone. The EHangs
single-passenger ability to take off
EHang 184 is the and land vertical-
worlds first drone ly, along with the
capable of trans- minimal training
porting humans. required for riders,
It has many of the gives it advantages
comforts of a com- above cars and
mercial plane, such planes. With a
as air conditioning release date thats
and lighting, but still uncertain and
with the autonomy a price compa-
of a drone. Passen- rable to a small
gers use a Micro- plane (upwards
soft Surface tablet of $300,000), the
to regulate the EHang wont be
amenities, while a replacing the Prius
command centre anytime soon. But
remotely monitors our days of end-
flights and handles less gridlock may
the logistics of be numbered.
air-traffic control. Lindsey
While it isnt Kratochwill
P OP SC I . C O M. AU 53
 Patrick Hardison,
before the 2001 accident

On September 5, 2001, a
two-alarm blaze at a mobile home
outside of Senatobia, Mississippi,
drew dozens of firefighters to the
scene. Patrick Hardison, a local
tyre salesman, was among them.
When the homes roof gave
way and the ceiling crashed down,
Hardison was the only one still in the
trailer. His respirator mask melted
onto his face. His lips, ears, eyelids,
and much of the skin on his head
were burned off.
Fourteen years and 71 surgeries

FR O M TO P : C O RTES IA / NOT IM EX / NE WS C O M ; H A ND O UT C O URTESY NY U L AN GONE

later, Hardison remained grossly
disfigured. Then he met Dr. Eduardo
Rodriguez, chair of plastic surgery
at NYU Langone Medical Centre. He
suggested a daring idea: to remove
Hardisons face and attach another.
In August 2015, a suitable donor
was foundDavid Rodebaugh, a
EXTREME SURGERY
bicycle mechanic who had been in

TRADING
a fatal accident. He had a matching
blood type and compatible genes.
After a 26-hour surgical
procedure, Hardison emerged with a

FACES new face. This year, Popular

Science tagged along with him
during a follow-up visit to Dr.

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF

Rodriguez to see what life is like in
someone elses skin.

PATRICK HARDISON Matt Giles

Photography by JJ SULIN David Rodebaugh, a bicycle

mechanic in Brooklyn

54 POP U L A R S CI E NCE
 8:01 AM
My face still has a tingling ache and pain.
When I shower in the morning, I let hot
water run over it, which helps some. After
the surgery, I was taking 15 pills at 8:00
am, and another 15 at 8:00 pm. Now I take
six in the morning, and only four at night.
The medication can make me feel woozy,
but the times it doesnt are a thousand
times better than the times is does.
I am also sleeping more. I still get up at
5:30 or 6:00, but now I sleep three or four
hours without waking up.

BACK TO
DAILY LIFE
Hardisons transplant
surgery was the most
extensive of the dozens
attempted worldwide during
the past decade. Nearly a year
after his transplant, Hardison
is still on a diet of immuno-
suppressant drugs to stop
his body from rejecting the
new face. He has yet to suer
a rejectiona rst in this
pioneering eld.

9:12 AM
People stopped staring at me right after
the surgery. I went to Macys and did some
shopping the day I got out of the hospital,
and I realised people werent looking
at me anymoreeven though my face
was swollen, they just thought I had jaw
surgery. They didnt look at me and think,
He had a face transplant. It was a great
feeling. When I first looked at myself in the
mirror, I realised right away that this was
my face. There was no taking it off.

9:31 AM
Before the surgery, I had two little
pinholes that I could see out of. My eye
doctor told me I was like a horse with
blinders onI could see only straight in
front of me. I was 20/2200 in vision.
I am now about 20/30. I dont have
trouble reading the cellphone screen
anymore, but I am so used to holding my
phone close to my face. Whenever I pick it
up now, it goes there automatically.

P OP SC I . C O M. AU 55
 10:00 AM
My surgeon, Dr. Rodriguez, wants to
make sure nothing is out of place. Ive had
six or seven touch-ups since the transplant,
and I met with him to discuss another,
which will raise my forehead and eyebrows.
They were too low. There will always be
some more stuff theyll have to straighten
outI still have to come to NYU once a month
to do lab work and also see my psychologist
but this next surgery should get me settled
for at least the rest of the year.

6:00 PM
People label me disabled. I hate that.
Its been less than a year since the surgery,
and I am way ahead of schedule. I opened
my eyes 10 days after the transplant,
which everyone thought would take me six
months to do. I didnt want to become a
hermit following the procedureI just want
to get back to living my life. I am taking
my kids to Disney World this summer,
and since Dr. Rodriguez scheduled the
removal of my trachea tube, I am finally
going to be able to jump in the water.
I havent done that since the accident.

56 PO PUL A R S CI E NCE
 MAKING BABIES to observe: Since as a blastocyst) sheds allowable amount). the mother (at least
pregnancy hormones its outer layer and The Rockefeller not initially). That
Womb Not are too low to register
a positive test, its hard
implants in the
uterine lining.
researchers grew one
in a lab by giving it
promises new models
for human growth,
Required to know if a woman is
pregnant, and without
In May, though,
researchers from
insulin and other
nutrientsno lining
and insights into failed
pregnancies. While the
THE FIRST 13 days looking into the Rockefeller Univer- necessary. This demon- research doesnt mean
following human womb, we cant watch sity were the rst to strated an embryo itself we can grow babies in a
conception have fertilised eggs grow. We watchand raise contains the genetic lab, it hints at a future
mostly remained a broadly understand the human embryos in the instruction manual where human wombs
mystery to science. processthe embryo laboratory for 13 days for its development, might be optional.
It is all but impossible (a mass of cells known (the maximum ethically and it isnt shared with Dave Gershgorn

CLIMATE CHANGE
AI POLICES SMOG
CHINA HAS SOME of the worst
air pollution in the world, and the
smog-choked capital, Beijing, has
become its poster child. Breathing
its air, according to a study released
last year by US-based nonprot
Berkeley Earth, can be as unhealthy
as smoking 30 cigarettes a day.
Worse: Because air quality uctuates
so wildly (depending on industrial
activity, trac, and weather), its
dicult to give residents ample
warning to protect themselves.
Thats changing, thanks to
articial intelligence and the
Internet of Things. Under a new
initiative called Green Horizons,
IBM has been collecting data from
pollution sensors spread across
the capital city, and crunching that
data with cognitive computing (aka
articial intelligence) and predictive
analytics. The resulting complex
modeling system sees patterns
where we humans saw only chaos.
Since launching the initiative in
2014, IBM has been able to generate
high-resolution 1-by-1-kilometre
pollution forecasts 72 hours in
advance, giving citizens more
warning and planning time.
But most important, its
pinpointing those responsible for
the problem (trac and factory
output), and advising the
government on how to reach its
goal of reducing smog-generating
particulate matter in the capital by
25 percent by next year. IBM is now
rolling out the initiative in other
heavily polluted cities, including
Johannesburg and New Delhi.
It might not look as impressive
as Watson beating humans at
Jeopardy!, but who wouldnt take
clean air for 500, Alex?
Matt Giles
SPACE EXPLORATION
Tiny Ships Seek
Deep-Space Aliens
Russian billionaires
dont think small, but
Yuri Milners plan is tiny. The
former physicist pledged $100
million in April to build thousands
of cracker-size spacecraft.
Their mission: to search for
extraterrestrial life and habitable
planets in our neighbouring star
system, Alpha Centauri. The real
breakthrough is how theyll get there.
Theyll unfurl light sails that use
photons to push them forward the
way sailboats use wind. Powerful
lasers on Earth will blast them with
enough energy to accelerate them
to one-fifth the speed of light, so
their journey will take between 20
and 30 years. Dave Gershgorn

P OP SC I . C O M. AU 57
EX P O SU R E

INSIDE
P O P U L A R S C I E N C E EXC LU S IV E

NASAS
MARS
MISSION
NASAS $24 BILLION ORION PROGRAM WILL DELIVER HUMANS TO
T HE S U R FAC E OF M A R S SOM ETI M E I N THE 2 0 30 s . FOR THE FIRST TIME,
T HE AG E N CY OP E N E D ITS D OOR S AT T HR EE FACI L I TI ES A ROUND
THE COUNTRYTO GIVE US AN EXCLUSIVE LOOK AS THEY BUILD THE
CA P S U LE A N D R OC KE T SYSTEM S T HAT WI L L TAK E U S T HERE.

By Sarah Fecht /// Photography by Spencer Lowell

TESTE D U N DE R P R ESS U R E

Orion is the rst manned

spacecraft NASA has built
in a generation. Its aim is to
take humans farther than
theyve ever gone, beginning
a new era of deep-space
exploration. This Orion
capsule at Kennedy Space
Center in Florida will be
part of the rst mission in
2018. To ensure its airtight,
engineers will pump in more
air than its meant to handle,
checking for weak points in
its structural integrity that
could endanger a crew.
EX P O SU R E

S O L A R PA N E L C H O R EO G R A P H Y

An X-shaped array of four 7.3-metre

solar panels will generate 11 kilowatts
of energy to power Orions computers,
life support, and other onboard
equipment. Folded during blasto,
they will unfurl like an awning in
space. Here, at NASAs Glenn
Research Center in Sandusky,
Ohio, engineers test mock versions
of the panels to ensure they wont
jam when they are deployed.

60 POP U L A R S CI E NCE
P OP SC I . C O M. AU 61
EX P O SU R E

S O U N D C HECK
Rocket launches are loud
180 decibels or moreand can
turn human organs into jelly. They
can also wreak havoc on a space
capsule. So engineers in Sandusky
test Orions structural integrity by
blasting its parts with 152 decibels
of noise inside the worlds most
powerful acoustic chamber.
P OP SC I . C O M. AU 63
EX P O SU R E

A F U E L TOWE R R I SES

Below is one of ve barrels that will

form Orions 39.6-m-tall hydrogen
storage tank. The rocket will burn
2.76 million litres of cryogenic liquid
hydrogen (stored at minus 252 C) and
oxygen as it leaves Earth. Engineers
at this NASA assembly facility in
New Orleans will stack the nished
barrels onto the blue scaolding at
right, and then fuse them together
with other parts of the rocket.

64 POP U L A R S CI E NCE
CA P P I N G O F F A H E AV Y LOAD

Two domes will cap the top

and bottom of the cylindrical
hydrogen tank (once their
holes are covered). At lifto,
hydrogen and oxygen will
collide inside the rockets
repurposed space shuttle
engines, exploding with
enough thrust to lift 130,000
kilograms20 per cent
more power than the rocket
that carried the Apollo 11
crew to the moon.
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only too much caffeine can give (yes were being a bit
sarcastic). Seriously though, proper coffee is an art
form, and the IMPRESSA A5 is an automated artist.

A slimline, all-in-one machine that integrates

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66 PO P U L A R S CI E NCE
 EDITED BY SO PHIE B U SHW I C K

In comic books and blockbuster movies, only

the worthy can lift Thors hammer. But you dont
have to be a hero to wield Allen Pans version
of Mjolnir. While watching last years Avengers:
Age of Ultron, the freelance engineer noticed
a flippant remark about the handle being
imprinted, Pan says. The idea that fingerprints
could unlock the hammer inspired him.
I thought about how someone might go about
replicating that function, and there it was, he
says. All he needed was an electromagnet
which can be turned on and off by electrical
currentand a fingerprint scanner. Pan wired
together the electromagnet and scanner, and
placed them inside an off-the-shelf toy Mjolnir.
When switched on, his hammer becomes
magnetised and will stick fast to metal until the
scanner recognises his touch and releases the
great and eternal symbol of... Thoriness.

Only You Last October, Pan used his gizmo to prank

unsuspecting Angelenos: He placed the hammer

Can Lift This

on metal surfaces, such as manhole covers, and
recorded passersby as they futilely tried to lift it.
Then he would walk into frame and effortlessly

Hammer heft it himself. His online video has been viewed

more than 14 million times. Now follow these
instructions to build your own Mjolnir.
TIME 8 hours
COST $400
DIFFICULTY w wwww

by
ERI C
H AGA N

68 PO PUL A R S CI E NCE P HOTOG R AP H BY Sam Kaplan

 J U LY 201 6

M AT E R I A L S TO O L S IN STR UCTIO N S

w  " 8 - ? @ 5/@;E 1 Unscrew the props handle and

B1>?5;:;2&4;>p? trim down the screw threads.
4 -991> 6;8:5>
Cut out a removable door on the
wUT
.E

5:/4 X-Acto knife top of the hammer and cut three

@4>1-010.8-/7
more rectangular sections on the
<5<1C5@4/-<
bottom.
-: 0  28-:31
w%A101?@>5<
2 To make a new handle from
w5:31><>5:@
pipe, first use a Dremel to cut a
?/-::1>-:0/-.81
Dremel hole for the fingerprint scanner.
w  8 1->2 5:31>:-58
Attach the pipe flange. Wrap
<;85?4
the full length of the pipe in the
w&;3381?C5@/4
w  ]
B;8@ .-@@1>E
suede leather, stuck in place with
-: 0  /-? 1
hot glue. Fill in any gaps with
w
5:/4<8EC;;0
suede cutoffs.
.-?1 Hot-glue gun
w>-C1>4-:081? 3 Cover the metal section of the
w5/>;C-B1 fingerprint scanner in two coats
@>-:? 2;>91> of clear nail polish to prevent it
w  > 59<
;:>5:3 from grounding. Hot-glue the
@;: 3A1@1>95:-8? scanner into the pipe and attach
2;>U\
@;
VV
3-A31 the cable. Glue the toggle switch
Soldering iron
C5>1 to the opposite end of the pipe,
w)5>1 running the wires past the fin-
w>EC-88?/>1C? gerprint scanner into the 9-volt
w  )-?41>? battery case.
w;91:@->E
/-<-/5@5B1@;A/4 4 Place the drawer handles on
?1 : ?;> Scissors either side of the transformer,
w;A>UV
B;8@ and attach them to the plywood
81-0
-/50.-@@1>51? base. Screw the pipe to the op-
w  >0A5:;':; posite side of the base, keeping
wZT
B;8@?;850
?@-@1 the wires outside the pipe flange.
>18-E Place the entire assembly inside
w  > 59<
;:
5:/4 the plastic Mjolnir so the trans-
Screwdrivers
=A5/705?/;::1/@? former sticks out of the holes in
2;>U\
@;
VV
3-A31 the bottom.
C5>1
w(18/>;-:0 5 Connect the capacitive sensor
<8EC;;0?@>5<? to the pipe flange with screws,
washers, and crimp connectors.
I L LU ST R ATI O N S BY C L I NT FO R D

Multimeter Slide the four 12-volt batteries

into the case.

6 Connect the Arduino to the

other electronics with a wiring
diagram you can find via Google.
Then upload the code at the
same link to the Arduino: first
the fingerprint code (to teach the
hammer to recognise you), then
the hammer code.

P OP SC I . C O M. AU 69
Manual
The author on the
Repurposed Tech
goand at work
with his walking
desk.

Wear Your
Ofce .E
S E AN M ICHAE L R AGAN

Sitting at a desk day after day compresses your spine, TO O LS + M AT E R I A LS I N ST R U CT I O N S

degenerates your muscles, and generally wreaks havoc
w%/>1C0>5B1> 1. Replace the drum hanger bolts with
on your health. But the standing desk, a popular solution, 5
/16 -18 carriage bolts. Secure them from
w &
.- >  .- ??
0 > A 9 /- > > 51>
makes your feet ache. The fix: Walk while you work, by the front with flat washers, lock washers,
w V  5/16
U\
.E
U
5:/4/->>5-31.;8@?
turning a bass-drum carrier into a wearable desk. This and wing nuts. Replace the height
C5 @4 9-@/4 5 : 3 C5 : 3 :A @?  28 -@ adjustment and belly-band attachment
easy-to-make workstation gets you exercising, and is
C- ?4 1>?  - : 0  8 ; /7  C- ?4 1>? locknuts with 1/4 -20 wing nuts and
perfect for mobile computing jobs such as live blogging, washers. This will make it easy to break
w X 
VTC5:3:A@?C5@4
managing inventory, and data collection. Walk this way! down or adjust the desk.
9-@/4 5 : 3 28 -@ - : 0  8 ; /7  C- ?4 1>?

FR O M TO P : P H OTO G RA P H BY A ND RE W C H AN ; P H OTO G R AP H BY SA M K A PL A N
w1:/4B5?1 2. Temporarily remove the T-bar, clamp
w$A..1>9-881@ it in a vise, and bend it with a rubber
mallet until the bar is horizontal. Drill
w>588-:0.5@? a 1/4 -inch hole about 1/2 -inch from each
w ) ;;01:/A@@5:3.;->0 U5:/4 end, and remount the bar to the carrier.
8->31>@4-:8-<@;<2;;@<>5:@
3. Position the cutting board on the
w V 
VT&
:A@?C5@49-@/45:3
T-bar, adjust for comfort, and mark the
U
5:/4C5:3.;8@? 28-@C-?41>?  location of the holes in the T-bar on the
- : 0  8 ; /7  C- ?4 1>? cutting board from underneath. Drill two
9
/32 -inch holes where marked, hammer
w X  N\
.E
N\
5 : /4  . 8 - /7
the T-nuts in from above, and secure to
> A ..1>  ?<- /1>? C5 @4 the T-bar from below with flat washers,
?411@91@-8?/>1C?@;/81-> lock washers, and wing bolts.
5::1>05-91@1>
4. Center your open laptop on the cutting
w V 
5:/4;22?1@/85<?C5@4 board, and locate two drilling centers
9-@/45:3?411@
91@-8?/>1C?  along the front edge near the corners.
28 -@ C- ?4 1>?  - : 0  8 ; /7  C- ?4 1>? Drill pilot holes. Then install offset clips
with wood screws and washers to hold
down the keyboard. Finally, install one
rubber spacer along each side and one
against each back corner to prevent the
TIME 1 hour computer from sliding around.
COST $80
DIFFICULTY w w

70 PO PUL A R S CI E NCE
J ULY 2 0 1 6
A Videocard that
Comes Watercooled...
Right Out of the Box!
King Geeks wear their water-cooled gaming
PCs like a crown. These elaborately-
constructed systems ditch mass-produced
plastic fans and replace them with water
pumps, pipes, and garishly-coloured coolant.
A water-cooled system runs quieter
and can (but not necessarily will) be more
stable once overclocked. But the build is
complex and difficult. And of course, theres
the constant risk of something coming
unplumbed and spraying green water all over
your expensive electronics.
One of the loudest and hottest
components in any serious gaming PC is the
videocard. Yet this is usually the trickiest
element to water-cool. When pumps and
fans are finally hooked up, the inside of a PC
can look veritably spaghettified with cabling.
AMDs top-end Radeon R9 Fury X
combines familiar consumer-grade tech
with the kind of circuitry youd normally
see on a supercomputer, namely its unique
high bandwidth memory. So unlike regular
videocards, the Fury X gets water cooling,
right from the factory.
Manual
The Upgrade
by
A N T H O N Y FO RDH A M
SAP P H IR E R A D EON
R 9 FU RY X
GPU: A M D F i j i
P RO C ES S : 28 n m
T R A NS I STO R S : 8.9 b n
GPU CLOCK: 1050M Hz
S H A DER S : 4 096
T EXT U R E U N I TS: 2 56
VRAM: 4GB HBM
BANDWIDTH: 512 GB/s
P R I C E: $ 899
Apart from looking suitably hardcore, this engineered www.scorptec.com.au
solution integrates pump, fan, pipes and cables into a
streamlined, two box package. The graphical smarts are
in the larger box, and the fan sits on a sealed reservoir-
radiator combo filled with formulated coolant. That
means virtually zero risk of corrosion, or motherboard-
fritzing leaks. And as long as you have a spot in the PC
to attach the radiator, the Fury X actually takes up less
space than some of its older, slower rivals.
The result is a top-tier videocard that just loves to run
games in ultra-high resolution, while maintaining a rock-
steady temperature of about 50 degrees. Its not silent
- you can hear the pump whirring away - but its
much, much quieter than the 737-on-take-off
roar of an air-cooled system running, say, Star
Wars Battlefront 2 at 4K.
SC I . C O M. AU 1
Manual
Showtime

Computex 2016:
Year of the Maker
Once upon a time, Taiwans massive annual tech show
was all about beige towers, KVMs and network switches.
Then, the organisers discovered gamers, and went all
neon and fluoro and overlocking. This year, organisers
and exhibitors alike began to court a new market:
makers and builders. Among the gaming notebooks
and VR headsets were plenty of treats for the dedicated
prototyper. Here are some that stood out for us.

by LINDSAY HANDMER

FLUX DELTA ALL IN ONE

3D PRINTER
Designed for total versatility,
the Flux Delta combines a whole
range of extra functionality into
a high-end but still aordable 3D
printer. Importantly, its designed
for home and hobbyist use, not
just commercial applications. The
Delta can of course print, as well
as performing 3D scans of objects
placed inside. It also has a laser,
which allows engraving, or it can
have a special pen slotted into
place to enable detailed drawing.
For now it is only available as a
pre-order, for around $1000.
wwwflux3dp.com
ASUS ZENBO
Sci-Fi has promised us personal robots for a long time,
but somehow it has never really happened in a useful
or aordable way. Until the ASUS Zenbo. The little
robot can drive about, talk and listen, take photos and
videos, and even play music. Zenbo taps into your
smart home and connected services, to act as a personal
assistant in everyday life. Allegedly. It can also learn
from and adapt to your preferences and routines. ASUS
has not yet released Australian pricing or a launch date,
but it will cost US$599, which would be about $800.
www.asus.com

PROJECT AVALON
In a perfect world, all technology would be modular and inter-compatible,
allowing users to create their own unique devices. ASUS has taken a step in that
direction for PCs, with Project Avalon. At its heart is a basic motherboard that can
take a range of different expansion boards, such as for a GPU. This means you can
build a PC with exactly the features you need, but can still upgrade easily later.
ASUS has also made it possible to users to 3D print a range of parts for its Republic
of Gamers branded motherboards (such as fan and light supports), allowing further
customisation. No word yet on a release date or price in Australia.
www.asus.com

72 POPUL A R S CI E NCE
J ULY 2 0 1 6
MSI BACKPACK PC
Virtual reality is fast
becoming the must have
new tech, but it faces some
major aws. One of the
biggest problems is that
users need USB cables
running from a powerful
PC to their headset and
control. This limits motion,
and creates a tripping
hazard. Believe us. We found
out the hard way. To help
improve VR and combat
these problems, MSI has
built a backpack PC which
has enough grunt to drive
a virtual reality headset.
The whole kit weighs in at
5kg, and has an Intel Core-i7
CPU and and a GeForce GTX
980 videocard. The onboard
battery keeps it running for
about two hours - short, but
probably wise to prevent
Oculus Face. MSI promises
the VR backpack will be
available by the end of the
year, but has not given
any pricing. Our guess?
Expensive.
www.msi.com
Manual
Showtime
BIRDLY
Do you wish you could y? Birdly is a kind of weird but
wonderful ight simulator, which makes it feel like you
have truly taken to the skies. The system is built by VRDB
- a developer run community that aims to bridge the
gap between VR hardware, games and users. Birdly
gives the player wings (and some wind feedback
from a fan), so they can intuitively, ap, swoop
and soar through an articial environment.
Unfortunately for now you cant actually
buy one, but its a great demo of what VR is
capable of. Its the kind of thing you might one
day encounter at a trendy club, like a cool
version of a mechanical bull.
www.vrdb.com
ASROCK HYPER OC
XYZPRINTING
Intel loves to restrict how users can overclock HANDHELD
their CPUs - only allowing it on higher end models. SCANNER
While great for Intel, this is frustrating for those who
want to tinker with getting extra performance from
their PCs. The bofns over at ASRock didnt like the Having a 3D printer
status quo though, and gured out how to overclock is all well and good,
the low end CPUs anyway. Other manufacturers but you are limited
also had a crack, but quietly backed down when by the les used to
Intel did not approve. Not ASRock though - who has create new objects.
now released a range of custom motherboards that Some printers can
include the extra hardware needed. There isnt yet also scan, but only
a release date for the boards in Australia, but they on a small scale. So
should cost only a little more than existing models. XYZPrinting built a
www.asrock.com portable handheld
scanner, which can
be used to create
a replica of larger
objects, or even
people. Of course
the resulting print
wont be full size, but
its a big step towards
making 3D printers more
useful. The scanner uses
Intels RealSense technology,
and is already for sale at your
favourite 3D printer shop for
around $400.
www.xyzprinting.com
P OP SC I . C O M. AU 73
 J U LY 201 6
Manual
Thats a Job

A Surreal Stradivari
In 2010, Andy Cavatorta was a masters student at the What is your process like?
MIT Media Lab when Bjrk visited. The Icelandic musician I build cheap, shabby prototypes,
was seeking a collaborator to make music using the forces of because Id rather find out some-
nature. Cavatorta was eager to help: For years, the software thing is a bad idea for $5 worth
engineer spent his evenings tinkering with noise-making of cardboard than later, when its
by robotic sculptures. Together, he and Bjrk dreamed made of steel. In the process, I
LYDIA CHAIN
up gravity harps, enormous pendulums six metres find ways to make it sound and
high that played notes by swinging columns of look beautiful.
strings past stationary picks. Bjrk used them on her 2011 What is the purpose of
album Biophilia and for a subsequent tour. How did you make your inventions?
More commissions followed, allowing Cavatorta to charge underwater instruments? I always want people to be
as much as US$250,000 per project. Stella Artois hired him The acoustics are completely movedit cant be a gimmick.
to build an entire orchestra incorporating its signature chalice, differentall the things that work There was a time when the pipe
and most recently, Danish ensemble Between Music ordered in the air just dont underwater. organ was a crazy, experimental
instruments for an underwater concert. Cavatorta talked to One of the instruments works technology, and I like to think
Australian Popular Science about his method and inspiration. like Benjamin Franklins glass what I make is in the same vein.
armonica, but the water vibrates
the bells, playing multiple notes
at the same time. The other is
similar to a hurdy-gurdy and has
this otherworldly
electric-guitar wail.

For Stella Artois,

Cavatorta built an or-
chestra that includes
a aming pipe organ
(second from the left).
FR O M TO P : MI TC H EL L M C L EN NA N; DU ST I N C O H EN

Killer App Want to hone your spaceight skills? The Astro Drone app, made by the European
Space Agency, lets pilots y a real-world Parrot AR.Drone through a virtual extra-
terrestrial environment. The free iOS game combines the drones live video feed
Astro Drone with augmented reality. Players earn points for avoiding digital space debris and
docking with a simulated target. If they choose to log their scores,
the data can be used to improve real space probes navigation. It was by
the quickest and also most fun way to train our algorithms with data, A N NA B EL
says Leopold Summerer, one of the apps developers. EDWARDS

74 POPUL A R S CI E NCE
 J ULY 2 0 1 6
Manual
Hackertainent

Ghostbusters Proton
Packs Get a Makeover
If you need to bust a ghost, who you gonna call?
Since Egon is retired, another physicist, naturally.
For this years reboot of the 1984 comedy
Ghostbusters, director Paul Feig asked particle
physicist James Maxwell to help design the
proton packsthe iconic weapons/tools that the
team use to splatter spectres. Maxwell, who has
worked at MIT and is now at the Jefferson Lab in
Newport News, Virginia, already had futuristic-
looking equipment to draw from, including a
FR O M TO P : C O U RT ESY SO N Y P ICT UR ES; I L LUSTR ATI O N BY C L IN T FO R D
a proton pack were to work, how would i
He and the films property master, Kir
with several possibilities that incorporate
first drawings had a futuristic Blade Runn
The new team, however, is even scrappie
the packs needed a glued-together look.
The original packs are legendary in th
Corwin says. While it was good to have parameters, I wanted each proton pack with
to add my own take. At junkyards, Corwin scavenged meters, a synchrotron (a ring-shaped
dials, switches, and hose clamps, the latter of which had been particle accelerator), cryogen

helium-3 polarising apparatus that produces used in race-cars. Then Corwin and his team cast lightweight tanks, and a hydrogen
high-pressure vapour. replicas of the salvaged parts, using materials like aluminum, plasma source. Corwin also
I wanted to add real-life physics to a which kept the weight of the packs down to a wearable 6.2 added a magnetic system to
fantastical device, he says. I had to consider: If kilograms each. Light, for an unlicensed nuclear accelerator. easily reholster the wands.

5-Minute Project Steve Maxwell, an engineer
at K&J magnets, created
Magnet Car a tiny self-propelled car
from three neodymium
magnets, one AA battery,
and aluminium foil. It
is a very cool scientic
by
ANNABEL EDWARDS
experiment, he says. You can see the interaction between
electric elds and magnetic elds. To build Maxwells tiny car,
place a ring-shaped magnet on a batterys positive post and add
circular magnets to both ends. Then lay down aluminium foil
as a makeshift road, smoothing out any bumps. The contact
between battery and foil allows an electric current to ow. Be-
cause that electricity runs perpendicularly to the eld created
by the magnets, it generates torque. This rotational force rolls
the car across the foil on its magnet wheelsquickly draining
the battery in the process.

P OP SC I . C O M. AU 75
Archives
June 1961

War in Orbit!
Terrifying supposition of a future that
thankfully never came to pass.

by ANTHONY FORDHAM

The best way to lose an entire day in the

Australian Popular Science oces is to browse
the archive of magazines from the 1960s. This
was the height of the Cold War and every issue
had pages and pages dedicated to how we (by
which they meant the US) would beat the
Russians. No matter what scientic milestone
the Soviets reached, Popular Science would be
there to point out how some American had an
even BETTER idea, damnit!
So. Space wars. Here in the future we do not
live under the orbit of nuc
equipped space stations,
and satellites do not duel
with lasers or neutron
bombs 100-10,000km
above our heads. Thats
thanks to the Outer
Space Treaty, which 104
countries have ratied
since it was opened
for signatures on 27th
January 1967.
The treaty - formally
known as the Treaty on
Principles Governing the
Activities of States in the
Exploration and Use of Ou
Space, including the Moon
and Other Celestial Bodies
creates a legal framework
bar signatories from putti
weapons of mass destruct
in orbit. It also bars nukes
the Moon or any other planet, restricts use of the
Moon and other worlds to peaceful activities, and War in space? Soviets launching nuke
prohibits using space for weapons testing.
Sounds like a whole bunch of bureaucracy to
sats? No, the real issue in June 1961
defend us from science ction, right? Well, back
in 1961, before the Cuban Missile Crisis gave
was, as it remains today, arguing about
the world a serious reality check, magazines
like this one were giddy with the prospect of
whether safety systems are actually
war in space. So many marvellous inventions dangerous or not. Heres a harsh truth
could go up into orbit and really give those dirty
Commies what-for, see. from the future: if you lose control and
Its remarkable how little these articles
address possible side-eects of routinely start to leave the freeway at speed, the
setting o neutron bombs in low Earth orbit.
Or what lling the skies with radioactive guardrail isnt there to save YOU.

76 PO PUL A R S CI E NCE

A military anti-satellite
is in the making for
the US. The Air Force
reveals it is developing
a crewless rocket
vehicle to intercept
an unidentified earth
satellite, determine
whether it is peaceful
or hostile, and report
the findings to our
armed forces.
Spurred by the
newly demonstrated possibilities of satellites
as weapons, the high-priority $60,000,000,
three-year defense program is called Project
Saint, for SAtellite INspection Technique. It
represents this countrys first active step to
prepare against warfare in space - whether cold
war, or hot.
Four Saint anti-satellite spacecraft are being
designed and built for Air Force trial by the Radio
Corporation of America. Each will be the final
stage of a three-stage rocket, with an Atlas
booster and an Agena B second stage. From
Cape Canaveral [NOTE: renamed Cape Kennedy
following the assassination] in Florida, the
satellite chasers will be launched at three-month
intervals, in tests unofficially expected to begin
about December of next year.
Trial target for a Saint will probably be a 25-
foot Echo-type balloon satellite, or a modified,
angled version called a reflector satellite, put into
400-mile-high orbit just before firing the Saint.
To intercept this 18,000-mph target, the
anti-satellite will be rocketed into a position just
above and ahead of it. Then, braked by a retro- or
chunks of blasted satellites would do to
any future attempts to, you know, launch a
crewed rocket.
As usual, this piece was written from
the naive end of history,
before everything became
declassied, especially
on the Russian side.
The Saint anti-satellite
program (see panel) is well
known among military
enthusiasts, and was
designed to approach,
analyse and if necessary,
destroy Soviet spy sats.
Popular Science wrote this article in 1961,
and clearly backed Saint to the hilt. By 1962
J U LY 201 6
backward-firing rocket, the Saint will clsoe in
upon the target - and approach as gradually as by
10 mph to within 100 feet of it, for a good look.
The first four Saints will be unarmed. The
missions will be completed by inspecting the
satellites - how, the Air Force doesnt say, but
presumably with TV cameras, radar, infrared
heat-detecting sensors, radiation detectors [sic].
Later, US anti-satellites may be expected to
be able to kill a dangerous satellite - either
by destroying it outright or by subtler ways of
disarming it. The Air Force reportedly is studying
how to build this destruct capability into
Saints successors.
Russia, too, is believed to have an anti-satellite
program under way. By un-confirmed but widely
credited reports, it will be ready next year to
rendezvous an interceptor with a satellite - and
Thankfully, less than a
will be able to put an unwanted satellite out of
decade later, humanity
business by 1963.
came to its senses and
Here are the makings of combat fleets for
realised that war in space
space - of hostile actions and counter-actions,
would be a terrible, terrible
ranging from sabotage to all-out war. What are
thing. And so a treaty was
the incentives for this strange armament race?
created to prevent it. So far,
that treaty is working.
though, the Saint program was already in space platform was detected, it could be
deep trouble. Intelligence had reached NASA engaged and destroyed by interceptors
indicating that the Soviets had built self- launched from the ground.
destruct systems into their satellites. This is the war in space story in a
Any approach to a nutshell really: rst, the Hawks come up
commie spysat would with all these exciting ideas about neutron
make it explode, taking bombs and tow-satellites and more, and
out tens of millions of then everyone sits back, thinks through the
dollars of US space tech implications, and realises that its all a huge
in the process. waste of time and money.
By 1963, the Saint Not that the US learned from the Saint
program was (as far as the experience. Stay tuned for a future issue,
public knows) cancelled. where will hit up the archive in the mid-
The US Air Force realised 1980s, and see what our colleagues thought
it could just as easily of Reagans Strategic Defense [sic] Initiative.
observe Russian assets using the telescopes Or, as you might more fondly remember the
on existing spy satellites, and if a weaponised missile shield: Star Wars.
P OP S C I . C O M. AU 77
A
THE SMELL OF
THEIR OWN SPRAY?
Short answer
Not as much as humans do.
A:
While no one has polled skunks on the topic,
experts have made some keen observations
from a distance.
When a skunk gets sprayed in the face, it
will react much like a dog does, says Jerry
Dragoo, a biology professor at the University of
New Mexico, who heads up what he calls the
Dragoo Institute for the Betterment of Skunks
and Skunk Reputations. It will rub its face
along the ground, trying to wipe it off.
I suspect the skunk is coping with the burning
sensation of high-concentration liquid in its
eyes and the mucous membranes of its nose.
As for the odour itself, the story might be
different. Skunks do have sensitive noses
they probe their environment by sniffing the
air and rely on smell for finding food. But
Dragoo suspects theyve grown accustomed
78 PO PUL A R S CI E NCE
to the smell of their own spray, so it doesnt
bother them the way it bothers other species.
Ive seen them in covered traps after they
have sprayed, and they appeared to have no
reaction, Dragoo says.
The most offensive component of skunk
spray is a sulphur compound called thiol.
Its similar to the chemical added to natural
and propane gases to give them a distinctive
danger odour. Our noses happen to be
very sensitive to that, says William Wood,
PhD, professor emeritus in the Chemistry
Department at Humboldt State University
in Arcata, California, who has studied the
chemistry of skunk secretions. But prolonged
or repeated exposure to even the stinkiest
compounds can lead to olfactory fatigue,
Wood says. High concentrations of the
compounds can keep the olfactory receptors
in the nose from resetting so that the odour is
no longer detected. Even I have experienced
olfactory fatigue with skunk spray, says
Wood. I smell it once and then cannot detect
the odour for minutes to hours. I assume it is
the same with skunks.
Q: DOES
KANGAROO
MEAN I DONT
UNDERSTAND?
Short answer: No, its a real
Aboriginal word for the animal.
A:
Surely you know the legend: Captain
Cook stood on the shores of Botany Bay
with a local indigenous man, pointed to
a Kangaroo and indicated, presumably
with sign language, that hed like to
know the name of the animal. The man
failed to realise what Cook was asking,
and replied, in some bafflement: Kan-
goo-roo which supposedly means I
dont understand you.
This is a cute story, but in fact Joseph
Banks recorded the first time a macropod
was called a Kangaroo by Europeans.
It wasnt in Botany Bay at all, but rather
at the site of modern Cooktown. The
Endeavour was beached, undergoing
repairs, and Banks was keen to get some
science done despite the situation.
He asked a local Guugu Yimidhirr
speaking man about the creature, and was
told it was a gaNurru (now understood to
mean specifically a large, black kangaroo).
Banks recorded this in his dairy on 12th
July 1770 as kanguru. Cook also referred
to this story in his diary on August 4.
Even though the legend of I dont
understand you soon moved from Botany
Bay to Queensland, it actually took
until the 1970s for the story to be fully
debunked by linguists.

Have a burning question? Email
it to letters@popsci.com.au
Short answer: Hey, at the
end of the day, its your money.
A:
Oh boy were gonna get hate mail. Mostly
from high-end hi-fi distributors. The debate
over the value of good quality (or indeed
extreme quality) cables in an expensive
stereo set up has been going on for decades
and shows no sign of abating.
The idea goes that if you first spend
$100,000 on an amp and speakers, and then
a further $10,000 on cables full of spun gold
and oxygen-free nerdtanium, you will enjoy
sound quality far, far superior to some chump
with $5000 worth of good audio kit.
There are many, many companies offering
high end audio cables, and we wont single
out any in particular. And of course, if you
go from frayed old bits of wire to nicely put-
together interconnects or speaker cables
with proper real-gold banana clips, your
system will certainly look a lot nicer.
Audiophiles will never back down from the
position that cables improve sound, but its
Q: My kids already have Minecraft
on tablet, should I get it on PC?
A: Minecraft continues to grow as a gaming
phenomenon even after Microsofts $2 billion
purchase of developer Mojang in 2014. The
PC version is where the game started and
continues to be the most rapidly updated - and
thus most fully-featured - version of the game.
The PC version has infinite worlds, more
biomes, a wider range of mobs (monster) and
even more interesting environments. Crucially,
it also has the best implementation of the
redstone system, which can teach kids basic
coding and priciples of logic.
Q: CAN FANCY AUDIO CABLES
REALLY IMPROVE MY MUSIC?
interesting that there arent a heck of a lot of
double-blind tests to back this up.
Famous paranormal sceptic James Randi
once made an offer of $1,000,000 to anyone
who could prove evidence of paranormal
activity. On learning of a set of $7000 cables,
he extended the million dollar offer to anyone
who could show, scientifically, how these
sorts of cables improved sound - or indeed
affected it - in any measurable way at all.
His organisation, the James Randi
Education Foundation, left the challenge
open from 2007 to 2015. Various companies
Q: How exactly does drinking
seawater end up killing you?
A: Sure, salt water tastes pretty gross, but
you might think that in dire enough straits
youd probably stop worrying about the
foul flavour and the burning in the throat.
But you shouldnt. Drinking seawater - with
its 35 grams of salts per litre (and not just
NaCl either) - leads to a condition called
hypernatraemia. This isnt necessarily an
excess of salt in your system, but a massive
deficit of free water, as compared to the salt.
Ironically it first makes you really thirsty. Then
it leads to confusion, siezure, coma and death.
J U LY 2 01 6
stepped up to take the challenge, but always
found a reason to back out at the last minute.
Heres the thing though. Music, especially
when youre spending house money on your
stereo, is an intensely personal and emotional
thing. The human brain works in such a
way that if you spend even $400 on decent
cables, you will swear blind you can hear the
difference, especially in the bass.
Is it relevant that the people who most
insist cables make a difference are usually
over 50 and probably already have natural
hearing degradation? Maybe...
Q: Are e-Books finally killing off
the cheap paperback?
A: One things for sure: the invention of
e-readers and self-publishing has blown
open the opportunities for new authors to get
themselves published... in some form anyway.
And for years now weve bemoaned the loss
of the $4.50 paperback in a bookshop where a
basic novel seems to cost a minimum of $18.
While books dont seem to be going anywhere,
its clear that e-Books have stepped in to fill the
space where ultra-cheap paperbacks used to
live. Some decry this. The irony? They decried
the paperbacks too, back in the day.
P OP SC I . C O M. AU 79
Then
Retro Invention

Guaranteed to not
suddenly go haywire and
r i p th e top o ff you r sku l l .
Trust in science!

The Sword with characters and places in a

of Damocles
movie-like experience.
The first device to give an
approximation of this was the
Sensorama - a sort of arcade machine
you shoved your face into, that gave
feedback to other senses as well as
sight. Built in 1962, the machine wasnt
Brief and headache-inducing A Brief History of virtual reality as we know it now and
Virtual Reality operated more like an amusement ride.
adventures with the worlds first The concept of an artificial reality has During playback of a short film (in
Virtual Reality system been around a long time in science 3D, no less), the Sensorama could tilt
fiction - dating back to the 1935 short the user, provide targeted stereo sound,
by
Pygmalions Spectacles by Stanley create wind and waft specific aromas
LINDSAY HANDMER
G Weinbaum. The story explored the to augment the experience. Other early
idea of special googles that enabled uses for virtual reality included primitive
Virtual Reality is set to change how we interact with the wearer to experience and interact flight simulators for the US Air Force.
everything from games to home movies. Until 2016
though, the technology was one of those always just
around the corner situations, where we have been
promised workable VR for decades.
Forget the headset for a minute: only in recent years
has computer hardware powerful enough to handle the
underlying calculations become available. But the VR
story actually starts way back in the 60s, with the Sword
of Damocles - the first head-mounted VR system.

HTCs Vive is th e f irs t mode r n VR

system to ship with hand controls.

80 PO P U L A R S CI E NCE
 environments, such as simp
wireframe rooms. That said,
had accurate head tracking,
the user could look around t
room, or view other wirefram
objects from different angle
Virtual Reality vs
Augmented Reality
Most of the VR headsets today
(such as Google VR, and others
like Oculus) create a completely
virtual world, with the user
visually cut off from reality.
Augmented reality keeps
a link between the real world
and the digital. As a result, this
technology has the potential to
be much more useful than virtual
reality, because users are still
perfectly able to interact with
the world around them.
The Sensorama eventually faded from history... perhaps because For example, augmented
the porn industry couldnt f igure out how to exploit it in a way reality glasses could be used
that wouldnt get their customers immediately arrested. to overlay speed and navigation
information when driving.
Microsoft has demoed an
The Sword of Damocles augmented reality Minecraft-
Created in 1968 by computer Scientist Ivan Sutherland (along with style game that users can
his student, Bob Sproull), the Sword of Damocles was the first virtual play on their own coffee table.
reality system to use a head-mounted display. The system tracks the users
While the unit was so heavy it had to be suspended from the ceiling movements, allowing them to
to take weight off the user (thus the name), its still recognisable and view and interact with the game
comparable to modern VR headsets.
The Sword used dual displays, so could display stereoscopic
images. Rather than an actual screen, the Sword of Damocles had two
semitransparent lenses that allowed the user to still see the real world.
So this system can also be considered the first augmented reality
headset, like Google Glass or Microsoft Hololens.
The Sword of Damocles could only display very basic virtual reality
HIGH TECH
CARDBOARD
As if to drive home the point
that VR is all about the machine
doing the processing, Google
released Cardboard in 2014. Two
plastic lenses, a couple of magnets,
and whole lot of cardboard. Just
add a powerful smartphone, and
youve got a set of VR goggles.
Surprisingly, Cardboard actually
works quite well.
from any angle by simply
walking around it.
Typically, an augmented
reality is generated by having a
semi-transparent screen that the
user looks through, allowing it to
both show the real world, but also
overlay other graphics. The device
itself tracks movements with a
variety of sensors, and uses a
basic video camera to recognise
real-world objects.
Other VR devices without
transparent screens can still
provide an AR type experience,
by showing the user an outside
viewpoint using a camera.

VIEW-MASTER

Not quite virtual reality as we know it, nonetheless, the View-Master was a
precursor to modern VR headsets. The toy used special cardboard discs
that contained stereoscopic images. When placed in the viewing
device, the user could see a static image, sometimes in three
dimensions. While not a patch on video, the View-Master was
still pretty impressive when released back in 1939.
In fact, its still produced today, 77 years later. Incredibly,
despite 25 updates to the viewer itself, its still backwards
compatible with the original picture disks.
Technology is finally putting pressure on the View-Master
though, and there is an alternative viewer. Instead of a nearby
lamp, it uses a smartphone and the Google VR platform to
provide a more immersive viewing experience.

The new View master: because every kid

t h ese days has a high- end smar tphone.

P OP SC I . C O M. AU 81
Labrats
Ultra Low-Cost
Space Suit Revisited
This time, it will be perfectly safe
Theres a rule I try to stick to,
in situations where a particular
research team or prototypical
product causes me serious injury,
near death or severe inconvenience
along the lines of being stuck in
a jury-rigged space suit on the
edge of a public swimming pool
for eight hours: avoid the company
responsible for at least three years.
After that, hell, $125 is $125. So
here I am, once more in presence
of Higgs Yager, lead everything
on YagerBombz, an innovative
aerospace startup that is somehow
still a startup despite being at least
four years old.
I last encountered Yager back in
2012, when he had me test the XS-
24 ultra low-cost spacesuit. Hed
abandoned me, as I say, on the edge
of a swimming pool after I pointed
out the suit had no oxygen supply.
That observation, he says to
me now, was a real turning point
for our company. Once we started
building products that would no
longer slowly kill people, our
market widened enormously.
Im in a warehouse on the edge of
the city which has been converted
into a small but very convincing-
looking facsimile of NASAs
Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory in
Houston. Theres a big pool in the
middle, and lots of cool-looking
gantries and manipulator arms and
trolleys full of incomprehensible
computer stuff. Adding the oxygen
has worked out really well for
YagerBombz, obviously.
Well, Im glad I could help, I say.
Also, this version of the suit looks
a lot more... legit? It does. Its all
glaring white and stainless steel
82 POPUL A R S CI E NCE
STO RY BY Subject Zero
groin attachments, and little utility
pockets everywhere.
Higgs Yager smiles, and turns
away. I hear a sort of pressurised
gas noise, and then he turns back.
His eyes have gone all dreamy.
He grabs the suit helmet from a
nearby trolley and begins to fit it
over my head.
Hey, I say, shouting a little
over the clanking noises. So the
gas mix in the tank right, so like...
where do you get the oxygen from?
BOC or something?
Never mind, say Yager, its mask and mimes taking deep
absolutely pure.
Wait, absolutely PURE? But
he doesnt hear me because the
helmet is bolted down now. I
glance around but theres not a
lot I can do: my arms and legs are
totally immobilised by the suits
mounting rack. I hear a hiss as gas
begins to flood the helmet, and
little whirring sounds as the room
air is pumped out.
Pure oxygen? I yell through the
helmet. This is PURE oxygen?
Yager gives me a thumbs up, then
straps a plastic respirator mask to
his own face, fiddles with something
on a trolley behind him, then goes
all sort of relaxed and funky looking.
He gives me another thumbs up, but
his eyes are closed now.
I hold my breath. He doesnt
know, he cant know. After years
of scientific experimentation, after
years of ingesting and breathing and
being infected by almost everything
science can come up with... my
lungs are, as a disinterested public
hospital emergency nurse once told
me, in a state. least Im perfectly safe. Unless this
It was the ill-fated inventor of a
childrens asthma puffer moulded
into the shape of a pistol for fun,
who told me that if I ever got in a
situation where I breathed pure
oxygen, there was a better than
even chance my lungs could
spontaneously combust.
Yager is giving me two thumbs up
now. Hes leaning on the equipment
trolley, breathing slow and deep,
encouraging me to do the same. Me,
Im holding my breath and shaking
my head back and forth. Vigorously.
My mind is racing. How do I
communicate if I breathe my lungs
may burst into flames and kill me
in a way I am sure will be horribly
painful without using my hands?
Now Yager is looking annoyed
at me. He makes a sort of hurry
up motion. Points to his mouth.
Removes the plastic respirator
breaths. Points at me aggressively.
Folds his arms. Taps his foot.
Im giving him the desperate
eyes, the grimace of pain. My lungs
are burning, figuratively. Which is
much better than them burning
literally. I know that eventually
I will pass out, and my body will
breathe for me automatically. And
then: acceptance. This is it. This
is the end. I can either die purple-
faced, or proudly. Like a really
NEXT
messed-up dragon.
Closing my eyes, I take a deep
ISSUE!
breath. The oxygen is clean, Issue #93,
essentially tasteless. I feel my August 2016
lungs fill. My heart gets itself On sale 4th
under control. Everything is fine.
The crazy gun-puffer guy, it
August 2016
seems, was wrong. DRONES:
Then I see Higgs Yager, respirator WHAT THEY
reattached, collapse in a dead faint MEAN FOR
AUSTRALIA //
on the floor of his fancy warehouse.
Virtual Reality
Hes out. Unmoving. And once again
// OLYMPIAN
Im left immobilised in his prototype TECH //
spacesuit, totally helpless. Expensive
Oh well. The cleaners should be Earbuds //
here in six to eight hours. And at DYSON DOES
DESK LAMPS +
oxygen runs out... MORE!
astron.
the worlds rst
gps solar watch.
In 2012 we made history with Astron, the worlds first GPS solar watch.
Using just the power of light, Astron adjusts to every time zone on earth at the touch of a button.
In 2014 we took Astron even further, introducing a full-function GPS solar chronograph.
Now with dual time display, Astron is simply the worlds finest GPS solar watch.

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