At The End Of The Earth: The Longest, Deepest Oil Wells In The World
On Sakhalin Island, in Russia’s far east, temperatures can fall to 35 degrees below zero. Many islanders herd reindeer. And in January, oil crews drilled the world’s longest and deepest extended-reach...
View ArticleThe Man Who Would Stop Time
Bill Andrews's feet are so large, he tells me, that back when he was 20 he was able to break the Southern California barefoot-waterskiing distance record the first time he put skin to water. Then he...
View ArticleYou Built What?! A Homemade Scanning Electron Microscope
Ben Krasnow has built his share of odd contraptions, including a liquid nitrogen generator made from an air conditioner, and the "thirst extinguisher," a commercial-grade…
View ArticleA Sensor-Packed Shipping Container That Folds Flat in 30 Seconds
In the half-century since Malcom McLean, an entrepreneurial former trucker from North Carolina, first began packing freight onto ships in uniform steel boxes, shipping containers have transformed the...
View ArticleThe Panama Canal Gets an Update
The century-old Panama Canal has a major shortcoming: New ships are too long, too deep and too wide to fit through it. by 2015, 40 percent of the world's fleet will have outgrown the roughly...
View ArticlePiloting a Massive Container Ship Takes More Than Just a Few Charts
To plan their routes, the crews of transoceanic cargo ships have to assimilate a huge amount of information: from beacons and buoys, weather and navigation satellites,…
View ArticleSpy vs. Spy: Casinos Can't See The Cameras Hidden Up Gamblers' Sleeves
In January, at the newly opened $4-billion Cosmopolitan casino in Las Vegas, a gang called the Cutters cheated at baccarat. Before play began, the dealer offered one member…
View ArticleA Personal Beer Brewery That Spouts Pro-Quality Suds In A Week
Most beer drinkers don't have the time (or inclination) to muddle through the painstaking home-brewing process, but the WilliamsWarn Personal Brewery simplifies just about everything. The brewing...
View ArticleVideo: Testing Project Enclosures Under Extreme Conditions (Read: Fire,...
My projects tend to live rough lives. To make it easier to safely house their delicate parts in the future, I devised a torture test to determine which project enclosures…
View ArticleFYI: Could My Cat Be Allergic To Me?
Cats get seasonal allergies to pollen and grass, and some have year-round allergies to fleas and dust mites. Sandy Willis, a veterinary internist who advises the American…
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