www.popularmechanics.co.za | Features

AHRLAC project: SA’s ground-breaking reconnaissance plane

Popular Mechanics — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 16:37:00 +0200

Homegrown multi-role flier will take on the world...

PM’s 110 best tips that stand the test of time

Popular Mechanics — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 18:19:00 +0200

Over the past 110 years, Popular Mechanics in the US has published more than 1 300 issues filled with inspiring and sometimes quirky tips (rat-trap door hinge, anyone?) for saving time, money and effort. Here’s a compendium of our best advice ever, metricated where appropriate.

Whisky rebellion: the art and craft of distilling

Popular Mechanics — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 11:26:00 +0200

The pioneers of craft distilling use old methods and new machines to revive local spirits.

The secret war: digital spies

Popular Mechanics — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 13:43:00 +0200

Foreign spies hack computers to bleed billions from industry and steal military secrets. PM explores the dark, relentless scourge of digital espionage.

A student supercar

Popular Mechanics — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 13:06:00 +0200

Of the 111 teams that competed for the R70 million purse in last year’s Progressive Insurance Automotive X Prize, only one was from a high school – West Philadelphia, where 85 per cent of students are economically disadvantaged.

Ovecoming paralysis

Popular Mechanics — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 12:38:00 +0200

A hit-and-run accident in 2006 left Rob Summers paralysed from the chest down, shattering the college baseball player’s Major League prospects.

Ready-made blood vessels

Popular Mechanics — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 12:04:00 +0200

While training in an intensive-care unit during medical school, Laura Niklason got a graphic view of a persistent problem. “The surgeons spent a lot of time digging around in the patients’ legs or arms looking for veins to replace main arteries,” she says. “I thought, there’s got to be a better way.”

Breakthrough Awards 2011: James Cameron

Popular Mechanics — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 11:56:00 +0200

When most people think of James Cameron, they first think of his movies: Aliens, Titanic, Avatar, The Terminator. Then they might reflect on how his films have pushed major technological advances in the entertainment industry, from the state-of-the-art visual effects that created the water tentacle in The Abyss to the high-tech SimulCam system used to film Avatar.

72 hours to turn

Popular Mechanics — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 11:45:00 +0200

On an insanely hot Sunday in July, 16 sweaty, exhausted teams from around the USA rolled, pedalled, skated and cranked a collection of unusual machines across a tarred section of a New York City park.

PM’s top 10 tech products: Breakthrough Awards 2011

Popular Mechanics — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 10:34:00 +0200

The year's most transformative products