Popular Mechanics South Africa

THE PROCESS OF PUTTING together this issue of POPULAR MECHANICS and sending it off to the printer has been bittersweet. Since being appointed editor of this fine publication, back in 2018, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed creating every single issue. I’ve learnt a great deal, through the interesting array of stories, features and articles that we’ve run; I got to know many of our loyal advertising clients, as well as you, our cherished readers. I’ve had the privilege of working with a devoted team of co-workers and contributors, who’ve always strived to create the best product possible. And I’ve been lucky enough to drive and test some amazing vehicles along the way, and try out some brilliant gadgets and tech. The reason why this production cycle in particular has been bittersweet, is because this…

I thoroughly enjoyed reading the most recent November/December issue. I was particularly impressed with the diverse mix of features, from the ‘How your world works’ short articles up front (the report on autonomous drones felt all too relevant, with the recent developments in the Russia–Ukraine conflict), to the final instalment in the woodworking tutorial. I’ve followed Tobias’ series of articles in the past few years with keen interest. He’s clearly a highly skilled woodworker, and, being an enthusiastic novice in that realm, I’ve learnt so much from him. But it was the story on breakthrough battery technology, on page 42, that really caught my eye. It seems we’re making great strides when it comes to the technology that creates power from sustainable sources, however it’s our ability to store that energy…

1 JANUARY 1981 21 Exciting New Sports Planes You Can Build The cover of this issue, a little more than 40 years ago, showed an eye-catching half-size replica of a WWII P-47 Thunderbolt. In addition to describing the build project of this plane, the accompanying article gave a rundown of 20 more aeroplane models that you could build yourself, including other warbird replicas, and unconventional-looking ultra-lights, some of which ‘you can launch with your feet (but nobody ever does)’. 2 FEBRUARY 1978 New Look at an Old Ditch This story revealed some astonishing facts about the Panama Canal, such as, ‘About 500 men died for every mile of the 50-mile-long construction’. The report said plans were being set in motion to build an additional canal route through Panama, that wouldn’t require ships to use a…

THE FUTURE IS nothing like we predicted… If we’re honest with ourselves, science fiction has given us a lot of baggage. Just consider for a moment Arthur C Clarke’s brilliant novel (and the movie adaptation), 2001: A Space Odyssey. There we read about how, in the year 2001, humans would be heading to Jupiter. And yet, here we are, two decades on from then, and we’re still not living in spaceships that look like cruise ships, flying around with jetpacks, and getting to know alien cyborgs which may or may not be trying to kill us. While there have certainly been unbelievable technological innovations, many of the more outlandish ideas speculated by futurists remain nothing but fiction. And that is what The Skeptics’ Guide to the Future is all about. It’s…

SCIENTISTS AT COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY have created the world’s smallest microchip, which can be implanted into the body and may eventually be able to detect medical conditions such as strokes. The chips, called motes, are the size of dust mites, measuring less than 0.1 cubic millimetre, and can only be seen under a microscope. Motes operate as a single-chip system, complete with their own electronic circuit. They’re implanted via hypodermic needle, and the data they collect is read using an ultrasound machine. And though the chips have only been tested in lab rats, the Columbia team hopes that one day they can assist in monitoring everything from glucose levels to oxygen saturation. ‘These devices can be designed to sense things and communicate this information back to the ultrasound image, which also provides biogeographical…

TIDAL FLOODS CAN SHUT DOWN HIGHWAYS, turn parking lots into lakes, and spread runoff from overwhelmed sewage systems. And while they’ve been more common to low-lying US East Coast cities like Miami or Charleston, South Carolina, coastal towns that have historically stayed dry could soon find themselves underwater, according to a study published in Nature Climate Change. Until five years ago, tidal floods in Hawaii, for example, were a rarity, says Phil Thompson, PhD, the study’s lead author and a physical oceanographer at the University of Hawaii. If sea levels rise in line with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Intermediate Sea Level Rise scenario (roughly one metre globally by the end of the century), Thompson and his fellow researchers predict a dramatic increase in tidal flooding events in some…