Popular Mechanics South Africa 2012-06

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RX T A TECH FOCUS – 32 PAGES OF BREAKTHROUGH TECHNOLOGY

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WHAT WENT WRONGANALYSING THE COSTA

CONCORDIA TRAGEDYLAB-GROWN

ORGANSScientists now produce vita

HOW BIONICbody parts from scratch

TECH WILLGIVE USLONGER,HEALTHIER

SYMBIONIC LECombines a bionic knee, an

LIVESand foot for the first time

RE-ENGINEERING

THE

HUMA

e for new cells

N

PRINTED BONE3D scaffolds provide

structur

PLUS:BRAIN CONTROThe user’s thoughts move

this robotic hand

FAONNECT SA CEBOOKBUSINESS IN THE CLOUD RULES OF ENGAGEMENBEWARE THE CYBER CROOKS

FLYING UPSIDE DOWN LOTS OF GREAT GADGETS

(WE DID IT ON PURPOSE)

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COMP ETI T IO N WIN NER S. . . Detai ls onl ine at www.popularmechanics.co.za

Contrary to widespread belief,

South Africa does not lurk atthe bottom end of the techno-

logical food chain. In fact, whenit comes to connecting with the

future through new technologiesand exploiting every avenue ofcommunication, our hunger

knows no bounds – as does ourpride in home-grown innovation.

Now say hello to FutureTech

2012, a unique POPULAR MECHANICS initiative that will bring together

tech-savvy people from all overSouth Africa for an exciting and

inspiring conference. It happens

in Johannesburg on 25 October,and it’s destined to be a “must”

on the calendar of anyone who

wants to get up to speed in aworld ruled by technology. Thetheme of our inaugural confer-

ence is “connect”, a word that

will resonate with anyone whounderstands the mechanics of

the 21st century.Representing the top echelon

of science and technology, our

presenters will unpack techno-logies that are already changing

our lives for the better, enablingus to share world-changing ideas

and solve challenges together.

Programme details and bookinginformation will be available

soon; please watch for announce-ments via our Web site, our

weekly e-mail newsletters (“The

Cutting Edge”) our TV commer-cials and other channels.

There’s also some good newsfor South Africa’s vibrant invent-

ing community: our Inventor ofthe Year Competition remains as

an integral part of the FutureTech

initiative. Details of the annualchallenge, which offers even big-

ger cash prizes for 2012, will bereleased within the next few

weeks (see elsewhere in this issue).

Now to this month’s magazine.Our cover story, “Re-engineer-

ing the human”, explores someremarkable breakthroughs in

the design of prosthetic limbs,

artificial organs, bones andeven blood cells. Bionic limbs

with machine intelligence cannow sense their environment

and predict a user’s intentions.

The prosthetic arm on our coveris actually composed of a swarm

POPULARMECHANICS.CO.ZA • JUNE 2012 1

EDITOR'S NOTES

UNVEILING OUR TECH FUTURE.

of robots, each detachable seg-

ment housing a processor thatworks in concert with the others.

Wonderful stuff, and it’s bring-

ing new hope to many people.We hope you enjoy our bumper

32-page Tech Focus supplement,which comes free with this

month’s issue. It introduces fas-

cinating and increasingly relevanttechnologies in the fields of home

entertainment, automotive safety,

leisure pursuits, communications,and much more. We provide ad-vice on buying a new TV, intro-

duce a couple of outrageous

bicycles, unpack appliances withbrains, and ask what it will take

for tablets to replace PCs.As always, we showcase a

heady assortment of new gadgets

throughout the magazine – whichbrings me to an opportunity for

full disclosure. Having been con-sumed with guilt for the past

few weeks, I should now confess

to my wife (who is morallyobliged to read PM every month)

that the 600 mW laser pointer,Music Angel docking station,

multi-bladed camping knife and

Samurai steel LED watch werenot, in fact, “for the office”.

Finally, regular PM readerswho may have been alarmed by

our “haunted house” headlineneed not be concerned: it’s not

about exorcism or exploring

beyond the veil. Instead, weexplain what makes doors bang

and floors creak in your ageinghouse, then tell how you to fix

them. It’s what we do.

[email protected]

Page 20

Page 124

Be the first to know

futur techTOMORROW’S TECHNOLOGY TODAY

FREEINSIDE

l Visit page 28 for details of the

online SA magazine survey and

tell us what you think of your

favourite magazines. Prizes worth

R150 000 are up for grabs.



BE THE FIRST TO KNOW JUNE 2012 VOLUME 10, NO. 11

TECH20 Re-engineering the human (cover story)

Bionic limbs get smarter; blood cells are next45 DIY tech Five rules for Internet safety

58 Digital clinic Q&A ●Name that sound ●Neg-a-pixels

69 SA: gadget nation Of cyber crooks and cloud storage

74 My sandbox, my algorithm? First, get your head around “smart” sand...

SC I ENCE12

Tech watch ●Fire and forget ●The flutter fighter ●Dummy fish, smarter dams ●Fukushima’s long goodbye

HO ME121 Homeowner’s clinic Q&A ●Make your move ●Start digging ●Yankee dandy ●Fan clubbed

124 Fix your haunted house

Creaking floors? Flickering lights? Strange smells? Here’s what to do about it...

PM DIG ITAL123 ●Spot the Ford Focus – and win ●Watch the chilling Prometheus trailer ●Win an outdoor kitchen-in-one

OUTS IDE56 Flying upside down Our journo steps aboard an acrobatic helicopter

IN FOCUS66

Hearth and home ●A radically different fan heater ●Bling’s the thing (just add crystals)

WHEE LS48 New on the block ●

Lambo off-road rocket ●Merc concepts ●Keep Old Faithful running ●Sports car skirmish

114 Esoteric car repairs Welcome to an obsessive underworld

128 Car clinic Q&A ●Oil crisis ●Mystery leaks

F EATURES36 What went wrong PM investigates the deadly Costa Concordia

accident60 Training day Preparing first responders for the worst

72 Facebook faux pas Minding your manners in social media

UPGRADE76 When ideas run free ●Meet a two-seater hybrid car and gyroplane ●Honda redefines personal mobility ●Thirsty? Fancy a R1,25 million bottle of whisky?

MONTHLY

1 Editor’s notes4 Contact us

7 Letters

10 Time machine

30 Great stuff

113 This is my job

144 Do it your way

On the cover: The Modular Prosthetic Limb, developed at Johns

Hopkins University for DARPA, belongs to a new wave of bionic

devices with superior dexterity and machine intelligence. A brain-

controlled model is in clinical trials now. Photograph by Eric Ogden.

This page: Designed and built by Ekso Bionics, this exoskeleton was

the first to step out of the lab and into the real world.

C O N T E N T S

2 POPULARMECHANICS.CO.ZA ●JUNE 2012

81 30 114



POPULARMECHANICS.CO.ZA ●JUNE 2012 3

A desirable

Ford Focus worover R230 000(see page 42)

T EC H FOC USEmbrace the 21st century!

This month’s bumper issue ofPM incorporates the inaugural

32-page Tech Focus supplement,your guide to the most excitingproducts and developments in

the fields of home entertainment,automotive tech, communica-

tions, leisure activities, and more.It starts on page 81.

76 66 20

48

12 WIN



EDITOR: Alan Duggan PUBLISHER: Neil Piper

EDITORIAL TEAMDEPUTY EDITOR Anthony Doman

ASSOCIATE EDITOR Sean Woods DIGITAL CONTENT MANAGER Kate Downs

PRODUCTION AND CREATIVE TEAMPRODUCTION MANAGER Helen van Beuge

PRODUCTION (Supplements) Judy Romon

ART DIRECTOR Thea Woodman DESIGNER Sharon Gunst BUYER’S GUIDE DESIGNER Relic Wessels DIGITAL DESIGNER Lars Liedberg WEBMASTER Nikky Oosthuizen

BUSINESS AND SALES TEAMMARKETING MANAGER Dean Dicks

DIGITAL BUSINESS MANAGER Wendy Lucas NATIONAL SALES MANAGER Andre Stadler

SALES MANAGER Lea van Coller – Tech Jenny Kaplan – Auto MARKETING SERVICES MANAGER Andrew Stodel MARKETING SERVICES ANALYST Benita Bollers PROMOTIONS MANAGER Nomfundo Calana ADVERTISING SALES EXECUTIVES Brett Soutter, Joanne Thompson,

Patrick Kennedy, Lindi van den Heever,Peter Botha, Nicky Lloyd – Sandton

Christian von Dürckheim – Cape Town

ADVERTISING SALES ASSISTANT Linda DelportDIGITAL TRAFFICKER Nawhaal Fakir

CIRCULATION MARKETINGCIRCULATION MANAGER Ian Dinan

SUBSCRIPTIONS MANAGER Catriona Bennie SUBSCRIPTIONS ADMINISTRATION Lynn Heiberg SUBSCRIPTIONS MARKETING Sandy Immelman CONTACT CENTRE MANAGER Werner Debba

GROUP SUPPORTSALES DIRECTOR Simon Turck

CREATIVE DIRECTOR Brandon de Kock CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER Werner Schmidt DIGITAL PUBLISHING Andrew Solomon PR & COMMUNICATIONS Shelly van Zyl ICT MANAGER Alex Chetty

PUBLISHED BY RamsayMedia (PTY) LTDCompany registration number: 1934/005460/07 ISSN number: 1682-5136

CHAIRMAN Alan T RamsayMD Stuart Lowe

DIRECTORS Terry Moolman, Gordon Utian, Brian Burnett, James Eedes,Simon Turck, Tim Holden, Peter Venn

Cape Town head office: Uitvlugt, 3 Howard Drive, Pinelands, 7405

P O Box 180, Howard Place, Western Cape, 7450Tel: 021 530-3100, Fax: 021 530-9495

Sandton office: 17th Floor, Office Tower, Sandton City, Sandton, 2196

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HOW TO SUBSCRIBE OR CONTACT USCall: 0860 100 205, Fax: 0866 704 101 or 021 530 3143,

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Web site: www.popularmechanics.co.za

FOR OUR CURRENT SUBSCRIPTION RATES, SEE PAGE 42

Published and distributed by RamsayMedia (Pty) Ltd by permission of HearstCommunications Inc, New York, New York, United States of America.

We cannot be responsible for loss of unsolicited queries, manuscripts or photos. For return,they must be accompanied by adequate postage. As a service to readers, POPULAR MECHANICS publishes newsworthy products, techniques and scientific and technological developments.Due to possible variance in the quality and condition of materials and workmanship, POPULAR MECHANICS cannot assume responsibility for proper application of techniques or proper andsafe functioning of manufactured products or reader-built projects resulting from informationpublished in this magazine.

Total monthly sales: 45 577 (October to December 2011)

4 POPULARMECHANICS.CO.ZA • JUNE 2012

BE THE FIRST TO KNOW



A l f r e d

D u n h i l l L t d

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LETTERS

LET’S BRI NG THE MBACK

I was interested to see the poll results in your

issue of March 2012 indicating that 25 per cent ofyour readers believe scientists should not resurrect

the woolly mammoth because they “went extinct10 000 years ago for a reason”, and because “it is not

up to us to play creator”.What these readers have not taken into account is research, published in

the same month, indicating that woolly mammoths would probably not have

been extinct in the first place were it not for people. Our forebears played asmuch a role in the end of that species as Nature.

Graham Prescott and David Williams, zoologists from the University of

Cambridge, developed a model to calculate how climate change and the arrivalof humans respectively correlated to the disappearance of species of megafauna.They found it very likely that Stone Age hunters had a hand in at least some

of these extinctions.Not only the woolly mammoth seems to have been our victim, but possibly

also giant kangaroos and some big flightless birds. The findings, published inProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, are a poignant reminder of

how destructive our species has been since its early days. If we can undo some

of that harm, why not?JOHANNES BERTUS DE VILLIERS

JOHANNESBURG

Write to us, engage us in debate, and you could win a cool prize; this month’s

best letter wins a desirable CAT watch worth R1 995. CAT Timekeeping Equipment

reinvents and contextualises the heritage and authenticity of the brand’s core

know-how – clean and urban, encased in finely engineered stainless steel, and

equipped with a technically advanced movement. For more information, contact

S Bacher & Co on 011-372 6000 or visit www.sbacher.co.za

Send your letter to: Popular Mechanics, PO Box 180, Howard Place 7450 or e-mail

[email protected] Please keep it short and to the point.

Regrettably, prizes can be awarded only to South African residents.

Winning

letter

Think big, people

It’s time for a big South African companyto reach into its deep pockets (call it amarketing strategy, if you like) and pull out

a plan to galvanise our country’s legions ofinventors and innovators. POPULAR MECHANICS

has laid some wonderful groundwork withits Inventors Conferences and competitions,

but now it’s the turn of the Big Players.

My advice: take your cue from theX Prize Foundation (www.xprize.org).

These guys have big ideas, and set seriouschallenges – and it works. A few months

ago, they launched the Tricorder X Prize,sponsored by Qualcomm – an R80 million

bonanza to be awarded for creating amobile device that can “diagnose patients

better than or equal to a panel of boardcertified physicians”. They have also part-

nered with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foun-dation to develop a prize for a better

tuberculosis diagnostic tool.

Getting the idea? We need a R10 millionprize for someone who develops a basic

but durable house costing no more thanR1 000, or a device that halves infant mor-

tality in impoverished areas, or a foolproofdetector of political venality. Who’s doing

the brainstorming?

CRAIG ABBOTTOBSERVATORYEditor’s note: Excellent idea. In the mean-

time, we’re about to release details of our

second annual Inventors Competition,

which carries even bigger cash prizes this

year, and we’re working on an exciting

conference that promises to light a fire

among “connected” South Africans.

Timeless hints dept As you point out in “Editor’s notes”,it’s amazing how many of the tips from

old issues of PM still hold good today(“100 years of top tips”, April issue). For

example, my wife still uses half a potato

to moisten the adhesive on envelopes thatwe mail to our clients (if you haven’t licked

an envelope for a while, believe me whenI say the taste is awful). Another hint that

sounded familiar was the one about addingsand to floor paint to create a non-slip sur-

face. Since an elderly relative slipped andfell on our wet front porch last winter, we’ve

coated all potentially hazardous floorswith non-slip paint. It works beautifully.

TONY HARRIS

DURBAN

POPULARMECHANICS.CO.ZA • JUNE 2012 7



black-painted galvanised pipes inside abox, the surface of which was a largepane of window glass. The box wasplaced where it wouldn’t be smashed byfalling mangoes or coconuts. Of course,the pipes don’t last as long as copper, butat least they are cheap to replace. I’msure this approach is not exclusive toKenya, but I am unable to find anyoneover here who has even thought of it.

STEPHEN CRIDLANDRONDEBOSCH

Editor’s note: you’d be surprised.

Keep it coming, PM I have been a proud and avid reader forthe past 10 years. My first introduction toyour magazine came from my dad at agesix. Now, 10 years down the line, I wouldlike to say thank you for a great publica-tion! POPULAR MECHANICS has been an inspi-

8 POPULARMECHANICS.CO.ZA • JUNE 2012

P

World’s biggest parachute? A Tech Watch article in your March issue(“Mars, here we come – again”) refers.You discuss “a parachute 100 metres indiameter”. This makes no sense; a 100 m-diameter parachute would almost coverLoftus stadium!

GRÄBE DE VILLIERSRANDBURG

Editor’s note: We have no idea where our

figure came from; it’s really weird.

Anyway, the parachute’s real diameter is

165 feet, or about 50 metres. Thanks for

taking the trouble to write.

Solar heating: back to basics South Africa tends to go for big techno-logy, but there are other countries, suchas Kenya, that have to settle for differentoptions. At Tiwi, the solar heating strate-gy was to pass the water though matt

MONTHLY POLL

Should we be pouring more money

into acquiring broadband in SouthAfrica?

Yes, of course. It’s a connected

world. 95%

No. It’s a waste of money. There are

far more important national priorities

e.g. education and land. 5%

Conducted online at www.popularmechanics.

co.za – visit PM’s Web site to vote in ourcurrent poll.

95%

5%

ration for me at school and at home, andmany school projects were inspired bytimely articles over the years. I can’t waitfor the next issue.

BENJAMIN WYBENGA

BLOEMFONTEIN

You’re welcome, dudeI cannot begin to tell you how much Ienjoyed the April issue of POPULAR MECHANICS,

having been an avid fan ever since seeingit for the first time on a railway stationbookshelf when I was 11 years old, wayback in 1943. Memories came floodingback of the many innovative ideas foundin PM in years gone by. Thank you forreawakening those memories.

I especially enjoy the projects that areonce again appearing for the do-it-your-self readers. Thanks for the wonderfulwork you and your staff do in bringing usour own South African POPULAR MECHANICS.

P.S. I am the “dude” who designed andbuilt the workbench that you featured in

the third issue of your magazine (October2002).

CARL MOUTONVIA E-MAIL

LETTERS

Questions, questionsYour article on Waldo Stakes and his Sonic Wind car (“The 3 000 km/h obsession”,January issue) refers. Here are some aspects that bother me:

l Wing Commander Andy Green was in South Africa late last year on a lecture tour;Thrust SSC smashed the sound barrier in 1997; Bloodhound (another potential record-breaker) is to go beyond that.l A wind tunnel cannot be used for testing the model of a supersonic car as there is

no “ground effect”.l Where does the money come from? Waldo “moonlights as a rocket scientist” but

he has no qualifications. Who employs him?l Where is the planned test ground? Bloodhound will come to Hakskeen Pan in the

Northern Cape. The track will be 20 km long – for 1 600 km/h. How long for 3 000 km/h?

l Is it so wrong to chase a dream beyond one’s grasp? Maybe not, but, in this case,it may prove to be fatally foolish. Are there no restraints in the US regarding people

wanting to exit this world in a spectacular fashion?But I marvel at all this. As a young lad, back in the Fifties, I was fascinated by speed

and the sound barrier. I sketched my hero, Sir Malcolm Campbell, and imagined himbreaking the sound barrier in Bluebird. I have also lived to see some of the sciencefiction of Dan Dare (Eagle comics) become reality. Good luck, Waldo!

ALAN CAMPBELLGARDENS

Popular Mechanics South Africa 2012-06

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