Popular Science

Welcome to the inaugural episode of Technology Under Review Now. Every week, the editors and writers of Popular Science will take their T.U.R.N. breaking down the tech behind the newest gadgets, autos, computers, cameras and more. Dying to see something specific in action? Drop us a suggestion in the comments section. And be sure to tune in to popsci.com/TURN every week.

Buell did not break the mold when it made the 1125CR racing bike. Instead, it washed the mold away—to create a sturdier body.

Given members' compulsive desire to collect online pals like living Pokemon, you could argue that social networks such as MySpace, Bebo and Hi5 are one big game unto themselves. But thanks to heavyweights like Electronic Arts and Wizards of the Coast, they're also rapidly becoming home to high-quality, innovative and multiplayer digital diversions.

PopSci’s resident mad scientist and pre-eminent element guru Theo Gray has not only amassed one of the best element-sample collections around, he’s spent the last several years taking very high quality photographs of it.

Prosumer, enthusiast, advanced amateur. Whatever you call it, there is a class of photographers who are not pros but are serious about picture taking -- committed enough to spend a grand or more on an SLR body and at least several hundred dollars more on lenses. Those shutterbugs recently got two new choices from the big guns of digital photography. In September, Nikon released its veeeeerrrry long-anticipated D90 (a winner in our latest Best of What's New honors).

Whether it was a quarter as a kid, some mean-looking peppers or that worm at the bottom of your shot glass, you've probably swallowed some weird things over the years. But six kinds of moss? Well then Oetzi, the famous, 5,300 year old frozen mummy found in the Alps nearly two decades ago, has got you beat. What’s more, a new anthology of research on Oetzi highlights those mosses, along with some other associated plants, to challenge theories about how he lived and how he died.

As time goes on, more and more people are carrying little cameras with them everywhere they go. I'm one of them. Here are a few camera tricks I've picked up through the years.

Size is an issue with cameras. I miss a lot of good shots when I don’t feel like lugging around a hefty SLR (such as my current fav, the Nikon D90). And while my pocket camera (presently a Canon SD800) is easy to tote, the image quality is more for “snapshots” than “photographs.”

I, and a few other shutterbugs around the Popular Science office, have been looking into the middle category of cameras: big enough to take good pictures, but not so big that it’s a burden. Now is a good time to look, since several camera makers have fresh midsize camera offerings.

Common wisdom dictates that in order to learn a complicated skill, it is best to break the skill down into parts, conquer simpler steps first, and then incrementally move forward, eventually getting to the hard stuff. For example, you don't just tackle a multivariable equation, you start with easier examples. First, you learn to add, subtract, multiply and divide. Then, you learn how to solve 2x=8, then x + y = 7, and so on and so forth until you are aptly equipped to solve 2(5x + z) = 30x + 3y + 10.