Here are top 10 PopMech stories of the year.
Jennifer Leman Senior Features Editor |
| Hey folks! Senior features editor Jennifer Leman here! This year, Popular Mechanics has traveled across the solar system, explored the microscopic ecosystems within our body, and tinkered with expert builders. There were capers, conspiracies and calamitous mishaps we couldn't tear our eyes away from. We sought answers to big, bold questions: What does it mean to die? How can we use technology to right history's wrongs? Are we alone in the universe? |
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We don't have all the answers yet, but we've sure learned a lot along the way. Here are ten of our favorite stories from this past year. I'm eager to see what 2023 has in store. |
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| Joe Pappalardo's well-sourced account of the days following the launch of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope in 2021 sparkles. Tensions are high and there's $10 billion worth of magnets, motors and mirrors at stake. Pappalardo exquisitely captures the many emotions that the telescope's managers grapple with as their life's work unfurls before them—nearly one million miles from Earth. |
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| Over the course of four months, a Kentucky family made more than $180,000 pilfering catalytic converters from vehicles parked across the Louisville area. Dylan Taylor-Lehman reports on a growing issue—catalytic converter thefts are on the rise in America—and tracks efforts to stop the thieves. Plus, we've got tips on how you can keep your own car safe. |
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| In 1999, 7-year-old Sharita Rivera was struck by multiple cars along a remote stretch of North Carolina highway and killed. Soon after, the police charged one of Rivera's neighbors, Quincy Amerson, who they allege left her for dead after murdering her mother. But in the years since he was convicted, new evidence has emerged. |
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| In this story, we travel with Erika Engelhaupt to a body farm in the Smoky Mountains to learn about the necrobiome, an assemblage of microbes that feast on our bodies after we die. Researchers at the University of Tennessee's Forensic Anthropology Research Facility study these organisms to better understand the different stages of human decomposition. |
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| In February, the world watched with bemusement as 3,828 luxury vehicles stowed within a cargo vessel caught fire and sank into the mid-Atlantic. (Nearby boats safely evacuated the ship's 22-person crew.) Andrew Lawrence details what went wrong aboard the doomed Felicity Ace and explores why these massive cargo ships keep sinking. |
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| Steven Mark Salowsky—one fifth of the Rich Rebuilds team— details his crew's restoration of a 2015 Tesla Model S outfitted with a LS3 V-8 engine, which they pulled from a wrecked 2011 Chevrolet Camaro SS. The Frankensteinian vehicle is a masterful feat of engineering. |
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| What does it mean to die? For Pop Mech's latest Apple News+ issue, Esther Landhuis spoke with a slew of experts to unpack this haunting question and provide a window into an industry devoted to loosening the hold death has over us. Eternal life might be closer than we think. |
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| For decades, the Zodiac Killer's 340 cipher has stumped amateur puzzle fanatics, true crime junkies and law enforcement officers alike. This feature from Pop Mech's inaugural Apple News+ issue details the herculean effort to untangle the final unsolved message from one of history's most sinister serial killers. |
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| For years, archaeologist Kisha Supernant has searched the grounds of Canada's infamous residential schools for the remains of Indigenous children who lived and died there—often under suspicious circumstances. Luke Ottenhof joins Supernant on her quest for closure and explores how shedding light on the atrocities perpetrated by these schools has helped the Indigenous community heal centuries later. |
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| Dave Howard's blockbuster article follows a group of amateur treasure hunters who claim to have found half a billion dollars worth of buried treasure hidden in a remote Pennsylvania hillside. Just when they thought they'd struck gold, the government stepped in. It's a long read, but you won't be disappointed. |
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