Popular Mechanics in November

The suggestion that something is “unknown to science" is often associated with charlatans, ignoramuses and tabloids. At the same time, if science could explain everything, then scientists — and scientific journalists along with them — would all be out of work.

Popular Mechanics has prepared a list of ten events and phenomena for which there is still no generally accepted scientific understanding. Top consultants and leading experts in their fields have helped editors make sense of the complex and sometimes contradictory theories involved.

The article “Fat Facts" in the Science section examines transfats and tells readers just how terrible they really are. In Technology, the article “To the Moon for 20 Million" looks at the new Google Lunar X Prize for young scientists and engineers. To win, contestants must build a workable lunar rover that can land on the moon, travel at least 500 meters over the surface and beam high-resolution videos and photos back to Earth of its lunar jaunt.

The weapons section includes an exclusive editors’ report from large-scale military exercises by airborne forces. The Adrenalin section features a story about a person who had dreamed from childhood of one day swimming with the sharks, and who went on to become the world’s most famous photographer and video cameraman specializing in these fascinating marine predators.

Also in this issue:

A pilot’s one-man show;
Water at the door;
The secrets of informational intrigues;
When Gauss and Tesla are powerless;
Andrei Sakharov’s mistake;
The Kafkaesque art of Theo Kaccoufa;
The Experiment column.

The November issue of Popular Mechanics magazine went on sale October 22.